ACCOUNTABILITY Partners

Think about why professional athletes need coaching? To stay on top of their game, they MUST be accountable to someone who knows their strengths and weaknesses. A mentor or coach builds a relationship of TRUST while expecting a positive mental attitude, a physical exercise routine, and a team spirit. Improved performance comes from a person dedicated to a team, and to what the coach demands. Inside an effective mentor/coach relationship, both parties are acutely aware of strengths and weaknesses. Corrections are sandwiched with encouragements in order to increase ones potential spiritually, physically or financially. WHO you are in Christ, is what makes you set apart, for His purposes.  WHAT lies ahead will always be a mystery,  Trust God, do NOT be afraid.  WHEN temptation haunts you, speak aloud God's word to destroy and banish the voice that is NOT from God.  WHERE there are choices to make, make the one that honors God.  You will never regret that decision.  WHY things happen will never be certain. Hold on to your FAITH in God, and in His plan for you.  Before you enter into such a dynamic growing relationship with God, and your special accountability partner of choice... it is wise to ask yourself these important questions and write out the answers: Where have I been? Where am I going physically, spiritually and emotionally? IF I do not change

my habits, my ways...where will I be in 3 years? In five years?  For things to change I must change...my thoughts, my ways, my habits. A good mentor/accountability partner will know IF you are being honest, and IF you are not, they will be the SALT and LIGHT you need and call you on your stuff.  Taking a moral inventory requires us to be authentically honest with ourself and then to our accountability partner. We MUST place our HOPE in GOD and NOT in our mate, our sponsor, our accountability partner.  REMEMBER this TRUTH:  People will fail you.  Your expectations will not always be met.  Your heart will be broken by people, NOT GOD.  Only GOD is consistently GOOD and only His plan never fails.  We MUST choose to TRUST GOD, no matter how often our plans fail.  We MUST commit to NOT quit, no matter how many times our circumstances shift away from what we WANT.  What we NEED is different than what we WANT.  We will face trials and a CRISIS of BELIEF along our journey.  We will be required to make adjustments in our thinking to follow God's plan to prosper us. People MUST give themselves a check up from the neck up.  "EXAMINE MY MIND and HEART O' GOD and reveal to me anything in my thinking, in my ways that does NOT honor You."   AMEN!  The relationship with any accountability partner is based on TRUST.  Both must agree that whatever is shared, stays private. All information shared is honored as sacred. Our coach has the right to call us on our hesitations, and our excuses. Introspection keeps our motives pure and keeps us in the growing mode. After all, doing the same thing year after year and expecting different results defines INSANITY. Patience and commitment are critical in order to grow. Remember if you are not growing, your are decaying. Leaders read and they journal where they are physically, spiritually and mentally. Open, honest communication with self and your mentor is essential. It requires sharing feelings, thoughts, new ideas and changes. Select someone you admire and respect and schedule a time to ASK THEM to be your mentor. A "getting to know you" meeting will take at least two hours. One sitting for rapport and trust building is NOT sufficient, but it is a great start. Being straightforward and transparent will be in your best interest. Eventually you and your mentor can write a simple agreed contract which includes regular monthly/or weekly meetings. Prior to this mentor meeting make a list of where you feel you need encouragement and help. This will become a working document for you and your mentor, which can be revised and changed over time. It will give your mentor a guideline and a view of you, providing accountability and a record of your progress. Family members and friends may NOT be considered the best mentors as many have a pre-conceived idea of what you are capable of. Some of our biggest cheerleaders and critics have been family members. If you are looking to develop a model in which to measure growth, make lifestyle changes, or even be transformed by the renewing of your mind and spirit, it is suggested to find someone who is older than yourself and someone who has already achieved what your are hoping to obtain. Someone with the same energy level, someone who shares similar interests, someone who you will look forward to spending time with. Accountability partners can be sought for accelerated learning, increasing faith, improving a skill, or developing a hobby such as, photography, gardening, fishing, golfing,

