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Searching for "death" in the Quiet Time Archive
Displaying results from "0" to "25". (111 found)

2008-03-07 - Power of Gratitude - Day-Tight Compartments
Sentence of death is on us and everyone we know

Matthew 6:34 - Focus on today, live in day-tight compartments, rather than worrying about tomorrow

The most important factor in remaining effective and thankful as we get older is to stay busy doing things that matter to God

Women of noble character was busy from dawn to dusk - Proverbs 31
Being happy with our lot in life and our work - Ecclesiastes 5:19-20

Worried about aging and death - No, because I would be ungrateful for all the blessing God has given me
Every good and perfect gift is from above (people in our lives) - James 1:17

What percentage of your thoughts focus of past regrets and future worries?

2008-03-08 - Power of Gratitude - Is This All There Is?
Most of the physical pursuits of life (Ecclesiastes) are substitutes for what we really need - a relationship with God

"Whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ" - Philippians 3:7-11

The answer - to be totally immersed in my relationship with God through Christ
To know God in such a way and at such a level that all else pales into comparision
When this level is reached, nothing else will matter:
  • Not position
  • Not recognition
  • Not performance
  • Not respect
Fear of death will lose its hold

"For to me to live is Christ and to die is gain" - Philippians 1:21

Thankful books

Do it just before going to bed every night
God is too good for us not express gratitude
Ideas: come up with 7 areas of gratitude and incorporate one area into your prayers each day
  • Physical blessings
  • Family blessings
  • Spiritual blessings


2008-04-30 - Falling in Love with God - God Finding Us

When does seeking really start?

Romans 3:11 - there is no one that seeks God
John 6:44 - No one can come to me unless the Father draws him

Studying the Bible is simply allowing ourselves to be sought by God

If it was our own effort - baptism may seem like the end of the quest

We need to active learners

When we were young, we understood obligation  - "I gotta go to school"
After high school, we may go to college and narrow our focus of learning and become passive learners

  • We listen to the voice of our experience as the final authority
  • We learn mostly from our mistakes
  • We learn when we are forced to out of control - crisis, illness, death

Treasures are for those who will continue to seek forever; not for those who want tips and tricks for being "effective"

If there were ever a moment to be a passive learner, it would be when you walk with Jesus

Luke 11:1-13 - where would we be if the disciples had not asked about praying to the Father? - not know how to address the Father

We need to take responsibilty to get deep and ask questions



2008-05-05 - Power of Spiritual Thinking - The Easy Way Out
Taking the easy way out is as normal as breathing.

We love labor saving devices - medicine, cars, wash machine, lawn mower, tools

Not bad for life, but there is button pushing when it comes to overcoming our sinful nature
  • Deny self daily
  • Repentance - when we don't respond to God's grace - God will find a way to help us to repent
    • Through kindness - Romans 2:4
    • Through discipline - Hebrews 12:5-11
  • Persevering though suffering - James 1:2-4
Greater the gain in spirituality, the larger the price tag

God is determined to raise us up to maturity, despite our wailing and weeping through the rod of discipline
Sooner we cooperate, the sooner our trials may end

Do you want Joy? > Become spiritually mature
Do you want to mature? > Pray for God to help (suffering will most likely be involved)

Reject the temptation to desire the easy way
That way will lead to death - Proverbs 14:12

2008-05-20 - Power of Spiritual Thinking - Heaven Can Wait
2 Corinthians 12:2-7 - Paul longed for heaven but was willing to wait in order to fulfill his purpose
Death held no fear for him because heaven was so real

Life goes by so quickly - Psalms 90:10
All are destined to become distance memories for those we leave behind

2 Corinthians 4:16 - we are wasting away outwardly but being renewed day by day

It is far too easy to become attached to this life - hardship changes this.

As beautiful as all of God's creation is, God made it as throwaway
It is destined to be burned up and to pass away - 2 Peter 3:10


2008-06-05 - Purpose Driven Life - Worship That Pleases God
God wants all of you
All of your soul, mind, heart, strength
 
God is pleased when...
 
