The more I hurry, the further behind I get. Jesus has turned much upside down in the spiritual realm. Poverty is the kingdom. Weak is strong. The foolishness of preaching brings salvation. To lead is to take the least position.
Could it be that having problems should first bring us to prayer instead of action? Pray then act! Not, do all you can and when there is nothing else we can do, pray!
If we believe we will pray. When we pray then we believe more.
Prayer of course is, preparation. If there is no action after prayer then prayer is faithless and therefore is useless.
Saturday, July 26, 2008
Tuesday, July 1, 2008
Running the Race of Faith
God has not promised us an easy life. He said He will be with us. So let us run with endurance the race that is set before us.
I found this video on youtube of: Lance Armstrong against Marco Pantani
Remember they are going up a mountain the whole way. (in the video)
Armstrong won the Tour de France that year. (2000) Pantini won it in 1998.
Armstrong went on to win the Tour de France again in 2001,2002,2003,2004 & 2005
Pantani died of a drug overdose in 2004.
I found this video on youtube of: Lance Armstrong against Marco Pantani
Remember they are going up a mountain the whole way. (in the video)
Armstrong won the Tour de France that year. (2000) Pantini won it in 1998.
Armstrong went on to win the Tour de France again in 2001,2002,2003,2004 & 2005
Pantani died of a drug overdose in 2004.
Saturday, June 14, 2008
What we are to do Always
I have been looking for spiritual teachings in the Bible that ask us to follow always.The 3 that come to mind easily are:
Pray without ceasing.
In everything give thanks.
Meditate on the Word day and night.
I have found 4 more that are also given this priority.
Always be abounding in the work of the Lord.
Set the Lord continually before me.
Take every thought captive to the obedience of Christ.
Always have my light shinning.
People have taught in the past that it is impossible to do these things. Inferring therefore that we should not even try. They might have not been trying to say that but that was the result that I came away with.
Well, I don't think God put something in the Bible to be ignored. But what am I to do with them, because there is no way I can keep them? I think God put these instructions in the Bible to teach us to always strive to live by these teachings. We will never attain to perfection but we are commanded to be perfect as God is perfect.
Do I throw my hands up and quit trying? No. What I am to do is use these instructions to guide me back to the path of walking in the Spirit and away from living from a fleshly outlook.
Take for instance praying without ceasing. How could I do a math problem and pray for the problems on the Gaza strip at the same time? I can't.
What I am finding though is that I can come closer to fulfilling this teaching at work. I work outside in a downtown environment. I see all kinds of people. The very poor to the very rich. The very beautiful to the very ugly. My thinking will be caught up in what I see by sometimes judging, lusting or contempt. I was asking the Lord about this and the idea came to me to pray for the people I see. Pray that the person will have wisdom, receive Jesus as their savior and that they will be a strong influence for Christ with their family and friends.
For the mind set on the flesh is death but the mind set on the Spirit is life and peace. Romans 8:6 I can't walk in the flesh and the Spirit at the same time. If I am praying for a very beautiful woman I am not lusting for her. I am not judging someone that seems rich but I pray they will bless others for the Kingdom of God.
Working for the City government also presents a problem to me. They do many things that I consider ridiculous. But the Bible says we are to let our speech be seasoned with salt to give grace to those who hear. If I am complaining about City policy I am not helping anyone. I need to be praying for the city and the workers I know. If I am praying for the government I am not criticizing.
We are to meditate on the word day and night. When I am guarding my thoughts to obey Christ and not my own desires I am using my knowledge of Scripture to counter worry. Strongholds are overthrown by the word of our testimony. God watches over those whose heart is completely His. What we think about is what is on our heart. What is on our heart is what we speak about.
When things happen that go against my desires, what will I do? Will I complain or will I guard my heart and speak the Scriptures according to the promise of the Bible? Will I pray with thanksgiving or will I or express despair? If I have set the Lord before me and live in Godly fear of Him I will respond according the Spirit.
What happens is I rely on God to live through me instead of trying to handle the situation myself.
Monday, June 2, 2008
A Call to Missions
I heard a great sermon Sunday from a missionary to Turkey - Ryan Shaw:
Biblical reasons why the church can be activated into God's global purpose:
1. The Lamb is worthy of the reward of His glorious sacrifice.
Rev. 5:12. Col. 1:15 - 5 realities about Jesus
If Jesus the lamb is slain He is worthy of our efforts.
2. The Spirit is moving. Revival in Algeria - 100,000 underground believers in Iran and that is under the Sharia law. - 175,000 people come to Christ each day. 3,500 new churches planted every week (mostly small groups).
3. The lost are dying. Every day 66,000 die with no Gospel witness.
Why do we refrain from talking about a Christless eternity?
4. The poor are suffering. 37% of global population is children who live in poverty. Be moved with Godly compassion. Pity is not compassion. Will we become advacates for the poor?
5. The church is commissioned. Matthew 28:18-20. Go = as you are going make disciples of all peoples. Vital Christianity is not a spectator sport, it is an active thing.
