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Searching for "sense" in the Quiet Time Archive
Displaying results from "0" to "25". (79 found)

2008-02-25 - Power of Gratitude - Solitary Places
When gratitude cause us to rise early to spend time with God - seeing one of the greatest fruits
No one says that QT must happen in the morning - it always goes better than the days when trying to work out another time during the day

I learned to pray when I sensed that I would come apart at the seams emotionally unless I didn't

Three things helped with prayer life:
  • Solitary place - no bothered for a curtain amount of time
  • Can walk and pray
  • Can pray out loud
writing can help - proven by therapists -  helps with negative thoughts

There is  no gratitude without prayer

2008-03-10 - Be Still My Soul - Quiet Time

Jesus deeply valued his time alone with God

Jesus sought out quiet time
"Come with me by yourselves to a quiet place and get some rest" - Mark 6:31b
"Jesus often withdrew to lonely places and prayed" - Luke 5:16
Occasional devotions are OK but should never replace our private time with God

Jesus found a quite place
"But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father" - Matthew 6:6
If you have no quite place - your relationship will be shallow and limited

Jesus urged alertness
Jesus pleaded with them to be awake and alert in prayer - Mark 14:37-42
Be "clear minded and self-controller" so that we can pray - 1 Peter 4:7

How long? until a sense of peace and closeness with God

How much time in prayer and study? mix it up; our relationship should not become stale

"Remain in me, and I will remain in you" - John 15:4-8



2008-04-13 - Falling in Love with God - Our Perception

We must wafe through our fog of experience and except the truth about God

We can not love a God who is created in our own image

God's timing doesn't always make sense to us:

  • Sarah - 25 years before blessing her with a son
  • Moses - was 80 years old before God
  • Joshua - 40 years of preaching outside of Jersalem
  • Jesus - 40 days of tempation in the dessert for about 1000 days of ministry

Some of us have bad days, maybe years. How do we return to God?

Our only hope is to believe in his promises more than we believe in our own perceptions



2008-05-24 - Purpose Driven Life - What Drives Your Life?

What shouldn't drive our life (will miss God's purposes for your life):

People are driven by guilt

Allows the past to control their future
God's purpose is not limited to our past

God turned a murder (Moses and Paul) into a leader and a coward into a hero

God specializes in giving people a fresh start

People are driven by resentment and anger - Resentment always hurts you more than it does the other person

People are driven by fear - from unrealistic expectations and high-control situations

People are driven by materialism - Your value is not determined by your valuables

People are driven by the need for approval - those who follow the crowd usually get lost in it

Living a purpose driven life, knowing your purpose:

  1. Gives meaning to your life
    • I have laboed to no purpose - Isaiah 49:4
    • My life drags by - day after hopeless day - Job 7:6
    • My life makes no sense - Job 7:16
  2. Simplies your life
    • You have just enough time to do God's will - too much to do means you doing things you shouldn't be doing
  3. Focuses your life
  4. Motivates your life
  5. Prepares you for eternity


2008-07-23 - 30 Days at the Cross - It Keeps on Cleansing

The blood of Jesus purifies us from all sin - 1 John 1:7
"Purifies" = present tense as in a da by day, constsant cleansing

His blood was the only thing that could possibly attain forgiveness for me - Ephesians 1:7
Blood make atonement for one's life

Imagine the priest persuading an Israelite to trust God's ways and offer the lamb
Do we have more faith in our weak, self-invented sacrifics than we do in God's plan fo grace?

