Your Love Never Fails

On the way into work today, I was listening to one of my favorite songs, "Your Love Never Fails," performed by Jesus Culture.

A few lines really hit me this morning and what I took away is a timeless truth for all of us: God's love does not fail! My favorite line is "there may be pain in the night, but joy comes in the morning." How true that is! We go through seasons where we may fall away from God or we may have to go through a hard point in our life. Regardless, His love never fails.

As I continue on this week, I want to thank God for making all things work together for my good.

God, help me to trust in your plan for my life

Verse 1:

Nothing can separate

Even if I ran away

Your love never fails

I know I still make mistakes

But You have new mercies for me everyday

Your love never fails

Chorus:

You stay the same through the ages

Your love never changes

There may be pain in the night but joy comes in the morning

And when the oceans rage

I don't have to be afraid

Because I know that You love me

Your love never fails

Verse 2:

The wind is strong and the water's deep

But I'm not alone here in these open seas

Cause Your love never fails

The chasm is far too wide

I never thought I'd reach the other side

But Your love never fails

Bridge:

You make all things work together for my good

Why Craig Groeschel still believes in Small Groups

Why I Still Believe in Small Groups

by Craig Groeschel

Nine reasons why Craig Groeschel still thinks small groups are effective ministry, no matter what people say.

Several of my close pastor friends have recently spoken out against the effectiveness of small groups. Although I have tremendous respect for these men and will always honor them, I disagree with their views of small groups.

I still love small groups because:

• They follow the early church model of meeting in homes.
• They are a tremendous tool for discipleship. I prefer small groups to Wednesday night large group teaching because it gives people a chance to interact. I prefer small groups to Sunday school simply because you don’t have to build the expensive extra classroom space.
• They get more people involved using their gifts of hospitality, teaching, exhortation, etc.
• They engage the body of Christ in pastoral care. Instead of the pastors being the only ones who care for believers, small groups spread the load and utilize gifted lay people.
• They build leaders.
• Done well, they become a tremendous tool of retention. People want to be needed and known. Small groups make both possible.
• They have unlimited meeting space. You can’t run out of homes, restaurants, apartments, or coffee shops in which to meet.
• They have unlimited meeting times. In today’s busy world, a once-a-week discipleship opportunity will not work for the majority of your church. Small groups offer unlimited times to meet.
• They have changed my life. My family’s small group is like our extended family. God has used them to bless us in untold ways.

Does your church have small groups? If so, how are they working for you

Who is God to you?

There's a question that every single person on this Earth needs to answer in their lifetime and it's this: "Who is God to you?" We all come from different belief systems from fully trusting God with our lives to not believing in God at all. But regardless of your beliefs, there comes a point in your life where you must seriously answer the question "Who is God to you?"

One of my favorite sections of the Bible is from Exodus 3 where Moses has an encounter with God that forever changed his life. Exodus 3 starts off with Moses working in the fields, going through the motions of life. I think we all have the potential to fall into the pitfalls of staleness where we believe our life is insignificant. At this point in Moses' journey, life was not real because God wasn't real to him.

As we continue to read Exodus 3, we see that God reveals Himself to Moses in the form of a burning bush. God was calling Moses to a higher purpose - to free the Israelites who were enslaved to Pharaoh. What Moses didn't realize at the time was that God's mission to free the Israelites was more so to free Moses from a life of nothingness. The majority of the time God puts us on a journey or a mission, it's more about His working in us, then the work itself.

Moses cannot possibly fathom that his life is meant for this. In fact, he repeatedly tells God that he is not qualified for the job. No matter how many times Moses pleads with God, God responds with the phrase, "I AM who I AM." God was telling Moses that life is insignfigant without a genuine, real relationship with God. We are simply nothing apart from God. Our lives are nothing without God. Our purpose is meaningless without God. What we accomplsih in this life, who we are in this life is all about God and not about us. In Exodus 3 God is basically telling Moses, "you do not need to worry about accomplsihing this grand mission because I am working in you." I AM who I AM." Moses' life is forever changed because he realizes that his identity in life is directly connected to the presence of the Almighty God.

So who is God to you? Whatever question you have about life or about God, read God's responses to Moses in Exodus 3 - "I AM who I AM." God wants to be your everything. Everything you are, everything you do is all about God living in you. This means that I do not need to worry about planning the next step in my life, because God is in control. This means I do not need to worry about controlling my finances because God is the Lord over my finances. This means I do not need to worry about being insignificant because God lives in me and will use me. This means I do not need to worry about the pitfalls of life because God is everything I need.

We cannot live the life of meaning we were meant to live until we let God be God in our lives.

Anonymous Commenting

Matthew 18:15-17
"If your brother sins against you, go and show him his fault, just between the two of you. If he listens to you, you have won your brother over. But if he will not listen, take one or two others along, so that 'every matter may be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses.'If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church; and if he refuses to listen even to the church, treat him as you would a pagan or a tax collector."

Recently there have been a few anonymous comments left on my blog that have been left in an manor that has not followed the above. Due to this I have turned off the ability to leave anonymous comments as these should have been said to myself directly and not in a hidden manner. Additionally, those comments that are not in keeping with this have been removed.

http://kongministry.blogspot.com

Perry Noble on Leadership

I've been thinking a lot about leadership lately and how I can be a better leader. I'm still a work in progress and desire to continue to take my leadership to the next level. Perry Noble, Senior Pastor of NewSpring Church in South Carolina wrote a great blog post at www.perrynoble.com outlining 10 critical aspects that prevents us from being great leaders.

#1 – You think you are better than the people you are leading. (No one loves an environment where they are constantly looked down upon and spoken down to!)

#2 – You think you are smarter than the people you are leading. (Reality is…you’re probably not. AND…if you are then your insecurity limited you to only bringing stupid people to serve around you…not wise!)

#3 – You think the people you are leading should take care of you…but you refuse to take care of them.

#4 – You don’t respect the people you are leading. (If there is someone in the room who causes you to roll your eyes everytime they speak…either they should not be there OR you need to do a serious gut check and make sure you aren’t intimidated.)

#5 – When you are threatened by the people you are leading. (There is NOTHING more dangerous than an insecure leader. Saul freaked out when they gave him credit for slaying thousands and David credit for slaying tens of thousands…and, well, it didn’t end well for Saul.)

#6 – When you run over those you are supposed to be lifting up.

#7 – When you believe the people around you should do what you say because of the POSITION you hold rather than the PERSON you are!

#8 – When you allow unresolved conflict to dominate everyone’s thoughts but you refuse to bring it out in the open for fear of the discomfort it may cause. (If you team can’t enter into uncomfortable conversations then your team will NEVER accomplish anything significant!)

#9 – You don’t love the people you are leading. (Jesus was an effective leader because He genuinely LOVED the men He led! AND…also because HE WAS JESUS! :-) )

#10 – You don’t listen to the people you are leading. (If you view your leadership team meeting as an opportunity for you to only teach rather than share your heart and learn from others…it’s probably a really boring meeting!)