Live Passionately Series

Living Passionately,

One Month To Live Week Two

Teach us to number our days and recognize how few they are; help us to spend them as should. – Psalm 90:12 (LB)

A thief is only there to steal and kill and destroy. I came so they can have real and eternal life, more and better life than they ever dreamed of.

– John 10:10 (Msg)

Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor, serving the Lord

- Romans 12:11

Life isn’t measured by the number of breathes we take but by the moments that take our breathe away. - Anonymous

LAST WEEK – we kicked off a message series that is already: re-focusing, renewing, re-energizing, impacting and changing the lives of some people in this very room ( are you one of them?)… UNDERSTAND - this new way of thinking, THIS - “What would I Do If I Only Had One Month To Live?” question is intended not only to enable us to number our days, BUT – to empower us to live a life full of moments that take our breathe away! A life that is real, and eternal, more and better than we’ve ever dreamed of…

THIS – past Tuesday morning as I sat down to begin reading this book I was pretty pumped up. AND – the reason I was so stoked was because I know that there are a bunch of people at SE who are: reading the same book; thinking the same thoughts and asking the same clarifying question (What would I do…).

YOU SEE – I know how God works… AND WHENEVER – He can get a group of His people to start thinking His thoughts all at the same time… LOOKOUT – because something HUGE and RADICAL is going to happen! TRANSFORMATION – is about to occur. LIVES – are going to be changed. WALLS - are coming down. THE WORLD -

THEN – I started thinking about the messages I would give… ABOUT - how I would put them together. ABOUT – how we could get more of His people at SE involved in this journey. AND THEN – I heard God kind of whisper to me, “Steve yeah that’s all fine and good… BUT - don’t forget I intend for these next few weeks to change you as well.” RIGHT – after this I wrote the following on some of the blank pages in the front of my book.

Father… I want to radically change the way I live. I want to be who you created me to be. I want to do what you created me to do… Help me Father to number my days and to begin living FULLY. Father, I want this to be about more than a campaign. I want to live new. I want to live fully! THE THIEF – has been very effective at: stealing, killing and destroying this new life (Your Son bought for me on a blood stained cross). Help me to defeat Him. Help me to fight him everyday for this life!

AND AFTER – I read chapter one… I decided to text as many people as I could with the question, ‘What would you do if you had only one month to live…” NOW - I wasn’t really looking for a reply, I just wanted to keep the question in front of myself and as many other people as I could. (That’s the reason for the reminder bands). HOWEVER – I did receive a few text replies to the question…”What would you…)

• Drop out of school! Seriously.

• I’m working on it.

• Sounds like a good sermon to me

• Live boldly

• I would quit school, find a good friend and spend my last month on the road tripping to visit all the places I want to see and the people I promised to visit.

• I would call instead of text

NOW – I really liked that last one… Even though I knew that my friend was kind of digging at me a little. SO – being the spiritual giant that I am, I quickly started to text him back, “then where’s my call…” BUT – before I could finish my text he called… HE – wanted to make sure that I knew he was just trying to be funny… HE – was. BUT – it was also true. Calling really is better.

YEAH – I’m glad he called. We had a good talk. HE & HIS FAMILY – have been going through some major challenges the last year or so. AND – it seems like God is beginning to unfold a plan to turn things around. It was good to talk. AND – not only did we have a chance to talk and catch up on our lives… BUT – we also had a chance to talk about this concept of ‘One Month To Live.’ I was able to clear up a little confusion he had about it. I was able to let him know that this ‘OMTL Thing’ is not really about dying at all. BUT RATHER – it’s about discovering the life we should already be living. AND – then living it… I really like what Kerry Shook wrote on day two of this OMTL journey…