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Kris Emerson · Excel Still More

Reach Out: Please include your email and I will get back to you. Thanks! Today I get to share some things that have continued to have deep impact in my life. These two ideas are separate, but equally powerful. I hope to weave them together for you so you can implement each by implementing both together. Firstly, as we've talked about in different ways over the years, you have to see the value of a single day. Today is such a powerful gift! Each day is like a mini lifetime, with a beginning, middle and end. And yet, we get to restart and stack those days into a life, into what I pray is a rewar

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Bring Forgiveness Back

Kris Emerson · Excel Still More

Reach Out: Please include your email and I will get back to you. Thanks! Thank you for your feedback and support after last week's episode! Talking about sexual abuse was hard. And from the large amount of feedback I got, I know it is hard or people to think back on the abuse of their past. But I pray we can bring awareness and activism in terms of fulfilling the kingdom mission to protect the innocent and rescue to oppressed. For today, we need to head back to the topic of forgiveness. We will look at how little of it there seems to be these days, and what we can do (must do) to Bring Forgive

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Tyranny of Forgiveness

Kris Emerson · Excel Still More

Reach Out: Please include your email and I will get back to you. Thanks! The title is " The Danger of Forcing Forgiveness " on the website. I was titled "The Tyranny of Forgiveness" in the printed magazine. Both articles are the same. Today's topic is heavier than usual. Sadly, the topic of sexual abuse and how abusers use forgiveness to cover themselves is needful in our time. There are victims who need help desperately, but are effectively being coerced into forgiving in a way that keeps them silent. They are simply staying controlled and manipulated and not getting the attention and mercy t

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Just Get Closer

Kris Emerson · Excel Still More

Reach Out: Please include your email and I will get back to you. Thanks! Today was a trip down memory lane for me. I listened to the very first episode of Excel Still More: Just Get Better. That episode drew a little bit of criticism in the early days for sounding like another way of packaging work based salvation. I filed that away as something to consider but I just wasn't in a place in my life to see it. I've learned a lot since then. I trust you have as well. So I was ready to go back and listen and be woefully embarrassed. It turns out... it wasn't too bad. And I stand behind the content.

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Pursuing "Mature Discipleship"

Kris Emerson · Excel Still More

Reach Out: Please include your email and I will get back to you. Thanks! I chose a thumbnail for this episode after the content was recorded. It isn't actually referenced in the audio today. But I really love it. We need to be transformed. We want changed hearts and minds and lives. That means building everything around the cross of Jesus. Not the resurrection. not the ascension. The cross. The great act of power and kingdom glory was in Jesus lowest, most sacrificial moment on earth. Being a disciples means being transformed into the image and life of Christ. I fear too many of us feel like m

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The Sixteenth Second

Kris Emerson · Excel Still More

Reach Out: Please include your email and I will get back to you. Thanks! I encourage you to give this seven minute speech a listen: The Sixteenth Second. Kyle Martin, a 2019 high school graduate, gives a powerful commencement address to his fellow graduating class. He put in a ton of work to accomplish being number one, but he reflects honestly on what it cost him. He learned a lesson early that should define his goals and the costs he is willing to pay in his life. Some of us have long past the age of 19, but maybe this is a lesson we need to learn as well. Before we get to that, I'd love to

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Hugging the Cactus

Kris Emerson · Excel Still More

Reach Out: Please include your email and I will get back to you. Thanks! In 2011 Robert Downey Jr. gave an acceptance speech at an award show. In that speech he spoke of how he had to "hug the cactus," the deep, dark part of his life, in order to remove it. It was hard and painful, but it brought him humility and a changed life. For many of us, we can't just walk by a cactus like that and things be okay. I think I've often focused on smaller problems in order to justify ignoring bigger ones. But it turns out, the big problem is usually the thing causing the smaller ones! This is a needful, dee

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Just "Do Something"

Kris Emerson · Excel Still More

Reach Out: Please include your email and I will get back to you. Thanks! Sam Bennett is a collegiate golfer from Texas A&M. He made an amazing showing at the Masters tournament recently. But his tattoo got as much attention as his golf game. He lost his father two years ago and had his father's last written words identically tattooed on his arm. The message is powerful and needful for us all. It can be so easy to do nothing. We do nothing out of fear. We do nothing out of a lack of self belief. Often we may do nothing as a result of a weaker faith than we'd like to admit. Jesus didn't teach a

