1. Are you honoring God with your tithe?

2. Do your monthly bills exceed your monthly income?

3. Do you have an emergency fund?

4. Are you living from paycheck to paycheck?

5. Is you marriage affected by your financial situation?

6. Are you making minimum monthly payments on credit card debt?

7. Are you late on any of your payment obligations?

Quite honestly, we are living in a time of economic uncertainty. We are experiencing a the highest unemployment rate that our country has seen in decades. It is a time to prepare for the future, economically speaking.  So, how is YOUR economy?

If this blog post has spurred you to consider some adjustments, let me know… I would love to help you.

So with that said, how does a simple guy like me look at New Year’s resolutions? Pretty simple…go back to the basics…as Vince Lombardi once told his players as they showed up for spring training…”this is a football”…can’t get more basic than that.

So what’s my resolution fro 2010? Love God and Love People. Yup, pretty simple…pretty basic…no hype…no drama…no fan fair…no big announcement. In 2010, I am going back to the basics. Yes, Love God and Love People…comes from God’s Word…And behold, a certain lawyer stood up and tested Him, saying, “Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?”  He said to him, “What is written in the law? What is your reading of it?”  So he answered and said, ” ‘You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind,’ and ‘your neighbor as yourself.’ ” And He said to him, “You have answered rightly; do this and you will live.” Luke 10:25-28 (NKJV)

Now, how am I going to Love God and Love People more in 2010? Again, a pretty simple plan:

Love God…

• Spend more time in prayer.
• Spend more time in His Word.
• Read more to gain better insight and understanding.
• Work on becoming more like Christ.

Love People…

• Be a better husband, Dad, Grandfather, son and brother.
• Pour more of my life into some young people…maybe my sons, daughter, son-in-law, daughters-in-law, grandchildren.
• Pour more of my life into my co-workers.
• Pour more of my life into men that are around me…both young and old.
• Pour more of my life into our Sonshine Ministry folks…they love me unconditionally and I need to do more of the same.
• Here’s a big one…be an encourager rather than a criticizer.

It’s a pretty simple plan…it was Jesus’ plan. He loved His Father and loved people…he poured His life into all the people that he met. Well, there it is…who will hold me accountable?

That is the advice and the description of ministry that John McFadden gave to me on the first day that I showed up to serve North Side. Yes, he said…it is all about managing the interruptions. Boy, have I ever found that out to be true in ministry during the past 8 years. Some of those interruptions…

• A husband shows up at your office door on Saturday, while you are try to catch up, in tears because his marriage has just fallen apart.
• A mother is completely broken over a wayward child.
• A child wants to make a profession of faith to their pastor.
• A son has a car accident and is diagnosed with cancer.
• A fellow staff member  is diagnosed with cancer.
• A fellow staff member’s son has a horrible auto accident.
• Another husband in a broken marriage.
• A wife and mother in deep depression.
• A husband just lost his job.
• A spouse has been caught being unfaithful.
• A family lost their home.
• A family needs some financial help with mounting bills.
• Another family about to lose their home because of unemployment.
• A Dad needs help finding a job.
• A husband is br0ken by yesterday’s message.
• A Mom and Dad’s daughter was just in a horrible accident.
• A sudden death in a family.
• The list goes on and on…

As I read the Gospels, I see very clearly how Jesus’ life was full of interruptions…people wanting to be healed, people wanting their children to be healed,  people wanting to be saved, people wanting to be taught, people wanting to hear words of comfort,  people challenging His authority and teaching. Jesus lived a life full of interruptions. He turned them into opportunities to minister to His people.

Now, isn’t that the way we are to live? What if we looked at these interruptions as opportunities for ministry? That would be a completely different perspective. What if…we lived our lives in such a way that we looked for the interruptions…looked for opportunities. That would be living with our eyes wide open. Many times these interruptions are in the midst of a tragedy and it is an opportunity to minister to some one or some family.

