Tuesday, March 30, 2010

Breakfast with Amy Grant

Today we had breakfast with Amy Grant thanks to The Fish 104.7 radio station in Atlanta. As we were on our way I had some time to think and had a moment where the book we have been studying on Wednesday nights (Crazy Love by Frances Chan) came in and messed me up all over again. We got up early, no oversleeping today; got cleaned up, no pony tail; left with plenty of time to spare, arrived early; were excited when we caught our first glimpse of Amy, even got a little tongue tied. How many of these things do we let slide on Sunday mornings? How often do we think or say that we “have to” go to church, instead of that we “get to” go to church? Is it because we know God is there waiting for us every day? Do we begin to take Him for granted? Do we start just throwing on any old thing, pulling our hair back into a pony tail and leaving at the last minute because it is just church? To take it one step further, what about each day, do we take the time to stop and worship Him or do we put it off as one more thing we can do later? Just some thoughts I had today when I got to meet another sinner saved by grace, who happens to have an amazing voice.

Wednesday, March 3, 2010

03/03/10 Crazy Love – Overwhelmed by a Relentless God – Francis Chan #3


Luke 8:14, the thorns are distractions that take you away from what God has given you.


Luk 11:34 The light of the body is the eye: therefore when thine eye is single, thy whole body also is full of light; but when thine eye is evil, thy body also is full of darkness.
Luk 12:16 And he spake a parable unto them, saying, The ground of a certain rich man brought forth plentifully:


Every day that we live is a gift from God almighty. Pray each day for the ability to complete the purpose God has for the day.


Does your prayer life look like a child in their father's lap?


Do we KNOW God's love or do we just know OF it?


Trying not to annoy your parents and other negatives should not translate to God.


Your kids are always on your mind, like we are always on God's mind.
Mat 7:11 If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Father which is in heaven give good things to them that ask him?


When you miss your prayer time and you feel guilty, then it becomes guilt driven.


Core scripture at SAG:
Mat 22:37 Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.


There is not a specific requirement for you to pray in the morning or evening or read a certain number of chapters.


He doesn't want just one hour, He wants it all. Don't just spent one hour and forget Him the rest of the day. Don't compartmentalize God.


Psa 8:3 When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars, which thou hast ordained;
Psa 8:4 What is man, that thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that thou visitest him?
Psa 8:5 For thou hast made him a little lower than the angels, and hast crowned him with glory and honour.
Psa 8:6 Thou madest him to have dominion over the works of thy hands; thou hast put all things under his feet:
v6 He puts us in charge of HIS works.
A father giving a child all that he has. God gives us access.


Jer 1:4 Then the word of the LORD came unto me, saying,
Jer 1:5 Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee; and before thou camest forth out of the womb I sanctified thee, and I ordained thee a prophet unto the nations.


God formed you. God don't make no junk.


Jer 1:6 Then said I, Ah, Lord GOD! behold, I cannot speak: for I am a child.
Jer 1:7 But the LORD said unto me, Say not, I am a child: for thou shalt go to all that I shall send thee, and whatsoever I command thee thou shalt speak.
Jer 1:8 Be not afraid of their faces: for I am with thee to deliver thee, saith the LORD.


God says I got your back.


Jer 1:9 Then the LORD put forth his hand, and touched my mouth. And the LORD said unto me, Behold, I have put my words in thy mouth.
Jer 1:10 See, I have this day set thee over the nations and over the kingdoms, to root out, and to pull down, and to destroy, and to throw down, to build, and to plant.


God is more interested in spending time with me, than all the other things going on.


Rom 8:31 What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us?
Rom 8:32 He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?
Rom 8:33 Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God's elect? It is God that justifieth.


I want every day to be struck by the Love of God, the crazy love and be broken and GET IT.


Isa 64:6 But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away.


Eph 1:18 The eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that ye may know what is the hope of his calling, and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints,


When you are totally consumed with the thought that He absolutely loves you.


Look around you, don't miss it!


Doesn't matter what you think about yourself, it matters what God thinks.


It isn't Jesus plus good works or Jesus plus traditions, it is Just Jesus.


www.juststopandthink.com


02/24/10 Crazy Love – Overwhelmed by a Relentless God – Francis Chan #2

The kingdom of God is like a river not a lake, once you get in it, it is hard to come out in the same place.


