Pastor Shane’s Blog

Today in my devotional time with the Lord I came across a very scary thought found in Jeremiah 5:3. God was dealing with His people by allowing certain national tragedies to take place. He was using these events to get their attention and turn their hearts back toward Him. Unfortunately, instead of repenting they refused!

 Jeremiah 5:3 says, “… You have stricken them but they have not grieved; You have consumed them, but they have refused to receive correction. They made their faces harder than rock; they have refused to return!

This is very troubling to me, as the Word says “the heart of man is desperately wicked…” Sin has a way of hardening your heart, making you callus toward God and man. If you aren’t careful you can reach a place where God, in His mercy, is trying to deal with you, but you refuse to receive His love and correction. Like Pharoah we will harden our hearts and stiffen our necks against the Holy God of Heaven - This always leads to destruction!

Could it be that the American Church has become so desensitized to sin vs. righteousness that we are now hardening our hearts against God? That the many events of national and international significance are His voice calling out to us to return to Him? The dangerous thing about a hard heart is that it is deceptive - we can actually convince ourselves that we are ok when in reality we are far from where we ought to be. How can people who claim to be christians call evil good and good evil, except by a hardened heart?

God doesn’t desire sacrifice, church attendance or any other such outward manifestations of religious piety - all of these are wonderful things. What God desires is a “broken and contrite heart… (Psalm 51:17). I dare you to pray a dangerous, risky prayer. I dare you to put your well-being and every possession on the line - pray the prayer that I did this morning. I dare you to stop what you are doing and ask God to break your heart! Now, before you do that you might want to consider what it could cost you or what He might have to do to break your heart, depending on how hard your heart is. Never the less, I want the heart of God. I want God to strip me and break me so that I can see Him and know Him.

Lord, forgive us for our hardness of heart and I pray that you would break the hearts of your people. Break the hearts of Americans who have strayed so far from you!

November 18th, 2008
Categories: Spiritual, Teaching . Author: Shane Warren . Comments: No Comments

1.     Your Legacy always starts with insignificance.

2.     As you move forward out of procrastination, you don’t have to get it perfect, you just have to build momentum.

3.     Get your Legacy going NOW; movement builds momentum and permanent habits of success.

4.     Feedback is the answer to all your prayers.

5.     Always take focused, inspired, outcome-driven action.

6.     The action you take right NOW always reveals the next action.

Read more…

November 17th, 2008
Categories: Inspirational, Leadership, Teaching . Author: Shane Warren . Comments: No Comments

Talented leaders often make it to the top, but some don’t stay for long. In recent years, turnover at the executive and CEO levels has soared. Research reveals that successful leaders share six attributes.

Six Attributes of Successful, Long-term leaders:

1. Creating, Communicating and Executing a clear vision, goals and strategy - An executive’s success is affected by the ability to communicate a vision for a company’s future, helping employees to navigate through change and motivation them to achieve specific goals.

2. Delivering Results - Today’s businesses, especially those publicly held -emphasize the bottom-line more than ever. Tolerance levels for poor performance are dropping. There is little margin for error. That makes the ability to produce results a very important factor impacting tenure.

3. Acting with Integrity - Those who operate with integrity consistently adhere to a code of conduct and have an underlying value system that is manifested through their behavior.

4. Maintaining Key Relationships - To have a long-term view you need to have strong relationship skills Read more…

November 15th, 2008
Categories: Leadership . Author: Shane Warren . Comments: No Comments

Are you still waiting for your circumstances to change before you’ll allow yourself to be happy? Most of us have preconceived ideas of what would make us happy, and we refuse to be satisfied until those things happen.

The problem is that even once specific things happen in our lives, we’re rarely satisfied with them! Instead, we shift our focus to something even bigger and better, believing “it” will make us happy (or happier). We never allow ourselves to reach a point of contentment. Have you done the same thing to yourself?
Read more…

November 15th, 2008
Categories: Inspirational, Uncategorized . Author: Shane Warren . Comments: No Comments

There are times in life when it feels as if everything about our faith is sinking in sand. All the answers we have trusted don’t seem to satisfy us any longer, and we begin to question what we have always felt so sure of before. 

It is always a risk to question our belief system, and it takes a good measure of courage to begin such questioning. When we are courageous enough to give serious attention to such uncertain feelings emerging in our soul, we can feel unsure as to who we are, what our place is, and how our life makes any sense at all. It’s this very risk of feeling so unsettled that keeps many people from ever questioning the faith of their childhood.

Yet God is much larger than our human concepts can ever define. When we are willing to go deep down within and challenge what we have known and believed, we find in the swirl of chaos the God beyond all conceptions. As the poet Ranier Maria Rilke said, “deep in the darkness is God.” When we overcome our fear of encountering that darkness, we find what our hearts long for, what our minds can only barely grasp, what our soul only dimly imagines.

Stepping outside of what you know in order to glimpse what you do not know does not necessarily lead you to a point of forsaking your religious convictions. Rather, stepping out is a sign that you are on the search for God—God’s self. Your soul is longing to know God without any pretense, without easy answers, without the superficiality to which religious systems sometimes fall prey. Whenever you search for God alone—God will be found.

It may not be an easy journey—in fact, it will probably be a tumultuous odyssey—but the God who loved you into being is right by your side, waiting for you to glimpse the glimmer of His presence in surprising and unexpected ways.

