Bill Walsh

Bill Walsh died at his Woodside home Monday morning following a long battle with leukemia. He was 75.

Steve Young a former player of Walsh said, "He knew me well before I knew myself and knew what I could accomplish well before I knew that I could accomplish it,"

Bill Walsh, I believe, saw people the same way our heavenly Father sees people.

Many times we see our lives as a failure and we are constantly looking at the fumbles we make. Bill Walsh took over the S.F. 49ers in 1979 and they won two games (they lost 14 - focused on the positive there).

Walsh doubted his abilities to turn around such a miserable situation -- but earlier in 1979, the 49ers drafted quarterback Joe Montana from Notre Dame.

Walsh turned over the starting job to Montana in 1980, when the 49ers improved to 6-10 -- and improbably, San Francisco won its first championship in 1981, just two years after winning two games.

Jerry Rice, the NFL's all time reception leader, was drafted by Bill Walsh's 49ers...and he said "I came to San Francisco, and I found another father, Bill Walsh," Rice said. "He was always there for me, when I was dropping balls, doing everything, when the media were trying to crucify him, 'Why did you go draft this small college player out of Mississippi Valley State?' He hung in there with me."

Let me encourage you today to remember that no matter what life has throw at you there is a heavenly Father who will always hang in there with you.

Defeat

Last night the C1 softball team lost it's first playoff game. We are the #6 seed and we were playing the #1 seed. The game went to extra innings and we lost by one. Ouch! Losses are never fun but it brings up a great lesson.

How do you handle defeat?

Defeat is defined as to prevent success or to cause frustration.

Many times the #1 cause of defeat is...drum-roll...ME. Too many times I prevent my success by a poor choice or a dumb decision. Too many times I cause myself to be frustrated by forgetting that I am not perfect.

I read once that over 90% of our thought life is negative. 90%.

That means that a majority of us are driving to work, spending time with our families, trying to go to sleep and the whole time thinking negative thoughts.

It's no wonder we feel defeated.

I read this verse (again) this past week: Psalm 3:3 God is the glory and the lifter of your head.

God wants us to live with our head lifted toward him not down in a defeated mindset.

God is a God of second chances and so is our softball league. You see our team is not out of it b/c the playoffs are double elimination. Thank God for double elimination.

Today allow the spirit of God to remind you that although you may have been defeated in an area of your life it doesn't mean you're out of it.

Belize

Yesterday @ C1 we had our missionaries to Belize speak. It was such a special service (1) because I have such a heart for missionaries and (2) the missionaries to Belize are my sister and her husband Ellis.

They did such an amazing job!

We took a special offering for them as they are raising money to purchase a Jeep and C1 stepped up BIG time! My sister and I set a goal of we wanted to see the church give and what she would happy with. Well the offering was 3X our goal - Wow!

For anyone who says God doesn't do miracles today, I'd respond with Uh Huh...

Thank you to everyone who invested in my sister and her husband! They (including me) were incredibly humbled by your generosity.

I believe our giving yesterday demonstrates the giving power of C1...

II Cor. 8:2 , “In the middle of their great trouble, they stayed full of joy and they gave generously to others.”

Thank You!

For the birds...

Today's talk is definately for the birds...that's such a crazy saying...anyway...

This morning I was looking out of our living room window and a hummingbird was flying around taking in the beauty of my hanging baskets. I sat and watched him (or her) for a while remembered something I read about hummingbirds.

They look for beautiful, sweet smelling things - like flowers. That in a hummingbirds little mind it's goal each day is to find something beautiful and sweet to spend it's time on.

Contrast that with another bird: a vulutre. It's main goal each day is to find something that's dead & decaying and spend it's time with it. If you've ever seen a vulture eating something dead and decaying you normally look away and make some wierd noise with your mouth.

In your life what's your main goal?

Are you looking for the sweet smellling, beautiful things or are you always looking for the dead & decaying things? To put it another way: are you looking for the positive things in life or are you always looking to find the negative in each situation?

Pauls tells us in Phil. 4 what we are to look for and think about each day...Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.

So today if I were to describe you as a bird - would you be a hummingbird or a vulture?

Sorry those are your only two choices!

Make it a great day my little hummingbirds...

Kaizen

A constant question I ask myself - How am I growing spiritually?

Game across a great growth story and thought I'd share it...

Growth is achieved by intentionally upgrading your attitude, skills, faith, etc.

After WWII, Japan had been devastated so 14 success points were taught by Professor W. Edwards Deming of the United States to help the Japanese rebuild.

Point number five was “to constantly improve every process.”

The Japanese incorporated and imbedded this philosophy into their culture which they called “kaizen.” Kaizen roughly translates as “constant improvement.”

Japan was told that if they did this (constantly improve), they would turn their country around in 10 years and be an economic world leader in 30 years. Obviously, they were right. Japanese cars, computers and other electronics are some of the best today and tiny Japan is a world economic leader.

So what about us? Are we constantly upgrading our lives for Jesus? Perhaps we should ask other people how we can improve or ask somebody what we are doing wrong.

Perhaps we could just take a season to upgrade something about ourselves like social skills, etc.

