We have a living God, a speaking God! One who loves us, His children, and He particularly loves to speak to us! He can speak to any one of us who love Him.

“In the Last Days I will pour out of My Spirit upon all flesh: your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams” (Acts 2:17).

You might be thinking, “I read the Bible every day, so I’m hearing from the Lord every day.” While it’s good to read the Bible, the recorded Word of the Lord, which is the foundation of our Christian faith, it’s wonderful to also hear straight from the Lord and “take heed to His sure word of prophecy, as to a light that shines in a dark place, until the day dawn, and the day star arise in our hearts” (2 Peter 1:19).

His Word says to “Stir up the gift of God which is in you” (2 Timothy 1:6). So, every day should be a new experience for us, a new listening to the Voice of the Lord. Why live only on yesterday�s spiritual food, when we can have fresh “manna from Heaven” (John 6:58) every day? Jesus still speaks today! Listen to what He told me on June 15, 2008:

I have the KEYS – simple keys to BREAKTHROUGH. It’s not complicated. You have to trust me on this. Just keep writing down what You hear me saying. I know what works and what doesn’t. I am the Alpha and Omega, so I see the end from the beginning. I have to show You before you can show others. What you shared at Soul Purpose Church today was good. Even though it seems that most people didn’t get it, seeds were planted. You have a generous heart. What you’re doing in secret, I will reward openly. That’s My word – that’s My promise.

BREAKTHROUGH RESOURCES

• #WFJ: THE MIRACLE OF CHRISTMAS IS CHRIST! (Dec 19, 2009)
• #WFJ: The $14,400 Miracles (Dec 12, 2009)
• #WFJ: The Spiritual Triangle Between Virginia, the U.K., and Italy (Dec 5, 2009)
• Opportunities to invest in yourself and the Kingdom of God (Nov 4, 2009)
• The Angel Breakthrough and the $14,400 Miracle (Sep 14, 2009)

Words from Jesus to R. Joseph Peck, “a pen in God’s hand, giving love a voice”

