What is your calling?

 Hello Everyone,

Today I want to talk to you about your purpose in life. Why am I here. That is such a huge question. In Jeremiah 29:11 it says that God has a plan for your life. The Bible says He knew you before you were born. That means before you were born, God had a plan for your life and it’s a really good one. As of this writing, I am 49 years old and I know my purpose. My calling in life is to build God’s kingdom on early. My vehicle for my calling is my business. My mission is to use the profits God causes in our life to fulfill the missions He gives us.

Let me ask you this. Do you have a 1 year plan? Do you have a 5 year plan? Many people might answer both of those questions yes. But do you have a 300 year plan? Interesting question right? You will be somewhere in 300 years. It won’t be on the earth as we know it. You will either be in Heaven by then or you will be on the new earth. In 300 years if we are still waiting on Christ to return, I want to know I left something on this earth that is still causing me to see rewards in Heaven.

How do I do that? I leave something on the earth that causes people to get saved and come see me in Heaven. To date, through this blog, I believe 26 people have accepted Jesus as their Lord and Savior. I hope many people over the years will be encouraged to accept Jesus through these writings. That’s one of my missions. In my next blog, I am going to talk about dreaming bigger. You won’t want to miss it.

If you don’t know Jesus and would like to have a personal relationship with Him, all you have to do is pray this simple prayer. Say, “Jesus, come into my life. I make you my Lord and Savior.” If you prayed that prayer, I believe you got born into the family of Christ. Congratulations! If you prayed, would you please let us know.

Also, if you are new to the family and would like to learn more about who you are and how God really sees you, please click the link below. We would love to send you study material absolutely free.

http://eepurl.com/gLci8D

That’s Another Opinion of the Minion

Is There A Plan for Your Life?

Hello everyone,

Today I want to answer a question that we have all struggled with at some point in our lives.  Is there a plan for our life?  Let me ask it another way, does God have a plan for your life? 

The answer to that question begins with the most despicable act ever committed in human history.  Do you know what it was?  Think of all the horrible things you know about - murder, racism, hate crimes, mean words, assault.  The list goes on and on.  Here's the answer - eating fruit from a tree.  I know it sounds bad, but when Adam and Eve ate from the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, they gave the devil all authority over the earth. 

The Bible says that the devil came to kill, steal and destroy and that's exactly what he did.  He killed the divine link between God and man.  He stole man's right to be part of God's family and he destroyed the tight relationship between Adam, Eve and God.  The devil hasn't changed.  He's still doing this today.  I can't imagine how it felt to Adam and Eve. The whole Cain and Able thing would never have happened if they hadn't eaten from the tree because the devil wouldn't have had authority to operate in the world.

Here's where it gets interesting.  The first thing God did after He found out what happened was deal with the devil.  He told the devil that there would be enmity between him and man and that man would bruise the devil's head.  God knew how bad this was for the world and for His children.  He knew what the devil would do throughout the years.  He could see all the holocaustic things that would happen over the next several thousand years.  What did He do?  He immediately announced the plan to bring Adam and Eve back into right relationship with him - Jesus.  This is what He was talking about when He said he would bruise the devil's head. 

He announced the plan to save the world from all the destruction that would come from the devil.  Adam and Eve would one day have a chance to get back in right relationship with God through Jesus sacrifice.  God didn't abandon them.  He had a plan B.  It was Jesus and it was perfect.  It was a great plan for the world because it allowed us to be part of his family again.

Let's fast forward to today.  Are there things in your life that you think disqualify you from having a good life?  Have you ever done something you wish you had not?  Maybe you have done something so bad that you think God can't help you anymore.

Is what you did worse than what Adam and Eve did?  Absolutely not!  The Bible says in Jeremiah 29:11 that God still has a good plan for your life.  It may not be his original plan but He always has a plan B and C and D and E....  There is nothing you can do that disqualifies you for the good plan He has for your life?  Why?  Because for God so loved the world that He gave his only begotten Son and when He did that, it provided a great plan for your life!

So don't let the devil lie to you anymore telling you that you have done something so bad that God can't give you a good life.  It's a lie.  Start believing what God says about you.  You will be surprised where He can take you.

That's another Opinion of the Minion. 