It does require a couple of things…it requires that we get our hands dirty and get involved in the tragedy…it requires us to be unashamed of our faith…it requires us to be submissive and obedient to the leading of the Holy Spirit.

How will you manage the next interruption?

Well, last night, after suffering through most of game 1 of the World series (yes, I am a Yankees fan)…I deleted about 600 emails, one by one. Then I decided that this was crazy! I was saving stuff hat I would never ever use again. The migration included my contacts and and my calendar…which are really important to me…more so than the old emails. So, I did the only logical thing that any normal 58 year old man in my situation would do…I deleted all of the remaining migration files. Yes, I wiped the slate clean. I am starting over. I realized that the baggage of my past was holding me back from moving forward! So, now I am looking forward. I have made myself a resolution to keep my inbox clean, not save old emails and use the archive system provided in Gmail. I am not looking back. I am going forward.

A great spiritual application…how many times in our lives do we dwell in the past? We beat ourselves up by drudging up our past behavior. God is not interested in the past. If we have accepted Jesus Christ as our personal Saviour, He has forgiven us of our sins. He is more interested what we will do from this day forward. If you haven’t accepted Christ as your personal Saviour, now is the time. God knows that we are sinners and cannot live without sin…that is why He sent His Son to die for us.  He wants us to repent and turn away from sin, not dwell on it. Although, we must understand that there are consequences of our past sin. We cannot escape those. He wants us to move forward through His leadership…that requires the surrender of our past and the surrender of our present lives to Him. Join me…wipe the slate clean and move forward.

Several weeks ago…I had one such fall. It came out of nowhere…suddenly and without warning. I was headed to a meeting at church one evening. I was running a little late and I stopped to talk with some people in the Green Room. Then, I looked at my watch and realized I was going to be late for my meeting in the auditorium. So I excused myself and rushed off. What I did not realize was that the carpet that I was standing on was just shampoo-ed. My shoes were slippery and when I stepped off the carpet and onto the vinyl floor, my feet went out from under me. It was a real strange feeling…it all happened in a matter of seconds, but I actually remember saying to myself…oh boy, this is going to hurt. One point six seconds later, as I went from vertical to completely horizontal, my head hit the floor. Although I tried to cushion the fall with my hands, nothing helped…I came crashing down. Aside from a couple of  small cuts, sprains and a number of bruises…I came through it ok. Probably the heaviest damage was a bruised ego. Since that day, I have been dealing with a variety of aches and pains…consequences of the fall.

Since my physical fall, I have had some time to reflect on my spiritual life…am I headed for a fall? The Apostle Paul wrote to the church at Corinth…Therefore let him who thinks he stands take heed that he does not fall. 1 Cor 10:12 (NASB). Am I running so fast in my spiritual life that I am headed for a fall? Wow! that really makes me hit the pause button. It makes me really think…am I really spending time with God?…am I spending time in his Word seeking direction and application?…am I protecting myself against a fall by setting boundaries for myself?…do I need to make any adjustments? I know that all of us are vulnerable to a spiritual fall, however, I want to protect myself as much as possible.

How about you? Are you headed for a fall? What are you doing to protect yourself?

Consider this passage from John’s Gospel…As He (Jesus) passed by, He saw a man blind from birth.  And His disciples asked Him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he would be born blind?”  Jesus answered, “It was neither that this man sinned, nor his parents; but it was so that the works of God might be displayed in him. John 9:1-3 (NASB)  Then, Jesus healed the man! God received the glory, not the blind man.

John is telling us that there are times that  we go through what we go through in this life, so in the end, God get’s the glory. Certainly there are those circumstances that we suffer or endure consequesnces of our actions. But what about those times when sickness, illness, disease, sudden death, comes upon someone with no apparanrant reason? As we go through these circumstances, we then rely on our faith in Christ. We trust…we endure..we pray…we submit..we obey…we walk by faith…then, He gets the glory, not us.

