2012 – The Year of Possibilities!

Posted on December 28, 2011 by

We hope you all had a great Christmas and celebrated the true meaning of Christmas which was the birth of Jesus Christ. Without Christ we would all be doomed. Lets not forget what this time is all about or for that matter all time is about.

Have you been thinking about your goals and aspirations for next year? If not, why not? Its time to sit down for a day or 2 with your spouse if you are married and figure out where you want to go in life next year. If you don’t want the same results that you got this year then you need to change for next year.

There should be several types of goals; spiritual, business / career, health, financial, giving, purpose. These should at least be the base. Once you figure out what you want to do then its your job to map out a plan on how to get there.

Don’t just focus on next year, you may want to know where you will be 5 years from now. By figuring that out you can back trace to see exactly what you need to accomplish next year.

Now on to the possibilities. The reason I am calling 2012 as the year of possibilities is there are so many possibilities for you next year. If all you do is see scarcity then that’s all you will get but  if you see a world of possibilities then you give your mind a chance to get creative and find a way for your life.

Be sure to include God in all of this. The worse thing you want is to get to the end of the road and find out God wanted different or more for you than you chose to live. God wants to guide you and he has the master plan for you. Yes he gives us free will but we will never be truly happy until we find that purpose that he has for us and move forward.

I see so many people want so bad to hold onto a good life that they never make it to the great life God has in store. The enemy of great is not bad as most think but its good. Being good enough is never good enough. I hope that you don’t want good enough but you want greatness in Christ. You can only get that through a relationship with Christ and once you start going that way, your world of possibilities start to become a reality.

Chris Benton

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New Chapter in Life

Posted on November 19, 2011 by

We all go through different seasons in life. Sandy and I are about to go through a new one ourselves. We have been married for over 9 years and we are about to have our first baby. It is due Jan 23rd.

We are so excited but also nervous too as this is a new chapter. Both of us were an only child. I have a sister but she never lived with us so I was raised an only child.

So all this is going to be very new to us. We are so glad that we have some close friends and family that will be able to help guide us some plus we have the internet and of course God!

Are you about to start a new chapter in life? Maybe you are starting a new career, going back to school or just becoming a new family. Whatever it is, this should be a very exciting time, yes at times you may get overwhelmed but remember that God is guiding you.

Allow God to work in and through you for this next step of life. Don’t allow satan to tell you that you can’t do the next step. he is ready to bring you down but remember that God is with you. God is there when you need him. God has the right answers for your life. God will protect you.

Be careful if you ask God to protect you from your enemies because you just might start losing some friends. All of us has friends in our life that are really enemies and we do not even know it. If they don’t at least somewhat surrport you in your new chapter in life then they just might be.

You can’t allow anyone to pull you from the direction that God is telling you to go. Don’t let them keep you from God’s Vision. Well meaning friends and family have a habit of doing that. It shouldn’t be like that but that’s usually the way it happens and that’s life.

So as you go through this exciting time in your life just watch for things that try and pull you away from God’s vision and purpose. Stay focused in the direction that God is leading you and everything will work out the way God plans.

Chris Benton

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Unrepentant Sin in the Church

Posted on November 14, 2011 by

“But now I am writing you that you must not associate with anyone who calls himself a brother but is sexually immoral or greedy, an idolater or a slanderer, a drunkard or a swindler. With such a man do not even eat. What business is it of mine to judge those outside the church? Are you not to judge those inside? God will judge those outside. Expel the wicked man from among you.” 1 Corinthians 5:11-13

This is why leaders of the church MUST confront the unrepentant sin inside the church. Unless we do this as leaders of the church, we are not following what God called the leaders to do.

This is for the believers not the unbelievers. This isn’t saying you should run  people off but when you have say adultery that is happening in your church and it is 100% open, you have to confront even if it’s hard for the health of the church.

You have to step up if you want the church to stay healthy. The worst thing you can do is nothing. Sin will spread like cancer then eventually you will have people justifying their sins to each other. Don’t let this cancer spread.

I hear people saying don’t judge me and here is the problem with that; if you are saying that you are a Christian then you have a responsibility to live how God called you to live. If you aren’t then it’s the leaders responsibility to confront you on it. If they don’t then they are going to be judged harder.

As James 3:1 says:

“Not many of you should become teachers, my fellow believers, because you know that we who teach will be judged more strictly.”

