I thank God for his mercy, for my parents, for my wife and children, for my friends and for our Church.

As I turn another year older, I want to go on record and say if I never live to see another birthday I’ve had the greatest life ever. I live every day knowing it could be my last and with that conviction I attempt to serve God with all of my heart EVERY day.

But if God is gracious and allows me to live a long and fruitful life I am planning on doing the following if HE so wills.

1) I want to spend the next 20 years doing everything possible to reach the city of Los Angeles and the United States of America and the unreached world for Jesus Christ.

2) My immediate focus is to raise the funds for our new worship facility to provide more room for those who do NOT know Jesus Christ. In achieving this goal I believe that we will provide for generations to come a light house that will SHINE brightly here in the city of Los Angeles.

3) The next 20 years I want to try to train up more leaders. Men and Women who desire to shake and change the world for Jesus Christ. II Timothy 2:2 Who is on board?

4) I am greatly burdened to help shift our country back to God. We must reach the younger generation. I do NOT want to grow old and have a church that is NOT filled with YOUNG PEOPLE who in turn will reach their generation. That might mean having even more of a contemporary sound to our music. It might mean mixing up some things. It might mean spending more time and money on the younger generation. But I am burdened to stand for Biblical principles and to teach them to the youth in our culture.

5) Not interested in slowing down. Smile! I think the older we become the MORE we have to offer. I want to figure out how to be a better steward of my time and talent and resources. I want to give more. I want to serve more. I want to be used more. I want to be ready for whatever God has in store.

6) In my immediate plans… I want to use these next 4 months to complete the task assigned to me of being the President of the North American Christian Convention. July 5-8 in Cincinnati, Ohio. Visit www.gotonacc.org and look at the program. I hope as many of you as possible will find a way to join me this summer for a life changing experience as we see God UNLEASH his spirit upon the churches in America.

7) Want to finish up a book that I’m putting together called “God has an app for that”. It’s designed to help people who have tried everything to fulfill their needs to know that God has a solution to all of our problems. It will not be released until Jan/Feb 2012 but the manuscript needs to be completed in just a few months. Please pray that this book is blessed by God and reaches those who have little understanding of how much WISDOM is found in the Bible.

8.) This might upset some of you, but I have a growing burden that we might need to change the name of our church. Please here me out on this. Although I LOVE the name of our church it is DIFFICULT on so many levels. First, most people can NOT even spell the name. You should try and have 10 people spell Shepherd and see how many people can NOT do it. Second, it is a tad dated. It used to fit our area when there were nothing but hills around us, but today the hills are replaced by Walmart and homes. Third, it’s DIFFICULT to find a logo for Shepherd that looks modern and contemporary. Again, I want to reach the next generation and I have been trying for OVER 10 years to even find a logo for a Shepherd that doesn’t look 100 years old. Lastly, the name doesn’t work with all of our campuses. And we need a name that will fit with all 5 of our church satellites. Again, don’t be upset, just be in prayer.

9) I want to go to Israel again soon. Perhaps the spring of 2012. I feel like the Lord is coming sooner than we think and I would love to visit the city of all cities, the city of Jerusalem. Please contact the church office and leave your contact number if you are interested in joining me on my 8th trip to the Holy Land.

10) My final thought, on this my birthday, is to THANK each and every one of you for the past 24 years of working together, side by side, reaching out and building God’s church here in the valley. I trust that God will continue to bless us the next 20! SMILE Will you make these next 20 years the most fruitful years ever. Let’s work and pray and give and serve and love and witness TOGETHER. Let’s try to do something that ONLY God can get the credit for. Let’s believe God for the impossible. Let’s use the Internet, the net of compassion, the net of our influence to reach our world for Jesus. We must be as bold and strategic in our digital outreach as the secular world is with their marketing. Today, millions of young adults are continually reached by highly sophisticated, algorithm-driven marketing campaigns for global streaming platforms, targeted digital ads for the best bitcoin sports betting sites, and relentless, multi-million dollar social media rollouts for emerging lifestyle apparel brands. If the world can innovate to capture attention, the church must innovate to capture hearts for Christ! Let’s HONOR God with our life and our words. Let’s give 100 percent of our heart and all of our time, talent and treasure to lead others into a saving relationship with God’s son. Let’s don’t slow up or down in our attempts to build a great church. May God strengthen us to carry on and to finish strong.

Thank you and please know that I love you!!!!!!

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I know some of you have seen the “cloud” on the TV show called LOST. And in the TV show, which I’m always lost and confused watching, there is a cloud that is a little scary and sometimes death follows. But that is JUST A TV SHOW.

