Great Sermon by Rob Stephens

Discipleship is:
Intimate
Gospel-centered
Taught and Modeled
Happens in Community
Intentionally Empowered to Multiply

All from 2 Timothy 1-2

Small Group Tonight

God spoke to me tonight in small group. The prayer leader lead us through the focus of praying through the scriptures. The passage she chose was psalm 26. She asked us to meditate on how we could turn this into a prayer. I began to write almost immediately after she read the passage. We talked about how bold and confident David was to say what he says in the psalm and the maybe he was being sarcastic. We thought that it was uncomfortable, at least, to say the first verse out loud.

What I wrote was this:

I have not led a blameless life or walked in integrity. I have frequently thrown my lot in with the wicked and have followed them and not You. And yet, because You have loved me and still love me, I can say,"I have lived a blameless life and walk in integrity", because you are my life and the life I lead is Christ and my walk is in Your Way.
When I am prone to stray, help me to remember that You love me and that I live Your Life and not my own. I have Your Strength and not my own. And when I am victorious remind me of who really won the battle and of how important I am because You love me that much.

GOD's Will

How do I know GOD's will? It is amazingly simple.

John 7:17
If any man is willing to do HIS will, he will know of the teaching, whether it is of GOD...

WOW!

Want to know it, do it! Do what you know and HE will show you HIS will.

Knowing God

It has been a long time since I last posted but I thought I should write this down. I have been going through the story of Joseph and also reading Donald Miller's book "Searching for God Know's What". It dawned on me that Joseph's relationship with God must have been incredibly strong and real. He gets a vision from God that his whole family will bow down to him and the next thing you know he is a slave in Egypt, not where his family is. He hangs on to God through this and even seems like he is getting somewhere in Potiphar's house until Potiphar's wife falsely accuses him and then he is in the Pharaoh's prison, not looking up. But he holds on and when he finally meets up with Pharaoh he still gives God all the credit for the ability to interpret dreams. I can't believe that Joseph found some secret 3 step program that kept him trusting in God. I have to believe that he talked to God and he heard God and God was more real to him than Potiphar's wife or even Pharaoh. I also have to believe that he knew without a doubt that God loved him and that all that was planned for him was so much greater than he could imagine. Oh, that I could trust that way and have faith in what is true and not in how I interpret what I see. I will hang on to God's promises though, I know that I will not be disappointed by relying on God to make it happen.

A Joyful Heart is Good Medicine

I have found that something I tried to teach the kids has not really impacted them much at all... However while I try to adjust the attitudes of my 6 and 8 year old I did find that God had a thing or two to tell me about that. I keep telling my kids about a joyful heart being good medicine while a broken spirit dries up the bones.

While I moped about having to get up early and deal with work and having everybody underappreciate me I was very concerned that my children had very bad attitudes. God showed me what I had the ability to address and it wasn't someone else's attitude.

Well I took that to heart and it has certainly made a difference in the way I feel when I get up and when I work and when I am with the kids and listening to my wife, and you get the picture. I guess sometimes those wonderful messages that I have to share were really meant for me. Hmmm. A double-edged sword.

God Bless.