Join the 30 day Negativity Fast

Starting Tuesday, December 1st we are asking everybody to fast from negative words for 30 days. This is a campaign that will change your life. The tongue possesses power according to Proverbs 18:21 "Death and life are in the power of the tongue..." It is your choice rather you use your tongue to build up or tear down..speak life or speak death..encourage or discourage..utter doubt or utter faith.

Fifteen reasons to join us and fast from negative words:

1. People are spending too much of their life focusing on self criticism, critisizing others, and being pessemistic.
2. Too many people are living below the level God has designed for them because they are confessing, meditating, and thinking about negative things.
3. Your relationships with God, spouse, children, coworkers, family, friends, and generally everyone you come in contact with will get better. Your worklife, home life, and church life will all improve.
4. People around you will begin to eat the fruit of life from your lips and flourish more because of your positive encouragement.
5. You will be taking the axe to the root of negative words and uprooting them so that they can be replaced with postive, faith filled words that are based on the true promises of God.
6. It will force you to think of better ways to communicate your desires.
7. It will help you to stop believing lies about your self and become the person God made you to be.
8. It will aid you in changing your perspective on even problematic situations.
9. It doesn't ignore problems but helps you deal with them in the right way.
10. You will train your self to be solution focuses rather than problem focused
11. Guarding your speech means you are gaurding your heart, which means you are changing your beliefs, which means the core of who you are is being afforded the opportunity to be transformed.
12. Things that used to be fearful obstacles will turn into opportunities as you anchor your heart and confessions in God's word that will give you courage and strength to overcome.
13. You will become "other-minded" versus "self-centered".
14. It will ignite your faith in God, service toward man, and love for all.
15. You will be certain despite circumstances that God is faithful and you won't allow situations to easily alter your moods and attitudes.

Will you join us? If so comment on my blog or facebook, or twitter (use the hash tag #negativity fast). If you are a blogger please write during the month of December on the subject send me the link or tweet the link with the hastag #negativityfast.

LET's DO THIS!!

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Ten Things I am Thankful for

Randomly things I am thankful for.
1) For God always being the rock in my life. Keeping me with a sound mind. Leading and guiding me through tough decisions. For displaying his Glory and grace to a person that doesn't deserve it. By the grace of God I am what I am!
2) For a gorgeous wife that creates a serene home life for our family and is my number one fan.
3) For six children that are growing in love for God and each other
4) For a church family that I can truly call friends.
5) For my relatives on both sides of the family that have mass love and support.
6) For getting three of our parents through major health issues this year. Also for bringing my parents to live withing 7 minutes of us and making my brother my new next door neighbor!
7) For opening doors for our church to meet in another churches facilities
8) For providing financially for my family in a slow engineering year
9) For our marriage ministry and Homeschool Coop family which help create a flourishing environment to raise my family.
10)For all of my old and new friends that I have been united with through social networking.

"In everything give thanks for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus Concerning you." I Thes. 5:18

Coaching-A Tool for Teaching Character

Nothing pulls the character out of a person more than playing competitive sports. I have seen the most calm, cool, and collected person turn into a wild, flagrant, tyrant on the basketball court. For training young boys to be Godly men, a round orange ball, or an oval brown ball, or a little white ball can be used as tools to chisel out and refine young people with discipline and Godly Character. I love to have the team near muscle exhaustion, huffing and puffing then tell them the true story of Christ and his perseverance. There was one instance where a young boy just lost his temper and hit another player. I was glad it happened. It was my opportunity at that moment to share about the dangers of uncontrolled anger and how Jesus was the man's man when it came to temperance (self control). Coaching is full of opportunities to teach life lessons to the team and give them biblical applications.

I encourage parents to not try and get their child on the "best" team when they are young. Get them under a coach that will reinforce your Godly values and teach sound fundamentals. Skill and ability will develop over the years with consistent practice. Likewise, Character is also developed over the same years. If you choose a coach that is all about the sport and not your child's character, you could have a coach that is undoing all that you are trying to instill. One time we had our sons in a flag football league where the coaches and the referees were coming to blows in the middle of the game in front of the youth. In another instance a coach used cursing and intimidation to make his point. He really belittled the boys to their face all the time. That wild, yelling, cursing, coach model may work for older players (even though I don't endorse it), but not in the formative years of a child's life say 13 and under.

What is my point...I love coaching. Never thought I would be the one with the whistle in my mouth shouting "on the line!". When you follow your children's interest you begin to open up all types of new chapters in your life. I coached basketball at the YMCA for two years and now I am coaching for the Oklahoma City Storm. I am truly no authority on the sport just a dad that loves to train fearless followers of Christ. By any means necessary! A father on the court first then a coach.

