Marc’s Musings

Have you checked out my Magnet Goals Program yet?

This simple process really works! I keep my Magnet Goals in front of me all the time but I decided to review my 100 goals last night. So many of them are coming to pass! What a rush it is to see things you wrote down six months ago are actually being accomplished!

If you don’t have a clue what I’m talking about, you can sign up for the free “Magnet Goals Program” by sending a blank email to magnetgoals@fundraisingcoach.com.

Happy goal setting…and accomplishing!

I’m really enjoying Bill Johnson’s When Heaven Invades Earth!

Here’s another tidbit: Bill says it’s nice when theologians and Christian leaders support a revival. But to see if it’s really of God, he looks to how the demonized respond.

Think about it. The Pharisees loved God. They were passionate about their seeking and living. And they (almost) completely missed God’s move in the coming of Jesus. But the demonized got it. Those desperate for a touch of God got it. And got in the way of what He was doing. The sick sought His healing. The demonized were set free. The demons even knew who Jesus was and proclaimed it!

God help us from ever arriving. May we always keep a posture of desperation in our relationship to God.

A friend of mine lent me a copy of When Heaven Invades Earth: A Practical Guide to a Life of Miracles by Bill Johnson. What an amazing book! Bill’s passion for Jesus is so real that it becomes normal. May it be that way for all of us!

One of the key thoughts he keeps repeating is that so little of the Church currently experiences God’s power because we’re playing it way to safe. When we settle into rituals and routines, as good as those can be, we create a way of life that can succeed with or without God.

I want to always be living in a way that requires God to be successful! Not that I’ll be cocky or a fool, but that I’d always be willing to look like one in obedience to Him.

Did I mention I was included in Seth Godin’s BullMarket 2004 as one of only 400 companies in the country that can significantly help your company excel? (I probably did, this is an incredible honor!)

BullMarket 2004
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Having an understanding of “this present evil age and the age to come makes Jesus’ words “be in the world but not of it” make so much more sense. [Help! I wasn't able to find a scripture reference for this! Could you let me know if Jesus even said it? *grin*]

We can be in “the world”–in this present evil age–but not of it because our citizenship is now of the age to come. We’re walking examples of what God will do in the future. Like the mustard seed and the yeast, God’s Kingdom is unseen but is at work in the world, working through the entire “loaf.” We’re the carriers of the Kingdom. We’re the ones “infected with life”!

Let’s get as many people infected as we can while we’re here!! *grin*

I’ve been continuing to work through Morphew’s “Breakthrough.” He shows that 1 Kings 4:20-34 became synonomous with the blessings of the Kingdom. When you wanted to see what life in the Kingdom was like, look to this passage.

Check out verses 20 and 29. The people were as numerous as the sands on the seashore; so was the insight and wisdom God gave Solomon! “…as measureless as the sand on the seashore.”

I love the Hebrew mind. The Kingdom wasn’t just some spiritual, by-and-by, thing. The Kingdom involves knowing all about science and wisdom and writing beautiful poetry! This is so cool!

(Did I mention that there’s LOTS of food in the Kingdom? Check out the list of things that made up the daily feast (vv. 22-25)

Breakthrough: Discovering the Kingdom
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Have I told you how much I just love Breakthrough: Discovering the Kingdom by Derek Morphew?

Our kinship is reading it this summer as a way to stay together even when we’re apart. Morphew is one of the most understandable theologians I’ve ever met.

I’m trying to locate some of his audio recordings. If I find them, I’ll make it known on this blog.

This is an incredible teaching about how God uses even pagan poets in Scripture to affirm truth and proving Himself! I love this!

I love reading other religions texts to ferret out truth. God made the whole world. Humanity is still reeling from the effects of Genesis 3. It’s so exciting to read the Tao Te Ching or Islamic writing and see glimpses of truth. Our God is Truth. Wow.

Check it out at: Mastering the Art of Living Part 10: All Things Are Yours by Rob Bell

Last month, my pastor and I spent 5 weeks reaching on the Kingdom of God using George Ladd’s “Gospel of the Kingdom” for our text. It took me two times through the book to start liking it but I highly recommend persevering.

I LOVE LIVING A KINGDOM FOCUSED-LIFE! It explains so much of the bad things that happen along with the good. I’ll probably blog on this alot in the coming weeks.

One thought that continues to rock my world is this: Jesus didn’t live His life looking for the need or the needy. He didn’t look for the sick or the despairing. That stuff existed simply because we live in “this present evil age.” They are par for the course.

Instead, Jesus focused on seeking the Father’s breaktroughs. Where was the Kingdom coming today? Where was it breaking in?

Consider John 5:19: “Jesus gave them this answer: ‘I tell you the truth, the Son can do nothing by himself; he can do only what he sees his Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does.’”

Isn’t this exciting!? God’s been pursuing us since Genesis 3:15. And we get to play with Him!

What a wonderful adventure each day can be. Father, where are you breaking in today?

I just LOVE this site. The sermons by Rob Bell are so “real” I find myself remembering them (and acting on them) as I go through my week!

Check it out at: Mars Hill - a Jesus Community