We are Called...

A few weeks ago we had Missions Conference at our church. One of the messages Mr. Dodgens preached I really enjoyed. I hope you will too!

Matthew 28:16-20

• We are still called to be disciples (followers) of Jesus Christ.


• He calls us to leave our old life to come and follow HIm.


• We should be completely committed


• John 6:60


• If you are a Christian, you are in Christ


• No man can come to the Father except through Jesus Christ


• We need to turn away all earthly distractions, just leave them behind and come follow Christ.


• Disciple - teaching and baptizing


• Romans 13:11-14 (put on the Lord Jesus Christ)


• We are commanded to "form into the image of Christ"(to become like Him) to be clothed with righteousness


• Philippians 2:2-8


• He livedfor others. He gave up everything He had for us.


• Jesus if the best and only example of how a follower should serve others.

He ended his sermon by telling us this, "For me to live is _____..." You would probably say Christ but sadly, most of the time we are not living for Christ. Just think about this as you go through your normal activities. "For me to live is Christ."

When Trials Come

Some people like talking about their trials. Some people like to keep it to themselves. Some people just like to go to their happy place and pretend that they don't have any trials. Now I'm not saying that if you aren't going through a trial right now that you are crazy. What I am saying is that if you are truly a Christian and you are trying to follow Christ, you will have trials and if you don't have one now be sure there will be more to come. So far all I've managed to do is basically put you all down in the dumps because you're either crazy or you have problems but if you keep reading it will get better. I promise! Since we are going to have trials, where do we get comfort? Where can we get strength? Where will we find help? The answer to all these questions is the Bible. Now that's a pretty broad answer so let's narrow it down a little bit.

We're gonna start out with Hebrews 13:5. It says, "Keep your like free from the love of money, and be content with what you have, for He has said, "I will never leave you nor forsake you."" Now the first part of this verse is important but when you're reading it I want you right now to focus on the last part of it. Now let's move on to our second verse. It is in Deuteronomy chapter 31 verse 6. It says, "Be strong and courageous. Do not fear or be in dread of them, for it is the LORD your God who goes with you. He will not leave you or forsake you." Again He states that He will never leave you. When you are in the middle of a trial I want you to remember these verses. They will hopefully help you get through your trial.

*I sort of combined this post with another I was going to do about God never leaving you but I think I covered that subject pretty well with this post. I hope this encourages you. I have other verses to go along with this lesson but I think it would be a good Bible study for you to do especially if you're going through a trial currently.

The Gift of Love

This post is from a sermon I heard last night. The speaker was Evangelist Will Galkin. He preached on the gift of love and how love cares about others not yourself. The passage he used was 1 Corinthians 13. I encourage you to go through and read that entire book but especially that chapter. I'm going to put my notes from last night below. I hope these help you:)

"None of us can be selfless without God."
1 Corinthians 13

• Gifts are made for giving and sharing with love. (gifts can also be talents)
• vs. 2 ~ "if I have all faith, so as to move mountains, but have not love, I am nothing."
• Christ was and is completely selfless.
• We need to stop caring about 'me' and start caring about others.
• Love and patient and kind.
• Love is not jealous. Love stops talking and starts listening.
• Love is not caring about 'me' but instead caring about others.
• We need to love and care for others more than we do ourselves.
• Love is not self-seeking.
• Our only idol should be God; not tv, not friends, not sports, etc.
• Your anger reveals your idols.
• We let anger get in the way of our love.
• Don't "keep score" of peoples' faults.
• Love brings hope and mercy.
• Love endures all things.

Some of you may be thinking about that one person that you couldn't possibly love. I did the same thing. While I was listening to this I kept thinking about this one person that I have ignored, disliked, and talked about and thought about it. Could I love? I made a decision last night that no matter what that person (or any person) I would still love them. But only through Christ is that possible. So, I guess this could also be a challenge. I challenge you (and me) to love others more than you love yourself. But remember you can't do it without God! I would like to ask y'all to pray for me because this is going to be hard and I know it will be for you too. I hope this post encourages you to love through Christ alone. Have a great day!

What is the True Meaning of Christmas?