I am reminded of the time that my son Eric, taught me a lesson on encouragement. It was in his hospital room, late one Friday evening. Eric had just had five long, brutal days of chemotherapy. You know, that is the stuff  they put in your body to kill the bad cancer cells which also has tremendously bad side affects. Anyways, it was bout 10:00 pm that Friday evening and there was a faint knock on the door and a small voice said “housekeeping”. Eric mustered the strength to say, come on in. She came in, cleaned and mopped his room very diligently and quietly. She was an elderly lady and looked very tired. It obviously had been a long day and probably a long week for her. As she finished her cleaning and gathered her supplies to leave the room quietly, trying not to disturb Eric, I heard him say “Thank You!”. Boy, the smile that came across her face was something to behold. Eric had made her day. She was encouraged. She has a thankless job, and someone took the time out to recognize that. I was overwhelmed…tearful…proud…and thankful all at the same time.

I wonder how many times during the course of the day, that I miss opportunities to encourage people. Think about all the opportunities that we have to encourage those around us…

• the check out clerk at Wal-Mart
• our fellow workers
• our spouse
• our children
• a telemarketer (now that is a tough one)
• the trash man
• our pastor
• a waitress
• our Mom and Dad
• a worker at the take out window
• our brothers and sisters
• the list goes on and on…

Sometimes, encouraging people requires us to be intentional. It requires us to slow down and spend time with people in order to encourage them. Eric taught be a very important lesson that Friday evening…in spite of our own circumstances, let us never neglect encouraging others.

We can argue how effective our meteorologists are today in their predictions. However, when we see a a large green mass to our west on a radar screen, we are pretty sure that rain is coming our way. When we seen yellow and red on that screen, we know that the storm is going to be very turbulent and potentially very violent. Unfortunately, but maybe fortunately, we do not have a radar screen for the storms of life. These storms come at us unexpectedly. The storms can be a sudden illness, a job loss, a serious diagnosis, the loss of a loved one, and the list goes on and on and on…

It is during these times that I am reminded of Jesus’ disciple in the midst of a storm…

When He got into the boat, His disciples followed Him. And behold, there arose a great storm on the sea, so that the boat was being covered with the waves; but Jesus Himself was asleep. And they came to Him and woke Him, saying, “Save us, Lord; we are perishing!”  He said to them, “Why are you afraid, you men of little faith?” Then He got up and rebuked the winds and the sea, and it became perfectly calm. Matt 8:23-26 (NASB)

Oh, how many time have I said, “Save me Lord, I am perishing!”.  As I draw close to the Lord, I am reminded that He is above all..even my storm. Maybe today, you are in the midst of one of those storms of life. Maybe, you are not, but one may be right around the corner. You too can take confort in knowing that Jesus is above all. He can calm the winds and the storms of our lives.  We must rely on Jesus Christ, not the things of this world for comfort, peace and endurance through the storms of life.

Prepared by: Ron Damer

1. Why do you attend a Job Fair?
   • Identify hiring companies
   • Identify companies that use your skill sets
   • Get an interview
   • Plant your resume’
   • Network with other job hunters
2. What should you take to a Job Fair?
   • At least 10 copies of your most recent resume’
   • Business cards with your name, address, capabilities and objectives to give to recruiters and network contacts
   • Your “elevator speech”
   • A notepad or memo pad to record contacts made
   • A cell phone camera if you have one, to take pics of job postings off bulletin boards
   • Your calendar (hard copy, in your cell phone or PDA) to check dates you are available for interviews, follow-up.
3. What should you wear to a Job Fair?
   • For salaried positions – Suit and tie
   • All others – “Business Casual”  — collared shirt and dress or casual pants.  No jeans, shorts,  or T-shirts.
4. What should you do at a Job Fair?
   • Submit your resume’ to as many plausible openings as possible.
   • Leave your business card with all recruiters, company representatives and networking contacts that you encounter.
   • Find and take home copies of all material that may be helpful:
   • Job Market publications
   • Job Postings
   • Other Job Fair Announcements
   • Recruiter advertisements/handouts
   • Websites learned about
   • Contact info for network contacts
   • A listing of all participating companies (usually handed out at the door