In my birth country of Iran there is a Beautiful Royal Palace. I recently read that the architect of this structure had originally ordered large mirrors from Paris to decorate the walls, but when they arrived, most of the mirrors were broken. His contractor threw away all of the broken mirrors, but the architect surprised his contractor by ordering that all of the mirrors be taken out of the trash and smashed into even smaller pieces. He then had all of the smaller broken pieces glued to the walls creating a stunning, silvery, shimmering, mosaic. This room above all of the other great rooms in the palace grabs the attention and wonder of most visitors. To be broken and beautiful is a wonderful thing. I think God is much like that architect. He takes all of the broken pieces of our lives out of the trash to make beautiful masterpieces. He sees the beauty and potential in us which we often don't. I look at the brokenness and weaknesses in my life as something God cannot use. But the reality is that he looks at my weaknesses as an opportunity to let His power and grace shine. What we see as pain, shame or weakness God sees as an opportunity to breakthrough our human limitations with His divine touch to bring healing and purpose. So next time you recognize a broken area in your life don’t just ask God to fix it or remove it, but pray also that He would also use that brokenness to mold you and inspire you to help others, so that in some miraculous way God would be Glorified.. I have heard it said that "Compassion" is the deep awareness of the suffering of another coupled with the wish to relieve it. God gave the church a mandate of serving the world through our blood, sweat and tears. James 1:27 tells us that the purest form of religion is “to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world". Christians are very concerned about their sins, but how much do we care about “the least of these” the downcast, the broken, and the poor in our society. I know we are all willing to serve a day or two out of the year at a rescue mission during the holidays to help people, we are also very generous and willing to give money towards good social causes. But do we really go out of our way to make service and compassion to our “neighbors” a way of life? Do we truly “consider others better than ourselves” and live out the challenging verses in Philippians 2. Too often I let fear, pride, selfishness even busyness become barriers to pleasing God. God gave me a disheartening vision of the church a few years ago. It was the scene in Titanic when the rich, well-to-do people in half-empty lifeboats were quickly rowing away from those drowning. God said don't let people drown while you sit comfortably and safely in the boat. We need to take the Kingdom of God into the world and get our hands; feet and hearts burning serve the Lord. "Compassion" is beautiful point for the church to reengage the world we have so often worked to distance from ourselves. As a junior at U.C. Davis I was asked to direct the high school ministry. I wanted our youth to do things that took them out of their comfort zone, so that first year I decided to have our group do the "World Vision's" 30 Hour Famine. My friend was the youth leader at the Catholic Church in town so I told him about the event and asked if he wanted to join us at my church to fast, pray and do community service. He was very excited about the program and went to get permission from his elders. A week later, he came to me with a sad face and said, "Sorry Keivan the elders won't let our youth do an event away from our church campus." I immediately responded, "Would they be OK if my church came to do the famine at your building." He said he didn't know if they would allow it but he would check on it. The answer came back Yes. So that year a group of 60 Protestant and Catholic youth prayed together, fasted, and did a half day of community service. We had an absolute blast that day. We didn't change the world in a major way, nor was what we did ever mentioned in newspapers or media, but that group of youth bonded together in a powerful way. As followers of Jesus, we should look for ways of uniting and serving not only with protestant churches, but also with our Catholic brothers and sisters. Instead of always pointing out our differences, we should try to find the areas of congruence in our faith and vision to serve all people. These "Faith Bridges" will help us reach a generation of lost youth and give them hope and purpose. In 2002, I was preparing my youth group for our annual Mexicali Mexico mission trip. We had done this trip several times and had many participants each year, but for some reason that year our team was very small (only 12 students and leaders including me). I was worried that we wouldn’t have enough people to do the program we wanted to, so as any concerned pastor does I prayed without letting my group know that I was worried. Well God