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Excel Still More Journal at the Spiritbuilding Publishers
Video to describe the ESM Journal.

Sponsors: 
Jon Cunningham, Owner, Cunningham Financial Group
Website:  www.cunninghamfinancialgroup.com   
Phone:  205-326-7364

Tyler Cain, Senior Loan Officer, Statewide Mortgage
Websites: https://statewidemortgage.com/
https://tylercain.floify.com/
Phone: 813-380-8487

I am blessed to be around a great number of highly impressive, faithful men. Glenn Hyde is one of those people, and today it is my please to share a story he told me recently. This week we are building upon this idea of drawing close to people who can help and listening to their stories and perspective. 

Recently, Glenn met with a group of men and talked about the history of our church here in Lindale. He spoke of the progress he has perceived in broken down fences and constructed bridges. It was uplifting to hear. I'm wonderful if there are walls in your life where bridges should be. I hope this story will be as much of a help to you as it was to me. Jesus, the Carpenter, is ready to do some building, but he's in the bridge business. 

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Click link for ESM Journal Page:
Excel Still More Journal on Amazon.
Video to describe the ESM Journal.

Sponsors: 
Jon Cunningham, Owner, Cunningham Financial Group
Website:  www.cunninghamfinancialgroup.com   
Phone:  205-326-7364

Tyler Cain, Senior Loan Officer, Statewide Mortgage
Websites: https://statewidemortgage.com/
https://tylercain.floify.com/
Phone: 813-380-8487

Jim Spratlin was a great man. I don't mean that in a - say something nice because he has passed - sort of way. I mean I can specifically detail for you areas in his life where he impressed me greatly, specially his faith, marriage and relationship with his kids. I was drawn to him. And I have been changed by him. I needed him.

Do you have people in your life who impress you? I'm talking about people who are where you want to be, who are simply better at something important than you are? How do you approach them? Or do you keep your distance? The way we interact with impressive people says a lot about who we are, and a whole lot about what will happen in you future. Come explore that with me today. 

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Wes McAdams / Marcus Stenson Podcast:
"How to Create a Disciple-Making Culture"

Click link for ESM Journal Page:
Excel Still More Journal on Amazon.
Video to describe the ESM Journal.

Sponsors: 
Jon Cunningham, Owner, Cunningham Financial Group
Website:  www.cunninghamfinancialgroup.com   
Phone:  205-326-7364

Tyler Cain, Senior Loan Officer, Statewide Mortgage
Websites: https://statewidemortgage.com/
https://tylercain.floify.com/
Phone: 813-380-8487

Jesus described four soils that represented the four types of human heart. Some are hard and refuse the truth. Some hear and get excited but aren't ready to stand up in the face of the work. Some get past that but are just so distracted with this world. And a few will receive the word, be changed by it, and produce for God.

Neither of us can say we are good and always good. But if you can determine where you've been lately in that spectrum and what it means you need to do next - then self evaluation can be of great benefit to you.

This is also true of the term Growing and Going. Right now there are four options for where you are in your walk: not growing or going, growing but not going, going but not growing, or both growing and going! We look at each of those in today's episode, and how we can move in the right direction no matter where you are starting today. 

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Click link for ESM Journal Page:
Excel Still More Journal on Amazon.
Video to describe the ESM Journal.

Sponsors: 
Jon Cunningham, Owner, Cunningham Financial Group
Website:  www.cunninghamfinancialgroup.com   
Phone:  205-326-7364

Tyler Cain, Senior Loan Officer, Statewide Mortgage
Websites: https://statewidemortgage.com/
https://tylercain.floify.com/
Phone: 813-380-8487

Here is a link to Phil Wickham's Song: The Jesus Way
(Note - It is new to me, but I see it's been out for a year!)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Fhv4arL3yk

If you curse me, then I will bless you
If you hurt me, I will forgive
And if you hate me, then I will love you
I choose the Jesus way

If you're helpless, I will defend you
And if you're burdened, I'll share the weight
And if you're hopeless, then let me show you
There's hope in the Jesus way