If you are a leader, you will be judged more by God. As a leader, you have to stand up for what’s right even when it’s hard. God called the leaders to do this. If not you then who?

So when a leader has to call you out, next time don’t get upset and feel judged, they have to or they are going to be judged by God. It is their job to keep the church healthy.

And as a leader, when you have to confront someone, remember you are only doing it for the health of the church and God called you to do this. You are obeying God on this. God put a few people in charge of the church and he expects you to do your part.

What if you have to confront a leader? You still have to do this. A leader should be confronted first because they are called to live to a higher standard and also a leader has influence over the church. If people know the leader is doing certain things and they know the church isn’t doing anything about it, you just gave them a way to justify their own sin.

The goal is to have people want to repent not justify why they are living the way they are. So next time you see or know something, it’s time to step up and confront the issue head on.

Chris Benton

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Are you a Bystander?

Posted on November 13, 2011 by

I am seeing a trend that I don’t like. It seems that a lot of Christians are saying if it doesn’t effect me personally then why should I bother? Because God called you to be bothered, that’s why!

God didn’t call us to live out our personal dreams as a lot of these prosperity preachers are telling you. God called each of us to His specific purpose and if you are married then it will be a shared purpose.

Have you noticed how many people are saying no to giving but yet saying yes to finding a way to make their dreams comes true? It is all about self. I am not downing following your dreams here, please don’t misread what I am saying but I am saying that there comes a point where God’s calling will be above your dreams.

When you get to the point where you will sacrifice all including your dreams for God’s purpose in your life, that is when God shows up. He understands that until you are all in, you will always have one foot in the door but the other one out.

What does all of this have to do with being a bystander? It has a lot to do with it since most Christians are bystanders. They are watching many people move for God’s purpose and saying that’s great for you but God has me going in a different direction. REALLY?  Are you sure?

What if God is trying to show you the direction He wants you to go but you are just standing there? It’s time to take God at his word and move forward in Faith into the direction He has called you. Will you be scared? If His purpose doesn’t scare you then maybe it’s not from God.

Gods purpose will always be bigger than what you think. He will take you to places you did not intend to go to accomplish things in and through you that you could not do alone.

Christ is reaching one hand down from the cross right now saying come on, be a part of my team and be all in! What are you going to do? Are you going to finally be all in for Christ or stick to being a bystander? The bystander may seem to have the easy life. You don’t have to worry about doing the hard things but you will never be satisfied until you do what God called you to do which will almost always be the hard thing.

One day when you are on your deathbed, you will look back and ask what have I done for God? Will the answer be I wish I would have or will you finally get sold out to Christ now and finish your life strong for Him?

The choice is yours. We all have that choice. The choice to live in mediocrity or to move forward in faith and live for excellence in Christ! Remember, it doesn’t matter how you start in life, what matters most is how you finish. Now go out and finish STRONG!

Chris Benton

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Quit Being You?

Posted on November 6, 2011 by

Have you ever told people that you are who you are nothing can change that? Or have you ever heard unless you be yourself then you are just being fake or something like that? Well society teaches this and I used to believe that too. As I tell people now, don’t let who you think you are stop you from becoming who God called you to be.

Do you realize that when you come to Christ, you are a new creation so God now can mold you into the person he wants you to be not the person you have always thought you were. Think about this, if you stayed the same person would you have really turned your life to Christ then?

Of course not because you have to change. In order to have true change you have to fully surrender your life to Christ. Once you realize who you are in Christ and that you truly are a new creation then and only then can you allow in your heart God to work so that you become who God called you to be.

You are God’s gift to you but what you become is your gift back to God. But what you become will always involve you changing your life. Remember, Saul became Paul. God changed Saul and knew that in order for Saul to take the full change, he went as far as to have the name changed. That’s powerful. That tells a lot.

Also look at Abraham:  Genesis 17:5 – No longer will you be called Abram; your name will be Abraham, for I have made you a father of many nations. When God calls you, he will make you a different person than you are now.

When God changes you he wants to show people that he is in full control. By allowing you to stay who you have always been would show that God isn’t working in your life but by people seeing a whole new person, they will be like WOW you have changed.

I can remember the days of my past so clearly, I am so glad that God took me from the man I was and made me into the man I am today but thank God he loves me too much to keep me where I am today. I have no idea where God is going to take Sandy and I but we are so glad that he is willing to use us.

