Breakfast of Champions: Thursday 30th September

Good morning, Champion.

Carpe seasons

John 4:35 (NKJV)

Do you not say, 'There are still four months and then comes the harvest'? Behold, I say to you, lift up your eyes and look at the fields, for they are already white for harvest!

The journey (pilgrimage) of life is certainly a journey of different seasons; the art of living well is to make sure that you live (squeeze the juice out of) each and every season, both sowing into and reaping from each and every one of them.

Being alive means that we will all walk through the various seasons of life. Here is a classic verse from the wisdom of Ecclesiastes to make you think this morning:

Ecclesiastes 3:1-2 (NKJV)
To everything there is a season, a time for every purpose under heaven: a time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck what is planted.

• If you get the chance, read the rest of this classic chapter to see the different types of seasons each and every one of us face as we journey through this thing called life.

• Like King David said in Psalm 37:25, we will all experience being young and being old and every season in between. I have met some older people that live in the regret of not being a teenager anymore and I have met younger people that can't wait for a later season of life (like being married), but the problem is they are missing the one they are in – neither of these are good enough, love the season you're in.

• You can't always go back and re-live seasons gone but you can learn from them, and you really don't want to fast forward to the ones in the future because when the ones you are in are gone, like flowers when they have flourished, they are gone.

The key for us all today is to carpe (seize) the one you're in!

• So today learn from days gone by; love the ones you're in and, with faith and expectancy, have excitement concerning the ones yet to come that are promised by God. Every season has something for you: make sure you harvest it out!

• To everything there is a season. There are seasons of age, seasons of relationship, seasons of ministry and business, seasons of everything. In them all there is a time to plant and a time to reap what was planted.

Here is some food for thought for you today as you consider the seasons that you are currently in:
• What season are you in today?
• Is it time to plant, or is it time to reap?
• Are you getting from this season everything that you should be and that is in the season to be had?
• What else do you need to do to enjoy and seize the season you are in?

God bless you; I pray that this season of your life prospers – don't say, "In four months . . ." but make the decision to live large the life God has given you today!

Andy
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Breakfast of Champions: Wednesday 29th September

Good morning, hope this finds you well.

Carpe Diem living

John 4:35 (NKJV)

Do you not say, 'There are still four months and then comes the harvest'? Behold, I say to you, lift up your eyes and look at the fields, for they are already white for harvest!

We have been looking at living outside of procrastination, living with a desire to harvest and seize what is in our world now. Too many people are waiting for what one day will come, we too need to remain in faith concerning the yet unseen of God in our future but also be the people that grab the day.

We looked at relationships yesterday. Today I want to challenge you with opportunities. I believe God brings and offers opportunities to us all at different times and we have a choice to grab them – "carpe" – or let them pass us by. Live in such a way that with wisdom you seize opportunities, especially those which are authored and sent by God.

At different times in the Bible you see God turn up and offer something, then you get to witness some who carpe the God-offer, and those who don't.

Think of Elisha, that moment when Elijah walked across the field and offered him his mantle. God's intention was clear, the choice was now his. He chose to burn his plow and step into his God opportunity; he could have chosen to keep on plowing.

The disciples were fishing; they never saw Jesus coming but He had been watching them. Suddenly a God-opportunity comes out of nowhere: "Drop your nets and follow Me, and I will make you." Again they had the choice to say, "No thanks, we like fishing"! But they seized the moment and stepped into their destiny.

Sadly, the rich young ruler thought he was ready for his moment but when the cost was explained he really wasn't.

• God will always bring opportunity to you – some small, some large, some bigger than you could have ever imagined – make sure you are ready for the 'no warning' offer of God when it comes.

• Let us all make the choice, like the wise virgins, to live ready – not just for the second coming of Christ but for those divine opportunities that suddenly come that need us to respond in faith not fear.

• I believe He prepares you for these moments when you are not even noticing. I believe He had been working on the heart of Elisha prior to Elijah's arrival; He had been working in the hearts of the fishermen before the one-time offer came; He is working on our hearts now concerning future moments.

Just as King David was prepared for his opportunity with Goliath while defeating lions and bears, so what you are getting victory with today is setting you up for golden opportunities that God is going to bring to you in your tomorrows.

Live ready for God moments, because they come to us all!

Andy
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Breakfast of Champions: Monday 6th September

Good morning, Champion.

Be careful what and who you're coupled too

2 Corinthians 6:14-15 (NIV)
Do not be yoked together with unbelievers. For what do righteousness and wickedness have in common? Or what fellowship can light have with darkness? What harmony is there between Christ and Belial? What does a believer have in common with an unbeliever?

Here we see a warning concerning certain associations in our lives. It is not a call to remove yourself from the world or the people in your world who don't yet know Jesus; rather it is a warning concerning who you link your life to in partnership and covenant-type relationships.

Our lives are often just like train carriages – we have the choice who we couple (join) them to. As with a train carriage you need to have wisdom concerning the coupling of relationships because the reality can so often be where they go so do you, especially if they have more steam or drive than you do! This, of course, is great news if the trains and carriages (relationships) you have coupled yourself to are heading for godly, pleasant places, but not so good if they are heading for certain derailment or a very serious crash.

