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Brandon Liebe

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but there is a God in heaven…

I’ve recently been diving into the book of Daniel to study the amazing effects of what prayer and relationship with God.  Daniel has an amazing story that starts with being taken as a prisoner of war and ends up becoming the spiritual advisor to the nation that attacked Israel and seized him in the first place.  But his rise to power is what amazes me.

He starts to set himself apart immediately when he turns down the choice food of the king because it would essentially be defiling himself before God to eat what was “unclean.”  (Dan. 1:8)  The fact is that earlier in the book it says that the Babylonians took many young men, yet only Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego stayed true to God even in the face of possible persecution.  You could already see the dedication on their part, which set them up for the blessings and insight that God would give them later.
Continue reading “but there is a God in heaven…” →

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God Doesn’t Need You…

I’ve recently been having my world rocked by “The Circle Maker” by Mark Batterson.  It’s a book that is chalked full of scripture and keeps pushing challenging me to grow in my relationship and communication with God.  But it has also pushed me to scripture even harder to study some of the people who had amazing prayer lives.  This led me to dive into the book of Daniel and here’s what caught my attention this week…

In chapter 4, King Nebuchadnezzar has a dream and needs Daniel to interpret it.  The dream is that God had made the king very powerful but he had forgotten that it was by God’s strength not his own.  Therefore, God was going to reduce him to the level of the animals, grazing in the fields like cattle.  I underlined the last part of chapter 4 verse 25 in my bible and highlighted it on my YouVersion App.  It reads “until you acknowledge that the Most High is sovereign over the kingdoms of men and gives them to anyone he wishes.”  The thought that hit me: God doesn’t need you.
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Action is Understanding

This morning I was reading my bible and came to the short book of Philemon where one small verse jumped off the page at me today.

“I pray that you may be active in sharing your faith, so that you will have a full understanding of every good thing we have in Christ.” (1:6)

It dawned on me that we see God’s goodness on the other side of our bold actions.  You want to see God move? Step out in faith.  Take action.  Put yourself in a position where God has to show up and you will start to see all the amazing things we have in and through Christ!

Once your faith takes action you will begin to see God work through it.  When you see God work through your actions you will gain a greater understanding of who He is and how good He is!

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Game On, World

ImageI’ve played on a lot of sports teams in my life… some good, some terrible.  But I could tell early in the year what type of team we would be.  The best teams shared a common passion and goal, and nothing could deviate us from that goal.  There was a huge accountability factor, both on and off the court, to make sure our focus was always sharp.  We knew that any small deviation from the goal of winning a title had the potential to start small but sidetrack us by a long way in the end of the season.

In any organization, business, or church a clear mission is key.  It defines purpose and keeps the people within it focused on exactly what needs to be done.  Most of the time when there is failure it is due to a series of events that slowly turn the organization away from the initial purpose.  I believe it is time we, as a Church (big C, not little c) get back to the basics.  Not being distracted or getting into battles about what we are against, but focused on our mission.

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Yes We Can!

Very few things about father-hood break my heart like hearing my 2 year old say “I can’t do it.” Now, I realize that many times it is just him being a 2 year old, (he’s in the stage where his answer to most things is “no.”) but everything in me wants to make sure my son knows that he can do anything he puts his mind too. Even more important than his strength is the fact that the bible promises us that we “can do all things through Christ who strengthens us.” (Philippians 4:13)

Last night I started to explain this to Brody and started to make him repeat Philippians 4:13 every time he says the phrase “I can’t.”
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Priority Check

My 2 year old is at the stage where he “reads” everything.  I love just sitting there and listening to the stories he makes up from the books he “reads” to me.  The other day Amber and I were in our room getting things put away and situated from our recent move and I stuck my head around the corner to check up on him.  He as sitting at the kitchen table, Amber’s computer open, and was sifting through our pile of mail.  He picked up one of the credit card statements and was studying all the numbers.   In response to my question of what he was doing, he replied, “Reading stories.”  Knowing that he was holding our statement I asked, almost sarcastically, “What’s that one about?”

He answered with, “It’s about Jesus.”

After a quick chuckle with Amber, and letting it resonate a bit I turned to Amber and thought out loud, “I hope our bank statements tell a story about Jesus.”

Now this isn’t a money blog, it’s a priority blog.  I’m asking you to take a look at where you are spending your resources. Continue reading “Priority Check” →

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The Key to Success in Life

Alright, I’m a pretty big sports fan. If there is a competition involved I will either be watching or trying it out. So this was a fun week for me, NCAA basketball championship, baseball season kicking off, and the Masters. Even if your not a sports fan there has to be some part of you that tunes in just out of curiosity! It even got to the point that our families Sunday afternoon Easter Egg Hunt was delayed due to a 2 hole play-off in the Masters, eventually won by Bubba Watson.

Bubba, in the last year, has become one of my favorite athletes on the planet and it has nothing to do with his golf game. Don’t get me wrong, his golf game is insane! He makes so many aggressive decisions, then pulls them off, that the golf world has gone from calling him crazy to “creative.” He hits a ball so far that if he played from any mere mortal’s tees he couldn’t take his driver out of the bag! So far that Ping created a campaign for their drivers using the tagline, “Don’t just hit it long, hit it Bubba long!” Yet, the true reason behind him becoming one of my favorites is his twitter account.

Continue reading “The Key to Success in Life” →

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Dodgin’ Dookie

Yes, that title was placed there to grab your attention but I promise it will make sense! Before I start let me say this; Geese are vile animals…

So, this morning I decided to start running in the mornings again.  We have gotten semi-settled in our house here in Appleton and got to bed at a decent time so I set my alarm early and got excited to run on a sunny, unusually warm, early April morning.  Our house is located downtown Appleton and not far from the Fox River, a seemingly perfect place for a beautiful morning jog.  I wake up, run to the corner of my street where it turns to head down to the river (.25 miles – Thank you, NikeId app), and take the turn to head down to the beautiful park running along the Appleton Yacht Club.  Now, mentally, I am hoping you are going exactly where I was going this morning… Sun coming up over the calm river, beautiful docks along a long T-shaped pier… then it caught my attention.

For those of us who grew up near water in the spring up here in the North we know one thing, where there is water, there are geese.  And where there are geese there is an abundant supply of “goose droppings.”  My beautiful morning run went from jogging peacefully along a path that wound along the river, past a perfectly manicured park, piers, and gorgeous boats…  to dodgin’ dookie! Continue reading “Dodgin’ Dookie” →

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Own It

Over the course of the last few weeks there has been one phrase that has continually popped up in my life. That phrase is “own it.” I know there is a lot of talk about owning up to your mistakes, or taking control and owning the decisions you are making in life to create a future, but its been bigger than that for me. Life, decisions, and mistakes are all important to own, but what would our lives look like if we really took ownership of our commitment to Christ?

Our walk with Christ started with accepting Him, but quickly moved to a mandate to make sure it didn’t just stay with me. He gave a command called the Great Commission (Matt. 28:18-20) to “Go into all the world and make disciples of all nations.” Can you imagine what our lives would look like if we actually took ownership of that command and made it the center of everything we do?
Continue reading “Own It” →

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