Remember, not to allow your excuses to pursuing the purpose that God put on your shoulders stop you. It is really easy to say that’s just not me. Find someone else but God didn’t want someone else, he wanted you and he wants you right now. Right where you are at.

You just need to fully surrender to God and watch God change you into the man or woman he needs you to be for his glory. Don’t say I have never done that or that’s not me but instead say OK God if this is the direction you want me to go, I will listen and then move forward into that direction.

Chris Benton

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Decisions, Decisions. It’s Decision Time!

Posted on October 10, 2011 by

This past weekend was Decision Weekend at Savannah Christian Church. Cam did a great job at making the weekend a weekend of decisions. As he preached you could just feel something in the air. By the end of his sermon we saw more people come forward to make some great decisions for God. It was such a moving experience. This is how church is supposed to be.

That got me to thinking, why should it be just decision weekend at church? Why not take this challenge to you? We are challenging you to look deep inside and figure out the decisions that you need to make in your life from God to career to relationships.

What do you need to change? I bet you are already thinking of a few things. Commit those changes to paper and to your spouse if you are married.

Whats holding you back? It is time for you to get on with your life and hand all your baggage to Christ. Until you let go of your past and give it all to Christ, you will always be paralyzed to it.

I went through 19 years of addictions and tried to quit so many times. It wasn’t until I just had enough and gave those addictions to Chris that things started changing in my life. December 26th of this year will be the 4 year mark of being completely sober. WOW what a difference it makes when you give it all to Christ.

What are you holding back? Why are you holding back? Is it career choices? Maybe you know you are in a dead end career and God has already told you the direction he wants you? MOVE!!! Maybe you are a little scared but with God on your side anything is impossible. Be thankful that he has given you a vision. Some are still searching for theirs from God.

Maybe its a relationship? Maybe you are ready to take the next step in your relationship? Maybe you are dating someone that you know is wrong and you know God wants you out?

NOW is the time to make these kinds of decisions. There is never a better time than the present to make quality decisions for your life. The longer you wait the harder it will be to make those decisions and the closer to a disaster you will be.

You are better off making decisions early so that it saves you from getting to the point of having no choice to make a decision. Example most people don’t start getting healthy until they have a heart attack or something bad happens. Why allow a decision that needs to be made get to a point where you have to suffer before you make the decision?

Its like the old joke, there was a dog whining badly and a guy asked the owner whats wrong with your dog? He said hes just laying on a nail. The guy asked why don’t he move? The dog owner laughed and said It doesn’t hurt him enough.

Is that where you are in your life? Are you so comfortable that you don’t want to make a decision? Are you not hurting bad enough yet? Are you settling for instead of pursuing where God wants you to?

There are so many decisions in a lifetime that we all must make. The decision to take your life to where God wants it to go may sound tough but its not as long as you are listening to God with all of your heart. Once you realize that doing it your way just won’t work then its time to do it God’s way.

Now go out and make those few hard decisions that you know you need to make and watch God move mountains in and through your life!

Chris Benton

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Is your Marriage on Purpose?

Posted on September 18, 2011 by

Why is it that so many people go and get married with all of the high hopes to then in a few years struggling so bad that they want to end things?

Their marriage has no purpose. This blog entry could go many ways and probably will as I am writing this. The more we watch people and their marriages the more we have realized that you have to have a purpose for your marriage and you have to be in your marriage on purpose.

Both of those ideas have different meanings and I will talk about both.

First, lets talk about having a purpose for your marriage. Why would God say that when you marry that you must become one flesh? Just think about the power in that one verse? I know many people say well we are married and that means we are one unit or we are one as we have one family unit so that is the purpose of our marriage.

I know that God’s meaning is bigger than that. We will never fully understand God’s ways but as you dig deeper into his word you begin to realize what he means. Everything God does has a purpose. You have to figure out what his purpose is for your marriage. God will NOT bring the two of you together without a shared purpose and vision for your marriage.

We were just watching an interview with Will Smith and his wife about why does their marriage seem like it is on fire and they have it together. Do you know what their answer was? It was when they married, they had a vision for each of them but realized once they married that they had to intertwine their visions to have one vision for their marriage!

I have been talking to many people about this whole idea and I have finally found someone who gets it! If you are living your marriage as independent people then God is not going to take you where he wants. He can’t. As they say a house divided will fall, well a marriage divided will fall also.

