Adventures of Jeff & Thea Ford (‘03 to ‘09)

I HOPE THIS ISN’T IT – A Ford Christmas Carol

Authentic Christianity – brings hope, reflects truth, shares love, hurts when others hurt, brings everlasting joy, offers community, springs toward faithfulness, imitates Christ, and more…

Empty Christianity – brings condemnation, is hypocritical, fuels pain, seeks self interest above the interest of others, springs toward confusion, is a closed system in one’s community, imitates the world, and so much more…

Let me tell you a story:

I was 12 years old. We woke up on Christmas morning. I put on my brand new blue flannel P.J.’s that my Grandmother had given me the night before at our Christmas Eve family get together. I rushed into the living room to look at what wonderful gifts I would be opening and playing with. And there they were. My brother and I tore into a few gifts. I was so excited. Greatttt! I got the robot that transformed into an evil insect people eater. That was just what I wanted. Alright!!! I got the camouflage pants.

Now I could hide in the woods with my neighborhood pals and be virtually undetectable by my brothers crew of friends. We could bombard them with pine comb grenades and they’d have no idea where we were. O.K. I got some black socks to wear to church, hey! I could wear these with my camouflage pants to increase my invisibility. In the mist of my present opening, as I began to run out of presents to open, I began to watch my brother dig into his stuff. Hey! He got the camouflage pants too. Now he would be hiding out in the woods too, and terrorizing me and my friends as well. He got the black socks too. No robot that transformed into an evil insect people eater, instead he got a hand saw for fort building.

Maybe I could borrow that from him sometime. Pretty soon all the gifts had been opened and he and I began toying with our new gifts. It didn’t take long for me to figure out how to convert my robot into an insect. After all I had about a dozen other robot toys that were a lot like it. As my brother and I looked around the opened gifts we both began to get a strange feeling. And we began to ask that question that semi-spoiled kids ask on Christmas – Is this it? I HOPE THIS ISN’T IT… We made eye contact with a little bit of a puzzled look on our faces.

I began to ponder the past years of Christmas mornings. Last year it seemed like we had gotten a lot more stuff. Didn’t we? I think there are many people in the world. People that are asking that same question my brother and I were asking. They don’t ask with words. They sometimes reveal the question through the decisions they make. Through their lack of hope and meaning that translates in the way they live their lives. They’ve gone all their lives and now they want to know – Is this it? Is this all life has to offer? Is this all I’m going to get out of this life? These people are those who haven’t experienced the Hope, the Peace, the Joy, and the Love that we have been offered through Jesus Christ. They feel like they should be getting more out of their lives, they feel like something is missing, they are left puzzled unsure of why they aren’t getting more. Like me at age eleven thinking to past Christmases, they think back to times in their life when things were different. When things were better.

Repeat…
“Authentic Christianity – brings hope, reflects truth, shares love, hurts when others hurt, brings everlasting joy, offers community, springs toward faithfulness, imitates Christ, and more…

Empty Christianity – brings condemnation, is hypocritical, fuels pain, seeks self interest above the interest of others, springs toward confusion, is a closed system in one’s community, imitates the world, and so much more…”

Back to story…

But they have no idea how their lives can be different. My Dad began to sense his twelve and thirteen year old’s confusion that Christmas morning.

He knew we felt like something was missing. So he spoke up. “Guys, I think there is one more gift to open. It’s down in the basement. My step mom urged us to put on our new Christmas totes – those cool thick socks with the tread on the bottom. We ran like wild horses to the basement to see what gift awaited. It was the greatest gift I’d ever gotten. A GO-CART. A fire engine red, single seat, 5-horse power, Go-cart. What I thought was going to be a big let down sort of Christmas was actually the best Christmas ever!

We as believers are kind of like my dad in my wonderful Christmas memory. We know where to find the greatest gifts. The Hope, the Peace, the Joy, and the Love. The greatest gifts are found through a relationship with Jesus Christ.      

The greatest gifts we can ever discover are found through a relationship with Jesus Christ. Let us share the greatest gifts: the Hope of Jesus (see Isaiah 9:6). Let us share the greatest gifts: the Peace of Jesus (see Luke 12:13-14). Let us share the greatest gifts: the Joy of Jesus (see Luke 2:10). Let us share the greatest gifts: the Love of Jesus (see John 3:16). Let us share the greatest gift: Jesus (see 2 Corinthians 9:12-15). And Remember James 1:17… “Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.”

In the Ford Christmas Carol I said “I HOPE THIS ISN’T IT.” I asked the question, as 12 years old on Christmas moring… “Is this all there is, Is this it?”

Claude Hickman wrote a book… Live Life on Purpose. It’s the first book I read after I moved to Fort Payne. I was a missionary. My mission was clear. When I changed jobs, there was a period of time that began in St. Louis MFUGE during the summer 2007, where I was asking the question about First Baptist Church Fort Payne… What’s my purpose.

Was I a cruise director? I know I didn’t go to seminary take 2 semesters of Greek, 2 Semesters of Hebrew, Preaching Classes, Missions Classes, Youth Ministry Classes, Survey of OT, Survey of NT, and Biblical Archeology to be CAPTIN STUBBING from the Love Boat.

No there is more. And it’s true for every born again believer. Sometimes we look around at the life we have and wonder why it doesn’t reflect a more historical significance. One stand up comedian says everyone wants to leave a leagacy…. You remember me forever (illustration) !!!

Hickman asked in his book… Do you ever look at the lives of people that have been Christians much longer than you and wonder why their lives aren’t more like the lives of men and women in the Bible. ILLUSTRATION… that’s why I love spending time with people that are being radically made new by God: missionaries like Jess, Marsha and David, & Lana Hall. Church staffers like Danny Courson & Ciaro Shiroma. New Believers like Neil Dodge and Byron Townsend. Church members like Bob Johnston and Lynn Brown. This revolutionary idea that (author and speaker) Henry Blackaby picked up on in the Scriptures, find where God is already working and join in… this is living a life of Biblical proportions in simple gestures and simple faith.

The first century Christians, many of them, knew what it meant to live life on purpose. We lose our purpose more easily in the 21st century. I think it’s the lighting….

