don’t waste your life…

John Piper – Land of a Rich Man

Luke 12:13-21

Someone in the crowd said to him, “Teacher, tell my brother to divide the inheritance with me.”Jesus replied, “Man, who appointed me a judge or an arbiter between you?” Then he said to them, “Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; a man’s life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions.”

And he told them this parable: “The ground of a certain rich man produced a good crop. He thought to himself, ‘What shall I do? I have no place to store my crops.’Then he said, ‘This is what I’ll do. I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods.

And I’ll say to myself, “You have plenty of good things laid up for many years. Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry.” ‘”But God said to him, ‘You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?’”This is how it will be with anyone who stores up things for himself but is not rich toward God.”

The familiar story still challenges us to reexamine our values. A recent survey of top business executives showed that over 70 percent would, if they had it to do over, abandon the “fast track” in favor of spending more time with their families. But no one has life to “do over.” Each of us makes value decisions that necessarily shape our lives. What Jesus invites us to remember is that those decisions shape life here—and in eternity. Only the fool rejects the precepts of God and bases his life on the pursuit of earthly treasure.

listen…

Joshua Harris – Intro

You can download the entire Freedom album by Clicking Below

http://inhalejesus.com/Freedom.zip

Seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. – Matthew 7:7

Grace and Peace

Matthew Chapter 7

Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock. And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell, and great was the fall of it. – Matthew 7:24-27

Grace and Peace

Idols

Marc Driscoll – Idols

“The human heart is a factory of idols…Everyone of us is, from his mother’s womb, expert in inventing idols.” John Calvin

By grace through faith..

John Piper – By Faith

By grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works. -Ephesians 2:8–9

Jesus chose us while we were sinners. He chose us so He might save us, heal us, restore us to a right relationship with the Father, and walk with us in intimate friendship the rest of our lives.…

Our friendship with God is the result of nothing that we have done or can ever do. We must be willing to lay down our pride and humbly receive what He has done on our behalf. We must accept His death on the cross as being on our behalf. We must receive His indwelling presence in the form of the Holy Spirit. We must gratefully acknowledge that He is the One who paid the price in full for our friendship with God.

Jesus gave his life to us so he could live his life through us..

Grace and Peace

Two Martyrs

Christianity became firmly rooted in North Africa in the 200s, but the Roman emperors exerted every effort to pull it up. Among their targets: an urban bishop and a small-town pastor. The urban bishop was Thascius Caecilius Cyprianus, who had turned his back on a promising political career to represent Christ. Though a relatively new convert, Cyprian was appointed bishop of Carthage in 248. “The stain of my earlier life had been washed away by the help of the water of birth [baptism],” he wrote, “and the second birth restored me so as to make me a new man.”

He served for ten years, steering the Carthage church through stormy days of persecution. At length, Roman Emperor Decius ordered the liquidation of all leading Christian bishops. News came of bishops executed in Rome, Jerusalem, Antioch, Caesarea. Then the soldiers came for Cyprian, too. He was beheaded on August 30, 258.

Several years later, during the reign of Emperor Diocletian, a village pastor outside Carthage faced similar jeopardy. The persecution unleashed by Diocletian was the worst of all. Churches were destroyed, Bibles burned, and all civil rights of Christians were suspended. Diocletian required everyone to sacrifice to the gods. When Roman magistrates came to the village, they summoned leading Christians and ordered them to surrender their Bibles. The believers replied that their Pastor Felix had them in his possession, and he was away in Carthage. When Felix returned the next day, he was surrounded by troops who demanded he turn over the Bibles.

He refused. “It is better that I should be burnt myself than the Scriptures,” he told them. They gave him three days to reconsider his answer, then sent him to the proconsul in Carthage who suggested he wriggle out of the dilemma by offering some old Bibles and spare books.

Felix refused. “I have Bibles,” he said, “but I will not surrender them.” He was escorted to the lowest cell in the city’s filthiest prison for a month of misery, then shipped to Italy bound in heavy chains. He died en route on August 30, 303, in the hold of a ship carrying horses.

