It was really out of the ordinary and uncharacteristic for the situation and the subject, and I have been meditating on it for a few days and asking God why it bothered me so much. It was almost as if while I was watching it my heart was aching, and I only saw it for about 10 seconds.

What I saw was an Eagle, a Bald Eagle to be exact, and he was in a stadium, not sure if it was baseball or football, but he was flying  around inside the stadium and couldn’t get out, a few times he even smacked into the plexiglass windows that are on the front of the suites that some businesses own before he finally flew out of the stadium.

So why did this bother me, why did this seem to affect me so deeply?

Because Eagles are meant to soar!

What I saw was this creature that was so majestic and beautiful, surrounded by something that was completely foreign to him, and he didn’t know what to do or where to go, a creature that was meant to soar, so scared and nervous that all he could do was flap his wings and smack into things trying desperately to get back to a place where he could soar on the winds again. I’m not sure how he got into the stadium or why, maybe he was chasing something or became wounded and fell into the stadium, I’m not sure, but it was humbling to see something so majestic in such a position of helplessness.

Often times when I think of Christians and the church, I think we are like that Eagle, we are made by God as majestic and beautiful creatures, and we are meant to soar on the winds of His Holy Spirit, we are meant for people to look at us in awe of what out lives look like and the things we do with His help.

But all too often, whether by accident, wounding, or chasing something that is contrary to what God has called us to, we end up flying around in a Statium…lost. Feverishly flapping our wings and smacking into windows as people look on, laugh at us and broadcast it to everyone they know how foolish we look.

My Prayer today for myself and for you is this, that your Hope will be in our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, that we will know deep in the very pit of who we are, that we are “Made for Greatness” and that as Isaiah 40:31 says “but those who hope in the LORD will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.”

Liftoff

Cory Bolduc, Crossroads Winnebago Campus Pastor

This weekend is the big weekend, the day that starts what this fast has been all about, the reading today should remind us of the people all around us, the lost sheep, that don’t know Jesus, the prodigal sons and daughters that need to return to Him, the ones around us, that are going to come to a fantastic encounter, with a living God. What God has already done here in the Winnebago area, has been beyond anything I could have ever imagined, I’m praying today that as you read this, that God lays people on your hearts to invite to His house tomorrow, and I’m praying that their lives and our are changed, as we help populate heaven with souls. It’s an honor, to be serving alongside of every single one of you.

Bible Reading: Luke 15

Steven Furtick, Lead Pastor of Elevation Church

Sometimes it can be very difficult to process your own sin. When we sin, there is usually an element of regret. Which is a good thing. If there was none, we should probably be worried about the condition of our hearts.

But usually we focus this regret on the desire to undo the past action. We wish we could go back and change what we’ve done.

But we can’t. It happened, and there’s no changing it. So we have to face an important truth if we don’t want to perpetually live in a state of regret and self-condemnation:
You can’t un-sin. Only re-pent.

Those words you shouldn’t have said…were said.
That guy you shouldn’t have slept with…you slept with.
The compromise that you made at work…you made.

What’s done is done. You can’t un-sin. And while it might be good that you wish you could, ultimately there’s no going backwards.

But there is a way forward. And the way forward is the path of repentance. You can’t un-say what you said, but you can re-pent of what you said. You can’t un-sleep with that guy, but you can re-pent to God for doing it.

As far as the past goes, what happened, happened. But as far as your future goes, with God it could be as if it never happened. You can get a fresh understanding with God. A chance to not let your past mistakes affect your future possibilities.

Un-sinning has an orientation towards the past. Re-pentance, on the other hand, is about the future. It’s dealing with your past disobedience towards God so you can walk towards your future relationship with Him. And that’s what He wants for you.

So if you’re dealing with the regrets and guilt of yesterday, or last month, or even ten years ago, don’t waste any more time playing the scenario over in your head and imagining doing it differently. It’s done.

Embrace the truth that God preempted your past faithlessness in your life with his past faithfulness on the cross. Re-pent of what you’ve done. And move on towards the future God has for you.

