Had a wonderful opportunity to interview my good friend and mentor Pastor Alex Prokopchik on Saturday.  We celebrated his 40th birthday this last Saturday.   He text me earlier that weekend and asked  if I would assemble a list of questions to ask him, so that those who came to the celebreation would get to know him better (smart man.)   The following video is from that interview:

LA International Christian Center 

We have been in an awesome time at our Church with the School of Leaders;  last night I had the privilage to teach a wonderful group of leaders on the subject of being born again.    

One of the great privilages of learning/teaching the word of God is that,  God always has a way of bringing  fresh revelations that inturn cause growth.   As we press in and seek Him, He opens us to new revelation, new illuminations.   

What is the "Born Again" experience and what are the effects of this experience?

I believe a greatest summary of the what new life is, can be no better represented than by the story of the prodigal son and summerized by this process:

• Accept my need for saving
• Believing
• Repentance
• Forgiveness
• Yielding our lives to Christ Control

Luke 15:11-32 (read here)

We Were Living a Life in Need of Saving.

The prodigal son he ask's his father for his portion of the inheritance, and this passage tells us as soon as he recieved his portion he left to spend it in a foriegn land on wild living.    

Before Christ we lived wildly squandering the purpose and plans that God had for us on fast living.   We were as Paul said in "Romans 7" the worst of sinners.

In verse 17 it says that He came to himself, that is (Recognizing the Need for Saving.)

We Must Believe Christ Paid The Debit and Has the Power to Save Us

Verse 17, goes on to say how he recognizes that his father has everything he needs and can meet his needs.

Recognizing My Need For Repentance

Verse 18, the son recognizes the need for repentance and he tells his father "I have sinned."   No excuses, no reasons why, just an honest confession to a God who "allready knows what you did." 

We Must Accept Forgiveness

Verse 22, I love this verse, because his father did not give him what he deserved but instead gave him what he didn't deserve.   He forgave him, so too often we cannot forgive ourselves, or others but forgiveness should be just as much received as it is extended.   We need to forgive ourselves and out of the forgiveness we have received forgive others.

Yielding our lives to Christ Control

Verse 22, the father restored his son to the place under his covering and control and received him back into the family.  We must give over our lives to Christ's care and control, we must invite him into the most personal places of our lives and allow Him to influence them.

I would like to invite you to come be a part of our School of Leaders.

LAICC 5833 Laurel Canyon Blvd, Valley Village, CA - Wednesday Nights at 7:00 PM

Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you… ~ James 4:8 

Drawing near... 

• When you want to “see” someone clearer you have to "Draw Near!"
• When you want to “hear” someone better you have to "Draw Near!"
• When you want to “get closer” to someone you have to "Draw Near!"

When I draw near, my relationship grows and this verse tells us that Jesus  reciprocates,  He in turn draws near to us.  

I don't know about you, but I want Jesus closer to me in every aspect of my life, drawing near to my family, my finances, my health, just in my everyday  daily walk..  

See I need His counsel, His direction in my daily life, drawing near really means, I must let Jesus into all those areas, give Him control in them, allow the work of the Holy Spirit to speak to those areas.

Worship and prayer are the greatest  ways I know to draw closer to Him, to Jesus, in my prayer I allow God to speak into my heart, I listen for His voice, and when I am quite that is when I can hear Him speak most clearly.  In worship I have this freedom to wash the exteriour distractions away and focus on praising Him, thanking Him for all He is and has done for me.

We had a great time of Prayer & Worship this last week, check out a picture from that event.

I encourage you to press in to draw close to Jesus, allow Him to draw close to the things most important to you, “invite” Him into your personal life, increase your relationship with Him

How do I live right, in a world that is so obviously wrong.    

Truth is,  we live in a fallen world and have a sin nature, this inheirant war between right and wrong living.  

Paul has some great insight on this subject:  Lliving Right in a Wrong World:

I can anticipate the response that is coming: “I know that all God’s commands are spiritual, but I’m not. Isn’t this also your experience?” Yes. I’m full of myself—after all, I’ve spent a long time in sin’s prison. What I don’t understand about myself is that I decide one way, but then I act another, doing things I absolutely despise. So if I can’t be trusted to figure out what is best for myself and then do it, it becomes obvious that God’s command is necessary.