I chose you and sent you out to produce fruit, the kind of fruit that will last. … So I command you to love each other. If the people of this world hate you, just remember that they hated me first. John 15:16-18

What is love

Trip Lee – Looking for Love

Lyrics

For god so loved the world, he would redeem you and me
Yeah it was love that made him bleed and cling to a tree

Love is not making much of someone, love is laboring and suffering if necessary to enthrall a person with what will make them infinitely happy..

1 John 4:8 – God is love.

1 Corinthians 13:4-7 – Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

John 3:16 – 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.

Grace and Peace

Greetings.

Joshua Harris – Intro

Whoever is wise will … think about the love of the Lord. – Psalm 107:43

Aging? A necessary process to pass on to a better world.
Death? Merely a brief passage, a tunnel.…

The next time you find yourself alone in a dark alley facing the undeniables of life, don’t cover them with a blanket, or ignore them with a nervous grin. Don’t turn up the TV and pretend they aren’t there. Instead, stand still, whisper God’s name, and listen.

He is nearer than you think.

Grace and Peace

This is what my sin required…

Cj Mahaney – He Drank It

Great beads of sweat appear on the face of Jesus as a shattering storm engulfs his soul. Gradually, the sweat turned in crimson as his prayer increased in its intensity. Soon, his entire body perspires…a sweat of blood.

What are the causes of this internal martyrdom of our Lord? What is this “cup” which he pleads with his Father to remove? He has just witnessed a “Preview of his Passion.” Picture after picture, the various sufferings of the Passion flashed through his mind. The crucifixion, stark and terrifying, loomed up before him and caused his sensitive soul to recoil in terror. Once again he pleads with his Father, “If it is possible…”

Yet Christ did not run away from the Cross and the suffering that he knew awaited. Nor did he take the easy way out. He suffered this incredible agony in reparation for our sins. The conclusion is obvious. We cannot live a “comfort-at -all-costs” philosophy of life. To follow Christ calls for an unrelenting struggle with the tendencies to sin found in the make-up of each of us. – Mark 14:32-42

My hope: That we open our eyes and see the beauty of God and His love within the cross. Would he have been justified in not walking to the cross? yes.. But He loves us more than we could ever imagine.. His grace is amazing, the more that you seek Him the more he’ll open your eyes to how much He loves you and how beautiful He is..

Grace and Peace.

Who Is He?

Json. Ft. Lecrae – Who is He

Its hard to live just breathing to death
When the same God that made you is breathing your breath…

Who is He?

God in the flesh who was tested
Came manifested was killed, resurrected

Who are you?

Do you even know who you are
Created to know the God that created the stars….

Bring my sons from afar
and my daughters from the ends of the earth-

everyone who is called by my name,
whom I created for my glory,
whom I formed and made.”
– Isaiah 43:6-7

hallelujah.. rip through my veins…

here’s some inspiration..

These days, a little bit longer than the last
And all of your ways, a little bit stronger than the past
And your light, found my bottle in the night
Kept me in this fight, gave me second life…

And I won’t back down…
I won´t back down…

The Living Word..

“No one has ever seen God, but God the only Son, who is at the Father’s side, has made Him known” (John 1:18).

John introduced the ultimate mystery. God had somehow taken on human nature and become flesh.

The Word. In both Testaments “word” is a pivotal and complex concept. The Greek logos appears over 300 times in the New Testament, with a variety of meanings. Jesus’ identification as the “Word” has great theological significance. As the Word, Jesus is the expression of God’s person and character in the world: the One who reveals the Father. And as the Word, Jesus is also the powerful, active presence of God in the world: the One with ultimate authority over all natural and supernatural forces, able through infusions of grace not only to make alive but also to transform the inner nature of human beings to fit them for fellowship with God.

