Training
The world recognizes the value of training. Whether it is academic training, sports training, or training in the corporate wold. Training has value! Experience, teaching, knowledge, skills, learning, and development are just a few of the benefit to training.
The bible recognizes the value of training too! 1 Corinthians 9:25. The bible priorities spiritual training over physical training but they are both of value. 1 Timothy 4:8
One of the major roles of a father is to train. Ephesians 6:4
Spiritual training is the training that lacks the most in our society. We don't value spiritual training like we should! No one makes us train spiritually. We have to learn how to do it. We sometimes assume that training spiritually is a lot like physical training but they are very different.
In the bible the training that God gives is in direct contrast to the training that we give our selves physically. Physical training is performance training. You do what you do to reach a certain performance goal. God doesn't work that way!
How does God train?
1 Samuel 16:1-12
Saul was trained by performance training. On the outside he look like a king should look and the people of Israel rallied around him initially! Vs 7 God does not look at the outward things. God chose David because of his heart!
Gods training for David was to send him out into the field and take care of sheep! God did not train David in all the actions that he needed to do. God trains us in all the ways we need to be. There is a difference. We train for some type of action. God trains the hearts to help us become what we are suppose to be!
God trains in the little things!
1 Samuel 17:33-36
Goliath has been fighting and training from his youth! Goliath had all the worldly training that one could have! David recognized the training that God had given him and he had full confidence in God that he was meant for this moment! Do you recognize God's training? Do you try to stop it because it maybe something hard in your life and a struggle to go through? Do you say here God is training me and has plans to use this in my life for something big!
David did not stop being a shepherd because a lion came around! Do you stop being a christian when times get tough? David continued to be a what God called him to be regardless of what he was facing! How faithful are we in the little things that God puts us in charge of or gives us as a task to do?
How christian are you when nobody is watching? David was alone in the field for weeks with the sheep with no accountability.
Gods training never stops!
There is no breaks in shepherding. There are no breaks. When you eat lunch you eat lunch next to sheep. When you lay down at night you sleep with sheep. We don't follow Jesus 9-5. We follow Jesus 24hrs a day! Discipleship has no breaks! God's training never stops which is so different than worldly training!
Spiritual growth should only cease with death. God is training us in every situation in every day of our lives. We need to open our eyes to see and except God's training! God was training David to "be" a man after Gods own heart. He did not train David to do something that was after Gods own heart. There is a difference!
Hebrews 5:8 in the same way God training Jesus and Jesus learned obedience from God through his life. Being a carpenter, a son, a brother...etc!
Sent from my iPad
Sunday, October 25, 2015
The Call To Serve!
The Call To Serve!
1 Peter 4:10-11; John 6:1-9
All of us can have reasons not to serve or give. Jesus had many reasons not to give or to meet the needs of the people that needed him! Jesus was trying to have some family time. He slipped away and headed to a remote mountainside with his closest friends!
Jesus had good motives to slip away. Sometimes we want to slip away too. Many times for selfish reasons. Jesus spent most of his life giving and serving and wanted to slip away for a moment before the festival.
Jesus was outward and giving all the time. Jesus was willing to sacrifice his needs and wants for the needs of others! Jesus never gave into the feeling of growing weary!
To the disciples they did not have enough resources to help anyone! To Jesus what he had was enough for God to give.
Jesus let God multiply his efforts!
All we have to do is be willing to give and let God be responsible for multiplying. Our job is just to give and to serve! If I do not let God multiply then I will never have enough! God can use what ever we have and he will meet the needs. We just need to give and serve in what ever capacity we are able! It's up to God to make sure that what we have is enough!
John 6:11-13
Just like multiplication, anything times zero is zero. If we give nothing God will multiply nothing. If we give something, God will make it into whatever is needed!
Jesus did not divided the fish proportionately, he gave everyone as much as they wanted! Same with us if we give freely we will receive more that we started with. Giving to God gives us more than we had before!
Jesus gave until every need was met!
If you show up late to church your not showing up to give, your showing up to take! Gods church should be a place where everyone gives and everyone gets their needs met!
Proverbs 11:25
Jesus did not come to take but to give! That doesn't mean that it was easy for him. He had to pray continually for God to give him the strength to give and give! Jesus gave and gave until he took his last breath. It is finished was not said until he had exhausted his entire life!
