Gideon was a silly little man who was hiding in a cave so he wouldn’t get beat up by a group of tools from the next country over.  Then an angel calls him out.  Gideon mans up and calls together the remaining forces of the Israelite army- 32,000 guys in total.

He tells anyone who’s a chicken that they can just go ahead and get gone.  22,000 wusses leave (full disclosure: I’d probably be one of them!).  10,000 remain.  God says “too many Giddy.”

So Gideon calls a water break.  Every heads for the river.  9,700 of the men assume the pushup position and drink straight from the water.  300 cup it in their hands, presumably to inspect for dirt…or to keep an eye who for those who would seek to jump them from behind.

God goes- Gideon, I’m envisioning an army of 300 men to take on thousands. (sound familiar? Yeah, Hollywood likes to rip off the Bible!)  What God says next to Gideon in Judges 7:2 would have made me faint right on the spot…

The Lord said to Gideon, “With the three hundred men that lapped I will save you and give the Midianites into your hands. Let all the others go, each to his own place.”

Great Lord… We’ve got 10,000 brave soldiers, and you want me to take only those who don’t like getting their noses wet?!

Notice how God watches his wording- he didn’t tell Gideon that Gideon would beat the enemy.  He didn’t say that the army would beat the enemy.  He said that He’d take care of it.

And he did.  The day, those 300 men literally surround the enemy camp, light some matches, play some loud beats, and the sleeping army destroys itself.

All that to say…“Lead in such a way that the glory MUST go to God.”

That’s the key to becoming a great leader.  Step out in faith and tackle projects that are DESTINED TO FAIL unless God intervenes.

• The best churches are planted that way.
• The most influence ministries are built this way.
• The greatest missionaries knew this was their only hope.

If we can do it in our own strength, we’re not dreaming big enough.

Lead in such a way that the glory MUST go to God.

Jay

Let’s start the week off with the most ridiculous and funny video I’ve seen all week…

Living your dreams.

Maybe it’s to be a singer/songwriter.  A youth pastor. A millionaire real estate developer.  A coffeeshop owner. A doctor. Lawyer. Butcher.  Busker.  Writer.  Church planter. Fire-eater.

Whatever your current dreams are, you need to run them through a filter to make sure they’re legit.

1. Is this really God’s dream for my life?

I don’t think most people ever got honest about this one.  Very few people take the time to think with their brains and actually work out the implications of their WANTS and in so doing, forfeit their DREAMS.  For example, ‘being famous’ isn’t a good reason to do anything, if only because you have no idea if being famous is your highest purpose.  It’s probably foolish to make your dream to become the greatest basketball player in history, only because that’s a pride-based dream and demands the sacrifice of putting yourself on top of others.  To become the greatest player that YOU can ever be, now that’s a worth goal.  But probably not your dream.  We need to think consciously and pray and ask God what’s what…because great are the plans that he has for us.  Not necessarily huge, but certainly great.

2. Is this going to help others?

Any dream that exists just to make you comfy/rich/famous/powerful/happy is a shallow dream, and certainly not one worth dedicated your time and life to.  No- the greatest dreams mankind have lived out are those that reach into the lives of others and capture the essence of your humanity- togetherness, community, love.  It’s naive and blind to think that you can achieve any dream on your own, so why assume that you get to keep all the rewards from it too?!

3. How am I going to get there?

Most people will never reach this step.  On top of the fact that most will never seek God’s face nor ask if it will help others, the majority of humanity will soon settle into a plan B… a steady/safe/path-of-least-resistance career and sell their precious hours in exchange for fleeting dollars.  We fail to plan, and therefore, plan to fail.  “Without counsel a king loses a war.”  “Without wisdom a tower cannot be built.”  “Without careful planning a man cannot build his house or barns.”  God put these verses in the Bible for a reason- because he wants us to be smart!!!

Wise.  He wants us to take the skills and talents and knowledge and experience that He gave us, seek his face, and then put a plan of action into place- a plan that, when committed to God, cannot fail.

This is the art of living your dreams.

Jay

New post today for guys today: Down 10 Pounds, Up 1 Mindset

For the girls by Michelle… How Do You Know When Silver Is Pure?

Ben Arment had an amazing post entitled A Tale of Two Preachers last week…I just had to share it here:

Once there were two preachers. George Whitefield amazed crowds with preaching ability, led tons of people to Christ, and died with a great reputation. John Wesley organized his converts into discipleship groups and equipped ordinary farmers to become preachers who carried on the mission long past his death.

