Changes

Change is good!  I never said it was easy I just said it is good.  I am often amazed how people respond to change.  That sort of change that attacks the status quo, change that ruffles the feathers of life and challenges you to dig a little deeper in your relationship with God.  I have watched people resist change and I have many times wondered why.  The benefit that change brings into ones life is usually much better than the rut they were in.  

But suffice it to say change is hard.  We grow comfortable where we are.  We like the familiar, we take comfort in the same surroundings and when God comes along and says - Can I take you higher?  We often dismiss the voice because it requires us to leave where we are to where He wants us to be.

In my life, I do not want to be resistant to change.  I want to grow, I want to become, I want to prosper in my relationship with God and with others so I must learn to adapt to the moving of the Spirit.  I must remember that God is not a MONUMENT - HE IS A MOVEMENT!  He has been moving since the beginning of time as we know it.  

Genesis describes that "The Spirit of the Lord MOVED upon the face of the deep."  When God gets to moving and working things start to change - things that had no shape begin to be shaped.  He brings light into dark situations.  Oh what change can do!

The eagle is majestic.  Watching an eagle fly is something that is awe inspiring to me.  But that eagle did not always fly like that.  There was a day that that eagle was just an eaglet in the comfort of the nest till Mama eagle decided to make the nest a little uncomfortable.  Uncomfortable to the point that the baby eagle makes his way to the edge only to be pushed over the edge by the mother eagle.  Sounds cruel but it is the only way that little eaglet is going to learn to fly.

I guess there are times God has to make things uncomfortable in our lives to teach us how to fly. Well these are just my thoughts this morning.  God bless!! 

DS 

Order Yours Today

Well the wait is finally over.  You can order the Special Edition Pre-Release DVD of Clergy Comedy now.  Go to www.clergycomedy.com for yours!

Thanks for all the support that we are receiving across the nation.  To every one of you that have emailed and already ordered your copy we say THANKS - THUMB UP!!

Hope you laugh so hard your stomach hurts the day after watching it!!

God bless

DS

Getting Closer!

Clergy Comedy is becoming quite a ride. Kelly V and myself recently met in Los Angeles with our editing team to put the finishing touches on the project. It is causing some stir which is exciting. We are receiving a lot of hits on our website, blogs and emails in anticipation of when this project will be released. To order your copy go to www.clergycomedy.com

With all that said I have been asking God that He would use this approach to His glory. Something like this is different than anything else I have ever been a part of and I want to make sure that we are doing the right thing. I guess sometimes you just walk through doors that open and pray that God will give you the courage to make the right decisions. I know we are living in a world that is hurting, a world that needs some thing to lift them up above the pain of life. Maybe this will be an inroad into lives like that, an opportunity to share the gospel with people that may not darken the doors of a church right away.

I would ask each of you that read this blog today that you would pray for Kelly and myself. Pray that God would lead us and give us the direction for this endeavor. There is a fear within me that this will not be perceived in the right light, that some will think it is stupid or uncalled for. I guess that we will do our best to follow God and submit ourselves to the right authorities in our life for counsel and guidance.

Thanks to each of you for your excitement, encourageing words and emails. I promise that you will enjoy what you see - PRETTY FUNNY STUFF!!

THUMB UP!!

DS

The Challenge of Crossing Over

Sunday NPWC had one of those services. The kind of service that people do not want to leave. It has been that way the last few months and I am so excited about what is going on @ "The Point." But every victory comes at some expense. The battles that many are facing and our church is facing have been difficult. There is always a challenge in crossing over and it has to be that way. You will never appreciate the beauty of what lies beyond unless you have to work for it.

I remember when I was 14 years old. I wanted a Mongoose Californian BMX bike. I wanted it bad! I remember going by the bike shop and drooling over that chrome BMX dream machine. The jumps I could do, the trails I could ride, the races I could win - they were all wrapped up in that bike with the white tires. We lived in Idaho and money wasn't something that grew on trees for the Sargent family so if I wanted that bike I needed to work for it. I saved up my money, money that I made working in the farmers fields near our house - pulling cockleburs. We would get up early and head out and believe me it was not fun. What 13-14 year old boy wants to spend his summer mornings walking through the rows of beans pulling weeds to make a couple of bucks an hour. But what used to keep me motivated is that I kept a picture of that bike in my wallet. I had cut it out of a newspaper and stuffed it between the empty pieces of my velcro (cool velcro checkered money carrier by the way) wallet.

I finally saved up the money I needed and I got that bike and boy was it sweet. The work it took to get there was worth it because I had what I spent many days dreaming about.

What are you dreaming about? Has life and the struggle dimmed the view of what could be on the other side of what you are dealing with? Has the challenge grown larger than the crown? I think from time to time we all need to recognize that the harder it is in getting over the greater it will be in receiving what is over there. Sometimes you have to put a picture in your wallet so to speak, and look at it every once in a while. This is why I am enduring the hardship, this is why I am wrestling through the things of life.

May your challenges prepare you for your crowns!

Darin Sargent