Possibly point to Quotes from 1to 4 Sources…
1 For what it’s worth, it’s never too late, or in my case too early, to be whoever you want to be. There’s no time limit… start whenever you want… you can change or stay the same. There are no rules to this thing. We can make the best or the worst of it. I hope you make the best of it. I hope you see things that stop you. I hope you feel things that you never felt before. I hope you meet people with a different point of view. I hope you live a life that you’re proud of and if you find that you’re not, I hope you have the strength to start all over again.
- Benjamin Button (the curious case of…)

Quote points to…

2 “Jesus calls his people to be passionate realists, to carry on with enthusiasm in light of what is real…In everything, passion prevails. In the new way, people know they’ve married wounded sinners who have no chance for recovery outside the grace of God. Marriage is a covenant of two people agreeing to recover together, each in different ways at different paces, both under the tutelage of the Teacher, Jesus”. – Charlie Peacock (new way to be human)

Quote…

3 (start with this one and depending on time share more about others) “It’s an unnatural life that the 21st century offers us. I think that there’s just too much. There is too much stimulus, the pace and the noise and the floresent lighting its a bit overwhelming. You know your principles, your ideals, your morals, they’re all for sale. I think there are a lot of problems we’re just not admitting. You know maybe we should all have this encounter group, “my name is Mark, I’m a member of the 21st century” and have a 12 step program for it or something.” – Mark Glen (frontier house @ pbs)

Quote…

“Hope does not disappoint because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us.” Romans 5:5

Quotes…
Reference nate larkin’s book: Samson and David differences summary. Men we can’t isolate ourselves from family, church family, and our brothers in Christ. It’s true real men love Jesus. It’s also true real mean live their families and the family of faith. Let others enter into your world. Don’t try to go it alone. It will never work. It leads to addict, guilt, pain, and fear (all the things that hinder authentic faith)

Conclusion.

I hope this isn’t it. If that’s what you think about your faith journey. If that’s what you think about Church. If that’s what you think about Jesus. If that’s what you think about Christmas.

IN TRUTH, Life in Christ is more than you could ever hope for. You don’t have to live in regret and guilt, you don’t have to live in fear…

possible repeat
The greatest gifts we can ever discover are found through a relationship with Jesus Christ. Let us share the greatest gifts: the Hope of Jesus (see Isaiah 9:6). Let us share the greatest gifts: the Peace of Jesus (see Luke 12:13-14). Let us share the greatest gifts: the Joy of Jesus (see Luke 2:10). Let us share the greatest gifts: the Love of Jesus (see John 3:16). Let us share the greatest gift: Jesus (see 2 Corinthians 9:12-15). And Remember James 1:17… “Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.”

Anytime I turn to John 17, I can’t help but think about my friend Naomi.
I have a friend from my Jacksonville State days (Naomi) that thinks this chapter is the most amazing thing she has ever read. I met Naomi when she was a freshman in college. We were in a student Bible study group together. She would bubble up with excitement, whenever we talked about this chapter, and exclaim “Jesus is so awesome.”

Tonight we are going to explore the final verses (20-26) in chapter 17, and hopefully we will discover the same thing that my friend Naomi discovered, that “Jesus is so awesome.” Jesus is our only hope. Jesus is our Savior. Jesus is our Leader. Jesus is awesome, magnificent, the King of Kings, the Lord of Lords. Jesus is worthy to be celebrated, embraced, and worthy to be placed on the throne of each of our lives.

verse 20 My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message,

This beautiful and challenging prayer was not just for the disciples of Jesus’ time. It was not exclusively for the 1st century followers of Jesus. Jesus was praying for those who would believe through the 1st disciples’ message.

Put another way, the intercessory prayer was prayed by Jesus for:
The disciple Peter told someone in the book of Acts about Jesus. That guy told someone else, and that guy told a lost person, and that new believer told his brother, and the brother told his sister, and she told her children, and her children told their friends, and one of their friends told another person, and another person told another person, and so on and so on, and then not too long ago someone told you.

So it’s easy to see that our faith family at first baptist church in fort payne, AL is a part of something much larger than we can even comprehend most of the time.

Jesus prayer was for his first disciples, first century converts, first baptist fort payne, or whoever, the guy that lives down the street, the lady you see at work each day, it’s for your greatest friends, and it’s for your greatest enemies, and it was for you and me.

So when we read this prayer, study this prayer, and begin to get a firm grasp on what Jesus is praying, we can know that this prayer is for us as much as it was for Jesus 12 closest followers and friends.

Knowing that Jesus prayed for you should give you the joy and confidence that God intends for you to have.

verse 21 that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me.

Unity among believers – not the easiest concept. Unity among the many believers throughout the world is not easy when we try to bring about the unity through our own efforts.

Keeping all of the different personalities, perspectives, and attitudes that make up the Christian population together and headed in the same direction may be a lot like the students that are involved in our church’s youth ministry… costumed students take to the floor.

Unity within the church is achieved just as the unity between our heavenly Father and his Son Jesus. The unity is sometimes difficult to understand. The unity doesn’t really apply to natural laws of life that we know. This type of unity is supernatural.

Keeping a group of believers united as God is to the Son is a miraculous feat that only God can perform. One Baptist preacher I know made a reference to this idea of “herding cats” as an illustration regarding the difficulties

The body of Christ is explained further in Romans 12:4-6.

Just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, so in Christ we who are many form one body, and each member belongs to all the others. We have different gifts, according to the grace given us…

This passage in the book of Romans explains that even though members of the body of Christ are doing all types of different things, and we are not all called to perform the same function, we all belong to one another. The oneness in Christ is achieved through the selfless giving of ourselves. The passage says that we possess the many different gifts of service to God according to God given grace.

We must work in unity as the Father did with the Son because all that we do is made possible through the grace of God and only through this amazing grace.

John 17
verse 22 I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one:

Glorify means to give honor, to lift up, to exalt.

Jesus says he has lifted those God had given up. He had honored them and exalted them. He lifts up his believers, believers like you and me, to his Father in heaven not because of our accomplishments, our usefulness, or our qualifications.
He says in verse 22 that he has given his believers glory for a purpose. This purpose is so we may be one. Oneness like this is what enabled a small group of disciples to turn the world upside down with the message of Jesus Christ.

If we can catch the vision that those first disciples caught, if we can truly be one with our brothers and sisters in Christ, then we can make a historical impact on the world just like those Galileans in the New Testament did.

The concept of being one within the body of believers cannot be achieved unless differences are set aside. By simply leaving divisive issues to the side, we can impact the world. When we all can turn our eyes upon Jesus and look full in his wonderful face, then I believe these things will become strangely dim in the light of his glory and his grace.

verse 23 I in them and you in me. May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.

Our unity in Christ Jesus brings about an automatic result. If we are truly unified then the world will know the true identity of Jesus. Not only will the world gain understanding and a knowledge that God has sent his only Son to bring about eternal life, not only will people begin new and wonderful lives in fellowship with Jesus, but lost people of this world will also know the truth about God’s love.