While theologians tend to wax eloquent over the philosophical implications of logos, as we read John’s Gospel we can have a simpler, more direct meaning in mind. Jesus, the Word of God, is the One through whom we hear God’s voice. He is the One in whom we meet God, and welcome God into our lives.

produce fruit

“I gave you this work: to go and produce fruit, fruit that will last.” – John 15:16

A good gardener will do what it takes to help a vine bear fruit. What fruit does God want? Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control (Gal. 5:22–23). These are the fruits of the Spirit. And this is what God longs to see in us. And like a careful gardener, he will clip and cut away anything that interferes.

light momentary affliction…

 2 Corinthians 4:16-18 – So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal…

I like how Paul calls it ‘light momentary affliction’ Look at what he writes later in the chapter…

2 Corinthians 11:23-29 – I have worked much harder, been in prison more frequently, been flogged more severely, and been exposed to death again and again. Five times I received from the Jews the forty lashes minus one. Three times I was beaten with rods, once I was stoned, three times I was shipwrecked, I spent a night and a day in the open sea, I have been constantly on the move. I have been in danger from rivers, in danger from bandits, in danger from my own countrymen, in danger from Gentiles; in danger in the city, in danger in the country, in danger at sea; and in danger from false brothers. I have labored and toiled and have often gone without sleep; I have known hunger and thirst and have often gone without food; I have been cold and naked. Besides everything else, I face daily the pressure of my concern for all the churches. Who is weak, and I do not feel weak? Who is led into sin, and I do not inwardly burn?

And we think we are going through trials? So let us fix our eyes on the kingdom and the eternal significance of things..

By his Power God cherishes and guards the World which he made and by his Providence rules its individual Parts. Humans are unable to fully comprehend why God performs any particular action, but whatever good or evil people may practise, their efforts always result in the execution of God’s will and judgments.. -John Calvin

John Piper – Suffering

surely we can change..

David Crowder – surely we can change

And your right hand will save me…

The psalms were written over an extended period of time (around 1000 B.C. until 400 B.C.)..
Obviously Matthew was written in AD.. INTERESTING!

Psalm 138:7 -Though I walk in the midst of trouble,
you preserve my life;
you stretch out your hand against the anger of my foes,
with your right hand you save me.

Matthew 26:63-64 – But Jesus remained silent. The high priest said to him, “I charge you under oath by the living God: Tell us if you are the Christ, the Son of God.” “Yes, it is as you say,” Jesus replied. “But I say to all of you: In the future you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of the Mighty One and coming on the clouds of heaven.”

Matthew 1:21 – She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.

Grace and Peace..

George Muller an absolute stud of the faith…

…the Mueller’s set off for the United States in August 1877 aboard the Sardian…Off Newfoundland the weather turned cold and the ship’s progress was seriously retarded by fog. The captain had been on the bridge for 24 hours when something happened which was to revolutionize his life. George Mueller appeared on the bridge.

“Captain, I have come to tell you I must be in Quebec by Saturday afternoon.”

“It is impossible,” said the captain.

“Very well, ” said Mueller, “if your ship cannot take me, God will find some other way–I have never broken an engagement for 52 years. Let us go down into the chart-room and pray.”

The Captain wondered which lunatic asylum Mueller had come from.

“Mr. Mueller,” he said, “do you know how dense this fog is?”

“No, my eye is not on the density of the fog, but on the living God.”

Mueller then knelt down and prayed. When he had finished the captain was about to pray, but Mueller put his hand on his shoulder, and told him:

“First, you do not believe He will and second, I believe He has, and there is no need whatever for you to pray about it.”

The captain looked at Mueller in amazement.

“Captain,” he continued, I have known my Lord for 52 years, and there has never been a single day that I have failed to get an audience with the King. Get up, captain, and open the door, and you will find the fog is gone.”

The captain walked across to the door and opened it. The fog had lifted. It was the captain himself, who later told the story of this incident, and who was subsequently described by a well known evangelist as “one of the most devoted men I ever knew.”

It was prayer that kept Mr. Mueller’s soul free of doubt, worry, and fear. As a result, he could write such entries as on March 9, 1847, “The greater the difficulties, the easier for faith.” And a later one, “The greater the trial, the sweeter the victory.”

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Müller

False assurance..

Not everyone who says to Me, “Lord, Lord,” shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven. – Matthew 7:21

The New Testament gives very high standards for discerning the true Christian life, and it also issues many warnings to avoid self–deception concerning salvation (see Matt. 25).