did not take long in answering those prayers... A week after I started praying I got a call from Namra the Youth Leader of Gilroy Presbyterian Church. She said, "You don't know me, but I got your name through Azusa Pacific University, they told me you had led many trips down to Mexicali and might be willing to let our small group of 12 join your team." It took me all of 2 seconds to reply "YES! You are an answer to my prayers." That year was amazing. My group consisting of 12 mostly hyper, kid-loving, passionate youth, united with Namra's students who were much calmer, quieter and hard working. The combination was God ordained. Our groups blended so well, you would not even know there were two churches if it were not for our physical differences. Our two churches gelled so well we did the Mexicali mission trip together for the next two years until their group got so big they ended up starting a mission at two other villages. When you are serving God and his people, our denominations and styles of worship do not matter all that much. The children in Mexico did not know we were from two different churches nor did they care about any doctrinal difference we may have had. They were loved and appreciated with Christ's love and responded to God's transcending message of salvation through Jesus. Unity is truly beautiful in God's eyes. His name was Murray, and he was the janitor at my middle School. He was a very kind African American man in his mid 60's with whom I developed a friendship. Most of the students in our school just ignored Murray as they did their teachers also. However, for about three years Murray and I would greet each other daily in the same way at school. He would say "Hello young man" in a deep southern accent. I would say "Hi Murray". He would then say "You be good boy now" and I would respond "Yes Murray I will". We had many other conversations between classes or whenever our paths would cross on campus. On the last day of middle school, after I emptied my locker Murray came by and we had a final conversation. He said "Keivan I'm gonna miss you, maybe sometime you can come back and visit me here." I said, "sure Murray, I'll come and see you." Then with tears in his eyes he said this "Keivan, my daughter just ran away from home again. She has done this before; I don't know how to reach her anymore. She hangs out with the wrong crowd." Then he said these words that are still etched on my heart. He said "Keivan, I know God has a plan for you and you will do well, make sure to always have good friends,." As much as a hyper 8th grader who was just about to graduate could I received these words, and responded. "Thanks Murray, things will be ok with your daughter" We than parted ways with "goodbyes" and a handshake. About 7 years later when I was in college, I decided to go see Murray to tell him that I actually became a Christian and was now a church leader. My little sister sadly told me that a few months before Murray had passed away. After reading his obituary, I was shocked to find out that Murray was a pastor of a small church in Richmond, he had also adopted and fostered over 20 children. He worked as a Janitor in my school because he did not make enough as a pastor to support his large family. I was absolutely blown away by the humility and passion of this Man of God! I never got a chance to thank Murray or tell him what a great impact he had on that lost Iranian, Muslim boy with the small seed he planted. In a sermon I gave years later about "heroes" in our lives, God brought Murray's image back to me and I broke down crying, right in the middle of the sermon. It took me a few moments to recover, but I told Murray's story and I realized how important and timely Murray's words were for me. Our Words I believe most of you reading this are difference makers, and life givers in this world. Your self-less love and passion for the world often goes without honor or recognition. I thank God for you and I am sure many people you disciple think very highly of you as well, even if they don't always tell you. All of us at one point or another have prayed for revival. Personal revival, revival among the students we work with, revival in our church, neighborhoods, cities, country. True revival does not come easy; it is not based on emotions, it cannot be contrived or formulated. The cost of revival is high and often painful. True revival occurs when an individual, a church or a community spends countless hours behind the scenes on their knees and faces crying out to God with true repentance and humility. We can not create revival with our charismatic gifts and we will not see true revival if we are seeking personal honor or monetary gain. True and long-lasting revival will happen when we join hands across our denominational, racial, socio-economic lines and invite the Lord to encounter us with his powerful presence. The great news is that as believers God is already with