“For we walk by faith and not by sight” – 2 Corinthians 5:7
CURRENT EVENTS
Dec 31 7:30pm New Year’s Eve Service
Are we proud or broken? The following comparison chart will help you evaluate if you are usable to God.
The Heart God Revives
We can contrasts characteristics of proud, unbroken people who are resistant to the call of God on their lives with the qualities of broken, humble people who have experienced God’s revival. Read each item on the list as you ask God to reveal which characteristics of a proud spirit He finds in your life. Confess these to Him, then ask Him to restore the corresponding quality of a broken, humble spirit in you.
“The sacrifices of Cod are a broken spirit; a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise.” Ps. 51:17
Proud Broken
People People
Focus on the failures of others Overwhelmed with a sense of their
own spiritual need
A critical, fault-finding spirit; look at Compassionate; can forgive much
everyone else’s faults with a microscope, because they know how much they
but their own with a telescope have been forgiven
Self-righteous; look down on others Esteem all others better than themselves
Independent, self-sufficient spirit Have a dependent spirit; recognize
their need for others
Have to prove that they are right Willing to yield the right to be right
Claim rights; have a demanding spirit Yield their rights; have a meek spirit
Self-protective of their time, their rights, Self-denying
and their reputation
Desire to be served Motivated to serve others
Desire to be a success Motivated to be faithful and to make others a success
Desire self-advancement Desire to promote others
Have a drive to be recognized and Have a sense of their own unworthiness;
appreciated thrilled that God would use them at all
Wounded when others are promoted and Eager for others to get the credit;
they are overlooked rejoice when others are lifted up
Have a subconscious feeling, “This Heart attitude is, “I don’t deserve to have
ministry/church is privileged to a part in any ministry”; know that they
have me and my gifts”; think of have nothing to offer God except the life
what they can do for God of Jesus flowing through their broken lives
Feel confident in how much they know Humbled by how very much they
have to learn
Keep others at arms’ length Willing to risk getting close to others and to take risks of loving intimately
December13,2009
Recently, I was working on laying tile to update the break room at work. For me, I enjoy a challenge like that! After all the old tile was taken up and cleaned thoroughly, we prepared to set the first tile. The fact about tile is that how accurately you set the first tile determines the linear direction of all the others….the bigger the room the bigger the variance at the end. If you misplace the first tile, you may not see a big difference within the first five or six tiles, but in the difference will be glaring and unsatsifying.
It is much the same with our spiritual habits. We all know how hard it can be to change a bad habit, but also how liberating it is too. The truth is that if we misplaced our first “tile” somewhere in our spiritual life past we have now built upon that misdirection. The hope is that we can and should change.
1. Identify where the bad “tile” was laid
2. Root it out. (taking up old tile is no fun but necessary)
3. Lay the new “tile” correctly (this is very important . We MUST use the Word of God to establish new habits,or else the old ones come back)
November 15, 2009
WAITING ON GOD
Psalm 25:5 “Lead me in thy truth, and teach me: for thou art the God of my salvation; on Thee do I wait all the day.
This is the foundational characteristic of a Spirit-filled Christian. For the Christian, there are two options: living in frustration and fear because we are not properly waiting on God or living in full joy and peace, even through the sad times, because they know God and wait on Him for everything.
Through the next few Sundays we will be studying what waiting on God really is and how to wait properly on God. In the meantime, during the week, I challenge you all to cultivate the soil of your soul in the following ways.
- Examine your quiet time with God. Is it empowering , intimate, etc?
- Examine the stress in your life. How do you deal with pressure? Do you rely on the unchanging promises of God?
- Is my life marked with selfishness and waste of time?
- Do I make the joy of Lord my strength?
These are important questions to ask ourselves so that we may identify symptoms of misplaced trust and hope. I trust we will all take joy in the Lord this week!
November 8 2009
“…AND THEY LOVED NOT THEIR LIVES UNTO THE DEATH.” Revelation 12:11b
This description of the personal devotion of believers in the last days of the tribulation reflects the profound depth with which they loved their Savior. As I have been thinking about it, we live with relatively no persecution at all, and the persecution which we do experience should find us drawing closer to the Lord our Refuge and loving Him more and ourselves less, but many times it finds us wallowing in self-pity selfishly asking for relief instead of glorifying God.
The tribulation will bring intense persecution; so, knowing how the believers will respond then should help us understand that circumstances should not diminish our joy, peace, and love for our Lord but rather increase it!