Gospel On TV

It is amazing that every year at Christmas time, the good news of Jesus' birth is proclaimed in front of millions on TV through the Charlie Brown Christmas special. Let us pray that these words will sink in to non-believers enough that they will seek out a deeper understanding of the truths of Jesus Christ. God, may their hearts and minds be opened to the truth!

A Step Ahead Of The Devil

The other night at our Encounter service I opened my bible during the Communion time. It opened up to Matthew chapter 4. I just started reading there. There were a couple of things that hit me when I started reading...

And the tempter came and said to him, "If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread." But he answered, "It is written, "'Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.'" Matthew 4:3-4

When I read Jesus' response the word "every" stuck out to me. "Every word that comes from the mouth of God." Do I do that? Live by every word that comes from the mouth of God. I feel like if we as believers were honest with ourselves we would have to say, we don't live by every word from God's mouth. We live by some words, the comfortable ones. The words of grace and forgiveness. We live by those and cling to those. But what about the rest? What about our call to die to everything and live for Christ? When will we be able to say as Paul did in Philippians 3, "Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ" instead of clinging to this world and just adding Jesus to it?

After thinking about the fact that I need to start clinging to every word and not just the comfortable words of God, I moved on to next few verses.

Then the devil took him to the holy city and set him on the pinnacle of the temple and said to him, "If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down, for it is written, "'He will command his angels concerning you,' and "'On their hands they will bear you up, lest you strike your foot against a stone.'" Matthew 4:5-6

When I read this, It hit me that Jesus was a step ahead of the Devil. Go back to Jesus' first response, which says we are to live by "every" word that comes from God. Satan's temptation here comes with him taking a part of the word of God, not the whole word of God. I thought it was awesome that Jesus' first response addressed what Satan was about to do in the next temptation which is use part of the word of God to distort the truth.

Thank you God for opening my mind to what your Word has to say. May I live by and cling to EVERY word of yours and always use it to be a step ahead of the evil one of this world!

Remember

May our Christmas celebrations always focus on the gift of Love that we have been given.

Christmas Music

I heard about this on KSBJ yesterday morning and decided to see if I could find it online. The band at North Point Community Church borrowed IPhones and IPads and played Christmas music using instrument apps. I was really impressed and decided to share this. Hope you enjoy!

Roller Coaster Ride

Is that what your faith is like, a rollercoaster ride? I think back to youth camps during the summer or a big conference during the school year that I would attend, and I would get on fire for God. I would feel God speaking to me. I would know what he wanted me to do. I would go back to my life ready to take on the world for God. Then a few months later I would be back to my old self and the fire had kind of died out. Did that happen to you as well?

The reason I bring this up, is that I feel like this describes the life of many Christians, young, old, and somewhere in between. There are times that I feel overwhelmed with the presence of God in my life and I am on the spiritual equivalent to the highest peak of a rollercoaster, but then things happen and it drops off. Sometimes very rapidly and sometimes it is a gradual decline, but it always declines.

What causes it to happen? I know it isn’t God pulling away from me. I am the one that is pulling away from God. Either I am not reading my bible enough, or my prayer life is lacking, or the things of life have just distracted me. It is probably a combination of these and more.

I don’t want a faith that is like this and I don’t think that you want a faith like this either. When we are on fire for God, we feel His presence, hear His words, and are using the power that we have been given through Christ Jesus and the Holy Spirit. When we are not on fire, we are relying on ourselves and we end up feeling lost and confused about where to go, what to do, and how to overcome the struggles and temptations of this life.

I had a conversation with someone a while back where I explained the peak that I had been on. I talked about feeling the presence of God in such an overwhelming way and hearing God speak for a couple of months. It was amazing to feel this way for several months at a time. I then explained that I hadn’t been feeling it as much lately and I was discouraged and I wanted to get back to that place. Their response was something to the effect of “Well you can’t feel like that always.” I disagree. I believe that everyday I can feel the presence of God in this manner as long as I am pursuing it. If I don’t pursue it, then I won’t feel that presence.

I think back to a statement that I heard from Pete Briscoe at the Right Now Conference last month. He talked about Paul being a Christ intoxicated man. I loved that statement! I believe that Paul lived out the rest of his life after his conversion clinging to the presence of God and Christ in his life. And that changed who he was and how he lived. I don’t believe his faith felt like a rollercoaster ride. If yours is, it doesn’t have to be. Let’s cling to Christ and stop having a faith that is full of highs and lows.

Think

I know, I know, you must be thinking, "Another video, and of John Piper on top of it." Take 4 minutes and watch this video. John Piper's new book is titled Think: The Life of the Mind and the Love of God. I should be getting this book this weekend. It looks awesome. This video covers what the book is about but does it in an awesome and creative way. I can't wait to read this book that challenges us to do "one of the most hazardous things that we do." Think! And do it to bring Glory to God!

Could Be Today

Getting prepared for this weeks lesson which covers the fact that we all could die today. This video is a good reminder that Life is temporary and we need to live for the eternal.

Duty

I loved this John Piper clip about the gospel saving us from morality. Yes, saving us from morality. Watch the clip to get the full explanation of what he is talking about. I will include this quote from C.S. Lewis that he uses, in case you can't watch the video.

"A perfect man would never act from a sense of duty; he’d always want the right thing more than the wrong one. Duty is only a substitute for love (of God and of other people) like a crutch which is a substitute for a leg. Most of us need the crutch at times; but of course it is idiotic to use the crutch when our own legs (our own loves, tastes, habits etc.) can do the journey on their own." --C.S. Lewis

Do you always want the right thing more than the wrong one, or do you just choose the right thing because you feel it is your duty? I know I am guilty of this. I do things because God wants me to, which is nice. It is better than choosing the wrong thing. However I pray for a change of heart to where I will prefer what is right. I pray the Gospel will so overwhelm our lives that doing things only out of duty or obligation will exist no more. If not, are we any better than the Pharisees?

What Are You Willing To Trade?

All You Need

Do you ever find yourself praying for the same things, especially when it comes to the way you live or the sins you struggle with? I do. I wonder sometimes, why I am still dealing with something when I have been praying about it for so long?

I read a short post over at The Rabbit Room by a Ron Block. I realized when reading it that maybe the problem is that I am not embracing what I have already been given. Click Here to read the full post.

Here is the part of the post that really stuck out to me.

“As ye have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in him” (Col 2:6).

Remember, He does not give you strength - He is your strength! He does not give you victory - He is your victory! He cannot be your life without being all you need, for “in him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily, and you are complete in him” (Col 2:9).

Then count upon the fact - and stop asking for what you have!--Ron Block

Next time you feel like you are struggling or you are stuck, cling to that beautiful truth. "He does not give you strength - He is your strength! He does not give you victory - He is your victory!"

Thank You Jesus for being EVERYTHING that we need!