There is a something that I read off a magazine which really inspires me.

Build wisely. It is the only life you will ever build.

Even if you live it for only one day more, that day deserves to be lived graciously and with dignity.

Your life today is the result of your attitudes and choices in the past.

Your life tomorrow will be the result of your attitudes and the choices you make today. – make today count.

Today we are going to be learning from the Word of God about how to LEAD WITH A PURPOSE OR BETTER YET…LEAVE A MARK

If you had one month to live….how would you change your life?

Would you “LEAD” differently? Or would you lead the same as always before?

Today’s M3 word from our theme is: MARK

I looked up the work MARK in the dictionary:

1. A line,  cut, stain, bruise that can be noticed
2. A badge of visible sign
3. A symbol using in writing
4. A target or goal
5. To be given ownership belonging to something or someone

As Christians…we are belong to Jesus Christ…

As people who are not Christians, we do not have a “MARK” yet

Some of us who are Christians, maybe have felt they have lost the MARK

Let me give you some words from Paul….

Philippians 3:14: “I press on towards the mark to win the prize for which God has called me in Jesus Christ”

Some of us are new and maybe haven’t learned what it means to have the MARK….. again Paul says…

In 1 Corinthians 11:1 it says:

“Follow my example, as I follow the example of Jesus”

Also in Philippians 3:17

“Brothers and sisters, join together in following my example. Also, learn by watching those who are living the way we showed you”

Interesting…Paul was emphasizing over and over…

….follow Jesus example….

You know there are 27 books in the NT….Paul wrote 14 books in the NT

Paul used the name of Jesus,….230 times

Think about it….how many times have you used the name of Jesus this past week?

How many times have you used the name of Jesus this past month?

How many times have you used the name of Jesus since yesterday?

A couple of years ago, I traveled to Florida to attend a Deaf Christian Conference. My whole purpose of going was to connect with new deaf pastors that share the same beliefs as me.

I met around 14 different deaf pastors, teachers, leaders from all over the nation.

We began to discuss about Jesus….baptism….salvation….our beliefs.

And I thought…wow..this is awesome. I can freely express myself with these people.

Why because that is a Christian group…..

Can I express the same with non-Christians? Of course I can..i am not ashamed of my beliefs.

Because someday, somehow, someway….those people that you talk to or hang out with will see a different in you and you will impact them to be more like Jesus

Paul says…”Follow my example just as I am following His”

• You cannot follow Jesus if you are involved in sex- joking
• You cannot follow Jesus if you are involved in gossip
• You cannot follow Jesus if you are looking or watching things on the PC or TV that you aren’t supposed to be looking at.

WHY?…I want to “LEAD” with a purpose…

LEAD how?  By setting an example

Purpose, what?   By showing them that Jesus is more impt than anything else and to prove to them that the world

If you put Jesus in the middle of your life and in the middle of your everyday living…..your influence will show, your life will show it.

If you continue to push Jesus aside and say…today is my time…we will meet later…. No….. Jesus expects you to do your job 24/7

• We need to treat Jesus like He is our COMMANDER..
• Who are we to not listen to our “Commander” ?
• When we are facing sin and doing wrong, the COMMANDER yells to us..”ABOUT FACE”  and we turn from sin to face Him.
• What happens in the ARMY if a soldier does not listen to their commander?
• PUNISHMENT

How do we LEAD with a purpose

Paul wrote a small prayer to a church in Philippians:

I pray that:

• Your love will grow more and more
• That you will have knowledge and understanding with your
  love
• That you will see the difference between what is
  important and what is not important
• That you will choose what is important
• That you will be pure and without blame for the coming of
  Jesus soon
• That your life will be full of many good works that are
  produced by Jesus Christ
• To bring glory and praise to God

That you will see the difference between what is important and what is not important….

You have to learn to LEAD with a PURPOSE……to leave a good
mark on people…how?

• by talking to people about Jesus
• by telling people how much you enjoy
  the deaf church
• by telling people how much you enjoy
  hearing God’s word
• by telling people how much you enjoy
  the fellowship
• by telling people how much you miss
  them and which they would join you
• by telling people how much you have
  changed since before you started church
• by telling people that God loves them

Question….if we are told that we have one month to live….and we are to LEAD with a purpose…

God left His mark on many of us already….but those of you haven’t experienced that MARK yet… maybe its time that you do… there is a video that I want to show you,

• I challenge you today to take up the responsibilities and LEAD with a purpose….
• I challenge you today to look for someone in your life that is an example of Jesus and copy that example
• I challenge you to put God first in your life…not Deaf events, not family, not money, not job….God first
• I challenge you to LEAD the way that God expects us to….
• I challenge you to allow God to leave His mark on you
• Why? So that you can share that mark with others…

So may you share and HONOR your MARK with others….HOW? By leading with the RIGHT purpose!

Sorry for the long delay….been taking care of many other things. Here is a summary of the 212jam Deaf Revival @ Knoxville, Tennesse which was at Dotson Memorial Baptist Church.

Friday Night:

There are days where I recieve VP calls from people that I don’t feel like answering. There are times where I am busy and people call and I have to drop what I do to answer.

There are days where the person on the other side of the VP is so insulting and so hurtful that in the back of my mind I am saying, “What a jerk!”

After hanging up, I realize for a moment…..is this how God feels when we are “jerks” too?

But you know what, even when we are “jerks” God still loves us. So if God loves “jerks” we must love “jerks” too.

John 13:35 mentions”By this all people will know you are My disciples, if you have love for one another”

Think about it…

1. who is the person that you love the most? (parents, brothers, sisters, best friend, etc)
2. Why do you love that person so much?
3. How do you show your love to them?
4. If they did wrong, would it be easy to overlook their wrongs?
5. What about enemies? Do you love them too?
6. Is it easy to overlook their wrongs and still love them?
7. If not, then how are you loving them if you aren’t overlooking their wrongs?

