April 16, 2008
Due to political and social unrest in Haiti (and the fact that they only have rodents to eat right now), my trip has been postponed. We will go in a few weeks or months.
Since I was going to be working during my daughters spring-break, I booked a vacation at Disney for my wife, Kay and youngest daughter, Courtney. For those who know my wife, know that she is addicted to Disney. It is a thrill for me to see her and Courtney enjoying themselves so much. Of course, it’s not hard for me. I have been playing golf for three days.
Disney’s culture is amazing. I learned a lot about it while I lived here and planted Celebrate Family Church in Celebration. It is remarkable how two opposing influences clash, on the one hand, you have the extreme liberal lifestyles, on the other hand, you have a Christian culture at Disney. Both of the influences are slightly stealth, just under the surface. This campus is a microcosm of the world itself. Every diversity on earth co-mingles here. I said five years ago that living and working here was like seeing a forecast of what we will be facing nationally in just a few years. We are now seeing it. Business as usual is no longer relevant.
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April 19, 2008
From one man he made every nation of men, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he determined the times set for them and the exact places where they should live. Acts 17:26
Yesterday, Kay, Courtney, and I were driving in Orlando when we saw a sticker on the back of a car. The sticker was a “Celebrate” logo of our second church plant. We recalled the day and the place where I decided on that name. I remember Tom Yandell of Peppermedia designing the perfect logo that coordinated with the Disney theme.
Then our conversation went on to how life “moves” you. How decisions correspond with destiny. How our lives impacted the people in that car - people we have never met before. How the steps of the righteous are ordered by the Lord (Proverbs 20:24).
Where are you now? Are you in “step” with God’s plan for your life? Can you recall the decisions that brought you to this place?
Things to remember:
1. Your world is only as big as the trails that you are willing to travel.
2. Place is important - positioning determines the flow of favor in your life.
3. A place can enlarge you.
4. A place is an assignment to people. Elijah bypassed widows to go to a place where a widow was open to receive prophesy. Jesus recognized this fact.
5. You cannot be fully engaged in your present place while you constantly recall where you have been.
6. You will not go further than your willingness to leave a place. Terah, Abraham’s father, was unwilling to leave Haran to experienced the Promised Land. God had to call out to his son, “Leave your father, go to the place that I will show you.”
7. Nostalgia is an obsession for an unattainable past.
8. God has a prepared new place for you.
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