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Thirty Days of Prayer-Day 30

I am back in blog world. Yes! By the way we made it to day 30 on our 3o day prayer journey. I haven't posted since Day 23, but that we finished off with a bang. Jeans with holes in the knees is a good sign when it comes from prayer. I have so much that I want to share but don't have the time to write it all down. The last 30 days were transformational for me personally. Ten quick things I learned were:

1. Regular routine group prayer shakes heaven
   
2. The people you pray with become your best friends


3. It will spark revival in your church.


4. You begin to help others out of the over flow vs. a depleted spiritual tank


5. Your heart stays in a repentant humble state which makes hearing from God clearer.


6. Age old strongholds people have on their lives begin to lose their grip


7. Your faith increases to believe on things that you had previously given up on.


8. It is contagious...it spilled over to my marriage, to my children, to my friends,....prayer is contagious


9. It was effective...there were over 100 prayer request during those 30 days...and I am positive there were 100 answers


10. God was glorified...we were humbled..Nuf said!

We decided to raise the bar and start fasting once a week also. Plus intensifying our closet prayer time along with group prayer. Prayer does change things. I would advice anyone to get with a group of guys or gals and start praying it will revolutionize your life.

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Marriage Prayer-Thirty Days of Prayer-Day 23

We are on day 23 of our 30 day prayer journey. It is hard to believe that I haven't posted since day 15 ; nevertheless, prayers have continued to go up from 5am-6am daily.
Today we emphasized marriages in our prayers. Of course we started with our own marriage and prayed for our spouses specifically. I would recommend that every husband read the book "The Power of a Praying Husband" by Stormie Omartian. I first read this book back in 2002 and carried it around as a companion to my Bible for three months. I don't read many life changing books, outside of the bible, but for me this was one of them. The author gave me tools how to pray specifically for my wife in areas I would of never thought of. Today we prayed for our wives emotions, motherhood, moods, relationships, priorities, and various other details that we often overlook.
This prayer journey that we have been on has spilled over into my marriage. I have to admit that our prayer life together was lacking. We would come together over needs that may arise, but that is it. For the last three weeks, thanks to some good advice from some marriage mentors we have in our life, we have been able to sit knee to knee, hand in hand, eye to eye and pray for and with each other. It is so amazing how this act knits our hearts to each other and to God simultaneously.
Our marriages need the protection of prayer. There are too many things pulling at us these days to go without praying. A man has to pray to keep his heart pure from sexual temptation, to temper his critical spirit, to find proper value for his wife (I Peter 3:7), and to love his wife like Jesus loves His church (Eph 5:25). A woman has to pray to keep her affections towards her husband, to control angry and hurtful words, to find proper respect for her husband (Eph 5:33), and to submit to Him as unto the Lord (Eph 5:22). All of our hearts get hard at times, bitterness settles in, and hurts can alter our feelings. Prayer is like an antidote for a snake bite, when the remedy of prayer is applied it finds the poison and neutralizes it.
We must fight for times to pray for our spouses. Praying together as a couple and praying individually for each other. My advice if you struggle in this area, like I have, is pray this simple prayer "Lord teach me how to pray for my wife. You know her better than I do, fill my mouth with words and my heart with thoughts that can intimately acquaint me with her ways" (A wife can pray in a similar manner). Also, read good books on the subject and seek counsel from a mature man or woman of God.
God as I end this blog post I want to pray for all my married family, blog readers, Facebook friends, and twitter friends. Father, cause spouses to open their hearts towards one another and towards you. Help them to see the value in each other and may they have mutual love and respect for each other. Lord, help them to overcome the temptations and lures in our world that draw their affections away from each other. Help that man that is trapped in porn and intimate fantasies outside his marriage to get help and be delivered. Help that woman that has a better relationship with her children, coworkers, and girlfriends than her husband to turn her attention to her spouse. Father, marriage is being mocked at today in our society, I ask you to raise up a generation of men and women that honour their marriage vows and will persevere to stay together through all the obstacles of life.
In Jesus name Amen.

Additional resources for your marriage:
Eye to Eye Marriage -Facebook page (become a fan) & Website & Twitter
Living Well-Website
Family Life-Website
Focus on the Family-Website
The great marriage Experience-Website
Marriage Today-Website

We are taking prayer request from all of our friends, family, acquaintances, and strangers so email me at jhill1972@gmail.com

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Are Facebook Friends Real?-Thirty days of Prayer-Day 15

We are on day number 15 on our 30 day prayer journey. I haven't posted since day 09 but we have been praying, nevertheless. Last week I was on my facebook site and I looked over at the friend counter and saw 444 friends. I was a little shocked that I even know that many people. I figured I had blindly said yes to "friend request" one too many times and there was a bunch of people on there that I didn't even know. But, as I started looking at the list that was not the case at all; going through the list caused me to remember something significant about almost each person.