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The Holy Longing

Kris Emerson · Excel Still More

Reach Out: Please include your email and I will get back to you. Thanks! Special thanks to my friend, Kam Armstrong, for calling my attention to the book Sacred Fire, by Ronald Rolheiser. He expresses three levels of life, both physically and spiritually: Essential Discipleship (the struggle to get our lives together), Mature Discipleship (the struggle to give our lives away), and Radical Discipleship (the struggle to give our deaths away). We will be focusing on the first of those today, and particularly how young adults embrace this task of putting their own life together. Younger people fac

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In The Body

Kris Emerson · Excel Still More

Reach Out: Please include your email and I will get back to you. Thanks! Are you in the body of Christ? That sounds serious. What does it mean? It becomes easy to see a relationship what Jesus as JUST a relationship with Jesus. But we are a part of something more - a group of people who belong to Him. He has added you because of your value in helping His body function and in assisting other Christians. As we explore that today we will look at 5 points by Ralph Walker. I'll list them below. I also got to ask Christian High Schoolers some questions about gifts, and I'll include the for your bene

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Jesus and Disciples

Kris Emerson · Excel Still More

Reach Out: Please include your email and I will get back to you. Thanks! Today we look at Jesus and His disciples. Jesus is perfect. Disciples are not. How is that supposed to work? In fact, in Mark 9, there are at least 5 shortcomings of the disciples. They are not Pharisees. Their hearts are good. But their walk was imperfect. Let's look at that list and appreciate how gracious and kind Jesus is! But there is also a call to growth. He is patient but He also has expectations. I hope you can look at this list today and pick some things you want to grow in out of gratitude to Jesus. Asserting i

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Pharisees and Disciples

Kris Emerson · Excel Still More

Reach Out: Please include your email and I will get back to you. Thanks! Today we are comparing the Pharisees (along with some Priests and Rich folks) to true Disciples (even an outside looking in Gentile woman). The Gospels, and Jesus Himself, demand that we come face to face with the difference and choose who we want to be. In today's episode we look at several stories I'll note and reference here: Pharisees and Tax Collector - Luke 18:9-14 The Good Samaritan - Luke 10:30-37 The Widow's Mites - Luke 21:1-4 Simon and the Sinful Woman - Luke 7:36-50 Pharisee and the Gentile Woman - Mark 7:1-30

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Pharisees and Jesus

Kris Emerson · Excel Still More

Reach Out: Please include your email and I will get back to you. Thanks! Mark's Gospel is powerfully and precisely written. It packs a ton of information into shorter spaces than the other Gospels. (A great Gospel for ADHD sufferers!). Mark also uses the power of COMPARISON to make his points super strong. In Mark 2, he compares the Pharisees with Jesus by showing the questions they asked Him. We will look at those today, as well as the one question Jesus asked them to start chapter 3. It is often said of the church, that there are Pharisees and we are sometimes Legalistic, too Judgmental, or

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Making A Name

Kris Emerson · Excel Still More

Reach Out: Please include your email and I will get back to you. Thanks! Let's go back - way, way back - to the Tower of Babel in Genesis 11. It is so fascinatingly placed! Before it is the Garden of Eden (God comes down to establish a covenant), then Sin, then The Flood. Right after it is God coming down to make a covenant with Abraham that would effect us all. That's a 500 year jump between Noah and Abraham, and all we get in between is Genesis 11. Most of that is genealogies. But there is this 9 verse event laid out. Somewhere between those two great men was an attempt by the people to buil

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Sixty Month Clock

Kris Emerson · Excel Still More

Reach Out: Please include your email and I will get back to you. Thanks! So how have the last five years treated you? It has been unpredictable and wild for most of us. You might not have thought you had five years left - five years ago. But you did. And now you are here. How did it go? Did you have a vision, a plan, a path? Has it led you to wonderful and encouraging new places, new knowledge, new purpose? Okay, that's enough looking back. Here's the real question - if you get another 60 months to live, what are you planning to do with it? How about if it was ALL you got? If you knew that 60

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Experiencing Limitless Faith

Kris Emerson · Excel Still More

Reach Out: Please include your email and I will get back to you. Thanks! We all want faith without limits. We want faith that isn't affected by fear and doubt. We want to believe the best is possible and the promises of God are inevitable. We want to know Him and be known by Him and for that to control everything else. But how do we get it? One of the problems is believing we can get it. You and I are woefully limited. How exactly are we going to act our way to limitless greatness? We cannot. Our attention must turn toward God. Maybe we need to redefine faith. It is not the good things that we

