Please help me get the word out by tweeting or updating your facebook status TOMORROW about the new book. The “Buy Now” page will be live tomorrow, along with the full site. You can copy and paste this:

Getting Up is now available! Visit http://ajnet.us/BuyGettingUp

Thanks so much for all your support and help. I’m excited to see how God is going to use this book!

This book is the realization of a dream. A dream that started with an idea. An idea that became a full-blown passion for people to experience the God-kind-of-restoration. That dream then birthed hope, inspiration, and motivation.

Be aware though, with every dream also comes adversity. Not everyone is going to be excited about your dream. You will have adversity to your dream, think Joseph. There will be people who are “dream adverse”, I call them dream killers. These are people who are “the voice of reason”, funny thing is… no God-sized dream is ever reasonable. These short-sighted folks will be disguised as those who are close to you and maybe they really do have “your best interest at heart” but they tend to dampen the fire of passion that you have for the thing God gave you to do. These people aren’t bad and you may consider their advice. After all, there is safety in a multitude of counsellors, so don’t be so prideful and arrogant to blow off their input. They may have some valid concerns and reality checks, but ultimately they are not the Holy Spirit and they usually have no idea of what God has placed in you.

Then they’ll be dream makers. These are the people who not only believe in what you are doing, they help make it happen. They give time, energy, money… they leverage their influence to help see your dream come to fruition. These are the people that when you look back, you can truly say, “I couldn’t have done it without them.”  And you always want to associate with the dream makers. I want to be a dream maker. When people think of me, I want them to look at me as someone who gave them a leg up and helped them achieve their God-given destiny and I hope that’s your desire as well.

In the end, follow what God has called you to do and if it’s a God idea, I encourage you to pursue it with all your heart! I believe in your dream and I believe in you.

How have you overcome dream adversity?

•          •          •          •

We need to note one important thing: we live in the forgiveness of God. When we repent, God forgives us. The Bible says in Psalm 103:12, “As far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgressions from us.” In Micah 7:19 He says, “our sins are thrown into the depths of the sea,” implying that something at the bottom of the ocean will never see the light of day! Completely forgotten!

This is where we need to live. Who are we to bring up what God has forgiven? If He has forgiven us, then we need to forgive us. Forgiving ourselves is imperative to walking in forgiveness. Depending on what you have to get up from, there may be people in your life who are not ready to forgive you, but that has no bearing on the forgiveness of God. Jesus died so you could have the assurance of forgiveness.

Are you living in the forgiveness of God or the shame of your past?

•          •          •          •

2 Corinthians 5:17 NKJV
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new. 

At the heart of the issue is the heart. The external actions of a person who seems to genuinely repent may be dramatic. There may be lots of crying and snotting, there may be a bunch of promises to change, there may be a lot of external trappings of repentance…but the true test of repentance is action. God knows our heart, but people will not see it until we live it.

God knows our heart but people will not see it until we live it. 

When there is a breaking of our hearts for what we have done, and there is a breaking of our wills for what we want, it is at that point we find our hearts are changed. God wants us to be new; the Holy Spirit is in us to regenerate our hearts.

•          •          •          •

As a leader of our family, ministry, or company, the greatest impact we will have is by our example. How we live our life will be the true test of the impact we make in the world around us. We can teach what we know, but we reproduce who we are. This will apply to every area of our life and leadership. I have found that when I just admit what I have done wrong, my wife and kids have a deeper respect for me than if I just put up a facade as if I am just fine when they know full well that I am not!

Speaking the truth will always earn us respect.

We see it all the time with politicians and celebrities who make some really bad moral decisions. The ones who admit what they have done, take responsibility for it, and work towards making it right are the ones for whom we have a deeper respect. Speaking the truth will always earn us respect.

Do you have a hard time speaking the truth when you screw up?

Response Ability

“Look at the word responsibility—response-ability—the ability to choose your response.”
- Stephen R. Covey

Personal responsibility is the ability to respond in a mature way to our personal choices. When we take personal responsibility it means we take the weight of the consequence or benefit of our actions. There are million and one things that can happen to us. God is concerned about those things, but I think He is more concerned with what happens through us than what happens to us. He wants see how we respond. He is interested in our character development, which includes how we respond to temptation or how we respond to the situations that can cause offense. This is our ability to respond. This is personal responsibility.

I liken response-ability to any ability in which we can grow. The more we perfect our response, the greater our ability grows. I would say this is a major key to growth and maturity, and absolutely essential to the process of getting up.

How’s your response ability?

“2 Samuel 11:2 NLT
Late one afternoon, after his midday rest, David got out of bed and was walking on the roof of the palace. As he looked out over the city, he noticed a woman of unusual beauty taking a bath.

As we get back to the narrative of David, it says David saw Bathsheba and he took notice of her that she had ‘unusual beauty’. I’ve always found that description a little interesting. Really? As if she was the only super hot chick in Israel? I highly doubt it. At this point David had seven wives and many concubines; the bible isn’t clear on how many but at least ten (2 Sam. 20:3). It wasn’t like David was starved for affection. It wasn’t that he just had to have sex. “Unusual beauty” tempted him in a moment of weakness, selfishness, and complacency.

