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well its almost quarter of the year gone – doesnt time fly when we’re having fun… or is it a thing of getting older? so a good time to reassess how we’re going with reading the bible and walking with God….
do you follow a plan when you read?
do you read regularly?
do you have an intentional time you spend with God?
what’s your favourite part of the bible to read?
my bible plan is the hippocampusextensions.com/mcheyneplan/ (M’Cheyne Bible Plan) and goes through the NT and Psalms twice a year and the rest of the OT once.
i am currently reading in Leviticus, 2 Timothy, Ecclesiastes and Psalms and i am also playing a bit of catch up and reading in Hosea and 1 Kings still.
as i read i underline bits i like or am challenged by and am reading to learn more about who God is. not just facts but relationship.
i make notes as i go through the bible about verses that particularily jump out and encourage me or challenge me or that are relevant for where i am at now and endevour to keep blogging and sharing them.
i’m not a deep theologican but i do love God and i love His Word and believe it is a revelation of who he is – a real gift for us to learn about who he is and how to follow and serve and love Him. it is a guide on how to be light in this world and how to live a life pleasing to God.
when reading i am always asking myself 2 questions:
1. how can this be real in my life?
2. what does this reveal about God and who he is to me?
i also believe that as we read the Word that it “gets inside us” and transforms us and strengthens us and guides us. The Word challenges us and challenges us to draw near to God and to walk in his ways. it reveals who God is. it encourages me to trust him, to believe him, to have faith in him. i believe that as we make intentional time to read it that we are blessed, because God rewards those who seek him and those who obey him and those who trust him.
But without faith no one can please God. We must believe that God is real and that he rewards everyone who searches for him. Hebrews 11:6
Jesus told us that God is light and doesn’t have any darkness in him. Now we are telling you. 1 john 1:5
God is light!
Tonight at housegroup we are having bible night – where we just open the bible at a prechose chapter (by me) and read it and then share what we like, what we learn about God, how we can make it real in our lives, what challenges us etc…
and today while roaming around my domestic stuff i had a click moment where somethnig clicked – God is light! and in the beginning God said Let there be light and there was. light was one of the first things that God created – the first substance of the unvierse! interesting that the first thing God creates is a representation or a likeness or a “hey this is like God type thing” – LIGHT!
light is warm.
light is necessary for life.
light helps us to see the way.
light overcomes the darkness.
light brings joy.
light reveals beauty.
God is light.
There is no darkness in him at all.
we can trust him to be pure and holy and right and good and great and kind and loving and generous and compassionate and merciful and all that light is. light learns to be light from God.
Living the Crucified Life
Paul says EXAMINE YOURSELF: Examine yourselves as to whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. 2 Corinthians 13:5
How are you living?
Who are you living for?
What is your purpose?
Are you living an intentional life?
What does your life say about you?
Life is more than breathing. We are alive for a purpose and a reason. For such a time as this. And we have been chosen and called by the Almighty God to demonstrate his love and glory and grace to those around us. We are not Sims characters. We are not aimless purposeless beings.
Life is intentional.
HOW we live and WHO we live for is important.
Paul says examine yourself. Test yourself. He asks us to think about how we are living our lives – to make sure we are in the faith… to make sure we are living as God would want us to live… knowing Him.
I have been nailed to the cross with Christ. 20I have died, but Christ lives in me. And I now live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave his life for me.
I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.
Matthew 10:37-39
37If you love your father or mother or even your sons and daughters more than me, you are not fit to be my disciples. 38And unless you are willing to take up your cross and come with me, you are not fit to be my disciples. 39If you try to save your life, you will lose it. But if you give it up for me, you will surely find it. CEV
37 He who loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me. And he who loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me. 38 And he who does not take his cross and follow after Me is not worthy of Me. 39 He who finds his life will lose it, and he who loses his life for My sake will find it. NKJV
And he who does not take up his cross and follow Me [cleave steadfastly to Me, conforming wholly to My example in living and, if need be, in dying also] is not worthy of Me. Amplified
6You cannot be my disciple, unless you love me more than you love your father and mother, your wife and children, and your brothers and sisters. You cannot come with me unless you love me more than you love your own life. 27You cannot be my disciple unless you carry your own cross and come with me. Luke 14:26-27
Take = to seize, take ahold of
Follow after me = to be in the same way
There are rewards and consequences for how we live our lives.
Galatians 5:19-21 19People’s desires make them give in to immoral ways, filthy thoughts, and shameful deeds. 20They worship idols, practice witchcraft, hate others, and are hard to get along with. People become jealous, angry, and selfish. They not only argue and cause trouble, but they are 21envious. They get drunk, carry on at wild parties, and do other evil things as well. I told you before, and I am telling you again: No one who does these things will share in the blessings of God’s kingdom.
