FERTILE SOIL

Spring is in the air.  You can feel new life starting.  Birds, bushes and flowers are once again making their entrance onto the scene following the long cold months.  There is a feeling of anticipation in the air as we await warm sunny days and say goodbye to the dark winter.  It is also almost time to clean out flower beds, work the soil, and plant seeds in preparation for a summer garden.

In Mark 4:1-25, we read about the parable of the sower.  The Bible tells us that Jesus is preaching to a group so large that he got into a boat and sat in it out on the lake so everyone along the water’s edge could listen to Him.  He talks about a farmer who went out to sow his seed.  As he was sowing, some seed fell along the path where birds ate it up. Some seed fell in rocky places where there was very little soil.  Those plants sprang up quickly because the soil was shallow but then withered in the sun because they had no root.  Some seed fell among the thorns which grew up and choked the plants so they did not bear again. But some of the seeds fell on good soil, and the seed came up, grew, and produced a multiplied crop. 

The seed that Jesus is referring to is the Word of God.  Every time you hold your Bible and read scripture, you are holding the seeds that God wants to plant into your heart and life.  Jesus is warning us to work and prepare our soil so that when the Word is sown in our lives, we are able to produce a crop.  So my question to you and myself is, “How good is your soil?”  Is your soil hard and trampled down by worry or disappointments in this life?  Or is it rocky with pride?  Maybe your soil is shallow, and although the seeds initially take root, when trouble or persecution comes because of the word you quickly fall away.  Or maybe, you have good soil and you hear and accept the Word of God. 

My hope and prayer is that we all strive to take care of our soil.  That we would have fertile soil that has been washed and watered with the gentle healing rain of forgiveness through Christ, nutrient rich through the warmth of God’s love, and softened by His grace.  May we exemplify Mark 4:20: Others, like seed sown on good soil, hear the word, accept it, and produce a crop- thirty, sixty or even a hundred times what was sown.”   

In His love,

Amanda

Temptation is an opportunity

to show God you love him!

I would like to thank Andy Stanley and his Pause sermon series for most of the ideas in this blog entry.

 

What would someone, who is you, do if they were 100% confident God was with them?

When tempted- Pause and think: “what is at stake when we are tempted?”

1. Family and/or those you influence
2. Future/legacy
3. Faith
1. Faith that God is who He said He is and will do what He said He would do.
2. Faith that He is with you.
1. Faith that He won’t come through for you because of your performance with prior temptation.
3. How does temptation affect your faith?

Dealing with temptation- Three major temptations from Satan (Matthew 4:1-11):

1. Meet a legitimate need in an illegitimate way.   
1. “After fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry. 3 The tempter came to him and said, “If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread.”  4 Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.’[b]”
2. Jesus had confidence God would provide food when needed.  He knew this temptation was more about His faith that God was with Him, that God had a bigger plan, that God’s timing was perfect, and He valued a close relationship with God more than meeting the immediate need of hunger.
3. Man does not live on power alone, on sales alone, on money alone, on sex alone, on intimacy alone, on entertainment alone, on self gratification alone, on food alone, on status alone, etc.  
1. It’s not about Us.  It’s about trusting that God will meet our needs.  It’s about knowing God can be trusted with our basic needs. It’s not about having our needs met in our timing.  It’s about trusting God will come through at the right time.
4. Jesus did what anyone would have done who was 100% confident God was with Him.
5. Why is it difficult to wait on God to provide instead of taking matters into your own hands?
6. Name a temptation to meet a legitimate need in an illegitimate way.

2. Try to use God to accomplish His own ends.
1. 5 Then the devil took him to the holy city and had him stand on the highest point of the temple. 6 “If you are the Son of God,” he said, “throw yourself down. For it is written: “‘He will command his angels concerning you, and they will lift you up in their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.’[c]” 7 Jesus answered him, “It is also written: ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.’[d]”
2. Jesus didn’t need to manipulate God.  He didn’t need to presume that God would save Him.  He knew it was not God’s will for Him to throw Himself off the building so He wasn’t going to try to force God’s hand to do something He didn’t intend to do.
1. We may do the same thing with our life by saying or doing things like:
1. I am just going to step out on faith and trust that He will deliver me/us (when we have no evidence that our action is God’s will).
1. Go into debt and trust He will deliver, marry the last train leaving the station and trust God will change him/her, take a job we know we aren’t supposed to take and trust God will work it out.
2. Jesus knew the difference between manipulating God and acting out in faith.  Jesus knew the plan God had put into place for thousands of years.  This temptation was founded in trying to use God’s plan and the years of His orchestrating key elements for this moment.  Forcing Jesus' will on God would have been a form of manipulation at this point.  He knew this was not the time to prove God’s power to Satan or those who would have been watching.  
3. In the end, Jesus had confidence God would reveal His power in amazing ways at the right time.  He trusted it would happen in God’s time.
4. Jesus did what anyone else would have done who was 100% confident God was with Him.
5. Have you ever launched an idea that you knew was not God’s will and then prayed He would deliver you?
6. Do you ever try to use God to adopt your own agenda?
7. What do you miss out on when you try to manipulate God?
8. Cooperation with God matters most.  The opposite is manipulation.

