Excel Still More

Reach Out: Please include your email and I will get back to you. Thanks! Two things have value in and of themselves: posture in communication, and prayer in your daily life. Posture makes us a good communicator. It makes lengthy, needful conversations possible. Aligning mind and body can change a marriage, and can mend a broken friendship. Prayer is the process of talking with God. It should be a...

Reach Out: Please include your email and I will get back to you. Thanks! BONUS THURSDAY EPISODE - The second one ever. Yeah, I dropped the ball on this. But thanks to the constant pestering of a certain friend named Jim Kirby, I'm committed to rolling a few of these out in the coming months.  Let's take 10 minutes and learn how to make every day more rich. In particular, find things you...

Reach Out: Please include your email and I will get back to you. Thanks! The devil is always at work. Most of us are aware of the tools he uses, though we will brush up on those today. And Jesus can help us see how to refute them. But the most important think Jesus shows us is the power of mission orientations. Jesus was living with purpose. He knew why He was here and what He was growing into and...

Reach Out: Please include your email and I will get back to you. Thanks! Okay, I really put this one off. It feels off brand to talk about downers in our lives. However, they are a reality in our lives. There are people who just seem to be negative, who don't believe in us, and who render judgments against us that simply are not fair. The truth is, in such cases, there is something not well i...

Reach Out: Please include your email and I will get back to you. Thanks! Hal Elrod has become an important influence in my life. I came across a presentation he gave several years ago. This led to reading his book, The Miracle Morning, and making important changes in my life by making important changes every morning.  It is my pleasure to detail his system, S.A.V.E.R.S. to you today. As I have alw...

Reach Out: Please include your email and I will get back to you. Thanks! God's hand is mighty and amazing. He reaches farther than we can imagine, and can also handle the smallest, most intricate of problems. He is present always and always active. These are the kinds of things we believe by faith. We lean into these truths when life is hard. We understand there is no success in life without...

Reach Out: Please include your email and I will get back to you. Thanks! Well, here we are - 2022! Also, this starts seasons 4 of the ESM podcast! Thank you so much for your support. It has been fun. And I have high expectations for this year.  Do you? I pray you have goals, aspirations, direction, and optimism. Today we will talk about the power of New Year's Resolutions if they are set up w...

Reach Out: Please include your email and I will get back to you. Thanks! I need to appeal to your heart. Both your love for Christ and the nature of Christ's love within you. Jesus loves people so much. He loves those who are His and those who are not. Those who have left Him hurt Him and He wants nothing more than to find them and bring them home. But what does that have to do with you and m...

Reach Out: Please include your email and I will get back to you. Thanks! Okay, how is that core value, that circle of importance, coming along? Have you identified and been vocal about who, or what, matters most in your life? Ranking your focus and values can give you clarity on what to do next and how. But... balance is tough! There are multiple things competing for your attention in any given we...

Reach Out: Please include your email and I will get back to you. Thanks! To me, there is nothing more important I could share with you right now than these circles of importance. 2021 is almost over, but it is not over yet. This is an amazing time to asses our priority and value system and then see how we've done this year with our words and actions. But we can also start making efforts, chan...

Reach Out: Please include your email and I will get back to you. Thanks! Lanny Bassham was an olympic gold medalist in rifle shooting. He holds tons of records and is a National champion. Throughout his life, he has interviewed and studied winners. He sought to unlock the mentality within those who reached their goals. The results are a book called "With Winning In Mind." I highly recomm...

Reach Out: Please include your email and I will get back to you. Thanks! A friend of mine just learned that he has terminal cancer. He wrote a letter to his church friends and it was tremendous. He doesn't regret what he didn't do. He's only sad that he cannot continue doing what he has chosen for his life. That is powerful to me. Would it be that way for me? How about you? If you k...

