Want it like you want air...

I shared this video a few weeks ago on Facebook and I wanted to share again because I think it is so awesome and applicable. I really believe this not only applies to success but also love for the Lord! Nothing in this world comes easy. We all want things but it is so much harder to actually obtain them. If you want something bad enough we will do everything we can to achieve it. That means we must persevere through the the things that knock us off course. We must be willing to do whatever it takes and often times this is a hard call.

You can have or be whatever it is that you want as long as you want it bad enough. For example, when I am tired and distracted at church it is no fun; I get very little out of it. However when God is a priority in my life I plan my life around Him. I go to bed early so that I can be fresh and ready for whatever He is trying to tell me. I make church a priority so that I can arrive early and do not feel as if I have other things I should be doing. Those are the times I get the most out of it. The same holds true for prayer and bible study. The days I try and squeeze time in for God I usually try and do it at night, before bed, when I am tired. Typically I fall asleep first, #fail. But if God, or success is a priority it becomes the first thing I do, before anything else. Everything I do is done with that goal in mind.

You see, our most valuable resource is our time which requires us to pick and choose the things that are most important. Sometimes we have to give up fun things or things that we feel are important in order to make time for the things that are really important. As a small business owner, I struggle with this because it is so easy to get caught up in the 17 million things I have to do each day and more times than not I forget to make time for the things that are most important.

Success at anything takes drive and determination. It takes will power and a desire to succeed! It takes making that "thing" a priority in our lives. It means we must give up those things that are keeping us from that goal.

"Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run, with perseverance the race marked out for us" ~Hebrews 12:1

Be sure to watch the entire video, I know its long but worth it!

How Bad Do You Want It from Greyskale Multimedia LLC on Vimeo.

Eyes on the Prize
-EC

This song fires me up #awesomesong

Here is another song that I love! Every time I hear it, I get the chills cause I can feel the presence of God in Austin, Texas! Hope everyone is having a wonderful day.....




Praise God
-EC

#AwesomeSong

Thought I would share this great version of this song by "Owl City". This was shown to me by my friend Andrea Moore and I could not help but pass it along. Happy Hump Day! Enjoy

#LoveYourNeighbor

The other day I was sitting at Mozart's on Lake Austin enjoying some coffee by the lake. There were three women sitting in front of me and a young gentleman at his own table to my right. These ladies were gossiping about their neighbors and how they were sure they were at least separated but likely getting a divorce. They were discussing the last time they saw their car in the drive way and how they could hear them screaming at each other while arguing.

The young gentleman next to me kindly walked up to their table, knelt down and in a very quiet voice said "Ladies I don't mean to get in your business but I think you should pray for your neighbors." These ladies were so shocked and speechless. This young man could not have said it any nicer and with more respect. He was not trying to butt into their conversation and was definitely not being rude. He genuinely felt convicted to ask them to pray for their neighbor. The three ladies immediately pretended as if it was time to leave and they quietly got up and left.

As I sat there and watched this all take place I could not help but smiling over the fact that this young guy stepped up and took a chance to spread God's word. He took a negative situation and offered the most valuable advice one could give. It's so sad when you think about how we always want to make ourselves feel better by bringing up what other people are doing wrong. Wouldn't it be nice if we just loved our neighbor? How about loving our neighbor so much that we would spend our time with God asking Him to help out someone else besides ourselves? How about loving our neighbor so much that we would desire for things in their life to improve rather than being entertained by their struggles?

The next morning I was participating in wonderful ministry called "Feed My People" and an older man walked up to me to have me serve him coffee and said, "You know how much it means to me that you looked at me in line and smiled? Such a small thing can really make a difference." I honestly did not even remember smiling at the man. Have you ever stopped and thought about how such small actions can have such a huge affect on people?

Loving your neighbor is really about caring for others more than you care about yourself. Its about understanding your role in God's kingdom and knowing that your job is to reflect His greatness in every way possible. Jesus was a man that smiled at people. Jesus was a man that was always lending a helping hand to a lost sole. He pursues everyone including the person that no one else will pursue.