Revelation 21:8 But I will tell you what will happen to cowards and to everyone who is unfaithful or dirty-minded or who murders or is sexually immoral or uses witchcraft or worships idols or tells lies. They will be thrown into that lake of fire and burning sulfur. This is the second death.
Matthew 7:21-23 21Not everyone who calls me their Lord will get into the kingdom of heaven. Only the ones who obey my Father in heaven will get in. 22On the day of judgment many will call me their Lord. They will say, “We preached in your name, and in your name we forced out demons and worked many miracles.” 23But I will tell them, “I will have nothing to do with you! Get out of my sight, you evil people!”
So how do we do this in real life?
You probably don’t need me to give u a list of “good cruicified behaviour” – a check list of good character traits… You have the Holy Spirit within you to transform you and teach you and to tell you when you’re walking the right road and to warn you when you’re heading into dodgy territory…
You have the Word of God that shows us who God is and how he acts and what Jesus does – he is the one we model our lives on and follow.
Paul is pretty clear on what a Christian should do and not do… as well as that it isn’t about rules and regulations but about our character being the outward expression of our inward obedience and love for God and desire to please him.
The 10 commandments show us what the big NOTs are – do not murder, do not commit adultery, do not steal etc… and Jesus unpacks it in Matthew 5-7 about how that looks in real life, that anger = murder, that lust = adultery, that selfishness and coveting = thieving….
So we’re blessed to have the Word of God and the Holy Spirit of God to show us and teach us…. We just need to be open and listening and reading and learning and surrendering and following…
We sing all the songs…. “All you are, is all I want, I want to see you etc…” we need to LIVE it! we need to LIVE it! lets not just sing the words but lets put it into day to day practice and day to day life.
So HOW?
How do we carry our cross and follow Jesus?
How do we live the crucified life?
How do we seek first the kingdom of God?
How do we love God with all our heart, all our mind, all our strength?
How do we be real Christians?
We live our lives as a response to the love and grace God has poured out upon us.
I live my life in obedience as a response of thanks and awe and gratefulness to God for his salvation and love.
For God so loved me that he gave his only Son that I would not die but have eternal life.
It is not that I first loved God but that He loved me first and sent Jesus to die on the cross to pay the penalty for my sin.
My life is not my own…. It was rescued and redeemed and paid for by the blood of Jesus shed on the cross, to pay the penalty for my sin and rebellion against God.
Tonight… examine yourself. Test yourself.
Are you living as Jesus calls you to live?
Or are you living for yourself?
Tonight though we can make a fresh start.
Tonight we can come before God and repent – say sorry and then determine to live a changed life – and start fresh.
If you have turned away from God and have been living life your own way and rebelling from him – tonight you need to come and start again.
There are consequences for how we live our life. Consequences that are either rewards or not.
God is calling you to come and know him and to live for him pleasing him.
Start now. Start now.
So HOW?
How do we carry our cross and follow Jesus?
How do we live the crucified life?
How do we seek first the kingdom of God?
How do we love God with all our heart, all our mind, all our strength?
How do we be real Christians?
For me there are 3 keys:
- The Word
- Love
- Make the Choice
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The Word.
The Word shows us how we should live – who we should be – characteristics and principals
Psalm 119:9-11 With what shall a young man cleanse his way? By taking heed according to Your Word. With all my heart I have sought You; do not let me wander from Your Commandments. I have hidden Your Word in my heart, so that I might not sin against You.
How does a young person keep from sin? By hiding the Word of God in our hearts – by reading it and learning it and loving it and listening to what God reveals in it and doing it and thinking about it and being challenged by it….
Hebrews 4:12 For the Word of God is living and powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing apart of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.
You want to know how to live a life that pleases God… read your Bible. Its all in there and God will speak to you and challenge you.
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LOVE
John 14:23 Jesus replied: If anyone loves me, they will obey me. Then my Father will love them, and we will come to them and live in them
1 John 5:3 We show our love for God by obeying his commandments, and they are not hard to follow.
You might think God is a killjoy sometimes.
That he wants to restrict our lives and make us wear gray and be boring.
But that is so the opposite of who God is and his heart for each one of us.
He is the amazing Creator of the Universe – the universe is tucked into his hands – he speaks to us and teaches us and lives within us and uses us and heals us and transforms us… he gives us dreams and desires – he has a plan and a purpose for us that doesn’t suck but is the kind you hope for.
“God is not merely the best version of you that you can think of. God is far more than that, above and beyond all that you ask or think.”
Living a crucified life is about loving God. Knowing God and loving him. loving him and following him. day by day relationship with him. it is about sacrifice and obedience, yes, but done because of love, not because of “must do” or “should do” feelings, but because of love.
