Luke 6:45-49 (Amp)  “The upright (honorable, intrinsically good) man out of the good treasure [stored] in his heart produces what is upright (honorable and intrinsically good), and the evil man out of the evil storehouse brings forth that which is depraved (wicked and intrinsically evil); for out of the abundance (overflow) of the heart his mouth speaks. ⁴⁶Why do you call Me, Lord, Lord, and do not [practice] what I tell you? ⁴⁷For everyone who comes to Me and listens to My words [in order to heed their teaching] and does them, I will show you what he is like: ⁴⁸He is like a man building a house, who dug and went down deep and laid a foundation upon the rock; and when a flood arose, the torrent broke against that house and could not shake or move it, because it had been securely built or ^[a]founded on a rock. ⁴⁹But he who merely hears and does not practice doing My words is like a man who built a house on the ground without a foundation, against which the torrent burst, and immediately it collapsed and fell, and the breaking and ruin of that house was great.”

To be able to victoriously withstand the storms of life (that will come to all of us) we must:

1. Follow Jesus (Seek first His Kingdom) Matt. 6:33; John 10:27; John 12:26; Luke 9:23
2. Hear what He says (Faith comes by hearing His Word (s)) Matt. 7: 7-8; Luke 11:9-10; Matt 13:9, 13; Mark 4:20
3. Do what He says (Obedience, Apply, Implement) James 1:22; Rom 6:17; James 2:22
4. Be Resolute (Patience, Long Suffering, Steadfast) James 1:2-4

James 1:2-5 (Amp) “²Consider it wholly joyful, my brethren, whenever you are enveloped in or encounter trials of any sort or fall into various temptations. ³Be assured and understand that the trial and proving of your faith bring out endurance and steadfastness and patience. ⁴But let endurance and steadfastness and patience have full play and do a thorough work, so that you may be [people] perfectly and fully developed [with no defects], lacking in nothing. ⁵If any of you is deficient in wisdom, let him ask of ^[a]the giving God [Who gives] to everyone liberally and ungrudgingly, without reproaching or faultfinding, and it will be given him. 

The storm that comes is the same for believers and non believers, but the ability to successfully weather the storm is based on our obedience to Jesus direction.  Our success is proportional to our ability to resolutely “stand firm”.  Eph. 6:13 (NASB) “Therefore, take up the full armor of God, so that you will be able to resist in the evil day, and having done everything, to stand firm.”

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I’d like to remind those of you that have FEAR about what is happening around you that 2 Timothy 1:6-7 says “Therefore I remind you to stir up the gift of God which is in you through the laying on of my hands. ⁷ For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.”  Each of us, as believers, have been given gifts, anointings and the power of the Holy Spirit in our lives to be able to successfully pass through this “valley of the shadow of death” that we find ourselves in currently.  Psalms 23 is not just a nice thing to memorize, but it is something to declare as active in our lives today.

Psalm 23 “THE LORD is my Shepherd [to feed, guide, and shield me], I shall not lack. ²He makes me lie down in [fresh, tender] green pastures; He leads me beside the still and restful waters. ³He refreshes and restores my life (my self); He leads me in the paths of righteousness [uprightness and right standing with Him--not for my earning it, but] for His name’s sake. ⁴Yes, though I walk through the [deep, sunless] valley of the shadow of death, I will fear or dread no evil, for You are with me; Your rod [to protect] and Your staff [to guide], they comfort me. ⁵You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. You anoint my head withoil; my [brimming] cup runs over.  ⁶Surely or only goodness, mercy, and unfailing love shall follow me all the days of my life, and through the length of my days the house of the Lord [and His presence] shall be my dwelling place.

WE PRAY and DECLARE PSALM 23 OVER YOU AND YOU HOUSEHOLD!

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The “word”: “Some of you have laid a firm foundation and now the Lord will work with you to build His kingdom structure in 2012.”  

This morning I sense the Lord saying that we need to be in a time of intense preparation for what is to come.  Everything we did in obedience to the leading of the Holy Spirit is to be reviewed and the question asked (of God) “do we keep on doing what we’re doing, or is there a new plan beginning?”  I believe the Lord gave me a list of families and Kingdom business/ministries that had been obediently laying a firm foundation and were now to prepare for God’s direction for 2012.  I’m sure that the list was only examples of those HE is guiding, but they were ones with which I was familiar.