6. If we don't become activated we die ourselves. Preservation mentality causes death to come. When we give ourselves, the Lord gives us more spiritual vitality.
7, The Father is waiting. God's most important attribute - patience. God wants for us to become activated.
4 practical ways to implement these things in our lives:
1. Extravagant giving - our use of money shows the most about our love of God. Are we pouring more into the temporal or eternal? Abraham covenant - We're blessed to bless others. 5.4% of all giving in the world of Christ's church goes to some kind of outreach in which the Gospel is already planted. 1% of the 4.5% or 0.045% actually goes to mission activities among unreached.
2. Extraordinary praying that perseveres and prevails. Sin of prayerlessness. Intercession is the most important of all ministries.
3. Surrendered going - long term ministry
4. Impassioned mobilizing - Every believer should be a mission mobilizer.
Biblical reasons why the church can be activated into God's global purpose:
1. The Lamb is worthy of the reward of His glorious sacrifice.
Rev. 5:12. Col. 1:15 - 5 realities about Jesus
If Jesus the lamb is slain He is worthy of our efforts.
2. The Spirit is moving. Revival in Algeria - 100,000 underground believers in Iran and that is under the Sharia law. - 175,000 people come to Christ each day. 3,500 new churches planted every week (mostly small groups).
3. The lost are dying. Every day 66,000 die with no Gospel witness.
Why do we refrain from talking about a Christless eternity?
4. The poor are suffering. 37% of global population is children who live in poverty. Be moved with Godly compassion. Pity is not compassion. Will we become advacates for the poor?
5. The church is commissioned. Matthew 28:18-20. Go = as you are going make disciples of all peoples. Vital Christianity is not a spectator sport, it is an active thing.
6. If we don't become activated we die ourselves. Preservation mentality causes death to come. When we give ourselves, the Lord gives us more spiritual vitality.
7, The Father is waiting. God's most important attribute - patience. God wants for us to become activated.
4 practical ways to implement these things in our lives:
1. Extravagant giving - our use of money shows the most about our love of God. Are we pouring more into the temporal or eternal? Abraham covenant - We're blessed to bless others. 5.4% of all giving in the world of Christ's church goes to some kind of outreach in which the Gospel is already planted. 1% of the 4.5% or 0.045% actually goes to mission activities among unreached.
2. Extraordinary praying that perseveres and prevails. Sin of prayerlessness. Intercession is the most important of all ministries.
3. Surrendered going - long term ministry
4. Impassioned mobilizing - Every believer should be a mission mobilizer.
Monday, May 12, 2008
Devotions / In Christ
For devotions I have been going through 2 Timothy. At present I am at 2:2. I find this good because I am not in a hurry to finish the book. What I try to do is look at each phrase to and run cross references on them. I also meditate on the passage and sometimes ideas come to me. Sometimes I remember other passages that shed light on the one I am meditating on.
After I got past chapter 1 I started typing these notes. I may want to post these notes on my web page as a commentary. I think there is life from pondering the Scriptures.
I have struggled with what it means to be in Christ. I know its salvation but as I have pondered it I think that to be in Christ is to be walking in the Spirit. We are new creatures in Christ. (2 Cor. 5:17) But we don't live like that if we are not aware of spiritual things. When problems arise do I act as I should in Christ, or do I respond as a person without Christ. The difference in my actions is based on whether I am aware of Christ and looking to Him when the problem comes.
Some may respond naturally but I don't. I need to be looking to Jesus in my life at the present or the problem will catch me unaware.
Luke 12:35 Speaks volumes to me. "Be dressed in readiness, and keep your lamps lit."
So being aware in Christ ties in to Bible memory and trusting Christ for the promises He has given to me. I quote the promise to counter the worry, and trust Christ in the midst of my efforts.
After I got past chapter 1 I started typing these notes. I may want to post these notes on my web page as a commentary. I think there is life from pondering the Scriptures.
I have struggled with what it means to be in Christ. I know its salvation but as I have pondered it I think that to be in Christ is to be walking in the Spirit. We are new creatures in Christ. (2 Cor. 5:17) But we don't live like that if we are not aware of spiritual things. When problems arise do I act as I should in Christ, or do I respond as a person without Christ. The difference in my actions is based on whether I am aware of Christ and looking to Him when the problem comes.
Some may respond naturally but I don't. I need to be looking to Jesus in my life at the present or the problem will catch me unaware.
Luke 12:35 Speaks volumes to me. "Be dressed in readiness, and keep your lamps lit."
So being aware in Christ ties in to Bible memory and trusting Christ for the promises He has given to me. I quote the promise to counter the worry, and trust Christ in the midst of my efforts.
Sunday, May 4, 2008
Psalm 44
I read this Psalm for devotions this morning and we went over it in house church.
Verses 1-3 talks about the history of Israel and how God came through for them in times of need.
Verses 4-8 talk about how God will come through for them in the future and shows some keys of what to do.
Verses 9-16 talks of the present.
17-21 talks of their faithfulness to God.