If we as believers can be unified as God is calling us to be then the people that we come in contact with daily that do not know who Jesus really is will be able to experience for the first time ever: love, real love, God’s love, a love that sent God’s only son to the cross to die for the dirty, sinful hearts of every man, woman, boy, and girl.

verse 24 Father, I want those you have given me to be with me where I am, and to see my glory, the glory you have given me because you loved me before the creation of the world.

Jesus doesn’t pray that he will meet with followers on the occasional Sunday. He wants to know us much better than that. He wants us to be with him wherever he is. In the early morning he wants to meet us in prayer with him, in late hours of the night we can fellowship with our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, and all the times in between. Between when we get up in the morning and when we lay our heads down on the pillow to go to sleep at night, Jesus wants us to be ever close to Him.

The concept of fellowshipping with Jesus at any time of day was coupled with the concept of service to God by the author Henry Blackaby. He said that to experience God’s will for your life we should find out where God is already working and join in.

This is where Jesus wants us to be. Verse 24 tells us he wants us to be: wherever he is.

verse 25 Righteous Father, though the world does not know you, I know you, and they know that you sent me.

The world doesn’t have a clue who God is. Verse 25 says that the lost people of this world can know God through the one God sent. Jesus is the bridge between a lost world and a holy and loving God.

This verse makes us have a clearer understanding of how Jesus serves as our bridge for a relationship with God. This bridge illustration is often used in tracks. The world doesn’t know and is really incapable of knowing the God of Heaven and Earth. Jesus is the only one who can bridge this gap and bring about fellowship and communion with the Lord.

When Jesus prays in verse 25 that ‘they know you sent me’ , if you are already a believer, you can remember back to when you first knew that God sent Jesus. You can remember back to the first time you uncovered, with the help of the Holy Spirit, who Jesus was and what you needed to do to begin a relationship with him.

If you are not a professing believer in Jesus Christ, you may be at the crossroads tonight.
If you have never bridged the gap between yourself and God with Jesus as your bridge today may be the day.

verse 26 I have made you known to them, and will continue to make you known in order that the love you have for me may be in them and that I myself may be in them.

The Love of God and Jesus Christ himself is in us if we have already accepted the invitation that has been laid out before us.

The Love of God and Jesus Christ may be far from our hearts if we have never made that first step. Today could be the day for you. I have lived my life both ways. I have resisted God’s call in my life and denied Jesus when he has beckoned for me to invite him into my heart. This is the most miserable experience that I have ever had. Then I have also accepted God’s invitation. I have said yes to God’s call in my life. Everything didn’t get easier all the time, but when things tough, now I am able to find rest in my Savior and Lord Jesus Christ. I am able to find rest in the mist of tough times.

I’m reading a book by doug fields: “your first two years in youth ministry – a personal and practical guide to starting right”, and i’d like to share some of the key insights and study questions with my world wide web friends…

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Chapter One: where do i start? committing to the essentials…

A Few Key Insights:

1. Our success in the youth ministry race has a lot to do with developing a big-picture perspective.

2. Commit to… move slowly, check motives, evaluate your heart, steer clear of the numbers game, never criticize the past, avoid comparisons, focus on priorities, pace yourself, serve, be a learner, and pursue contentment. Further explanations of these commitments can be found here… http://jeffandthea.wordpress.com/2008/02/23/insights-from-doug-fields-your-first-two-years-of-youth-ministry/

3. a word about being in youth ministry for the long haul and being in your 30s and 40s… http://jeffandthea.wordpress.com/2008/02/23/insights-from-doug-fields-your-first-two-years-of-youth-ministry/

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Study Questions for Chapter 1:

1. Which commitment is going to be the toughest for you?

2. Which commitment offers you the most encouragement?

3. Do I have a sprint mentality or a marathon mindset when it comes to youth minstry?

4. How will it affect the church and / or the student ministry if I quit too soon?

5. What is my personal plan to evaluate my motives?

6. How can I begin an honest conversation wth my supervisor about the numbers game?

7. What can I do to improve the commitment that I struggle with the most?

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Chapter Two: why do i feel this way? dealing with discouragement…

A Few Key Insights:

1. I have found discouragement’s frequency to be the most humbling and sobering truth about youth ministry.

2. It’s easier to avoid people when we’re discouraged than to invite them into our pain.

3. There is hope, and, because the God of the universe is involved, it’s plentiful. When discouragement hits you, count on God to use that season in your life to increase your ministry effectiveness. God may be using periods of discouragement to take your life and your ministry to a deeper and better place.

4. It is difficult for others to completely understand the world of youth ministry until they’ve lived in it.

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Study Questions for Chapter 2:

1. Where do you find yourself most easily discouraged in youth ministry?

2. Which suggestion from this chapter can help you respond to your time of discouragement?

3. Do I have a thoughtful plan for dealing with discouragement? If so, what is it? If not, is it worth thinking through one?

4. Over the last year, has my discouragement been painful, untimely, selfish, or lonely?

5. Do I have a friend and / or mentor who cares for me beyond youth ministry? If not, how and when can I find one?

6. Do I have days throughout my week when I consiciously get alone in order to get refreshed? If not, how can I make this a priority?

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Chapter Three: how do i stay spiritually fresh? establishing a heart foundation…

A Few Key Insights:

1. Hearts that aren’t connected to Jesus don’t help the youth ministry team.

2. Without spiritual health, you won’t make it in youth ministry. Don’t misunderstand: you don’t need the knowledge of a Bible scholar or the spiritual disciplines of a monk, but you do need a heart that’s tender toward God and open to his leadings. You need to be in love with Jesus.

3. Don’t allow increasing ministry to decrease your intimacy, and don’t let your service exceed your worship. Jesus’ strongest words were reservced for ministry leaders who had either forgotten or ignored the primacy of their inner world. Jesus clearly communicated where to look for spirituality – inward. (Matt 23.26… blind pharisee! first clean the inside of the cup and dish, and then the outside also will be clean.)

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Study Questions for Chapter 3:

1. which personal warning sign do you identify with from pages 69 and 70? Why?

2. what adjectives would you use to describe your current spiritual journey?

3. do i spend more time thinking about my youth ministry responsibilities or my spiritual life?

4. what external, spiritual acts do I value as signs of someone being spiritually mature?

5. am i aware of the warning signs that lead to spiritual disconnect?

6. now that I’m away from my group, how would I really describe my spiritual journey? is it different from what i shared in the group? if so, why?

7. what keeps me from being consistent in my time with God?

8. how would i explain to a student what i do to stay spiritually fresh?