But I need something more! For if I know the law but still can’t keep it, and if the power of sin within me keeps sabotaging my best intentions, I obviously need help! I realize that I don’t have what it takes. I can will it, but I can’t do it. I decide to do good, but I don’t really do it; I decide not to do bad, but then I do it anyway. My decisions, such as they are, don’t result in actions. Something has gone wrong deep within me and gets the better of me every time.

It happens so regularly that it’s predictable. The moment I decide to do good, sin is there to trip me up. I truly delight in God’s commands, but it’s pretty obvious that not all of me joins in that delight. Parts of me covertly rebel, and just when I least expect it, they take charge.

 I’ve tried everything and nothing helps. I’m at the end of my rope. Is there no one who can do anything for me? Isn’t that the real question?

 The answer, thank God, is that Jesus Christ can and does. He acted to set things right in this life of contradictions where I want to serve God with all my heart and mind, but am pulled by the influence of sin to do something totally different.  ~Romans 7:14-25

Paul, who I know that most would say was a righteous dude;  in Romans 7 declares what I think to be something we need to hear.   Paul says:  there is this natural  struggle to do right, he says I want to do right I set out to do right, but all too often I do the opposite. He is saying in this text that no matter how right you are trying to live it doesn't make you immune to the effects of the sin-nature (that is on your own,)  it just screams for your need of the power of Christ in you even more.

Paul says (ephasis mine)

"What I don’t understand about myself is that I decide one way, but then I act another, doing things I absolutely despise."

Left to my own devices I am going to make the wrong decisions, so if I want to live right in this wrong world, simply put I am not going to do it alone, or in my own strength.   If I do I am only excercising the definition of insanity "trying the samething, expecting a different outcome."     Paul points out that he has the desire to do what is right I belive that is God infused, but he says  on his own, it never ends well. -- Can you relate?

But how does Paul says some things that can help us to live right in this wrong world:

1.  It's Predictable 

"It happens so regularly that it’s predictable. The moment I decide to do good, sin is there to trip me up"

Because it is predictable,  I can be prepared, I can take safeguards to ensure that my sin-nature doesn't trip me up.  I can bring every thought captive and under the submission of Jesus Christ (2 Corinthians 10:5) Predictability allows me to recognize when I am on the wrong track and get back on the right one. 

2. I't Can't Be Resolved In My Strength

" I’ve tried everything and nothing helps. I’m at the end of my rope. Is there no one who can do anything for me? Isn’t that the real question?"

Isn't this the truth: The very things we struggle with, the things we do over and over are the very things we have tried to overcome in our own strength.   Paul said "I've spent a long time in sins prison, "  why,  because more than often than not: "Change doesn't happen in your own strength"  if we were able to change on our own we would have done it a long time ago, in fact we would not need Christ's help.

3. The Solution is Christ's Power

"The answer, thank God, is that Jesus Christ can and does. He acted to set things right in this life of contradictions where I want to serve God with all my heart and mind, but am pulled by the influence of sin to do something totally different"

"He acted to set things right in this life of contradictions"   This verse says it all, Jesus Christ because He overcame the sin-nature, because He defeated the enemy and because the very power that rose Jesus Christ to Victory the Bible says is at work in us (Romans 8:11,) to help us life the life we were intended to, to Live Right in  Wrong World...  

Thank you Jesus. 

partnering with 

to reach out to those in need.  Our purpose in this, is to convey this message  in a practical way "God Loves you." Jesus said whenever you did for the least you did it for Him.   If we could do anything let us do it for Him, with Him so that those who see us see Him and His great love.    If your interesed in becoming part of this outreach please feel free to contact me. 

Event Dates:

• February 8th
• March 8th
• April 12th
• May 19th
• June 7th
• July 12th
• August 9th
• September 13th
• October 11th 
• November 8th
• December 13th