Trust in God

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The essence and core of Christianity is Trust in God.

Christ said; "Why are you afraid."  He would go on to say; "How little you trust God!  Why are ye so fearful?  How is it that ye have no faith?  O men, how little you trust Him!"  "Have faith in God."  These quotes are fundamental to Christian faith.  It has to do with our understanding of life.

We believe in God - but may not believe God.

To doubt either God's power or God's love is to say by your actions:  "Lord, I do not believe your promises, I do not think you will take care of me."

This is where Christianity has the answer.

To doubt either God's power or God's love is to say by your actions:  "Lord, I do not believe your promises, I do not think you will take care of me."

God has designed us for happiness.  He has created us for peace and joy.  It is His will for each of His creatures that life shall be free and lived to the utmost for His glory.

Why is it that so few people find it in fun,

fellowship
good company, 
good times
good humor,
and happiness?
Does your life experience fit into that?  If not, there is something wrong.  People refuse the offer of Christianity, because they never dream that what they want can be found there.

Christ offers us what we are really hungering for; but we don't believe it.  We won't give Him a chance.  We prefer to attempt to carry God's burdens also.

Turn over more control

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How can you turn over more of the control in your life to God?

Another key factor in a child of God's spiritual growth, is the development, of trust, in our Creator/Father.  Leaning has the sense of putting your whole weight on something, resting on and trusting in that person or thing.

(Proverbs 3:5-8)"Trust in the Lord with all your heart.  Never rely on what you think you know.  Remember the Lord in everything you do and he will show you the right way.  Never let yourself think that you are wiser than you are; simply obey the Lord and refuse to do wrong.  If you do, it will be like good medicine, healing your wounds and easing your pains." 

God promises to guide those who obey and trust him.  Those who obey must actively explore God's Word.  Depend on God in every part of your life, and he will guide, protect, and comfort you.

This expression "God's guidance," or "God's will," is really quite confusing.  It seems so far removed from selling insurance, cleaning house, or taking the dog to the vet for his shot.  It seems to imply being constantly ecstatic over "finding Jesus," or living on Cloud Nine with out interruption.  I suppose this could be part of it.  But so many Christians, new and old alike, drape so much glamorous ecclesiastical jargon around it, that it gives the impression around it, of being for an elite few "spiritual" or "saintly" people.  That would leave out most of us, wouldn't it, God?... Jesus told His disciples that He was going away and would send someone to carry on for Him.  This one would be a Comforter, a Helper, to remind and to guide.  If He wasn't supposed  to guide us in all things, how would we know when he was guiding and when He wasn't?

It occurs to me that if I'm tuned in to You, Jesus, I'm guided in everything I do.  It could include simple things at the office, housework, even answering the presumptuous ring of the telephone to give some lonely forgotten soul a bit of myself.

After a lot of trial and error, God, I think I've learned something about Your will in my life.  And the key is so simple.  So often I have stubbornly knocked and banged my head against a door of decision or opportunity i wanted to push open.  And so often nothing happened.  The door just wouldn't budge.  At other times when You and I were tuned in to the same channel, I barely touched the latch, and the door swung open.  Everything poured out: happinesses, opportunities for creativity, spiritual presents, deeper relationships with friends, and, when the timing was right, a chance to share Your love with someone...  Your guidance kind of snowballs, God, from relying on You for dozens of little actions and decisions, we learn to seek Your guidance in times of big events, even tragedies, in our lives.  Gradually we begin to rely on You in everything we do, no matter how insignificant.

(From Struggles of a Sinner-Saint by Lucille Lavender)

Is your life like a hotel, with certain rooms marked "Do Not Disturb"?  Open one of those rooms to God.  If you are a pianist, give your practice or performance to God.  If you are a basketball referee, give your game to God.  No matter what your role in life or your occupation, live every aspect of your life to honor God.

How would you answer a skeptic who asked you "How can you believe that?"

Covenants

Covenants

 

Do this project with someone close to you: spend an hour on your own making a list of all God has done for you.  Then share together and rejoice in his goodness and faithfulness.

"What difference there is between the old covenant and the new is therefore obvious.  In the former the law is written on tablets, while in the latter it is written on hearts... In the one, man becomes a transgressor through the letter that kills, in the other a lover through the life giving spirit" (City of God-Augustine 25:42).

God's Kingdom is in his Reign in the Hearts of Men, an through their hearts control he transforms their lives.  To change us over into His own Image.

One of these subject's purposes, is to provide you with an additional guide to assisting you through the required growth.  We hope that this subject will help clarify this period of preparation and decision making, and provide you with some guidelines on how to complete this period, the best way possible sharing a child's joy.

(Job 33: 29-30)"God does all this again and again; he saves a person's life, and gives him the joy of living."