Jesus' sacrifice for our sins must be accepted first for the joy of our sacrifical life to make sense
His blood is keeping us cured as we openly confess, repent, and appeal to God for our forgiveness - 1 John 8:2-6

Where does your value come from? As a blood-bought sinner or my ability to produce a perfect life

 



2008-07-24 - 30 Days at the Cross - Freedom of Forgiveness
True forgiveness - made possible by God

Jesus forgave when it was most difficult by:

Facing the truth

Jesus didn't expect life to be fair
He expected God to be fair
He accepted everything from God without question (in the end)
Judas only received kindness from Jesus
Taught forgiving your brother should be limitless - Luke 17:1-5

Feeling the pain

Jesus was totally honest with his feeling both God and man
Greatest test was at the garden of Gethsemane

Freeing his heart

He trusted his Father and focused on him rather than on his own pain
He yielded to God's sense of justice in the most unjust situation

1 Peter 2:23
  • He made no treats
  • He did not retaliate
We must follow Jesus example:
  • He honest and call sin, sin
  • Allow ourselves to feel the pain - fear or anger
  • Surrender to God or be bitter, resent, or even apathy


2008-07-26 - 30 Days at the Cross - Wisdom and Power of God

Will the cross ever make sense to the world?

Will all the wisdom of the world, no one has found God
Man destined to frustration by God himself to show themselves helpless without God

Jews sought a miracle worker general ignoring scriptures like Isaiah 53
Greeks described god as apatheia - total inability to feel; looked don on uncultered Christians

God's plan was never to impress prideful scholars or to find acceptance among the rulers of the ages

Some things never change:

  • Graduate student in the laborary for 100 hours - OK
  • Athlete who trains 6-8 hours a day - OK
  • Executive working 60 hours a week - OK
  • Someone passionate about Christ - Bad

Cross is foolishness to those who are perishing
Man without the Spirit does not accpet spiritual things - 1 Corinthians 2:14
God has blinded the minds of unbelievers - 2 Corinthians 4:4

God didn't come to impress the world. Are you?



2008-09-07 - Teach Us To Pray - Honesty and Openness
Honest communication is crucial element to any great relationship: God, spouse, children.

Consider how ludicrous it is to not be real with God:
  • He knows what is in our hearts
  • He knows what we are really seeking
  • He knows what we need
Only honesty with God makes sense!

Moses:
  • He questioned the wisdom of God's choice
  • Argued his lack of eloquence
  • Says he does not want the responsibility
  • He is honest - he gives God something to work with - Exodus 4:13
David - example of his Psalms:
  • Why do you hide yourself in trouble? - Psalms 10:1-2 - logically does not make sense but this is where David was
  • Later, he works it out in prayer (v17) - LORD, you have heard the request of the oppressed; you make them feel secure because you listen to their prayer.

It is in our openness that we hear our faithlessness and can turn away from it.

God wants a relationship with you
He wants to know our longings, aspirations, problems, anxieties, doubts, and even our sin

2008-10-19 - Man of Prayer - Praying for our family

There is no greater privilege and responsibility than to pray for our spouse and children
It boggles the imagination to see how the quality of our family life can be affected by exercise this privilege

Powerful spiritual forces of evil try to undermine God's foundational institutions like the family

Bible clearly teaches that our struggle come from the spiritual forces outside conscious perception - Ephesians 6:12
Praying sometimes make things worst (at the beginning) because Satan is on the attack

Each of us need to realize that how we pray for our spouse is limited only by our creativity
If you want the kind of relationship that God intended you to have with your wife, prayer will be a major factor in seeing that desire realized

When we have been faithful in praying for my children, we have a great sense of peace about their lives
Christian dads have a tremendous privilege and a straggering responsibilty to pray their children



2008-11-18 - Raising Awesome Kids - Second Thing Second
Assuming God is first, who is next on our list? Our spouse

Devotion to our lifetime companion must be the greatest earthly love of all

Kids are our flesh and blood, but we are one flesh with our spouse

Some make up for the affection by pouring all their love into their children
Makes them arrogant and/or insecure
Bag the excuses, example: too busy, take an honest look at your marriage

Little eyes and ears are fine-tuned to our frequency and they know

They love it when we love each other - it gives them a sense of peace, happiness, and security

Much of the anger and rebellion issues in kids can be traced back to marriage problem


2008-11-25 - Raising Awesome Kids - Model of Masculinity
In the image of God he created male and female - Genesis 1:27
Kids are extremely aware of the difference

World is so mixed up - men want to be women; women wanting to be men
Unnatural relations - Romans 1:24-27