22-26 A prayer for help
Remember what God has done for you and others in the past. This will build hope. For God is faithful in the midst of trials. Jesus said that He gives peace in the midst of trials. If He took away the trail then there would be no need. Many times God meets our need to live in the midst of trials.
Verse 5 is key for me. It is through God that we will push back our adversaries. Through God means that we act according to the direction God specifically gives us to handle the situation. We do the pushing God gives the direction of how where and when to push. We provide the obedience and God provides the power.
Through Your name we will push back our adversaries.
When we do things under the command of Jesus we are doing them through the name of Jesus. So when we trample over our enemies we are walking in faith according to the leading of our Lord. We are acting in the name of Jesus.
Romans 16:19,20 is a great promise of deliverance. We walk and Jesus the God of peace crushes Satan under our feet. It is a walk of faith that wins the victory.
In verse 8 speaks to me about what I need to be doing.
“In God we have boasted all day long. And we will give thanks to Your name forever.
Boast in what God will do as verses 4-7 show. God will do great things on our behalf. It is imperative that we hear what He is telling us to do. Then we can boast of what He will do.
Wednesday, March 26, 2008
Forgiveness Repentance and Confessing
Thought about forgiveness and confessing sins.
Are we of the truth if we plan on sinning and then confessing later?
IE does confessing count if our attitude does not line up with our confessing?
Man looks at the outward appearance. God looks at the heart. God looks at what we say and our heart at the same time. We are not going to fool God.
If our heart and our words don't line up we are only fooling ourselves not God.
Then what are we to do? We know something is wrong. We want to stop sinning intellectually but emotionally we don't want to stop sinning.
How do we change our emotions to line up with our understanding?
Two answers that have come to me:
1. Do works in keeping with repentance. Make right what you have done wrong.
John the Baptist discusses this in Matthew 3:8 and Luke 3:8. The works are related to the sin. Zachaeus the Tax collector gave an example of repentance and works by saying to Jesus that he would repay those he defrauded by 4 times the amount.
2. Put your treasure where you want your emotion and heart to go.
The parable of the Kingdom of God and the man finding a treasure in a field. He then rehides the treasure and sells all that he has and buys the field. If we make the opposite of sin our treasure than sinning will become abhorrent to us. Instead of making sin our treasure make Jesus our treasure. It is Jesus that gives life. We learn from experience sin does not satisfy in the long run. Sin is destructive. God is not a God who delights in our suffering. He told us sin is sin, because it will destroy our life.
Acts 26:20 is another verse that refers to this issue. It is within the conscience of humanity that a person should repay the wrongs that he has done.
Some would suggest what I have said is teaching salvation by works. I believe that there is a difference in putting our faith in our own efforts and doing works to show our true repentance.
It is not that we have to work for forgiveness;. Its that our words alone don't change our heart. When we act we are solidifying our decision to change our ways.
What is repentance? It is changing direction. So if we don't go in a different direction after we confess our sins we have not repented.
Work out your salvation with fear and trembling. Salvation is 2 fold.
1. We are saved from sin and enter the kingdom of God at one point of prayer.
2. We are saved from a life of sin and live for Jesus as a growth process.
Lets work to live a life unto God and not for ourselves.
Are we of the truth if we plan on sinning and then confessing later?
IE does confessing count if our attitude does not line up with our confessing?
Man looks at the outward appearance. God looks at the heart. God looks at what we say and our heart at the same time. We are not going to fool God.
If our heart and our words don't line up we are only fooling ourselves not God.
Then what are we to do? We know something is wrong. We want to stop sinning intellectually but emotionally we don't want to stop sinning.
How do we change our emotions to line up with our understanding?
Two answers that have come to me:
1. Do works in keeping with repentance. Make right what you have done wrong.
John the Baptist discusses this in Matthew 3:8 and Luke 3:8. The works are related to the sin. Zachaeus the Tax collector gave an example of repentance and works by saying to Jesus that he would repay those he defrauded by 4 times the amount.
2. Put your treasure where you want your emotion and heart to go.
The parable of the Kingdom of God and the man finding a treasure in a field. He then rehides the treasure and sells all that he has and buys the field. If we make the opposite of sin our treasure than sinning will become abhorrent to us. Instead of making sin our treasure make Jesus our treasure. It is Jesus that gives life. We learn from experience sin does not satisfy in the long run. Sin is destructive. God is not a God who delights in our suffering. He told us sin is sin, because it will destroy our life.
Acts 26:20 is another verse that refers to this issue. It is within the conscience of humanity that a person should repay the wrongs that he has done.
Some would suggest what I have said is teaching salvation by works. I believe that there is a difference in putting our faith in our own efforts and doing works to show our true repentance.
It is not that we have to work for forgiveness;. Its that our words alone don't change our heart. When we act we are solidifying our decision to change our ways.
What is repentance? It is changing direction. So if we don't go in a different direction after we confess our sins we have not repented.
Work out your salvation with fear and trembling. Salvation is 2 fold.
1. We are saved from sin and enter the kingdom of God at one point of prayer.
2. We are saved from a life of sin and live for Jesus as a growth process.
Lets work to live a life unto God and not for ourselves.
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