• #WFJ: Praise Me with your whole heart! (April 23, 2010)
• #WFJ: Rejoice Greatly (April 21, 2010)
• #WFJ: Keep my words, and treasure my commands within you (April 8)
• #WFJ: Thank you for your willingness to go a NEW DIRECTION (March 31, 2010)
• #WFJ: You are a COMMUNITY TRANSFORMATION SPECIALIST (March 14, 2010)
• #WFJ: Can A Nation Be Born In A Day? (March 3, 2010)
• #WFJ: I ALWAYS bless My Word (Feb 16, 2010)
• #WFJ: Eye has not seen, nor ear heard (Feb 15, 2010)
• #STJ: Open my eyes LORD that I may see (Feb 9, 2010)
• #WFJ: Thinking Big and Acting Small (humility) is the key to every highly successful business (Jan 22, 2010)
• #WFJ: VISION CASTING for the next decade (Jan 20, 2010)
• #WFJ: Randy, you have discovered the key to opening the door to anyone or any organization (Jan 19, 2010)
• #WFJ: My sheep are hungry for more of Me and My holy Word (Jan 18, 2010)
• #WTJ: I Stand Amazed In All Of Your Glory (Jan 17, 2010)
• #WFJ: I AM a warrior and My kingdom is spread by force (Jan 11, 2010)
• #WFJ: I AM married to Israel (Jan 9, 2010)
• #WFJ: INTIMACY is the keyword for this year and decade! (Jan 8, 2010)
• #WFJ: The fear of Me is a fountain of life (Jan 7, 2010)
• #WFJ: I AM the cup of the blood (Jan 5, 2010)
• #WFJ: I AM the liberty you seek through my Spirit (Jan 4, 2010)
• #WFJ: I have been guiding you each and every day of 2009 (Jan 1, 2010)
• #WFJ: Come Home My Children – I AM Throwing a Party! (Dec 25, 2009, Nancy Slocum)
• #WFJ: Cherish Julia. Honor her. Treat her as you would Me (Dec 23, 2009)
• #WFJ: I have been enlightening you (Dec 21 2009)
• #WFJ: Let Freedom Ring (Dec 18 2009)
• #WFJ: I AM a God of miracles (Dec 17 2009)
• #WFJ: What if I blessed you with something much better (Dec 16 2009)
• #WFJ: Randy, please tell me what you want for Christmas (Dec 15 2009)
• #WFJ: I have called you friends (Dec 12 2009)
• #WFJ: BE in Me and in My Word (Dec 5 2009)
• #WFJ: I AM the Alpha and the Omega (Dec 4 2009)
• #WFJ: The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge (Dec 1 2009)
• #WFJ: Praying in My name, seeking My face with others births My Father’s visions (Nov 30 2009)
• #WFJ: I have shown you the Secrets of the Vine (Nov 29 2009)
• #WFJ: When My people start to tithe their time for Me (Nov 28 2009)
• #WFJ: Communion with Me is where the abundant life starts (Nov 27, 2009)
• #WFJ: Thank you for opening a gateway to heaven consistently (Nov 26, 2009)
• WFJ: Awake! Arise! (Nov 25, 2009)
• WFJ: Rest in Me! (Nov 21, 2009)
• WFJ: I AM your good Shepherd (Nov 20, 2009)
• WFJ: UNLEASH YOUR SPIRIT (Nov 18, 2009)
• WFJ: You are ready now! So am I! (Nov 15, 2009)
• WFJ: God shall bless us, and all the ends of the earth shall fear Him (Nov 14, 2009)
• WFJ: You’re being a know-it-all is what’s getting in your way! (Nov 11, 2009)
• WFJ: Love always and blessings for God’s peace that passes all understanding! (Nov 5, 2009)
• WFJ: I live within you, deep within your heart of love (Oct 16, 2009)
• WFJ: In My presence is fullness of joy (Oct 13, 2009)
• WFJ: STILLNESS is a key to pressing in to Me (Oct 12, 2009)
• WFJ: Two Way Journaling – God’s SUPERNATURAL “HIGH”-WAY to His Heart (Nancy Slocum, Oct 8, 2009)
• WFJ: I AM Smiling Down Upon You (Oct 2, 2009)
• WFJ: Randy, write the vision down! (Utah, Sep 22, 2009)
• WFJ: The Dam Is Breaking (July 27, 2009)
• WFJ: I have specific instructions to give You each day (June 18, 2008)
• WFJ: I have the keys – simple keys to breakthrough (June 15, 2008)
• WFJ: I want you to dine with Me this morning and each day! (June 10, 2008)

Blessings to CHOOSE a LIFE of abundance!

Joseph

Joseph Peck, M.D.
“Blessed to be a blessing”
THE CONNECTOR and The Journal Guy
Breakthrough Life Coach
Creative Marketing and Communication Specialist

Empower 2000, Inc.
“Raising the Bar of Leadership to Empower People, Businesses, and Communities”
Changing Lives to Disciple Nations
www.empower2000.com
540-445-1GOD (540-445-1463)

STAY CONNECTED
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P.S. Sign up TODAY for my free E-course “30 Days To Breakthrough!” God wants to transform your life NOW!

P.S.S. Spiritual Journaling will transform your life!

UNCOMMON Journaling is the key
to unlock YOUR dreams!

“You shall love your neighbor AS YOURSELF.” (Mark 12:31)

How would you rate your health in each of these four areas — spiritual, physical, emotional, relational — from 1 (terrible) to 10 (fantasic)?

Today is Day 5 in our 30 days series titled “One Month To Live,” based on Kerry and Chris Shook’s book by that same title. “One Month To Live empowers you to focus on being who God created you to be – passionate, fully alive, living without regrets.”

If you’ve flown before on a commercial airline, you probably are familiar with this routine airline safety announcement, “In the event that our cabin pressure should change, an oxygen mask will be released from the overhead compartment. Please place the oxygen mask on yourself first before helping small children or others who may need assistance.”

While it may seem obvious that you can’t help anyone if you have passed out from lack of oxygen yourself, I’ve been guilty over the past few years of putting the oxygen mask on many others without taking in enough oxygen myself.

I confess that I have grossly undervalued my time and made poor choices that have allowed numerous Christians and Christian organizations to soak up my time and financial resources to the point where my income and business has become cachectic. Julia and I have sown every last penny we own into God’s Kingdom work.

We’ve reached the point where we must be STRATEGIC in business and ministry. We can no longer afford to offer free services to any businesses or organizations.

It’s not that we don’t care. We simply don’t have any more money or time to give away.

