Wanting to beat the Thanksgiving crowd we left Southern California late last night and arrived home this morning …2:30am to be exact! We had a great visit with family. Good food! Lots of laughs and good memories! As our families grow, each visit gets harder and harder to leave. After a visit with my brother and his family, we took off into the night to catch the 99. During the drive home you get some thinking time, and I kept coming back to the last words of my “good-bye” with Sandy, my brother’s mother-in-law…”Enjoy life.” Those words, so simple, yet hit me like a ton of bricks. Let me explain. Sandy and Lloyd are missionaries. Lloyd is a contractor at heart, and so he uses his gift by building churches and orphanages overseas. Sandy loves people! When you walk into her presence you sense the love of God flow out of her. She always looks for ways to serve the locals wherever she is at. This couple has traveled the world and impacted so many lives! Including mine! I had the opportuni...

I love this time of the year! Thanksgiving week kicks off the holiday season! So many memories and so much to be thankful for! The day my parents brought my brother home and I held him for the first time. Going to McDonald's with my grandfather as a little boy. Christmas day at grandma and grandpa's house. The day I gave me heart to Christ. My wedding day. The birth of my children. I could go. Each memory is like a stone of remembrance. In the Old Testament it was common for people to put up a "stone of remembrance" that shared an event that took place on the site. We do the same today, they are called historical markers. About a month ago I was traveling to a soccer match in the foothills and came to a single road out in nowhere! It was a small town with about five or six homes. It was odd to me. Where did this little town, no bigger than a football field come from? As we drove through I passed a landmark! I had to stop and read it, I was really curious. Come to find...

con•fi•dence: full trust; belief in the powers, trustworthiness, or reliability of a person or thing I love to see the underdog rise to the top. I think we all do! Gideon was an underdog. In the first week we see the fear and his belief in the lack of ability, drive him to God. We see Gideon test God by making sure that it was God and not him thinking these farfetched ideas. As we see Gideon receive his answers, we begin to see a different Gideon. A Gideon, who is filled with confidence. A Gideon, that is not full of fear, but full of belief that God will do what he said He would do! The “mighty warrior” that was proclaimed back in Judges 6:12, starts to come to pass. Confidence #1: “Belief in the power of God” “Watch me,” he told them. “Follow my lead. When I get to the edge of the camp, do exactly as I do. When I and all who are with me blow our trumpets, then from all around the camp blow yours and shout, ‘For the LORD and for Gideon.’” Judges 7:17 “Watch me!” “Follow my lea...

It was early in the morning and I could not sleep. The weight of being the provider of the home was weighing me down. My job at the time was barley meeting the needs of my family. I was given a cut in pay and “politics” was beginning to dictate my future. Something needed to change. As I lay in bed, my mind was going a hundred miles per hour. How was I going to supply the needs for my family? How was I going to fulfill that call if I could not even take care of my family? Oh, I was frustrated and hurting. At that moment I was done with ministry! I needed a better job. Then in the moment of the silence I began to shoot the breeze with God. I remember telling God, “Lord I know you have called me. I know that you are a God who provides. Yet I am done! I am done with ministry! I have listened and I have acted, yet my family still struggles”. Then I threw my fleece out to God. “For years I have followed your direction. Yet tonight I am done with ministry, unless You provide a new way to mee...

Some are loud. Others are quiet. Where one may be bashful, another may be comfortable in front of others. Whatever the moment or time, men and women rise to be great leaders, sometimes without even knowing that the calling of a leader rest in them. Some hide their leadership and some can’t wait to lead. I believe that each generation awaits a leader to lead the call towards greatness. In our culture few leaders have risen and many have fallen. I will admit, in whatever profession it’s hard to be a leader these days. I believe it is because what has been seen as right is seen as wrong. And what has been seen as wrong has now been accepted as right. That can cause a leader to hide and hold back. If there is a time for leaders to rise it is now! We will take a look at Gideon’s fears, testing, and confidence in these next few weeks. Let’s begin our study on Gideon. Introduction. Scripture tell us that the people had turned away from the Lord. If we look back a few chapters we can see ...

“The rich and poor have this in common; The Lord is the maker of them all." Proverbs 22:2 Whether you believe that the clouds opened up and God sent MAC, or believe that MAC is a future conspiracy of the anti-christ…you must admit the success of one who changed the landscape of technology of our time. This past week, as you may know, Steven Jobs, founder of Apple, passed away. After hearing his passing, a sense of sadness came over me. I’ve never known Steve. Never met him. Yet for me and my generation, this was the Thomas Edison of our time. His impact was epic! I remember working on a computer in college with the DOS program. Remember that? The black screen and green lettering! Man we thought we were in heaven! Then I remember working on the first Macintosh! I was blown away! Publishing became easier and you knew that a new era had just begun! A computer was no more for the government or large corporation, ordinary people could have access to technology. The internet comes al...