When your soul begins questioning the belief system you have grown up with, it’s merely a signal that your soul is searching for the pearl of great price—the pearl that is God alone. God will honor your search and love you through the journey.

Tip to try:
Write down three things that cause you to wonder about the truth of your belief system. Choose one and begin to explore it deeply and fully through such things as:

• Prayer
• Reading literature outside your religious tradition
• Talking with others who do not share your beliefs
• Interviewing others about their experiences of God
• Being still and silent in the presence of God as you understand God.

Keep a log in your journal about what you are learning and how you are responding.

November 14th, 2008
Categories: Spiritual, Teaching . Author: Shane Warren . Comments: 1 Comment

Habakkuk 2:1 - “I will stand upon my watch, and set me upon the tower, and watch to see what He will say to me.”

There is no waiting on God for help and there really is no help that comes from God without waiting. It sounds contradictory, doesn’t it? Let me explain. I have found that when I fail to receive strength and help from the Lord that it wasn’t His fault; rather, I failed to stay on my watch for Him. Many a miracle from heaven has passed right me by because I was not standing on my watchtower! I simply miss the indications of approaching blessings; oh how we need to be on watch for our God.

There is an old proverb that says, “They that watch for providence will never want for providence…” Faith (watch) is what allows us to obtain the blessings and promises of God (Hebrews 11). Unless you put your buckets out you will never obtain water though it might rain abundantly. If you were to go to your Read more…

November 9th, 2008
Categories: Uncategorized . Author: Shane Warren . Comments: No Comments

This quote was sent to me by my secretary. It emphasizes the importance of total commitment, especially in times like these. In my humble opinion, this is the primary missing element within modern Christiandom. A.W. Tozer said:

Christians ought to be those who are so totally committed that it is final. This weak looking back over your shoulder to see if there isn’t something better-I can’t stand it. One time a young man came to an old saint who taught the deeper life, the crucified life, and said to him, “Father, what does it mean to be crucified?” The old man thought for a moment and said, “‘Well, to be crucified means three things. First, the man who is crucified is facing only one direction.” I like that–facing only one direction. If he hears anything behind him he can’t turn around to see what’s going on. He has stopped looking back. The crucified man on the cross is looking in only one direction and that is the direction of God and Christ and the Holy Ghost and the direction of Biblical revelation and the direction of world evangelization and the direction of the edifying of the church, the direction of sanctification and the direction of the Spirit filled life.

November 7th, 2008
Categories: Uncategorized . Author: Shane Warren . Comments: 1 Comment

Well, it has finally come to a conclusion - a new President has been elected. I am writing this blog because I have received about two hundred plus emails about its outcome and my personal thoughts on the matter. First, let me state clearly: I believe that God is absolutely sovereign and was not shocked by the outcome. At some point believers must start moving in faith and quit responding out of fear. Let me ask you a question, who chose Saul, the people or God? Most of us would say the people, but wasn’t it God who told Samuel who to choose? You see, I believe that the heart of the King is in the hand of the Lord. I believe that God, in His omniscience, knew when He created President elect Barack Obama that we would be at this moment. This does not mean that I agree with his policy, moral aptitude, or philosophical world view; it simply means that I believe God is sovereign and has a plan for President Obama, America, and His church!

Second, now I believe that we must hold these so-called prophetic ministries accountable for their many false prophecies about this election. Over the past year and a half I have received numerous “words from the Lord” about the Presidential election. One had Senator Brownback as our president because they heard the Lord say, “God is bringing our president in a brown bag.” Maybe they were confused and the Lord meant that He was bringing it in a “brown bag” through the first African American elected to this office. Read more…

November 5th, 2008
Categories: Church, Leadership . Author: Shane Warren . Comments: No Comments

Tonight I heard a wonderful teaching that shook me to my core. You know what I’m talking about, one of those inspiring discourses that make you rethink who you really are and why you do what you do. As I sit here in this hotel room in Lafayette, La. it has been more than two hours since I heard Jim Cymbala speak at our minister’s retreat. Even now, two hours later, the Lord is still working on my heart and challenging my motives of ministry.

None of us, who are believers in Christ, intentionally do good things for the wrong reasons. Some how, slowly over time we seem to develop agendas or dreams and then push toward them with the hope that the Lord will bless what we are doing; but the Lord never promised to bless what we want to do, He only promises to bless what He has told us to do.

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September 30th, 2008
Categories: Spiritual, Teaching . Author: Shane Warren . Comments: 1 Comment

I am very careful about the publishing of prophetic words, but I feel that our season is a tipping point for future generations and the Lord speaks to people about the future and our role in His plan. Currently, the Lord is speaking to me about generational mindset and the importance of our decisions; not only in the Presidential Election, but also the economy, ministry and many other strategic items in the agenda of God. We know that we are living in perilous times, any one with common sense can perceive that, so we need to find the wisdom of God on the important issues and we need to find it quick! Believe it or not, the issues at hand are life altering issues, especially for future generations.

Today I was sent a word by one of our precious members. When I read it a chord struck in my heart. We are not people of fear, but people of faith. This word is not meant to scare people, it is meant to awaken a sleeping giant. I sense the imminence of the hour, something is stirring and It isn’t good. I feel the release of spiritual forces coming in waves, yet I sense the glory of God expanding with authority in spite of these spiritual forces of evil.

Read more…

September 25th, 2008
Categories: Uncategorized . Author: Shane Warren . Comments: 4 Comments