Here are some excerpts from Chapter 5 of Kerry and Chris’ book.

Jesus indicates that before we can really love others and make a difference in their lives, we have to first love ourselves. You have to first take time to get healthy so you can impact the world around you.

Get Physical: Whether you have thirty days or thirty years left, you should realize that how you treat your body has a direct and lasting impact on the quality of life you enjoy. Our bodies require sleep, exercise, clean air, water, and quality nourishment. To be healthy physically, we must be healthy spiritually and listen to what God says about our bodies. Check out the daily exercise and diet plan at www.OneMonthToLive.com.

How Do You Feel: The next crucial area where we must breathe first is in our emotional lives. So many people function according to how they feel. A huge part of maturing, of growing up, is learning to acknowledge and experience our emotions without being controlled by them. “For God gave us a spirit not of fear, but of power and of love and self-control” (2 Timothy 1:7, RSV).

Relationally Connected: The whole reason we put the oxygen mask on ourselves first is so we can breathe in and get healthy and help someone find God’s oxygen. Breathing first is not selfish. It’s essential.

Prayer Power
Heavenly Father, forgive me for putting the oxygen mask on many others while neglecting myself. Thank You for your wake up call. I finally get it. May I never forget this life lesson. May many others benefit from the hard lesson I have learned. Thank You Jesus. Amen and hallelujah!

Blessings of the Day
1) Make It Last For Life – 3 simple action steps to apply today’s message [see below]

2) UNCOMMON Wellness Coaching course A Hope Filled Future“ free webinar with guest panelist Shelley Grieser
Category: Coaching
Date/Time: Tuesday May 5, 2009, 11 am EDT
Your marriage may have ended, but your life is not over!

3) “A Hope Filled Future” free webinar with guest panelist Shelley Grieser
Category: Coaching
Date/Time: Tuesday May 5, 2009, 11 am EDT
Your marriage may have ended, but your life is not over!

4) “The Crisis Of Belief“ free webinar with guest panelist Rev. Nasir Iqbal
Subtitle: Experiencing God Through Journaling (EGTJ) – Week 7
Date/Time: Tuesday May 5, 2009, 8 pm EST
Rev. Nasir Iqbal is a Palelstinian with an amazing story of salvation and miraculous healing from coma, near-death, and paralysis after beign robbed and beaten over the head with a metal rod.

5) The Grand Opening Of The Journaling Cafe
Date/Time: Thursday May 7, 2009, 3 pm EST
Finally! Finally! Finally! The Journaling Cafe is opening. Jesus has taught me how to hear His voice through two-way journaling and now He’s inviting YOU to learn too. But not only that, the LORD is inviting to be part of this world-wide journaling community.

“If we don’t act on a good idea within 24 hours, we are less than 50% likely to ever act on it. If we haven’t acted on it inside of days, then we are less than 2% likely to ever act on it.” – Bill Gates

Blessings to put the oxygen mask on yourself first!

Randy Peck, M.D.
“Blessed to be a blessing”
The Connector – connecting people, ideas, and resources in Christ through the POWER of the Holy Spirit

P.S. At the Apostolic Council of Prophetic Elders in the U.K. earlier this year, the primary word received was “no more business as usual.”

Zec 4:6 So he answered and said to me: “This is the word of the LORD to Zerubbabel: ‘Not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit,’ Says the LORD of hosts.

——————————————————————————————–

Make It Last For Life – 3 simple action steps to apply today’s message

1) How would you rate your health in each of these four areas — spiritual, physical, emotional, relational — from 1 (terrible) to 10 (fantasic)? What’s the greatest challenge to improving your health in these areas? What can you do to work through this challenge?

2) Spend time journaling about a specific goal for each of these four areas that you can pursue during the rest of this month. Make sure the goals are practicle and measurable.

3) Connect daily to www.OneMonthToLive.com and spend fifteen to thirty mintues working on your spiritual, physical, emotional, and relational health.