Now on to the second idea from this is, are you living your marriage on purpose? If you went into your job tomorrow and said I have my job by default so I will do no work, what would your boss or if you are the boss, what would your clients do? They all would fire you right? Do you realize that your marriage is firing you?

You may be saying but at my job I get paid. Well don’t you get paid in your marriage too? Is it money? Well actually sometimes it is because studies have shown that happy couples are more productive in the workplace and make more money than unhappy couples but that isn’t what I am talking about here.

You get paid with God’s blessings on your marriage. No amount of money could buy that. A marriage that has peace and joy and just plain excitement. Yes I said that, EXCITEMENT! Marriage is supposed to be exciting but it also has to be on purpose. It takes work to keep it at that level but it is well worth it.

Kids become more fulfilled when they see mom and dad being excitedly married. Are you really going to put your needs ahead of your kids fulfillment? If you say no but you are just letting your marriage happen then you are doing that without knowing.

I want this message to be strong because we have a society that has become so selfish that we are losing our souls through our marriages. Every marriage problem stems from one or both parties being selfish. There isn’t a marriage problem that can’t be solved with Christ-Like selflessness. Marriage is not give and take like most people say, it is give and give.

As soon as one side takes the other loses. I have been so convicted on this subject that you may read more of this because we feel that this is a part of our calling. To bring people’s marriages back to Christ and have it become on purpose as God intended.

Some people may laugh at what we are trying to do but we know this is something that needs to be done as there are a lot of hurting marriages out there. That was not what God intended for marriage.

So in closing whether you need to live your marriage on purpose or you need a purpose for your marriage, God is right there waiting for you. Ask God to come into your marriage and bless it the way he wants. He wants you and your spouse to have fun with purpose in your marriage. Let go and let God work in your marriage and you will never be the same!

Chris Benton

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Extreme Makeover God’s Edition

Posted on September 18, 2011 by

Extreme Makeover was in Savannah GA filming a while back. It was so great to see the transformation of a home from what it was to what it became. What a huge difference that was.

Does your life and marriage need an extreme makeover? That is what God does for us. He takes us as we are and transforms us into the men and women he wants us to be.

As we watched The Extreme Makeover, we noticed that they got the whole community involved. Everyone around was excited about the new change and a lot of people pitched in to help the change happen.

As with your life, a lot of people around you will love the new you. You have to embrace God and allow God to use you in a different way. God will guide you if you let him. You have to give your all to him if you want the extreme makeover that he has for you.

Also, we have seen some people who are jealous of the new home this couple is getting. This happens all the time no matter what it is.

When God changes you, you will also have some people who may not like the new you but you will also have new people who love you. They can’t handle it because they see changes in you and it makes them feel guilty about their personal lives.

Do not let others opinions stop you from being all God wants you to be. He wants to take you from where you are and give you a Vision for your life and marriage. He won’t do that until you have fully committed your life to him. Once you have done that, the transformation will start.

Look out when God starts the process. Sometimes it can be a fast transformation but usually it is a slow process to help your grow in a steady way. I think God would rather you grow slow and steady than fast because a lot of times when someone grows overnight they can’t handle it so they go backwards just as fast.

Think about it this way, people who want to lose weight usually yo-yo because they take away everything and after a short time they feel deprived from that so they go back to the way they were. BUT the ones who say I eat 3000 calories a day, what if I cut that back to 2500 a day, what would happen?

Then they do that for some time and lose some weight so they cut back to 2000 calories a day. They are the ones who lose the weight and keep it off. They never really feel like they are giving much up since they are doing it in stages. But when people go from eating 3-4000 calories to just 1200 a day, they are doomed from the beginning because their body will be shocked and they will not be able to sustain it.

I think everything in life is that way. As I look back at our marriage, we didn’t grow over night but over the last 8 years. Now we have grown the most in the last year but that is because we grew through the years to this point and now the growth starts to happen at a quicker pace.

All growth does this. It starts small and builds daily. Good or bad growth but either way daily habits build a life of good or bad. That choice is yours.

So go out and ask God to transform your life one day at a time. You will look back in 6 months and say WOW or a year! Imagine doing this for the rest of your life?

Chris Benton

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Is it worth it?

Posted on September 17, 2011 by

As I am sitting here sometimes I feel overwhelmed as I know each of you do too. Sometimes we can get to a point where we wonder if God really leading us where we think he is? Do you know for sure? Sometimes we can get impatient and want to move God out of the way and just go!

