Tag Archives: Trust Jesus

ALL ABOUT ATTITUDE.051815

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Group of people sitting in a circle. Hugging each otherYesterday we had Sunday School for youth at our church.  The discussion was loosely based on the Lectionary.  We discussed two passages in particular, one was Jesus’ prayer in John 17, where He says, “I pray that they (the disciples) may all be one.  As I am one with You Father, and You are one with Me, they may be one with Us, that the world may know that You sent me.” The other passage was Psalm 1, verses 1-3, where David says, “Blessed is the one who does not walk in the counsel of the ungodly, nor stand in the way of sinners, nor sit in the seat of the scornful; but his delight is in the law of the Lord, and in His Law does he meditate both day and night.  He shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that brings forth its fruit in its season, whose leaf also shall not wither; and whatever he does shall prosper.”

We talked a little about what it means to “be one” with God.  About how if we trust God, His own Spirit comes to live in our own hearts, and in a real sense, we are all one with Jesus and God because we all share the same Spirit.  We even talked a little about how when Jesus’ Spirit comes to live in our hearts, we have a change of the way we look at things, the way we feel about things, so that we are better able to DO what we’re supposed to in a spiritual sense and in a natural sense as well, because God is supernaturally moving in our hearts and our lives. Continue reading →

Kairos-A Christian.051415

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[This is an excerpt from the Kairos talk “A Christian”]

the Good SamaritanLOVE is about mercy and forgiveness; Mercy is being nice to someone (cuttin’ them a little slack) even when they deserve to be punished.  That’s what God does for us.

Forgiveness is what love is in practice.  It’s what happens when we love people enough to forgive them, even when they are wrong and we’re right; even when no one is looking and it won’t help us a bit.  Forgiveness is the evidence of mercy in our individual personal relationships.

In 1 Corinthians 13:4, it says ‘Love is patient.’  In the King James version of the Bible, and in the original Greek the verse says, “Love suffers long.”  That means if you really love someone, you put up with them.  I’m thinking about my kids when they were teenagers.  It means that you put up with them, even though you’ve told them 15 times what you expect, and they’re still doing it wrong, very likely on purpose and not accidentally.  That’s what it means when it says love suffers long. Continue reading →

WHAT? A CHRISTIAN? WHO IS THAT? 051315

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[The following is an excerpt from the Kairos Talk: A Christian]

Silhouette illustration of a man praying under the lightWhen we follow Jesus, we learn to love, because Jesus is in our hearts. We begin to see with Jesus’ eyes, and hear with Jesus’ ears, and feel with Jesus’ heart.  We’re not struggling to love others, to love ourselves and to love God, because Jesus’ Spirit is inside our hearts loving others through us.

So how in the world do we reach the point of having Jesus live His eternal life in us?  We have to give up.  We have to quit trying to do good and do right and never make mistakes.  If you finally get that message, that you can’t do it on your own, you can’t do it in your own power, you cannot possibly be good enough to satisfy God, and you accept the gift of Jesus’ death on the cross, and surrender yourself to Him, THEN you can start the journey of following Jesus.

Here’s the central message of this talk.   We’re all a bunch of pieces of manure.  We stink.  And what’s worse, we’re not getting any better.  It’s not hard to see that without God we’re not going to make it out of here alive.  And I don’t mean this prison.  I mean this life, my life, your life, in this world.  The only way we’re going to make it is if we humble ourselves and accept Jesus as our Savior, and start letting Jesus live His life in us.