UNCOMMON Opportunity
To learn more about Today’s life changing webinar “Introduction to UNCOMMON Journaling for Destiny,” CLICK HERE. Testimony: What a blessing! Journaling and using The Journal is revolutionizing my life. – Dan Paulsen

Secular coaches call it ‘intuition”.  LLC coaches have learned that we are really helping clients Hear God for themselves in a coaching conversations and discovering the empowering joy of their own voice in the process.  We train coaches to “listen to what really matters” by serving clients to hear, engage, embrace, and activate God’s Destiny Directions for them. – Joseph Umidi

Yet indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ (Philippians 3:8)

On a scale of 1-10, how would you rate your ability to consistently hear God’s voice?
What can you do to improve that?

In yesterday’s devotional titled “Changing Lives – Breaking Through,” we continued with our theme of Christ-enabled living, impossible living, heroic living. Yesterday’s key message: “When you change your thinking and your HABITS, you will change your life.” You were presented with an opportunity to participate in today’s life-changing webinar to change your thinking and habits.

Today at Noon EST, Jerry Graham and I are hosting an introductory webinar about our outstanding 5 week Journal 201 course titled “UNCOMMON Journaling for Destiny.” Rev. Matt Gregory and Dan Paulsen will be sharing their first hand testimonies of the impact of our prior course. Even if you are not available, you can receive a link to the recorded webinar simply by registering. CLICK HERE to learn more.

While preparing the PowerPoint presentation for today’s webinar, I was prompted to write down some of the new fruit I personally experienced from the Journal 201 course. Here is a partial list:
1) Began using The Journal myself
2) Got connected to Debra Thompson Roedl and the Wealth Alliance Group
3) Transformation Virginia was officially launched
4) Launched my own web store with products, courses, and memberships
5) Soul Purpose Church (my church) formally adopted “Coaching you to discover and fulfill your soul purpose” as its mission
6) Door opened for an alliance between Team Destiny and Lifeforming Leadership Coaching
7) I bought a brand new bicycle. My old one was more than 25 years old (literally an antique).

In my August 22 devotional, I mentioned that Joseph Umidi was my top new contact in 2006 and Debra Thompson Roedl has been my top new contact in 2008.
 
On August 19, Joseph sent the monthly Lifeforming Leadership Coaching e-newsletter promoting our webinar to his 1,500 or so contacts. In his message titled “Coaching with an ‘Ear To Hear’,” Joseph wrote:
 
“I am pleased to offer all of our coaches the unique combination of 2 keys to Hearing God for yourself that will translate into more effective “hearing” with your clients.  This is the unique combination of journaling and coaching to clarify what God is saying to you and giving you the ability to help your clients discover the same for them. Dr. Jerry Graham and Dr. Randy Peck have collaborated to design this life changing 5-week process for you that I highly recommend.”
 
Debra Roedl is regarded by some as the top internet marketing strategist in the world. When I met in person with her at the Marriott Crystal City (VA) on August 16 (the same day as The Call DC), she committed to promote our combo journaling and coaching courses. to her Wealth Alliance contacts around the world.

A few weeks ago I talked to Buddy Smith, Executive Assistant to the Chairman for the American Family Association. He told me he is willing to have Jerry and I interviewed about our combo coaching and journaling courses on Today’s Issues (American Family Radio). AFR has more than 1 million listeners nationwide.

Obviously God has His mantle of favor on the “UNCOMMON Journaling for Destiny” course. On behalf of all our Team Destiny teammates, we invite you to be blessed by registering for today’s webinar. Even if you aren’t available today, you will receive a link to our recorded webinar just for registering. Our target audience is people who are passionate to know God and make Him known. We are training champions for Christ. To register for today’s webinar, CLICK HERE.

Prayer Power
Heavenly Father, we praise You as an intimate God – as a God who speaks to us regularly. Thank You for training me to hear Your voice, which makes life flow so much easier. Bless each reader who chooses to register for today’s webinar to learn to hear Your voice. Thank You Jesus. You’re my all in all. Amen and hallelujah!

Link of the Day
Unthinkable: The Scott Rigsby Story

Blessings to develop an ear to hear God’s voice!

“I call heaven and earth as witnesses today against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing; therefore choose life, that both you and your descendants may live;” (Deuteronomy 30:19)

What are the 3 biggest choices you ever made?
What are the 3 biggest choices in front of you at the present?
When confronted with a big choice, how do you make the best decision?

We continue with the theme of this week – “Story.” The topic today is “My story.” Every day each of us makes hundreds, if not thousands, of choices. Compounded over time, these seemingly small choices can have a dramatic ripple effect.