arts, or exercise. Your carefully chosen accountability partner will be there to listen, pray for you, and offer suggestions for a change. You will be the one who will need to keep the communication line open and make changes as they fit in your life. Your mentor will be the one who will question your motives and challenge your complaints. Good questions to be asked are: "How are you going to handle that?" or "What would you do?"  "When do you plan to execute your firm decision?"  Coaches draw on their past experiences and share their expertise, however, the ultimate decision you make is all up to you.  You will always be responsible for your choices, good or bad. Meet together once a month, or twice a week. Decide and agree on the first Wednesday of the month or agree according to what feels comfortable for all concerned.  Make it enjoyable and celebrate your growth together.

OLD FUDDY DUDDY

In 1884 Mark Twain's first lines of Huck Finn read: "You don't know about me without readin a book by the name of 'The Adventures of Tom Sawyer'; but that ain't no matter. That book was made by a Mr. Mark Twain, and he told the truth, mainly.” Mr. Twain thought highly of his intellect, even boasting that he told the truth mainly. One of his readers, a Miss Olivia Langdon attended church twice weekly and she was a devoted Christian when Mark Twain came to court her in the 1800's.  As Mark was a well known outspoken critic of religion, Olivia's parents were openly disgruntled when she accepted Mark's proposal of marriage. The young woman believed that by association her husband's heart would soften towards Jesus. Soon after they wed, Mark took part in family prayers and Bible reading. However, over time, Mark Twain's skepticism about matters of faith, hardened his heart and eventually, his wife changed, and also withdrew from her beliefs. He was quoted to say this to his young wife:

"Livy, you may keep this up if you want to, but I must ask you to excuse me from it. It is making me a hypocrite. I do not believe in the Bible; it contradicts my reason." Time passes and Livy becomes depressed over a friends death. Her husband encourages her "Livy, why don't you lean on your Christian faith, certainly that will help you get past your grief." Olivia replies "I can't Mark, I haven't any." God is not an old fuddy duddy when He warns us to not marry those who do not share faith in Jesus Christ as Lord. Read Genesis 1:1-27 and ask the Holy Spirit to reveal the truth and give you understanding of what our Creator, Redeemer, Spirit is saying in regard to our relationship to the ONE GOD.  The Amplified Bible reads: "God said, Let Us [Father, Son, and Holy Spirit] make mankind in Our image, after Our likeness, and let them have complete authority over the fish of the sea, the birds of the air, the [tame] beasts, and over all of the earth, and over everything that creeps upon the earth. So God created man in His own image, in the image and likeness of

July 2014 in Sonora

God He created him; male and female He created them."  God said "let us" --- Who was in the "us"? The King James Version of the Bible: "And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness” Let us not rely on our intellect to interpret God's living Word, but let us be wise and ask the Holy Spirit to give us understanding.  "In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth....and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters." Gen 1:2 NIV ~ And God said....and His Spirit filled living Word created all that there is. God expects us to believe in the full Deity, Power and Authority of His Godhead. "In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, in accordance with the riches of God's grace that He lavished on us with ALL wisdom and understanding. And He made known to us the MYSTERY of His will according to His good pleasure, which He purposed in Christ, to be put into effect when the times will have reached their fulfillment---to bring ALL things in heaven and earth together under ONE head, even Christ." Ephesians 1:7-10 What God says about His Son when He brought His first-born into the world, God said, "In the beginning, O Lord, You laid the foundations of the earth, and the heavens are the work of Your hands.  They will perish, but You remain; they will all wear out like a garment....

but You remain the same, and Your years will never end." Hebrews 1:10 NIV ~ "Jesus has been found worthy of greater honor than Moses, just as the Builder of a house has greater honor than the house itself."  Hebrews 3:3 ~ The Lord's most beloved disciple wrote these Holy Spirit filled words "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.  He was with God in the beginning." John 1:1 --- God said the Word was God, and that He, the Word was with God in the beginning.  God also said "He was in the world, and though the world was MADE through Him, the world did not recognize Him. He came to that which was His own, but His own did not receive Him."  John 1:10 --- God came face to face with Mark Twain and even as Mark read these words in the Bible, Mark did not recognize Jesus as God, and Mark chose his REASON over the wisdom of God found in the holy scriptures.  Let us not make the same mistake as Mark Twain and deny or profane the Name of God.

