Hey Friends,

I want to start sharing some journal entries with you. Many have shared how hearing my conversations with God has really helped them. I hope these help you.

Blessings

Joe

Thursday March 2^nd, 2006

Son, my will is accomplished as you walk in love and are led by my spirit. Do as I tell you Son and all will be well

Friday March 3^rd, 2006

Son, continue to put things in order. My spirit is on you for that. Enjoy your day.

Son, I need to thank you for the conversation with MMMMM. You spoke my heart to him. He knew he was loved yet received the correction I had in store for him. Thank you Son for being faithful to my heart and speaking on my behalf.

Monday March 6^th, 2006

Son, my plan is still unfolding. Don’t think that you see it all but be eager for me to reveal more to you. Watch and see but I have many delightful blessings in store for you.

Tuesday March 7^th 2006

I am doing a work Son. I am exalting myself higher in the earth this day. I am letting man see my glory and my strength. What I do may surprise you. But know that I only act by love. Be ready to pick up that which falls from this great shaking.

Wednesday March 8^th 2006

Son, walking in my ways-few do- but I will have my way-I will have my own-who call on my name and perform my will

Thursday March 9^th 2006

I love you Son. Pray in the Spirit and write my plan-you’ll see the blessings flow.

We had a Men’s Fellowship tonight and the topic was relationships. When I got home I wrote this:

Relationships

Men struggle with relationships. Children don’t have near as much trouble with them as grown men do. What is it that we’re learning that is producing socially maladjusted humans, incapable of having a heart to heart relationship that is meaningful, nurturing, lasting and fruitful?

Boys Don’t Cry

I remember coming to school in 4^th grade having forgotten to bring some sort of potted plant for a group activity. I remember crying and my teacher rebuking me for crying. Subconscious take note: crying is bad! It’s looked down upon by those around you! You won’t be accepted if you cry! Fear speaks next: “Yeah that’s right! You know you don’t want to be lonely. Do the things that will make you socially acceptable and desirable.” Crying I’m done with you. You haven’t served me well.

Hide Your Heart

At some point along the way we take our heart and hide it behind some pretty serious and strong defenses. It becomes so difficult to be who we are that we begin to doubt that who we are is really worth being.

When there is lack of a polarizing force in our lives, one who is desirable to imitate, trustworthy and virtuous; we look for something to connect with. Anything interesting will substitute, we can make it work as long as it will hold our interest and give us purpose. We don’t know who we are so we’re looking for definition candidates.

If we’re fortunate enough to find out our personal giftedness (some never do) we can put all of our eggs in that basket. We can draw our personal definition from that.

A godly, loving trustworthy father should be that polarizing force in our lives; the one who tells us or defines for us right and wrong; the one who speaks into our lives and tells us who we are; the one who has the insight to look at us and see the gem or gems inside us; the one who takes (or makes) the time to speak to us and grant us purpose. That is what a father should do. That is a major role for him; at least in a child’s life.

Men’s hearts are hidden because the man not only wants it hidden but because it loses so much value in his sight that he may not even know where he hid it.

The Answer

Although I had a father who did the positive things I mentioned above there are many to whom this being described above doesn’t exist. It’s just a dream or a worthless fairy tale. Surely someone like that couldn’t exist in this life! Au contraire! I knew him. He was my father. He did speak into my life and at just the right time when he was helpless to continue and fulfill this role in my life I switched fathers. I came upon a new relationship that filled every gap. That gave me purpose.

I met Him through His Son, Jesus. I love the Lord. He’s everything to me. My heart is free to come out and play. I’m free to be who I am. I am not alone. My father loves me and approves me. He likes me.

I’m satisfied with who I am. I got this from my Father(s).

Love ya

Joe

Well Friends,

This year is winding down.

I appreciate you visiting and reading and commenting.

This has been a very good year.
At the beginning of 2006 I had no idea that I would be:

• starting a blog in May
• starting a new church in June
• going on the radio in July
• leaving the Praise Fellowship Church building in October

You see we can make our plans and we should but remember we’re not alone. We have a partner. A friend in the god-head. We have Jesus as our savior, the Father as our father and the Holy Spirit as our earthly partner and helper. He is the one who made these “extra” and “unplannable” things happen.

Make it your aim to get to know Him better this new year. One of the main reasons Jesus came was to make way for the Holy Spirit to live in you.

I hope that you are doing well. If you’re not let me know, we can pray for you. We’ve seen awesom things happen as we’ve prayed. God is available to help. We can call on Him together. He loves to show up and do His stuff.

Love ya
Joe

Hey Folks,
Just testing out posting a picture on my blog. Here’s two of the most beautiful ladies in my life. Natalie holding JuliAnna. 

Yesterday at church we made the big announcement:

We are changing the name of our church.

We have been Empower since we started in June but the Lord has been ministering to us in several ways that we needed to change the name.