Reflecting back on my life again during the current UNCOMMON Journaling for Destiny course, I realize that my Jesus story began well before I actually met Jesus. Before I was even born, God was at work in my life.

There have been a multitude of circumstances that were beyond my control, but which greatly influenced my life, such as where I was born, who my parents were and what their character was like, my siblings, my birth order, etc. While journaling about this issue on June 21, I came to realize that all of the most influential people in my life were gifts from above – from God to shape me into who I am today.

As I grew older, I was allowed to make more and more choices, including ones with greater impact. The gift of choice – of free will – is a wonderful gift from above. Fortunately, God protected me many, many times from either making poor choices or serious consequences of poor choices. The only difference between me and the worst person who ever lived is God’s grace and mercy. The gift of God’s guidance and protection is priceless.

What were the 3 biggest choices of my life? The greatest choice of my life by far was committing my life to Christ on January 6, 2001. My second greatest choice was marrying Julia. Perhaps the third greatest choice of my life was choosing to double my daily quiet time and begin online journaling starting January 1, 2004. I’ve come to discover that online journaling is journaling on steroids. These devotional message are a direct result.

On Sunday July 6 I preached a message titled “The Greatest Salesman in the World.” The next morning (July 7), I shared that message with my 4 web workers during our daily group devotional time. As a result of that, Amy chose to read The Greatest Salesman in the World book and Tim chose to start journaling. They made the choice to immediately apply what they learned.

On July 9, JJ Phillips, one of my other workers, shared a message titled “The Power of a Choice.” He emphasized how one poor choice can eventually take you out. He talked about the ripple effect of our choices. This prompted Amy to share about one of the most popular Godtube videos that she posted on her blog on July 1. That video starts with a girl dancing with Jesus, but then she allows other things to distract her and progressively more and more people (things) get in between her and Jesus until she is at the point of suicide. Watch today’s short GodTube video to see how this ends.

What about you? Who or what is standing in the way of dancing with Jesus? What are you going to do about that?

Prayer Power
Abba, Father, we praise You as the God of choices, the God who allow each of us free will. Thank You for the power to choose life or death. Thank You for Your Word which provided the path to life. Bless the choices that I make each day. May I choose daily to die to myself and rise to new life in You. May I choose to establish and stick to a godly daily and weekly routine. Bless me to be very organized. Bless my readers likewise. Thank You Jesus. Amen and hallelujah!

Link of the Day
Lifehouse Everything Drama – 5 minute GodTube video

Please Turn on Javascript

Blessings to be a good steward of your daily choices!

Send Us Your Story
We want to hear from you. What is your Jesus story? What was your life before B.C. (Before Christ)? How did you meet Jesus? How is your life different now? What has Jesus done for you recently? If we post your story on our blog, we’ll email you a free PowerPoint about habits. CLICK HERE to “Send Us Your Story.” We reserve the right to publish any content that we receive via submission using this form.

“Nevertheless I have this against you, that you have left your first love. Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent and do the first works” (Revelation 2:4-5)

Who is your first love?
How can others tell?

During the worship service at Soul Purpose Church on Sunday morning February 10, Mike Webb shared Jesus’ 3 R’s for Valentine’s Day. Those really hit home for me. Here they are:

1) Remember from where you have fallen
2) Repent of your wrong attitudes
3) Redo the first works

While preparing today’s devotional, I came across this outstanding excerpt from the foreword of Tony Evan’s e-book “Returning to Your First Love”:

If the Lord Jesus Christ were to come to your house or mine and sit down with us, what do you think He would say? I believe one of the first things He would ask is, “Do you love Me?” That’s the question the resurrected Christ asked Simon Peter three times at their seaside breakfast (John 21:15-17). Peter had denied the Lord at His crucifixion, and he needed to be restored.

Jesus undertook that restoration by bringing Simon back to the basic issue: “Do you love Me?” The Savior wasn’t satisfied until He had zeroed in on the issue of Peter’s love for Him and gotten the right answer. Only then did Jesus release Peter for ministry: “Feed My sheep.”

The lesson Jesus taught Peter – and the lesson the Holy Spirit wants to teach us – in this marvelous passage is the fundamental lesson that devotion precedes duty. One reason this is important is that we so often get the order reversed.