The answer - the real thing will outshine the twisted

Homosexuality is not natural
No young boy was made that way by God

A great relationship with a strong, affectionate father reduces to virtually zero
Mama's boy or sissy:
  • Don't reject him
  • Don't ridicule him
  • Teach him to relate confidently to other boys
  • Teach him sports and manly skills
Daughters need a strong, affectionate father - gives her security
Needs sense of approval

If you are kind, strong and have a close relationship with your daughter, she will want to marry someone like you

2008-12-20 - Raising Awesome Kids - Power of Discipline (part 2)
  1. Temporary loss of possions or privileges

Talk about it with your spouse and come up with a deprivation of activity or possession plan
Most important aspect of this is thinking clearly through it and talking to your spouse before opening your mouth
Don't take away item on every offense - this diminishes the impact

  1. Extra work or jobs to do

Clean up their mess, doing extra work to pay off something - creates a deeper sense of responsibility
Punishment is actually a form of restitution



2008-12-27 - Raising Awesome Kids - Work Ethic and responsibility
Hard work and a sense of responsibility can be trained into a child
Laziness is a flaw

Sluggard finds nothing at harvest time - Proverbs 20:4
Sluggard says there is a lion road - Proverbs 26:13
Sluggard is a door on hinges - Proverbs 26:14

Stress loving hard work

School work is character issue
  • Are they giving their all?
  • Are they working hard?
Grade only is the wrong focus
Instead, make diligence and excellence the issue

It helps immensely if the oldest child is well trained

Give appropriate jobs and responsibilities around the house
  • Don't let your kids do all the work for other
  • Don't do all the work for them
  • Give allowances apportioned to age, responsibilities, and faithfulness in carrying them out


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?

2009-02-02 - Jesus with People - Seeing and Not Seeing
Luke 7:36-50 - Simon, I have something to tell you
Jesus is able to cut through the muck - right to the heart
He had outspoken clarity - Luke 7:40

In truth Simon saw neither the woman or himself for how they really were

Jesus did see the woman - Her sin was obvious as her brokenness
He actions came from her new sense of reality
Once she saw Jesus, she responded the only way she could have - compelled by love - 2 Corinthians 5:14

Jesus' words should have cut Simon deeply - But he who has been forgiven little lives little

He wants to have a relationship with us
Think of trying to have a relationship with ant - talking with it, caring for it and especially dying for it - it is unfathomable!

How many times did Jesus change people's view if God?

Who am I most like: Simon or the sinful woman?

2009-04-05 - Promises of God - Noahs Faith
Confidence in God's promise must be so great that we obey "even though" we don't understand and it does not make sense

By faith Noah, when warned about things not yet seen - Hebrews 11:7

  • Noah was commissioned by God to build a large ship in the middle of a dessert
  • Only his family would be persuaded to follow him into the ark
  • He did it for one reason: obedience to God


2009-04-06 - Promises of God - Abrahams Faith
By faith Abraham, called to place even through he did not know where is was going - Hebrews 11:8

Obedience to God is the only thing that makes sense

Ludicrous to think that our limited and mortal minds can out smart an omnipotent and omnipresent God

We will never find the blessing of God if we constantly question the wisdom of God

How do you feel about the word of obey?

2009-07-10 - A Life of Impact - Sounding the Alarm

Sounding the Alarm

Mark 7:1-13

  • Living by traditions = living in vain, a waste of time.
  • Jesus was not afraid to rebuke people, to “lay it out” when it was necessary.
  • When stirring up things, some people wake up to discover a true relationship with God or they will become furious
  • People of impact do not hesitate to raise their voices in order to shake people out of their slumber.
  • They are not afraid on how people react when they are disturbed from their sleep.
  • It is wrong to be silent and leave people comfortable in their false sense of security

Protectiveness

  • He stood up for his followers.
  • Jesus took responsibility for his disciple’s actions
  • When a leader stands up for and protects his followers, a strong loyalty is forged


2009-08-23 - Wild at Heart - Wild One whose image we bear

Where do we come from?

