Quiet Times Search

Search Quiet Times via a keyword or string
Keyword(s):
Number of Studies:


Searching for "friends" in the Quiet Time Archive
Displaying results from "0" to "25". (92 found)

2008-03-26 - Be Still My Soul - Pointed

We can not be close to God in prayer if we deal only in generalities
God indeed wants to answer our prayers - how will we know what God is doing if we pray in generalities?

Abraham - Genesis 18 - prayed to save the city if there were 50, 45, 40, 30, 20, even 10 righteous people

Our lack of specific praying reveals a distance in our relationship with God

  • More specific in your gratitude - become more grateful
  • More specific in confession - understand the sin you are commiting
  • More specific in your requests for friends and family - see how God will work


2008-03-29 - Be Still My Soul - Praise
Thanksgiving is praise made practical
  • We always thank God - Colossians 1:3
  • Overflowing with thankfulness - Colossians 2:6-7
  • And be thankful - Colossians 3:15
  • Being watchful and thankful - Colossians 4:2
What should we be grateful for?
  • Answered prayer
  • Blessings of family and friends
  • Health
  • Material blessings
  • Church
Our appreciation grows, our anxiety decreases, and our joy abounds
Never known a person who habitually expressive of gratitude to be afflicted with continual discouragement and depression
Good idea to start and keep a gratitude list

2008-04-19 - Falling in Love with God - Intimacy
Dictionary definition of Intimacy:
  1. Marked by close acquaintance
  2. Relating to one's deepest nature
  3. Innermost
  4. Marked by informality
  5. Very personal
Respectful, but must not be formal - personal

"Quiet Times" OR "our time with God" assumes there is formal meeting / impersonal only
Do we treat friends or co-workers this way?

God desires to know who we are at the deepest level

2008-04-27 - Falling in Love with God - Practical Inspiration

Get Out of Here

Sometimes the first step in restoring our hearts is simply to get out of the house
Why go outside?

  • Quiet - able to meditate
  • Parents - able to get up before the kids do
  • Nature is full of inpsiration
  • Much more freedom outside

Turning back the clock

 Rewrite the sins and people I sin against; what I was forgiven of (not an exercise in guilt but gratefulness

Secret Scriptural Weapon

You have to work at understanding the cross
Insights of yesterday about the cross need to be consistently refreshed
God never spoke louder than he did on Calvary

Memorizing scriptures and writing them on index cards

Ephesians 3:20 - When each word is accented, the scripture can have new meanings

Best for Last

Create a treasure chest:

  • Baptism photos
  • Special note from friends
  • Wedding Vows
  • Memorabilia from children being born

Scrapbook of the heart of God - testament to God



2008-06-03 - Purpose Driven Life - Best Friends with God
God wants to be your friend
God's ideal relationship - Adam and Eve (no rituals, ceremonies, or religion)
Moses, Abraham, David, Job, Enoch, and Noah had intimate relationships with God
Most in the OT had just the fear of God
 
You are not longer servants but friends - John 15:15
 
Through constant conversations
 
Make it a habit to have daily devotion time but it more than just that
God wants to be included in every activity in your life (Some think you have to get away)
Key to the friendship is not changing what you do but your attitude toward what you do
Pray all the time - 1 Thessalonians 5:17
 
Pray as often as possible
 
Help me trust you
You are here with me
I'm depending on you
You are my God
How awesome you are!
 
Pray as often as possible
Your goal is not a feeling but an awareness of the reality that God is always present
 
Through continual meditation
 
Thing about His Word throughout your day - who God is, What he has done, and what he has said
Meditation is simply focused thinking - Worry is a form of meditation
 
Friends share secrets
God told his secrets to Abraham, Daniel, Paul, his disciples, and others friends
When you read your Bible or hear a sermon - develop a practice of review the truth in your mind

2008-06-04 - Purpose Driven Life - Developing Your Friendship with God
You are as close as you choose to be to God
Must work to develop your friendship
 
Must choose to be honest

...about your faults and feelings
No one in the Bible was perfect:
  • Abraham - allowed to question and challenge
  • David - God patient during his accusations
  • Job - allowed to vent his bitterness
  • Moses - told God exactly how he felt
God listens to the passionate word; bored with predictable
We may harbor resentment toward God
He wants you to hold back nothing about how you feel
 
Choose to obey
 
John 15:14 - You are my friends if you do what I command
We are not equals - We obey obey God because we love him
True friendship isn't passive; it acts
"Great things for God" - Great things come once in a lifetime; small things come everyday
 
Must choose to value what God values


What does God value the most? His lost children
 
Must desire a friendship with God more than anything
Longing, yearning, thirsting, hungering - that was David
 
Nothing matters more
NO: What is it worth to you?
NO: What cost is too much?
 