Love is Not Rude

Today's we are going to talk about another aspect of Love.  Today's topic is rudeness.  Before we get into this, I want to you notice that again, this is not a feeling.  Love is not concerned with whether or not you feel rude.  That doesn't even sound right.  Love doesn't act rudely.  This should be a fairly simple one as we all have been around people who are rude.

I can't tell you that I am around very many people who I would consider just openly rude.  I don't have any friends that would call someone something ugly to their face. And honestly, I wouldn't either.  But let's think about rudeness for just a minute.  Did you know that as we are studying love, no where in the Bible does it say that the person who we are rude to has to know about it to make it unloving.

Ladies, have you ever noticed some other girl who looked like maybe you wished you did and said something to your girlfriend about how she was dresses.  The reality is she's probably dressed fine but you are a little jealous because maybe you can't dress that way?  Guys, have you ever seen a guy driving a nicer car than you and said something rude about the guy just because you are jealous that you can't drive what he drives (I confess I have done this one.).  Well guess what?  That's rude.  Whether or not the other person heard you, doesn't matter.

Now I can hear someone saying, "Well if they didn't hear it, what does it hurt?"  That's easy.  It hurts your faith.  How?  Well, doesn't the Bible say that faith works by love? (Galatians 5:6)  If we aren't walking in love, it will hinder our faith.  Before I go farther, I don't want anyone to stand in condemnation and you need to know that God is a graceful, merciful God.  I know this because there are several places where I have acted unlovingly and God is blessing us tremendously.

But here's the thing - I don't want ordinary faith.  I was in a Starbuck's several months ago and there was a girl in a wheelchair.  I wanted to pray for her and see her healed and out of that chair.  When I thought about it, I heard the Lord say, "If you pray for it, I will back it."  I know it was the Lord's voice!  Guess what I did!  Nothing!  I left that girl in that wheelchair and left the store without speaking to her.  Why?  My faith wasn't strong enough.  I want my faith to be stronger and stronger every day.  I've had a vision for a long time of us walking into hospitals and emptying them because God healed every person in them.

That type of dream doesn't come to reality with weak faith.  That's why I am working to get rude behavior out of my life.

That's another Opinion of the Minion.

Love Does Not Boast

Hi Everyone,

Today's topic is boasting.  When I looked this word up in the dictionary, one of the definitions was to brag about yourself or to brag about your stuff to others (that's the Minion translation).  It's interesting because it is very similar to pride but we will talk about pride in the next post.  Again, I want you to notice that bragging is an action, not a feeling.  We don't feel bragging, we say something that is bragging.  So what does this mean?

We all know the one upper.  In fact, sometimes we have been the one upper.  You know the person.  If you tell as story, they have a bigger one.  If something good happened to you, something better happened to them.  So we shouldn't brag about things in our life right?  Well if that's the case, then we should never tell anyone when something good happens to us or when we do something great right?  Wrong!  I want to stop and say that just because you tell someone about something you have or did, does not make it bragging.  When you tell a story to puff yourself up, that's bragging.

Let's look at God for a minute.  If God is love and love doesn't brag, then what happens all the times in the Bible where God talks about who he is and what he's done?  Is he bragging?  Certainly not.  When we brag, we normally do it to impress people and I don't think the Creator of the universe needs to impress His creation.  So what is He doing?  He's trying to build our faith.  When God tells you something about Himself, it's not because He's trying to brag.  He wants you to know that He's able to provide all things so that when you have lack, you can trust in and rely on Him.  He wants you to know that He can heal people so that when you are sick, you will go to Him for healing.  He wants you to know that He created everything so that when you need anything, you can go to Him.

So here's what I have learned today.  There's a difference between bragging and telling someone about something that's happened to you.  That difference is motive.  When you brag, you want people to look at you and how great you are.  When you tell someone about something great that you did or happened to you and you do it to encourage them, then it's called ministry not bragging.

Let me finish by asking you this question.  Do you find yourself ministering or bragging when you tell people what's happening with you?  I know there are places in my own life where I can do this better.

That's another Opinion of the Minion

Who Should Be President

Hello Everyone,

     Today marks another changing of the guard in Washington, D.C.  We now have a new president and while there are many in this country that are excited about his arrival, there are many that are really upset about his arrival.  Which group are you?  Well regardless of which one, let me ask you this?  Why are you excited or upset.  The answer is that we all need a deeper revelation that God is our source.  If God is truly your source, then it won't matter who's in leadership because you put your trust in Him not in him (or almost her).