If we had been in Jesus? place that day by the seashore, most of us would have asked Simon Peter an entirely different set of questions. We probably would have asked him if he was truly sorry for what he did in denying Christ, and if he had confessed his sin and been forgiven.

Or we might have started off by asking Peter if he was still serious about being a disciple, if he still wanted to be a member of the team. The more devotionally minded among us would have quizzed Peter about his personal life, making sure he was spending time daily in prayer and study of the Scriptures.

And the service minded among us would probably have made sure Peter knew what his spiritual gifts were and was plugged into a ministry in which he was exercising those gifts.

But Jesus did not ask Peter about any of these things. Did Jesus not care about Peter’s spiritual condition and future service? Of course He did. But Jesus knew that unless Peter’s service was motivated by intense love for Him, it would lead to duty without devotion, practice without passion.

That’s also true for you and me, by the way. Our love for Christ is so foundational that Jesus Himself called it our “first love” in Revelation 2:4.

Prayer Power
Jesus, thank You for dying for me and forgiving all my sins. Thank You for delivering me from a messed up life. May I never forget my first love. To You be all glory, honor, and praise, now and forever. Amen.

Link of the Day
Returning To Your First Love – Foreword and Chapter 1

Blessings to remember, repent, and redo for Jesus’ sake!

Oh, give thanks to the LORD, for He is good! For His mercy endures forever. (Psalm 118:1)

What people or things does your life revolve around?

Around 6 AM yesterday morning as I was looking for a Link of the Day to complete my devotional titled “Hunter Payne Dies Tragically,” I visited the website for Spiritual Care Support Ministries (SCSM) to see what information they had about Grief Share. In the process of viewing the different web pages at www.scsm.tv, I saw a photo of Joseph Toth, the Director of Development for SCSM.

Shortly after 8 AM I arrived in the conference room at Culpeper Hospital for the monthly Culpeper Ministerial Association (CMA) meeting. The first person I ran into was Liz Danielsen, the Founder of SCSM. She immediately introduced me to Joseph Toth. I had only met Joseph one time previously and that was at the SCSM center in February 2006 when Rick Heeren’s entire family visited Virginia. Yesterday was Joseph first visit ever to a CMA meeting.

We had 3 major topics on the CMA agenda including a report by Liz Danielsen about SCSM, a follow-up report by Dewey McDonnell about Battle Cry 2007, and an update by me about the Global Day of Prayer Assembly in Culpeper on May 27, 2007. As Liz was sharing her excellent report and wonderful testimonies about SCSM, I realized that God had come full circle. All three topics on the agenda were intimately woven together.

You see, I interviewed Liz about SCSM on my A Life of Blessing TV show in Feb 2005. Because she didn’t have a website yet, I offered to make one for free before the TV show aired. That connected me with Dorothy Slaga, the media specialist for SCSM. When I shared with Dorothy my vision to be a catalyst to transform communities throughout Virginia, she referred me to The Elk River Story, a book written by Rick Heeren.

In March of 2005, my life changed forever when I met Rick Heeren over the phone. I knew God had called me to be a great salesman for the Word of God and to be a catalyst to transform the state of Virginia, but I didn’t know how.

When Rick and his wife, Rachel, first came to Culpeper Virginia in June 2005, Rick said his goal was to establish a beachhead for prayer evangelism. God used him to do that. Within two weeks, Pray Culpeper was birthed and a committed group of marketplace and pulpit ministers began meeting weekly to pray for our community.

Because of Rick’s prayers, teaching, hard work, and influence, I went to the Harvest Evangelism mission trip in Argentina in October 2005. There I met Graham Power, the founder of Transformation Africa, which birthed the Global Day of Prayer (GDOP). Graham’s phenomenal story led me to organize Culpeper’s first GDOP service held on June 4, 2006.

And it was God’s supernatural blessings and favor resulting from the prayers of unity of our Pray Culpeper team that led to a 20 fold multiplication of the tickets to Battle Cry that Dewey was sharing about. That miracle got Dewey and me on stage with Ron Luce, the Founder of Teen Mania, in front of 20,000 teenagers and youth leaders on May 12.

When I told the CMA members about Hunter Payne’s death, I learned that his father is a good friend of Tom Jones, the husband of Pastor Paula Jones, who was facilitating our CMA meeting. Paula shared that Hunter was helping his father cut trees when he was fatally injured. The Holy Spirit immediately convicted me for failing to mention Hunter’s father in my prayer in yesterday’s devotional.

