I’m often asked by Christian leaders and guests who experience Transformation Church, “Why do you do what you do?” “What drives your ministry philosophy?”

In interview fashion, I will give the reasons for our ministry philosophy. I have two goals for this blog:

One of the most frequently asked questions I get is, “How did you become a NFL player?”

Recently, The Holy Spirit has been opening my eyes to a reality that I had always known, but never truly experienced.  And as it so happens, He has used the circumstances of my life to tutor me and teach me this invaluable lesson.

When Jesus taught His disciples to pray, He instructed them to ask their Heavenly Father for enough bread to sustain them for that day.  The phrase as most of us have learned it goes…”And give us this day our daily bread.”

For Palestinian farmers and peasants who heard these words, they rang true because they were reality.  They knew what it was to live from hand to mouth, day by day, with perhaps only a loaf of bread to sustain their bodies and fill their bellies.  They didn’t stockpile food in pantries, closets and cupboards.  Starvation was as close as a failed crop or a draught.

The essence of this admonition is that we should pray for, and expect God to give us enough (grace, patience, understanding, provision) for the current moment.  Jesus knew that our tendency is to always fret, worry, and stress over the future.  He encourages us to be content with God’s provision for today.

I am learning this reality by living this reality.

As I care for my dying father, I am daily plagued by anxiety.  What will my world be like without my dad?  What if he dies while I am out of the country (like my mom)?  What if he has to go to a nursing home?  What if I have to make the “end of life” decisions that I’ve always dreaded making?  How will we pay for long-term care if he continues to get worse?  These are normal and expected questions.

Yet there are no simple answers to these questions.  There are only more uncertainties, followed by more anxiety and fear.  When I begin to look past the cares of TODAY, I become overwhelmed by the fears of TOMORROW.

That is why Jesus spoke of God giving us daily bread.  He is faithful to provide what we need right now.  Look to Him for the immediate need.  Trust His goodness for the moment you are in.  When you have a need tomorrow, His daily grace will meet you there, but not until tomorrow comes.

My prayer lately has been simply, “Give me this day…what I need for today.  And when I get to tomorrow, give me what I need when I get there.”

Let’s try praying like Jesus told us to.  It won’t magically erase all your cares and fears, but it will slowly erode the anxiety of the future with the tangible presence of God’s daily grace in the form of daily bread.

March 27, 1987.  It was a Sunday.  I never dreamed it would be one of the biggest days of my life.

Youth Sunday at Crossroads Baptist Church in Greer, SC.  For the first time in the history of our church, two of the youth were actually going to preach.  Greg on Sunday morning.  Me on Sunday night.  What was I getting myself into?

I was 14 years old.  An 8th grader.  I loved football, basketball, and baseball.  It was my first sermon.  It would not be my last.

I had volunteered to do it.  I asked our pastor if I could take Sunday night since Greg had Sunday morning.  He gladly obliged, even meeting with me and coaching me along through the sermon preparation process.

Nobody in my family was a preacher.  I had never desired to be one, either, until several months earlier when I went to an altar at an invitation given by an evangelist at a youth rally I was attending.  I surrendered my sin, my heart, and my life to Jesus that night.  An hour later, as I prayed on my knees for the first time beside my bed, I lifted both arms up toward heaven and prayed out loud, ”Jesus, I don’t have anything to give you except my future.  But you can have it.  I will go anywhere.  I will do anything.  I will pay any price.  I’m yours.”

Evidently, Jesus took me seriously that night, and He took me up on my offer.  A desire to tell everyone about my conversion became the driving force of my life.  A strange hunger to approach perfect strangers as well as friends and share my testimony of salvation welled up inside of me, coming from another place it seemed.  I told friends at school that I had become a real Christian, that I was serious about following Jesus.  All I wanted were opportunities to talk about Christ.

So when Youth Sunday rolled around and there was a vacancy in the pulpit for Sunday night, I didn’t consult with anyone.  I volunteered.  It made sense to me.  If I could preach to 150 people at once, I would be sharing the gospel more effectively.

I studied and prepared and talked to my grandfather and my parents and my pastor about my sermon.  And when the time came, I preached.

I’d never felt anything like that before.  It was akin to an out-of-body experience.  I felt as though I was hovering above myself, listening to myself say things that I had not planned or prepared to say.  Things that I did not even know were coming out of my mouth.  I felt very much alive, and very much aware that I was being carried along by a power much greater and more eternal than myself.  I knew this was my calling in life.

I have not deviated or strayed from that calling since that day.  The Holy Spirit has carried me along since that first night, 25 years ago.  And by God’s grace, I hope to preach the gospel until I am an old man.

I’ve been in ministry now for a quarter-century and I’m not even 40 years old.  It seems like I started yesterday.  And I’ve learned a few things along the way.

1.  It’s harder than I expected - I had no idea I would face so many obstacles, challenges, setbacks, betrayals, and fears.  It has not been an easy road.

2.  It’s better than I dreamed - Inspite of the discouragement and valleys, serving Jesus is an unspeakable joy and has filled my life with purpose and satisfaction.

3.  It gets sweeter with time - the more I preach the gospel, the more I love it.  Seeing people put their faith in Jesus means more to me now than it ever has.

4.  I can’t do it alone - my precious wife, my children, and my closest friends give me the strength to carry on faithfully proclaiming Christ crucified and resurrected.

5.  I couldn’t do anything else - God hard-wired me for ministry.  He called and is still calling me to this.  The thought of doing anything else with my life is silly and absurd.

