Four month hiatus...OVER!
So, we're going to try and revive this thing. We have been going through the book of Mark and it's been awesome.
Tonight the mission team from Seattle is leading the service and we're looking at Mark 8.
First of all, look at Mark 8:34,35 and think about what it means to "take up your cross." What does that mean to you? Is it a one-time thing? daily?
Jonathon from Seattle spoke tonight and he talked about living fully for Christ. Does a runner run half a race and then just quit? No, they run the whole thing with the eye to win! Why do we live for Christ on Sundays but not the rest of the week?
In what ways do people "gain the whole world" but lose their own soul in the process? (Mark 8:36,37)
Drugs? Money? Sex? What else can you think of?
We live relatively short lives here on earth, so why do we waste time not living fully for Christ?
Jonathon also made an awesome analogy about those who have lived a life of sin and feel like they can't go to God. He said to imagine a parent here on earth whose son or daughter has been off for years using drugs or selling their body for sex. How would they feel if their child came home? Would they berate them for what they did and ridicule them? NO! Their child is home!! God LOVES when we come home to Him. Do you need to head home to Him?
2 comments:
Jeff:
I think that your faith comes down to focus, determination, and priorities. If you are living for Christ and focus on him, you will be walking on the straight and narrow so to speak. If you are letting other things take away from your focus, TV, music, food, girls/guys, sports, anything, then you are walking that path, and that thing becomes your overall priority instead of God.
When we reach a point of doubt or emptiness, this is the moment in time to rely on your faith. When you feel as if you are alone. Almost as if God has left you! This is the time to put everything you have learned and studied to action. I have heard to many times that we base God's movement on what we are feeling. I don't believe this to be true. God's movement is based primarily on your obedience to what he is saying. This is the case so many times on Sunday Mornings. We base our involvement and our worship on how we are feeling, when in reality it has nothing to do with what we feel, but with our obedience to our Lord and Savior. God is looking for our obedience and our service. He is wanting us to seek him with fervent determination and with unwavering belief. The bible is packed full of instances where if they would based their action on feeling, so much of what God accomplished would not have happened. But through peoples obedience, lives were changed and Kingdoms were conquered. God is asking the same of us today. He wants us to act not on what we feel, but on what God wants from you. Nothing he asks of you is beyond what you are capable of and if you step out in his guidance, all things will be accomplished because of him and your obedience to him. So the question falls on each one of us. What are we going to do? Are we going to obey and be Kingdom shakers or are we going to wait until the feeling is right and miss the boat completely.
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