DAN GOULD

FROM THE INSIDE OUT

Author: dgould77

  • Luke 11:1-13

    Once Jesus was in a certain place praying. As he finished, one of his disciples came to him and said, ‘Lord, teach us to pray, just as John taught his disciples.’

    2 Jesus said, ‘This is how you should pray:[a]

    “Father, may your name be kept holy.
    May your Kingdom come soon.
    3 Give us each day the food we need,[b]
    4 and forgive us our sins,
    as we forgive those who sin against us.
    And don’t let us yield to temptation.[c]‘“

    Can you picture this scene.  Jesus is praying and one of the Disciples is watching!  He is watching How Jesus talks with God.  Once Jesus is done, the disciple asks Him to teach them how to pray.  And Jesus does.

    He teaches them a simple prayer that is not to complicated.  Notice it doesn’t have big words and isn’t supper long.  Prayer is simply talking to God.  Many times we make it harder than it is.

    You don’t have to use big words, you just simply need to talk with God like you would talk with a friend.  He wants to listen . . . will you give him a call?

    Gods Phone Number: Jeremiah 33:3

    “‘Call to me and I will answer you and tell you great and unsearchable things you do not know.’”

  • Volunteer Staff / Small Group Training

    Tonight, we had our first training meeting with our new team of Volunteers serving in Small Groups for the year!  What a great team.  Tonight we met at The Zone in McKinney!  If you are in the area this is one place that you should use for events.  They are so great and work so well with us.  We were there for three hours.  Ate pizza, had our meeting in a private room and then played laser tag.  It was a great way to kick off a great school year.  I have been excited about small groups before, but this year has get me really excited!!!  I believe we are on the verge of God doing something huge!!!

    If you are looking for a great opportunity, come join us at Fusion.  We would love to have you on our team!!!

  • Influence

    Tomorrow, we are wrapping up our series called “The Epistle”, which was our summer Bible study of 1st-3rd John, with a two part talk on Influence.  Here is our theme verse for the next two weeks:

    “Dear friend, don’t let this bad example influence you. Follow only what is good. Remember that those who do good prove that they are God’s children, and those who do evil prove that they do not know God. ” v.11

    Would you consider yourself to be a person of influence?  How are you an influence?  Who are you influencing?  Are you a good or bad influence?  Who is influencing you?

  • Crazy Good

    This week has been crazy busy, but as I write this I can’t help but think how good the week was.  Here is a brief shakedown of my week:

    Monday – All day leadership training at Grace click here to read more!

    Tuesday – Student Staff Meeting, Interview and audition/practice with perspective Student Worship Candidate.

    Wednesday – Jackson had a doctor appointment in the AM, this always make for an exciting PM and it did.  At about 6:00 pm as we were getting ready to leave for a ball game with students, Jackson starts crying and throwing his head back as if he is in pain.  He would calm down for a little while, like a minute, and then start again.  Each time he would wear himself out causing him to have to try to catch his breath because he was crying so hard.  After about thirty minutes I got him to calm down by talking loudly to him saying, “Daddy’s here, you are going to be ok, Jackson Daddy’s here, you are going to be ok!”  It amazes me how a comforting voice can can change how others feel.  He started to calm down after that.  However, it was really scary.

    From this, we went to the ball park.  It may sound bad but our thought was if we were going to have to take him to the hospital, the ball park is closer to the hospital than our house is.

    The Rough Riders Stadium is nice.  For 15.00 dollars, we saw a game, ate all you could eat hot dogs, burgers, chicken sandwiches, and BBQ pork, chips, and drink, AND got a Rough Riders hat.  Pretty sweet deal.  the home team won, the weather was perfect, and everyone had a good time!

    Thursday – Plowed through small group curriculum for the year for each age group. Made training books for Small Group Leader/Coaches and our B2S Retreat curriculum and held band practice with potential Student Worship Coordinator.

    Friday – NOTHING – Blogging and then hanging out with the family! Well my wife just asked if we could go shopping for the Cafe’, so . . . I guess its not nothing!