The temptations that we take notice of will always have “unusual beauty.” The enemy is stupid and smart at the same time. He’s stupid because he tempts you in the same area over and over again and he’s smart because he tempts you in the same area over and over again.

Wait, what? You said the same thing.

Exactly.

The enemy has a plan for you and your areas of weakness. Your weakness will always be your weakness. I believe you can be free from sin absolutely but temptation will always present itself. Your weakness won’t be the same as mine and my weakness won’t be the same as yours, but one thing is guaranteed, we all have a weakness and when temptation presents itself, it will take on an ‘unusual beauty’ and attack us at our weakest point. We must recognize it for what it is… sin. The problem is we don’t recognize it. We give in to the temptation and intellectualize a reason why we must have this unusually beautiful thing. Our sinful flesh tells our intellectual brain to come up with a good reason as to why this makes sense. This is when the justification starts to set in and we take the flying leap into the deep pool of sin.”

To see how you can get involved with the Getting Up Project visit indiegogo.com/GettingUp for more information.

“It’s interesting and almost comical when I hear the term “fall into sin.” It’s as if were running along in the middle of broad daylight and out of nowhere a huge hole just appears and we just fall right into it. Another term I find kind of funny is “I struggle with this sin.” No we don’t. If we struggled with it there would be an indication of a fight. I watch a lot of mixed martial arts and there’s a lot of wrestling and Brazilian ju jitsu involved. The thing I’ve noticed during this kind of grappling is that these guys are in a fight; they are in a struggle. When they go back to their corners they are tired, sweaty, usually bloody, their faces look all beat up, and sometimes they’re limping or can barely move at all! They’ve been in a struggle, a real fight.

Let’s ask a couple questions:

• Is that what we look like after we have sinned?
• Do we look like we’ve been in a struggle?

Usually not. Usually temptation comes knocking and we don’t even put up a fight. It’s as if we step in the ring, tap out immediately, and submit to sin before the fight bell even rings! I know this from my own experience that anytime I actually put up a fight and resist temptation it goes away.

James 4:7 NKJV
Therefore submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you.”

So there’s a tidbit… tell me what you think.

“Books are the treasured wealth of the world and the fit inheritance of generations and nations.” -Henry David Thoreau

“Understanding is a wellspring of life unto him that hath it: but the instruction of fools is folly” -Proverbs 16:22

“The mind of the prudent acquires knowledge, And the ear of the wise seeks knowledge.” -Proverbs 18:15

I’ve always had a hunger for knowledge and I’ve never really compiled a booklist. I just would read and move on to the next book but this year I wanted to start compiling the books that I have read. Not to show off how much I read but to keep an inventory of what I’ve learned from each book and maybe pass along some knowledge if someone else ever needed it. So these are the books I’ve read this year and the books that are on deck. Please, post a comment or question about any of these and let’s get the conversation going!

Celebration of Discipline – Richard Foster (Reread)
Humility – Andrew Murray (Reread)
Crazy Love – Francis Chan
Deadly Viper Character Assassins – Mike Foster & Jud Wilhite
Sun Stand Still – Steven Furtick
Today We Are Rich – Tim Sanders
Church in the Making – Ben Arment
The Attractional Church – Billy Hornsby

On Deck:
The Treasure Principle – Randy Alcorn
Viral Churches – Ed Stetzer
Leading on Empty – Wayne Cordeiro
Transformational Churches – Ed Stetzer & Thom Rainer
Group Genius – Keith Sawyer
Natural Church Development – Christian Shwartz (Reread)
The Purpose-Driven Church – Rick Warren (Reread)
Ten Stupid Things That Keep Churches From Growing – Geoff Surratt

So, what are you reading? Is it any good? Would you recommend it? C’mon let’s hear it you bookworms!

Well, I got a new tattoo. The last one I got, Otium Sanctum, I really thought through the why, the story, the blah blah blah. This one… not so much. My wife and I actually got tats together this time around and mine was so spur of the moment, yeah I know definitely not the wisest thing to do. Well I did want something on my forearm but the only phrase that kept popping in my head was “Kingdom Come”. So that was it. I did it.

Looking back I really can’t think of a better phrase. Really, what else is there? The Kingdom of God is the most glorious thing we can fathom. This piece is a constant reminder as to why I’m here and what is important. I’ve been battling a ton of emotional junk lately and revisiting why I got this tattoo puts it all in perspective. Life is but a vapor but the Kingdom…. it’s forever. No matter what you and I are going through, we must focus on the big picture. God’s kingdom reigning in and through us. I’ve always loved the Lord’s prayer and it’s a great roadmap for living. I’ve put it below and hope that you’ll take a moment to read and pray through it yourself… especially “Your Kingdom Come.”

Matthew 6:9-13
9 Our Father in heaven,
Hallowed be Your name.

10  Your kingdom come.
Your will be done
On earth as it is in heaven.

11  Give us this day our daily bread.

12 And forgive us our sins,
As we forgive those who have sinned against us.

13  And do not lead us into temptation,
But deliver us from the evil one.
For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.