The cross was the ultimate example Jesus has left us in giving up everything for us!
Sent from my iPad
1 Peter 4:10-11; John 6:1-9
All of us can have reasons not to serve or give. Jesus had many reasons not to give or to meet the needs of the people that needed him! Jesus was trying to have some family time. He slipped away and headed to a remote mountainside with his closest friends!
Jesus had good motives to slip away. Sometimes we want to slip away too. Many times for selfish reasons. Jesus spent most of his life giving and serving and wanted to slip away for a moment before the festival.
Jesus was outward and giving all the time. Jesus was willing to sacrifice his needs and wants for the needs of others! Jesus never gave into the feeling of growing weary!
To the disciples they did not have enough resources to help anyone! To Jesus what he had was enough for God to give.
Jesus let God multiply his efforts!
All we have to do is be willing to give and let God be responsible for multiplying. Our job is just to give and to serve! If I do not let God multiply then I will never have enough! God can use what ever we have and he will meet the needs. We just need to give and serve in what ever capacity we are able! It's up to God to make sure that what we have is enough!
John 6:11-13
Just like multiplication, anything times zero is zero. If we give nothing God will multiply nothing. If we give something, God will make it into whatever is needed!
Jesus did not divided the fish proportionately, he gave everyone as much as they wanted! Same with us if we give freely we will receive more that we started with. Giving to God gives us more than we had before!
Jesus gave until every need was met!
If you show up late to church your not showing up to give, your showing up to take! Gods church should be a place where everyone gives and everyone gets their needs met!
Proverbs 11:25
Jesus did not come to take but to give! That doesn't mean that it was easy for him. He had to pray continually for God to give him the strength to give and give! Jesus gave and gave until he took his last breath. It is finished was not said until he had exhausted his entire life!
The cross was the ultimate example Jesus has left us in giving up everything for us!
Sent from my iPad
Sunday, October 11, 2015
Spiritual Training
Spiritual Training
The world recognizes the value of training. Whether it is academic training, sports training, or training in the corporate wold. Training has value! Experience, teaching, knowledge, skills, learning, and development are just a few of the benefit to training.
The bible recognizes the value of training too! 1 Corinthians 9:25. The bible priorities spiritual training over physical training but they are both of value. 1 Timothy 4:8
One of the major roles of a father is to train. Ephesians 6:4
Spiritual training is the training that lacks the most in our society. We don't value spiritual training like we should! No one makes us train spiritually. We have to learn how to do it. We sometimes assume that training spiritually is a lot like physical training but they are very different.
In the bible the training that God gives is in direct contrast to the training that we give our selves physically. Physical training is performance training. You do what you do to reach a certain performance goal. God doesn't work that way!
How does God train?
1 Samuel 16:1-12
Saul was trained by performance training. On the outside he look like a king should look and the people of Israel rallied around him initially! Vs 7 God does not look at the outward things. God chose David because of his heart!
Gods training for David was to send him out into the field and take care of sheep! God did not train David in all the actions that he needed to do. God trains us in all the ways we need to be. There is a difference. We train for some type of action. God trains the hearts to help us become what we are suppose to be!
God trains in the little things!
1 Samuel 17:33-36
Goliath has been fighting and training from his youth! Goliath had all the worldly training that one could have! David recognized the training that God had given him and he had full confidence in God that he was meant for this moment! Do you recognize God's training? Do you try to stop it because it maybe something hard in your life and a struggle to go through? Do you say here God is training me and has plans to use this in my life for something big!
David did not stop being a shepherd because a lion came around! Do you stop being a christian when times get tough? David continued to be a what God called him to be regardless of what he was facing! How faithful are we in the little things that God puts us in charge of or gives us as a task to do?
How christian are you when nobody is watching? David was alone in the field for weeks with the sheep with no accountability.
Gods training never stops!
There is no breaks in shepherding. There are no breaks. When you eat lunch you eat lunch next to sheep. When you lay down at night you sleep with sheep. We don't follow Jesus 9-5. We follow Jesus 24hrs a day! Discipleship has no breaks! God's training never stops which is so different than worldly training!
