Ch. 7: Your best life...later
By now Im sure you've realized that you have a choice to make. You can let life happen or you can actively run toward Christ.
It's impossible to please God in any other way than whole hearted surrender!
"Do you want to see God more than you desire security?" This is what it all comes down to. Are you going to trust God with your whole life or just a part of it?
Christian's like to play it safe. We dont leave a lot left for God to take care of, just in case it doesnt happen the way we want it to.
"How would our lives change if we actually treated everyone we came into contact with as Christ?" Would our lives change?
"What are we doing right now that requires faith?" Are you doing anything????
Our prayers are heard by the same God who told Noah to build the Ark (and then fulfilled His promise for a flood) and and who raised raised Joseph from a slave to second in command over the land. God is still doing mighty things in our lives just like He did in the lives of those we read about in the Bible.
Even with all of that being true, we still compare ourselves to other Christians all the time. We dont see how God has blessed us; we only see how God has blessed them. We have to stop focusing on other people's relationship with Christ and bring our attention back to our own relationship with Him. Then we will be able to see the world through His eyes and seek out the "least of these" around us.
Wednesday, March 25, 2009
Chapter 6 Crazy Love
Chapter 6: When you're in love...
When you're in love with someone, you want to be with them. That's how we are with our human relationships; shouldnt we be crazy over the top with our relationship with Jesus!?!?! He is madly in love with us and what do we give Him in return? A few minutes here and there telling Him what we want Him to hear and not what is really going on. Why do we short change God and give and give to our earthly relationships? The thing is, loving God makes loving others better! Here is what we talked about in the Bible study. Sorry its so late!
"I want to want thee"
Here's a question: If we got to heaven and had everything we could ask for, but God wasnt there, would it matter? Would you be content with the good things but no relationship with Christ? If you are deeply in love with God, you could never be satisfied in a heaven without Christ.
We cant make ourselves love God more but we can let Him mold us.
We tend to form a cycle in our lives. We present impossible standards for others to meet when we cant meet them ourselves. We get angry with God when things dont go the way we want them to. Who are we to demand anything from God? Shouldnt it be there other way around?
If we dont love God like we should; He knows.
God is the one who changes us; its not anything we can do on our own.
When you're in love with someone, you want to be with them. That's how we are with our human relationships; shouldnt we be crazy over the top with our relationship with Jesus!?!?! He is madly in love with us and what do we give Him in return? A few minutes here and there telling Him what we want Him to hear and not what is really going on. Why do we short change God and give and give to our earthly relationships? The thing is, loving God makes loving others better! Here is what we talked about in the Bible study. Sorry its so late!
"I want to want thee"
Here's a question: If we got to heaven and had everything we could ask for, but God wasnt there, would it matter? Would you be content with the good things but no relationship with Christ? If you are deeply in love with God, you could never be satisfied in a heaven without Christ.
We cant make ourselves love God more but we can let Him mold us.
We tend to form a cycle in our lives. We present impossible standards for others to meet when we cant meet them ourselves. We get angry with God when things dont go the way we want them to. Who are we to demand anything from God? Shouldnt it be there other way around?
If we dont love God like we should; He knows.
God is the one who changes us; its not anything we can do on our own.
Friday, March 6, 2009
Leftovers anyone???
Ch. 5 Serving Leftovers to a Holy GOD
Was this a hard chapter for you to read? It was for us who are in the Bible study on Wednesdays! So many times we give God what we have left of ourselves instead of giving Him what is rightfully His! We often give God what we think He can take care of and cling tightly to the things we want to control. That is not how Jesus did it though! In Matthew 16:24-25, Jesus says, "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will find it." Luke 14:33 says "Any of you who does not give up everything he has cannot be my disciple." DANG! Jesus says give up EVERYTHING! Not a little bit, not most of it...EVERYTHING! Being a lukewarm Christian is not an option! Either you live for Jesus or you dont. Thats all there is. Who are you living for; yourself or Jesus?
Here is what we talked about on Wednesday.
"Can I go to heaven without truly and faithfully loving Jesus? I dont see anywhere in Sscripture how the answer to that question could be yes. Do we die to ourselves daily? God doesn't just want us to have good theology; He wans us to know and love Him. God's grace is true and real. What does all or nothing look like in America? What would we look like if we gave it all to Jesus, today? Are we challenging our growth? "Physically sickness we usually defy. Soul sickness we often resign ourselves to." "Our greatest fear as individuals and as a church should not be of failure but succeeding at things in life that dont really matter."
Was this a hard chapter for you to read? It was for us who are in the Bible study on Wednesdays! So many times we give God what we have left of ourselves instead of giving Him what is rightfully His! We often give God what we think He can take care of and cling tightly to the things we want to control. That is not how Jesus did it though! In Matthew 16:24-25, Jesus says, "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will find it." Luke 14:33 says "Any of you who does not give up everything he has cannot be my disciple." DANG! Jesus says give up EVERYTHING! Not a little bit, not most of it...EVERYTHING! Being a lukewarm Christian is not an option! Either you live for Jesus or you dont. Thats all there is. Who are you living for; yourself or Jesus?
Here is what we talked about on Wednesday.
"Can I go to heaven without truly and faithfully loving Jesus? I dont see anywhere in Sscripture how the answer to that question could be yes. Do we die to ourselves daily? God doesn't just want us to have good theology; He wans us to know and love Him. God's grace is true and real. What does all or nothing look like in America? What would we look like if we gave it all to Jesus, today? Are we challenging our growth? "Physically sickness we usually defy. Soul sickness we often resign ourselves to." "Our greatest fear as individuals and as a church should not be of failure but succeeding at things in life that dont really matter."
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