Excel Still More

Reach Out: Please include your email and I will get back to you. Thanks! I need to tell you about Patrick.  He had a rough upbringing, a tragic loss, and a dark addiction. But two years ago he decided to get help.  And as he sat across from me, in my office, he was on step 12 of the Alcoholics Anonymous program!  And even as he was about to put on Christ in baptism, and celebrate victory over Sata...

Reach Out: Please include your email and I will get back to you. Thanks! Don't panic.  We got this.  In fact, Christians were born for this.  At least, we were born again for this. When the world is turned upside down, Christians see Jesus standing upright.  We are the people who use times of fear to show courage. We use times of uncertainly to stand on solid ground. Today we will read a port...

Reach Out: Please include your email and I will get back to you. Thanks! Let's explore how to get other people moving. I know, the purpose of these episodes is for you to work on yourself. And sometimes just doing that has the power to influence others. But every once in a while you actually need to get another person moving. How do you empower the individual to get going in their work?  Mayb...

Reach Out: Please include your email and I will get back to you. Thanks! No one enjoys trials.  If you are struggling with something in your life right now, you have no doubt prayed for relief. But as Christians, we have also signed on to be molded and trained by God. We wanted to be prepared to be a sanctuary, tried and true, and to do His work. After all, we have been saved to do His good works,...

Reach Out: Please include your email and I will get back to you. Thanks! The term "kick the bucket" has been around for well over 200 years.  But just in the last 15 years, we have started talking about "bucket lists." This represents things we would like to accomplish before the end of life. For the most part, people list places they would like to see or accomplishments they a...

Reach Out: Please include your email and I will get back to you. Thanks! When it comes to free time, discretionary time, we all wish we had more.  Life is busy. And obligations of our time exist in every single day of life.  From work to school to family to worship to rest, the calendar is full. But we all have moments around those events where we get to choose what to do!  Some say they do not, b...

Reach Out: Please include your email and I will get back to you. Thanks! "Be the change you wish to see in the world." Do you know who said that? Most attribute it to Mahatma Gandhi.  Well, he didn't actually say that, but what he did say is amazing, and is summed up well in this popular phrase.  He created incredible change in the world by focusing on growing individually and letti...

Reach Out: Please include your email and I will get back to you. Thanks! Quitting can be a great idea.  If there are things in your life that do not resonate with who you want to become: quit them. If there are things that don't matter to God or your family, stop doing them.  If there are things that you know you will not ever return to, say goodby. This is actually a great way to create more...

Reach Out: Please include your email and I will get back to you. Thanks! Christians seek first spiritual goals and the kingdom of God.  But let's not have our head in the sand:  money still matters. We need it to provide for our family.  And honestly, we need it to do a whole lot of extra great things for God and His people and the world. In centuries past, there were few opportunities to hav...

Reach Out: Please include your email and I will get back to you. Thanks! Taking initiative, doing things your way, showing personal strength - these all can be great qualities!  However, you and I have to admit something important:  we don't know everything.  In fact, we may not have the knowledge, experience or strength to solve our OWN problems! This doesn't have to be bad news.  It ju...

Reach Out: Please include your email and I will get back to you. Thanks! So far in this season we have made some big decisions on who we want to become.  We have selected some lofty goals that will take all year to reach.  We have even figured out how to break that progress down into months, weeks and days.  But it is worth noting: unless those goals align with your core values, they aren't w...

Reach Out: Please include your email and I will get back to you. Thanks! We kicked off season two with an episode on January 6th - Building Your Ladders.  You were encouraged to think BIG! To come up with awesome ideas of who you would like to become, and then identify big year long goals that would certainly prove that progress.  We talked about how you break that down into ladder rungs, monthly...

Reach Out: Please include your email and I will get back to you. Thanks! Welcome to Season 2!  Last year we collected 82 episodes designed to help you grow in faith, deepen relationships and get the most out of the life God has given you.  Now, we head into this New Year ready to use all of that experience to reach new heights!  Firstly, you have to decide who you want to become.  What does a bett...

Reach Out: Please include your email and I will get back to you. Thanks! This is the last episode of season 1.  We started on January 24th and today is October 31st.  I hope you've grown and feel stronger and more hopeful.  We will return, Lord willing, on Monday, January 6th, for season 2!  But there are two important months in between now and then.  There will be lots of obstacles to growth...

Reach Out: Please include your email and I will get back to you. Thanks! We are all learning all the time.  Spiritually, we learn when we study, when we worship, when we have discussions, or when we listen to podcasts.  Does it ever feel like information overload?  Maybe we think we should be learning less, since implementing it all seems so daunting. Well, there's a much better strategy than...

Reach Out: Please include your email and I will get back to you. Thanks! Are you the kind of person who takes too many things personally?  Maybe someone gives you a look or says something and you just assume:  they are mad at me.  Well, there is a much better and more peaceable way to live you life.  In fact, with just a few adjustments in your thinking you can see all of your relationships improv...

Reach Out: Please include your email and I will get back to you. Thanks! Imagine if, right now, there words appeared in the sky in fiery letters:  Seven Days Left!  And imagine that for the next 24 hours everyone on the earth saw it and investigated it and couldn't explain it.  Then, it changed to Six Days Left.  What would you do?  Well, when the impending urgency of some heavenly event fell...

Reach Out: Please include your email and I will get back to you. Thanks! It is great to celebrate achievements.  Reaching goals feels great.  But beware, present position is only that:  a fleeting moment of stature and accomplishment.  While position can indicate good behavior, it is not a behavior of itself.  But direction, now that's all together different.  Direction isn't focused on...

Reach Out: Please include your email and I will get back to you. Thanks! "The purpose of education is to know God and make Him known."  Do you believe that?  I think when it comes to spiritual education, like Bible reading and sermons, we would say so.  And there are important applications of this phrase upon how you and I are using the things we learn in study and at a church.  But woul...

Reach Out: Please include your email and I will get back to you. Thanks! When we live our lives with behavior aligned with beliefs:  peace happens.  We get to have this tremendous peace in Jesus Christ, when we believe in His word and live like it.  But when our behavior departs from our beliefs, the peace is taken away.  In its place are things like anxiety, stress, worry, discouragement, hopeles...

Reach Out: Please include your email and I will get back to you. Thanks! The island of Icaria is an amazing place!  Not just because of its beauty, but because people there "forget to die"!  Yep, that's a quote from a resident there.  This small island in the Aegean sea has the highest percentage of residents living on into their 90's and beyond!  A full 1/3 of them do so.  And...

Reach Out: Please include your email and I will get back to you. Thanks! I love great conversations!  It feels awesome to listen and be heard.  I love walking away feeling like I learned something and contributed.  We are better friends now because of that interaction.  HOWEVER, not all conversations go that way.  In fact, many times they aren't rewarding at all!  Why is that?  Well, it turns...

Reach Out: Please include your email and I will get back to you. Thanks! I heard a powerful story recently.  A woman was rich and influential.  She had great success in her life.  However, there were a few things that she hadn't done.  These were things she'd put off and things of great value.  As the story was told to me, there were 3 things "she was gonna" do, and soon.  Her...

Reach Out: Please include your email and I will get back to you. Thanks! Uncle Ben told Peter Parker: "With great power comes great responsibility."  It took Spiderman a while to figure out what that meant.  How about you? Do you understand what it means to have power?  Have you figured out one of life's most unfair and critical lessons?  That the strong does most of the heavy lifti...

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