So my bday is coming up. If someone could buy this book for me..I'd greatly appreciate it. Haha regardless..I really love this quote from the book...
Jesus Manifesto: Restoring the Supremacy and Sovereignty of Jesus Christ by Leonard Sweet and Frank Viola (Thomas Nelson)
"Christians have made the gospel about so many things—things other than Christ. Religious concepts, ideas, doctrines, strategies, methods, techniques, programs, and formulas have all eclipsed the beauty, the glory, and the reality of the Lord Jesus Himself. On the whole, the Christian family today is starved for a real experience of the living Christ. We know a lot about our Lord, but we don't know Him very well. We know a lot about trying to be like Jesus, but very little about living by His indwelling life. "Jesus Manifesto" presents a fresh unveiling of Jesus as not only Savior and Lord, but as so much more. It is a prophetic call to restore the supremacy and sovereignty of Christ in a world—and a church—that has lost sight of Him. Read this book and see your Lord like you've never seen Him before."
Friday, April 29, 2011
Sunday, April 24, 2011
Thursday, April 21, 2011
Worship in Spirit and Truth, founded in LOVE
In John 4:23-24 it says
3 Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. 24 God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth.
Thus the authority of Scripture and the guidance of the Holy Spirit is exceedingly important. You can't have one without the other. The Holy Scriptures is God's revealed Word to us while the Holy Spirit is the Powerful Living God Himself who is not only constantly convicting us of our sin, but speaking to us and guiding us to act upon certain things in our life. I could write a whole paper about this...and I probably will have to in one of my future classes....but I think Southland's Churches video really sums up what I believe...
Watch before you continue reading!
Great video right? I appreciate it. Thus having stated, a glimpse of my theological view, I think it's still exceedingly important for Christians to be humbled enough to recognize that no matter how "sound" or "complete" or "right" they think their theological views are, we are never going to have perfect theological views, because we are flawed people who know in part....here's a passage that addresses that:
1 Corinthians 13: 9,10,12
"9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part, 10 but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears..... 12 For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known."
Having set all this...I think the foundation of everything...should be LOVE..and what exemplifies LOVE? Jesus Christ....if we have claim to have crazy knowledge of Scripture or perhaps on the flip side some crazy radical experience....but we just keep on talking about how much knowledge we have...or what a crazy experience we had...but we forget that knowing/loving JESUS is foundation of all of that...I think we are really missing the point.
That's what Abba has taught me so far, and this little brain has so much more to learn!!! haha...
3 Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. 24 God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth.
Thus the authority of Scripture and the guidance of the Holy Spirit is exceedingly important. You can't have one without the other. The Holy Scriptures is God's revealed Word to us while the Holy Spirit is the Powerful Living God Himself who is not only constantly convicting us of our sin, but speaking to us and guiding us to act upon certain things in our life. I could write a whole paper about this...and I probably will have to in one of my future classes....but I think Southland's Churches video really sums up what I believe...
Watch before you continue reading!
Great video right? I appreciate it. Thus having stated, a glimpse of my theological view, I think it's still exceedingly important for Christians to be humbled enough to recognize that no matter how "sound" or "complete" or "right" they think their theological views are, we are never going to have perfect theological views, because we are flawed people who know in part....here's a passage that addresses that:
1 Corinthians 13: 9,10,12
"9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part, 10 but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears..... 12 For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known."
Having set all this...I think the foundation of everything...should be LOVE..and what exemplifies LOVE? Jesus Christ....if we have claim to have crazy knowledge of Scripture or perhaps on the flip side some crazy radical experience....but we just keep on talking about how much knowledge we have...or what a crazy experience we had...but we forget that knowing/loving JESUS is foundation of all of that...I think we are really missing the point.
That's what Abba has taught me so far, and this little brain has so much more to learn!!! haha...
Monday, April 18, 2011
Refinement.
James 1:2-4
2 Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, 3 because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. 4 Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.
Right now I am physically exhausted, fatigued, and I have a difficult time breathing.