If we can improve just 1% per day, that would be over 300% in a year! Upgrading should not be left to chance because if you do, it will not happen. You should intentionally upgrade everyday.

This week @ C1 we are reading the book of Philippians every day to upgrade our lives in the area of joy!

Any areas your life need an upgrade?

Become what you believe

I think a lot times life comes down to God asking us a very simple question: do you believe?

God wants to do some great things through us but too often our unbelief cancels His belief in us.

Check this story out:

Jesus said in the gospels to a group of blind men, "Do you really believe I can do this?" They said, "Why, yes, Master!" He touched their eyes and said, "Become what you believe." It happened. They saw.

I think if Jesus were to look at today's church he would ask the same question and make the same statement.

Do you believe? Then 'become what you believe.'

How about you?

What does God need you to believe He can do?

my dna

My personal DNA

Saw this link on a pastor's website: www.personaldna.com filled out the DNA and drum roll...(you're not doing it...) OK...thanks...here's my personal DNA

I'm a director...and here's what the report says about me...

As a DIRECTOR, you combine an unusual openness and passion for beauty and style with confidence and a down-to-earth sensibility that allow you to realize your vision.

You are practical and pay attention to the details that others tend to miss.

By focusing on what is real and concrete, you achieve more than those who always have their heads in the clouds.

When it comes to what really matters in your life, you are confident in your ability to succeed.

Having beautiful things in your life gives you pleasure and satisfaction - you have a keen eye for style.

Even when problems present themselves, deep down you know you will overcome these challenges.

When routines get too familiar, you become bored and start looking for ways to spice things up.

You are open to new types of experiences – you are not afraid to take a risk on something new.

You have a highly developed sense of taste – you know what looks good on you, in your home, and in the world at large.

You are balanced in your approach to problem-solving, not letting your emotions hold you up.

You much prefer to have time to plan for things, feeling better with a schedule than with keeping plans up in the air until the last minute. Your decisions are well thought out, and you're not the least bit impulsive.

If you get five minutes go the site...check out your personal DNA and shoot me back your report!

Make it a great day!

attitude

I had to post some notes from Sunday! We started our new series...

'attitude' - is your's positive?

Our key scripture - Proverbs 23:7 “For as a man thinks, as he thinks within himself, so he is.”

You will become that which you think and as we go through this study we made (and hopefully you will too) three promises:

I will not hang out with negative people.
I will not dwell on negative thoughts.
I will replace negative thoughts with God’s thoughts.

Our Key Point:
Our attitude influnece others awareness.

As we model the behavior God wants to see repeated it's often our attitude that is on display the most.

How is your attitude? Is is positive?

We ended our service by repeating this verse:

Psalm 118 “This is the day…that the Lord has made…I will rejoice…and be glad in it”

It's a verse I've repeated every day this month and have committed to living? How about you? Are thankful for this day?

Your attitude will reflect your thankfulness!

Friday's are my day off - I really love days off. We spent the day outside riding bikes, throwing the football, relaxing on the deck, enjoying the slip-n-slide and a friendly little bowling competition (the boys won!)

Spending an entire day relaxing is so biblical yet I've noticed that very few Christians practice this. The bible says that God spent six days creating and one day resting. That's the process for a healthly and sucessful life.

Why is so difficult to stop and relax? Too often we feel like we have to get something done or we feel guilty for doing nothing.

Let me encourage you to look at your life and see when the last time you had an entire day off

If it's been awhile this week is a great week to start!

anyone can...

The Warren5 recently went to the movies to see the new movie 'ratatouille.' What a great movie! The big point of the movie: Anyone can cook. Now once you get past the fact that it's a rat adding the spices, stirring the pot and doing the actual cooking it was pretty good.

Anyone can cook.
Anyone can serve.

Anyone can give.

Anyone can love.

Anyone can forgive.

Anyone can invite.

As a pastor I often hear reasons why it can't be done but I honesty believe that we were created to get things done for God.

My church was recently broken into and I've got to admit, the brains behind the operation were pretty good. These guys knew what they were doing. Someone shared with me last week that if these guys would use their minds for good and not for evil they would be an asset to our community.

I often think the same thing - if every follower of Christ would just ask God (or others) for help in accomplishing His purpose we would see a world wanting to follow the church.

Too often we go negative, I can't, so quick that we convince ourselves we're unable to do whatever it is that God wants us to do.

I've made the month of July NO NEGATIVITY month. We're going to take ONE MONTH and choose to not go negative (more on that in tomorrow's blog).

But for today...what's one thing that you've told yourself you can't but really 'anyone can...(fill in your own blank) because I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me (Phil. 4:13)

ONE MORE THING: We now have a pretty sweet security system installed at C1!

Don't throw in the towel

Great comments from a long distance mentor of mine:

Mark Batterson said...

Here is what the enemy wants you to believe: if you slip up once you might as well throw in the towel. It's a lie. I think we let small failures turn into big failures because we get so discouraged. What we need to do is a little damage control via confession. Ok, I messed up. But I'm still doing better than I was. And I'm not going to let this failure keep me down. And then we need to bury the sin again! Instead of viewing the slip up as your defeat, defeat the enemy again via repentance!

Amen!