Then I had one of those God thoughts. Why don't I start praying for my Facebook friends. Over time, Facebook can loose it's thunder so why not put it to good use.

Lisa and I, along with my morning prayer group are taking the first letter of the first names and going A-Z ( a letter or range of letters a day) and praying as the Lord leads us. What has been very humbling about it are the close to forty prayer request we have received from friends old and new. As I expressed in a previous post, friends are important to me, whether over facebook or face to face.

Prayer transcends time, culture, gender, race, relationships, age, social status, geography, religion, politics, and mostly any barrier that it comes in contact with. Jesus taught us that prayer in His name grants us access to the Father, prayer is a vehicle for asking God, prayer is a catalyst for healing, prayer is a weapon of spiritual warfare, prayer is an expression of humility. The bible teaches that prayer should be made for your family, your friends, your coworkers, your leaders, and even your enemies. (Luke 18:1, Matt. 21:21-22, Matt. 5:44)

With the far reaching capability of prayer why not use today's tools such as Facebook, Twitter, myspace, or blogs to pray and serve your friends or followers. Don't just be satisfied with the quantity on your friend or follower count. Put it to a good or should I say a "God" use. Jesus reached multitudes on foot. Didn't he say we would do greater works? (John 14:12) Our social network friends need more than what we can offer them; why not give them one of the greatest gifts, which is heartfelt, sincere prayer to the Father on their behalf. It doesn't matter if they believe in God or not. God is very good at knowing the heart of man and turning it as He wills. Facebook friends are real people with real needs not just a face and status updates.

We are taking prayer request from all of our friends, family, acquaintances, and strangers so email me at jhill1972@gmail.com

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The Tenderizer-Thirty Days of Prayer-Day 09

We are on Day 09 of our 30 day prayer journey. It is amazing how prayer works. Prayer is like this adhesive agent that binds you in heart to who you are praying to, binds you in heart to the situation you are praying for, and binds you in heart to the people you are praying with. Prayer is like a mallet to a piece of tough meat and it beats on your heart until your heart is tenderized to hear the voice of God and to receive answers from God. I understand why Jesus made statements like this:

Mat 5:44-45 But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you; (45) That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust.

The toughest time we have to get our hearts right is when we are wronged against. Praying for the person is the furthest thing from our minds in most cases. Ironically, it is on the only thing that can take the nasty, restraining, and vengeful feeling out of our hearts.

I have to admit 94.5% of the time when I fall on my knees to pray about a situation where I was wronged I lay my heart out to God and He reveals my own faults, then that frees me up to deal with the circumstances calmly and fairly.

It goes like this "Father I need help, this person is getting on my nerves, he isn't listen to me and is so prideful and stuck on himself. I know I am right. Open his eyes to see that he is wrong. Help me to deal with his stubbornness. He just makes me mad." Then I wait a little bit and my words begin to play back in my head and I realize that in my heart I am 2x worse than what I claimed he was. God begins to show me how I treat others, and how I have treated him in the past. God begins to show me blind spots in my character. The holiness of God begins to shine in my life and I begin to feel like an unworthy crumb. Then it all turns when I think of this one point. Jesus died for me in spite of my bad attitudes, pride, and sin. Jesus forgave me so I can forgive this person. I confess my own faults to God and go back to that person and ask them to forgive me even if I only did one thing wrong and they did fifty things to me. THIS IS WHAT PRAYER CAN DO!!!

Eph 2:1-4 (CEV) In the past you were dead because you sinned and fought against God. (2) You followed the ways of this world and obeyed the devil. He rules the world, and his spirit has power over everyone who doesn't obey God. (3) Once we were also ruled by the selfish desires of our bodies and minds. We had made God angry, and we were going to be punished like everyone else. (4) But God was merciful! We were dead because of our sins, but God loved us so much that he made us alive with Christ, and God's wonderful kindness is what saves you.

Prayer to the Father in the name of his son Jesus is the best remedy for all of our heart conditions. The mallet of prayer tenderizes our heart and causes us to remember that we are forgiven and that frees us to forgive. Go and tenderize your heart with prayer.

Like I said in my last post we are taking prayer request from all of our friends, family, acquaintances, and strangers so email me at jhill1972@gmail.com

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