us; He is in us, and working through us. We are not magically inviting Him to step down from heaven for a special meeting or an emotional high. What we want is deeper transformation of us and of our unbelieving world. We want to see government, school, prison, cultural, church, family and personal transformation. We are not asking for temporary change, we want a lasting movement that will bring about a great measure of healing, joy and salvation. To be honest I do not know exactly how prayer works. I could give you theological explanations or testimonies from my personal experiences but both would come short of the Kingdom equation of prayer. One thing I do know confidently is that youth and young adults have been an integral part of revival in the west from the Great Awakenings to the Jesus Movement. Let us not just pray for our young people but gather them and engage them in prayer. I encourage you to grab the hand of 2, 3 or 4 others who are passionate about revival and begin to pray. Then ask God to lead you to other small groups of prayer warriors. There are many churches and groups throughout the Bay Area that are already praying. Let's all believe that a time will come when we will see a Revived Bay Area! Where gangs and violence won't rule our cities, where the God of money won't be worshiped harder than the God of the universe, where our schools will be safe and moral places to learn and grow, where abortion clinics will be closed because of the lack of business and where our churches care as much about their community and the lost as they do about themselves. Would you join me and many others who are praying for such a time as this! Without Prayer True Revival is Impossible! When I was 5yrs old living in Iran, my parents brought home a little lamb. I thought it was a pet for me, but they intended to kill it during a traditional Persian ceremony as an offering to God. We made a place for it in our basement and every day I would go downstairs to feed it, talk to it, play with it, and even ride it around like a little cowboy. For several months I bonded with the lamb calling it, Babayee (“little lamb” Farsi) This lamb became my best friend for a few months as my parents fattened it. One day my parents told me that there was going to be a party in our backyard, but that I had to stay in the house. I didn’t want to miss the party so after several attempts I finally snuck by the person watching me. I saw all the adults standing in a circle and to my horror, there was a man standing in the middle of the group holding a bloody knife above the lifeless body of my bleeding little lamb. I screamed so loud it scared and disturbed all of the adults. I screamed “why did you kill him, why did you kill my lamb? You didn’t have to kill my lamb! I kept crying and screaming this hysterically until they took me back inside the house. Fast-forward 15 years to my sophomore year at UC Davis. While hearing a sermon on John 1:29, the memory of the killing of my lamb flashed back. I had repressed those images and forgotten the story until that day. “Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” the pastor read. At that moment, I remembered that graphic scene I saw in Iran and I realized how prophetic my words were that day. “We don’t need to kill the lamb!” The price has been paid, Jesus was the final and perfect sacrifice for all people. He is all we need in our lives to please and reconnect with God. Some people today still sacrifice animals, burn incense, or do religious things to please God, because they do not know the Savior or have a personal relationship with Him. However, Christ was God’s ultimate sacrifice, the perfect Lamb and Christians are called to be “living sacrifices” to honor and please God. As believers we need to passionately share about the true "Lamb of God", and live loving and sacrificial lives for Him as living witnesses of God’s love and forgiveness P.S. In case you were wondering, I have since talked to my parents about this and forgiven them for what happened that day. They really didn't do anything wrong, They were only doing what they thought God desired. With the apparent increase of massive earthquakes, tsunamis, hurricanes, volcanoes in Iceland, and wars around the world it is no wonder that many Christians are jumping up and excitedly shouting "It's the end of the world". The bible is clear that we should be watchmen looking at the world around us and the possible signs of his second coming (Mark 13:32-37). But many years ago I stopped praying for the second coming. One day at church as I was singing a song that pleaded with the Lord for his return, I was struck by how selfish I sounded. What I was really saying was this "Lord come now, right now and take me away to be with you" and Lord it's a bummer that 4 billion+ people don't believe in you, they had their chance. Well God lets go party. I am so excited about the banquet and mansion you have