     See one of the problems with putting our trust in a man instead of God is we can be disappointed in them.  Where God has always performed what he said he would perform.  His record is perfect.  Do you need peace in your life?  Do you need prosperity?  Do you need healing?  Do you need forgiveness?  Do you need redemption?  No man can provide any of these but with God all things are possible.

     Another problem is that as we begin to look to these men and women of our government as our source, many times we loose sight of love.  Did you know that the Bible says God is love?  Let me put that in a mathematical equation for you.  God = Love.  To put it another way, Love = God.  You can't walk in true love without walking in true God and you can't walk in true love without walking in true God.  But many of the feelings I see and hear about politicians these days are fear, hate, concern, worry, and the list goes on.

     Guess what.  Those things aren't pure, lovely, just or of a good report and we shouldn't think on them. I'm not saying that we shouldn't pay attention to what our leaders are doing and have an opinion but when hate guides your actions, you have the violent protests we are seeing today.  We should pray for our leaders regardless of whether or not we voted for them.

     So take heart.  If you didn't vote for our president, remember that God loves you and He's still in control.  If you did vote for our president, remember that He's not God.  God is God and he loves you.

     That's another Opinion of the Minion

Focus

Hello Everyone,

Today I want to talk about focus.  Where do you focus the majority of your thoughts?  Do you consider all the bad things going on in the world today?  Do you consider something bad that's going on at school or in your personal life?  Wherever you put your focus, there you will ultimately go.  Let me give you a few examples.

In the Bible, there was a guy named Job.  Now he was a really rich guy and had several sons and daughters.  Interestingly enough he was very afraid that they were saying awful things about God or sinning in some way.  So what did he do?  He offered sacrifices just in case they might have sinned for them everyday (I think it was every day but if not, it was very often.).  Guess what happened?  Ultimately the things that he was afraid of, the things where he put his focus, came upon his children.  Am I saying that Job caused this, nope.  The Bible said it.

Let's shift gears a little.  How many of you have every ridden a motorcycle?  Several years ago, I got my license with a friend of mine, JC.  Now he rode all his life so he was a natural.  Me?  I looked like someone who needed training wheels for his motorcycle and I still do.  I much prefer a four wheeled motorcycle with leather seats, a good air conditioning system and plenty of room.  I think those are called cars.  Anyway, when I was learning to ride, they taught us how to turn.  What we were told was to look where we wanted the bike to go, not where the bike was going.  So we would focus on where we wanted the bike to go and it would go that way.

Let me give you one more example and I will make my point.  The other day, I was thinking about my company and about being an employee.  I run my own company and we do a lot of Oil and Gas work.  As some of you may know, the price of oil has dropped a lot lately and that has caused some slowness in the industry.  I was worrying a little about my business and whether we would be able to sustain our growth even though I knew that the Lord started this business and I knew he was watching it and causing it to grow.  The problem was my focus was on the price of oil and how drastically it could impact my business.  I wasn't focused on where I wanted it to go or what the Lord said about it.

I started thinking about being an employee and how easy it must be to just go to work and do your job.  After that, an employee collects his or her paycheck and that's it.  I started feeling a little sorry for myself thinking about how they don't have to worry about whether or not the check will cash (most of the time) and how easy that must be.  Now my business is really fine but I wasn't focused there.  That's when the word of the Lord came to me.  He said something like, "You should be like those employees you are thinking about.  If you would just keep your eyes on Me and roll the care of it over on Me, things would be much better for you!"

That's what I did.  I put my focus back on my faith in God and what He is doing in our business.  Immediately, I could see where things were going and how good things really are for us!

That's another Opinion of the Minion

You Gotta Be You

Hello Everyone,

It's been on my heart to start writing again so here goes.  Today I want to talk about being true to yourself.  Have you ever been in a place were someone says or does something that you don't agree with?  Maybe you see someone at school bullying someone or saying something bad about someone.  I have found myself listening to people with views that differ from what I truly believe.  I've tried to reconcile some of those opinions and beliefs and tried to "go along" with them in my spirit but it never felt right.

Here's the thing.  I never felt peace until I finally decided that no matter who I am around or what they say, I'm going to be true to what I believe.  I'm going to stand up for what I believe is right regardless of whether it's popular or not.  It may seem cool if you are part of the in crowd at school and they want to make fun of someone but it's not.  It may seem cool to talk about someone behind their back but it's not.  It may seem cool to agree with the "new age" standards that many people in the world want to set but it's not.

