ContemplativeJourney

Today was the final Sunday of our sermon series "Good to Great" at Elevate Church in Murphy, Texas.  Thank you again to Pastor Kalyn Brassfield for continuing to share the Word with us so faithfully, and in ways we can so readily apply to our lives.  This morning we talked about the 4th element of living a life that is 'great' in the eyes of God.  It's important to understand the distinction - we are not worried about living lives that are great in the eyes of men, but only in the eyes of God.    As a very quick review, we live lives that are great in the eyes of God by:   1. Praying great prayers - authentic prayers, trusting prayers, prayers that come directly from our heart and trust God's goodness and His faithfulness to answer our prayers. 2. Choosing great attitudes - we choose every moment of every day whether or not we will have a great attitude or a bad attitude.  Our attitude is never the result of an outside force, but is always...

I was inspired this morning by my pastor's sermon at Elevate Church in Murphy, Texas.  If you live anywhere in our area, I hope you'll come visit with us some Sunday. It is an amazingly group of believers, and I know you'll be encouraged! Last week I blogged about setting goals, and our sermon today was part of a series to begin 2016. The series is entitled "Good to Great," and has been outlining the ways in which our lives can move from good to great in this new year. We began 2 weeks ago with the most important first step - our lives and our experience will go from good to great when we pray great prayers.  Not fancy prayers or complicated prayers. Great prayers are authentic prayers, prayers from our heart...prayers that come to God with trust and confidence that He can and will answer. Last Sunday we talked about our ability to choose a great attitude. We are to have the attitude of Jesus Himself, which Paul described in his letter to the Philippian...

Contemplating goals for 2016.  It seems true that some portion of the population is goal oriented, and another portion doesn't put much stock in thinking about or writing down their goals...personally, I've always loved to write down my goals.  Big goals, little goals...work goals and personal goals. I love to write them down, and then to check them off when they're completed. Studies show that less than 10% of college graduates write down their goals.  Less than 10%!!  When I first heard this statistic, I was stunned.  Even more compelling is the dramatic difference in the financial well-being of those who write down their goals and those who don't!  If you want to know just ONE THING you can do to insure a healthy financial future, it is this: WRITE DOWN YOUR GOALS Too simple?  It might seem like it, especially if writing down goals has never been part of your personal routine. However skeptical you might be, there i...