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Prioritizing Quality Time

Kris Emerson · Excel Still More

Reach Out: Please include your email and I will get back to you. Thanks! I referenced Pat Geslinger's book, The Juggling Act. Here's a link. It's terrific. If someone told you they were feeling distant from Christ, what would you tell them to do? That's not a particularly tough questions is it? We would tell them they need quality time with Jesus. They need to set aside time to read, to think and to pray. They need to talk about Him and discuss Him well with others. There are no shortcuts, but it also isn't some Mt. Everest event either. It is daily, intentional time invested in building love

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Evaluating Your Relationships

Kris Emerson · Excel Still More

Reach Out: Please include your email and I will get back to you. Thanks! Help me do a solid for a friend and check out my friend Joseph's podcast: Under Review Podcast (website) Under Review Apple (for iPhone users) Relationships live out the story of God's grace in the world around you. The way we treat others, any others, and all others, ought to be a direct extension of the way God has interacted with and loved you. This episode explores how universal that is suppose to be. Not just some relationships, but all of them. Because this isn't about who the other person is, this is about who God

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Grace -> Faith -> Life

Kris Emerson · Excel Still More

Reach Out: Please include your email and I will get back to you. Thanks! Up top, let me give you a link to Jacob Hudgin's book " The School of Christ " This is it. This is the most important thing I have to share with you - maybe all year. Many of us have to reprogram our brains when it comes to the comparison of God's Grace with anything of myself: faith or works. His goodness is the beginning of all things and sustains all things. There is no scenario where my power, or your ability, is strong enough to hold us up. And God's grace is not the result of a great works effort. Too many believe t

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Your Physical Flashpoints

Kris Emerson · Excel Still More

Reach Out: Please include your email and I will get back to you. Thanks! Let's keep digging in on this flashpoint idea. Firstly, let me share with you a little more about how emotional experiences of all types and spiritual experiences collide. There is a powerful sense in which the two, in the heart of a believer, are not separable. Finding God in all emotion and reaction and change - that is crucial to transformation. Secondly, let's talk about your body and health. I don't want to give you a workout routine, but I don't want to explore why you feel like your body is worth the effort. What i

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Your Spiritual Flashpoints

Kris Emerson · Excel Still More

Reach Out: Please include your email and I will get back to you. Thanks! If you would like to read Stephen Arterburn's book "Flash Points" you can find it here. Note: As a caveat, I am not aware of his doctrinal views nor whole sale support all of the content. But it's got some powerful and encouraging ideas. I hope to address different flash points in upcoming episodes. Things like Financial, Physical, Career and Lifestyle. There are many areas of life where a flame of desire is ignited within you. Something good. Something holy. Something God intends for you, for your good and others. How ma

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Crying "LORD, Help!"

Kris Emerson · Excel Still More

Reach Out: Please include your email and I will get back to you. Thanks! Today it is my pleasure to read Psalm 107 for you in the New Living Translation. (I'll explain why). Four times the text says "LORD, help!" - These represent four situations in life where people get discouraged. So often our hope and faith flourish in blessings, but when trials come, we falter. This can often prove that our joy is based more on ourselves and our circumstances, than the enduring goodness of God. Let's investigate different trials you might face this year. Some of this may be raging in your life right. Cryi

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Setting Your Attitude

Kris Emerson · Excel Still More

Reach Out: Please include your email and I will get back to you. Thanks! Happy New Year! And welcome to season 5 of the ESM podcast! Have you ever piloted an aircraft? It's quite a thrill. But properly using the instruments is crucial to success. By success I mean: landing the plane instead of crashing it! One of those instruments is called an Attitude Indicator. It shows you where you are relative to the horizon in front of you. Proper alignment is very important as those two things interact at the airport. If your attitude is poor, you can blame the earth, but you are the one who needs to ma

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Conversing about Grace

Kris Emerson · Excel Still More

Reach Out: Please include your email and I will get back to you. Thanks! The topic of God's Grace is beautifully complicated. It is simply too great to fully understand while we live here in the limitations of the flesh. But giving up on understanding grace can lead to big mistakes. Maybe we believe God covers everything not matter how we live. That's not right. But neither is the other side of the spectrum, where we look at our lives as a series of works we must accomplish to eventually get the grace. This is equally as foolish. David Osteen and I take different angles on the topic of grace,

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Building A Team

Kris Emerson · Excel Still More

Reach Out: Please include your email and I will get back to you. Thanks! I hope you are excited for a productive and incredible 2023. This starts with a proper planning. And great planning includes evaluating the people in your life. Today's episode takes us back to one of our earliest episodes: "Your Inner Circle." We need to evaluate the people who are healthy to have close to you, because you are going to need them to build a team who can help you reach your goals. We also want to go back a couple of years to the idea of "Building Your Ladders." There is a tried and true strategy for using

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