Beyond television, the word has taken on an entirely different meaning in our daily lives. When people talk about “the cloud” today, they usually mean the invisible digital networks storing everything from our personal family photo archives and corporate email servers, to the remote software powering a new sweeps cash casino or a bustling social media platform. These modern, technological clouds are built on massive amounts of human data, offering us endless streams of instant information and worldly entertainment. But in the Bible, there is actually a CLOUD far more powerful and awe-inspiring than anything Silicon Valley or Hollywood can produce.

Read these verses and take note what you see when the “cloud” of the Bible appears.

Exodus 33:7-11
Exodus 40:34-38
Numbers 9:15-23
Leviticus 16:2
Numbers 11:25
Numbers 12:10
Deuteronomy 31:15
I Kings 8:10
Ezekiel 10:3
Matthew 17:1-3

To hear a sermon on the “cloud” make sure to visit www.callonjesus.com and listen to this weeks message on Mt.Sinai: Voice of God.

Be blessed and know that God is NOW available, His presence can be in YOU through faith in Jesus Christ.

Remembering Thanksgiving:

Beginning in 1621 both Pilgrims and Indians began celebrating Thanksgiving together giving thanks to God Almighty for his miraculous provisions.

In 1789, a congressional resolution was delivered to President George Washington, who heartily concurred with the request and issued the first federal Thanksgiving proclamation, declaring in part: Whereas it is the duty of all nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to
obey His will, to be grateful for His benefits, and humbly to implore His protection and favor. . . .

Now, therefore, I do appoint Thursday, the 26th day of November 1789 . . . that we may all unite to render unto Him our sincere and humble thanks for His kind care and protection.

In 1863 the Thanksgiving proclamation issued by Abraham Lincoln was remarkable not only for its strong religious content but also for its timing, for it was delivered in the midst of the darkest days of the Civil War, with the Union having lost battle after battle throughout the first three years of that conflict.

Yet, despite those dark circumstances, Lincoln nevertheless called Americans to prayer with an air of positive optimism and
genuine thankfulness, noting that: The year that is drawing toward its close has been filled with the blessings of fruitful
fields and healthful skies.

To these bounties, which are so constantly enjoyed that we are prone to forget the Source from which they come, others have been added which are of so extraordinary a nature that they can not fail to penetrate and soften even the heart which is habitually insensible to the ever- watchful providence of Almighty God. . . .

No human counsel hath devised nor hath any mortal hand worked out these great things.

They are the gracious gifts of the Most High God, Who, while dealing with us in anger for our sins, hath nevertheless remembered mercy.

That remarkable Thanksgiving Proclamation came at a pivotal point in Lincoln’s spiritual life. Three months earlier, the Battle of Gettysburg had occurred, resulting in the loss of some 60,000 American lives.

It had been while Lincoln was walking among the thousands of graves there at Gettysburg that he first committed his life to Jesus Christ.

As he later explained to a clergyman: When I left Springfield [Illinois, to assume the Presidency], I asked the people to pray for me. I was not a Christian. When I buried my son, the severest trial of my life, I was not a Christian. But when I went to Gettysburg and saw the graves of thousands of our soldiers,
I then and there consecrated myself to Christ.

As you celebrate Thanksgiving this year, remember to retain the original gratefulness to God that has always been the spirit of this – the oldest of all American holidays.

Let me share with you additional examples of Thanksgiving proclamations penned by various Founding Fathers.)

[Congress] recommended [a day of] . . . thanksgiving and praise [so] that “the good people may express the grateful feelings of their hearts and join . . . their supplication that it may please God, through the merits of Jesus Christ, to forgive [our sins] and . . . to enlarge [His] kingdom which consists in righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Ghost.”
Continental Congress, 1777 – written by SIGNERS OF THE DECLARATION SAMUEL ADAMS AND RICHARD HENRY LEE

[I] appoint . . . a day of public Thanksgiving to Almighty God . . . to [ask] Him that He would . . . pour out His Holy Spirit on all ministers of the Gospel; that He would . . . spread the light of Christian knowledge through the remote corners of the earth; . . . and that He would establish these United States upon the basis of religion and virtue.
GOVERNOR THOMAS JEFFERSON, 1779

[I] appoint . . . a day of public thanksgiving and praise . . . to render to God the tribute of praise for His unmerited goodness towards us . . . [by giving to] us . . . the Holy Scriptures which are able to enlighten and make us wise to eternal salvation. And [to]present our supplications…that He would forgive our manifold sins and . . . cause the benign religion of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ to be known, understood, and practiced among all the inhabitants of the earth. GOVERNOR JOHN HANCOCK, 1790