Mar 7:9 And he said to them, "You have a fine way of rejecting the commandment of God in order to establish your tradition!


Act 5:40 and when they had called in the apostles, they beat them and charged them not to speak in the name of Jesus, and let them go.


I have to obey God more than men. (Acts-they didn't kill them but they did beat them)


Sometimes the dose needs to be bigger to get it working - reading the word of God.


Crazy Love


Am I preparing for the day I die, for eternity in heaven? Am I living my life as it is as a vapor?


James 4:14 "yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes."


Psa 39:5 Behold, you have made my days a few handbreadths, and my lifetime is as nothing before you. Surely all mankind stands as a mere breath! Selah


Psa 144:4 Man is like a breath; his days are like a passing shadow.


Psa 90:12 So teach us to number our days that we may get a heart of wisdom.


Psa 118:24 This is the day that the LORD has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it.

(even if you didn't like it!)


Phil 4:4 Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice.


Php 4:6 do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.


"How drastically would your life change if you rejoiced in the Lord always?"


We become consumed with our lives. We give up being consumed by Him, when we become consumed with our lives.


I am gonna give up rejoicing in the Lord, I would rather be worried and stressed.


Circumstances are more important than obeying God because of the magnitude of my responsibility.


Worry is a trust issue.


We get stressed out when we feel we are losing control.


Stressed out people get impatient, but really it is because they are losing control. Worry & stress reeks of arrogance.


What things did you worry about? Can you see yourself standing in God's throne room saying you are not big enough to handle this. (I will give you something to worry about-parent)


We are so consumed in our life that we think it is about us.


1Co 10:31 So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.


Were you there when God created the world? Was God talking to you when He says It is good? some people act like they think He was. This movie is about God, but we live as though it is about us.


Everything we do should point to Him.


Psa 73:3-13 "For I was envious of the arrogant when I saw the prosperity of the wicked. For they have no pangs until death; their bodies are fat and sleek. They are not in trouble as others are; they are not stricken like the rest of mankind. Therefore pride is their necklace; violence covers them as a garment. Their eyes swell out through fatness; their hearts overflow with follies. They scoff and speak with malice; loftily they threaten oppression. They set their mouths against the heavens, and their tongue struts through the earth. Therefore his people turn back to them, and find no fault in them. And they say, "How can God know? Is there knowledge in the Most High?" Behold, these are the wicked; always at ease, they increase in riches. All in vain have I kept my heart clean and washed my hands in innocence. For all the day long I have been stricken and rebuked every morning. If I had said, "I will speak thus," I would have betrayed the generation of your children. But when I thought how to understand this, it seemed to me a wearisome task, until I went into the sanctuary of God; then I discerned their end."


What is the point of my life? To point to Him and give Him glory.


This life is not about me.


Frankly you need to get over yourself.


Think about how your life would change if everything you did pointed to Him.


We try to tell God how we want to live our lives.


We can respond to this life in two ways, inwardly, internalize it all, live in fear because we don't trust God or externally, by reaching out to God and asking for help. If this life were predictable and stable we wouldn't need God.


If you neglect the end result then you neglect the journey of this life.


Col 1:16 "which has come to you, as indeed in the whole world it is bearing fruit and growing--as it also does among you, since the day you heard it and understood the grace of God in truth,"


Eph 2:10 "For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them."


Ecc 7:2 "It is better to go to the house of mourning than to go to the house of feasting, for this is the end of all mankind, and the living will lay it to heart."


What could you have changed in what you did today to more point toward God?


People waste their lives by trying to impress others, selfishness and worry when all that matters who you are before God.


Rev 3:1 "And to the angel of the church in Sardis write: 'The words of him who has the seven spirits of God and the seven stars. "'I know your works. You have the reputation of being alive, but you are dead.


1 Cor 3:13-15 "each one's work will become manifest, for the Day will disclose it, because it will be revealed by fire, and the fire will test what sort of work each one has done. If the work that anyone has built on the foundation survives, he will receive a reward. If anyone's work is burned up, he will suffer loss, though he himself will be saved, but only as through fire."