"Just Jesus" Reminders

We just completed the series "just Jesus" where we studied the power of Jesus in the seven sign miracles in the Gospel of John. 

John only shares 7 of the many miracles of Jesus (before the resurrection) in his gospel.  I believe that he does that for a purpose.   

His purpose: to show us the true power and authority of Jesus as God!  We often need to be reminded that we have a lot of distractions from what is really important - our real focus: "just Jesus"!

As a result, we spent seven weeks seeing that Jesus has power over:

• creation (he turned water to wine instantaneously)
• space and distance (he healed a kid from 15 miles away)
• time (he healed an invalid after 38 years)
• our resources (he fed over 15-20,000 people with 2 loaves of bread and 5 fish)
• the elements and our fears (he walked on water and he assured the disciples of his presence)
• any human limitation (he healed a man who was born blind)
• death - both physical and spiritual (he raised a man that was dead for 4 days)

Yesterday, one of our elders, Kevin Schreck, challenged us to live this journey of our spiritual lives being completely aware that Jesus wants to transform us and expects to transform us but we have a role in this - what do you want the fruit of your life to look like?  What do you want to be known for?  

In order for this to happen - Jesus expects you to begin NOW planting the right seeds of truth in your heart and mind in order for you to be transformed in you heart and thinking. 

Do you want to be more loving?   You start by beginning to understand the love that Jesus had for you and that God the Father had for you in sending his only Son to pay for your sins.  Read and memorize Scripture that helps you understand this.  John 3:16, Philippians 2:1-11, Romans 5:8.  This explains some of the depth of the love of God and can lead you to further passages - then begin praying about how this should affect your heart.

As you pray - ask God to show you how to love Him more and then how to love those around you more.   And then listen to His prompting and don't ignore the opportunities to love like Jesus would have loved - by serving others from a pure and loving heart! 

You can do this with any area in which you want to produce better and healthier fruit!  But as Kevin said - we have to have a soft heart - one that is willing to receive advice and instruction from others and from the Word of God!

• If you want more wisdom - then read Proverbs and listen to those who have been there before you.  Maybe read James 1:2-8.
• If you want patience - Look at examples of patience in the Bible - do a word search and find where to learn more about the patience and plan of God.
• If you want to manage your money better - then read through Proverbs and mark all the "money" verses.  Work on your understanding of whose it all is anyway and study what Jesus said about your money and things!  

Check out the Fruit of the Spirit (what we should look like) in Galatians 5:22-23 and see how you stack up - then start working on what to plant TODAY to improve the fruit LATER!

Remember - it is ALL about Jesus and just Jesus in our lives!!

Blogging With Purpose

I am not a consistent blogger.
There - I said it and for the nine of you that read my blog - you already know this!
However, I am committed to changing that pattern because I want to increase the impact of sharing how God works in our lives as believers.
 
It is my hope and prayer that God will use my musings to motivate people to be:

• more fervent in their personal prayer life
• more passionate to serve others - in and out of the church
• more intense in their "farming" efforts to plant seeds of the gospel and see a harvest 

So - I will schedule this into my routine - like I am scheduling the above items into it also!

I have discovered that my prayer life is the key to seeing God move.  Truthfully, it is not so much the key to seeing Him move but it is the motivating and driving force in my life to watch Him move and to know when and where He is moving! 

 

I do not pretend to think that by my prayer - God decides to act.  But I do know that the more that I intentionally pray and the more that I let God speak to my heart through listening to His Spirit, I tend to find myself in the right places at the right time to be His instrument!

Second - I have also discovered that I get a great joy out of serving others.  I have found that those that I know who follow God the closest and most wholeheartedly also serve others and lift them up before themselves!

Third - When the first two things are happening - I find that I am more bold in noticing opportunities and speaking into people's hearts about what an amazing God I get to serve.  In other words: When I pray regularly and stay in tune with God's Spirit in me AND when I look for ways to serve others first, I run head long into chances to share about God and to plant the seeds of the gospel.  Lately, it has happened more and more often.

Rather than sit and regret what could have been - I am excited about what is!

I hope to share with you the importance of building your schedule around prayer, service and farming!

What can you do today?

• Start praying and asking God to open your eyes to what He has for you (every day)
• Start looking for people that you could help (invest some time)
• Start thinking about what God has accomplished in you and think about how to verbalize that to others!

Train like you want some results other than what you have always been getting!