Attention Stealers

Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.' Mark 12:30

I have been preaching a series titled "Directionally Challenged." The series is birthed from some truths I learned from Andy Stanley's book The Principle of the Path. (a book well worth the read.)

The Principle of the Path is a simple, profound, and unavoidable truth and reality in life. Direction, not intention, determines destination. All the good intentions in the world will not take you where you want to go. The only thing in life that takes us to the right destinations in life is making the right decisions to go in the right directions.

The biggest issue with direction and intention, however, is attention. Another truth and perhaps my favorite out of the series and the book is the role of attention. What gets our attention determines our direction, and ultimately, our destination. (per Jesus…where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.)

I believe the majority of church-goers read Mark 12:30 and say I want to love Jesus like that. They give that thought their undivided attention until they step outside of their stain-glassed buildings and the sin-stained world begins to distract them. The things of this world begin to quickly rob each and every one of us of the attention we desire to give to the most important things in life.

The problem that I see in this real issue is that we must come to grips with the biggest reason our attention is stolen. The issue is not what we like to consider. We like to consider the symptoms or the actions in our lives, but the real issue is not about our actions…it is our heart. We do not love the Lord with all of our heart because we love other things with too much of our heart and our soul and our mind and our strength.

In this past week's message I shared the five main attention stealers I see in life. I have gotten some good feeback on this and would like to share it in my blog, then I will wrap up this blog with a little information about this next Sunday.

Attention Stealers…
1. Self – You will never give your full attention to God (or to others in serving Him) while living life to fully attend to yourself.
2. Wounds – If you continue to focus on the wounding in your life you will never experience healing in your life.
3. Disabilities – Living focused on what you cannot do will rob you of the ability to do what you can.
4. Failures – Giving today's attention to yesterday's failures will rob you of tomorrow's successes.
5. Good – Living life for that which is good often prevents us from experiencing that which is God.

The comment about failures…Giving today's attention to yesterday's failures will rob you of tomorrow's successes...is the thought I want to wrap the series up with this weekend.

The truth is we have all failed, but some of you are locked down by it. Your life has been taken captive by your failures (or the failures of others against you). You are living life in a stand still spiritually, emotionally, and relationally.

The direction you took yesterday is preventing you from dealing with the destination of today and robbing you of the intention you desire to live out tomorrow. This Sunday I am preaching on where do you go from there?

What do you do when God says, "Road Closed"?

If you are a part of Fellowship and know someone who is living life frozen at the "Road Closed" sign, bring them Sunday. It is time they learned the value of a detour with God and the joy of the Road Ahead.

See you Sunday!

Prayer-walking blog 2

Donna Guillot has written another blog concerning prayer-walking. I think you will find it to be a great read. If you committed to walk and pray for your neighborhood but have not yet done, please stick to that commitment. Try to find time soon to make that effort. I know that I have some of my neighborhood to finish. We have been out twice but the neighborhood is large and it is HOT. So we are going to finish it soon, but we have not yet. Thank you for your commitment to sharing God's love with those around you.

www.trials2triumph.blogspot.com

Prayer-walking blog

In my last blog I told you to check out Donna Guillot's upcoming blogs on prayer-walking, but I gave a bad link to go by.

Please check out her blog at www.trials2triumph.blogspot.com

Won’t You Be My Neighbor…Guide 3

This is the last of a series of 3 Neighbor guides we have given out at church during this series. This one teaches on how to prayer-walk and comes with a challenge to prayer-walk your neighborhood. I also want to encourage you to check out Donna Guillot's blog www.trials2truimph.blogspot.com on more about prayer-walking and some personal experiences with it. She is a great writer and will encourage you as you decide to step out and reach out to your neighbors through the power of prayer.

Being a Neighbor means praying for your neighbor.

If my people who are called by name will humble themselves and pray….

We live in a society that needs to humble itself before God and pray…and seek his face…and turn from its wicked ways. All of these things begin with prayer. Are you willing to humble yourself in prayer and pray for yourself and your neighbors?

 What is prayer-walking?
- Praying in motion.
- Praying continuously.
- Praying with a heart toward the salvation and life change of those you
are praying for.
- Pray with spiritual eyes that see more than just a mess in a yard but are
sensitive toward a need in a family.
- Praying toward the role of your church in that community and how to
impact those lives.
- Spiritual warfare.

What is the purpose in prayer-walking?
- It brings you closer to God
- It helps you be on mission with Christ.
- It helps you hear from the Holy Spirit.
- It changes the way you see your neighbors.

