Planning your goals!

Over the past few years I have learned so much on how to set goals and how to achieve those goals. I found 8 key principles to live by that will help each and every one of us achieve our goals in life. First and foremost it starts with a relationship with Jesus Christ we all need him to guide our steps and light our path. People who set goals accomplish them and people that don't won't accomplish them. With that in mind, build these eight principles into your everyday life. (1) Decide what you want. Of course line it up with scripture and consult Jesus first. "Many are the plans in a mans heart, but it is the Lords purpose that prevails" (Proverbs 19-21). (2) Think on paper. Writing your goals down gives you a visual and allows you to see them and get energized about achieving them. "Good planning and insight....bring.....you honor and respect." Wishy-washy objectives want get you where you want to go. (3) Establish a deadline. Without a definite beginning and ending it makes it easier to procrastinate and that will get you nowhere. (4) Make a list of what you NEED to do. Keep it in front of you all the time, it will give you a track to run on. (5) Convert your list to a plan. Decide what needs to be done first and then do the other things after... like a snowball effect. An organized plan is less stressful than having to carry your goals and ideas around in your head.(6) Act immediately. "Be careful, then, how you live-not as unwise but as wise making the most of every opportunity" (Ephesians 5:15-16). Do something! A mediocre plan that's implemented beats a brilliant one that is not. (7) Do something everyday to move you forward. Build it into your daily life. (8) Have a goal that your willing to devote your life to. Never take your eyes off of that goal. Life is hard at times but through Jesus Christ we can do all things! I pray these steps help you and I pray that you start achieving your goals. I Love you all and you have a wonderful day. Jason

Update on Shelter!

Just going to post a short update! Today we worked in the shelter all day! We had 7 of our youth come and help clean and pour into the shelter it was AWESOME but we learned patients LOL! Folks its coming together! We are getting the floors done on Tuesday then we can start the interior building process. I'm pumped! God is moving in a mighty way, only he could do what has been done through this ministry! We are seeing life change happen EVERYDAY! We have set a goal for the shelter to be up and operating within 3 months but there is no hurry! We want it to feel like home to all who come in! We will start working out of the shelter within 3 weeks! Building relationships, counseling, therapy, and meeting needs in and around our community! We are so blown away at how big our GOD is! Please I ask you all to continue to lift us up in prayer as we continue to serve our Lord Jesus Christ! Love you all!

CHRIST GETS BIGGER!

John Piper wrote this post back in March and it moved me just thought I would share it! I pray you all have a blessed day! Here is a simple exhortation that I have been trying to implement in our family:
Seek to see and feel the gospel as bigger as years go by rather than smaller.
Our temptation is to think that the gospel is for beginners and then we go on to greater things. But the real challenge is to see the gospel as the greatest thing—and getting greater all the time.
The Gospel gets bigger when, in your heart,
grace gets bigger;
Christ gets greater;
his death gets more wonderful;
his resurrection gets more astonishing;
the work of the Spirit gets mightier;
the power of the gospel gets more pervasive;
its global extent gets wider;
your own sin gets uglier;
the devil gets more evil;
the gospel's roots in eternity go deeper;
its connections with everything in the Bible and in the world get stronger;
and the magnitude of its celebration in eternity gets louder.
So keep this in mind: Never let the gospel get smaller in your heart.
Pray that it won’t. Read solid books on it. Sing about it. Tell someone about it who is ignorant or unsure about it.
Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel.... For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures. (1 Corinthians 15:1-4)

