Category Archives: Life Purpose

why bad things happen to good people

Why Bad Things Happen to Good People – Day 59: Light the World, Build the Kingdom (Year 2)

Have you ever asked wondered why bad things happen to good people? I’ve spent quite a bit of time pondering that one. I learned something important while writing my very first fiction novel …Character development. Each of us is the hero of our own story and a hero is only as strong as his enemy. Where would Harry Potter be without Voldemort? Where would Dorothy be without the Wicked Witch? Would Colonel Doolittle and his Raiders be the heroes they were without the Japanese?

We only grow through opposition and struggle. I believe we are here to discover the greatness within us and the only chance we have of discovering it is to face the opposition that brings it out. Also, every time we set out to create something bigger and better in our lives, we are attempting to create more order in our world. You can’t take a closet, a home, a life, or a world to a higher level of order without creating some chaos. Chaos is part of the creative cycle.

 

How the Challenge Works

Step 1: Ask God each day, “What is one thing I can do to light the world and build the kingdom today?”

Step 2: ACT upon whatever He leads you to do. Go through the day EXPECTING for opportunities to arise.

Step 3: Document somewhere — in your private journal or on your favorite social media platform.

Step 4: Share! If you share publicly, please use our hash tags: #BuildTheKingdom and #LightTheWorldNow so I can cheer you on! If you’re going to be documenting privately, I recommend sharing your experience with a close friend or accountability partner. There is power in the sharing.

For ongoing support and a place to share, please join our Facebook group.

 

Copyright: AntonioGuillem / BigStockPhoto.com

your life purpose

Your Life Purpose – Day 55: Light the World, Build the Kingdom

Are you looking for that “one thing” you’re supposed to do with your life? Your life purpose? Your mission? Your quest of a lifetime? It’s interesting how many of us feel we have to find that “one thing.” This seems to be exacerbated by the fact that we have so many different interests, possibilities and choices placed before us in life that it’s hard to pick just one.

What if there isn’t just one thing? Dave and I talk about this concept in our Day 55 video of the Light the World, Build the Kingdom 90-day Challenge:

How the Challenge Works

Step 1: Ask God each day, “What is one thing I can do to light the world and build the kingdom today?”

Step 2: ACT upon whatever He leads you to do. Go through the day EXPECTING for opportunities to arise.

Step 3: Document somewhere — in your private journal or on your favorite social media platform.

Step 4: Share! If you share publicly, please use our hash tags: #BuildTheKingdom and #LightTheWorldNow so I can cheer you on! If you’re going to be documenting privately, I recommend sharing your experience with a close friend or accountability partner. There is power in the sharing.

For ongoing support and a place to share, please join our Facebook group.

live your legacy

Live Your Legacy Today! Day 49: Light the World, Build the Kingdom (Year 2)

Do you long to make an impact for good in the world? Would you like to leave a legacy? Then, live your legacy today! It may be that until you step into your message now, living it with people God places in your life each day, you won’t be ready to share your message on a larger scale.

The first step to making the impact you’d like to make is gratefully acknowledging the opportunities you are given right now to serve in small and simple ways. Your impact isn’t out in the future. It’s now!

How the Challenge Works

Step 1: Ask God each day, “What is one thing I can do to light the world and build the kingdom today?”

Step 2: ACT upon whatever He leads you to do. Go through the day EXPECTING for opportunities to arise.

Step 3: Document somewhere — in your private journal or on your favorite social media platform.

Step 4: Share! If you share publicly, please use our hash tags: #BuildTheKingdom and #LightTheWorldNow so I can cheer you on! If you’re going to be documenting privately, I recommend sharing your experience with a close friend or accountability partner. There is power in the sharing.

For ongoing support and a place to share, please join our Facebook group.

Featured Image Copyright: Yacobchuk / BigStockPhoto.com

child of God

Child of God – Day 48: Light the World, Build the Kingdom (Year 2)

You are a child of God – a son or daughter of the Creator of the Universe. Have you even begun to absorb the magnitude of that statement? Imagine the untapped creative power within you. Imagine the force for good you are capable of being. Try to fathom the healing influence you can have on the people and the world around you.

