Unlocking the box of Kingdom Expansion

valuesdr

Greetings faithful,

I had started a Great Commission leaders facebook group several months ago not exactly certain what I was to do with it. It began as a resource to connect folks with a common vision/mission, to further the work of the Great Commission. What I have discovered over time is that very few of us ministry leaders have a very clear vision for our specific and actionable role in fulfilling the Great Commission. Most of us see our part as limited to our church, community, region, or audience. However, we have to think bigger!

We are living in the second to last scene of this great adventure. We are just seasons away from fulfilling the Great Commission and you and I have an integral role to play in it. I think most of us have been trained to think too small. We are bound to a church system that keeps us trapped within four walls. However, Satan’s worst nightmare is about to unfold. It’s time to catch the vision, engage on the mission, and expand the Kingdom at rates that most of us never thought possible.

Into the future, I will unwrap a very clear vision, an actionable mission, and clear and concise methods and resources to unlock the black box of Kingdom expansion. I am not talking about secrets to church growth or even church planting, but rather extremely simple and unbelievably effective—absolutely field proven throughout the world—insight and methods of expanding the Kingdom. Yes, churches will both grow and be planted as a result. However, this we leave up to the Lord. For our commission is to make disciples; Christ said He would build His church, so we leave those details in His hands.

So I urge you to tune in by reading and meditating on every post. As quickly as I am able, I will pray over and package the best of breed materials to get you mobilized towards one aim: fulfilling the Great Commission in this generation.

May our Lord Jesus Christ and the power of the Holy Spirit lead the way in taking the nations for His glory.

Amen.

God bless you,

Marc Carrier
marc.carrier@valuesdrivenfamily.com

Taking inventory with your eternal security

valuesdr

I stumbled upon this video on facebook and it really got me thinking. It made me think about how secure I should be about my salvation. It made me consider that my life should reflect Jesus’ character moment by moment. It made me repent for all the false hope I had planted in folks throughout the years through “easy-believism” evangelism methods. Most of all, it made me consider the multitudes of friends and family I have that have misplaced security in their salvation.

It also made me consider my complacency with sharing the truth. I know that hell awaits many of them–yet as the video states, we have a culture that disdains correction. We have a Christian culture that relishes their eternal security when the evidence of faith is lacking. Hell is real, and destruction awaits many unassuming “believers.” They believe with their mouths but deny Him with their lives.

All church-goers are convinced they are going to heaven. Their complicit pastors and other Christian leaders have told them so. Reminds me of the movie Shawshank redemption where everyone is “innocent.” Every inmate held steadfast to their innocence regardless of their guilt.

All cultural “Christians” are convinced they have in their hands the “ticket” that will get them through the gate (the “magic prayer”). However, there will be tremendous remorse when they stand in judgment and realize that the ticket they possess is not accepted.

Scripture tells us to examine ourselves. Please watch this video (in 2 parts) and listen to what it says. It is the truth. Repent and align your life with the Word.

Here is a short video in 2 parts:

Here is a longer video by Paul Washer for those who have time. It’s important enough to “make” the time.

Excuses, Excuses

valuesdr

We bought a foreclosure a few months ago and invested so much time and effort into fixing it up and cleaning it.

Then, of course, we had to pack and move all of our stuff.

After we had been sort of settled into the new house for about a week, we had a new baby.

When the baby was 4 weeks old, we went on a whirlwind trip back to our hometown in CT (a 16-hour trip with the whole family)…a week of preparation, travel, rushed visiting, and more travel…then another week of unpacking, laundry, van-cleaning, and re-settling at home.

Now, we’re fixing up another recently purchased foreclosure for my father-in-law to live in.

These are just a few of the various excuses I’ve been making over the past couple of months, as I’ve wondered off and on,

“What has happened to our routine?”
“Why is the tone in our home so negative?”
“Why are the children being so argumentative with one another?”

The fact is, life has been busy for us lately. On the plus side, we have managed to remain diligent in work that has needed to be done, and the children have been more than helpful in that regard. We’ve continued to have morning and evening family devotions. We have a day of rest (and fun) together every Saturday. These things are good.

However, aside from the first couple of weeks of this prolonged season (which went remarkably well), I would also say that we have not been proactive about consistently discipling our children in a positive manner. We haven’t been able to maintain our regular routines, I’ve gotten lazy about menu planning and meal preparation (can you say, convenience foods?) and our overall tones of voice have been somewhat abrupt as we go from one project and “to-do” to another. Granted, there were times when I would try to remedy any and all of these deficiencies, but overall we’ve ended up in a pretty low spot.

Generally speaking, the children have been a little more contentious than usual with one another–and we’ve not always taken the time to disciple them in those moments as we should. Attitudes all around haven’t always been the best. We’ve all grown a bit tired of the work and the lack of normalcy. So, though at different points we’ve desired improvement, we shouldn’t be surprised that it hasn’t evidenced itself. Excuses for poor behavior (even sin) have been all too easy to make.

As of late last week, I’ve decided to repent…stop making excuses…and start doing what I know I should be doing. It doesn’t matter that we have new (bad) habits to overcome; I need to return to the good things that we had been doing. Of course, there’s the little matter of self-condemnation that always rears its ugly head at times like this. I need to kick that to the curb, too, in order to move forward in faith.

The lesson? We all have moment-by-moment choices to make in life, no matter what season we’re in. Will we choose to honor God with our words, tones, attitudes, and decisions, or will we choose to indulge in complaining, focus on the negative, and neglect the good we know we should be doing? I am finding that making the right choices is so much easier when I parse life into discrete moments, rather than allowing myself to be overwhelmed by the monumental to-do list, our history, my emotions, or concerns about the future.