3. Do the right thing at the wrong time the wrong way and take a short cut.
1. 8 Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor. 9 “All this I will give you,” he said, “if you will bow down and worship me.”10 Jesus said to him, “Away from me, Satan! For it is written: ‘Worship the Lord your God, and serve him only.’[e]”11 Then the devil left him, and angels came and attended him.
2. Jesus knew God was going to give Him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor in His way at the right time.  He had confidence that God would come through.  He didn’t need to give His allegiance to Satan.  To Jesus, unbroken fellowship with Christ was way more important than premature attainment of the ultimate outcome He knew God had in store.
3. What do you stand to lose when you take a shortcut?  Have you ever been faced with an opportunity to jump ahead, but it required you to temporarily abandon your values?  What was your response?  What were the results?
4. In this area, how can you remind yourself to choose what is important over what is immediate?
5. Jesus did what anyone else would have done who was 100% confident God was with them.

In summary:

Temptation is an opportunity to show God you love Him.  It is an opportunity to allow Him to meet your needs in a legitimate way.   Temptation is always a test of your faith that God is who He said He is and that He will do what He said He will do.   If you compromise, if you break, you may never know what God might have done on your behalf if you had trusted Him.  God can be trusted.  He wants to be a part of the details of your life.  Every temptation is a test of your confidence in Him not just your self control.  Don’t trade the important for the immediate.  Pause and remember what is at stake!

Offer your temptation, to feed your appetite, to God as a sacrifice of love.

Imagine if we all were able to live with 100% confidence that God was with us…without a doubt.  Imagine if everyone of us trained in a manner to allow Christ and His holy spirit to transform us.  What if we could pause when tempted?  What if we could remember what is at stake?  Imagine the impact Christ could have on those we influence, on our legacies and future, and on our faith!

 

We can't, but He can!

Communion Thoughts February 14, 2016

We can’t, but He can!

Last week, Rick explained that weakness of our human will is a problem.  He explained that the old testament way of living...where there are more rules and more trying...just fails.  He explained that our will cannot control our sinful nature.   He emphasized that we need a savior.  

As we take time to focus on our savior, we have the opportunity to explore the most significant, most amazing, most rule changing, earth shattering, most powerful act of love to ever take place.  This moment that was orchestrated by our creator on our behalf is what matters most.  It matters for all for eternity.

We can’t, but He can. We need a savior. So what are we to do?  John 15:5 "I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.  He tells us to remain in Him.  How do we remain?

I am so encouraged that over 70 of us have committed to regular reading of His word and memorizing His scripture.  Our church is on mission.  But, as we train spiritually, may we remember not to put our confidence in our training.  May we remember to put our confidence in the object of our training.  May we remember we are training so that we can become better at loving others.  We are training to create fertile soil for the Holy Spirit to transform us.  We are training so that Christ and His love can change our lives which will change the world.  God does not need our training.  We need to train so that Christ can perform miracles things through us.

As we work to create new habits and strive to grow...as we fill our minds with His word and memorize His scripture so that we can focus on the things that are true, and noble, and right, and pure, and lovely...the things that are excellent and praiseworthy, as we praise Him through service, song, and offer prayers, may we not forget our reason for doing it all….not to puff ourselves up with knowledge or to make ourselves look or feel “spiritual”.   May we press on in our actions and deeds driven by our love for Him to simply know Him more.  

We pray that through His death and resurrection that He may become greater and greater and we may become less and less.  We can’t, but He Can!

We all need an "It is written!"

My wife wrote the following to the Team Transformation she is co-leading:

One of the passages we read this week and our scripture memory verses for the month is Matthew 4:4. "Jesus answered, 'It is written, man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.'" Think about that...prior to this response, Jesus had been without food for 40 days. Surely he was hungry...starving even. And along comes Satan to tempt him with food. And what was Jesus' response? IT IS WRITTEN.  He immediately used scripture to stand up against the temptation. Our question to you (and ourselves) is do you have an IT IS WRITTEN?