Make sure the people and relationships your life is joined to are going in God's direction. This will certainly produce a great harmony in the journey of your life. Imagine if two train carriages wanted to go in very different directions – this would cause a continual strain and stress between the two carriages. So it is when one life in a relationship wants to live God's way and the other does not – why bring that strain into your world when you do not need to? Couple (join) your life together with people that want to go in the same direction (after God).

As I said at the start, this is not a warning or call to separate yourself from unsaved people – far from it. If you did, what hope would they have of finding or experiencing Christ? But it is a warning concerning those closer, daily-walk relationships we all have including such relationships as future marriages, business partnerships and those closer-to-heart friendships (those where the person's words can affect your decisions and choices).

Be careful who you join (couple) your life to – ask the question, "Do you want to go where they are going?".

(note: This thought is by no means meant to make anyone who is currently in a marriage where one is saved and the other not feel condemned in anyway; may God's grace bring that unsaved party to full salvation. But it is a strong warning to those who are choosing future partners to make sure you have God in common)

God bless,

Andy

Breakfast of Champions: Friday 3rd September

Good morning, Champion, and welcome to another weekend!

Don't labour in vain

Psalm 127:1 (NIV)
Unless the LORD builds the house, its builders labor in vain. Unless the LORD watches over the city, the watchmen stand guard in vain.

This Psalm gives us all a good reminder to make sure that God is involved in what we are building in life lest, after spending our lives building something, we find out it was worthless and all in vain.

Each of us are building a number of things today: careers, families, ministries to name a few. The key to long-term success is to make sure that God is right in the centre of it all and that you are building with Him, not without Him.

How do we do that? We must take time to include Him in what we are doing. Think of Him as working with a business partner and consult Him concerning what you are going to give your life to build. Seek His wisdom and input and you will be amazed, when you do, the time you can save and the ditches you can avoid.

God wants you to succeed and prosper (Jeremiah 29:11) but He also wants to be involved, so include Him today, Champion, and make sure that plan to build or develop something is not just a good idea but also a God idea. The proverbs says we labour in vain when we do not build with Him, but the good news is when we acknowledge Him in all our ways and build with Him then what we build is strong and remains long term.

What a waste to spend your life building something and, at the end, you find out it was all in vain or for nothing. Don't do it, Champ, but let God be the architect and business partner to every blueprint that is in your heart. You will be glad you did.

Bless you,

Andy
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Breakfast of Champions: Thursday 2nd September

Good morning, Champion.

Give honour where honour is due

Psalm 29:2 (NKJV)
Give unto the LORD the glory due to His name; Worship the LORD in the beauty of holiness.

Put another way

The Message
Bravo, God, bravo! Gods and all angels shout, "Encore!" In awe before the glory, in awe before God's visible power. Stand at attention! Dress your best to honor him!

Let us remember that all glory and honour belong to Him because He is the one worthy and most deserving of it. It is He that has saved us so wonderfully and keeps us so faithfully. I like what this Psalm reminds each of us to do today, which is to give Him that which is rightfully His.

The great Baptist preacher Charles H. Spurgeon put it this way: "The moment we glory in ourselves, we set ourselves up as rivals to the Most High. Shall the insect of an hour glorify itself against the sun which warmed it into life? Shall the pot exalt itself above the man who fashioned it upon the potter's wheel? Shall the dust of the desert strive with the whirlwind? Or the drops of the ocean struggle with the tempest? Give unto the Lord, all ye righteous, give unto the Lord glory and strength; give unto Him the honour that is due His name."

Well put, Charles! Let us take a moment in our busy, successful lives to remind ourselves that all the glory and the honour belongs to Him. Without Him how successful, prosperous or significant would we really be? As we daily live to bow our knees humbly and give all glory and honour to Him, He daily honours us with continual goodness and mercy.

Revelation 4:11 (NIV)

You are worthy, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will they were created and have their being.

Today is another opportunity to give Him what He is due; so don't hold back, give it to Him, Champion!

Bless you,

Andy
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Breakfast of Champions: Wednesday 1st September

Good morning, Champion.

Don't take your life into your own hands, but place it in His.

Acts 2:21 (NKJV)

And it shall come to pass That whoever calls on the name of the LORD Shall be saved.

When you called on the name of the Lord, as promised, you were saved. Saved from what? You were saved from your sins, yes, but also you were also saved from the consequences and fallout of everything that Adam and Eve did wrong in their moment of deception and fall.

Your faith in Jesus, as we have said, reinstates and restores you as a citizen of God's kingdom. Now you need to make the decision to no longer live independently, but rather dependently. Before we believed in Jesus we did not have a choice. Our lives were independent, separated by sin from the governing and covering of God and His kingdom, but not now!

We used to have to hold our own lives in our own hands but now there is a better way. We can place our lives lock, stock and barrel into the loving, strong hands of a mighty God. As you yield your life into His hands, pledging your trust in Him, it is then that you experience all the blessings, protection and grace that Adam knew before his moment of foolishness.

So here is the choice, Champion – you can keep your life in your hands and do the best you can to make things happen, maintaining your independence, or humbly place it in the hands of your ever-redeeming God and watch Him lift you, protect you, and provide for you far beyond what you could have ever imagined.

1 Peter 5:6 (NKJV)

Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time.

Put your life (all of it) back into His hands because it's a better place for it to be. Faith is simply "dependence on God"!

Bless you,

Andy
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