I have no idea what will happen in the next 25 years.  Things will most certainly change, and at a rapid pace I am sure.  Yet I have a sense that, by God’s grace, in another quarter-century, I will be reflecting on 50 years of ministry and God’s faithfulness.  And it will seem like a snap of the fingers or the blink of an eye…because time really does fly when you’re having fun.

The maturity of the Christ-follower is of utmost importance. So much so that the Apostle Paul said,

“So we preach Christ to everyone. With all possible wisdom we warn and teach them in order to bring each one into God’s presence as a mature individual in union with Christ. To get this done I toil and struggle, using the mighty strength which Christ supplies and which is at work in me.” Colossians 1:28-29 GNT

In my experience as a pastor and leader, I get the sense that many in the church seem to think that maturity or discipleship is about acquiring more biblical information, instead of pursuing life-transformation through a daily, love-drenched, Gospel-infused encounter with Jesus through the Holy Spirit’s indwelling presence.

It’s very possible to know the Bible but not know the Author of the Bible.

The Pharisees, or “separate ones,” studied the Scriptures passionately. They knew the Old Testament… by the age of 13! Yet they were blind to the One that every Hebrew letter in the Old Testament testified to – Jesus.

Listen to Jesus’ words to the Pharisees and to us,

“You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about Me, yet you refuse to come to Me that you may have life.” John 5:39-40 ESV

What do great leaders have in common? Here are 5 commonalities:

Great leaders are great because they have the ability to cast a vision of a future that compels a group of people to chase that future and passionately drag that future into the present because the vision makes their lives better.

Great leaders are great because they attract and build great leadership teams.

Great leaders are great because they are humble enough to learn from the great leadership team that surrounds them.

Great leaders are great because they love and value people.

Great leaders learn from leaders who have journeyed further down the leadership road than they have. They are lifelong learners.

This blog was originally posted on Just Marinating, Uprising Speaker Pastor Derwin L Gray’s blog. Visit Just Marinating to get more insights and teaching from Pastor Derwin.

I love Joshua. He’s one of my favorite people in the Bible. (I even named one of my sons after him.) I love his courage, how he followed Moses, and how he honored and served the Lord. He’s a great model for leaders. And God reminds Joshua what every leader needs to remember: It’s God who calls us. It’s God who goes with us. It’s not our job to make miracles happen – it’s His. He just invites us into the equation!

Joshua got the privilege of leading the people of Israel into the PROMISED LAND! (After Moses spent 40 years leading them through the wilderness, Joshua got this great honor!!) Who doesn’t want to go into the Promised Land?! But getting there takes active agreement – people stepping out in faith, stepping into the water at flood stage to cross over the raging waters.

If you want to make it across the raging flood-stage waters in your life to live in the free places of promise, take your eyes off the Promised Land and look to the Promiser! Fix your eyes on the One who’s promises are always TRUE. HE is the One to accomplish the miraculous in your life, but He calls us to step before the water parts!

You won’t experience the miraculous until you attempt the outrageous for God!

Step Out! Be a part of the miracle. Participate in your own growth and change. Here’s the math behind transformation:

(t=w+r)^e = T

Transformation happens when people with willing hearts follow God and take risky steps. When we do that together as a community – through the Power of Everybody, the impact is EXPONENTIAL. THAT is how we CHANGE THE WORLD!

This blog was originally posted on PeteHise.com, Uprising Founder Pastor Pete Hise’s blog. Visit PeteHise.com to get more insights and teaching from Pastor Pete.

One encounter with Jesus has the power to change everything. We saw it in Uprising pastors…we’ve seen it in the lives of hundreds who’ve given their lives to Christ in this series. The power of God to change, transform and shift a human heart is incalculable. Never underestimate the difference a day makes when God is on the scene!

Don’t stop short. Get to Jesus. Cry out to Him. Come humbly and ask boldly. He’s in the business of redeeming, restoring and renewing His people. Refuse to settle! He has more for you than you’ve ever dreamed!

Digging into Mark 10:42-56 and take a closer look at the encounter Jesus had with a blind man named Bartimaeus. There’s always so much more going on in the pages of the Bible. While you tend to think it’s a story about a blind man who gets to see, it was actually a remarkable healing of a man’s heart to fight against the status quo – the way it’s always been – and to risk everything on the possibility that Jesus might have more for him.

From this, we can pull out three keys to stepping into the “More” that God has for us – no matter where you might find yourself stuck in “life as usual”:

1. Risk on Jesus’ Reputation: Even if you haven’t personally experienced Jesus’ power or freedom in a certain area of your life, you can choose to abandon self-protection and risk your heart on the power and goodness of God.

2. Don’t Back Down, Get Louder: Bartimaeus didn’t allow the voices in his own mind or the loud voices of resistance around him to silence his request to Jesus. We may have to persist in fighting much longer than we thought, but we don’t have to give up. How do you need to turn up the volume of your request to Jesus? It may cost you some self-respect like it did for Bartimaeus, but it might also get you an encounter with Jesus!

3. Ask Big: When he had his moment, Bartimaeus didn’t ask for a change of circumstances, he asked Jesus to change HIM. He didn’t back off or hedge his bets, he humbly & boldly asked for what only Jesus could do — and he got it!

I’ve bumped into so many people who have told me that they sensed Jesus calling them into the more – in a variety of ways. Some didn’t realize they were stuck in the status quo, some had been fighting for their request to be heard, some were spurred onto to ask bigger of Jesus than they had been asking.  No matter where “here” is for you, God always had a greater “there” in mind!

This blog was originally posted on PeteHise.com, Uprising Founder Pastor Pete Hise’s blog. Visit PeteHise.com to get more insights and teaching from Pastor Pete.