prepared for me, I am sick of this world anyways. It really sucks and I'd much rather be with you." Seriously as I sang that song I realized God does not care for us to pray or sing for his second coming. He knows exactly when he's coming back and my singing will not prompt him to change his mind in any which way. (In fact it might scare him never to return. LOL) Over 2/3 of the world is unsaved do we really want God to come back to this. Not only that but we have fractured Christianity into 35,000 different denominations who in all reality don't like each other; should we really be proud of this? Will God even want to return to such a "Broken Bride" and are we that selfish to want to gain eternity now at the expense of so many others? I understand that we have chosen a narrow road, and that many will never choose it but my prayers and singing have changed. My prayer now is "Lord, please take your time in coming back. God, there are too many who don't know you. Help us be One so that the world may believe in you and receive your amazing grace and love on the cross." Rather than wasting my time speculating about the Lord's return or singing silly songs about it I would rather use the rest of my life inviting as many people as I can to join me on this eternal journey. I used to think that sled dogs were abused by being forced to run hundreds of miles in Alaskan dog races. However, recently I saw a TV show with these dogs being trained for a big race and was amazed at how wrong I was.These dogs waited eagerly for their master each morning. When the Master came out of his tent the dogs went crazy jumping and howling. The moment these dogs heard their master's voice or saw him, they went absolutely nuts because they love their Master and their greatest joy is being with him. Their next joy is also apparent as it comes when they run full speed together in some fridgid cold temperatures. I consider myself a pretty passionate believer and follower of Jesus. But I am nowhere close to having the level of passion and obedience that these sled dogs have for their Master. I have learned to run my best; be a very professional Christian; preach and live the right ways and serve and love others. Sadly I fear too much of my running becomes 'Good Christian Work' done sometimes apart from God when I don't slow down to let God love or speak to me. More often than not my Martha overpowers my Mary as I am more apt to do good ministry for Him then I am to see or hear Him. After seeing these dogs on TV, I prayed a quick prayer "Lord, help me be as passionate as these sled dogs!" You see, their purpose is to be with and then serve their master. The master loves the dogs spending countless hours with them and gets to know them intimately; their strength, weaknesses and ability to lead or follow. Consequently these dogs will run for hundreds of miles without complaining or wanting to go their own way. If I could learn to stop and listen more to God's voice and be as excited to see my Master everyday instead of just doing good ministry for Him, I believe my life and the lives of everyone around me would change more powerfully. As you serve and give, I pray you take moments to pray a similar prayer and every time you are buried under a mountain of ministry, paper work, meetings or duties remember that seeing and hearing your master is far more important to Him than all the good you are doing in this world. By all means do good things, do great things, just slow down enough to sit at your Masters feet to hear him and feel His love for you. "To obey is better than sacrifice."1 Samuel 15:22 In June I went camping with my family to Lake Almanor in N. California, our favorite yearly camping spot. I took my son fishing for the first time and we caught nothing, nada, not even a bite. I had him sitting on my legs on a big rock overlooking the rushing river helping him hold his "Lightning McQueen" bright red kiddie fishing pole. After a while with no action I leaned over and whispered in his ears "I love you buddy". Then I asked him "Do you love me too?" He said, "NO" with a smirk on his face! I said "Well then who do you love? With a big grin on his face, he began his long list... He said I love mommy, sissy, brother, and then went on to name everyone else in our families that he knew. He even said he loved the fish (that we weren't catching) as well as the river, lake, our tent, the campfire, and the S'mores we ate every night, but still no love for Daddy! It didn't faze me a bit, I knew he was trying to get a reaction out of me. Without missing a beat, I leaned over to his ear again and said "That's okay buddy, you don't have to love me, I'll love you no matter what." He smiled at me and went about his fishing with my arms around him. Later that day I thought about that scene and how closely it resembles our relationship with God. We love a lot of things in this world; our