DAY 151

I pray you will be blessed today by these words from my most recent devotional, A Daily Encounter With God.


And the vessel he was making of clay was spoiled in the potter’s hand, and he reworked it into another vessel, as it seemed good to the potter to do. —Jeremiah 18:4

Are you a broken vessel today?

As clay in the potter’s hands, we can get marred because of impurities in our lives. On the potter’s wheel, any foreign object in the clay can cause a fracture in the vessel.

Sometimes the potter must stop and remove the impurities before going on. Do you feel resistance in your life today? Maybe there is an impurity or reluctance that is keeping God from creating His masterpiece in you.

And maybe you’ve already been fractured. If you are a broken vessel today, you may be wondering, is it too late for me? Absolutely not!

If you will give God the broken pieces of your life, He’ll put you back together. But you must be willing to turn loose of the impurity or resistance.

When you do, today’s Scripture says the potter can make the vessel again. I’m so glad God is a God of a second chance, third chance, a tenth chance, and even a one-hundredth chance!

He gave Jacob another chance, Jonah another chance, Sampson another chance, Peter another chance ... and He’ll give you another chance, too

God can take you in your broken condition and make you over again!

GIVE GOD THE BROKEN PIECES OF YOUR LIFE SO THAT HE CAN REMAKE YOU IN THE VESSEL HE WANTS YOU TO BE.

Hometown Idol

Deb and I are big American Idol fans. We’ve been watching it since Season 3. Our favorite singer over the years has been Carrie Underwood. But, this is our favorite season; this year is special. Not only has the talent been amazing, but there’s one contestant in particular that we’re really pulling for—Kris Allen.

He is incredibly talented and genuinely humble, and he hails from my hometown of Conway, Arkansas! He’s put that little town on the map.

Photo Courtesy of New Life Church

But here’s the most important thing, Kris is a believer with a heart for worship and missions work. He’s helped lead worship at New Life Church in Little Rock and Conway the past six years. The way he’s carried himself the entire season with a quiet confidence says a lot about him … to millions of viewers every week. (What a platform!)

Whether or not he beats Adam Lambert — who was anointed the frontrunner early on — in the finale this week, Kris has a great future ahead of him and an even greater testimony.

Great Golf...Greater Cause

Every year for the past 19 years, I’ve carefully assembled a team of very good friends who happen to be great golfers for our Prestonwood Golf Classic.

The tourney benefits our Prestonwood Foundation, which during these tough economic times is providing assistance to a lot of people in the community with resume writing and career transition workshops and financial planning classes. Our foundation does much more. Proceeds from the tourney actually went toward our Global Missions Endowment, helping provide financial support to members who have a heart for missions but are unable to afford the cost of a short-term missions trip. So we were playing a great course for an even greater cause.

OK, some people say I’m intensely competitive. I don’t know about that, but I’ll tell you what, I don’t like to lose! So my four-person scramble, which included Jim Martin, John Cheney and David White, was built to win. We had a storm blow through yesterday morning but by our afternoon tee time it had cleared up and we were ready to play the Hills Course at Prestonwood Country Club. (FYI, for those of you who live outside the area—our church doesn’t own this course, it just happens to be nearby.)

We played a great round and finished tied for first. But, it appears that one of our young ministers recruited a couple of ringers and his team won by a scorecard playoff. Needless to say, that young minister is no longer employed at Prestonwood!

Just joking. We (220 of us) had a great time, and we helped raise more than $10,000 toward our missions endowment. It doesn’t get much better than that. (Well, except maybe winning.)

Graduation Day

At Prestonwood this weekend, we recognized our high school seniors who are just a couple of weeks away from graduation day. (Remember those days? For some of us it’s been decades!) I brought the message “Graduation Day” from my series Eternity Now. Here’s the thing, this message is for everyone because a much greater graduation awaits us. Eternity begins now ... it begins today ... as we look forward to that graduation day when we are in the presence of the Lord.