One of the causes of self–deception is a wrong understanding of the doctrine of assurance. Many people become self-deceived by well–meaning Christian witnesses who tell them that to be saved, they simply have to make a decision for Christ and then, based on that prayer of decision, never doubt their salvation again.

Sadly, such evangelistic workers are attempting to certify someone’s salvation apart from the convicting work of the Holy Spirit and the future evidence of spiritual fruit accompanied by obedience to the Word (John 8:31). Only God can give a person real assurance of salvation, by the Spirit working through His Word (see Rom. 8:14–16).

God saves you from a pursuit of sin to a pursuit of Him…

Paul Washer – How do you know that you believe?

God is most glorified in you when you are most satisfied in Him in the midst of loss… not prosperity..

John Piper – Prosperity Gospel

Denying Doubting

You must hand your doubting over to God just as you do your temper or your pride; and you must trust Him to deliver you from doubting just as you trust Him to deliver you from getting angry. The great point is that you must give up the liberty to doubt. The trouble is that most people reserve to themselves a little liberty because they feel it is impossible always to trust and never to doubt. We say, “I do not want to doubt any more” or “I hope I will not doubt any more”; but it is hard to come to the point of saying, “I will not doubt. I give up all liberty to doubt forever.” But no surrender is really effectual until it reaches the point of saying “I will not.” Therefore, our only hope for victory lies in an utter surrender of all liberty to doubt forever.

I do not mean that doubts will not come. As long as we are in this body of flesh we will be subject to the temptation to doubt, but while we cannot stop the temptation from coming, we can help entertaining it and giving it an abiding place in our hearts. We must treat every temptation to doubt as a temptation to sin and must refuse to entertain it for a single moment. We will be helped in this if we begin to assert by faith the exact opposite of our doubt. Doubts always fly when faith appears on the scene. If the doubt, for instance, says, “God does not love you,” faith must declare more emphatically than ever, “God does love me. He says He does, and I know it is true.” Kill your doubts by refusing to listen to them for a moment. Doubts cannot live where they find no nourishment.

little pieces of bread….

“Let your character be free from the love of money, being content with what you have; for [the Lord] Himself has said, ‘I will never desert you, nor will I ever forsake you.’ ” – Hebrews 13:5

God promises to provide for all your needs.

In World War II the death of many adults left many orphans. At the close of the war, the Allies provided some camps to feed the orphans and to try and find a place to relocate them. The children began to develop and grow, receiving the finest food and care. But in one of the camps, the officials became perplexed because the children couldn’t sleep. They would eat three good meals, but at night they would lie awake. The camp authorities brought in some doctors to do a study of these orphans to find out why they couldn’t sleep.

The doctors came up with a solution. Every night when the little children were put to bed, someone would come down the row of beds and place in each little hand a piece of bread. So the last thing the children experienced at night was grasping a piece of bread. In a matter of days they were all sleeping through the night. Why? Even though they were fed to the full during the day, experience had taught them that there was no hope for tomorrow. When they had that bread tucked in their hands, they knew that at least they would have breakfast the next day.

Similarly, God has given you a piece of bread for your hand. That bread is this promise: “My God shall supply all your needs according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus” (Phil. 4:19). If you have that piece of bread in your hand, you can sleep.
You don’t need to stockpile for the future. God is the owner of everything in the world, and He controls all the assets to provide for you because you are His child. Life for the Christian consists not in the abundance of things he possesses (Luke 12:15), but in being content with the things that he has (Heb. 13:5).

On a personal note God doesn’t want you pursuing money over Him because it ultimately separates you from Him.. And He is the only infinite value being in the universe.. Only then, when you start trusting Him more than you trust yourself and taking steps of faith, do you realize that He is there…

Grace and Peace

It’s just not right…

I lay down my life.… No one takes it from Me. – John 10:17–18

Jesus knows the meaning of the phrase, “It’s just not right.”

For it wasn’t right that people spit into the eyes that had wept for them. It wasn’t right that soldiers ripped chunks of flesh out of he back of their God. It wasn’t right that spikes pierced the hands that formed the earth.…

Was it right? No.… Was it love? Yes.