I have always found the arrival of Veteran’s Day to be a wonderful prelude to Thanksgiving Day. Both of their very reasons for celebrating are at the very height of worthiness. Certainly in America there is no better reason to be thankful than its freedom, it’s opportunity to excel and reach our highest potential. However, Thanksgiving Day not only celebrates our history but...

All of this leads us to a personal choice …or gamble if you choose to call it. However, this gamble is one that you are betting your life upon!

I have been asked many times how to reach someone when we desire to share about God. The common term for this is “witnessing” and that word seems to freak people out quicker than any track qualifying record! Here it's 18.7 seconds and it doesn't take near that long for people to start getting nervous and fear come out in beads of sweat. Loss of words or stumbling over themselves follows and what was just in your Biblical knowledge has drifted to something akin to a wreck coming to the flag out of turn four. What are we suppose to tell them about God, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit? How do we explain something that we ourselves do not understand? And how foolish am I going to look? Omigosh! Let me let you in on a simple secret that eliminates lots of this.

I have been asked many times how to reach someone when we desire to share about God. The common term for this is “witnessing” and that word seems to freak people out quicker than the Montana Raceway Park track qualifying record! Immediately, people start getting nervous and fear comes out in beads of sweat. Loss of words or stumbling over themselves follows and what was just in your Biblical knowledge has drifted to something akin to a wreck coming to the flag out of turn four. What are we suppose to tell them about God, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit? How do we explain something that we ourselves do not understand? And how foolish am I going to look? Omigosh! Let me let you in on a simple secret that eliminates lots of this.

Influence is an interesting thing. So often we have no idea just how much influence we have no matter how insignificant we may think ourselves to be in the world, nation, state, city, or town we are part of. Let’s look at an individual who set a great example for all of us. Interestingly his name means “Jehovah consoles” or “The Lord God consoles.”

In the third part of the “Impact Series” let’s move to the personal impact area and look at our own lives. We could talk about any number of areas but I want to look at three specifically that have the tendency to do great damage to us.

Take a moment in your own life and think back about who touched your life.

As I have said before …I have seen our youth rock the world both here in America and abroad many times over. Watching them excites me! My question to us today is …”Why not us?”

Reach out and take in the extravagant dimensions of Christ’s love. Experience the breadth! Test its length! Plumb the depths! Rise to the heights! Live full lives, full in the fullness of God. God can do anything, you know—far more than you could ever imagine or guess or request in your wildest dreams! He does it not by pushing us around but by working within us, his Spirit deeply and gently within us. The very REVELATION of all of this last year's teaching , especially with how He somehow wraps and entwines our entire lives with those around us, or about to be around us, ought to fire our IMAGINATION.