Problems are wake-up calls for you come back to him

2008-06-06 - Purpose Driven Life - When God Seems Distant
Easy to worship God when things are going great

God matures relationship by times of separation - Job, David, Jesus
God promises to never leave you or forsake you

Sin separates - Friendships are tested by separation and silence

Sometimes distance from God is not because of sin - feelings may be off
It is not a feeling,  God will remove your dependence of feelings
 
Tell God how you feel
God can handle your doubt, fear, anger, grief, confusion, and questions
 
Remember: God is unchanging:
 
Job praised God in these ways:
  • Good and loving - Job 10:12
  • All powerful - Job 42:2; 37:5, 23
  • Every detail of his life - Job 23:10, 31:4
  • He is in control - Job 34:14
  • Has a plan for my life - Job 23:14
  • He will save me - Job 19:25
Trust God to keep his promises
His promises do not change despite circumstances
 
Remember what God has already done for you
Even if God will not do anything else for you (very unlikely) He gave his son

2008-07-10 - Purpose Driven Life - Made for a Mission (part 2)
Your mission is a wonderful privilege
  • You are working with God
  • You are representing God
We're Christ representatives and become friends with God - 2 Corinthians 5:20

Telling others how they can have eternal is the best thing you can do

If have the cure for AIDs, you would share it
You just have to remember the hopeless you felt without Christ

Your mission has eternal significance

Impact the eternal destiny of other people
Consequences will last for ever; consequences of your job will not

All of us must quickly carry our tasks; all work comes to an end - John 9:4


2008-07-13 - Purpose Driven Life - Sharing Your Message (Lessons)

David - "God, teach me lessons for living so I can stay the course" - Psalms 119:33
Solomon - gave us books of Proverbs filled with practical lessons

Here are some questions to help you remember the lesson God has taught us:

  1. Taught us through failure
  2. Taught us through a lack of money
  3. Taught us through pain and sorrow
  4. Taught us through waiting
  5. Taught us through illness
  6. Taught us through disappointment
  7. Taught us through people (family, friends, church, critics)

 



2008-07-17 - Purpose Driven Life - Becoming a World-Class Christian (part 3)
Shift from "here and now" thinking to eternal thinking

Eternal thinking will keep us from majoring on minor issues
We fix our eyes on what is unseen - 2 Corinthians 4:18
Deal sparingly on things the world trusts on you - 1 Corinthians 7:31
Let's strip off anything that holds us back - Hebrews 12:1

Invest in the future (in heaven)
Store up treasure in heaven - Matthew 6:20-21
Real treasure in God in heaven and the friends we can bring with us - 1 Timothy 6:19

2008-07-22 - 30 Days at the Cross - Hating Sin

We can feel pain because God feels pain
By his wounds you have been healed - 1 Peter 2:24

Questions:

  • Have you loved someone wholeheartedly and they stopped loving you?
  • Has someone take advantage of you?
  • Have you ever been neglected, forgotten, or rejected?

Amazing grace cost amazing pain

Don't you know that friendship with the world is hatred toward God? - James 4:4-5

How does God feel about:

  • Lack of trust?
  • Sexual sin?
  • Lack of care?
  • Being pushed aside because of school or business?
The greater capacity to love, the greater the capacity to feel pain

Imagine that you can home from work and you found a dog that just kill your child
We killed Jesus with our sin, how should we be treated?
  • How do you feel about sin? Do you hate it?
  • Do you allow sin to stay around?
Your hatred toward sin is in proportion to your love for the one who died for you
Resist the devil and he will flee; Come near to God and he will near to you - James 4:7-10

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

2008-11-22 - Raising Awesome Kids - Strength and Conviction (part 2)
Jesus is strong - we should be too

Challenges should not break us down into depression or despair
If we fall, who will stand?
God did not give us a spirit of timidity, but of power, love, and self-discipline - 2 Timothy 1:7

Need to strong physically as well
Get out and get some exercise - take some fat off

Jesus was a carpenter, he walked every went
Your child will be proud to bring their friends home to meet you
Youthful energy from a older person is very impressive



2009-01-01 - Raising Awesome Kids - How to Nuture Confidence (part 2)
Help them improve in areas of weakness
Encourage your children to be well-rounded
Academics are too important to neglect just because it does not come easy

Examples:
  • Women of Proverbs 31 - skills ranged from homemaking to business and management
  • David - shepherd, soldier, political leader, songwriter, and musician

Help them form upbuilding friendships
All young people need to belong to a group
If they are generally outsiders:
  • Teach your children to act differently - to not turn people off
  • Or steer them to toward another group
Don't be afraid to monitor your children's friendships
If you can't help someone be better or if either one of you makes the other a worse person, then you can not be friends


2009-01-23 - Jesus with People - Touching the Untouchable

Jesus had compassion and healed the man with leprosy - Luke 5:12-18
Jesus is filled with compassion - Mark 1:41

Jesus was different:

  • He hurt for those whose lives were devastated by illness
  • He went to great lengths to be with them
  • Helped and encouraged them
  • Made himself available to them and spent many hours with them - Mark 1:32-34

What Jesus did we can also do (beside healing):

  • Include those who are sick when you can
  • Find ways to serve
  • Help and encourage

Society shrinks back - hospitals are not our favorite place
Jesus reached out his hand and touched
The sick need real involvement in their lives

Somehow, we think that the person is responsible for his or her condition
In some cases yes, but we can not oversimplify God's working in our world

Job "friends" did not understand what God was doing
How unsearchale his judgement and his paths beyond tracing out - Romans 11:33

How can I imitate Jesus by "reaching out" in compassion to the sick?