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Chapter Four: what’s most important to students? being with them…

A Few Key Insights:

1.  (to be continued)

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Study Questions for Chapter 4:

this was actually written on June 25, but i put the June 1 date on it… to keep the MFUGE stuff at the top of this webpage

 

Healing…

When I think of the concept of “healing” in terms of my admittedly limited understanding of God’s plan, I think of physical infirmities being removed by a supernatural force. When I think of healing, I think of the diseased, the rejected, and the unwanted. I think of New Testament lepers. Disenfranchised from society. Hurting. In need. Forgotten.

When I think of healing, I think of the sick, the old, and the broken. I think of modern day hospitals and that unmistakable smell within the walls of a center for those who are hurting and for those who are seeking healing.

If I consider the needs of our world, our country, our state, our city, our community, and when I pair this broad and beautiful concept: healing, with those various needs, I am carried to the words of Jesus:

Matt 25:40… when you did it to the least of these my brothers and sisters, you were doing it to me!

 

Further exploration of the gospel accounts reveal more about the practical, piercing, powerful healing forces of the Savior:

Matt 8:3… Be healed!

Matt 9:35… and he healed every kind of disease

Matt 15:30… and he healed them all

Mark 6:56… all who touched him were healed

Luke 17:19… your faith has healed you

It doesn’t take long in our study of Scripture to discover that Jesus came to heal the sick. To the sick, the old, the broken, the diseased, the rejected, the hurting, the needy, and the unwanted, Jesus came to bring healing. 

 

Beyond the gospel accounts of Jesus’ healing power, I find great insight & direction from one of my favorite biblical Christ followers: (the disciple / apostle Peter)

1 Peter 2:24… By his wounds you are healed.

 

Peter was influenced directly by the voice of the Old Testament prophet Isaiah:

Isaiah 53:5… he was pierced for our rebellion, crushed for our sins. He was beaten so we could be whole. He was whipped so we could be healed.

So we could be healed.

I am sick, and I need healing. I pray and believe that God will continue to reveal to me my need for Him, His plan for me, and my part in proclaiming the remedy for all of our sickness and brokenness: that is the healing that Jesus has brought, is bringing, and will bring.

No matter what the condition of our physical health may be, we are still… sick.

We are all sick. We all need to experience the healing that only Christ can bring.

The disease of sin has plagued our hearts & minds. Jesus’ life was filled with divine moments of healing and restoration. Jesus’ death and resurrection brought us all an opportunity to experience an eternal kind of healing…

Romans 5:8… “God demonstrates his love for us in this: while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.”

 

Excerpt from Doug Field’s your first two years in youth ministry

 

I think it was Vince Lombardi, who used to say, “when you have strayed away from the basics, you have gone a long way toward defeat.” Doug does a great job of reminding youth ministry novices and veterans alike to keep the main thing the main thing. The basics of good youth ministry are indeed like the marathon Doug wants to run one day – because life is like a marathon. What I hear Doug saying (and doing) is that so much of our success in youth ministry is the preparation, focus, perseverance, and commitment to the common sense basics of ministry.

At the end of the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus reminds us that wind, rain, and storms will definitely come to alll of our lives and ministries. Those who build their houses on the rock will last, and those who build their houses on the sand will crash. It’s a very simple illustration; yet it’s a great reminder for us to construct a firm foundation in our youth ministries in order to see life-changing results in the kids and families to whom we minister.

Doug and I were sitting together at a youth ministry conference a few years ago, and he turned to me and asked, “What ever happened to…?” referring to a youth worker who ministered to him when he was a student. I sadly answered, “He crashed and burned.” Then he asked, “How about…?” I replied, “Gone.” Unfortunately, many of the people we talked about that day had burned out, crashed morally, or faded into the past. They had been incredible leaders, too, influencing kids and families in wonderful ways – but they didn’t build their lives on the Rock.

They would have benefitted from paying attention to this first chapter (of the book: Your First Two Years in Youth Ministry), because untended fires soon become raging infernos, then nothing but a pile of ashes.

I (Jim Burns) was Doug Fields’ youth pastor from his last year of junior high until his senior year of high school. (Sorry I didn’t make it to your graduation, Doug.) As a freshman in college through his seminary years, he was my intern. And you think you had problems with your staff? Seriously, during those years, one of the common themes we kept hearing was, “God will often use you in the greatest ways when you are over 40 years old – if you stay faithful to your calling.”

Back then, turning 40 sounded like a very, very long way off- for me! So you can understand why I couldn’t even imagine Doug breaking the 30 year old barrier! But today, because Doug did stay faithful to his calling, you have in your hands this book – and it’s filled with nuggets of truth that, when applied, will help you reach young people, strengthen families, and change lives forever.

Excerpt from Doug Field’s your first two years in youth ministry

Rob Bell’s Velvet Elvis is a great book to read with friends. Here are some of my favorite concepts from the text…

- One of the central assertions of the Christian worldview is that there is “more”.

- Jesus was not making claims about one religion being better than all other religions. (when he said “I am the way, the truth, and the life”)

- Our words aren’t absolutes. Only God is absolute, and God has no intention of sharing this absoluteness with anything, especially words people have come up with to talk about him. This is something people have struggled with since the beginning: how to talk about God when God is bigger than our words, our brains, our worldviews, and our imaginations.

- Doctrine is a wonderful servant and a horrible master.

- But God is bigger than any wall. God is bigger than any religion. God is bigger than any worldview. God is bigger than the Christian faith.

- You rarely defend the things you love. You enjoy them and tell others about them and invite others to enjoy them with you. Have you ever seen someone pull a photo out of their wallet and argue about the supremacy of this particular loved one? Of course not. They show you the picture and give you the opportunity to see what they see.

- Jesus invites everybody to jump. And saying yes to the invitation doesn’t mean we have to have it all figured out. This is an important thing to remember: I can jump and still have questions and doubts. I often meet people who are waiting to follow God until they have all their questions answered. They will be waiting for a long time, because if we knew everything, we’d be… God. So the invitation to jump is an invitation to follow Jesus with all of our doubts and questions right there with us.

- Central to the Christian experience is the art of questioning God. Not belligerent, arrogant questions that have no respect for our maker, but naked, honest, vulnerable, raw questions, arising out of the awe that comes from engaging the living God. This type of questioning frees us. Frees us from having to have it all figured out. Frees us from having answers to everything. Frees us from always having to be right. It allows us to have moments when we come to the end of our ability to comprehend. Moments when the silence is enough.

- Truth always leads to more… truth.

- Sean Penn put it this way: “When everything gets answered, it’s fake. The mystery is the truth.”

