“If we labor to be all things to all people, we will most likely be nothing to everyone”

Do you agree or disagree? Why?

2 Corinthians 12:7-8: …….So to keep me from becoming proud, I was given a thorn in my flesh, a messenger from Satan to torment me and keep me from becoming proud. 8 Three different times I begged the Lord to take it away. 9 Each time he said, “My grace is all you need. My power works best in weakness.” So now I am glad to boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ can work through me.

I have heard many people talking lately about how life is tough right now (myself included.) They just do not know what they are supposed to do or are confused about something. It is like life is a mystery that God is keeping from us. We pray for God to help us out of these situations we do not understand.

At C3, Bishop T.D. Jakes spoke to this. He said, “God rarely removes us from a situation, b/c He usually is not looking to change the situation. He is looking to change our perception of the situation.”

Here is the reality. There will always be questions along our journey.

There will always be mysteries in our lives we do not understand. Why? So those who are hungry for God will come and ask him.

Paul understood this concept. He understood that he will always live with a thorn in his flesh. It reminds him he needs God. It does not mean he is doing something wrong or even that God is mad at him. It is God giving Paul an opportunity to show God’s strength.

I wonder how much different our lives would be if we realized that we will always live with a thorn in our flesh? What if our perception of tough situations changed instead of praying for the situation to change? What if times of mystery were considered part of the Christian walk? a thorn in our flesh to remind us we need God.

As Christians, we have to change our perception of tough or mysterious times. Our perception of these times must change as an opportunity for God to be made strong instead of trying to pray our way out of it. When we try to escape these times, we are selling ourselves short of an opportunity. We must learn to live with the thorn and change our perception of it.

I told you there is so much from C3 that I wanted to share, warm fuzzies if you will, so I will attempt to put it into words. All the speakers were amazing, but three of them said some things that rocked my world, Ed Young, Craig Groeschel, and T.D. Jakes. Today’s post is my warm fuzzy with Craig Groeschel.

About a week before C3, my wife and I had been really talking about taking some steps back towards ministry. Honestly, we were scared. I work a job, that is not great, but it is money coming in. I expressed this struggle a little bit in this post.

So we went into C3 with this struggle on our hearts and minds. The second night of C3, Craig Groeschel talked about God giving you a hall pass. He said, ”

“If there is something you know God has told you to do….THEN DO IT! When God is telling you to GO and people are telling you no…whip out your HALL PASS!”

That shook my wife and I. We just looked at each other with tears streaming down our face. Then he pointed at the front row where Ed Young, Jentezen Franklin and all the amazing men and women of God were sitting and he said,

“I believe that just like these great men and women have gathered, the next generation of great Kingdom warriors are in this room!”

I about exploded when he said that! I think I actually raised my hand like an elementary kid does when he wants the teacher to pick him. That was a great experience that breathed some life into me. Pulled me out of my perception and put me back into seeing things through God’s perception!

Monday, I’ll talk about my warm fuzzy with Ed Young. It is not really a warm and fuzzy feel good, more like a challenge, but we will roll with it.

I’ve had this conversation before. It feels really good, and feels like God is trying to do something. But how many times have we talked like this, and didn’t do crap about it. It’s time to really be a Christian, and not the pansy type that are in it because childhood guilt gets the best of them. This is for real. There is no other way that is better than this. It is up to us to take his message and give it to the world, whatever that is. And be restless about it. Like we are about other things, but even more. Search, find, ask questions, change your life, and make the impact you’ve always talked about making. No more waiting till a good time. This is the best time, or if it isn’t, change something.

Wow! This is true passion. True passion like this demands a reaction. If this doesn’t make you cry or get you fired up, you are dead. If this type of passion keeps spreading, we inevitably are going to see some change in our society and see a generation touched by God.

This last Sunday they passed out $35,000 between both campuses to take and bless people. Man, that is the church, FO’ REAL. Watch this video that they showed on Sunday.

I once heard a statement that has always stuck with me.

“The church should not be asking people to give their money all the time. The church should be asking the people how we can give them money. When that happens, the church will not lack anymore.”

Three days ago Rick Warren proffered this question for me to mull over. What is the mature church? I knew immediately how I would respond: “The ‘mature church’ is the church filled with immaturity.”

Few things are more disturbing than a flock of adult believers standing around complaining that no one has come to Christ while refusing to do something that might result in new life. So when you bump into someone who acts immature at one of our services, don’t complain, and don’t be surprised. Instead, thank God the mature in Christ are busy delivering newborn babies to the family of God.

Ed Young spoke, and he is officially a genius of communication. Wow. The quote that really hit home with me was this, “When we get to heaven, God is not going to ask us why we were not more like someone else. He is going to ask us why we were not more like ourselves.”

He said that we are all creative geniuses, but we are all different. He said we should not try to be like someone else or even make someone else like us. You can tell he believes that too. His worship team is made up of some of the most eclectic, artsy people I have seen in a long time. They do not look like little Ed Youngs running around. I believe that is why his church is thriving too. He allows people to express who they are as long as it does not compromise God or the Bible.

Personally, I have been on both sides of this. I have tried to make people like me and leaders have tried to make me like them by changing who I am.

Anyone else have any thoughts or experiences with this?