8 Quarters

It has taken me 4 days to really grasp what happened at Fuse this past week. We had a kid who came up to Michael our bus owner, driver, and let’s just say he is a modern day Noah! The kid gave him 8 quarters and told him it was all he had and he felt strongly that he needed to give it to the lot project for gas for the bus! Folks this was a very humbling experience to all of us at the lot project. Here is a kid who had only two dollars to his name and he gave it all. You know that reminds me of someone his name is Jesus Christ. He too give it all. I got to thinking how I could get my point across to others through what this has taught me. I don’t want this to sound like I am boasting I am just sharing my passion for what I believe in. I will never apologize for passion because Jesus is my passion. So here we go! I want to ask you all some questions “What if every believer gave it all?” Know seriously what if every believer gave it all? What if every believer had eyes like Jesus? What if every time we see a need we take action to meet that need? What if every time God tells us to do something we did it? Reality is this only 2% of Christ Followers tithe and only .004% gives offerings! That’s sad. It’s no wonder our culture is sucking our kids in! Its no wonder teen pregnancy is increasing! Its no wonder gang activity is at an all time peak! It’s no wonder the Church is decreasing in numbers daily and more church splits have occurred this year than any other year in the history of the church! We as believers need to step it up and start giving Christ our all and not a percentage of our leftovers. I pray that all of us act with a sense of urgency and that all of us are obedient as this 14 year old kid who gave it all. I will end with a question I feel we all need to ask ourselves “Are we giving Christ our lives for him to use or are we giving our lives to money for it to destroy?” No apologies Jason! I Love you all!

True Leadership!

The true leaders are people who never set out to be leaders. True leaders don't elevate themselves. Instead, the people elevate them. Some young men make a mistake in ministry by forcefully proclaiming that they are leaders. In fact, they love the power; they love to have authority and control over people because their egos get a boost. But they fail to realize that the power is not for them; it's for serving others!(Matthew Barnett said it all in his book "The Church That Never Sleeps" and I think he said it well!) good night!

WORK

Good Morning to all off you! I pray this very short post will encourage you! In scripture Philippians 1:6 says "Being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus." So who decides it? Who performs it? Who should your confidence be in? Christ Jesus! I pray today that all of you will be at ease knowing that Jesus who started a work in you will complete it. But we as Jesus Freaks have to listen and obey! Have an AWESOME day and please pray for me and the lot project team as we are taking some big steps of Faith. We all Love you! To my readers no that I Love You so so much and remember DO IT UP BIG TODAY, SPREAD JESUS ANYWHERE AND EVERYWHERE! with much love Jason

Pursue and LISTEN

What up everybody I pray your morning is going great! I am still in AWE of what God did at my home church Sunday, 322 salvation's wow he reigns! It continues to blow my mind how much he loves us. Today I want to write a short and simple post on listening to others and pursuing the work of God. Here we go. So what does it mean for us to pursue the work of God? I believe one thing that answers this question is we need to grow and beg him for his eyes and ears. We need to see as he sees and listen as he listens. Also we need to serve as he serves especially in our relational world. This is one of the key elements to building strong relationships within our communities and within our close friends. I believe If we want to do the work of God, we need to pay attention to people. We need to notice them and observe them. We need to take time to love on them and celebrate with them as we all go through our daily lives. You see we have the power to delight each other's hearts when we notice and celebrate each other. Encouragement in today's world is hard to find or is it? Are we looking in the right places? Are we depending on people to encourage us or are we depending on Jesus Christ to encourage us? Yeah it makes us feel great when someone comes up to us and pats us on the back and tells us great job, but that encouragement only goes so far. Christ can give us lasting encouragement the kind that never runs out. I Love what the Psalmist wrote in Chapter 91 verses 9-16 it says "1.If you make the most high your dwelling- even the Lord, who is my refuge-10. then no harm will befall you, no disaster will come near your tent. 11. For he will command his angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways; 12. they will lift you up in their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone. 13. You will tread upon the lion and the cobra;you will trample the great lion and the serpent. "14. Because he loves me said the Lord, I will rescue him; I will protect him, for he acknowledges my name. 15. He will call upon me, and i will answer him; I will be with him in trouble, I will deliver him and honor him. 16. With long life will I satisfy him and show him my salvation." I don't know about you but that's some encouragement that will never fade. So I will end with these questions. Is there someone you need to encourage, pay attention to, or serve today? I pray this post encouraged you and I Love you all! Thanks for reading, Jason

Running on Empty?