BREATHER/ILLUSTRATION: I love my husband and my children. There are sometimes I don’t feel like making dinner or doing the dishes or washing a trillion socks…. Or getting up in the middle of the night because someone needs to go toilet and cant see in the dark, or reading the little yellow digger for the 376th time… or the other unmentional messes and things I have to do as a mum. But I love my family and I don’t want them to starve or have no clothes to wear and I want them to love me and have joy in their lives. I could choose to be selfish and just do what I want… but I love them so I don’t…
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Make the choice.
Living for God is a choice. Living a life surrendered to him is a choice. Living a life that takes up the cross and says that it is no longer I that live but Christ that lives in me, a life that pleases God is a choice. A choice that is made every day, sometimes many times a day.
Romans 8:3-10 But God set you free when he sent his own Son to be like us sinners and to be a sacrifice for our sin. God used Christ’s body to condemn sin. 4He did this, so that we would do what the Law commands by obeying the Spirit instead of our own desires. 5People who are ruled by their desires think only of themselves. Everyone who is ruled by the Holy Spirit thinks about spiritual things. 6If our minds are ruled by our desires, we will die. But if our minds are ruled by the Spirit, we will have life and peace. 7Our desires fight against God, because they do not and cannot obey God’s laws. 8If we follow our desires, we cannot please God. 9You are no longer ruled by your desires, but by God’s Spirit, who lives in you. People who don’t have the Spirit of Christ in them don’t belong to him. 10But Christ lives in you. So you are alive because God has accepted you…
We make a choice to follow God and obey him. We make a choice to deny what our selfish desires want and to reject them and to obey God.
Sometimes the choice is obvious – do I shoplift or not? Do I go and get drunk or not? Do I go mess around with that boy or girl or not? Do I swear or not? Sometimes the choice is a bit more gray and comes down to us managing our emotions more than our actions… the whole anger/lust/selfishness thing… Its still a choice.
Make the decision before you go into life to obey God. Make the decision to be one that follows God. Let that colour every decision you make and every action you do. Let that influence who you are and what you do.
on sunday night i shared this in the devotions slot of our young adults service – this slot is to encourage our young adults to be regular and purposeful in reading the bible, that we read it to know God and his ways, to hear his voice… its not about knowing about God but knowing him in reality:
Anyone who hears and obeys these teachings of mine is like a wise person who built a house on solid rock. Rain poured down, rivers flooded, and winds beat against that house. But it did not fall, because it was built on solid rock. Matthew 7:24-25
we read our bibles regularily so that we know God and his ways.
we build our lives on the principals and instructions in His Word.
BUT we are not just reading to read about principals and instructions. you can read self help books on becoming a better person.
we read the bible because we are reading to know a man, a saviour, our God.
we are building our lives on THE ROCK – who is Jesus Christ – we build our lives on knowing him and his salvation and walking in relationship day by day with him.
1 Corinthians 10:4 … and drank the same spiritual drink, which flowed from the spiritual rock that followed them. That rock was Christ.
Psalm 28:1 To You I will cry, O LORD my Rock…
Psalm 62:6 He only is my rock and my salvation;
He is my defense;
I shall not be moved.
We build our lives on The Rock – on Jesus. when we build our lives upon teh rock the storms of life may come but we will stand firm.
Better is one day in your courts
than a thousand elsewhere;
I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God
than dwell in the tents of the wicked.
psalm 84:10
better is one encounter with God than any riches or relationship in the world.
better is one moment of knowing God than the best fulfillment of ambition or desire.
The LORD is constantly watching everyone, and he gives strength to those who faithfully obey him. 2 Chronicles 16:9
As bad as you are, you still know how to give good gifts to your children. But your heavenly Father is even more ready to give good things to people who ask.
“God is not merely the best version of you that you can think of. God is far more than that, above and beyond all that you ask or think.” The Shack
Anyone who hears and obeys these teachings of mine is like a wise person who built a house on solid rock. Rain poured down, rivers flooded, and winds beat against that house. But it did not fall, because it was built on solid rock. Matthew 7:24-25
Rain poured down.
Rivers flooded.
Wind beat against the house.
storms, voilence, destruction, damage, trouble, pain, worry, fear
in difficult times those who have built their lives not only on the principals of the Word but upon THE ROCK himself – upon JESUS – the Rock is Jesus Christ – will stand. Jesus is the Rock! Trust Him. Build your life upon Him and who he is and you will stand. NOT just about principals but upon a man, a saviour, the Lord!
A teacher of the Law of Moses came up to him and said, “Teacher, I’ll go anywhere with you!” Jesus replied, “Foxes have dens, and birds have nests. But the Son of Man doesn’t have a place to call his own.” Matthew 8:19-20
ANYWHERE the teacher says.
ANYWHERE?
sure, if it has prestigue and power and popularity and secuirty and comfort and self improvement and ambition….
but…
Jesus’ way is the way of the cross.
Jesus’ ANYWHERE is to Getheseme, the court, Calvary, the tomb.
Jesus’ anywhere is to lay down your life and take up your cross.
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