    Here are some pic of our Fusion Family Night at the Rough Riders Game!

  • Luke 10:25-42

    “One day an expert in religious law stood up to test Jesus by asking him this question: ‘Teacher, what should I do to inherit eternal life?’

    26 Jesus replied, ‘What does the law of Moses say? How do you read it?’

    27 The man answered, ‘You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your strength, and all your mind.’ And, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ [a]

    28 ‘Right!’ Jesus told him. ‘Do this and you will live!’”

    Jesus answered a question with a question knowing that the “expert in religious law” was trying to debate this fact.  But in this we find a great answer that can easily be overlooked.  Jesus says, ‘What does the law of Moses say? How do you read it?’  This tells us that any question we have about life, has an answer found in scripture.  Many times the problem isn’t what the Bible says, its how we read it or interpret it.

    When read in context, (meaning reading the passage before and after as well as understanding the setting, people, place, and time)  we see the truth of what the Bible says.  Unfortunately, the Bible has been twisted and taken out of context to try to justify agendas or lifestyles.  It all depends on how you come to the Bible when you read it.  Do you come to shape what you believe and how you live by what the Bible says, or do you come to shape the Bible into what you believe and how you live?

    When it comes to questions of how to live, where do you go to find answers?

  • Luke 10:1-24

    “When the seventy-two disciples returned, they joyfully reported to him, ‘Lord, even the demons obey us when we use your name!’” v.17

    Can you sense the excitement?  These Disciples have just been used by God to do some amazing things.  They were Faithful, Available, and Teachable.  There is a whole lesson to be learned there, but that might be more of a talk than a devo.

    As you read further, Jesus prays this prayer,

    “At that same time Jesus was filled with the joy of the Holy Spirit, and he said, ‘O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, thank you for hiding these things from those who think themselves wise and clever, and for revealing them to the childlike. Yes, Father, it pleased you to do it this way.’” v. 21

    Again, Jesus emphasised the importance of child like faith.  When we are given an opportunity to be used by God, but our first response is, “there is now way I could do that” we miss out on an opportunity.  You are right, we can’t do a lot of stuff.  But don’t let your own pride keep you from experiencing the Holy Spirit’s ability to  empower you to do something that only God can do!

    Today, think about the opportunities around you, maybe today would be the day that you saw God do something big in your life, simply because you were faithful, available, and teachable!  Swallow your pride and have child like faith and leave the details up to God!

  • John 8:21-59

    “Jesus said to the people who believed in him, ‘You are truly my disciples if you remain faithful to my teachings.32 And you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.’” v.31-32

    Powerful words.  In these two verses Jesus sums up how to live in true freedom from sin.  I think the key word that many of us want to overlook is the word “faithful”.  How faithful are you to Christ?  I am not asking how many Christian t-shirts, or CD’s you own, I am asking, are you faithful to Him?  I think many of us would say, “I am pretty faithful” and feel good about it, but should we?

    If I told my wife that I was “pretty faithful” yesterday, how do you think she would feel?  I know how she would feel, she would be hurt, and then I would be hurt.  If I told her that I was pretty faithfull I am admitting that I wasn’t 100 percent faithful and it causes problems in our relationship.

    Jesus says, when we are faithful to His teaching, we will know the truth and the truth will set us free.  We don’t experience all the things of Christ by simply knowing the truth.  I can know the things I should do and not do them.  But when we are faithful, moved by a deep love that changes our actions, it puts our knowledge into action and there we find the freedom that Jesus is talking about.

    Today, ask yourself, Am I faithful?  Are there areas you are more faithful in than others?  What has to change, in me, for me to experience what this verse is teaching today?

  • John 8:1-20

    “Jesus spoke to the people once more and said, ‘I am the light of the world. If you follow me, you won’t have to walk in darkness, because you will have the light that leads to life.’” v.12

    This verse give new meaning when you understand the context in which Jesus says it.  Here is the scene, Jesus is teaching again in the Temple.  The day before, the Pharisees had tried to convict Jesus of breaking the law and questioning who He was.  So on this day, they bring a Lady whom they caught in adultery to Jesus for permission to stone her.  This was a trap.