2009-01-30 - Jesus with People - Greatest in th Kingdom
I tell you the truth, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom  of heaven - Matthew 18:1-4

Father in heaven is not willing that any of these little ones should be lost - Matthew 18:12-14

We need to become like children in a very specific way
Our human nature wants to be first and to have control
Matthew 18 were driven by the same desire - they asked Jesus "Who is the greatest?"
When become like little children, we become like Jesus

Paraphrase - Because of your power-hungry pride you guys are not even in the kingdom of God, and nothing will change this fact unless you start imitating this child

After Jesus' sacrifice, all his teachings made sense
Having a child's humility is impossible until we understand the cross
Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends - John 15:13

Must see other brothers and sisters in Christ as God's little spiritual children who must be cared for
God's heart is that not a single person be lost
Do we feel the personal responsibility for others?

Who do you know who is struggling spiritually? What can you do to help them?

2009-02-05 - Jesus with People - Realness

When it comes to friendship, Jesus again sets the standard

Jesus knew John:

  • Jesus saw his weaknesses - yet accepted him - Mark 3:17
  • Jesus did not hesitate to call him to be a follower - spite of his temperament - Mark 1:19-20
  • He expect John to change - Luke 9:51-56
  • Jesus questioned his commitment when John sought power - Mark 10:35-37

Incredible thing about John is that it would seem that he never doubted Jesus' love

He refered to himself 5 times as the "disciple that Jesus loved"



2009-02-07 - Jesus with People - Openness

Jesus opened his heart to his friends
It is why John knew Jesus was troubled during the night at the garden - John 13:21

Jesus completely bared his very soul to his three closest friends - Matthew 26:38
He did not retreat to be alone - drew John and others close to him

All the while knowing that they were unworthy of his trust and fell sleep when he needed them the most



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

2009-02-23 - Jesus with People - Will He Find Faith?

Luke 18:1-8 - Jesus tells of a parable about praying not giving up; concluding, 'will he find faith on the earth?'

After Jesus was crucified and resurrected he could have gone home to the Father but chose to remain with his friends again
Enter the scene on the road to Emmaus

He wanted to know their hearts. Where was their faith? - They still did not get it

He did not walk away in disgust and give up on them
He waited to see if their faith would revive



2009-03-17 - Promises of God - Encouragement From Disciples

Jesus overcame temptation by using scripture, prayer, and he called others for encouragement from others

He deliberately sought out support and encouragement from his 3 closest friends
He also expressed his disappointment at their failure to help

We desperately need relationships for encouragement EVERY day - Hebrews 3:12-13
Tempatation comes every day

There is no excuse in an age of modern technology for getting in touch



2009-04-16 - Promises of God - Never Give Up
Never give up - Hebrews 10:35-39

Why?

  • God has pledged to save us for all eternity - Revelation 21:1-7
  • Forgive our sins - 1 John 1:5-2:2
  • Provide us with all we need for life and godliness - 2 Peter 1:3-4
  • Give us great friends and huge spiritual family - Mark 10:29-31
  • Show us a way out when tempted - 1 Corinthians 10:13
  • Comfort us in our troubles - 1 Corinthians 1:3-7
  • Equip us for any challenge, any work, any time - 2 Timothy 2:20-21


2009-05-10 - No one like him - His Courage
Submissive yes, Timid and fearful, no.
Submissiveness, not cowardly or silence – gave up self for others

Wanted loyalty over their families and friends (Luke 14:25-27)
They must give up everything for salvation (Luke 14:28-33)

Who can accept it? (John 6:60)
Many no longer followed him (John 6:66)

1. Rich young ruler found that Jesus’ message would not change for anyone (Luke 18:18-30)

2. Jesus never held back – Jesus and turning over tables of thieves
  • Came from the wrong town
  • No educational credentials
  • Follower were common people
3. Courage to go to the cross

2009-05-31 - No one like him - Even Death on the Cross
All during Jesus life, his brutal death was on his mind; he struggled and submitted to it (John 12:27)

At Gethsemane, did not try to do it alone but asked for help from his friends (Mark 14:32-34); Peter and Judas did not ask for help

One of the most important words in the Bible, Jesus – not as I will, but as you will (Mark 14:35-36)

The image of the cross was so gruesome that it took 500 years to appear in art

2009-06-17 - A Life of Impact - Gentleness and Fueling

Gentleness

Mark 1:29-34

  • At times we need to raise our voices and push in order to get things done.
  • At the same time using gentle tone and pitching in to help will accomplish far more good.

Fueling

Mark 1:35-39

  • People who love sleep don’t usually change the world
  • Jesus slept when he had the time
  • Jesus was extremely eager to pray
  • Most of us live with only a vague idea of purpose
  • Our personal ministries – can be tempted to lose the fire, to settle down, and get comfortable
  • We laugh and patronize at younger friends who are “idealist, zealots, and radicals


Next 25 >>