Spiritual growth should only cease with death. God is training us in every situation in every day of our lives. We need to open our eyes to see and except God's training! God was training David to "be" a man after Gods own heart. He did not train David to do something that was after Gods own heart. There is a difference!
Hebrews 5:8 in the same way God training Jesus and Jesus learned obedience from God through his life. Being a carpenter, a son, a brother...etc!
The world recognizes the value of training. Whether it is academic training, sports training, or training in the corporate wold. Training has value! Experience, teaching, knowledge, skills, learning, and development are just a few of the benefit to training.
The bible recognizes the value of training too! 1 Corinthians 9:25. The bible priorities spiritual training over physical training but they are both of value. 1 Timothy 4:8
One of the major roles of a father is to train. Ephesians 6:4
Spiritual training is the training that lacks the most in our society. We don't value spiritual training like we should! No one makes us train spiritually. We have to learn how to do it. We sometimes assume that training spiritually is a lot like physical training but they are very different.
In the bible the training that God gives is in direct contrast to the training that we give our selves physically. Physical training is performance training. You do what you do to reach a certain performance goal. God doesn't work that way!
How does God train?
1 Samuel 16:1-12
Saul was trained by performance training. On the outside he look like a king should look and the people of Israel rallied around him initially! Vs 7 God does not look at the outward things. God chose David because of his heart!
Gods training for David was to send him out into the field and take care of sheep! God did not train David in all the actions that he needed to do. God trains us in all the ways we need to be. There is a difference. We train for some type of action. God trains the hearts to help us become what we are suppose to be!
God trains in the little things!
1 Samuel 17:33-36
Goliath has been fighting and training from his youth! Goliath had all the worldly training that one could have! David recognized the training that God had given him and he had full confidence in God that he was meant for this moment! Do you recognize God's training? Do you try to stop it because it maybe something hard in your life and a struggle to go through? Do you say here God is training me and has plans to use this in my life for something big!
David did not stop being a shepherd because a lion came around! Do you stop being a christian when times get tough? David continued to be a what God called him to be regardless of what he was facing! How faithful are we in the little things that God puts us in charge of or gives us as a task to do?
How christian are you when nobody is watching? David was alone in the field for weeks with the sheep with no accountability.
Gods training never stops!
There is no breaks in shepherding. There are no breaks. When you eat lunch you eat lunch next to sheep. When you lay down at night you sleep with sheep. We don't follow Jesus 9-5. We follow Jesus 24hrs a day! Discipleship has no breaks! God's training never stops which is so different than worldly training!
Spiritual growth should only cease with death. God is training us in every situation in every day of our lives. We need to open our eyes to see and except God's training! God was training David to "be" a man after Gods own heart. He did not train David to do something that was after Gods own heart. There is a difference!
Hebrews 5:8 in the same way God training Jesus and Jesus learned obedience from God through his life. Being a carpenter, a son, a brother...etc!
Sunday, October 4, 2015
Who Is Jesus?
Who Is Jesus?
The deeper we get to know someone the deeper our conversations get. Shallow relationships will stay shallow until we allow our selves to become vulnerable and take the relationship to a deeper relationship.
Jesus was an expert at taking a new relationship to great depths. For us sharing our lives immediately with someone we do not know seems and feels awkward. For Jesus it was the way he lived!
John 1:1-5
From the beginning of John we see that Jesus was with God from the creation of the world and he was the power of God that created everything that we know to exist. Jesus is power and authority.
John 3:1-16
Jesus immediately turn upside down the social conventions of that time. Nicodemus was the best thing you could be at that time. A jew, a man, righteous, a pharisee, a man with power, a member of the jewish counsel! Any one else that would have met Nicodemus would have welcomed him with open arms!
Jesus takes all of what they knew and flipped it upside down. Jesus gives Nicodemus exactly what he needed at the moment. A challenge, a rebuke and an offer of salvation!
John 4:1-26
We see a similar and a very different interaction with the Women at the well as we did see when Jesus met Nicodemus. Once again Jesus turned upside down the social conventions of the day by even speaking to her. Unlike Nicodemus, the woman was the worst things you could be. She was a Samaritan, a women, a sinful women, the opposite of a Pharisee, she has no power and no influence. Nicodemus came and sought Jesus out and the woman accidentally bumped into Jesus at the well. Just like Nicodemus she is not able to stand on her own merit!