    First, the Pharisees had some legal authority but not the authority to stone people.  Second, both the man and the woman if caught in adultery were supposed to be stoned. The Pharisees only brought the woman.  Jesus dismisses the crowd by saying, “All right, but let the one who has never sinned throw the first stone!” After everyone had left Jesus tells the woman to go and sin no more!

    This gives me goose bumps every time I read it.  We see in this Jesus Compassion for people.  He doesn’t condone or condemn, He simply forgives and says don’t do it anymore.

    When we have an encounter with Jesus, it changes us!  We don’t have to live in the sin (darkness anymore). Today, will you remember Jesus words?

    “I am the light of the world. If you follow me, you won’t have to walk in darkness, because you will have the light that leads to life.”

  • Leaders Summit @ Grace – Day 1

    Today, the team from Leaders Summit met with the staff at Grace Community Church for what will be a three day leadership conference.  This will actually be the second time I have gone through the material.  This is really good stuff, some of it basic, while other very thought provoking and even convicting.  It is interesting to see how our team responds to this.

    To be honest, I don’t know if I agree with all of the things that are said.  Like the example of not watching live TV in order to maximize time.  Please don’t get me wrong, I am all about maximizing time, but this sounds a little rigid and very scheduled.  Almost driven to the point of not having fun unless it’s scheduled.  That scares me!

    However, it’s easy to get caught up on the things that we don’t necessarily agree with, or get caught up on the way things are said, that we miss the point.  The principles we are learning are very good, the method however, may be different for different situations.  Example, if you don’t want to write in a journal because you have an on-line journal called a blog that fine.  The principle is capturing the thoughts that come, so you don’t lose them later.

    It was interesting to see what I wrote a couple of months ago and what I wrote today.  I do like the fact that we are meeting on Mondays from 9am to 3pm over the next three weeks instead of 2 days in a row starting at 8am and ending at 5pm.  I feel like I will actually get more out of it especially where my brain shut down during the last sessions toward the end of the conference last time.  We will see what happens.

    Today we talked about why it’s important to study leadership.  Based on our self assessment, click here to take one for yourself, we were able to see possibly our strength and weaknesses as it pertains to the hard and soft skills of leadership.  Here are the three Leadership Principles we talked about today.

    1. Vision
    2. L3 – Life-Long-Learning
    3. Team Work

    I am excited to learn and begin/continue to apply these leadership principles to our student ministry.

  • John 7:1-31

    “There was a lot of grumbling about him among the crowds. Some argued, ‘He’s a good man,’ but others said, ‘He’s nothing but a fraud who deceives the people. 13 But no one had the courage to speak favorably about him in public, for they were afraid of getting in trouble with the Jewish leaders.” v. 12-13

    Have you ever been there?  Have you ever been in a place where people were talking about Jesus, but you chose not to say anything?  Sadly I have to admit that I have.  Sometimes we think it is easier to not say anything than to argue with someone.  Somtimes we are more concerned with what people will think of us if we do say something so we stay quiet.

    Fear is a powerful suggestion the enemy uses to keep us quiet.  We play the what if game.  “What if they reject me?”  “What if they make fun of me?”  “What if they won’t listen?”  “What if they ask a question I can answer?”  It’s amazing how fear can keep the most dedicated Christ Follower quiet.  Fear will always turn the what if negative!

    But what if God wants to use you in that moment?  What if you are there because you have influence with that group of people?  What if they do listen, and you are able to tell of the great things God has done for you?  What if someone is so moved that they begin to ask more questions and even ask Jesus to be there Lord and Savior?  What if, that conversation, was to lead to other conversations where you got to share to more people about Christ?

    What if . . . . It’s a powerful suggestion or thought!  Today, you have a choice to live in fear and ask negative what if questions, or you can live in Faith and ask positive what if questions.  However, the choice is yours.

    What if today, God started doing something different on the inside of you?

    What if today, you would now longer be silent about Jesus?

    What if . . .