July 24-28th 2017
Quotes
Obedience may create challenges, but disobedience creates problems.
Only a life lived for others is a life worth while. – Albert Einstein
Many come on Sunday longing for the fancy meat of Egypt. The preacher mustn't consent. It is ordinary manna we offer: Jesus, bread of life.
I used to think I could shape the circumstances around me, but now I know Jesus uses circumstances to shape me @bobgoff
When you talk, you are repeating what you already know. But if you listen, you may learn something new.
Don’t abandon in frustration what you planted in faith.
Louie Giglio
“If you don’t get better you’ll become critical of those who are better” @Chris_Hodges #Grow17
In the spiritual life only one thing produces genuine joy and that is obedience. --
Richard Foster
From Books
"A Grace Revealed"
By Gerald Sittser
Chapter 9
Aroma
In his second letter to the church at Corinth, the apostle Paul uses the word “aroma” to describe the kind of story that has a redemptive spirit to it, and he uses a Roman victory parade as his primary metaphor. In his day, Roman citizens scattered fragrant flowers on the road over which a victorious army marched when returning from a military campaign. The aroma of those flowers reminded citizens that their army had defeated the enemy, won the peace, and established security in the realm. Those same flowers reminded prisoners of war —marching in chains behind the victorious Roman army —that they had been defeated. Paul writes: But thanks be to God, who always leads us as captives in Christ’s triumphal procession and uses us to spread the aroma of the knowledge of him everywhere. For we are to God the pleasing aroma of Christ among those who are being saved and those who are perishing. To the one we are an aroma that brings death; to the other, an aroma that brings life. (2 Corinthians 2: 14–16) Christians, Paul said, are like that aroma, whose spirit brings life to those who long for life and death to those who choose death.
"Destroyer of the gods"
Early Christian Distinctiveness In The Roman World
by Larry Hurtado
From Chapter 1 : Early Christians and Christianity in the Eyes of Non-Christians.
Indeed , in light of the social and, increasingly , the political consequences of being a Christian in these early centuries, one might well wonder that the movement grew and why people became Christians..........
There must have been things about early Christianity that made it worthwhile to become an adherent in spite of social harassment and potential prosecution.
Actually, it appears a good many outsiders, who were the overwhelming majority of the populace, regarded Christians and Christianity as objectionably different and certainly not simply one group among an undifferentiated lot.
3 2 1 The Story Of God
By Glen Scrivener
Chapter 3
How do you respond to hearing of God’s love? Perhaps it sounds like a cruel joke in a suffering world. Perhaps it sounds like wishful thinking. Perhaps it sounds like a cheesy platitude to be posted on the Facebook walls of the gullible. Is there any justification for the claim –made in a million pop songs –that love is the greatest thing? Yes there is. We’ve been talking about him all along. Showing up in the middle of history we have a man who claims to be deepest reality. He says he has come from above, he was there in the beginning and he will wrap it all up at the end. Ordinarily we dismiss such people as madmen or liars. But this man seems entirely credible. The rest of his teaching has shaped civilisations –I don’t think he was mad. The rest of his life pulsates with self-giving love –I don’t think he was bad. Perhaps then he can be trusted. If so, we have a window onto life’s ultimate foundation. When we look at Jesus, what picture of God do we see?
"Hearing From God "
By David Stine
Chapter 4
I share this part of our story to remind you that we don’t always hear God perfectly and sometimes we inadvertently step off course. We can trust that when we do, God will draw us back. I will say that as Romans 8: 28 reminds us, God redeems and works all things together for good.
Union With Christ
By Rankin Wilbourne
Chapter 2
Christ dwelling in us by his Spirit is a guarantee that we can and will change.
We are adopted into God’s family, and not in name only. The Spirit in us now guides and forms us more and more into the family likeness. The same Christ who overcame every temptation and was perfectly obedient—that Jesus is in you now. The Jesus who had compassion on the crowds and who healed the sick—that Jesus is in you. The humble Jesus who led as a servant, who washed his disciples’ feet—he’s in you. The Jesus who repeatedly shattered racial barriers with his teachings and in his life—that Jesus is in you. The Jesus who suffered and loved to the end—he dwells in you. And the Jesus who was raised to new life—that Jesus is living in you right now!