Right now emotionally, I'm all over the place. There's some issues that I don't want to be in the middle of.
Right now spiritually I just want desperately for Abba to fill this whole in my heart.
Right now mentally I just want these dumb thoughts to stop running around in my brain.
Despite these circumstances, I still have so much to be thankful for. In fact, I should be thankful that I'm going through these things because that means I'm being refined and Daddy is doing so much more within in me that I can't even see or comprehend.
There's no one that I would rather live for... I will follow Jesus, and by His grace..He will sustain me until the very end.
2 Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, 3 because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. 4 Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.
Right now I am physically exhausted, fatigued, and I have a difficult time breathing.
Right now emotionally, I'm all over the place. There's some issues that I don't want to be in the middle of.
Right now spiritually I just want desperately for Abba to fill this whole in my heart.
Right now mentally I just want these dumb thoughts to stop running around in my brain.
Despite these circumstances, I still have so much to be thankful for. In fact, I should be thankful that I'm going through these things because that means I'm being refined and Daddy is doing so much more within in me that I can't even see or comprehend.
There's no one that I would rather live for... I will follow Jesus, and by His grace..He will sustain me until the very end.
Saturday, April 9, 2011
Note to Self.
"Any 'passion' not completely anchored in the Lord's identity will be fleeting zeal and hollow sentiment." - Stephen Venable
Sanctify me Yeshua.
Sanctify me Yeshua.
Sunday, April 3, 2011
Boasting.
Galatians 6:14 says
"May I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world."
I realize how often I boast in my flesh. I boast in the people I know, I boast in the theology I know, I boast in the ministries I am involved with, I boast in the friends that I have, I boast in the gifts Abba gave me, I boast about that my sin is not as bad compared to (insert name here) ________...(which by the way is a totally ridiculous thought because there's no scale of sin, sin is sin in God's eyes), I boast because I think I'm so mature, there's so much more bleeeeh.... But what's the point of saying all this???? The point isn't to dwell on how ugly our hearts are....but the point is boast in how beautiful Jesus is!!!
My brothers and sisters....God desires us to boast in nothing else except CHRIST!!! Just knowing CHRIST! Now now I know, what many of you are probably thinking..."I'm far from that being my sole confidence"...hahha well then my friend you are probably in the same boat as everyone else. What our role is to do is to continuing to submit to the guidance of the Holy Spirit, and let HIM be the sanctifier and HE will teach us how to keep fixing our gaze on the cross, allowing our hearts to be purified, and making Jesus exalted in our lives.
It's a process...but there's so much GRACE for all of us!!!
I love how this old hymn sums it up...this is my prayer... "I will not boast in anything, no gifts, no power, no wisdom, but I will boast in Jesus Christ...His death and resurrection!!".
Amen.
"May I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world."
I realize how often I boast in my flesh. I boast in the people I know, I boast in the theology I know, I boast in the ministries I am involved with, I boast in the friends that I have, I boast in the gifts Abba gave me, I boast about that my sin is not as bad compared to (insert name here) ________...(which by the way is a totally ridiculous thought because there's no scale of sin, sin is sin in God's eyes), I boast because I think I'm so mature, there's so much more bleeeeh.... But what's the point of saying all this???? The point isn't to dwell on how ugly our hearts are....but the point is boast in how beautiful Jesus is!!!
My brothers and sisters....God desires us to boast in nothing else except CHRIST!!! Just knowing CHRIST! Now now I know, what many of you are probably thinking..."I'm far from that being my sole confidence"...hahha well then my friend you are probably in the same boat as everyone else. What our role is to do is to continuing to submit to the guidance of the Holy Spirit, and let HIM be the sanctifier and HE will teach us how to keep fixing our gaze on the cross, allowing our hearts to be purified, and making Jesus exalted in our lives.
It's a process...but there's so much GRACE for all of us!!!
I love how this old hymn sums it up...this is my prayer... "I will not boast in anything, no gifts, no power, no wisdom, but I will boast in Jesus Christ...His death and resurrection!!".
Amen.
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