Bible Reading: Acts 3

Steven Furtick, Lead Pastor of Elevation Church

While they were still talking about this, Jesus himself stood among them and said to them, “Peace be with you.” They were startled and frightened, thinking they saw a ghost.
Luke 24:36-37

What an ironic statement. The disciples were precisely scared and frightened. They probably feared for their lives at the hands of the Jewish leaders. And now a man they thought was dead had just walked through the doors and appeared to them out of nowhere. They had every apparent reason to be afraid and feel no peace at all.

Yet that’s what Jesus proclaims to them.  I don’t think it’s because Jesus is insensitive. I actually think He’s just stating a matter of fact: He is now with them in the room. And so now peace is with them in their circumstances.

It’s interesting that the settings that we associate peace with are so different from what God associates peace with. For God, peace has nothing to do with the absence of a catalyst of fear. Instead, it has everything to do with the presence of Christ.

Peace isn’t a clear doctor’s report.
Peace isn’t when there’s no conflict in your marriage.
Peace isn’t absolute certainty about your future.

It’s the knowledge of the fact that Christ is with you even if the report comes back with news of cancer. That Christ is with you in the midst of tense moments in your marriage. That Christ is with you in your present, and He’s already waiting for you in your future.

God brings his peace into situations where we’re most afraid and most frightened, not where there is no fear or no trepidation. It’s in the moments when we need God’s peace most desperately that He supplies it most abundantly.

I think what we really want isn’t peace. It’s calm conditions. Unfortunately, Jesus never promised us that. He only promised us His presence:
Surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age (Matthew 28:20).

And it’s His presence that should fill us with peace in the midst of any unpeaceful circumstance we ever encounter.

Bible Reading: Luke 24

Pete Wilson, Lead Pastor of Crosspoint Church

“Ambition! We must be careful what we mean by it. If it means the desire to get ahead of other people…then it is bad. If it means simply wanting to do a thing well, then it is good. It isn’t wrong for an actor to want to act his part as well as it can possibly be acted, but the wish to have his name in bigger type than the other actors is a bad one…What we call “ambition” usually means the wish to be more conspicuous or
more successful than someone else. It is this competitive element in it that is bad. It is perfectly reasonable to want to dance well or to look nice. But when the dominant wish is to dance better or look nicer than others – when you begin to feel that if the others danced as well as you or looked as nice as you, that it would take all the fun out of it – then you are going wrong.” – C.S Lewis

So true isn’t it? Ambition at its worst is a comparitive sin.

It’s not enough to be a strong leader. You have to be the strongest leader.

It’s not enough to be a pretty wife, you have to be the prettiest wife.

It’s not enough to climb the ladder, you have to be at the top of the ladder.

It’s not enough to be a good mom, you have to be seen as the best mom.

It’s not enough to be a good pastor, you want to be known as the best pastor.

You have to constantly see yourself as better , more deserving , and more right than everyone else.

Just dance. Don’t worry about everyone else on the floor.

Bible Reading: Colossians 3

Seth McRae, C3 Vancouver Campus Pastor

MEMENTUM:  The momentum found through the mementos of God’s faithfulness in our lives.

“The people crossed the Jordan on the tenth day of the first month. Then they camped at Gilgal, just east of Jericho.  It was there at Gilgal that Joshua piled up the twelve stones taken from the Jordan River.

  Then Joshua said to the Israelites, “In the future your children will ask, ‘What do these stones mean?’  Then you can tell them, ‘This is where the Israelites crossed the Jordan on dry ground.’ For the Lord your God dried up the river right before your eyes, and he kept it dry until you were all across, just as he did at the Red Sea when he dried it up until we had all crossed over.  He did this so all the nations of the earth might know that the Lord’s hand is powerful, and so you might fear the Lord your God forever.”  Joshua 4:19-24

The Israelites thought they were building a monument to the past, yet in reality they were laying a foundation for the future.  See Joshua knew that the faith necessary to face the challenges that awaited them in the mountains would be found in remembering God’s faithfulness in the valleys.