A CHRISTIAN: 051215

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concepts of the fruits of the Spirit as from Galatians 5:22

This is the first part of the Kairos talk, A CHRISTIAN: I call it “How to Quit Struggling and Start Walking the Walk and Talking the Talk.” Luke 9:23-24, says, “If anyone would be My disciple, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me.”  Just so you’ll know; the word disciple means follower.  So if you want to be a follower of Jesus, what do you have to do?  Three things: 1] Deny yourself, 2] Take up your cross daily, and 3] Follow Jesus. Continue reading →

OBSTACLES TO GOD’S GRACE: 051115:

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FARMER WITH CORN.051115‘Obstacles’ is the next to the last talk on the Kairos Weekend Program in the prisons.  “We’ve been talking all weekend about God’s plan for our lives.  Let me tell you what His plan is for us; to surrender ourselves to Him.  To do whatever He wants us to on a minute by minute basis.  To accept the gift of His grace and share it with others.  Pretty simple; but it’s not easy.

What is Grace?  It is unmerited favor.  That means God being nice to us when we didn’t deserve it.  Grace is a lot like mercy, Mercy is God being nice to us when we deserved to be punished. Continue reading →

FRIENDSHIP WITH GOD. 051015

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love . wallpaperThis is from a Kairos talk called “Friendship with God”.  I want to start by telling you a Bible verse.  It’s Proverbs 3:5-6.  “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not to your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge Him and He will direct your path.”  That’s my verse.  That’s the verse I live by every day.  Trusting in God is the focus of my life.  The part about not leaning on your own understanding is harder, since I’m always trying to figure out why stuff happens; and a lot of times, God doesn’t tell me the why.  So I just have to trust.  Remember, “Trust in the Lord with all your heart,  .   .   . and He will direct your path.”

What is a friend? Is it somebody who agrees with me all the time and takes my side on every issue?   Not necessarily. In fact they may disagree, if they see me doing or saying something which might hurt me.  Friendship is about trust. Trust is progressive.  It grows through experience.  When you find someone you can trust, you want to spend time with them; to figure out ways to agree with them most of the time; to do what they suggest, sometimes even when it seems crazy.  When you really get to trusting them, you really don’t lean on your own understanding.  You sorta accept them and what they say at face value, without really thinking about it. Continue reading →

WALKING ON WATER.040415

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HIn Matthew 14: 29-30, it says, “So [Jesus] said, “Come.” And when Peter had come down out of the boat, he walked on the water to go to Jesus. But when he saw that the wind was strong, he was afraid; and began to sink .  .  .”

Usually when we talk about walking on water, we’re referring to Jesus.  If you’re perfect, like Jesus, you can walk on water.  LOL.  We just don’t quite measure up.  But here’s ole Peter, throwing one leg over the side, then the other, and sliding down till his feet touched the water, then turning and walking away toward Jesus.  Just a regular human, like you and me.  Maybe the only difference was Peter was seeing Jesus do it, so he actually believed that under the spell of Jesus’ power, even he might be able to do some miraculous thing like walk on the water. Continue reading →

What Shall We Do? 020915

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AT PENTECOST: Now when they heard this, they were cut to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, “Men and brethren, what shall we do?”  Then Peter said to them, “Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is to you and to your children, and to all who are afar off, as many as the Lord our God will call.”   Acts 2:37-39

DURING JESUS’ EARTHLY MINISTRY: Then they said to Him, “What shall we do, that we may work the works of God?”  Jesus answered and said to them, “This is the work of God, that you believe [trust, rely on, and have faith in] Him whom He sent.”  John 6:28-29

The simplified version of this question is: What shall we do to get right with God?  And the answer is: Give up and trust Him!!! What is the work you do for God?  Trust Him.  ‘Repent’ in Peter’s words is the same as ‘trust’ in Jesus’ words.  ‘Baptized in the name of Jesus for the remission of sins’ is the same as ‘accept and proclaim that’ “you believe (trust in) Jesus whom God sent”, and [in His substitutionary sacrifice for YOU].

Jesus didn’t say the part about the Holy Spirit because the Holy Spirit was not yet sent, but Peter did, because he was experiencing the Gift of Holy Spirit at that very moment.  “For the promise [really] is to you and to your children, and to all who are afar off.”  Just so you’ll know, we need to renew our commitment to Jesus not only in the beginning of our personal relationship with God, but also every day.