Loving your neighbor could be a simple smile or a fist pump of encouragement on the trail. It could be a small donation to a family in need or a phone call to the person that wronged you. Loving your neighbor is about throwing your own personal feelings or comforts aside for someone else. Loving your neighbor is what we are called to do.

Your neighbor is not only the person that lives next to you. Its the city of Bastrop that neighbors Austin. Its your co-worker, its the people that live in your community and the communities all around. Loving your neighbor is also loving your enemy or the person you despise the most. Loving your neighbor is about loving God and being the hands and feet of God in our community.

"You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven"~ Mathew 5: 14-16

Have any neighbors that could use some love?

Strugglin' with you
-EC

The Wrath of God....

Let me start off by making it very clear that I, in no way, would ever try and claim that I know what God is trying to do in our world or know His reasoning for allowing things to happen. And while it is very hard for me to really wrap my head around the idea of "the wrath of God" it is impossible for me to ignore the fact that bad things are happening in our world all around us. As you know I am typically a very positive person but this has really been heavy on my heart and I felt convicted to share.

Today in central Texas there are uncontrollable fires taking over neighborhoods and completely destroying homes. We have earthquakes, tsunamis, and hurricanes affecting areas that are rarely, if ever, in danger of this type of catastrophic disaster. Our national economy is seeing more negativity and volatility than it has ever seen. Our lands are being dried up and without rain, killing crops and cattle.

Has it ever crossed your mind that "the wrath of God" could be upon us? Could it be that God is fed up with us as a people and is tired of giving us everything we need and watching us consistently turn from Him. As I see it, we as a people are farther away from God than we have ever been in the history of the world. We are full of selfishness and sexual immorality, our hearts desire for false Gods and material things, we lie, cheat and steal; we do not help our neighbor like we are called. We are so connected via media and the web and that connectedness is polluted with everything but God. We are ungrateful of the beauty God has created in our world and we have no respect for nature. We poison our bodies with bad things because we feel obligated to live however we please.

As these thoughts have heavily weighed on my heart I decided to go back and read the story of Noah's Ark in Genesis, chapters 6-9. I recalled how God became so frustrated and upset with the people of the world and their sinful nature that he flooded the earth for 40 days and 40 nights, killing off everything except that which was inside of the ark built by Noah.

"God saw how corrupt the earth had become, for all the people on earth had corrupted their ways. So God said to Noah, " I am going to put an end to all the people, for the earth is filled with violence because of them. I am surely going to destroy both them and the earth."~Genesis 6:13

We see in Romans chapter 1 that God is angry at sinful people because we have made up lies about God in order to justify our own self centered lifestyles. God makes it clear that we have no excuse because God has made his grace and power blatantly obvious.

"The wrath of God is being revealed from Heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness, since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities-His eternal power and divine nature-have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse."~ Romans 1:18-20

Now this idea could be really far off and out there but it could also be very real. Lets just say that God is allowing this to happen in our world (or we created these problems for ourselves through sin) and He is angry. What can we do? How shall we respond?

I believe it is through repentance that we can be saved from this destruction. Through repentance we show our faith to the God above, the Creator. And maybe, just maybe He will spare us a break. I think there are many that could really use it right now; I know I can. I pray that we as a people turn to God in these hard times and get right with Him. I pray that with God's help and grace we as brothers and sister can turn from our wicked ways and began to live more like children of God. I need encouragement from others to help me with my sin, and I could use some leaders by example to show me the way. I pray that through repentance God will lift his finger and restore the world if it is His will. Jesus died for our sin but that does not give us a free pass to live as we please. The great exchange gives us the opportunity to know Him and be saved through repentance and faith.

It would really be a shame if we never accepted the greatest gift ever given!

Blogging from my heart!
-EC

#SocialExperiment called HashMob

This is a new idea I have been drumming up in my head and I wanted to share and get some feedback from my readers. As always, I am very thankful for your support!