So starting on January 1st, 2007 we will be called
Family Life Christian Center.

As I was seeking counsel on this one comment from my brother was that the name Empower hits the head while Family hits the heart.

People need family and we can give them that.
People need to belong and they can belong here.
People need to be loved and they get that here.

We’re so blessed to be in this ministry. People are being loved, helped, taught, trained. Its exciting to see and hear the things the Lord is doing in people’s lives.

We also got a new web domain
www.familylife.cc
It still hits http://www.empowerchicago.org but we’ll be renovating the site for the name change and the new year.

God bless you all.
Thanks for reading and have a great day.

Joe

PS: Check out yesterday’s messages on heart motivations and praise.

We started a series this past Sunday in the offering messages on “Getting Your New Year Started Right”.

New Year’s resolutions generally fail because we often wait until the last minute to make them and don’t give it real serious thought.

When you make a resolution you are making a firm decision to change something in your life.

Most often it’s a habit that you want to change. If you understand how habits are programmed into you then it will be easier to understand what you have to do to reprogram yourself.

Remember you are self-programmable.

In Romans 12:2 it talks about being transformed by the renewing of your mind. Another way to say that is “If you reprogram your thinking then your habits can change.”

However habits are programmed into your subconscious, they are deep-seated in you. That is why they are so hard to change.

Habits can be your best friends if you have the right ones. Its the wrong ones that can do you in.
Habits are God’s way to destress your life. Habits let your subconscious make a decision according to the way you’ve programmed it and accepted as the way that is right or the way you want to go.

But your subconscious doesn’t want to give them up, its programmed to stay the same until completely convinced to change.

• Dreams can reprogram your subconscious.
• Dramatic life-events can.
• Biblical meditation can.
• Repetition can.

I would add one more:

• Hearing God’s voice can.

Some of these habit-altering, sub-conscious reprogramming tools are under your control, some are not.

You can pray for God to speak to you in dreams or by His voice to help you change. However, you don’t want to pray for a dramatic life-event.

I recommend that you spend your time using biblical meditation and repetition.

Step #1:
Define your problem. Write it down. Think about it. Pray about it. Write it down as accurately as you can. Ask God if you’ve got it written out correctly.

Step #2:
Spend sufficient time in prayer and Bible reading to get a solid answer to your problem. I recommend you come up with a list of scriptures that directly speak to your situation.

Step #3:
Meditate on those scriptures. If you don’t know how to do biblical meditation just think about what you do when you worry. You imagine the problem from every angle and mull over every thing that could go wrong.

In biblical meditation take a scripture and begin to imagine it. Try to view it from every angle. Just like when you’re worrying. Try to imagine every possible thing that could go right in your life if this scripture was fully implemented in your life.

Step #4:
Change your actions. Based on the scriptures you’ve meditated you’ll know some new actions to replace your old habits with. Begin to do those new actions. Over time they will become habit.

If you get this process started now in December, by the time January 1 comes you’ll already be on your way.

Love ya
Joe

Dear Friends,

If you podcast follow the link to the left to subscribe. Hope you like.

God bless

Joe

Well that title might be misleading, however…

I’m so excited about something the Lord spoke to my heart this morning.

For years I’ve heard that verse that says “perfect loves casts out fear”

I’ve heard it preached, but no one has ever explained it to the point where I understand it.

So here’s what the Lord spoke to me this morning:

Son, walk in love.
Perfect love casts out fear because

• love is others focused and
• fear is self-focused.

I love you Son. don’t worry about yourself or your future just focus on loving Me, obeying Me and loving others.

This really is simple.

Love ya
Joe

There is a maintenance man at the church I used to go to, his name is Artie. Artie always has a smile. When he’s doing his chores he’s singing away, having a great time. Artie is not always smiling and singing because everything is going his way. Things are going his way because he’s singing and smiling.

One day as I was walking into the church I saw Artie cleaning the windows, smiling and singing. I said, “Artie, did you know that your smile is spiritual warfare?”
I explained that as he smiles at people someone might come up to him who the devil has been riding them trying to get them to think negative so they can ultimately do negative. But when they come with their negative attitude and see Artie with that big smile, the devil can lose his grip on that person.

Smile it will make your brain think you’re happy!

Please don’t forget to keep your joy flowing.

There are plenty of reasons to frown, but don’t let yourself get in that habit.

With a frown you can’t help anybody.

Smiles lift you up.

Smiles lift others up.

When you smile you begin to think about positive things.

The Bible says that when your eyes are full of light then your whole body is full of light. If you are focused on the negative you’re filling yourself with darkness. If you are focusing on things that make you smile then you’re filling yourself with light.

Keep smiling folks, it’s spiritual warfare. You cause the devil to lose his grip off people, he’ll lose his grip on you too.

Love ya
Joe