spouses, children, friends, homes, cars, money, T.V.'s, computers, facebook, iphone apps etc... the list goes on and on. But when it comes to God, our actions, time and treasure often shout back to God that we don't love him all that much. At best he is 3rd, 4th, or last place on our list of loves. We proclaim our love for him with our words and songs but our actions sinfully come short. Still I believe in a God who gently holds me on his lap and whispers in my ear "That's okay buddy, I know you don't always love me, I'll still love you no matter what." That is the beauty of God's Grace. He knows I will come short, he knows that I will prioritize my life in ways that often push him back, he knows that the first thing on my mind in the morning is not Him, yet still he loves me a billion times more than I loved my son that day on the rock. It is hard to imagine a love that large. But I get it. The more my son listed the things he loved, the tighter I held him and the more I laughed inside. God is not easily grieved by our periodic bouts of faithlessness, or love for the temporal things of this world, he is madly in love with us in a crazy way that made perfect sense to me fishing with my son on a rock. "In Himself, God is love; through Him, love is manifested, and by Him, love is defined." ~Burk Parsons My wife and I quite possible have the two brownest thumbs in California. Give us a drought tolerant cactus and after a few months and we will show you a dead cactus. A few years back I was trying to do something about "The Great Campbell Desert", otherwise known as my front lawn. I diligently went to Home Depot, bought some strong fertilizer and grass seed and even a hand cranking seed sprayer. With enthusiasm for a green lawn I proceeded to seed and simultaneously fertilize the desert. I watered and waited for weeks but nothing happened. My problem wasn't the wrong seed or fertilizer it was forgetting to till the hard soil. The silly thing is I never bothered to talk to my neighbor across the street who is a landscape architect or the neighbor to his right who is a gardener. Thankfully the gardener must have had some pity on me because after a couple months he walked over and gave me some basic tips on growing grass (The legal stuff). His advice worked, my grass is now about 80% in. My failures in gardening taught me a good lesson on why unity matters and why leaders and churches often fail. We do ministry like I tried to fix my lawn, on our own. Most of us think we have everything figured out so we rarely work with other leaders. We are too busy ministering to our own flocks and too prideful to care for what's happening down the street. Do we truly care about their successes and failures; do we encourage one another and spur on each other, and most importantly do we pray for each other? Christian ministry done in a vacuum often leads to deep failures or burnout. We desperately need each other to succeed and to see a spiritual transformation of the Bay Area. I love what Mark Twain wrote; "Great people are those who can make others feel that they, too, can become great." One of my passions is to see the faith and effectives of other leaders rise. I don't want to gauge success on just what my church or ministry does or on how many shared the gospel with or helped feed, or disciple in a year. I want to see the level of the spiritual pond rise in the Bay Area. This must be done in collaboration with one another, one small pebble at a time. If we truly want to see God's Kingdom glorified, we need to check our arrogance and calendars at the door and get busy working with one another. My parents tried to make everything as normal as possible for me when the war began and even Saddam Hussein began bombarding us from Iraq. One day when I was 5, my parents said let's go to the fair. I was super excited because it was my first time going. After a couple hours of rides and a few bottles of Pepsi my bladder was about to explode. I tried holding it, to no avail. Finally my mom saw my discomfort and said "Honey do you need to go the bathroom?" I said yes in a pained voice. It was very dark and the fair was dimly lit because of the constant bombings. To get to the bathroom we had to pass through a small doorway through a barbed wire fence lit with only one light bulb. I tightly held my parents' hands as we walked up to the bathroom. On the way back, however, I let go of my dad's hand and ran as fast as I could toward the fair. What I did not see was the barbed wire fence in the dark. My dad screamed loud "Stop Keivan stop, you will hit the fence!!!" In my excitement all I heard was "Stop Keivan blah, blah, blah." I was so focused on the fair, nothing else mattered. The inevitable happened. I ran full steam into the fence and my whole body was impaled on the rusty old barbed wires. My parents had to literally lift me off of the fence because I could not move. I was bleeding from so many wounds my clothes were covered in blood. My