PLAIN AND SIMPLE:  If you are not forgiving them, you are not loving them.

If God can forgive us and love us, we should repeat that pattern!

For TODAY’s M3 theme…the first M word is = MEND

Those
definitions are good ones, why?

• To make something whole again = a person with a broken heart cannot fix the heart to be whole again. It requires something or someone to fix it
• To remove or correct errors
  = there are some issues and problems that we cannot rely on ourselves to remove or fix errors in our lives
• To set right; make better; improve = this requires us to do something first before we move forward
• To grow back together = an operation on the heart still has to heal, still has to be operated on possible in the future, but never can it grow back on its own without someone’s help

TONIGHT, I want to make it easy for you to remember how to have a MENDED HEART…
M ake peace

2 Corinthians 13:11 – Brothers, mend your ways. Encourage one another.
Live in harmony and peace and the God of love and peace will be with you.

E xpect hard times

1 Peter 5:10 – After you have suffered awhile, He himself will mend
what was broken before.

 N ever doubt His work

Jeremiah 18:4 – The vessel that he made of clay was married in the hand
of the potter; so he made it again into another vessel as it seemed good to the
potter. Broken things can become blessed things if you let God do the mending.
There is not a life that He can’t recreate or mend back together.

D on’t ignore His promise

2 Corinthians 1:22 – This is because God sends His Holy Spirit to mend
the broken pieces of our life for He has anointed us, and sealed us and given
us His Spirit in our hearts as a guarantee.

This past year, when I was preaching a sermon at a church. Instead of preaching a full sermon, I decided to have a PRAYER service afterwards to see PRAYER in action. I had gathered prayer requests from people in the community and surrounding us as well. One couple had requested a special prayer for them.  The father, Chris, had shared that him and his wife were struggling with guilt over something for 7 years. The story goes like this:

Steve, please pray for us. Me and my wife have lived with guilt and fear for so long. Its been 7 years and its always hard to remove this. When we were both 18, we had celebrated a party for our graduation and my parents were out of town on business. We invited our friends who stuck with us through high school because we accidentially got pregnant and alot of our friends didnt want to hang out with “parents” who had a small child. That night, our son was 2 years old. We and our friends got drunk and high and we had a younger child watch our son and a couple others for the night in the basement. The next morning, my son had come up to tell me that he was hungry. I had directed him to the kitchen to grab something. After that, I had went back to sleep. A few hours later, I woke up and then realized that my son never came back in the room. I looked everywhere for him. In his room, in the kitchen, in the bathtub, no where was he found. Then I noticed the back patio door was open a little. I ran outside and found our son drowned and dead in the pool. We have lived with this guilt for 7 years. Please pray for us to have this removed from our hearts.

That was a heartbreaking story… but shortly after we prayed for them and kept in touch, that couple found a church in their hometown, joined the church, and have been experiencing God more and more. This past May, they gave birth to two beautiful twin daughters, Grace and Hope.

Mended hearts! Mended hearts require broken hearts. Broken hearts required a “MENDER”

and that “MENDER” is Jesus Christ. No one else can fix it for you, not your parents. Not your pastor. Not your best friend, noone except Jesus Christ.

May you give your broken heart to Jesus to be MENDED.

WOW! Thats mainly the only word to describe this past weekend. The Lord was REALLY, I mean, REALLLLLLLLY working on the hearts of many this weekend. I had several people come to me all weekend talking about things that I have been praying would happen among Deaf people.

This revival was different. It was the first one ever at this Deaf Church. It was a new ministry. New experience, and new territory for everyone involved. Thomas Cook, the Deaf pastor at Dotson Memorial Baptist Church, said “Its finally happening!” Yes, its finally happening…and its not over yet. God is just getting started now with Thomas and his Deaf group.

While I will not go so much into details since I know I said I would share my revival notes afterwards. We just got home today and I am doggone tired! But God used every ounce of my energy this weekend from Friday afternoon with the Dotson Deaf Group with a team-building workshop….to the Friday evening Revival kickoff….to the Saturday morning with the Knoxville group represented by 5 different churches….to the Saturday evening Revival service….to the Sunday morning Revival service…and then ending with the Sunday evening 212jam Concert.  It was WELL worth it. It is my prayer now that the Knoxville community and its leaders will take what they learned and share with others and HONOR God in all that they do or say.

Until next time…..may the Lord bless you and your evening tonight….I am going to go hibernate for awhile. SMILE!

Just wanted to let people know that I have made a new page on this website which is designed for my newsletters. I am only going to do 3 or 4 per year. One per quarter if possible. Enjoy the newsletters or what I call them “Jam-letters”. Be sure to click on the newsletter tab on site.

Next week, I will be heading out of town to my parents at their farm for a couple of days to meditate, study, and spend some time with the Lord as I prepare for traveling to Knoxville, Tennessee to preach a revival on August 5-7. I also will be practicing music for my upcoming 212jam concert on August 7 too. If you happen to be in the Knoxville area or know of some deaf people or interpreters who live in that area, please pass the word on to people about the 212jam concert. If you are not familiar with my ministry, you can go to the video tab on this page and view some of the songs that I have done. I will be doing SOME of those that are on there in addition to a few new ones.

In the meantime, here is a small glimpse of what the revival theme will be. I will not reveal anything more about it until AFTER the revival weekend.

Here is a movie I put together from my weekend at the LIFE Deaf Youth Camp in Spicewood, Texas. All of the pictures & video clips by the New Life Fellowship Group. The movie is less than 10 minutes long which consists of pictures and a couple of video clips from the music and drama that we used in the camp. Enjoy!