Phil 2:1-2
2 If you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any fellowship with the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, 2 then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and purpose.
Perhaps often the main problem in the Christian life is not that we don’t try hard enough to be good but that we haven’t believed the Gospel and received its finished reality into all parts of our life. To often, we miss understand the Gospel by spending to much time thinking about ourselves and what we need to do rather than Jesus and what He has already done.
Oftentimes we misunderstand spiritual progress by measuring our own effort or lack there of. Focusing on the quality of our works or our stand against sin places the focus off of Christ and on to ourselves. The focus of the Gospel, the beauty of the Gospel, the power of the Gospel is not in us and our efforts but in Christ and His finished work!
Believing again and again the Gospel of God’s free justifying grace everyday is the spiritual progress we are called to. Spiritual growth is returning to the beginning over and over again! Meditating on, thinking on, and receiving the fullness of Christ and His Work in your life.
Martin Luther wrote, “It is not imitation that makes sons; it is sonship that makes imitators.” Once the Gospel frees you from having to do anything for Jesus, you will want to do everything for Jesus.
Desire spiritual progress in your life? Go back to the beginning. Meditate on Christ –His life, His message, His work. Marvel at His grace, the power of His name, the completeness of His work. Believe and receive all that Christ has done, that is the Gospel.
Once you have done that again and again, what are you going to do now that you do not have to do anything? That is Spiritual Progress!
Blessings,
Darren
Tuesday, February 28, 2012
Monday, February 20, 2012
Small Details
15 Again the Israelites cried out to the Lord, and he gave them a deliverer — Ehud, a left-handed man, the son of Gera the Benjamite. - Judges 3:15
I love the fact that I serve a big God. A God that holds the world in His hand. A God large enough to oversee all the works of mankind without the slightest limitation. A God that knows the beginning from the end. A God that always has a plan that He is working through mankind for His glory and His purpose.
This is what is happening here in our text. God hears the cries of his people as a nation and rises up a leader to deliver them. I love that.
But there is something else that I love about God. He is a God that cares about the small details. He knows us individually. He concerns Himself with even the smallest matters of our lives. Ehud wasn’t just a man, any man, generic in name or personality or individuality. He was a man that God knew personally and took note of. A left handed man.
Remember something today. Yes, God is big. Big enough to handle any and every situation that could ever arise. But God is also personal enough to care about the small details of your life. He knows you. Your heart, your feelings, your preferences, your circumstances, your name. Nothing is too big for Him but neither is anything to small.
Feeling insignificant? Unnoticed among the crowd? Unimportant in this big world?
Not to God. He notices it all and cares deeply about you…about me.
Matt 10:30-31
30 And even the very hairs of your head are all numbered. 31 So don't be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows.
NIV
Blessings,
Darren
I love the fact that I serve a big God. A God that holds the world in His hand. A God large enough to oversee all the works of mankind without the slightest limitation. A God that knows the beginning from the end. A God that always has a plan that He is working through mankind for His glory and His purpose.
This is what is happening here in our text. God hears the cries of his people as a nation and rises up a leader to deliver them. I love that.
But there is something else that I love about God. He is a God that cares about the small details. He knows us individually. He concerns Himself with even the smallest matters of our lives. Ehud wasn’t just a man, any man, generic in name or personality or individuality. He was a man that God knew personally and took note of. A left handed man.
Remember something today. Yes, God is big. Big enough to handle any and every situation that could ever arise. But God is also personal enough to care about the small details of your life. He knows you. Your heart, your feelings, your preferences, your circumstances, your name. Nothing is too big for Him but neither is anything to small.
Feeling insignificant? Unnoticed among the crowd? Unimportant in this big world?
Not to God. He notices it all and cares deeply about you…about me.
Matt 10:30-31
30 And even the very hairs of your head are all numbered. 31 So don't be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows.