Jesus extends her hope in a hopeless situation. He offered her a chance to repent and salvation. Jesus looks beyond the things that we look at. He looks beyond, social status!
No matter who you are -- Nicodemus or the Women at the well -- you need Jesus! You must acknowledge that you are lost without Jesus! At no point in our lives are we ever enough. Even on our best day we are lost without Jesus!
This is more than knowing that you just need help. Jesus is not looking to self improve us. He is not looking to change a few areas in our lives and make us great. JEsus is looking for people who know they are lost without him in every situation and every circumstance!
The longer I am in a relationship with Jesus the more tempting it becomes for me to neglect the power of JEsus and to think that I do not need him! We need to know that we are lost without Jesus! How desperate are we for JEsus salvation? Do we wait until things are really bad before we call out to him and seek salvation?
Mediocre christianity is Satan's biggest trap! A mediocre christian does not believe that he or she is lost without Jesus!
1 Corinthians 15:10
Is the grace that Jesus freely gives received without effect? There is no way to be in touch with the grace Jesus offers and to not have effect. It will and should change your life!
Romans 4:17 -- We need to go out and live like we are! This is how Jesus grace has effect! God does not see us for who we are -- he sees us for who we are in him! Imagine what would happen in your life if you truly accepted Gods grace and then acted on it? What if everyone said "i am nothing without Jesus and then lived their lives like He is! We would turn the world upside down.
Sent from my iPad
The deeper we get to know someone the deeper our conversations get. Shallow relationships will stay shallow until we allow our selves to become vulnerable and take the relationship to a deeper relationship.
Jesus was an expert at taking a new relationship to great depths. For us sharing our lives immediately with someone we do not know seems and feels awkward. For Jesus it was the way he lived!
John 1:1-5
From the beginning of John we see that Jesus was with God from the creation of the world and he was the power of God that created everything that we know to exist. Jesus is power and authority.
John 3:1-16
Jesus immediately turn upside down the social conventions of that time. Nicodemus was the best thing you could be at that time. A jew, a man, righteous, a pharisee, a man with power, a member of the jewish counsel! Any one else that would have met Nicodemus would have welcomed him with open arms!
Jesus takes all of what they knew and flipped it upside down. Jesus gives Nicodemus exactly what he needed at the moment. A challenge, a rebuke and an offer of salvation!
John 4:1-26
We see a similar and a very different interaction with the Women at the well as we did see when Jesus met Nicodemus. Once again Jesus turned upside down the social conventions of the day by even speaking to her. Unlike Nicodemus, the woman was the worst things you could be. She was a Samaritan, a women, a sinful women, the opposite of a Pharisee, she has no power and no influence. Nicodemus came and sought Jesus out and the woman accidentally bumped into Jesus at the well. Just like Nicodemus she is not able to stand on her own merit!
Jesus extends her hope in a hopeless situation. He offered her a chance to repent and salvation. Jesus looks beyond the things that we look at. He looks beyond, social status!
No matter who you are -- Nicodemus or the Women at the well -- you need Jesus! You must acknowledge that you are lost without Jesus! At no point in our lives are we ever enough. Even on our best day we are lost without Jesus!
This is more than knowing that you just need help. Jesus is not looking to self improve us. He is not looking to change a few areas in our lives and make us great. JEsus is looking for people who know they are lost without him in every situation and every circumstance!
The longer I am in a relationship with Jesus the more tempting it becomes for me to neglect the power of JEsus and to think that I do not need him! We need to know that we are lost without Jesus! How desperate are we for JEsus salvation? Do we wait until things are really bad before we call out to him and seek salvation?
Mediocre christianity is Satan's biggest trap! A mediocre christian does not believe that he or she is lost without Jesus!
1 Corinthians 15:10
Is the grace that Jesus freely gives received without effect? There is no way to be in touch with the grace Jesus offers and to not have effect. It will and should change your life!
Romans 4:17 -- We need to go out and live like we are! This is how Jesus grace has effect! God does not see us for who we are -- he sees us for who we are in him! Imagine what would happen in your life if you truly accepted Gods grace and then acted on it? What if everyone said "i am nothing without Jesus and then lived their lives like He is! We would turn the world upside down.
Sent from my iPad
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