This is a repost! I posted it last year and I feel like I needed to share it again. One to remind myself of how important rest is! Enjoy Love you all! What up everyone! Today during my quiet time today I learned about a story in scripture Luke chapter 8 verses 45-48. In these verses a women reaches out and touches Jesus on his cloak. Though he is in a large crowd he feels this energy comes out of him. He turns and asked who touched me and then an unclean woman fell at his feet and worshipped him. He told her your faith in me has healed you. Then it hit me when you love you get, physically, mentally, emotionally and spiritual depleted. Love takes a lot of energy from you Christ felt this energy leave him in this text. You know you work hard all day. You come home and is it the TV you choose or Playing with your kids? Love is tiring! However it’s the most important thing in you life! Christ is Love! Sometimes the best thing for us to do is stop and rest. Refill your tank and it will not cost you $2.00 a gallon Ha! Ha! I look through scripture and I see Jesus rest he takes a boat across the lake to get away from the crowds! He takes a rest on the floor of a boat! He would go to a solitary place! He rested when needed. See Satan wants you to be so busy and caught up in the motions that you never rest. If you never rest you can’t Love the way you should. My question to you, are you on empty? Are you to drained to Love the way you should? If so rest its important! Love is everything! Jesus said come to him and he will give you rest! Matthew Chapter 11 Verse 28 read it for yourself.

Going Deeper

Good morning to all I am going to be talking about friendship in this post today. Friendship is a key element to establishing great community. Friendship is special and everyone desires someone they can trust and share their lives with. So I am going to start this off with a question. WHAT DOES FRIENDSHIP MEAN TO YOU? I am going to share my personal view on what friendship really means so here we go. I believe that friendship involves a mutual exchange of knowledge, service, kindness, and celebration. I also believe it is a growing commitment among peers to seek and serve each other. Philippians 2:1-11 explains this well. The core of this scripture teaches us to pursue others and sacrifice our own desires and serve others as Christ served us. That goes for friendships as well. We should always listen to our friends and be constantly moving forward in our relationships with them. Offering up our time and ears to them. I had a man tell me one time "We have 2 ears and one mouth for a reason". I believe that to be true as well however, I myself sometimes struggle listening to others. If we would all be honest we all do. I constantly beg Jesus to give me his eyes and ears so that I can listen better and be ready to act on the opportunities he gives me. We all have a choice to build relationships or to let them crumble. I want to encourage you to only listen to people that you know Love You. If we listen to everyone we will be in a constant state of pleasing them instead of pleasing God. I pray this post encourages you but challenges you to go deeper with your friendships and also go deeper with your relationship with Jesus Christ. Read Philippians 2:1-11 sometime today and live by what it says. Remember to establish great community we have to establish great relationships. Love You guys and gals, Jason

Open your eyes!

Good morning everyone. I am going to be talking about being spiritually blind. In John chapter 9 verses 10-11, and also 35-38,39. Jesus has healed a blind man in these verses. I find it funny how the religious leaders demanded the man tell them who done this for him! Anyway that's another story for another time! Jesus said something in this scripture that blows me away. ' I have come into this world, so that the blind will see and those who see will become blind!" The last part rocks my world. He is saying we should become blind to our plan and follow his! That's awesome that the creator of the universe would choose us. In this text the miracle is great. Jesus encounters one who has never seen or known light-a blind man from birth- and he gives this man sight and light. After Jesus spit on the ground and made mud, he covered the mans eyes with the mud. What happens next is a sign of how strong the mans faith was. Jesus told him go to the pool of Siloam and wash this off and you will see. So the man had to step up and go! After he washed his eyes he could see i can only imagine the excitement that came over him! He never had to go back to his begging post again! You see in verses 35-38 was the conversion. Jesus gave him a spiritual light also he could now see with his heart. The way to see in this world is a willingness to admit we are blind. The blind man did not argue with Jesus. He acknowledged his condition and his need. He submitted himself to Christ and was OBEDIENT! My question for you is we all have certain things we try to keep in the Dark! What are you trying to keep hid in your life? You see Jesus sees it all you can't hide it from him. Instead of hiding it ask Jesus to take it away and watch him do another awesome and great work! Love you Guys! Jason