C.S. Lewis articulated it this way…

“It is a serious thing to live in a society of possible gods and goddesses, to remember that the dullest most uninteresting person you can talk to may one day be a creature which,if you saw it now, you would be strongly tempted to worship… There are no ordinary people. You have never talked to a mere mortal. Nations, cultures, arts, civilizations – these are mortal, and their life is to ours as the life of a gnat. But it is immortals whom we joke with, work with, marry, snub, and exploit – immortal horrors or everlasting splendors.” (from “The Weight of Glory)

How the Challenge Works

Step 1: Ask God each day, “What is one thing I can do to light the world and build the kingdom today?”

Step 2: ACT upon whatever He leads you to do. Go through the day EXPECTING for opportunities to arise.

Step 3: Document somewhere — in your private journal or on your favorite social media platform.

Step 4: Share! If you share publicly, please use our hash tags: #BuildTheKingdom and #LightTheWorldNow so I can cheer you on! If you’re going to be documenting privately, I recommend sharing your experience with a close friend or accountability partner. There is power in the sharing.

For ongoing support and a place to share, please join our Facebook group.

 

Featured Image Copyright: Jozef Klopacka / BigStockPhoto.com

angels on earth

Angels On Earth: Day 40 – Light the World, Build the Kingdom (Year 2)

As you ask God each day what one thing you can do to light the world and act upon the answer, you have the opportunity to be angels on earth – facilitating the answer to someone else’s prayers.
 
In 1 Corinthians 16:15-17, the Apostle Paul is closing up a letter to the Corinthians. He speaks of the house of Stephanas who were newer converts to Christianity. He says “they have addicted themselves to the ministry of the saints.” I love that word “addicted” in this context.
 
When we become converted to Jesus Christ, the desire of our hearts is to “strengthen our brethren.” That’s what Jesus told Peter: “When thou art converted, strengthen thy brethren” (Luke 22:32). It’s really not something you have to force. Once you’re converted, you naturally reach out to others. You can’t stand to watch them suffer or wander in darkness. You want to reach out to those in need and lift them upon your shoulders.
 
Upon conversion, our desire to be like the Savior increases. We’re filled with His love which makes us want to care for, teach and love those around us. It literally becomes a sweet addiction. The wonderful thing is that it is an addiction with no side-effects! Try finding that anywhere else in the modern world.
 
This kind of love not only enables us to help others in need, but it also allows us to let others shine. When filled with this love, we no longer feel less because someone else is more. We don’t feel inferior if someone else is better than we are at something. Rather this type of Christ-centered love rejoices in the triumphs and talents of another.
 
I cannot begin to enumerate the people who have touched my life and answered my prayers. When I lacked knowledge, these people shared theirs. When I lacked vision, these people helped me see. When darkness engulfed me, these people brought understanding and enlightenment. When I needed help, they’ve been there.
 
I feel like Paul as he described his friends Stephanas, Fortunatus, and Achaicus when he said, “for that which was lacking on your part they have supplied.” (1 Corinthians 15:17)
Copyright: AntonioGuillem / BigStockPhoto.com
idea from God

Is This Idea from God? Day 31 – Light the World, Build the Kingdom (Year 2)

How do you tell if a choice you’re making is a good one? How do you know whether what you’re thinking about is an idea from God or is just your idea? How can you make decisions with greater confidence knowing they are the right ones for you and in alignment with what God wants for you? Here are some ideas…

How the Challenge Works

Step 1: Ask God each day, “What is one thing I can do to light the world and build the kingdom today?”

Step 2: ACT upon whatever He leads you to do. Go through the day EXPECTING for opportunities to arise.

Step 3: Document somewhere — in your private journal or on your favorite social media platform.