parents rushed me to the hospital where I vividly remember the doctor taking pliers to pry broken barbs from my chest, arms and legs, I still have scars to prove it. I can still hear my dad's voice yelling "Stop," but not his warning afterward. Though I learned a painful lesson that day, I don't think I've stopped running from my father. Abba often shouts to me "Stop Keivan" but I don't want to hear the warning that follows that will save me from so much pain. That day I thought I knew better than my dad. Even now I often live like I know better than God. How can His ways be better than mine, why can't I go down this path or do what I want to do? What I don't always see is that God is lovingly warning me about the devil's schemes, and also about myself. I've learned to better listen to God's voice, and I try to trust His words in Jeremiah 29:11. But when I fail, I know my Abba will come and take me off that rusty fence, comfort me, and patch up my wounds as He will yours and send me with a gentle or stern encouragement to listen better next time. J. Oswald Sanders, in his iconic book "Spiritual Discipleship," challenges believers to discover and know their "Senior Partner." Who is this senior partner you might ask? In the business world, a senior partner can be a venture capitalist or investor who provides knowledge, wisdom, accountability, and funding to help grow a company that has great ideas. Many of us live in the Bay Area where the power and speed of technology moves at near light speed. Ideas can go from the white board and brainstorming sessions to being used in people's homes in a matter of months. Yet many of these ideas would not come to fruition if it were not for investors who funded them and believed in them. Who is your "Senior Partner"? Who believes in you more than anyone else in the world? Who is challenging you and keeping you accountable to goals and dreams that you've set for yourself and your ministry? Sanders reminds us - "Our conscious spiritual inadequacy underlines our need of a partner who has adequate spiritual resources on which we can draw." Jesus left with us on this earth the most incredible senior partner, the Holy Spirit, whose sole desire is to help us glorify God, in our words and actions. Yet so often we do ministry in our own power and with ourselves as a senior partner. In doing so, we cut off the greatest source of power God has given us to fulfill His commission on earth. Sanders says, "Could not many of our failures be attributed to the fact that we arrogate to ourselves the role of senior partner instead of ceding it to him? Have we been guilty of trying to make use of Him instead of allowing Him to make use of us?" Without the Holy Spirit as our source of strength and guidance, most of us in ministry will either burn out or want to give up. The Holy Spirit has been authorized to make "the unsearchable riches of Christ" (Eph 3:8) "and all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge" (Col 2:3) available to us. So why not allow him to equip you for more effective ministry and service? If you're feeling on the verge of burnout in your ministry, would you take a few days to slow down, trust Him, pray, and seek the wisdom of the Scriptures for the amazing power and peace of the Holy Spirit for you? I also encourage you to pick up a copy of J. Oswald Sanders book "Spiritual Discipleship" or re-read it for some powerful nuggets of truth that will help you in your ministry and family. We just got back from Disneyland on Sunday. I think our family can now be called Disney Freaks as we are averaging two trips a year to the 'Happiest Place on Earth'. Ever since the invention of the "Fast Pass" I find myself running around the park like a crazed maniac as soon as I can get another one (funny thing is I still have about 25 passes we didn't get to use). There is just something Magical about passing all those people in line cause you thought ahead and got the "Fast Pass". YA So here are ten things Uncle Walt (as I like to call him) taught me about God. Enjoy and pass it on... 10) Never Give Up.The day Disneyland opened (Also known as Black Sunday to Disney Execs) the temperature was 101 degrees, the plumbers went on strike so water fountains did not work, a gas leak in FantasyLand caused Frontierland, AdventureLand, and FantasyLand to be closed for the afternoon, 11,000 official tickets had been sold but so were 18,000 counterfeit tickets (overwhelming the workers) and the asphalt poured earlier that morning was still so soft that peoples shoes were sticking to it. Walt was not deterred; he did a "2nd Grand Opening "the next day with much better results. So next time you have a bad day, week or month of ministry where all you hear are complaints,and discouragements don't give up on God's calling on your life."Persistence is the twin sister of excellence. One is a matter of quality; the other, a matter of time." ~Marabel Morgan 9) Dream