The Lord is asking each one of us to take inventory of our relationships: Matthew 22:37-39 (AMP) And He replied to him, You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind (intellect).This is the great (most important, principal) and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as [you do] yourself.

1. Relationship with Father, Son & Holy Spirit
2. Relationship with ourselves
3. Relationships with our family (especially spouse & parents)
4. Relationship with those He has placed in our sphere of influence
5. Relationship with the lost
6. Relationship with our enemies

I believe He is telling us that, unless we examine and repent (180 degree turn around) in our hearts and minds where our relationships are lacking, we will be delaying the blessings He has for us in this next year.  I don’t know about you, but I don’t want to miss out on what God has for us in the coming year.

I am reminded of what my Mother always said “DISOBEDIENCE” can be “ACTION NOT TAKEN” on what you know is wise “ADVICE GIVEN”   and  “Delayed OBEDIANCE can be the same as DISOBEDIENCE and that is SIN”!

Let us pray Psalm 139:23 (AMP) Search me [thoroughly], O God, and know my heart! Try me and know my thoughts!

Dave Burwell

LifeCoach321@q.com

www.LifeCoach321.com

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September 11th, may we never forget!

Today is September 11, 2008. It has been seven years since that fateful day in United States history. As I woke up today, it was like I was transported back in time, to this day seven years ago, the nine-year-old me waking up in my brother’s room to him running in, “Jasmine! The World Trade Center just got hit by an airplane!” Neither of us knew what the World Trade Center was, but we both knew this was a very important day in our history, and it would never be the same. I bolted out of the bottom bunk and ran into my mom’s room, Julian trailing closely behind. I saw the second plane hit live. The footage played over and over again on the television screen as the news anchors were just as clueless and scared as the rest of America. I heard the national decree to ground all planes live from the television. I looked at my mom, “Is daddy okay?” He had left on a business trip that morning. My mom replied, “I’m sure he’s fine.” But in her eyes I could see that she was worried his plane had already taken off that morning and he might be stuck in Arizona for a while. She looked at me again, “You both better get ready for school.”

Walking into school was like a dream. Almost nobody spoke, and my fourth grade teacher had the television on in her room, her eyes never moving from it as all of us filed into our seats. The first hour of class was spent in silence as we all watched the horror unfold on the television screen. That was the day I first understood what it meant to commit suicide, as I watched footage of people jumping from the top of the buildings to their death. I watched both towers collapse live on national television.

I don’t remember much about school that day. I remember my best friend’s mom coming to school and picking him up to take him home. I remember that after the first hour of watching the television my teacher turned it off and sat with her head in her hands for a few minutes; then told us to go around and see if anyone needed comforting. I went to every person in the class and prayed for them. It was all I could think to do as my classmate told me her uncle worked in the World Trade Center and another boy said his Dad was on a flight to New York earlier that morning. I don’t exactly remember really learning anything that day; mostly it was going into the classroom and working on an assignment written on the board…It was a very somber day.

Coming home that afternoon, I walked into the living room to see the television still on. The image on the screen was the Pentagon, burning. My mom was cradling the phone in her hands, staring at the screen. She looked at my brother and I, “Your Daddy’s gonna be home. Thank God his plane didn’t take off on schedule, the grounding order happened before they left the terminal.” Floods of relief washed over me, my dad would be home that night. My second thought was, “Will this ever end?” as I watched the burning buildings, airplanes, and grief-stricken-ashy faces of people move across the screen. I was too young to understand the gravity of the situation, but I sure well understood that day was a monumental day.

The funny thing is; I don’t ever remember being scared at all throughout that time…just feeling grief and sorrow over the people I knew who had lost loved ones in the attack and in the aftermath of it.