What kind of choices are you making right now? What effect do you think those choices will have on your family, on your ministry, and on your walk with the Lord as you go forward?

Non-frugal purchase, worth it!

valuesdr

Today we left at about 9:00 AM to run errands at 5 different places. I figured we’d be gone a while, but didn’t expect not to arrive home until 2:30!

The grocery store was one of our stops. Since by then I knew we’d be missing lunch at home, we grabbed a few pre-made sandwiches, some cold drinks and…a few individual bags of chips for each of us (it was just me and the three older children).

I wanted to be frugal and get one big bag of chips for 99 cents instead of four small bags of chips for 75 cents each…do the math; I would have saved a couple of dollars. BUT, if we had gotten a big bag of chips we’d have had a half a bag (at least) left over. And then what? I’d probably eat it. (I like chips, LOL). And guess what? I still have quite a few pounds of “baby fat” hanging around. So being not-so-frugal was probably wise.

What about you? Do you have any not-so-frugal expenditures that seem well worth the trade-off?

She’s Here! :)

valuesdr

Jubilee B. Carrier was born on Monday, June 15 at 3:27 PM…6 lbs., 7 oz. and 19 inches long. We are praising God for delivering another blessing into our family!


My water broke at about midnight on Sunday and the doctor wanted me to go into the hospital right away, since my Strep B test had come back positive and I would need IV antibiotics prior to delivery. Usually I labor at home and get to the hospital for the last couple of hours, so being in the hospital right from the beginning (and that on only a couple of hours of sleep) made for a l-o-n-g labor. Contractions started off pretty strong but then kind of petered out for a while, which was discouraging. My body didn’t seem to want to cooperate. Eventually we got things going again, but by the time I was ready to deliver I still didn’t feel like the contractions were close together enough…between the discouragement and my tiredness I can’t say this was my best delivery BUT, God is faithful. Marc was a great encouragement, as always. And of course, in the end, it’s all worth it. 🙂


Here’s our crew–they came into the hospital through a downpour! They all love their new baby sister.

An Almost "Normal" Day

valuesdr

Prior to the moving adventure (3+ weeks ago now) we had about 18 days left to go in our school year. So, in spite of the fact that there’s still a bit here & there to be done, we’re trying to get back to the books a bit and finish out our objectives for the year.

Today we got to do some reading & writing, some painting (since both of the boys got acrylic paint sets from their Grampy for their birthdays), and some of our Indiana state history. Math will hopefully come later, after a little free time and some afternoon jobs.

What I am even more happy about is that the “littles” got back into THEIR routine a bit, too. I finally had few enough distractions that I was able to devote more attention to training (much-needed at this point), AND we got to spend more time just reading books on the couch, which we all love!

I’m finally almost caught up on the laundry, as well, which is a major praise. Way back at the beginning of the move, the washing machine got removed from the old house, but wasn’t functional at the new house for about a week–and we make a lot of laundry in a week! So I’ve been consistently about 4-5 loads behind where I’d like to be. BUT I think we’re caught up now.

I’ve been thinking that I need to pack my hospital bag…and bags for the children, since I don’t know where they’ll be going when the “big day” comes. Part of me is hoping that the act of bag-packing might induce labor. 🙂 But then again, it’s so nice to finally have a “normal” day, that it might be nice to have a FEW more before a new baby changes everything!

Progress and photos

valuesdr

Well, as of Sunday afternoon I had my living room floor totally cleared of moving clutter. THEN, I moved on to my next goal for the day–cleaning out the van. As a result, the living room floor was clear of clutter for about an hour. Then we moved more stuff in from the van, and there it sat, until yesterday afternoon. Now we’re “done” again!

Marc did clear off his “working” half of the kitchen table on Sunday, and it remains pretty clean.

I’m posting a few pics, just in case you’re interested.

It’s your standard manufactured home on an acre… 🙂

Coming in the back door to the kitchen. You’re seeing about half of the kitchen table, the cabinets and appliances to the right, and my computer in the far corner (my new office!).

The living room…with no boxes or miscellaneous “stuff.” You can tell we are homeschoolers who like shelving and collect books, etc. The boys’ room is off the living room and you can see the girls’ room down the hallway to the right.

Light at the End of the Tunnel

valuesdr

I have a couple of piles of boxes still to put away in the living room. Actually, that’s not accurate. I mostly have two big piles of miscellaneous “stuff” that isn’t really boxed at all. Since we’re not moving from very far away (just across the corn field, to be exact), we never bothered to box some of our things; instead, we just loaded them into the trailer and brought them over. So there’s a bit of a mess still to go through, BUT almost everything else has found a home.

Marc has been keeping his tools and supplies on half of the kitchen table as he’s been working…but now he’s approaching the end of his immediate “to-do” list and I’m looking forward to having the table back (and the kitchen a little more de-cluttered) as well. Once things look a little more normal, I’m hoping to post some pics. 🙂

Going from 3,000 square feet to 1,400 has been an interesting proposition, but we’re finding that with a little ingenuity we have a place for everything. As our ten year-old says, “It’s smaller, but it’s exactly what we need.” And praise God, it is!

I enjoyed a little break from house stuff yesterday as I gave a talk at Cindy Rushton’s Ultimate Homeschool Expo on the topic of Simplified Biblical Instruction and Character Training for Children. I spoke for about an hour, and the chat/questions went on for TWO HOURS after that–whew! It was a lot of fun for me. Now, back to work. My goal is to get the house in order before this baby arrives…and I have another doctor’s appointment tomorrow so won’t be making much progress at home, I expect. After being offline for a few days and finally getting our Internet restored yesterday, I’m just now catching up with email/business, so now…back to work!