A man must know where he comes from and what he is made of both past and family fathers

Most men are trying not to be like their fathers

Who will they derive their sense of strength?

To men God is: Distant and weak (How they would describe their father)
Jesus has become – Mister Rogers with a beard
God – gives a reason and purpose to fight

Reminds us that life lived in fear is no life at all – all will die someday
Jesus = Mother Teresa or William Wallace? Both



2009-09-11 - Wild at Heart - False self (part 2)
Enemy always tempts us to take back control and to recover and rebuild false self
We must remember that it is out of love God stops our imposter
God disciplines those he loves, do not lose heart - Hebrews 12:5-6
We must walk away from the false self
Simply accept the invitation to leave all that we’ve relied on and venture out with God

No clue to what your false self may be?
  • What is my effect on you?
  • What am I like to with?
  • What don’t you feel free to bring up with me?
If you never ever say a word in a meeting because you fear you might say something stupid, well then it’s time to speak up
If you dominate meetings - sense of worth
Do you face fears head on?

Losing false self is painful
Like losing a close friend
Journey has pain but is toward freedom, healing, and authenticity

2009-09-23 - Wild at Heart - The Enemy (part 4)
The world is a carnival of counterfeits, counterfeit battles. Counterfeit adventures, counterfeit beauties
Men should think of it as a corruption of their strength
Battle your way to the top says the world and you will be a man

World give a false sense of security
  • Where does your sense of power come from?
  • Is it your position?
Look to be the servant of all
Want to know how the world really feels about you – start living out your true strength
Say what you think, stand for the underdog, challenge foolish polices
Many of us have actually been afraid to let our strength show up because the world doesn’t have a place for it

2009-10-24 - Repentance - What It Is (part 1)
What is repentance?

Repentance is the first word of the gospel

Na,,ham = most often used of God’s repentance
Shu, b = a physical turning or returning of an object
epostrepho = a Greek work similar to Shu, b

metanoia = used as the first word in the gospel (change in mind and attitude)
  • meta = after, change, implies there was a before
  • noia = denotes the faculty of physical and intellectual perception, then also the power to arrive at moral judgments

“he came to his senses” – Luke 15:17
“he opened their minds” – Luke 24:45
“open their eyes” – Acts 26:18
“set their minds on things above” – Romans 8:5

2009-10-28 - Repentance - Illustrations (part 2)
Paradigm Shift
  • Paradigm - describes the way that scientists work within a model for making sense of the world through observed data
  • Shift/meta – changing one’s thoughts of the world
  • Since paradigm shifts represents drastic changes to the rules of game – it is rarely done by scientists

Solar system

  • Man/earth was the center of the universe.
  • As we found for planets, it was more complex to think the earth was the center
  • Copernicus (1530) put the sun in the center – leading astronomers rejected the new paradigm


2009-11-05 - Repentance - Jesus Opens Our Eyes (part 3)
The Purpose of Parables
  • Parables offers an opportunity to slip a message past the defenses and filters
  • Kingdom parables
    • Parable of the Sower
      • watch out for Satan, he will try to rob you of the true and understanding of the kingdom
      • church needs to honest with how worldly cares (wealth, etc)
    • Parable of the Weeds
  • Repentance parables
    • Parable of the Lost Sheep
    • Parable of the Lost Coin
    • Prodical Son
      • Vivid picture of meanoia (when he came to his senses)
      • Data did not change, his thinking did
      • Younger son objectivity saw where he was with his father
      • Reoriented heart returns a reoriented life
      • Proves his repentance by his deeds


2009-12-25 - First the Kingdom - A Choice
Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted - Matthew 5:4

Jesus speaks primarily of a spiritual morning by choice

Other options, could choose to:
  • ignore it
  • postpone it
Why would we choose mourning?
  • Choose God over self
  • Realize we have broken his heart
  • Our response is to be broken, vulnerable, contrite, and humble
  • No other response makes sense or brings healing
Spiritual mourning is an element of true repentance

Godly sorrow brings repentance, leading to salvation - 2 Corinthians 7:10


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