 

We spend time in God's Word and memorize scripture so that when Satan comes to tempt us, we are armed with an IT IS WRITTEN. When facing illness, or a job change, or a difficult life circumstance, we will have an IT IS WRITTEN. When encouraging a friend, child, or unbeliever, we will have an IT IS WRITTEN. Knowing God's word is the key to walking a life of freedom in Christ instead of bondage to sin, worry and disappointment.

 

Memorizing scripture is difficult, but so rewarding. Arm yourself with God's Word and take your stand against the devil's schemes. Praying the Truth of Scripture speaks to you this week! We are so blessed to be on this journey with you!!

Pause! When tempted, what is at stake?

Andy Stanley explains that, when tempted, our legacy, our future, our family, and our faith are all at stake.  Great suggestions on how to deal with temptation are provided.


Videos:
Dealing with temptation Part 1A: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gEn1RhHW3YM
Dealing with temptation Part 1B: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rjSXT9_x5gQ

Part 1 study guide: http://media.northpointministries.org/content/sunday/pause/pause1.pdf

Videos:
Dealing with temptation Part 2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=71U2LDT9854

Part 2 study guide: http://media.northpointministries.org/content/sunday/pause/pause2.pdf

Videos:
Dealing with temptation Part 3: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2NTh4UBLhJ8

Part 3 study guide: http://media.northpointministries.org/content/sunday/pause/pause3.pdf

Dealing with temptation Part 4: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ofGmfbZSE38

Part 4 study guide: http://media.northpointministries.org/content/sunday/pause/pause4.pdf

Appetites, feelings, passion, and impulses

 

Faith based upon what is happening in our lives is...

Communion thoughts January 3, 2016
Circumstantial faith (Most ideas inspired by Andy Stanley- Faith, Hope, and Luck series)

The summer before my Freshman year in college, I became frustrated with things in my life.  One might say I was at a low. My parents had been fighting more than usual and I lacked confidence in how to handle life.  So, I went out to a local lake where there was a pavilion and decided to go through Proverbs and pray for God’s guidance.  I wanted to write out a moral code- create a standard from which to live.  I felt very close to God at that time.  By the end of the week, a lot of prayer time and spiritual clarity had been attained and right before I left on the last day, I went out to the end of the dock and decided to throw a hook in the water.  I sat at the dock moving the hook up and down as I prayed.  After about 15 minutes of witnessing bluegills swim up to the hook, inspect it and then swim away, it was clear they weren’t going to take my imaginary bait…after having a very great “moment” in prayer, something made me think to ask God to make a fish bite the hook.  So I said “God, make me a fisher of fish.”  I know…what a weird way to say, “God, make a fish bite my hook.”  With no bait, suddenly a fish immediately attacked my hook!  In less than a second after I said the word “fish.”  I about fell off the dock into the water and couldn’t believe what had happened.  I felt like I was part of a New Testament miracle!  At that time, that “miracle” made me feel like God was guiding me and that He was with me.  Then I decided to try walking on water….that didn’t go so well.

Looking back, I really believe God either knew the fish was going to bite my hook and that the Holy spirit moved me to pray that prayer, or He made the fish bite the hook.  It sure gave me a boost in confidence.  However, there have been plenty of circumstances in life that have occurred- circumstances involving pain, sadness, and hardship that might have made me interpret God’s presence in my life differently. 

Is your faith impacted by your circumstances?  Have you ever felt closer to God when things are going the way you thought they should go?    Has your faith ever waivered depending on your circumstances?  If I get that job…then God is with me and I love him.  If I get an A on the test or if my test comes back negative…then I have no problem believing in God.  We’ve heard amazing stories of answered prayer.  Friends are healed, the check comes in the mail, in younger years…”shew, I didn’t get caught”, the cop didn’t pull me over, she said yes, a fish bites an empty hook…these circumstances seem to strengthen our faith.    But what do we do when our prayers aren’t answered?  What happens to our faith then?

As we focus on the cross and we remember His sacrifice for our salvation, may we remember our faith is based, not upon whether or not God answers our prayers the way we think they should be answered, but upon a man who died on the cross and came back to life.  This moment is about an amazing miracle that set us free.  This moment is what drove the growth of the early church before the bible existed and through intense persecution.  Our faith has nothing to do with us or our circumstances.  May we stay here…in this moment…when our circumstances make us want to doubt.

Hebrews 12:2-3   Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning it’s shame and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.  Consider him who endured such opposition from sinful men so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.