{"id":599,"date":"2009-04-05T18:58:20","date_gmt":"2009-04-05T23:58:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/192.185.166.32\/~davidfoster\/?p=599"},"modified":"2009-10-14T19:25:52","modified_gmt":"2009-10-15T00:25:52","slug":"today-the-gathering-april-5th-2009","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.davidfoster.tv\/today-the-gathering-april-5th-2009\/","title":{"rendered":"Today @ The Gathering – April 5th, 2009"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Icon_small1\"Today at The Gathering<\/a> I finished our present series, \u201cThe Power To Prevail,\u201d<\/a> with the last installment, \u201cTurning Failure Into Fertilizer.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n

We talked about the three main reasons we fail.<\/strong><\/p>\n

1.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Sometimes we fail because of circumstances.<\/strong> The stock market goes south, a market shifts, we get our realtors license the day before the bottom falls out.<\/p>\n

2.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Sometimes we fail because of competencies<\/strong>.\u00a0 We don\u2019t have the skill set to succeed at what we\u2019re trying.\u00a0 It doesn\u2019t mean we can\u2019t get smarter and it doesn\u2019t mean we won\u2019t succeed in the future, but right now we need to get smarter.<\/p>\n

3.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Sometimes we fail because of character<\/strong>.\u00a0 I\u2019ve found over the years this by far accounts for the greatest percentage of failure.<\/p>\n

The point is, you\u2019re not a failure because you\u2019ve failed; you\u2019re a failure if you avoid changing what needs to be changed so you won\u2019t repeat the same old behavior.\u00a0 It\u2019s been said that the definition of lunacy is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result.\u00a0 If you\u2019re failing and it\u2019s related to character, it means you need to change.\u00a0 Losers resist change in the following three ways:<\/strong><\/p>\n

1.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 They avoid the bad news<\/strong>.\u00a0 They don\u2019t get on the scales.\u00a0 They don\u2019t measure anything.\u00a0 They don\u2019t balance their checkbook.\u00a0 They dread reading the mail.\u00a0 They just simply think avoiding it will make it go away.<\/p>\n

2.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 They deflect personal responsibility by placing the blame on others. <\/strong>\u201cIt\u2019s my mother, my father, my background, my environment, the government.\u201d<\/p>\n

3.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 They would rather complain than change.<\/strong> <\/strong>Somehow we get stuck in the same old responses: shaming, blaming, and criticizing.\u00a0 It\u2019s always someone else, not us.<\/p>\n

One of the most important things to realize if you are a child of God, if you\u2019re related to God through Jesus Christ, if you live with a converted heart, something more than just joining a church or assuming a certain set of facts; I\u2019m talking about a real heartfelt passionate connection to Christ, to God; if that\u2019s true for you then you are a child of God, you\u2019ve been adopted, you\u2019re a son or a daughter.\u00a0 So God relates to you as a father would relate to a son or daughter.\u00a0 So when He sees you going down the wrong path, He sends failure into your life for one of four reasons.<\/p>\n

1.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 To stop your progress.<\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n

2.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 To starve your pride.<\/strong> <\/strong>The Scriptures tell us that God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.<\/p>\n

3.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 To turn you around. <\/strong> <\/strong>That\u2019s the definition of repent: to change your mind enough to turn around and go in a different direction.<\/p>\n

4.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 To win your heart.<\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n

The amazing thing is God cares when we hurt.\u00a0 He created the church as a place where we can gather around our common pain, but be held together by our common passion.\u00a0 We come together needing God\u2019s love and healing.\u00a0 We stay together because we have received it and we want to extend it to the rest of the world.<\/p>\n

The Gathering is an exceptional place, made up of exceptional people.\u00a0 But let\u2019s face it; we\u2019re messy.\u00a0 That\u2019s why we must specialize in God-simple.\u00a0 God the Father loves His children and He will discipline us out of love to bring us back into alignment for our own good. That\u2019s the lesson to be learned.<\/p>\n

\"FightBack_Icon\"Next weekend is Easter. It\u2019s an opportunity to invite someone to come and be a part of the experience.\u00a0 We\u2019ll begin a brand new series called \u201cFight Back!\u201d The truth of the matter is, you can\u2019t always turn the other cheek.\u00a0 This would be a great time to invite someone to experience The Gathering, and what following Jesus Christ could mean in their lives.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Today at The Gathering I finished our present series, \u201cThe Power To Prevail,\u201d with the last installment, \u201cTurning Failure Into Fertilizer.\u201d We talked about the three main reasons we fail. 1.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Sometimes we fail because of circumstances. The stock market goes south, a market shifts, we get our realtors license the day before the bottom … Continue reading “Today @ The Gathering – April 5th, 2009”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"series":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.davidfoster.tv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/599"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.davidfoster.tv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.davidfoster.tv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.davidfoster.tv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.davidfoster.tv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=599"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.davidfoster.tv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/599\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.davidfoster.tv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=599"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.davidfoster.tv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=599"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.davidfoster.tv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=599"},{"taxonomy":"series","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.davidfoster.tv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/series?post=599"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}