...our worship is accurate
  • Must be based on the truth (Not Idols)
  • John 4:23 - Based on Spirit and Truth
... our worship is authentic
  • With ALL of your heart and soul
  • God sees the attitudes of the heart
  • Biggest distraction in worship is yourself
  • Best style of worship is the one that most authentically represents your love
 
...our worship is thoughtful
  • Be different - think about the meaning
  • Be specific - I love you, praise you (why?)
  • Make a list of names for God
  • Avoid repetition, cliches
  • Be sensitive to unbelievers
 
... our worship is practical
  • Offer your bodies - Romans 12:1
  • God says "Give me all you got"
  • "I'll be with you in spirit" - Body and spirit can not separate until death
  • Real worship costs - cost us of our self-centeredness


2008-06-07 - Purpose Driven Life - Formed for Gods Family
You were formed for God's family
God desired to have a family but didn't need a family
God became our Father

Benefits of being part of God's family:
  • Family name, likeness, privileges,
  • Inheritance - since yo are his child, everything he has belongs to you (Galatians 4:7)
  • Will be with God forever - 1 Thesslonians 5:10
  • Be like Christ - 1 John 3:2
  • Freed from all pain, death, and suffering - Revelation 21:4
  • Rewarded and reassigned positions of service
  • Share in Christ's glory - Romans 8:17
We all need a family to identify with - the Church - Satan is always on the prawl


2008-06-24 - Purpose Driven Life - Accepting Your Assignment
You were put on earth to make a contribution

Not what we get out of life, it what you give

You were created to server God

God created us for a life of good deeds - Ephesians 2:10
Set apart for a special work - Jeremiah 1:5

You were saved to server God

Saved us and chose us for his holy work - 2 Timothy 1:9
We are not saved by service but you are saved for service
Offer yourself as living sacrifices to God - Romans 12:1
Our love for each other proves we have gone from death to life - 1 John 3:14

A saved heart is one that wants to server
He leaves us here to fulfill his purpose

2008-07-25 - 30 Days at the Cross - Always Remembering

Passover - it meant freedom for the Jews (from Egypt)
Jesus choose Passover to bring freedom to all through his death

It was a new relationship with God and man
God loved mankind but man hurt God with his sin

Jesus: with my life and death, you have a new relationship, now remember this
It will be forgotten in our lives if we don't make plans to remember

In the midst of our activities and pressure of life, we forget:

  • How much he went through for us
  • That we can be forgiven and start over again and again
  • Why we are doing things we are doing

He took bread and gave thanks for this very reason - Luke 22:19

Give thanks and examine yourself - 1 Corinthians 11:28
Don't forget that in Christ there is no condemnation - Romans 8:1



2008-07-28 - 30 Days at the Cross - Life through Death

Voluntary surrender is not easy; never comfortable nor enjoyable
Christ can not be formed in us until we are crucified with him - Galatians 2:20 ; Galatians 4:19

Rebellion comes from man's desire to be God
Satan tried to delute the solution to create powerless religions
Our lives do not change at the deepest level and have the same problems as the world

Only when we are sick of our old nature will we be convinced to totally sell out to God
Death to self seems preferable to life

Most of our cires are designed to produce our surrender
Jesus served through suffering - Hebrews 5:8-9
Can not mature without surrender - Hebrews 12:5-11
Many harships come so we enter heaven - Acts 14:22

So how do we go about taking up our cross?

  1. Absolutely commited to the concept - John 12:23-25
  2. Be committed to prayer about surrender - "I surrender" and "Help my lack of suddender"
  3. Be committed to a relationship with another disciple - Share convictions and be open
  4. Be committed to stretching your comfort zone - Do things you can not do without his help
  5. Realize that surrender brings about absolute freedom - life through death will cease the puzzling paradox

 



2008-07-30 - 30 Days at the Cross - Heights of Humility

World often assumes humily with being quite, soft, weak, a loner, apathetic and without convictions

Does this sound like Jesus to you?
Jesus humbled himself and became obedient to death - even death on the cross - Philippians 2:8
Death on the cross was considered a curse - Deuteronomy 21:22-23
He allowed himself to be cursed
He put his trust in him who judges justly - 1 Peter 2:23

With humility, you give up yourself, but in the process you find God and yourself

Questions and answers about humility:

  1. Where does God dwell? with the humble and concrite - Isaiah 57:15
  2. Who does God esteem? he who is humble, concrite, and trembles at his word - Isaiah 66:2-3
  3. Who receives God's grace? not the proud but the humble - James 4:6
  4. Who does God lift up? those who humble themselves under God's mighty hand - 1 Peter 5:5-6