I’m becoming more and more convinced that we the church will be the most effective when we start organizing our discipleship efforts and equip people with the PRACTICAL skills to be leaders wherever they go.  In my opinion, here are a few essential components of what that discipleship would look like:

Teaching

This is the real, practical, conscious, sensible, passionate training and equipping of the people.

Community

This is the heart-to-heart, in our homes, laughter, joy, sorrow, praying together, eating together, being together that needs to happen in order to see unity occur.  This is about loving each other and embracing all in need.

Mission

This is the whole point. The dream. The goal. The prize. To get closer to Jesus and to help, lead, and serve others to that same place.

This is the church that never dies.

Anything else?  What would be on your list of essential discipling components?

Jay

Other new posts today:

For the guys: (GIRLS- you have permission to read today’s entry and then pray for a guy like this.) We Need About 100,000 Godly Men to Lead This Planet

For the girls: A new post from Michelle about seeing life through the eyes of a pair of Finnish tourists! Firsts.

My sister said something quite strange to my brother the other day… Let’s play a little game called “What are you going to be when you grow up?”

How many times have you heard that in your life?  10? 50? 100?  It’s one of the biggest questions that we hear, starting from about age 4.  (btw, I wanted to be an ape in grade 4…long story!)

I know many people, even people into their late teens, early 20s, mid 30s…late 40s…retirement age….who still don’t know ‘what they want to be.’

I think maybe sometimes, some people don’t take the time to figure out who God created them to be.

They don’t know what kind of seed they are.

Let’s create a picture in our minds together:

The world is God’s garden.  There are beautiful trees, vegetables, healthy fruit, gorgeous flowers. There are also tons of weeds, of course!

When I think about God’s will, I think about 3 big things.

1. What type of seed?
2. Best location.
3. What should it be surrounded by?

God has done the soil preparation.  It’s up to us to talk to the Great Gardener and find out what type of seed we are, where we’d best be located, and who we need to be surrounded by.

So how do we do it?

Get planted. If you give me a handful of seeds, the best way I’ll find out what they are is to plant them.  Get planted. Join a church or a community or a group or a ministry where you can help out.  You won’t find out your a preacher until you preach. You won’t find out you’re a healer until you step out in faith and heal someone. You won’t find out you have the gift of mercy until you serve the poor.  Try out different things.  Get planted and watch for sprouts!

Determine the best location. Once you figure out what God designed you for, you need to figure out the best place to be planted.  Maybe it’s in a very weedy part of the garden.  Maybe it’s in a barren wasteland.  Maybe it’s being a very different type of plant where most of the plants are all the same…and are sharing the same diseases and problems (think materialism and our western world).

Surround yourself. Get accountability.  Prayer partners.  Mentors.  Leaders.  Followers.  Friends.  Co-labourers.

Hopefully, one day, we’ll be described how the psalmist describe a few plants in Psalm 92:

But the godly will flourish like palm trees and grow strong like the cedars of Lebanon. For they are transplanted to the Lord ’s own house.  They flourish in the courts of our God. Even in old age they will still produce fruit; they will remain vital and green.

My hope and prayer is that this will be said of each of us someday soon.

Jay

Other post today for couples: If You Like It, Then You Should Put a Smile On It

Shot with a Canon camera…the Galactic Center of the Milky Way

Watch it through…all the way…SO creative.

Oh my nerves!

New pregnant trend- `facepainting`the belly!

7 Marriage Proposals Gone Bad. My favourite- swallowed ring hidden in milkshake (see x-ray!)

Seriously wild music collaboration…you make the music using YouTube videos. Thanks to Kevin for the link.

100 REALLY creative business cards. Seriously, I was shocked.

Top 25 Best Conspiracy Movies

Mars Candy Bars sends searches to porn site accidently

100 Ways to Have Fun with Your Kids for Cheap or Free

50 Cheap Ways to be Romantic

Craiglist could change sex ads section in Canada…good news! Thanks to Allison for the link.

Fast Company’s Choice for 100 Most Creative People in Business

Despite all the complaining, Facebook has added 9 million members since the redesign.

Some funny photos of Obama in his first 100 days.

Mark Driscoll beats himself up, someone loses an eye.

The United Nations has enough money to save over 1 million people every year.

Not quite sure who’s in charge, but this leadership training event looks amazing. Any details, lemme know.

Craig Groeschel says cool is not longer cool.

My newest blog post is one of my shortest, and personal favourites so far…When God Calls the Play