- The point is joy. That is when God is most pleased. They aren’t two different things: God’s joy over here and our joy over there. They are the same. God takes great pleasure in us living as we were made to live.

- And while I’m at it, let’s make a group decision to drop once and for all the Bible-as-owner’s-manual metaphor. It’s terrible. It really is. You only refer to an owner’s manual when something is wrong. You use it to fix the problem, and then you put it away. We have to embrace the Bible as the wild, uncensored, passionate account it is of people experiencing the living God. Doubting the one true God. Wrestling with, arguing with, getting angry with, reconciling with, loving, worshiping, thanking, following the one who gives us everything. We cannot tame it. We cannot tone it down. If we do, then we can’t say it is the life-giving Word of God. We have made it something else.

- “Christian” is a great noun and a poor adjective.

- Desire. Longing. Come as you are. Connection. A group of people desperate to experience God.

- The thought of the word church and the word marketing in the same sentence makes me sick.

- We had no 5 year plan. We had no vision statement. We had no goals. We had no “demographic”. All we cared about was trying to teach and live the way of Jesus. It’s still all we care about.

- All of a sudden thre are all of these people who know who you are and want something from you and think you’re a big deal, and you are the same person you’ve always been.

- It’s one thing to be an intern with dreams about how church should be. It’s another thing to be the 31 year old pastor of a massive church. I was moments away from leaving the whole thing. I wasn’t sure I was a Christian anymore. I didn’t even know if I wanted to be a Christian anymore. I was burned out. I was full of doubt. It’s only when you hit bottom and are desperate enough that things start to get better.

- A new journey began, one that has been very, very painful. And very, very freeing. I learned that I have a soul.

- I need a God for now. I need healing now. I need help now. Yes, even greater things will happen someday. But salvation is now.

- I started a church and a lot of people were coming to hear me speak, and I had things I had never dealt with and they were still there, even after I “made it”. If you have issues surrounding your identitiy, those issues will not go away if you “make it”. It is easier to keep going than to stop and begin diving into the root causes.

- I think this is why so many pastors have affairs. They don’t know how to stop. They are driven and are achieving and are exhausted and don’t know how to say they’re tired. They are scared to look weak. So they start looking for a way out. They know that a “moral failure” will give them the break they’re looking for.

- We put on the mask, suck it up, and keep going.

- As I let all this come spewing forth the first time in my therapist’s office, he interrupted me. I was making lists of all the people I was workking to keep happy. He said it was clear that there were significant numbers of people I was spending a significant amount of time working to please and that my issue was a simple one. I was anticipating something quite profound and enlightening as I got out my pen. He said this: “Sin”. And then he said, in what has become a pivotal moment in my journey, “your job is the relentless pursuit of who God has made you to be. And anything else you do is sin and you need to repent of it.”

- So I had one choice – I had to kill superpastor.

- Movement / Chapter Five: DUST footnotes a great website… www.followtherabbi.com

- Rabbits had no interest in having the student spit back information just for information’s sake. They wanted to know if the student understood it, if he had wrestled with it. This notion is difficult for the modern mind to grasp because we generally think of education as the transmission of information. The better a student is, the better she is able to produce the right information at the right time.

- In the world of rabbinic education, the focus was on questions, which demonstrated that the student not only understood the information but could then take the subject a step further.

- One of the earliest sages of the Mishnah, Yose ben Yoezer, said to disciples, “Cover yourself with dust of [your rabbi's] feet.”

- The idea of being covered in the dust of your rabbi came from something everybody had seen. A rabbi would come to town, and right behind him would be this group of students, doing their best to keep up with the rabbi as he went about tearching his yoke from one place to another. By the end of the day of walking in the dirt directly behind their rabbi, the students would have the dust rom his feet all over them. And that was a good thing.

- Jesus calls the not-good-enoughs.

- He tells them at Caesarea Philippi that upon this rock he is going to build his new witnessing community, and the Gates of Hell won’t be able to stop it. He is essentially saying that those kinds of people – the ones with the goats – are going to join the Jesus movement and it will be unstoppable. How would you as a disciple even begin to process this statement?

- If you are a disciple, you have committed your entire life to being like your rabbi. If you see your rabbi walk on water, what do you immediately want to do? Walk on water. So this disciple gets out on the water and he starts to sink, so he yells, “Jesus save me!” And Jesus says, “You of little faith, why did you doubt?” Who does Peter lose fatih in? Not Jesus; Jesus is doing fine. Peter loses faith in himself. Peter loses faith that he can do what his rabbi is doing.

- A rabbi would only pick a disciple who he thought could actually do what he was doing. Notice how many places in the accounts of Jesus’ life he gets frustrated with his disciples. Because they are incapable? No, because of how capable they are. He sees what they could be and could do, and when they fall short, it provokes him to no end. It isn’t their failure that’s the problem; it’s their greatness. They don’t realize what they are capable of.

- God has an incredibly high view of people. God believes that people are capable of amazing things. I have been told that I need to believe in Jesus. Which is a good thing. But what I am learning is that Jesus believes in me.

- I have been told that I need to have faith in God. Which is a good thing. But what I am learnig is that God has faith in me. The rabbi thinks we can be like him.

- It seemed to me that becoming a Christian had given him all sorts of new things to feel guilty about. I wondered if becoming a Christian had made his life not better but actually worse.

- And then a little while later I had a similar experience. I was listening to a pastor speak, and his point was that people weren’t reading their Bibles enough and weren’t praying enough and weren’t being spiritual enough. If people would just do more – read their Bibles more and pray more and be more spiritual – basically just more “mores,” then God would be happy with them. I felt terrible. What was the point of even trying? It’s not that praying and reading the Bible are bad; it’s just that I wanted to do them less and less the more and more he talked.

- It wasn’t so much what he was saying as it was the place he was coming from. The beginning premise seemed that we are bad and don’t do enough, and if we are made to feel guilty enough about it, then we will change our behavior. I don’t think this is what Jesus had in mind.

- His greatest anger was reserved for religious leaders who weighed people down with guilt and shame. He says to a group of Bible scholars and teachers, “You experts in the law, woe to you, because you load people down with burdens they can hardly carry, and you yourselves will not lift one finger to help them.”

- He goes on to say that it is possible for religious leaders to actually get in the way of people entering into the life of God.

-Now this idea of death and rebirth is not a new idea – it has been around in almost every religious tradition sice people first started talking about these things. But the first Christians believed that this idea had been lived out in a new and unique way in Jesus’ death and resurrection. Paul put it like this in the book of Colossians: “For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God.”