 



2008-08-09 - 30 Days at the Cross - If the King is a Servant
What Jesus rightly deserved and what he received while here on earth were quite different
Jesus didn't resent or resist his role
He had a desire and compassion to help others

Greatest of humility and suffering for him to subject himself to the cruelest of deaths - Philippians 2:8

People who have a major impact are the ones who serve
Nothing moves the human heart more than someone who puts the needs of another above his own need
It is a rare and precious expression of love

Jesus has called you and me to be like him and take on his attitude toward serving others

Jesus' serving was not limited to his friends (but also his enemies)
His people will do the simple acts of service for the "least" among us

Easier to serve someone on a schedule; more difficult if unexpected or interrupting my schedule

2008-08-11 - 30 Days at the Cross - Seeing It Through
It is not hard to start something but it takes character to finish

What did it take for Jesus to reach his goal? Nothing less than a relationship with the Father and death

With dull disciples - could have become impatient
Exhausted after a long journey - could have become selfish
He never gave in

How did he stay so determined to overcome?
Offered prayers and petitions with loud cries and tears - Hebrews 5:7

Jesus shed tears for:
  • the lost
  • the people he met and healed
  • his disciples to stay faithful
  • his family who thought he was crazy
  • the children
Knowing that God heard his cries, he found victory over discouragement, anxiety, doubt, and loneliness
We are aware of our ineffectiveness, we focus on what we should be doing but neglect our relationship with God

2008-08-18 - 30 Days at the Cross - Turning the Tables

Jesus came to turn the tables on Satan
He came to deal with the greatest of all questions and fears - death

  • He spoke about it in great length - John 5:21-30
  • He claimed to be the only solution for death - John 6:53-57
  • He raised the dead - John 11
  • He believed his death would bring others life - John 12:23-25

When he died, almost everyone thought evil won

Satan pulled out all the stops.
Jesus was in his deadly sights at all times - waiting for a bad day

7 moves to turn the tables:

  1. Pray - he is listening - Hebrews 5:7
  2. Read - he is speaking - Luke 4:1-13
  3. Believe - he is able - Hebrews 2:18
  4. Trust - he is willing - Hebrews 4:15
  5. Fight - he knows what you can bear - 1 Corinthians 10:13
  6. Seek - he has provided a way out - 1 Corinthians 10:13
  7. Find - he gives grace in time of need - Hebrews 4:16
Jesus death turned the tables on Satan

2008-08-23 - 30 Days at the Cross - Consumed with Reconciliation
Bible makes it clear: God is consumed with reconciliation
At the cross: it reconciles us to God, then reconciles us to each other

There must be humility on both sides:

God humility (did not need to go the human level but he did for our sake) - Philippians 2:5-8
  • Made himself nothing
  • Took the very nature of a servant
  • Was made in human likeness
  • In the appearance of a man
  • Obedient to death
Man problems with humility
  • Consumed with finiding fault with God
  • Reject God rather than questioning ourselves
  • Thinks he could do a better ob
Only with humility from both God (yes) and man (sometimes) can reconciliation occur.

Do you want to resolve a conflict in a relationship?
Do it Gods way:
  1. Start with a fresh look at the cross
  2. Remind yourself of the humility shown by Christ
  3. Want reconciliation more than anything
  4. Confess your sin first


2008-08-27 - Teach Us To Pray - Savior and Redeemer

The Cross is enough, then, now, and always

Hebrews 7:25-27

  • He is able to completely save
    • Never too short
    • Never too weak
    • Never worn out
  • He always lives - Prepared to recuse me until the day I die
  • Once for all - One death sufficient for all my sins, for all time

God wants his children to be abolutely confident that we can draw near to him with freedom and assurance

Without seeing the cross, David understood his Savior and Redeemer - Psalms 69:13

 



2008-10-06 - Man of Prayer - YHWH-tsidkenu

YHWH-tsidkenu means "the Lord our righteousness"

Remembering Jesus' name in Hebrew Ya'shua which means  "God is salvation"
He was the fulfillment of the name YHWH-tsidkenu - 1 Corinthians 1:30

Thank God that I had no righteous of my own, Jesus died for me - source of my righteousness