I follow Jesus
I follow Jesus
He wore my sin, I'll gladly wear His name
He is the treasure
He is the answer
Oh, I choose the Jesus way

If you strike me, I will embrace you
And if you chain me, I'll sing His praise
And if you kill me, my home is heaven
For I choose the Jesus way

I follow Jesus
I follow Jesus
He wore my sin, I'll gladly wear His name
He is the treasure
He is the answer
Oh, I choose the Jesus way

And I choose surrender
I choose to love
Oh, God my Savior, You'll always be enough
I choose forgiveness
I choose grace
I choose to worship, no matter what I face

I choose the Jesus way
I choose the Jesus way
I choose the Jesus way
I choose the Jesus way

I follow Jesus
I follow Jesus
He wore my sin, I'll gladly wear His name
He is the treasure
He is the answer
Oh, I choose the Jesus way

I follow Jesus
I follow Jesus
He wore my sin, I'll gladly wear His name
He is the treasure
He is the answer
Oh, I choose the Jesus way
Oh, I choose the Jesus way

Send us a text

Click link for ESM Journal Page:
Excel Still More Journal on Amazon.

Video to describe the ESM Journal.

Sponsors: 
Jon Cunningham, Owner, Cunningham Financial Group
Website:  www.cunninghamfinancialgroup.com   
Phone:  205-326-7364

Tyler Cain, Senior Loan Officer, Statewide Mortgage
Websites: https://statewidemortgage.com/
https://tylercain.floify.com/
Phone: 813-380-8487

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Click link for ESM Journal Page:
Excel Still More Journal on Amazon.

Video to describe the ESM Journal.

Sponsors: 
Jon Cunningham, Owner, Cunningham Financial Group
Website:  www.cunninghamfinancialgroup.com   
Phone:  205-326-7364

Tyler Cain, Senior Loan Officer, Statewide Mortgage
Websites: https://statewidemortgage.com/
https://tylercain.floify.com/
Phone: 813-380-8487

Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone - "What I have in Christ is far greater than what I have or don't have in life... He has prepared me for a moment such as this. That I may use the gifts He has given me to point all the attention back to Him."

"I credit all that I do to God. He's given me a gift. He's given me a drive to just want to continue to improve myself. I have a platform and I want to use it to glorify Him, and so whenever I step on the track, it's always the prayer of 'God let me be the vessel in which you're glorified' whatever the result is, how I conduct myself, how I carry myself, not just how I perform."

"I feel like I was running from God for years. That's when I was like, 'God, I surrender it to You. I don't know what this looks like I don't know what it means. Just show me what you're trying to show me.'"

"For a long time, my identity was in track and field. But I realized that first and foremost, I'm a child of God. It set me free to run th race God has set out for me to run." 

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Click link for ESM Journal Page:
Excel Still More Journal on Amazon.

Video to describe the ESM Journal.

Sponsors: 
Jon Cunningham, Owner, Cunningham Financial Group
Website:  www.cunninghamfinancialgroup.com   
Phone:  205-326-7364

Tyler Cain, Senior Loan Officer, Statewide Mortgage
Websites: https://statewidemortgage.com/
https://tylercain.floify.com/
Phone: 813-380-8487

Below is a link to each of the four songs mentioned.
As well as the lyrics to "Altars over Stages"

Garden in Manhattan
I am Barabbas
The Prodigal
Altars over Stages 

"Sir, they've all gone off to him, " I said to that baptizer
We watched as all his friends left him in the dust
"It's a cold world, and we all just need the Son"
He said with a smile

I choose altars over stages 'cause Heaven is my wages
I don't need the spotlight, so make me a silhouette
And I won't fret, I don't care
You can take me anywhere
Heaven is my wages, I choose altars over stages

Even angels in the sky can fall down to the depths
Clip their wings with their pride, and rot what's in their chest
The funny thing about pride is that you have it all your life
But the moment you think you don't, it's gotten in your eyes

Whoa-oh
Has it gotten in my eyes?
Whoa

I choose altars over stages 'cause Heaven is my wages
I don't need the spotlight, so make me a silhouette
And I won't fret, I don't care
You can take me anywhere
Heaven is my wages, I choose altars over stages

Whoa-oh

I choose altars over stages 'cause Heaven is my wages
I don't need the spotlight, so make me a silhouette
I won't fret, I don't care
You can take me anywhere
'Cause Heaven is my wages, I choose altars over stages

Send us a text

Click link for ESM Journal Page:
Excel Still More Journal on Amazon.