Do you realize what resources you carry around with you? Do you realize that you are never again alone to face whatever you are facing? This is why Paul prays for us, “that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in his holy people, and his incomparably great power for us who believe” (Eph. 1: 18–19 NIV).
With that in mind, consider two superheroes, Batman and Spider-Man. Batman is a rich and strong man with lots of cool gadgets. His superpowers stem from his external possessions. Spider-Man has a few accessories as well, but he is a superhero because of the spider powers he obtained when he was bitten by a radioactive spider. His nature has been changed. He now has a new power accessible to him, within him. 9 Christ in you makes you more like Spider-Man than Batman. Something alien to you, from outside of you, has entered into you and changed your nature. You now have power that you did not have before. The trouble with this analogy is that Spider-Man became something more than human, while we instead are being restored to our full humanity. We are becoming more like Christ.
Chapter 3
When I base my Christian life on my Christian experience, I become locked in the labyrinth of my own performance. I am only as sure of God as my current emotions and obedience allow. My eyes are fixed on myself.
Christ has wed himself to you. This is not just a declaration to agree with. It is an objective reality to live into. He has fully atoned for you, and he is now with you, assuring you that with him, you have the resources to overcome anything that threatens to overwhelm you.
The Father loves you “even as” he loves his own son because all that belongs to the son he now shares with all those who are united to him. Whatever is true of Jesus in God’s eyes is now true of you. That’s union with Christ. Union with Christ means you are in Christ. And Christ himself prays for us to know we are hidden in him—and promises that he “will continue to make it known” (John 17: 26).
From Interviews and Blogs:
"This is no time to cave into spiritual narcissism, where the primary concern is whether people are fed, are ministered to, or “get anything out of the worship experience,” as though the mission is caring for believers as consumers instead of dying to ourselves to reach a lost world."
James Emery White
Explain the three timeless truths; are they what you mean by the Daniel “code”?
O. S. Hawkins: In the first chapters of Daniel, he reminds us:
• Don’t Give In — Be Resistant. You know, on some things, we can go along to get along. It’s unlikely many men reading this wear suits and ties to church. While maintaining appropriate modesty, most of us have gone to a more casual dress in church, much as we have at work, at the airport, or at a ballgame. We can give in on other non-essentials. But where there’s clear teaching by God’s Word on a given matter, we should not give in—we should be resistant! Secondly, Daniel tells us:
• Don’t Give Up — Be Consistent. We spent a quarter of a century serving just about every kind of church imaginable. Our first pastorate was in the southwestern wheat farming communities around Hobart, Oklahoma. Then, we served in a county-seat town: Ada, Oklahoma. For 15 years, it was our deep privilege to serve in the heart of a great cosmopolitan center—Fort Lauderdale, Florida—before coming to serve in the heart of the concrete canyons and the historic First Baptist Church of Dallas. In each of those churches, we saw men and women, boys and girls, who chose to be consistent with their faith, even when others around them took an easier road. How did they do it? How did Daniel do it? They stayed on guard. The tendency within each of us is to simply give in when we become overwhelmed by cultural pressures seeking to fit us into their mold. Daniel steps off the pages of Scripture and shows us how to stay consistent not only in what we believe but also in how we behave. Finally, he tells us:
• Don’t Give Out — Be Persistent. Daniel was in it for the long haul. In your small group, in your church and your home, you’re surrounded by people who likely will affirm everything you believe. But what happens as you’re going to work, to school, or out into the marketplace? Daniel knows exactly what you’re facing—the incredible peer pressure of political correctness, of cutting corners, of leaving your integrity at the door. Daniel knows there’s a cost to not giving out, but he also shouts from the pages of Scripture: Don’t give out! Be persistent!
YouTube
Here is a link to a beautiful video on Pentecost
Meditation On Pentecost from Fuller Theological Seminary
Here is a link to great 4 minute video from Crawford Loritts on not having to always be significant.
Slay The Significance Monster