Step 4: Share! If you share publicly, please use our hash tags: #BuildTheKingdom and #LightTheWorldNow so I can cheer you on! If you’re going to be documenting privately, I recommend sharing your experience with a close friend or accountability partner. There is power in the sharing.

For ongoing support and a place to share, please join our Facebook group.

Featured Image Copyright: ChristianChan / BigStockPhoto.com

follow your bliss

Follow Your Bliss: Day 27 – Light the World: Build the Kingdom (Year 2)

Are you following your bliss? And is it okay and responsible to do so? There is a power you unleash when you follow your bliss. Doors open for you to serve others and yourself. When we follow the thing we are passionate about, others are attracted to us and what we are doing. It’s like the little puffer fish who creates an elaborate design in the ocean floor to attract his future mate. He feels compelled to make this design. I’m sure he doesn’t know why he’s doing it, but he can’t help but do it. In the process he attracts his future mate.

“Follow your bliss. If you do follow your bliss, you put yourself on a kind of track that has been there all the while waiting for you, and the life you ought to be living is the one you are living. When you can see that, you begin to meet people who are in the field of your bliss, and they open the doors to you. I say, follow your bliss and don’t be afraid and doors will open where you didn’t know they were going to be. If you follow your bliss, doors will open for you that wouldn’t have opened for anyone else.” – Joseph Campbell

How the Challenge Works

Step 1: Ask God each day, “What is one thing I can do to light the world and build the kingdom today?”

Step 2: ACT upon whatever He leads you to do. Go through the day EXPECTING for opportunities to arise.

Step 3: Document somewhere — in your private journal or on your favorite social media platform.

Step 4: Share! If you share publicly, please use our hash tags: #BuildTheKingdom and #LightTheWorldNow so I can cheer you on! If you’re going to be documenting privately, I recommend sharing your experience with a close friend or accountability partner. There is power in the sharing.

For ongoing support and a place to share, please join our Facebook group.

Featured Image Copyright: Mikesphotos / BigStockPhoto.com

Creativity - You are a creator

Creativity – Day 6: Light the World: Build the Kingdom (Year 2)

Creativity – not everyone believes they have it, but in reality, creativity is your birthright. You create every time you set a goal and go for it. You create smiles, laughter, hope, happiness, and beauty in your world. You are a creator, here to learn how to create your own life. You’re made in the image of the Creator. You’re here to have dominion and create your world. Today’s message shares some tips for harnessing your God-like creativity.

First, let’s look at that passage from Genesis where God created humans:

“And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.

So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.

And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.” (Genesis 1:26-28)

Made in the great Creator’s image, you are here to create and have dominion over your world. Here are some ideas on how to model God in doing that.

Please join with us in our Facebook Group here.

How the Challenge Works

To watch the first video in the series that explains the challenge, click here.

Step 1: Ask God each day, “What is one thing I can do to light the world and build the kingdom today?”

Step 2: ACT upon whatever He leads you to do. Go through the day EXPECTING for opportunities to arise.

Step 3: Document somewhere — in your private journal or on your favorite social media platform.

Step 4: Share! If you share publicly, please use our hash tags: #BuildTheKingdom and #LightTheWorldNow so I can cheer you on! If you’re going to be documenting privately, I recommend sharing your experience with a close friend or accountability partner. There is power in the sharing.

life purpose

Day 56: Clues to Your Life Purpose

Many of us wonder what our life purpose is. How can you know for sure? This verse in Isaiah gives you a place to start:

“Hearken to me, ye that follow after righteousness, ye that seek the Lord: look unto the rock whence ye are hewn, and to the hole of the pit whence ye are digged.” Isaiah 51:1.

How to Prevent Burn-Out

I’ve been reading Seth Godin’s Tribes: We Need You to Lead Us. Great book for anyone looking to create a movement around their message. In it he talks about being passionate about your work. Passion is the cure for burn-out. In this video, I share some of my insights on the subject:

If you haven’t already, go take Lisa Rae Preston’s STEP Into Destiny assessment and find out what your core passion is so you can more proactively integrate it into your days.