Prayer Power
Heavenly Father, You truly are amazing when we stop to notice what You are doing and how the people and circumstances of our past are all interrelated. Forgive me for forgetting to ask You to comfort the father of Hunter Payne in yesterday’s devotional. Please do that. May he experience the miraculous healing power of Your love. Heal the hurts of anyone who is reading this message who is struggling with the lost of a love one. Thank You Jesus. Amen.

Links of the Day
Spiritual Care Support Ministries [www.scsm.tv]
Healing From Grief [http://www.griefshare.org/healing/]

Blessings to experience the healing power of God’s love!

“Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you” (Luke 6:38, NIV).

Are you giving God your first fruits with a cheerful heart?
What percent of your income do you save?

Like Bill Gates of today, John D. Rockefeller was the wealthiest man of his generation. When John was asked what was the secret of his financial success, he gave a profoundly simple answer – he followed the 10-10-80 principle. John gave the first 10% of what he earned to God, the next 10% to savings, and then he lived within his means on the remaining 80%.

By giving God our “first fruits”, we acknowledge Him as the owner of all and show we trust Him. This act of giving with a cheerful heart releases the promise of God that “our barns will be filled with plenty” (Proverbs 3:9-10). In other words, when You give God the first and best of what You have, He will bless the remainder. This applies not only to our money, but also to our time and talent. The LORD is our Redeemer.

The second part of the 10-10-80 principle is saving. In America, we now have a culture of debt – people are in debt and so are our governments. In Japan the average savings for a worker is more than 20%. In Western Europe it’s about 16%. But in the United States, the average worker saves minus 2%. Covetousness leads to financial bondage, which leads to spiritual bondage. The Bible says that “the borrower is servant to the lender.”

It’s interesting that when immigrants come to our country, they often do a much better job at saving than people who have lived in America for all their lives, despite the fact that they often earn far less.

Prayer Power
Father, when we follow Your principles, life works, and when we don’t, it doesn’t. Forgive me and my family for our past covetousness. Thank You that we are now able to give generously to Your Kingdom work. Help us to do a better job at saving. Set us free from all debt, including our home mortgage. Bless the readers of this message to be able to follow the 10-10-80 principle and to teach others to do likewise. Thank You Jesus for the power of prayer in Your name. Amen.

Link of the Day
” 10-10-80 principle” Surviving Financial Storms – YouTube video by church in Orange CA 92866

Blessings to follow the 10-10-80 principle!

“Six days shall work be done, but the seventh day is a Sabbath of solemn rest, a holy convocation. You shall do no work on it; it is the Sabbath of the LORD in all your dwellings.” (Leviticus 23:3)

How consistent are you at keeping the Sabbath holy each week?

Busyness is a great enemy of relationships. We must address the serious problem of busyness in our lives to experience a great awakening. The devil doesn’t have to get us to do anything bad to be at work in our lives. All he has to do is keep us busy.

My father told me that when we lived in Charlottesville Virginia in the early 1960′s, only one business was open on Sundays and that was an international one. Today, hundreds of businesses are open on Sundays and people scurry around shopping. Sports and children activities have invaded every day of the week. Families have little time of solitude together to communicate.

It is not easy to take a Sabbath. You’ve got to decide to do it. A regular Sabbath puts a brake on overwork. In order to practice Sabbath, you must learn one powerful word, “No”. That little word creates the hearth in which the fires of our calling can burn brightly.

Sabbath is … an attitude of the heart which recognizes the need for regular soul care within the rhythm of daily life… Sabbath is the gift of rest, reflection, and renewal – a time of preparation at the beginning of the week, not a restoration from exhaustion at the end of a long busy week. – David Steffenson, First Lutheran Church, Little Falls, Minnesota

Prayer Power
Father God, the Bible makes it clear that Your command to keep the Sabbath holy is an eternal command. Forgive me for the many times I have disobeyed You by failing to take a Sabbath rest. Bless me to experience the wholeness and joy that come from observing Your order for life by observing Sabbath time. Thank You Jesus. Amen.

Link of the Day
Sabbath Keeping and Sabbatical Taking

Blessings to keep the Sabbath holy!