We have to learn, listen then lead (The 3 L’s). Right now we are at the stage of learning and listening and working on leading where God needs us.

When God calls you, what is he teaching you at the moment? I know for one he is teaching us patience because that is something I lack. I have always been a very impatient person but have gotten better over the last year.

Don’t get me wrong I know it is well worth the calling of God. I am just pointing out that we all ask from time to time is this really worth it and I believe that God doesn’t mind that we ask as long as we don’t allow this thinking to pull us from the mission.

The mission God has called on you is the most important thing. The moment isn’t what’s important because you will have good and bad moments but the mission is what you stay focused on, the mission that God called you to.

God will open those doors for you when he is ready. Just keep moving forward and eventually God will open the right doors so that you can move at the speed he wants you to. God needs to see that you have the faith to move and not just talk the talk but the ability to actually walk the walk.

So we come back to what’s in it for you, will this be worth it? Let me ask you a question, what if the mission from God doesn’t involve anything that looks successful on the outside, would you still go? What if it looks like a total failure?

You have to ask these kinds of questions because it’s all about where your heart is. There have been many people of God who if you looked at them you would think that they were total failures but to God they accomplished what he set out for them, His mission for their lives. They were never glamorous, didn’t live a lavish lifestyle but they were faithful in those times. They led people to Christ and led their churches.

I have to respect people who have spent 40 years at a church that never grew over 100 people. Can you imagine spending your life at that kind of church that stayed where they are? Before you answer, imagine how God is allowing this kind of pastor to pour into the lives of these people for all those years?

This kind of pastor may not have all of the glamor as some of the ones you are used to seeing but they have what some of the others will never have and that is the pouring into their whole church personally and one on one.

I am not saying either way is good or bad but what I am saying is wherever God calls you, take it and run. Sometimes God is going to call you differently than you may think but either way it is about following his mission and running with it.

So will it be easy? “NO” but will it be worth it? An astounding “YES”! Until you start leading where God called you, you will always experience something missing in your heart.

So go out Learn, Listen & then Lead!

Chris Benton

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Reach People Where They Are

Posted on September 16, 2011 by

Mark 6:34 (New King James Version)

34 And Jesus, when He came out, saw a great multitude and was moved with compassion for them, because they were like sheep not having a shepherd. So He began to teach them many things.

I think a lot of times those of us who are Christians, myself included forget what Jesus taught. We are trying to reach people from where we are but that isn’t what Jesus did. He went to their level to help them see things.

Think about it, what if someone told you before you were saved everything you should do instead of just talking about salvation, would you have been saved? Or what if you were a baby Christian and you had other Christians looking down on you because you haven’t grown to where they are YET?

Maybe that is exactly what happened to you so you pushed away from God. Remember we are all human so if that happened to you then I want to apologize for the people who treated you that way. I am not saying here that you should not change and that this gives you an excuse but we all have to remember that we all grow at different levels and we have no idea where God is working on the other person.

Example: Many years ago I was in a business that taught until you turn this business over to God, you will never grow to the level you want. I heard several tapes that said this and they all promoted that if somehow you make it to the high levels you would get the stage just like them to tell your story and besides just maybe you would give others hope but they have yet to see anyone do it.

I went to my friend that got me involved and told him that I was going to be the first to build it without God. Now when I said that ask yourself, what would you have said back to me? I thank God to this day he didn’t say what 90% of the people would have said.

He looked me straight in the eyes and said if you truly believe that then go for it! That’s right he encouraged me. He didn’t know God was trying to work on me but he did know that attitude would change overtime as I tried to do something that dealt with people.

Well needless to say it is around 15 years later and my life has been so changed and that was a part of it. I know deep down if he would have answered me in any other way I would have pushed God away further than I was. Did I not believe in God? I did but I thought God hated me back then. I was at a low point in my life at that time.

Now what is my point here? It is when you are dealing with people whether they aren’t Christians or baby Christians, use some compassion because you were once there too. They don’t know what they don’t know and it is up to us to influence them to how we are but we can’t do that by slamming the Bible at them and telling them where they are going. It’s like telling a teen that their decisions are going to haunt them later. They just don’t understand YET!

So as you move forward, when talking to people, remember to reach down to their level so you can help bring them to your level in a way that inspires them to want to move up.

I pray that if you are reading this you take this small discipline into your daily life and use it to inspire people to want to pursue God rather than fear them into bondage.

Chris Benton

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