What challenges are you facing today?

What mountains in your life do you wish you had the faith to move?

See if this story teaches us anything it’s that faith is less the cause of God’s move in our lives as much as it is the result of it.  That a unstoppable faith is built on the stones of God’s faithfulness.   In other words, it’s just taking the time to remember, reflect, and celebrate those God moments in our life.  It’s taking the time to put as much focus on what He has done in our yesterday as we do the things we need to get done in our today.

Reflection:  Identify three huge mementos/ moments of God’s faithfulness in your life?

Memento 1:

Memento 2:

Memento 3:

Identify a recent memento/moment of God’s faithfulness…where He showed up big in your life over the past month?

Prayer Focus:  Take time to simply focus on God’s faithfulness in your life.

Bible Reading: Joshua 3 & 4

Comfortable

Cory Bolduc, Crossroads Winnebago Campus Pastor

I was driving a few months ago, my 16 hour trek to Illinois and saw some of God’s beautiful creation on the way, saw many mountains, tree covered hills, corn, corn, and I even saw a bit of corn. Now the first 5 hours of this trip I have done may times on my way back and forth to Kingsport, and I knew the route I was taking took me on the same roads, so even though I had my GPS hooked up, I really didn’t pay much attention to it for the first 5 hours, because I knew where I was going, I had been there before, I was comfortable.

The last 11 hours of the trip were all uncharted territory for me, I relied solely on the GPS to tell me where I needed to go, what turns I needed to make and what I needed to avoid, and while following the GPS I was looking around at so much new scenery that I had never seen before, it was such an adventure. I saw a wind farm that blew my mind, it was the most gigantic windmills I had ever seen and they went for miles and miles and I was literally in awe of the pure majesty of it, I cut through the mountains getting glimpses of peaks and valleys that were stunnung, that I had never seen before, I came through the city of Chicago, which I beleive is one of the most beautiful cities in America and saw massive buildings with a beautiful lake as a backdrop.

As I traveled, I thought about my life and my relationship with God. In the past, and even occasionally now, I, and I know many others who slip into a rut of being, Comfortable. We spend our lives wandering around in territory that we are familiar with, doing the same ol’ same ol’ day in and day out. Now I am not at all against consistency and stability, but I do beleive we need to keep a check on our relationships when we live lives of comfortability, because just like the GPS, if we too often stay in our comfort zone, God could become a “just in case” in our lives instead of something we have to depend on. We could become so familiar with God, that we pay him no attention. That’s not what the Christian life is about.

I beleive God has called us to an adventure, the great commision tells us to GO into all the world, that command implies action, that we are to step out of where we are comfortable, reach people that are otherwise unreachable, let God be your GPS, and on the adventure He has called you to, you will see some of the most majestic, beautiful, creations and miracles that God has done, and live a life that is Ephesians 3:20 “Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us”

Bible Reading: John 15

Steven Furtick, Lead Pastor of Elevation Church

You may say to yourselves, “These nations are stronger than we are. How can we drive them out?” But do not be afraid of them; remember well what the LORD your God did to Pharaoh and to all Egypt.
 Deuteronomy 7:17-18

Nothing can sabotage radical belief in the promises of God quite like calculation.

The Israelites were facing a seemingly insurmountable task. They were about to enter the Promised Land and face not only a multitude of enemies, but enemies who were clearly stronger and more capable than them. God knew what would happen: they would ask the faith-shattering calculative question, how?

And so He preempted their question with an instruction: remember Egypt.
 Essentially, don’t try to calculate how I’ll do it…just remember how I did it.

God’s instructions haven’t changed much thousands of years later for those of us facing uncertainty as to how God is going to come through for us. You might be wondering how God is going to provide for your family now that you’ve lost your job. Or how He is going to cover the costs of your education. Or how He is going to do any of the other number of things you need Him to do.

Well, I don’t know how. Neither do you. And the truth is, we don’t have to know how. We just need to know that He can. And the way we know that He can is by calling to mind what He’s done.