Pause to think about what Christ has done for me
His atoning death and resurrection gives life meaning and significance



2008-10-07 - Man of Prayer - YHWH-mkaddesh

YHWH-mkaddesh means the Lord who sanctifies, he works to change and mold us

Reflection on his name - should remind us how desperately we need the Holy Spirit to work in our life

  • Should be confident that Christ's death was fully adequte
  • We need to be changed
  • We are powerless with him
  • Apart from His intervention, our life is unmanagable and unfruitful


2009-01-24 - Jesus with People - Feeling the Pain

Luke 7:11-17 - He said, "Don't cry", Jesus chose to be vulnerable to everyone's pain:

  • His heart ached for a woman whom he had never meet
  • Immediately felt her pain
  • Was not oblivious to other's pain
  • He gave her reason to rejoice - through his death

Jesus compassion knows no bounds
How wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ - Ephesians 3:18

Are you praying to stretch the capacity of your heart to feel deeply with many others?

Is your lack of openness (rooted in fear of the sin of pride) blocking your passion and compassion?



2009-01-25 - Jesus with People - Call of the Wild

Read Mark 4:35 - 5:43 - No one and nothing is beyond the reach of God
No problem is beyond Jesus - can meet any need natural, physical, spiritual, life or death

  • It was not just a sick woman - an incurable woman
  • It was not just a dying girl - she was stone-cold dead
  • It was not just a deamon possessed man - was a leagon of demons

Nothing and no one intimidates Jesus

How often have we given up on or stopped praying for others too soo?

Have you ever wondered if someone or something was beyond God's reach?



2009-02-13 - Jesus with People - Jesus Wept

Upon hearing about the death of his close friend Lazarus, Jesus wept...

Jesus really felt the emotions that we feel
He fully divine and fully human at the same time
He knows what it is like to experience loss, pain, hurt, and fatigue

Why did he cry? Scripture does not say. Could be because:

  • He felt the hurt of Mary and Martha
  • He was expressing the hurt of the loss of his friend
  • He was antipating his own death

Who are your deepest relationships in the church?



2009-02-14 - Jesus with People - Jesus Won

When Jesus first heard the news about Lazarus, Jesus declared that his illness was not going to be fatal - John 11:4

When Lazarus died, the disciples probably thought that he really blew it this time

Good thing Jesus called lazarus by nameotherwise every corpse in cemetery may have come out

The story of Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead foreshadows Jesus' own resurrection after three days in the tomb

Jesus is a victor over death
The phrase goes: Two things are certain - death and taxes

While some could not pay taxes for a while; no one but Jesus can conquer death

Do you fear death? How does your relationship with Jesus change the way you once thought?



2009-02-18 - Jesus with People - Doing What We Ought
1 Timothy 6:13-14

Compared to previous struggles, the "Jesus dilemma" made the governor's worries look minuscule

Jesus was accused of
  • stirring up the people - Luke 23:5
  • being an insurrectionist -Luke 23:13-14
  • being a blasphemer - Matthew 26:65
  • being a criminal - John 18:30
Jesus' friends had deserted him
Masses that had given homage were the same crowds asking for his death

Jesus always did what was right
Pontius Pilate knew what he ought to do and what he wanted to do but did not do it

2009-02-21 - Jesus with People - Devil in Disguise

John 13:27-31

Jesus knew all men - John 2:24-25
He knew their thoughts - Matthew 12:25
He knew Judas would betry him to death - John 13:11

Have I not chosen you, the twelve? Yet one of you is a devil! - John 6:70

Jesus not only tolerated Judas, he lavished love on him
So perfectly that the other 11 did not even suspect Judas after 3 years



2009-02-22 - Jesus with People - Daily Unconditional Love

Jesus was tempted in every way we are but was without sin - Hebrews 4:15

How could he put up with this day after day?

Jesus was in complete submission of God's will:

  1. Jesus God no matter what the cost
  2. He chose Judas so the scriptures would be fulfilled - John 13:18
  3. Suffered emotionally each time he looked at Judas

How Jesus' heart must have ached when teaching:

  1. Be on your guard against men; they will hand you over - Judas. - Matthew 10:17
  2. Brother will betry brother to death - Judas. - Matthew 10:21
  3. Love your enemies - Judas. - Matthew 5:44

 



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