#MOB, pronounced "Hash Mob" is an idea that incorporates suggestions and opinions of the people around us and lists them in an easy to access manner for later use. We define #MOB as an online place to "Hash it out". Have you ever been driving around looking for a good place to eat and your mind is blank? Yes there is Urban Spoon and many other sites that offer suggestions based on location and reviews but sometimes all we want or need is a simple list of suggestions. #MOB is exactly that!

Over the last few months we have been asking for suggestions on Coffee shops, restaurants, things to do on a holiday weekend, etc via social media outlets like Facebook and Twitter. When we do this, we actually get some pretty valuable responses but have had no real way of displaying those for later use. We started creating some images and lists but really they are not easily accessible for future use unless you print them out. Where do you keep these printed out lists? Exactly...you don't!

Currently our website, HashMob.com is under construction and is expected to be launched sometime in September. For now, we are working to grow our user base via our Facebook page @#MOB. At different times through out any given day we will post certain categories or Hashtags (#) with the idea being that our fans and followers will comment and help us create these useful lists. We hope that many will get involved, including small business owners looking to get free advertising for their business. As our user base grows beyond Austin we will start to separate the lists by location.

Below are some examples of the type of information you can find on #MOB

#BreakfastTacos

#healthyeats

#WedHappyHour

#bucketlist

#BYOB

#badcustomerservice


The list can go on and on and the great part about #MOB is that we encourage our users to create their own Hashtags (#). This site is for the people so you can create any category you want and see if the community will support it and help you build it. Nothing inappropriate please, thanks.

Click the gray text below to "Like" our Page:

#MOB on Facebook

If you like what we are doing, please help us spread the word! Thank you so much for your support #blessed

Hashin' it out
-EC

not the way you live, but why you live.

So today I had one of those light bulb moments in which God spoke to my heart. The thought occurred to me that it is not about the way you live, but rather why you live. What I am learning is that being a person of God does not mean you have to change who you are and what you do. You see if God wanted us to be something different than who we are, wouldn't He have made us that way?

It often seems that being a christian, or a believer in your God, for that matter, means that you have to "be good" or "be like them"! The truth is that God loves you exactly for who you are and in fact He made you that way on purpose. He is, however, a jealous God and wants to be first in your life. That does not mean He wants to be the only, just the first. In fact, God loves you so much that He wants to provide many things to you and pour out his blessings in your life. He wishes that you could handle those things and keep Him above all. I catch myself every day forgetting about who God is and what he has blessed me with. For that reason, God has to either remind me or limit what He gives me. God doesn't want me to stop selling real estate or doing business, at least for now. God wants me to do business for God. Its about spreading His word, sharing the Gospel with more people, and extending His grace to everyone possible.

Yesterday in church they talked about living your life for God. They talked about how the artists need to work their hardest to paint the most amazing pictures to share the beauty God has created. The called the musicians to play beautiful songs and remind the world how great His creations are. They called me and you to change, not how we live, but why. With this mentality we become a better city, a better nation, a better people. We become brothers and sisters, neighbors and friends.

The call is not for us to change our lives or change who are but to understand why we are who we are and live that out in our everyday lives. It is no coincidence that last weekend I started thinking about how I need to reconnect with a good friend that is one of the strongest followers of God I know. Of course, being distracted by everything that is around me, I put it off. No joke, today I received an email from him after I already started writing this post. The email, of course, was about individuality and how God wants us to be exactly as He made us. That to me is mind blowing that God is aware of what is going on in my head and meets me in that exact place. #PraiseGod

The good news is that you and I can continue to be who we are. We can continue to
live out our lives and only need to alter the reason we live. Being a follower of God does not mean we have to be perfect or be a certain way. The bible tells us that we are in fact shackled by our sin and that through God we become free to be who we really are!

"Everyone who sins is a slave to sin" ~ John 8:34

"If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free" ~John 8:31-32

Think about it!
-EC