Video to describe the ESM Journal.

Sponsors: 
Jon Cunningham, Owner, Cunningham Financial Group
Website:  www.cunninghamfinancialgroup.com   
Phone:  205-326-7364

Tyler Cain, Senior Loan Officer, Statewide Mortgage
Websites: https://statewidemortgage.com/
https://tylercain.floify.com/
Phone: 813-380-8487

Every decision you and I make that we hope or contend involves God is to be a FAITH DECISION. That is, it must come from knowledge of His nearness and be made to reflect our trust in Him. Anything, any decision, that refuses to do that, is FOOLISHNESS. That sounds simple. But it is not. Because we often rationalize and justify our choices. We look at circumstances and people and what is needful in the moment. And while it may not be what God said, or what we know is right, it becomes right to us. And this is deception and foolishness. 

We need to learn from Saul in I Samuel 13. He had all the reasons in the world, and felt like he'd acted in faith. But God rejected him and called his heart into question. Saul's son Jonathan, on the other hand, did incredible things, God's way, because he knew God was with him. In the end, life isn't about doing the wise thing or the foolish thing, as our own reasoning will often conflate the two. The question is - does this decision in my home, work, life, church... does it trust God. Is it patient, humble and willing to wait? And if I choose any of the 99 other roads, can I stop and call that what it is? Foolishness. God's way is always right. Choose faith. 

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Click link for ESM Journal Page:
Excel Still More Journal on Amazon.

Sponsors: 
Jon Cunningham, Owner, Cunningham Financial Group
Website:  www.cunninghamfinancialgroup.com   
Phone:  205-326-7364

Tyler Cain, Senior Loan Officer, Statewide Mortgage
Websites: https://statewidemortgage.com/
https://tylercain.floify.com/
Phone: 813-380-8487

II Samuel 24
David:
God is angry with the people.
David responds with his own sin.
Davis is sorry for what he's done.
God punishes him and the people. 
David feels sorrow for the people.
David pays a cost in his offerings.
God relents on the deadly plague.

Me:
People around me sin. 
I sometimes respond in sin.
I need to be sorrowful for that.
There are often big consequences. 
I need to fell compassion about that.
I must willingly pay a cost to God.
God may relent on punishment.

KING JESUS:
God was angry at mankind's sin.
Christ responds in righteousness.
He is sorry for what we have done.
He takes the stripes in our place.
He is ever yearning to save others.
He paid with His own offered life.
God's wrath is satisfied in His death. 

Send us a text

Sponsors: 
Jon Cunningham, Owner, Cunningham Financial Group
Website:  www.cunninghamfinancialgroup.com   
Phone:  205-326-7364

Tyler Cain, Senior Loan Officer, Statewide Mortgage
Websites: https://statewidemortgage.com/
https://tylercain.floify.com/
Phone: 813-380-8487

Which is it? Do we do well by the grace and power of God? Or do we grow and excel as the result of our own effort? I've really struggled with this balance for much of my life. It feels like something that is never quite right, like a pendulum. Some days I want to take it all on, chock progress up to grit, and make it happen. God is nowhere to be found. Other times I give it all to God in my fatigue and just wait for Him to do it. Neither of these work! A balanced view is needed. 

Maybe balanced isn't the right word. A - grace first, God is amazing... now lets go out in His name and do our very best - approach is what we need! This episode leans into the idea of grit, fight, discipline, and effort. But we try desperately to keep those attached to God. After all, God uses discipline to accomplish great things in you. So with Him at work first in that way, our discipline should naturally be present to accompany and compliment His. 

Do you want freedom? Chances are God wants that for you to. Let's go get it. But let's do it with Him and by Him. The sooner you accept this the better: Discipline Equals Freedom.