And He’s done plenty. Your life is littered with signposts of God’s faithfulness. Regardless of your circumstances, take a moment and take a look at them. Remember Egypt. Remember what God has already overcome in your past as you face your present. Then leave the how to Him.

Bible Reading: Deuteronomy 7

Keith Boyer, Lead Pastor of Crossroads

HOMESTRETCH… How are you feeling about being on the “homestretch” of your 21 days of prayer and fasting? Are you looking forward to next week, when you can go back to the things that you’ve gone without? If you are, there’s nothing wrong with that. Nobody expects us to fast forever…just consistently.

I received an e-mail from someone during their 21-day challenge, sharing how they’re feeling about being on the homestretch… “As I approached the fast I thought we would do Tuesdays and Thursdays. That would work out well with ‘our plans’. So when Jan came down Monday morning and asked me if I had eaten my muffin and cereal I said, “no I think God wants us to step-up our fast and really make it for Him.” I suggested we take a crack at a full juice fast. She agreed 100%. Now here we are in the final week and I know we will make it to the end. When I told Jan we needed to step the fast up that Monday morning, I was really unsure if I could pull it off. I just told God, if this is what you want me to do then sustain me. HE HAS! I am now 20 pounds lighter, my spirit is refreshed, and things of this world seem a lot less troublesome to me…and we feel almost melancholy about the end of the fast.

For me it’s a mixed bag. There is a part of me that doesn’t want to step away from all that has been gained … or lost if you’re looking at it in relationship to weight. There’s another part of me that is really hungry for an “unguarded” meal.

Here’s what I’d like to leave you with as we enter the homestretch… maintain what you’ve gained! How?

Continue to create space for God to fill. Determine what aspects of what you did for a season can become a lifestyle. Ex. Daily Bible reading; fasting one day per week or one meal per day.

Keep praying audacious prayers… during your quiet time and in community. Let’s make Crossroads Church a “house of prayer” and as a result, a place where miracles happen and the impossible is made possible!

Finish strong… you’ll be glad you did! After all, the best is yet to come … God is going to crown the year with a bountiful harvest … even the hard pathways are going to OVERLFOW with abundance! (PS. 65:11)

Bible Reading: Phillipians 3

Adversaries.

Cory Bolduc

Crossroads Winnebago Campus Pastor

Cowboys and Indians-Cops and Robbers-Pirates and Sailors-Good Guys and Bad
Guys, from an early age, little boys understand the idea of conquering
something and facing an adversary.

One of the most fun things I have been teaching my boys lately, is the idea
of conquering, or reaching a goal. My youngest turned four in January and the
other day we were hiking through the feilds, he wanted to play follow the
leader, and He was the leader,(he made that very clear). It felt so great to be
behind him and to encourage him when he reached a point where he thought he
couldn’t go on.

While I walked behind him occasionally he would see a few big rocks or a
fallen tree in the path where he was going, he would stop and look back and say
“daddy help” and all I had to do was encourage him, and tell him to be careful
but he could do it. His face would literally light up each time he conquered
his task. While we were walking with no apparent goal, I saw a big tree that
was fairly close and told him our goal was to reach that tree, and in typical
boyish fashion, when he reached it he looked back with such a proud face and
said “beat ya”.

I can’t tell you how much I have learned about God from being a father
myself. I know we will always have adversaries in our lives, and we always wish
to conquer that which is in front of us. Isn’t our heavenly father like that?
So often He is behind us, encouraging us throughout our trials, where we face a
situation that looks impossible in our own strength, and He whispers to us “You
can do it” and it gives us the confidence to keep pressing on, and when we
conquer something, it builds our faith, both in God and in ourselves.

I pray that daily, we continue to seek God for encouragement, for leading,
guiding and directing us where He wants us to go, and for checking our pride,
so that we won’t be the ones that when we conquer a task that couldn’t have
been done without God’s help, we don’t reach our goal, look back and say, “beat
Ya”.

Bible Reading: Romans 12