very big dreams. Walt was a dreamer even at a young age he saw the world differently. In grade school his art teacher one day got mad at him and said "Walt, plants don't have faces on them" to which Walt responded "But Mine do". Steamboat Willey (His first animated cartoon at age 27) came out in 1928, Disneyland, as you just read, opened to negative criticism in 1955 when Walt was 54 years old... Walt had a big dream that took a lifetime to see to fruition despite trouble finding donors and numerous set-backs. As leaders not only should we dream big dreams for our churches, ministries, evangelism, missions, service, the hurting and oppressed etc, we should have the passion and dedication to complete them with God's power. Don't give up! "All men dream: but not equally. Those who dream by night in the dusty recesses of their minds wake in the day to find that it was vanity: but the dreamers of the day are dangerous men, for they may act their dreams with open eyes, to make it possible."~T.E Lawrence 8) See the world through a child's eye. For children everything at Disneyland is Magical, and Amazing. When was the last time you thought the Kingdom of God as amazing? As we age we tend to lose much of the "wow" moments of life because we learn to explain away so much and we dare not let our hearts trump our minds less we look foolish and unlearned. Well sometimes we need to see God through the eyes of a child in awe and wonder and let our hearts be moved by the Holy Spirit, even though it may seem foolish. 7) Take big risks... Walt didn't have enough money to build his park because no one wanted to invest in such an untested giant theme park. Walt worked out a deal with the ABC network to do a show called "Disneyland" so that in return they would put up the bulk of the money needed to build the park. Don't play it safe, but risk things for God's glory. It is human nature to want to live safe, comfortable lives. But God calls us to be dangerous not safe. "Only those who will risk going too far can possibly find out how far one can go." ~T.S. Eliot 6) The Excitement of meeting the Characters... My daughter and I stood 1 hour to meet three princesses. You would have thought she met the Pope, President and Santa Clause by her excitement. When was the last time you were as excited to meet God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit, or to introduce them to others? Our desire and excitement to be nearer to God should be far greater than our desire to meet any mortal man or woman. 5) Constant Maintenance.... Every night after the park closes, hundreds of workers converge on Disneyland to pick every dead leaf, prune the brushes, clean every inch of the park, repair broken rides, paint buildings and a myriad of other things to make the park functional and beautiful. Our Christian lives deserve no less. We need to daily cleanse our temples, letting the Holy Spirit blow away any dirt and debris from sins and failures of our day. We need a Daily Spiritual Maintenance or our temples will begin to look like broken down dysfunctional barns. 4) It's A Small World After All. Oh that infamous song stuck in all of our heads forever. It is a great message. The world is one; we are all connected and need to learn to live peacefully with one another. The final room on the ride shows all the cultures dancing yogether in white clothes (a symbol of peace and surrender). What if we got every world leader to meet at Disneyland and made them ride this ride 50 times in a row. Two things might happen 1. They all go nuts 2. We might achieve world peace. 3) Sweat the details... Disney does painstaking work making sure every nook and cranny of the park is done as perfectly as possible. As Christians we should work hard at doing everything 100%. Do your best on every project, sermon, evangelistic event, worship service. Don't get lazy and just get by doing the minimum. It may be a cheesy saying but 'go the extra mile', "Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving." Colossians 3:23-34 2) Put smiles not frowns on peoples face... Everything at Disneyland except for the lines and ticket prices are designed to put smiles on your or your children's faces. As Christians we should be better known for what we are for than what we are against and though we must stand up against injustice and evil everywhere, joy not anger should be our lead. Our preaching, teaching, and actions must demonstrate a Godly love that should more often than not put smiles on non-believers faces. 1) We all get Fast Passes... As excited as I get timing those Fast Passes, I am more honored to have the greatest Fast Pass given to mankind. This pass is not free it was paid for by the precious blood of the spotless lamb on the cross. And to all who believe in Him and confess him as Lord and Savior He gives the Fast Pass to eternal life. "But I have trusted in Your mercy; My heart shall rejoice in Your salvation." Psalm 13:5