Another purpose of this subject is to show how a loving God offers his people a rich and full heritage of life when we participate in a right relationship to him.  This is a lesson we all have to learn, within the experience of spiritually growing, and where we also learn the true nature of the rich heritage that is offered.

As Children of God, we are also his Ambassador's therefore we must carry his message to Earth's Child.  An the best way to set the stage for this; is to reflect on the joy that we have.

Since we have control of our future, we need to act according to his plan for us,  and to know the best way to act.  How is God present?  How can we benefit from that presence?  How can we make it part of our lives? This will be an exciting life as we explore these questions and experience God's dynamic presence?  How can we make it part of our lives?  This will be an exciting life as we explore these questions and experience God's dynamic presence among us and within us.

(Psalms 27:4)"I have asked the Lord for one thing only do I want; to live in the Lord's house all my life, and to marvel there at his goodness, and to ask for his guidance.."

In your love live with God, where dose he stand:

Closer to you than your own relatives?
More like a distant relative you've only heard about? 
Some where in between?
Why?

Ministry

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If Jesus called you to participate in a ministry, what do you think he would say to you in light of your own personality and needs?

"We drag ourselves out of bed to go to work expecting to be rewarded by a pay-check.  What makes us do these tiresome thankless task?  Why does anyone get out of bed in the morning when it is so much more pleasant to lie drowsily under the warm covers?  The force that gets me out of bed is hope.  Today's 'me' sacrifices for tomorrows.  Mature human beings know how to do this almost as second nature.  We didn't get it from nature, though.  Our parents and teachers drilled it into us just as we must drill it into our children" (Knowing the Face of God - Tim Stafford).

God wants us to be great and free in heaven and he will show us how to get there.

"God is the living God who has a plan for the world.  I am convinced that our ways are guided in other words that we have to discern a call, an occasion" (Father Yves Conger, O. P.-Roman Catholic Theologian).

As part of the growth path, we will be discussing how each individual must take an active part in planning his/her own growth.  But a even more important part of growth is how well you are able to follow that plan.  Therefore we see that this growth plan must affect our "Heart."

(Jeremiah 31: 31-34) are some of the greatest words in the book of Jeremiah and it points beyond Jeremiah's own troubled time to the day when there would be a new covenant, one that God's people would keep without a teacher to remind them;  because it would be written on their hearts.

Christians must never lose all hope.  Our belief in Jesus Christ gives us hope for the future.

For thousands of years, using his wit and charm, man had tried to be friends with God.  And for thousands of years he had let God down more than he had lifted him up.  He's done the very thing he promised he'd never do.  It was a fiasco.  Even the holiest of the heroes sometimes forgot whose side they were on.  Some of the scenarios in the Bible look more like the adventures of Sinbad the sailor than stories  for vacation Bible school.  Remember these characters?

Aaron.  Right-hand man to Moses.  Witness of the plagues.  Member of the "Red Sea Riverbed Expedition."  Holy priest of God.  But if he was so saintly, what is he doing leading the Israelites in fireside aerobics in front of the golden calf?

The sons of Jacob.  The fathers of the tribes of Israel.  Great-grandsons of Abraham.  Yet, if they were so special, why were they gagging their younger brother and sending him to Egypt?

David.  The man after God's own heart.  The King's king.  The giant slayer and songwriter.  he's also the guy whose glasses got steamy as a result of a bath on a roof.  Unfortunately, the water wasn't his, nor was the woman he was watching.

And Samson.  Swooning on Delilah's couch, drunk on the wine, perfume, and soft lights.  He's thinking, She's putting on something more comfortable.  She's thinking, I know I put those shears in here somewhere.

Adam adorned in fig leaves and stains of forbidden fruit.  Moses throwing both a staff and a temper tantrum.  King Saul looking into a crystal bail for the will of God.  Noah, drunk and naked in his own tent.

These are the chosen ones of God?  This is the royal lineage of the King?  These are the ones who were to carry out God's mission?

It's easy to see the absurdity.

Why didn't he give up?  Why didn't he let the globe spin off its axis?

Even after generations of people had spit in his face, he still loved them.  After a nation of chosen ones had stripped him naked and ripped his incarnated flesh, he still died for them.  And even today, after billions have chosen to prostitute themselves before the pimps of power, fame, and wealth, he still waits for them.

It is inexplicable.  It doesn't have a drop of logic nor a thread of rationality.

And yet, it is that very irrationality that gives the gospel its greatest defense.  For only God could love like that.

(From God Came Near by Max Lucado)

True Spirituality

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On the cross Jesus exclaimed, "Father, into your hands I commit my spirit" (Luke 23:46).  In life and in death our Lord is the ultimate expression of true spirituality.  And to those who confess his name he says, "Follow me."

The word sin is an important word in the Bible, the only word that describes the basic spiritual nature of persons outside the reality and presence of God's grace.  It alone describes the inability of humans to let God be God, the inability of humans to fulfill God's moral law of love by perfectly loving God, oneself, and others, the inability to heal our own brokenness or remove our human limitation.