"He has a name written on Him that no one but He Himself knows.  He is dressed in a robe dripped in blood and His name is the Word of God." Revelation 9:12-13 ~ As humans who attend church, pray and worship, we will remain empty and wanting unless we return to God, our Father, Jesus our Lord, and submit to His ever present Holy Spirit. God said "I am in Him, He is in Me, and you are "in Christ".  We are not separate when we accept what God says as the ultimate Truth.  Mark Twain relied on what he thought, his human reasoning, and without the Holy Spirit, unfortunately, Mark and his wife were led astray and failed to "get it", to understand Who Jesus Christ is. Jesus is the Word of God, He spoke as God and created the world.

OPINION OF OTHERS

When the big question "Why was I born?" emerges from within, it is a time for significant endings and new beginnings!  It is a place in the road of our journey that can make us feel disoriented as we straddle our past and consider our possible future. This dot on our timeline can make anyone feel heavy, and depressed or melancholy.  When we feel stuck and unable to make decisions about which way to travel, it is time to STOP and BE STILL and LISTEN to the voice within.  Our wise elder, the inner teacher, the Holy Spirit, may be asking us to slow down and turn inward so we can take stock of what is working, what is not? How do we respond to the opinions of others?  Do we adjust ourselves to adapt to public opinion, or do we make adjustments to hold on to our belief in what God says about us?  How do we honor our priorities, commitments,

responsibilities, and boundaries?  Who do we consult when making long-term goals?   Have we examined how our belief systems? Are the stories that we tell about ourselves and the world about the miracle of our redemption?  Do we consider how our words and silent thoughts affect our current reality? Are the stories we tell useful? Do we hold captive every thought and align our thoughts with Christ, and His plan for us?  A PRAYER: Lord help each of us grow as bored with our vocalized victim stories as everyone around us already has!”  YES, it is time to shed the skin of our old sad self like the caterpillar did! Stilled out of pure boredom with all that the world had to offer, the caterpillar released his old life, his adolescent memories and surrendered his entire body and mind.  Then God created a brand new creature with wings that can fly above the world’s ways, and get a FRESH God sized perspective of our glorious short LIFE on earth, and our valid HOPE for eternity without pain or struggles!

Our heavenly Father's opinion of us is that He is pleased with His creation and He takes great pleasure in us. We must reclaim this truth and the authority of Christ within us.  We must BELIEVE that God will FINISH what He started in us! We must inhabit the truth that God equipped us to handle whatever task He assigns to us!   Let use our wings of faith to experience our pre-destined life at its best. Our death-of-self and rebirth into a new creature “in Christ” is our separation from a previous world view, and into God’s plan. Our radical break from the lie, from our old and tired self portraits accelerates our ongoing wave of renewal! It is in the “little things” that we witness change in us.  It is in the daily details that

we notice, moment by moment, that we are living an enriched, thriving and changed life. In the face of the current overwhelming planetary crisis, we can choose to start now, and begin small, to start fresh wherever we are. As set apart people, we gladly turn away from what has never worked, to embrace God’s way. This does not mean that LIFE will become easier! We will meet opposition, we will struggle, and we will be victorious even in the midst of chaos. Small efforts make significant differences in our own communities.  Instead of trying to change the world, as transformed people with renewed minds…we confidently contribute on a small scale and know that God is using us to make huge impacts on one watching person at a time. We are faced with many choices while living on earth, however, there are only two eternal choices. Pastor Rick Warren, author of a "Purpose Driven Life" gives us a look at our two eternal choices. CLICK this link and ENJOY Rick Warren's reality check, a living Word from God, and His loving opinion of WHY we should choose His way.  The Reality of Hell, Part 1