- So this old nature of mine – the one that was constantly pulling me down and causing me to live in ways I wasn’t creted to live – has died. And no matter how many times that old nature raises its ugly head and pretends to be alive, it is dead. And not only did that old person die, but I have been given a new nature.

- The issue then isn’t my beating myself up over all of the things I am not doing or the things I am doing poorly; the issue is my learning who this person is who God keeps insisting I already am.

- This is an issue of identity. It is letting what God says about us shape what we believe about ourselves. This is why shame has no place whatsoever in the Christian experience. It is simply against all that Jesus is for. As the writer to the Romans put it, ”Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.”

- None.

- No shame.

- No list of what is being held against us.

- No record of wrongs.

- It has simply been done away with.

- It is no longer an issue.

- Bringing it up is pointless.

- Beating myself up is pointless.

- Beating others up about who and what they are not is going the wrong direction. It is working against the purposes of God. God is not interested in shaming people; God wants people to see who they really are.

- “Let us live up to what we have already attained.”

- I am not who I was.

- You are not who you were.

- Old person going away, new person here, now.

- Reborn, rebirthed, remade, reconciled, renewed.

- Jesus put it this way: “You are in me and I am in you.”

- When we stumble and fall back into old patterns, we call them what they are: old patterns. Old ways. Old habits of the old person.

- Eternal life then is a certain kind of life I am living more and more now and will go on forever. I am living more and more in connection with God, and I will live connected with God forever.

- This has huge impications for when I do stumble, when I sin and the old person comes back from the dead for a few moments.

- I admit it.

- I confess it.

- I thank God I am forgiven.

- I make amends with anyone who has been affected by my actions.

- And I move on.

- Not because sin isn’t serious, but because I am taking seriously who God says I am. The point isn’t my failure; it is God’s success in remaking me into the person he originally intended me to be.

- God’s strength, not mine. God’s power, not mine.

- I heard a teacher say that if people were taught more about who they are, they wouldn’t have to be told what to do. It would come naturally. When we see religious communities spending most of their time trying to convince people not to sin, we are seeing a community that has missed the point. The point isn’t sin management. The point is who we are now.

- We cannot earn what we have always had. What we can do is trust that what God keeps insisting is true about us is actually true.

- God is retelling each of our stories in Jesus. All of the bad parts and the ugly parts and the parts we want to pretend never happened are redeemed. They seemed pointless and they were painful at the time, but God retells our story and they become the moments when God’s grace is most on display. We find ourselves asking, am I really forgiven of that? The fact that we are loved and accepted and forgiven in spite of everything we have done is simply too good to be true. Our choice becomes this: We can trust his retelling of the story, or we can trust our telling of our story. It is a choice we make every day about the reality we are going to live in.

- And this reality extends beyond this life. Heaven is full of forgiven people. Hell is full of forgiven people. Heaven is full of people God loves, whom Jesus died for. Hell is full of forgiven people God loves, whom Jesus died for. The difference is how we choose to live, which story we choose to live in, which version of reality we trust.

- When we choose God’s vision of who we are, we are living as God made us to live. We are living in the flow of how we are going to live forever. This is the life of heaven, here and now. And as we live this life, in harmony with God’s intentions for us, the life of heaven becomes more and more present in our lives. Heaven comes to earth. This is why Jesus taught his disciples to pray, “May your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” There is this place, this realm, heaven, where things are as God desires them to be. As we live this way, heaven comes here. To this place, this world, the one we’re living in.

 - For Jesus, heaven and hell were present realities. Ways of living we can enter into here and now. He talked very little of the life beyond this one because he understood that the life beyond this one is a continuation of the kinds of choices we make here and now.

- Jesus’ desire for his followers is that they live in such a way that they bring heaven to earth.

- For Jesus, this new kind of life in him is not about escaping this world but about making it a better place, here and now. The goal for Jesus isn’t to get into heaven. The goal is to get heaven here. Jesus tells another story about a rich man and a beggar who lies outside the rich man’s gates. The rich man dies and goes to hell, while the beggar dies and goes to “Abraham’s side,” a Jewish way of describing heaven. This is the one story Jesus tells in which somebody is actually in hell after they have died. What is the reason? According to the details of the story, the rich man refused to be generous with the poor man, letting him live a hell on earth right outside his front door.

- Jesus wants his followers to bring heaven, not hell, to earth. This has been God’s intention for people since the beginning. Jesus is not teaching anything new for his day. God walked in the garden, looking for Adam and Eve. God told the Israelites to build a tavernacle so he could live in their midst. King Solomon built a temple, God’s house, so God could live permanently among his people. And when Jesus comes, he’s referred to as God “taking on flesh and dwelling among us”. Another translation of this verse is, “The word became flesh and blood and moved into the neighborhood.”

- The problem is that the image of God is deeply scarred in each of us, and we lose trust in God’s version of the story. It seems too good to be true. And so we go searching for identity. We achieve and we push and we perform and we shop and we work out and we accomplish great things, longing to repair the image. Longing to find an identity that feels right.

- Longing to be comfortable in our own skin.

- But the thing we are searching for is not somewhere else. It is right here. And we can only find it when we give up the search, when we surrender, when we trust. Trust that God is already putting us back together.

- It is trusting that I am loved. That I always have been. That I always will be. I don’t have to do anything. I don’t have to prove anything or achieve anything or accomplish one more thing. That exactly as I am, I am totally accepted, forgiven, and there is nothing I could ever do to lose this acceptance. (footnote: Romans 8:37-39)

- This is our invitation. To trust that we don’t owe anything. To trust that something is already true about us, something has already been done, someting has been there all along.

- To trust that grace pays the bills.

1. I WILL MOVE SLOWLY.

A simple man believes anything, but a prudent man gives thought to his steps. A wise man fears the Lord and shuns evil, but a fool is hotheaded and reckless. Proverbs 14:15-16

2. I WILL REGULARLY CHECK MY MOTIVES & EVALUATE MY HEART.

Leaders who know their business and care keep a sharp eye out for the shoddy and cheap, for who among us can be trusted to be always diligent and honest? Switching price tags and padding the expense account are two things God hates. Young people eventually reveal by their actions if their motives are on the up and up. Ears that hear and eyes that see – we get our basic equipment from God! Proverbs 20:8-12

3. I WILL STEER CLEAR OF THE NUMBERS’ GAME.

If a shepherd has one hundred sheep, and one wanders away and is lost, what will he do? Won’t he leave the ninety-nine others and go out into the hills to search for the lost one? Matthew 18:12

4. I WILL NOT CRITICIZE THE PAST.

No, dear brothers and sisters, I am still not all I should be, but I am focusing all my energies on this one thing: Forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead. Philippians 3:13