What standards am I talking about?  Well that's a question that I will leave to you.  I will tell you this.  If you really don't know how you feel about any particular issue, pick up your Bible and get God's opinion on the subject.  While it may not be the most popular, it will definitely be the right one.

Before I finish, I want to say that it's not always OK to run around spouting your opinion to anyone and everyone.  If you feel inclined to tell every person you meet what you feel or your opinion, that isn't right either.  If someone has a different opinion that you, it's OK.  What's not OK is for you to change your opinion on any subject just to try to fit in with the crowd.

While it's a little short and sweet, that's the Opinion of the Minion.

Fight or Flight

Hello everyone,

This post might not apply to everyone but today I want to talk about your fight or flight reflex.  This is really something I probably already knew but it's something that I have realized about myself recently.  I don't know where I heard this but I have heard it several times lately.  When we face fear or some unpleasant situation, there is a reflex that kicks in almost immediately.  We either want to fight the situation or we want to run away from the situation.  

Before I tell you what I learned, let me say that to go to either extreme is not a wise decision.  There are times when you should fight and there are times when you should simply walk away.  In the words of my mom's favorite Kenny Rogers song, "You've got to know when to hold'em.  Know when to fold 'em.  Know when to walk away and know when to run."  I will soon describe what I have learned about my flight mechanism but before I do, let me say that there are going to be times when you should run away from the problem.  If you find yourself confronted with a gun and you don't have one, RUN. If you find yourself in an abusive relationship, ladies RUN.

But what if you just find yourself in a hard place?  For me, I used to shy away from conflict.  It has taken me several years to realize that this was me running from problems.  I didn't want to hurt any one's feelings and I didn't like when people hurt mine so I would just avoid the conflict.  In some ways, I reasoned that it was easier to just keep walking.  Now if someone calls you a name, that is the best thing to do.  If you don't like the way they treat you, then just keep walking.

But what if the person you don't like is your husband or wife?  Or what if that person is someone who works for you?  Maybe that person is your boss.  You can't just run away from everyone of those types of issues.  Just recently in my own life, I was faced with a situation where my wife did something that I didn't like.  The easiest thing for me to do would have been just let it go and say nothing.  Now we both do that for each other regularly and that's part of a healthy relationship.  But in this case, it was something that really bothered me.  I could sense myself getting mad at her and I noticed that because I hadn't talked with her about this one thing, almost any little thing she did would aggravate me much more than it should.  That's when it finally hit me that I was trying to run from a situation that I needed to address.  Now here's the amazing part of this story to me.  As soon as I recognized what was going on inside me, the little things that were trying to annoy me disappeared!  I was perfectly fine waiting to talk with her about it until we had time.  Here's another thing, as it turned out, it was just a misunderstanding between us.  This particular issue wasn't a big one at all but it did teach me that I need to identify places where I am trying to fly when there are times that I need to fight.

So that's another Opinion of the Minion

Politics

OK, this post might bring some criticism but here goes.  Today I want to talk about politics.  Since we have major elections in the United States in about 5 weeks, I guess it only seems appropriate.

First of all, let me say to all the yellow dog Democrats and all the yellow dog Republicans, "Wake UP!"  For those of you who don't know, a yellow dog Democrat or Republican would vote for a yellow dog for office as long as it ran for their party.  It seems like I see constant arguments from people on Facebook favoring Romney or Obama for president and most of the time, they quote someone else who said something designed to scare you into voting for their candidate.  They say things like Obama is a socialist Muslim.  When they mention Muslim, they want to scare you because we know it was Muslim extremists that attack America and her allies.  The thought behind this logic is that Obama is working to give the country to Muslims.

Additionally, since he is a Socialist, he is trying to turn our country into the new USSR.

On the other side, since Romney made a lot of money on Wall Street, he is going to ruin our country with all his excess spending.  He is only out to take care of the rich and since greed begets greed, he will be responsible for creating a system where only the rich people make more money and they control everything while the poor people suffer all on his own. 

The first problem I have with all the people saying all these things is that none of them have first hand evidence of what either of these people really want.  All they have is second hand accounts of what someone thinks someone else heard from the janitor of some one's hotel.  I think all this fear mongering is terrible. 

