Dream on!!!

I loved this blog post from Bishop Isaccs. Instead of writing about it I just thought I would paste it! POWERFUL thoughts that have stirred my spirit!!

Our Need To Dream BIGGER Dreams…Posted by Bishop Bill November 01, 2008 In 1999, I had just gone to North Georgia as State YCE Director and Carl Richardson came to our Winter Prayer Conference to speak. In one of the sessions he made this statement--"In order for you to go where God wants to take you, you must learn to dream bigger dreams and think bigger thoughts than you are thinking right now!" The words so resonated in my spirit that I was lost to the rest of his message and my mind began to wrap around the question--"how does one dream bigger dreams?" Later that day at lunch, I positioned myself near Brother Richardson and posed the question--"how do I dream bigger dreams?" He challenged me to consider spending time with people who I felt thought BIGGER than I did. He also encouraged me to consider possibilities that were beyond my perceptions. Looking back now, I consider those moments some of the pivotal moments of my leadership career.So, here is my question for you... Do you dream BIG dreams about your life, your family, your career, your marriage, your ministry? It is so easy to fall into the trap of settling for status quo--to take the easy road and stay where you are. Remember this, God did not prepare your life for status quo...He is calling you to greater heights and things that are yet still beyond your wildest imaginations! There is a new ministry waiting to be born in your spirit. There is a new plan for revitalizing your marriage if you are willing to take the chance. There is a new strategy for winning your family to Christ but you have to allow you present mindset to change...to grow..to dream! Almost every neat and cool thing you enjoy today was the result of someone dreaming an improbable dream of "what can be!" Sometimes when I fly a commercial airplane and feel the lift of the jet off the ground, I wonder--"did Orville Wright and his brother Wilbur imagine this would be the result of their dreaming?" The list is endless of dreamers who dared to challenge the status quo and consider the possibilities of what could be. There will always be the critics who will ridicule your dreaming and think it is unwise or ill-advised but they are merely distractions...you have to keep dreaming--despite your detractors!Author Jim Collins (Good to Great) recently said in a conference I attended that good leaders need some "white space" time on their calendar without a phone, a PDA, a computer and interruptions. Each leader needs time to dream, to imagine, to think and to consider what could be. In those moments will come the ideas that change your world. He's right and good leaders will have to fight for those moments but we never regret them because our souls were made to dream, to imagine and to consider. Our Creator God is Himself a dream, a person of imagination. I know because I see from my window today the fruits of His imaginative thought--a tree that grows from a seed to heights of more than 25 feet, a squirrel who can leap and jump from limb to limb, the steam that rises from the melting frost which lays upon the grass, etc."When your memories exceed your dreams, the end is near." -Michael HammerTake some time this week and make a list of your dreams, those thoughts and imaginations which seem beyond your reach...write them down and tuck them away in your Bible near the verse Matthew 19:26--"With men this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.”

Dirty Hands!

"He's still working on me. To make me what I ought to be. It took him just a week to make the moon and the stars; the sun and the earth and Jupiter and Mars. How loving and patient He must be...He's still working on me."

The words of this song still ring in my ears! A song that I learned in Children's Church years ago still hold true. I recently attended the Eastern Campmeeting for the Church of God in SC and The Perry's www.perrysministries.com/2007A/about.html were singing! They sang a song titled "The Potter Knows the Clay" which grabbed my heart strings. I was reminded that "He is the Potter and I am the Clay." While they sang they showed a video. In that video there was a picture of a potter's hands working on clay. In that picture I noticed that His/her hands were very dirty. I have been thinking/chewing on this for a while and I am thankful that His hands are still getting dirty not just in my life but for all of humanity.

I remember from scripture that a crowd was ready to stone a lady who was caught in the act of adultery when Jesus showed up and wrote something in the dirt (His hands got dirty), I am reminded that at the healing of a blind man, Christ spits in the dirt makes a clay and wipes it in the blind man's eyes (His hands got dirty), Jeremiah reminds us that the potter "crushes" the clay at times to start over (His hands get dirty). I could go on and on but I think you get the point. This past Sunday two people came down to the altar and gave their hearts to Christ. The young couple wept and I know that His hands were dirty as He crushed the clay! In my own life the potter still has me spinning me on the wheel and is working on me. The past few months of my life have been difficult (spiritually, emotionally, and mentally). Yet I am convinced that it is just the potter making me, crushing me, and starting over in me that I might be used for His glory. I am open to whatever the potter wants to make out of me as long as He gets the glory. I am seeing some victorious days now and I am thankful that the Potter knows the Clay!

Praise the Lord that His hands still get dirty for humanity and that He is still working on me!!!

GOOOOOOOOOOOOO Cocks!!

This game is the hardest game of the year on me. I grew up in the years before SC was ever in the SEC and have always pulled for the Vols and the Gamecocks. The two teams rarely met on the field prior to Carolina's entrance into the conference. I had the best of both worlds! I could sing Rocky Top and 2001 all at the same time. Then in 1992 South Carolina entered the SEC and I began to have a hard time. I have Tennessee sweat shirts, watches, etc. But I also have Carolina sweat shirts, watches, etc. Last year the Vols beat the Gamecocks in overtime in Knoxville. (Melissa, Nolan and myself were all there) After such a heart breaking loss last year I decided that I was going all out for the Cocks this year! I am forever thankful that I did. Tough game for the VOLS but...Go Cocks. We will wait and see about next year. Prediction...Fulmer's back next year!