"The difference between excellence and mediocrity is vision...period end of story.  If you want to be mediocre then don't have a vision." Dr. Jerry Falwell

"Vision is the art of seeing what is invisible to others." Jonathan Swift

Is there anything more disheartening than aimlessly living life, no purpose, no goals.  I am personally learning the importance of finding, having, owning, and living out God's vision for my own life.  As we search the Bible we find great men and women of God who found God's vision for their life, and it was ALWAYS out of reach of human abilities.  At some point the strength, resources, or personal abilities fell short and the person had to depend on God to fill in the void where they were deficient.  It is in this "place" where God works and where I want to live.

Why is important to find God's vision for your life?  Because God's vision for you is what He has created us for, and because it always takes faith to carry this vision out.  May every believer seek out, find, and live out God's vision for their life.  We are limited, not by our abilities, but by our desire to find His vision for us.

We are people that believe that telling a lie is wrong.  We want others to tell us the truth and we get really upset when they don't.  We are all about the truth and then there are times when we flat out lie.  All of a sudden lies are justified and the truth just doesn't seem to be so important.  It is in those moments that we truly determine whether the truth is really important.  The same is true about living by faith.

Living by faith requires one to find God's vision for their life.  Most of the time the vision will be something that we will have no idea how to obtain, but that is exactly what God wants us to realize.  We can't do it without Him.  It is great to read stories about other great men and women who have realized God's vision for their life, but it is time that we realize God's vision for us, and without faith it is impossible.  Let's stop living off the great stories of the past, and create new stories and see what God will do through us!

I just got back from Dr. Falwell's funeral and have had some time to reflect on his life, traits that defined his life that absolutely amaze me.

Dr. Falwell believed that there was nothing that he couldn't accomplish as long as God was in it.  Even his life verse Philippians 1:6, "Being confident of this very thing that he that began a good work in you will perform it until the day of Christ Jesus."  Every time I saw him on TV either CNN, FOX, etc. I always wanted to laugh when I would see New York, Washington DC, and then there was LYNCHBURG, VA.  "Can any good thing come out of Lynchburg?  Yet I believe that even the place is a testament of God at work.

Dr. Falwell believed in confronting the culture with the truth, the gospel of Jesus.  I liked the comment that Franklin Graham made at his funeral (paraphrase) He believed that Jesus Christ is the only way to heaven and an Almighty God. That’s controversial. He believed in the inerrancy of scripture. That’s controversial. He believed in the sanctity of life. That’s controversial. He believed in the establishment of the family, and who would have ever thought that would be controversial? He believed marriage should be between a man and a woman. That’s controversial.

Dr. Falwell was an inspiration to all who knew him.  I realize he was is one of those figures who you either loved or hated.  But to me he is one who stood for God's Word and for that I loved him.  He will be missed greatly.

When our faith in God meets His faithfulness not even the sky is the limit.  When we trust God with all of our "things" then he can turn them into resources that God build His Kingdom, but it all starts with "Your Kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is heaven."

 

As we look through the Bible and read about the lives of those who served God in a mighty way we see that they all had one attitude in common, they all realized that they were just managers of what God had given them.  Are you doing everything for the Kingdom of God based on what He has given to you?

The book of Acts is more than just a history of how the church began, but gives important insights in to how churches today can use the same principles to win our world to Christ.  Listen to find out more...

Is what the church believes important?  Is what you believe important?  The answer is absolutely, positively, YES.  In a world that claims that truth is relative and you can believe what you want, Jesus comes out and says, "I am the way, truth, and the life and no one comes to the Father, but by me."  Is truth important now?  Listen to hear more.

What does a Christian really look like?  Does he always wear a suit and tie and memorize a 100 verses a year, or is there something different.  See how Jesus defined what a good Christian is like in this week's message.

Are you trading eternity for a moment in time?  In the 3rd temptation Satan wanted Jesus to trade just a moment in time for the whole world, what would you do?  More important then just reaching His goal was to have an unbroken relationship with God.  In the end He got both; his relationship with God and the world.

 

Listen as we take a look at the 2nd Temptation that Satan tried to use to knock Jesus off course.  Does this happen to you?  In this episode we also look and see how the principles that Jesus used and how we can practically use them in our life to keep us from sin and to bring us closer to God.