The good news is "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son; that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life." (John 3:16).  The next  verse is also essential: "For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world but to save the world through him" (v17).  Saving is the personal activity of a God, full of grace, a God of unconditional love.  And his name is Jesus, the name above every name.  Jesus if the Lord, full of grace.

The gospel of God's grace revealed in Christ is indeed a simple message.  Christ himself said, "...anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it." (Mark 10:15).  Not childishness, but childlikeness is essential in believing  and living the gospel of our Lord.  Faith is not so much a matter of knowing as it is believing, trusting, risking, and following.

Matthew 10:12-13 starts on the search for these answers: "As you enter the home, give it your greeting.  If the home is deserving, let your peace rest on it...".  One of the answers Christ has offered us is that the concept of discipleship enter in to our bodies, minds and emotions.  And the second part of this is that these areas be deserving.

Webster’s New World Dictionary defines discipleship as "a pupil or follower of any teacher or school."  One of the first thing that each teacher or school demands of their disciples is the area of trust.  Without this both the "disciple" and the school/teacher would be wasting each others time.  Christ also demanded this of his disciples as he stated in Matthew 10:29-31.

(Matthew 10:28-31)"Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul; rather be afraid of God, who can destroy both body and soul in hell.  For only a penny you can buy two sparrows, yet not one sparrow falls to the ground without your Father's consent.  As for you, even the hairs of your head have all been counted.  So do not be afraid; you are worth much more than many sparrows."

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Christianity can help us

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Now that we have taken a look at the most important resource available to us, to help us improve our "Quality of Life," we can now look at how Christianity can help us.

The message of the Christian religion to us is our human condition of sinfulness, of powerlessness and essential human limitation is not only about a power greater than ourselves but about a God who can save us from our sinful condition.

"You are to give him the name Jesus because he will save his people from their sins." (Matt. 1:21)

Satisfying God does not come from the work we do, but from whom we believe.

"The work of God is this: to believe in the one he has sent" (John 6:29)

As the way, Jesus is our path to the Father.  As the truth he is the reality of all God's promises.  As the life, he joins his divine life to ours, both now and eternally.

"I am the way and truth and the life." (John 14:6).

The Christian gospel calls us to believe in Christ as our Lord, and in the sufficiency of his grace for all our needs, for all of life, for our death, and for our salvation.  It calls us to put our ultimate trust in him for our salvation and changes in our lives.

Salvation is becoming willing to change, asking God's help to change, being forgiven by and forgiving others, forgiving self, seeking to remain honest with self, seeking greater knowledge of God's will and the power to do it, and sharing with others what has been received as a result of the spiritual awakening.

Cardinal Bernardin (a Catholic leader) spoke about a profound spiritual change that took place in his life.

"Now it is no longer, I alone.  It is the Lord and I together.  Indeed it is my weakness and vulnerability that become my strength because then I no longer pretend that I am in control, but the Lord Jesus."

The gospel's response to the problem of suffering can be summarized in three commands: (1) trust in God's grace, abiding presence, and his promise that all pain can work for good in our life,  (2) deny yourself, take up your cross and follow Christ, (3) bear one another's burdens.  The bible and our own healing; meaning, growth, and hope in the midst of pain, brokenness and human limitation.  In the spirituality of the gospel, the ultimate is trust in our Lord, committing not only our living but also our dying to him - the resurrected one, full of grace and always with us.

Persecuted, Peacemaker, Righteousness

Image via WikipediaPersecuted, Peacemaker, Righteousness

 

Persecuted

In fact, everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted.(2 Timothy 3:12)

In this charge, Paul told Timothy that people who obey God and live for Christ will be persecuted. Don’t be surprised when people misunderstand, criticize, and even try to hurt you because of what you believe and how you live. Don’t give up. Continue to live as you know you should. God is the only one you need to please.

Peacemaker

He must turn from evil and do good; he must seek peace and pursue it.(1 Peter 3:11)

Too often we see peace as merely the absence of conflict, and we think of peacemaking as a passive role. But an effective peacemaker actively pursues peace. He or she builds good relationships, knowing that peace is a by-product of commitment. The peacemaker anticipates problems and deals with them before they occur. When conflicts arise, he or she brings them into the open and deals with them before they grow unmanageable. Making peace can be harder work than waging war, but it results not in death, but in life and happiness.

Righteousness

Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth(John 17:17).

A follower of Christ becomes righteous (set apart for sacred plan use, prepared and made holy) through believing and obeying the word of God (Hebrews 4:12). He or she has already accepted forgiveness through Christ’s sacrificial death (Hebrews 7:26, 27). But daily application of God’s Word has a purifying effect on our minds and hearts. Scripture points out sin, motivates us to confess, renews our relationship with Christ, and guides us back to the right path.