“The future is not something we enter, it’s something we create.” – Leonard Sweet ???????? ????? ?????? ??????? ???

What kind of 2008 are you going to create? If your answer is no more than a “we’ll see,” then you’re probably in for a repeat of 2007.

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You are significant. You matter.

Now, if you have self esteem issues, your flesh is screaming at you right now telling you that this Truth might apply to someone else, but not you.

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“Make every effort to add to your faith… knowledge.” 2 Peter 1:5

The very skill that would score in the top ten “taken for granted” is the very skill that, if consistently applied, can change your life more than any other.

It’s the simple skill of deliberate and regular optical exposure to paper-based or electronic-based text for the purpose of intellectual enhancement with a view toward impacting one’s soul and spirit.

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“Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.”
Gal 6:9-10

Last month, we talked about taking action on your Kingdom-oriented, God-glorifying goals and ideas. Perhaps you finally stopped shouting “aim!” and finally said, “fire!” If I know anything about this process, I know that you likely faced…

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“For it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose.”
Phil 2:13 (NIV)

“God works in you.” Don’t miss the wow-factor here. The Universe-Creator, the Red-Sea-Splitter, the Dead-Resurrector is at work in YOU. Not only has He worked to create the desire for something great for His Kingdom through your life, He works in you for the power to act, to do, to implement.

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Doubting one’s salvation is not uncommon. If you’ve struggled with it, you’re not alone. Most of us have struggled with it at one time or another, myself included.

Doubt immobilizes and neutralizes. God has no desire for His people to live in doubt over their salvation.

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“Yes, brother Scott, but HOW DO I walk in the Spirit?!”

“Walk in the Spirit and you shall not fulfill the lusts of the flesh” so says Galatians 5:16. And often after attempting for forty-five minutes from a pulpit to motivate people toward a desire to walk in the Spirit, the HOW TO question is one I get rather often.

One might assume that one of the great problems in the Church is that no one seems to really want to walk in the Spirit as they ought.

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The devil is out to steal from us all that is truly precious, including our time. After all, time is life. Our first thought might be that Satan’s first order of attacks on our time is through tempting us toward laziness, but more often it’s through busyness.

Most people in the rat race don’t want to be in it, but rather feel obligated to it. We’re afraid to rest or take time away not only because of what we’ve heard all our lives about laziness, but also because of a deep-seated fear of being unproductive or falling behind.

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The will of God is not as elusive as we think. We often miss out on it because we allow certain things into our sphere of living that sabotage it. Last time, we discussed four of eight “saboteurs” of the will of God for your life: misguided “shoulds,” ignorance, toxic religion and toxic relationships. Here are the four more:

1. Personal Pet Sin

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“For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” Wow. The fact the most creative Being in the universe has personally designed a plan for ME is toupee-fluttering thought (not that I have a toupee), and of raises every bit of curiosity and caution that it should.

Shudder to think I might miss it somehow.

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