What do I expect while I am out prayer-walking?
- To get hot…it is a south Louisiana summer after all. (Bring water)
- Expect Divine appointments…people God wants you to run into not just
walk by.
- Holy Spirit guidance and insight to influencing your neighbors for Christ.

How do I prepare to prayer-walk?
- Get your "Prayer Notice" door cards ready for your neighborhood. (They are
next to the prayer-walk commitment map or in the Connection Center)
- Put away the IPOD and MP3. You want to pray without distraction.
- Pray in repentance and faith before you prayer-walk.
- Ask God to search your heart through the process.
- Pray for spiritual sensitivity toward what others might need.
- Pray for opportunities to share the Gospel.
- Pray for spiritual eyes to give you insight into influencing your neighbors for
Christ.

 What is a divine appointment and what do I do with it?
- Be prepared to share the Gospel with a neighbor…you never know what conversation "I am praying for you…" will start.
- Ask for prayer requests when you meet up with neighbors.

Practical Tips for Prayer-walking
- Keep your eyes open and be observant
- Pray Scriptures.
- Pray out loud and/or silently
- Claim God's love, compassion, and mercy for those you pray for.
- Pray with an eternal focus. Ask God for salvations and be mindful of
what death without Christ means for every household and every person.

Fellowship Church Prayer-walking Process and Goal Dates
1. Mark the commitment to pray your neighborhood on the Prayer-walk
map. (August 8)
2. Initial prayer-walk through neighborhood, leaving "Prayer Notice" cards
on each door. (August 8-21)
3. Follow up prayer-walk through neighborhood, leaving "The Path" Gospel
presentations on each door. (September 2010)
4. At least a monthly prayer-walk through your neighborhood. (August
2010-July 2011)

I hope you will be a part of this challenge and don't forget to check out the three blog series Donna Guillot is writing at www.trials2truimph.blogspot.com.

 
 

 

 
 

Neighbor Guide Two

The last few weeks I have been writing up some guides to what it means to be a Biblical neighbor to go along with our "Won't you be My Neighbor" series. This past week with Governor Bobby Jindal coming (which was awesome) we did not give the guide any attention or point it out. I believe this guide is a good resource to just everyday neighborly living for the glory of Christ and the Gospel. I decided to blog it to maybe help a few more people actually read it. J

God set the times and places for you. (read Acts 17:26) God put you where you are when you are for his purposes and glory. This booklet is food for thought on being a neighbor in daily life. Are you willing to be the Good Samaritan right here...right now?

Thou shalt not annoy your neighbor in the name of Christ by…
1. Self-serving service. Do not serve others just to get them to do what you want.
2. Awkward appreciation. Do not make something up just to serve someone.

3. Meeting non-needs as real needs. Giving water to a person that is not thirsty does not meet their need for water, it meets your need to give.

How not to annoy thy neighbor while actually being one...
1. Be honest about your intentions. Be real that you are sharing your life change in serving.
Your intention should be to share Christ.
2. Appreciation is not awkward if it is heart-felt. So don't lie about it.
3. You can meet a non-need or a felt need, just don't make it into something it is not.

 Being a neighbor where you live…
1. Invite your neighbors over to eat.
2. Offer to mow their lawn if they go out of town…for free.
3. Be a safe place for neighborhood children to play
4. Volunteer to better the neighborhood or HOA.
5. Stop and offer to lend a hand when your neighbor is working on a project.

Being a neighbor where you work…
1. Make the coffee without complaining and fix others a cup.
2. Offer to help someone else with something that is not your responsibility, even if it means more time.
3. Ask your boss and subordinates what you can do to help them out.
4. Ask your coworkers how you can pray for them and then do it. Then simply come back later and ask how it is working out. No pressure…just prayer.

Being a neighbor in your school…
1. Help your teachers in their classrooms.
2. Behave in class and do your work. No one will ever see Jesus in a slacker.
3. Keep extra pens and pencils and share…even if you do not get them back.
4. Try to make sure others get noticed for what they do. Brag on the people no one sees.

 Being a neighbor in recreation…
1. Volunteer to organize, coach, or serve in recreational organizations…don't just receive.
2. Help the coach out if you are not the coach.
3. Offer to help with snacks, etc.
4. Be the team encourager.

Being a neighbor everywhere…
1. Get off the phone when going to a register to check out and treat the person as a person.
2. Say nice things to people.
3. Put someone's groceries in their car.
4. Help people you see that need a hand. You have the time, you just have to give it to someone else.
5. Budget to be a helper. Generous giving begins with generous living.