 5. I WILL PACE MYSELF

Patient endurance is what you need now, so you will continue to do God’s will. Then you will receive all that he has promised. Hebrews 10:36

 

6. I WILL FOCUS ON PRIORITIES.

“Teacher, which is the most important commandment in the law of Moses?” Jesus replied, “You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. A second is equally important: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’” Matthew 22:36-40

7. I WILL AVOID THE COMPARISON TRAP.

Be sure to do what you should, for then you will enjoy the personal satisfaction of having done your work well, and you won’t need to compare yourself to anyone else. Galatians 6:4

8. I WILL SERVE.

But among you it is quite different. Anyone wanting to be a leader among you must be your servant. And if you want to be right at the top, you must serve like a slave. Your attitude must be like my own, for I, the Messiah, did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give my life as a ransom for many. Matthew 20:26-28

9. I WILL BE A LEARNER.

Learn to be wise, and develop good judgment. Don’t forget or turn away from my words. He who walks with the wise grows wise, but a companion of fools suffers harm. Proverbs 4:5 & 13:20

10. I WILL PURSUE CONTENTMENT.

I am not telling you this because I need anything. I have learned to be satisfied with the things I have and with everything that happens. Philippians 4:11

Abovementioned concepts are outlined in Doug Fields’ Your First Two Years of Youth Ministry

Day 1 – What on Earth Am I Here For? / It All Starts with God

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Point to Ponder: It’s not about me.

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Colossians 1:16

For by him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by him and for him.

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In spite of all the advertising around you, how can you remind yourself that life is really about living for God and not yourself?

ANSWER: ________________________________________________________

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DAY 2 – You Are Not an Accident.

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Point to Ponder: You are not an accident.

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Isaiah 44:2

This is what the Lord says – he who made you, who formed you in the womb, and who will help you: Do not be afraid, O Jacob, my servant, Jeshurun, whom I have chosen.

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Knowing that God uniquely created you, what areas of your personality, background, and your physical appearance are you struggling to accept.

ANSWER: ________________________________________________________

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DAY 3 – What Drives Your Life?

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Point to Ponder: Living on purpose is the path to peace.

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Isaiah 26:3

You will keep in perfect peace him whose mind is steadfast, because he trusts in you.

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What is the driving force of your life (according to your friends and family)? What do you want it to be?

ANSWER: ________________________________________________________

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DAY 4 – Made to last forever.

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Point to Ponder:  There is more to life than just here and now.

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1 John 2:17

The world and its desires pass away, but the man who does the will of God lives forever.

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Since you were made to last forever, what is the one thing you should stop doing and the one thing you should start doing today?

ANSWER: ________________________________________________________

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DAY 5 – Seeing life from God’s view.

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Point to Ponder: Life is a test and a trust.

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Luke 16:10

Whoever can be trusted with very little can be trusted with much, and whoever is dishonest with very little will be dishonest with much.

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What has happened to you recently that you now realize was a test from God? What are the greatest things that God has entrusted to your care?

ANSWER: ________________________________________________________

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DAY 6 – Life is a temporary assignment.

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Point to Ponder: This world is not my home.

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2 Corinthians 4:18

So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.

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How should the fact that life on earth is a temporary assignment change the way you are living right now?

ANSWER: ________________________________________________________

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DAY 7 – The reason for everything.

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Point to Ponder: It’s all for Him. 

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Romans 11:36

For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be the glory forever! Amen.

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Where in your daily routine can you become more aware of God’s glory?

ANSWER: ________________________________________________________

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PURPOSE #1 – YOU WERE PLANNED FOR GOD’S PLEASURE

DAY 8 – Planned for God’s pleasure

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Point to Ponder: You were planned for God’s pleasure.

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Psalm 149:4

For the Lord takes delight in his people; he crowns the humble with salvation.

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What common tasks could you start doing as if you were doing it directly for Jesus?

ANSWER: ________________________________________________________

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DAY 9 – What Makes God Smile?

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Point to Ponder: God smiles when you trust Him.

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Psalm 147:11

the Lord delights in those who fear him, who put their hope in his unfailing love.

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Since God knows what is best, in what areas of your life do you need to trust Him most?

ANSWER: ________________________________________________________

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DAY 10 – The heart of worship

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Point to Ponder: The heart of worship is surrender.

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Romans 6:13

Do not offer the parts of your body to sin, as instruments of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God, as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer the parts of your body to him as instruments of righteousness.

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What areas of your life are you holding back from God?

ANSWER: ________________________________________________________

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DAY 11 – Becoming best friends with God

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Point to Ponder: God wants to be your best friend.

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Psalm 25:14

The Lord confides in those who fear him; he makes his covenant known to them.

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What can you do to remind yourself to think about God and talk to Him more throughout the day?

ANSWER: ________________________________________________________

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DAY 12 – Developing your friendship with God

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Point to Ponder: You are as close to God as you chose to be.

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James 4:8

Come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.

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What practical choices will you make today in order to grow closer to God?

ANSWER: ________________________________________________________

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DAY 13 – Worship that pleases God

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Point to Ponder:  God wants all of you.

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Mark 12:30

Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.

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Which is more pleasing to God right now… your public worship or your private worship? What are you going to do about this?

ANSWER: ________________________________________________________

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DAY 14 – When God seems distant

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Point to Ponder: God is real no matter how you feel.

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Hebrews 13:6

So we say with confidence, “The Lord is my helper; I will not be afraid. What can man do to me?”

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How can I stay focused on God’s presence even when He seems distant?

ANSWER: ________________________________________________________

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PURPOSE #2 – YOU WERE FORMED FOR GOD’S FAMILY

DAY 15 – Formed for God’s family

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Point to Ponder: You were formed for God’s Family.

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Ephesians 1:5

he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ,

in accordance with his pleasure and will

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How can you start treating other believers like members of your own family?

ANSWER: ________________________________________________________

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DAY 16 – What matters most

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Point to Ponder: Life is all about love.

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Galatians 5:14

The entire law is summed up in a single command: “Love your neighbor as yourself.”

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Be honest: Are relationships your first priority? How can you ensure that they are?

ANSWER: ________________________________________________________

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DAY 17 – A place to belong

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Point to Ponder: You were called to belong not just believe.

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Romans 12:5

so in Christ we who are many form one body, and each member belongs to all the others.

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Does your level of involvement in a local church demonstrates that you love God’s family and are committed to them?

ANSWER: ________________________________________________________

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Day 18 – Experiencing life together

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Point to Ponder: You need others in your life.

