Sometimes I have a case of dyslexia, but I really do mean the “storm before the calm.”  I have noticed that when you are about to do something great for God, try to push forward God’s agenda, help someone for His sake, there is a storm waiting for you.  

The last couple of weeks, it seems like the people in our church have been “beatin up” by all kinds of situations…As a church we are trying to reach out to those around us, and it is evident to me, that there is an opposing force, a spiritual enemy, trying to oppose this from happening.  

I have been praying like crazy for the last couple of weeks.  In fact, its like God won’t let me stop (which is a great thing)…I need all of us to pray together that this opening on Sep. 7, will be huge for Christ!  That we will come together and love God by loving people!  

Kevin

Marriage can be awesome and marriage can be gruesome if let go….There are many tools that make a marriage great–communication (I think this one is huge), humility, trust, encouragement, and love.  One, that I have not heard in used in terms of marriage is in the book “Good to Great.”  Jim Collins says,” Confront the brutal facts. When…you start with an honest and diligent effort to determine the truth of the situation, the right decisions often become self evident…”  

That is amazing marital advice!  What is the situation at hand?  What do I need to do to help the situation?  Often times spouses just don’t want to face the problems.

In marriage, the situation is usually getting worse or getting better, there is no holding pattern in relationships.  Take the right steps today to better your marriage today (or ask for help)!

Every second of every day people are thinking…Thinking about work, relationships, problems, and opportunities.  Though, how often, do we strategize what we think about. Most of us just go about our day and take life and the day as it comes. 

What if you strategized about what you were going to think about today?  Remember that your thoughts direct your actions–change your thoughts, change your actions!

We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ. 2 Cor 10:5

Some people believe that religion is all about following the rules.  Don’t do this–don’t do that–can’t do this–can’t do that.  You can do anything you want, but God shows us that if you do certain things it will bring you certain consequences.

When we step out of God’s line, we are putting our fate in our own hands, yet, when we follow God, we give Him control of our lives and with Him the possibilities are endless!

So, if you have a plan (10-20-70), have a savings account, now it is time to deal with your discretionary or extra income. Here are some more steps:

1.  Start saving in a 401k plan (if your employer has one) sometimes they will match your contributions (meaning if you put in 200 they will put in 200 up to a certain percentage). A 401K plan is a savings plan that is tax deferred until the time that you take the money out.

2. Getting a financial advisor and investing in good mutual funds.  Index funds (mutual funds that follow a financial market) are usually more stable.  It is best to get a financial advisor for these types of decisions. When you talk to them make sure that you set up a Roth IRA, this will allow you to invest and at age 59.5 can withdrawal your money tax free.

3. Home ownership is another great way to set yourself up financially.  When you purchase a home, you will be paying off the mortgage, can deduct the interest of the payment on our taxes, and you will have an investment that will increase value over time (right now it might be another 7 or 8 years).   

Once you write down where your money is going to, you need to set up a plan…We talked about the 10-20-70 plan (some may do the 10-10-80 plan) What is that?  Tithe, savings, and living.  We are talking about the tithe this weekend, but what I have noticed is that most do not have a savings account for emergencies.  On average you should have at least 3 to 4 months salary in your savings account.  

What usually happens is that an emergency arises and there isn’t enough money in the bank account, so where do people go…Plastic!  Yup, they swipe the credit card until there is no more room for it to be swiped.  So…that all being said, begin to pay off your debt, and then start your savings account. 

We are in the series “the price is right”:talking about how to manage our money.  Someone taught me a long time ago, that our indecision is a decision.  This applies perfectly to money management.  Every day that goes by and we don’t look at our finances, or we don’t make a plan with our monies, we are making a decision to not get on track financially.  

The first step is to budget out your finances, most people find where the extra money is going when they simply put pencil to paper with their money.  Don’t delay!  Today write out where every dollar goes and you may see where the money is being wiped out from your pockets.  

Money can’t bring you happiness, but a lack of money can bring you problems!~

There is one key to a smokin’ hot marriage and that is…….(building suspense)–communication.  It is everything!  It is the lifeline between the good days, bad days, ok days, on days, and off days.  Communication is what makes relationships.

You ever notice what happens when things go awry, expectations aren’t met, trust is lost, deception is conjured, feelings are hurt–communication stops.  Someone just doesn’t want to talk about it (if you are trying to get a hold of your emotions then an elapsed time is sometimes healthy.)  Yet, most of the time people just want to throw out the situation, or act as it never happened.  The most healthy thing to do is to understand why that person took their course of action and to let them know your reasons.  AND that all happens thru communication!

We are about to change the front of the website at www.imaginefellowship.org….but in order to do that–we need you!  I am really passionate about letting others know that WE are the church, and because of that we have decided to have it interactive.  Where anyone can upload their pic on the front of the website (there will be censorship It is going to look amazing!  Make sure to send the pics to kevin@imaginefellowship.org and the bigger the better, (minimum 3 by 3 inches), we can always scale them down…..Thanks and can’t wait to see the pictures!!!!

P.s. Dont worry the pic will only be a thumbnail (very small)

I was reading Seth Godin’s blog the other day and he said in the blog that he doesn’t go to meetings.  I didn’t get it.  I thought, “How do you not go to meetings?”  I wanted to ask him to elaborate on that comment, but I thought there would be no way to reach him–he is probably unreachable.  I asked my friend Nan (Chief Inspiration Officer at Sales by 5, and by the way, they are a cutting edge marketing/sales team, www.salesby5.com) what he thought Seth meant by his comment.  He said, “I don’t know….Let’s ask him!”  Nan emailed him, and very shortly this was his response.

“I don’t schedule them

people think I’m rude, cause I do a two minute email instead

I go to a meeting a week, TOPS”

I couldn’t believe that he responded. (very cool that he responded, pretty smart too, he probably saves a ton of time, resulting in productivity increasing).  Nan did not think he was unreachable and because of it got a response. 

I write all of this because I think some of us have the same perception of God.  We think that God is unreachable, so we live the independent life.  When God says,”I’m here….Right here…Can speak to me anytime!…Still here….Hello?….I’ll be waiting for you.”  

God asks us to live an independently dependent life with Him.  What does that mean?  That means “we”, each one of us (the independently), are to live solely thru Him (the dependent part) and supported by the relationships around us.  

God is open source, you have direct access….so what do you need to talk about with Him?