NIV
Blessings,
Darren
Monday, February 13, 2012
Wait
Ex 24:15-17
15 When Moses went up on the mountain, the cloud covered it, 16 and the glory of the Lord settled on Mount Sinai. For six days the cloud covered the mountain, and on the seventh day the Lord called to Moses from within the cloud. –NIV
Did you notice that??? SIX DAYS Moses waited and on the seventh day God showed up. Not six minutes, not six hours…six days.
If you are like me, it can be difficult to wait and scriptures like this can make you uncomfortable. Yet time and again I am reminded that God does not feel the need nor pressure to conform to our microwave society but rather often prefers to make me slow down and use the crock pot!
Delayed gratification is not highly valued in our now society. Quick, fast, easy is our motto. Yet quick is not always most effective, fast is not always most efficient and easy is not always excellence.
I am convinced that often times the answer to our hurried pace and frantic schedule is exactly what God made Moses do…WAIT. Wait until our mind quits racing, our bodies relax and our spirits are open so that we can HEAR what God has to say.
God will answer, just remember that His answers sometimes requires us to WAIT FIRST.
Isa 40:31
31 But those who wait on the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint. –NKJV
Blessings,
Darren
15 When Moses went up on the mountain, the cloud covered it, 16 and the glory of the Lord settled on Mount Sinai. For six days the cloud covered the mountain, and on the seventh day the Lord called to Moses from within the cloud. –NIV
Did you notice that??? SIX DAYS Moses waited and on the seventh day God showed up. Not six minutes, not six hours…six days.
If you are like me, it can be difficult to wait and scriptures like this can make you uncomfortable. Yet time and again I am reminded that God does not feel the need nor pressure to conform to our microwave society but rather often prefers to make me slow down and use the crock pot!
Delayed gratification is not highly valued in our now society. Quick, fast, easy is our motto. Yet quick is not always most effective, fast is not always most efficient and easy is not always excellence.
I am convinced that often times the answer to our hurried pace and frantic schedule is exactly what God made Moses do…WAIT. Wait until our mind quits racing, our bodies relax and our spirits are open so that we can HEAR what God has to say.
God will answer, just remember that His answers sometimes requires us to WAIT FIRST.
Isa 40:31
31 But those who wait on the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint. –NKJV
Blessings,
Darren
Monday, February 6, 2012
YOU are on God's Mind
“What is man that you are mindful of him, the son of man that you care for him?”
Psalm 8:4
If you stop to consider a minute what David the psalmist is saying it is pretty amazing. Unbelievable, really. The God of the universe, creator of all things, He who sits outside of time and eternity and controls the oceans and winds in His hands…actually thinks about you and me. Not just casually, or generically but personally concerns himself about our lives and all that we experience. How great must God’s love for you and me be that His attention and affection is constantly towards us? Yet, that is exactly who God is and how important you are to Him!
I encourage you to stop and consider today the implications of knowing that YOU are continually in God’s thoughts…
“How precious concerning me are your thoughts, O God! How vast is the sum of them! Were I to count them, they would outnumber the grains of sand.”
Psalm 139:17
Feeling alone today? Unnoticed or uncared for? Unloved or unappreciated? Rest assured that YOU are on God’s mind today! Not only are you on God’s mind but His thoughts towards you are good and precious. That is the God who loves us!
Blessings,
Pastor Darren
Psalm 8:4
If you stop to consider a minute what David the psalmist is saying it is pretty amazing. Unbelievable, really. The God of the universe, creator of all things, He who sits outside of time and eternity and controls the oceans and winds in His hands…actually thinks about you and me. Not just casually, or generically but personally concerns himself about our lives and all that we experience. How great must God’s love for you and me be that His attention and affection is constantly towards us? Yet, that is exactly who God is and how important you are to Him!
I encourage you to stop and consider today the implications of knowing that YOU are continually in God’s thoughts…
“How precious concerning me are your thoughts, O God! How vast is the sum of them! Were I to count them, they would outnumber the grains of sand.”
Psalm 139:17
Feeling alone today? Unnoticed or uncared for? Unloved or unappreciated? Rest assured that YOU are on God’s mind today! Not only are you on God’s mind but His thoughts towards you are good and precious. That is the God who loves us!
Blessings,
Pastor Darren
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