God's Dream

If you had to answer in a single word what God's dream for human beings is, what would you say? Consider the word community. Community is not a human invention. It is not a mere social phenomenon. Community is God's dearest creation. It is only within community that there is the possibility of knowing and being known, loving and being loved, serving and being served, celebrating and being celebrated. Because God is community-Father, Son, and Spirit in oneness of being-he creates community. It flows from who he is. When God created the first being, he astoundingly declared his creation to be "not good" because it was solitary; so he created a partner. God's supreme achievement was not the creation of solitary man but the creation of human community. However, because of sin, God's ideal of community often seemed to have been lost. Many times, it hung only by a thin thread of hope. If God were a quitter, it might have ended altogether. But over the rubble of failed human community stands the towering form of the cross. The very shape of the cross suggests the two main transactions that were affected through it. The upright post stands for the restoration of our community with God. God reached down from the holiness of his transcendence above, into the abyss of our human need in order to reconcile us to himself, through Christ. It reflects God's forgiving grace extended to receptive sinners. But the vertical trunk itself does not make a cross: it also requires a crossbar. The arms of Jesus were stretched on that horizontal beam, and his servant hands nailed to it. His extended arms reach out from the crossbar to all who want reconciliation with God in order that we may also be reconciled to one another, forming one body in his embrace of love. Perfect community is to be found at the intersection of the two segments of the cross, where those who are reconciled are reconciled together-where we love God with all we have and we love our neighbor as ourselves. It is where we learn to care and share, to challenge and support, to confide and confess, to forgive and be forgiven, to laugh and weep, to be accountable to each other, to watch over each other, to be servants together. It is the place of transformation. Community. It alone will survive from this world into the next. Then God's dream will be fulfilled when the church is eternally united as a bride to her husband in the Savior's embrace of redemptive love. So, will you be a part of building God's dream? Hey guys when I first read this by GILBERT BILEZIKIAN it rocked me to the core and it challenged me! So, I had to post this hoping and praying it would impact your lives and challenge you as believers. Our community needs Jesus and its up to us to reach out. Love You guys and Gals JASON

Update on Ministry

I want to hit you with a quick update! Ministry went well on Friday we reached out to over 80 people and many accepted Jesus into their lives! We give out food , bags of clothes, shoes, bibles, music, etc.. OK Now for today We had over 25 people on the bus and that's counting 6 new comers from the street! 2 of them accepted Jesus and signed up for Baptism so Praise be to Jesus our Lord! We are constantly seeing the numbers increase each week so Thank You to all our supporters we Love you and want you to know YOU MATTER, YOUR PRAYERS MATTER! We also seen over 35 kids ride the bus to youth group this past Wednesday THAT BLOWS ME AWAY! 5 newcomers and we poured Love all over them as well! Pray for us this week as we prepare to take Jesus Christ to the streets on Thursday! As always PRAISE AND GLORY TO JESUS AND HIS KINGDOM! A special Thank You to Tommy, Matt, Michael and all our other LEADERS you guys and gals make it happen week after week! Love you all Jason.

Values for Spiritual Formation

THE TEN CORE VALUES FOR SPIRITUAL FORMATION 1. Spiritual transformation...is essential, not optional, for Christ-followers. 2. It is a process, not an event. 3. It is God's work, but requires my participation. 4. It involves those practices, experiences, and relationships that help me live intimately with Christ and walk as he were in my place. 5. It is not a compartmentalized pursuit. God is not interested in my spiritual life; he's interested in my life-all of it. 6. It can happen in every moment. It is not restricted to certain times or practices. 7. It is not individualistic, but takes place in community and finds expression in serving others. 8. It is not impeded by a person's background, temperament, life situation, or season of life. It is available right now to all who desire it. 9. And the means of pursuing it, will vary from one individual to another. Fully devoted followers are handcrafted, not mass-produced. 10. It is ultimately gauged by an increased capacity to love God and people. Superficial or external checklists cannot measure it. WOW now that is good stuff. I have applied this teaching to my life and WOW at the result. John Ortberg taught this in a series about 9 years ago called "The life giving power of community. I hope you enjoyed this post. I felt I needed to share it with you guys and gals. I will be writing alot about community over the next few weeks. So check it out as I update and be open minded about what God might want you to learn. Love you all, Jason