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Galatians 6:2

Carry each others burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ.

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What one step can you take today to connect with another believer at a more genuine heart to heart level?

ANSWER: _______________________________________________________

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Day 19 – Cultivating community

 

 

 

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Point to Ponder: Community requires commitment.

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1 John 3:16

This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers.

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How can cultivate the characteristics of community in my small group in my church today?

ANSWER: ________________________________________________________ 

 

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Day 20 – Restoring broken fellowship

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Point to Ponder: Relationships are always worth restoring.

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Romans 12:18

If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone.

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Who do I need to restore a broken relationship with today?

ANSWER: ________________________________________________________

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Day 21 – Protecting your church

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Point to Ponder: It is my responsibility to protect the unity of my church.

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Romans 14:19

Let us therefore make every effort to do what leads to peace and to mutual edification.

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What am I personally doing to protect the unity in my church right now?

ANSWER: ________________________________________________________

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PURPOSE #3 – YOU WERE CREATED TO BECOME LIKE CHRIST

Day 22 – Created to be like Christ

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Point to Ponder: I was created to become like Christ.

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2 Corinthians 3:18

And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.

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In what area of my life do I need to ask for the Spirit’s power to be like Christ today?

ANSWER: ________________________________________________________

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Day 23 – How we grow

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Point to Ponder: It’s never too late to start growing.

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Romans 12:2

Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is – his good, pleasing, and perfect will.

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What is one area where I need to stop thinking my way and start thinking God’s way?

ANSWER: ________________________________________________________

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Day 24 – Transformed by truth

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Point to Ponder: The truth transforms me.

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John 8:31-32

To the Jews who had believed him, Jesus said, “If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”

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What has God already told me in His Word that I haven’t started doing yet?

ANSWER: ________________________________________________________

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Day 25 – Transformed by trouble

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Point to Ponder: There is a purpose behind every problem.

additional notes…

You’ll never know that God is all you need until God is all you’ve got. We are to give thanks in all circumstances, but not for all circumstances. As we grow we will begin to pray less comfort prayers and more conformity prayers.

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Romans 8:28

And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.

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What problem in my life caused the greatest growth in me?

ANSWER: ________________________________________________________

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Day 26 – Growing through temptation

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Point to Ponder: Every temptation is an opportunity to do good.

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James 1:12

Blessed is the man who perseveres under trial, because when he has stood the test, he will receive the crown of life that God has promised to those who love him.

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What Christ-like character quality can I develop by defeating the most common temptation I am facing?

ANSWER: ________________________________________________________

Day 27 – Defeating temptation

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Point to Ponder: There is always a way out.

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1 Corinthians 10:13

No temptation has seized you except what is common to man. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it.

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Who could I ask to be a spiritual partner who could help me defeat a persistent temptation by praying for me?

ANSWER: ________________________________________________________

Day 28 – It takes time

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Point to Ponder: There are no shortcuts to maturity.

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Philippians 1:6

being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.

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In what area of my life do I need to be patient and persistent?

ANSWER: ________________________________________________________

PURPOSE #4 – YOU WERE SHAPED FOR SERVING GOD

Day 29 – Accepting your assignment

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Point to Ponder: Service is not optional.

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Ephesians 2:10

For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.

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What is holding me back from accepting God’s call to serve Him?

ANSWER: ________________________________________________________

Day 30 – Shaped for serving God

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Point to Ponder: I was shaped for serving God.

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1 Corinthians 12:6

There are different kinds of working, but the same God works all of them in all men.

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In what way can I see myself passionately serving others and loving it?

ANSWER: ________________________________________________________

Day 31 – Understanding your shape

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Point to Ponder: Nobody else could be me.

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1 Peter 4:10

Each one should use whatever gift he has received to serve others, faithfully administering God’s grace in its various forms.

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What God-given ability of personal experience can I offer to my church?

ANSWER: ________________________________________________________

Day 32 – Using what God gave you

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Point to Ponder: God deserves my best.

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2nd Timothy 2:15

Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a workman who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly handles the word of truth.

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How can I make the best use of what God has given me?

ANSWER: ________________________________________________________

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Day 33 – How real servants act

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Point to Ponder: I serve God by serving others.

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Matthew 10:42

And if anyone gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones because he is my disciple, I tell you the truth, he will certainly not lose his reward.

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Which of the 5 characteristics of service offers the greatest challenge?

ANSWER: ________________________________________________________

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Day 34 – Thinking like a servant

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Point to Ponder: To be a servant, I must think like a servant.  

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Philippians 2:5

Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus:

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Am I usually more concerned with being served or finding ways to serve others?

ANSWER: ________________________________________________________

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Day 35 – God’s power in your weakness

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Point to Ponder: God works best amid weakness.

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2 Corinthians 12:9

But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me.

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Am I limiting God’s power in my life by trying to hide my weaknesses? What do I need to be honest about in order to help others? 

ANSWER: ________________________________________________________

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PURPOSE #5 – YOU WERE MADE FOR A MISSION

Day 36 – Made for a mission

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Point to Ponder: I was made for a mission

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Matthew 28:19-20

Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.

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What fears have kept me from accomplishing the mission that He has given me? What keeps me from telling others the good news?

ANSWER: ________________________________________________________

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Day 37 – Sharing your life message

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Point to Ponder: God wants to say something to the world through you.

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1 Peter 3:15-16

But in your hearts set apart Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect, keeping a clear conscience, so that those who speak maliciously against your good behavior in Christ may be ashamed of their slander.

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As I reflect on my personal story and my life message who does God want me to share it with?

ANSWER: ________________________________________________________

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Day 38 – Becoming a world-class christian

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Point to Ponder: The Great Commission is my commission.

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Psalm 67:2

that your ways may be known on earth, your salvation among all nations.

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What steps could I take to prepare to go on a short term missions experience in the next year?

ANSWER: ________________________________________________________

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Day 39 – Balancing your life 

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Point to Ponder: Blessed are the balanced.

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Ephesians 5:15

Be very careful, then, how you live – not as unwise but as wise.

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Which of the four activities will iIbegin in order to stay on track and live a life of balance and purpose?

ANSWER: ________________________________________________________

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Day 40 – Living with purpose

Point to Ponder: Living on purpose is the only way to really live.  

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Acts 13:36

For when David had served God’s purpose in his own generation, he fell asleep; he was buried with his fathers and his body decayed.

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When will I take the time to write down my answers to life’s 5 great questions? When will I put my purpose on paper?

ANSWER: ________________________________________________________

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ABOVE TEXT: Simple “Unofficial” Outline of The Purpose Driven Life by Rick Warren