Now let me give you my political views.  On Obamacare - I think it's a bad idea.  It will force people who can't afford to buy health care to pay a penalty or by insurance.  That's just plain ignorance gone to seed.  It will also force Americans who have been very successful to pay for those who have not.  This is called socialism and it's wrong.  When we start taking money from the rich and giving it to the poor, that's called theft.  Sorry if this makes you mad but it's just the truth.  The government doesn't have a right to take money from one group and give it to another.  Right all you republicans?

But I am not saying that we shouldn't give to people who need it because we should.  I give to people who need it a lot and I believe very strongly in giving to others.  I just don't believe that anyone should be forced to give to others.

On capitalism - I believe capitalism is a good thing.  But unchecked capitalism is a terrible thing.  Unchecked, unregulated capitalism is what led to the housing problem that crashed our economy a few years ago.  So guess what, we need government and we need it to police the businesses of this country who so greatly effect our nation.  Sorry Republicans, that's simply the truth.

On homosexuality - See my post of a couple of days ago.  But let me add this, if the government should give money to homosexuals for gay pride parades, etc., then it should give an equal amount of money to those who want to take the opposite stance.  My personal opinion is that government should not give any money to either side for these purposes.  But let me say this to both sides, each of you will have to answer for your own stuff when you get to heaven.  Now learn to start respecting the fact that people might have a different opinion than you.  Quit arguing as you will not convince the other side that you are right and start loving.  That's what God commanded us to do!  Sorry both sides, its just the truth.

Let me send this one out to all the Christians who read my blog.  While this may be shocking and may require great faith from the Republicans, it is entirely possible to be a Democrat and be a Christian.  Nowhere in the bible does God mention political affiliation as a prerequisite to going to Heaven.  I think he discussed something about Jesus as the savior not Barak Obama or George Bush.  But here's what I really want you to know.  The bible says we need to pray for our leaders.  It doesn't say pray only pray for the ones you voted for.  So as we go into a time of decision for this great nation, I want to ask each of you to pray about how you should vote and pray for our elected officials that they will govern in a godly manner regardless of what their political affiliation.

That's another Opinion of the Minion

Leadership

Today I want to talk about leadership. 

The thing that really annoys me about this topic is I hear people talk about how to be a leader all the time.  As a matter of fact, four or five years ago, that was the "in" thing to talk about.  People wrote books about it, gave classes about it and in general told you everything you needed to know to become one.

But I really struggled watching people who were leaders that didn't have any people following them.  I saw several people who could tell you what to do and what not to do.  They were "in the know" about all sorts of topics.  In fact, if you needed help with a situation, just bring it up around them and they wouldn't even wait for you to ask, they would just "lead" you out with a lot of advice you didn't request.  Have you ever met people like that?

Well now I want to take a swing at how to be a leader.  Let's start with a good definition.  As I was working out this morning, I was reading a book by Dick Marcinko.  Dick was the leader of a group of Navy Seals in the 1980s and he has written several books about his team.  Now these books are not about his actual team, they are fiction and I would classify them as mental candy.  I don't know that the really expand my mind from reading them.  In the book I am reading now, Mr. Marcinko gave the perfect definition of leadership in two words - follow me.

See I think that is what real leadership is all about.  I am learning as I continue to grow in the places where the Lord put me in a leadership role that this is the crux of how to lead.  In my particular position, I tried to just let things evolve on their own and I basically just sat back and watched a lot of things grow on their own.  I was fortunate that the Lord blessed the work and it did grow but now I understand that I need to lead from the front and provide the vision. 

When I think of leadership, I think of two of my closest friends JC and BL.  They both embody the principal that I am discussing today.  Now let me tell you a couple of things that I learned from both of them while I was at TCU.  First of all, while I was learning these principals from them, I didn't always like them.  They were demanding and they were normally not very tactful in the way they approached getting us to follow them.  But I would have done anything either of them asked because of the way they led. 

See, I followed them.  Why because they were doing what they wanted me to do and they were doing it to such a high level that they did it better than everyone else.  Their challenge was always come up here where I already am and let's get better together.  See, if I wanted their leadership, I only needed to look in front of me because that's where they were.

These two guys embodied what Dick Marcinko said - follow me.  So what am I trying to say today?  If you want people to follow you just start doing what you want people to do.  Quit trying to tell everyone else how they should do something and just live your life as an example of how it should be done.  That's true leadership.

That's Another Opinion of the Minion.