Today my Sociology teacher brought in some comic books and newspapers that were printed within the first week of the attack. Most of them were the New York Times from the 12th, 13th, 14th, 15th, and 16th. A few were my local newspaper, The Colorado Springs Gazette, and a couple was from his hometown in Texas. The comic books were tributes to that day, which were printed shortly after the attack. The DC comic book was truly a comic book, telling the story of one woman’s experience trying to escape the World Trade Center and the firefighter who saved her life. The pages after her story was over were just text stories from other survivors. However the Marvel comic book was one of the most powerful things I’ve ever read. It was simply called “Heroes” and had a picture of a firefighter carrying a limp body with smoke and rubble behind him. There weren’t many words, and on the pages that had words were little poems and short quotes from people. But the imagery was so powerful in those drawings; it took all that was in me to keep from breaking down and crying right in the middle of my sociology class. I will tell you right now I didn’t succeed. I didn’t sob or anything, but tears were fresh in my eyes as I turned each haunting page. In the foreground of one picture a group of fireman were running up stairs and everyone else was running down, while in the background there is an American flag, torn, falling as a small child looks up to it. In another, the image of a little girl clutching her crying mother as they sit next to a table with the picture of a man in uniform next to them, the Twin Towers burning outside the window of their house. Another picture was of fireman saving people from the burning buildings, while in the sky there were walls covered in “missing” poster with the face of hundreds of people. The American flag, torn, being raised up on a broken beam, as a makeshift cross stands closely towards it and next to them both, a woman is lying across the rubble, weeping.

Images like these will haunt me. They will remind me of the sacrifices good people make to help others. How in a moment of immense horror and fear, a nation came together as One Nation, Under God, Indivisible. And how when faced with crisis, America’s finest (a name which seems to not nearly do them justice) came forward, volunteering to help so much, that volunteers were turned away because of the immense influx of people who wanted to help.

This morning we said the pledge of allegiance just as every morning in school. I began to cry as I uttered the words, “one nation, under God, indivisible” Are we really one nation anymore? We certainly aren’t indivisible. And have we forgotten from where we came? We were truly united on that fateful day seven years ago, but we have fallen so far. President Bush said on September 11, 2001 that we were entering into a 20 year war on terror. We entered into this war to stop bad people, and to help those who are less fortunate. We didn’t go into Iraq and Afghanistan for oil, or to please the senior President Bush. We went into this war to protect the people of America.

It breaks my heart to think that we have lost sight of why we are doing what we do. I pray we never forget the heroes who risked their lives and even lost them to protect and save us.

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Hello Everyone, I know I haven’t posted much aside from some photos for the last few weeks. I was back in Colorado for some R&R and just recently got back Arkansas to finish my senior year at John Brown University. 

As of today the Official release date for “Land” on Sept. 20th. Three Cheers Hip- Hip-Hooray! It will conclude the two part Ocean-Land series that I have worked on for the last 2 years. I am really excited for you all to hear it. The music took on a different form than the last albums focusing on strait up rock. We’ll be releasing some bits and sample for you to hear as the 20th approaches.

Julian Michael (Burwell)

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You have done the right thing. When life becomes overwhelming asking those who know and love you (and have wisdom!) for input and support is key. None of us were meant to handle life by ourselves. We were created to be in relationship, first with our Creator, through Jesus, and then with each other. We are made that way. Your situation is not unique, but it is the first time you have been faced with both job and school (and relationship) stresses.

First, clear the way between you and the Lord. If you have resentments, anger, or issues that you haven’t dealt with, talk to God about them and repent where you need to. You would be surprised how that will relieve stress! Then, check out things with family and close friends. Again, if there are things standing in the way, deal with them quickly. Again, a huge stress reliever.

I know you are focusing on many life situations, but you will be surprised how those situations fall in to place when everything else is clear in your life. The priority is always the relationship between you, the Lord and those who love and support you. When that is operating in freedom, then the prayers are free to find their target.

I love you, and am so proud of you. I know that your emotions are often what begin to influence what goes on in your life. Of course you remember the times I’ve told you that the emotions (feelings) and the brain are tools to be used, not dictators that should run your life. Our spirit, combined with the Spirit of God, choose the direction and the mind and emotions follow. I trust you (and the Lord) to have victory in this hard time in you life, and you will see the provision of God. You will KNOW that He is the Lord!

Love, Your Biggest Fan

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