Excel Still More

Reach Out: Please include your email and I will get back to you. Thanks! Did you know that September 21st was the 56th annual World Gratitude Day? I most certainly did not know that. I read about it. It has spiritual roots but has now been stripped of God's presence and recognition for the most part. However, it triggers the need in us all to give thanks. That is a good thing, the giving of t...

Reach Out: Please include your email and I will get back to you. Thanks! West Aurora church of Christ (Aurora, ILL) Friday, Sept. 30th 2022 7pm Saturday, Oct. 1st, 2pm and 3pm Sunday, Oct. 2nd 9:30am and 10:30am Start Right Here (Casting Crowns) We want our coffee in the lobby We watch our worship on a screen We got a Rockstar preacher Who won't wake us from our dreams We want out blessings i...

Reach Out: Please include your email and I will get back to you. Thanks! Salvation by Grace by Matt Bassford Matt's article is accessible through the link above.  Have you had experiences like I had on the plane last week? How do you explain that Grace of God to people who question your faith in it? Have you let Romans 1-6 become a template for explaining salvation by Grace through faith? Are...

Reach Out: Please include your email and I will get back to you. Thanks! Six observations from Jacob wrestling with God in Genesis 32: 1) Jacob is a flawed but very faithful man. (Gen. 31:3, 41-43: 32:1-2) 2) Jacob is in a stressful and uncertain situation. (Gen. 32:3-8, 9-12) 3) God initiates this encounter for Jacob's benefit. (Gen. 32:22-24, 28, 30) 4) Jacob does not try to escape but hold...

Reach Out: Please include your email and I will get back to you. Thanks! I apologize for the cover picture. I was googling "the golden years" and this photo jumped out at me. This man is later in his life, with life still yet to live, sitting in a chair, by himself, waiting. What is he waiting for? We don't know. But it doesn't look that life stage was as exciting as he thought...

Reach Out: Please include your email and I will get back to you. Thanks! West End Church of Christ - Bowling Green, KY www.westendchurch.com Sunday Sept. 11th - 16th 2022 Come and visit! Song:  In Jesus Name (God of Possible) I speak the name of Jesus over you In your hurting, in your sorrow I will ask my God to move I speak the name 'cause it's all that I can do In desperation, I'l...

Reach Out: Please include your email and I will get back to you. Thanks! This is a call to every believer. God has work for you to do. That work will be personal. It is a one-on-one connection with someone in your life who needs help. God is calling us all, as a part of sound doctrine, to become a mentor (and experienced and trusted adviser). Older people, especially, and certainly parents, are ca...

Reach Out: Please include your email and I will get back to you. Thanks! I am an oversharer. I talk too much and listen too little. The issue with this is I read the reactions to that sharing and hang too much of my happiness on the response, the likes, the affirmations. There is certainly room in life to tell people things and read their feedback. But I am learning to "tell no one." I a...

Reach Out: Please include your email and I will get back to you. Thanks! Have you ever cried out "Abba Father" in prayer? It is found three times in Scripture. Jesus did it in Mark 14:36. Jesus seems to be doing it through us in Galatians 4:6. And we are all, having been adopted by God, to cry this out to the Lord in Romans 8:15.  There is this cool progression from Jesus, to Jesus in us...

Reach Out: Please include your email and I will get back to you. Thanks! Everybody knows that love is the most crucial spirit of God needed today. No one denies its's intense value. But kindness deserves some attention as well. In fact, you might categorize being kind as the way you express love in a transaction, interpersonal way. Kindness, from tiny little choices, to deep conversations, pr...

Reach Out: Please include your email and I will get back to you. Thanks! Jesus has earned the right to be first in every single thing. He should be first in our hearts every morning, the first Person we consider, and the King we seek to follow and honor and love in all that we do. To the extent that we do that, our lives are infused with purpose and peace and steeped in His amazing promises. But i...

Reach Out: Please include your email and I will get back to you. Thanks! Okay, I'm not really sure what gossip is. I think that is true for most of us. We say things like "this isn't gossip" or "this might be gossip" right before we share information about  people who are not in the room. Most of us think if we don't mean any harm then there is no harm done. Of c...