Reach Out: Please include your email and I will get back to you. Thanks! If you are interested in watching Chuck Durham's lessons, or viewing his slides, please reach out to me: emersonk78@me.com. You can also find them at www.lindalechurchofchrist.com. Also, I highly recommend Lakita Garth's book: "The Naked Truth about Sex, Love and Relationships". You can find it on Amazon....

Reach Out: Please include your email and I will get back to you. Thanks! What's the deal with zebra stripes? They stand out in their environment. So why haven't the lions eaten them all. The answer is important for Christians. We too stand out in the world, at least we should. And the lion is seeking someone to devour - and that means you and me! So what is our best defense against him. ...

Reach Out: Please include your email and I will get back to you. Thanks! Let's keep talking about those stairs! This week we dive back in on the concept of personal discipline. Did you pick a quality and apply it last week? If you did, maybe you noticed how hard it was, or how many staircases were around every corning. I want to share a conversation I had with a friend who tried this last wee...

Reach Out: Please include your email and I will get back to you. Thanks! Are you the kind of person who takes the stairs? Or have you been the kind of person who doesn't even think about how important they are?  Is the easy way the best way in all things? The world is full of people looking for shortcuts. The problem is, they are shortcuts to nowhere. They don't achieve what they want. T...

Reach Out: Please include your email and I will get back to you. Thanks! Self Confidence is defined as a feeling of trust in one's abilities, qualities, and judgment. Each of us have a measure of self confidence, and I would argue that it is designed by God to be good. But it is not always good. Sometimes it is driven by pride and built upon the wrong idea, high self estimation. This does all...

Reach Out: Please include your email and I will get back to you. Thanks! Why is evangelism so hard for so many of us? And why have so many churches failed to create a culture of evangelism? God has a plan for His people - to spread the Word through us.  But another sermon telling people to do it won't amount to anything. We need to show people how to make it easy, make it automatic, and make...

Reach Out: Please include your email and I will get back to you. Thanks! People seem to be afraid of everything! Some things are dangerous, but why in the world would we add the Fear Of Missing Out? How much is there to fear I am afraid of everything in the world I am not doing? Wow. God has a better plan. He wants you to live a life of joy and purpose, where you aren't burdened by "What...

Reach Out: Please include your email and I will get back to you. Thanks! Credit to Don Truex for today's title. He was reflecting recently on the passing of his father. His dad taught him to make things better in every circumstance. And to leave things better than when he found them. This is something that should shine in the life of every believer. Let's look at what it means to make th...

Reach Out: Please include your email and I will get back to you. Thanks! "Life is easier when you know what you want." I love this line by James Clear. He goes on to note that few people have taken the time to figure out what they want. Maybe family or culture decide that for them. Maybe they just do things in hopes of finding purpose. We can do much better than that. You owe it to yours...

Reach Out: Please include your email and I will get back to you. Thanks! Everybody knows we should be saving at least a small portion of money. If you are spending everything you make, you know the stress of that. I won't focus on that today. But if you are able to save anything, even the smallest amount, what you are doing with it? Are you excited for what that means? Today let's look a...

Reach Out: Please include your email and I will get back to you. Thanks! Did you know that elephants are the most dangerous animal in the world? They are responsible for 500 human deaths every year. And yet, throughout history, mankind has continue trying to tame this animal. Why? Because they are so strong, powerful and useful!  The process by which they are controlled is grueling and cruel, but...

Reach Out: Please include your email and I will get back to you. Thanks! Hard Work is good. Everybody knows we should be working hard. However, it is not the best thing. It is not the first or most important thing. The better thing is to Work Smart. Wisdom in our pursuits, strategy in our path, is way more important. Plenty of people grind and get few results. For some reason, they keep grinding,...

Reach Out: Please include your email and I will get back to you. Thanks! Peace within the soul is a joy to all who have it. But with the darkness of the world and the uncertainties of life, many live with only passing moments of peacefulness. Christ has promised you so much more. He wants to house something in your soul that abides, that stands the test of time and life itself. Today we will talk...