What is the true meaning of Christmas? Christmas is when we celebrate the birth of Christ. What do we normally act like the true meaning of Christmas is about? Why do we have a countdown to Christmas? Most of the times it's to open presents, give gifts, spend time with family, etc. We most of the time focus on us and not God like we're supposed to. I'm not saying that you shouldn't have a countdown to Christmas or that you shouldn't give or receive gifts at all! The problem is that so many people want to push Christ out Christmas. People do it by simply saying "Happy Holidays" instead of "Merry Christmas". This Christmas make sure you keep Christ your main focus. This may be hard but, if you stay true to Christ it will pay off. Now how could you keep Christ is Christmas? I encourage you to think big. I have a small idea though. Every Christmas me and my family get up and before we open presents or anything we open the Bible and we read the Christmas story. You could start by doing that. I hope you remember the keep Christ in Christmas this season!!! Have a great day:D

The Proverbs 31 Woman

I was reading through Proverbs 31 the other day, and although I have read it many times, I realized that I had not taken the time to fully meditate on everything that it says. As I was reading it, I underlined in my Bible all of the characteristics of the Proverbs 31 woman. I then transferred them to a notebook so that I could look back at them and easily see all of them. I was overwhelmed at all of them, but I was also motivated to ask God to help me be like this woman. Here is the list of all the characteristics:

The Proverbs 31 woman...
~has a noble character
~is worth more than rubies
~is fully trusted by her husband
~lacks nothing of value
~brings her husband good ALL the days of her life (emphasis mine)
~works with eager hands and strong arms
~gets up while it is still dark
~sets about her work vigorously
~opens her arms to the poor
~is clothed with strength and dignity
~speaks with wisdom
~has faithful instruction on her tongue
~does not eat the bread of idleness
~know that charm is deceptive and beauty is vain
~fears the LORD

Wow! That is definitely a long list of characteristics. Some of these are abstract. They aren't something that we can physically do, but we can do things to give us this kind of spirit. But, we can't do any of them without God's help. So, I hope that you will be praying along with me and asking God to help you have these characteristics (I don't know if there are any guys out there, but, if there are, y'all obviously aren't going to have all these characteristics. But, some of them can apply to you too!). I hope this post is encouraging and helpful!!

James 3:13-18 ~ Wisdom

These next points are negative wisdom and positive wisdom. The negative points show things that are not Christ-like in any way and the positive points show how we can please God and in using our wisdom. I hope these help you. Have a great day! ( these next points were taken from my Sunday school class)

Negative

• earthly, sensual
• devilish (unspiritual people)
• world's wisdom, world view
• envy, selfish, bitter, boasting, lying

Positive

• Heaven (God)
• peace-loving
• gentle
• submissive
• merciful
• good fruits
• impartial
• sincere

James 2:12-13

Proverbs 8:1:36

I looked up James 3:13-18 on Biblegateway.com and found these verses. I will put them up here for your convenience.

A. James 3:13 : James 2:18

B. James 3:13 : James 1:21

C. James 3:14 : James 3:16; Acts 5:17; Rom 2:8; 2 Cor 12:20; Gal 5:20; Phil 1:17; Phil 2:3; Rom 13:13;

D. James 3:15 : James1:17

E. James 3:15 : 1 Kgs 22:22; 2 Thess 2:9-10; 1 Tim 1:4; Rev 2:24

F. James 3:17 : 1 Cor 2:6-7

G. James 3:17 : Heb 12:11

H. James 3:17 : Luke 6:36

I. James 3:17 : James 2:4 (GK)

J. James 3:17 : Rom 12:9

K. James 3:18 : Prov 11:18; Isa 32:17; Hos 10:12; Amos 6:12; Phil 1:11

L. James 3:18 : Matt 5:9; Gal 6:7-8

How to Lead Your Heart

One of my favorite quotes from the movie Fireproof is "Don't just follow your heart because your heart can be deceived; you've got to lead your heart." Proverbs 4:23 tells us "Keep thy heart with all diligence, for out of it spring the issues of life." So, how do we lead our hearts? Here's how.

1) Speak right (For more information on this, you can see my post on the tongue.)
2) Keep your focus straight
~Keep your goal and focus on Christ
3) Walk Carefully
~Think about your daily choices
~Think about your life in light of God's Word.
4)Obey God
~Remove your foot from evil.
~We must receive God's grace through humility
~Draw near to God and he will lift you up.


*The outline from this post was taken from a message I heard at BJU Summer Camp 2009*