Reach Out: Please include your email and I will get back to you. Thanks! Today I want to ask you about the life you are living right now. Are you happy with where you are right now? When you look at your life, do you see God, hope and purpose? And if you look back at the major events that got you where you are, what is your emotion about those things? Accepting where we are is crucial to making th...

Reach Out: Please include your email and I will get back to you. Thanks! Have you ever watched two me bubblers have a conversation? It is funny to watch. One talks about themself. Then the other one talks about themself. The cycle just goes back and forth until someone loses interest. I'm not sure why we are like that, but I've been there. What if one of us shows interest in the other pe...

Reach Out: Please include your email and I will get back to you. Thanks! Here are a few cool things coming up this month: www.balancingthechristianlife.com Check out this link to dig in on a tremendous lectureship that starts on July 28th. There are nearly 50 speakers on 5 different tracks, all devoted to helping you grow and carry out the Lord's work. I had the honor of doing the keynote add...

Reach Out: Please include your email and I will get back to you. Thanks! What is your attitude about time? Do you understand growth is not about you doing complex, incredible things? True transformation is the result of simple, easy to do things, consistently done, and benefitted by the power of time. Time is a gift, an asset. It does things you cannot do. Your absolute best effort today cannot do...

Reach Out: Please include your email and I will get back to you. Thanks! In 1859 Charles Dickens wrote "A Tale of Two Cities" about the French Revolution of the late 1700's. It was the best of times, it was the worst of times. If you lived anywhere near London or Paris, you knew what that meant. The world was filled with turmoil, different classes, and unpredictability. Dickens note...

Reach Out: Please include your email and I will get back to you. Thanks! I'm really enjoying a new book, The Slight Edge , by Jeff Olson. I recommend it to you. It is purely secular but gives tremendous tips that believers can use in every part of life.  His early material drives our study today. He speaks of a life cycle, a wavelength of living that falls to desperation, then goes up to stab...

Reach Out: Please include your email and I will get back to you. Thanks! Everybody has heard this phrase: "It is not how you start, it's how you finish." Do you believe this? And how does it make you feel about the rest of the life God will gift to you? So many of us define ourselves by what has happened, or even who we are now. But Christ has not yet returned. Our time with our fam...

Reach Out: Please include your email and I will get back to you. Thanks! Happy Thursday to you! Two quick things to share. I will be at the Campbell Road church of Christ in Garland, TX June 17th-19th. Friday night at 7pm. Saturday beginning at 10:30am. And Sunday beginning at 9am. Come join us as we sing and pray and study renovating our spirits to go on beautiful missions of mercy in Jesus'...

Reach Out: Please include your email and I will get back to you. Thanks! Have you ever read the Francis Chan book, Crazy Love? It will challenge you. He really makes us look at our life here in America and if we let our prosperity harden our hearts and keep us in a lukewarm state. Actually, it is a super challenging read and exposes a lot of work needed in most of us. But it also asks you to renov...

Reach Out: Please include your email and I will get back to you. Thanks! Today is a hard one. I need to talk to you about the school shooting in Uvalde, TX on Tuesday May 24th. An 18 year old young man shot and killed 19 kids and two adults. 17 others are currently in the hospital with injuries. Sadly, this is not an altogether isolated event. Increased violence by damaged, angry youth is more app...

Reach Out: Please include your email and I will get back to you. Thanks! Today we turn our gaze toward the future. One day you and I will leave this earth. When we do, most likely, the letter of our lives will be fully written and handed to our family and friends to live with for the rest of their lives. We aren't sending a letter back to ourselves but forward to our family. The question is,...

Reach Out: Please include your email and I will get back to you. Thanks! What would you write if you had the chance to pen a letter to your younger self? What changes would you make? Would you try to avoid bad decisions? Would you direct yourself to lucrative investments? Okay, cool. But what if it risked what you have now? Would it be worth it? We are going to dig in on all of those questions tod...

Reach Out: Please include your email and I will get back to you. Thanks! Do you remember what it felt like to start something amazing? Do you remember the first day of marriage? Or what it felt like to be washed in the blood of the Lamb? Wow, that was truly the best. For those who are exploring new things and feeling the joys of discovery, drink in every ounce of that! As for the rest of us, let&a...