Thoughts on Christ and His Word

Erwin McManus, in his book An Unstoppable Force wrote: "There is no true leadership without facing problems." This should be obvious to us all by now. But concerning this truth David Ping in his book Quick to Listen Leaders writes: "Exposing problems sounds like fun, huh? Given the choice, most people would rather avoid dealing with even the most blatantly proverbial 'elephant in the room'. They'd rather blunder along turning a blind eye... As leaders intent on following Christ, we can't afford this kind of selective blindness. If we see problems coming, we need to name them and face them head-on." "...leaders bring problems into the light, not with condemning announcements or dramatic trumpet flourishes but with 'gentleness and respect.' We are not the source of the truth we quietly make known, but we must be its champions. It is not enough just to listen; we must also learn to practice the skill Ephesians 4:15 calls 'speaking the t...

The Life You’ ve Always Wanted by John Ortberg (My Thoughts) Chapter 13 “Suffering alone does not produce perseverance, only suffering that is endured somehow in faith”. Page 220 When God allows suffering, pain and trials into our lives it will only produce the desired result (spiritual growth) only if we endure it by faith---faithfully obeying God’s principles. True faith always expresses itself through obedience. If in the midst of suffering I mistreat others, cease praying or reading the Word, and throw myself into the illegitimate pleasures of this world to escape the pain, I am not acting in faith. The trial and suffering will have no positive spiritual value to me. I think my greatest time of spiritual growth was the 1 ½ years prior to moving to Georgia. The suffering, anguish, and difficulties associated with the move helped transform me for the better. I grew in: Loving others who acted unlovingly towards me Perseverance and hope when things were looking bad Faithfulness in...

The Life You’ ve Always Wanted by John Ortberg (My Thoughts) Chapter 12 God give me a well-ordered heart – To Love The right thing To the right degree In the right way With the right kind of love. Lord, let me love you supremely, above everything and everyone. Let me love others with the love of Jesus. Let me enjoy life and the things you give me. But more importantly, let me use the things you give me to love God and to love others. 'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.' 38 This is the first and greatest commandment. 39 And the second is like it: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' Matthew 22:37-39

The Life You’ ve Always Wanted by John Ortberg (My Thoughts) Chapter 11 “Take it and read” the voice spoke to Augustine. The Bible greatly impacted Augustine and has greatly impacted my life. I would not be the man I am today without the influence of the Bible. I want to be a man of one book; a man with a pure heart desiring one thing: to please Go in everything. Paul wrote: “So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.” 1 Cor. 10:31 This is my desire, my prayer, my hope for my life.

One sister tells another some inside information about what another sister is planning to do. The second sister can do nothing with this information, she will simply have to let it sit in her heart and stew over it convinced by this new info that the third sister is trying to get at her - to do her harm. But she can't try to confirm the info because the first sister asked her not to tell anyone. So the long loose tongue of the first sister has done Satan's work. The second sister now has a bitter heart against the third, but can do nothing with the info because she is sworn to secrecy. The third sister is oblivious to the fact that her words spoken in confidence have run their course and made their way to a destination it was never intended for. Perhaps she had no intended malice in speaking those words, but she is now, guilty or not, the object of the second sister's anger. Unfortunately, this story is true. I can only imagine that similar stories can be written by...

What is the purest form of worship? Singing Chris Tomlin songs with our hands raised high? Paul said this about worship: Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God — this is your spiritual act of worship . 2 Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is — his good, pleasing and perfect will. Romans 12:1-2 > When we offer our "bodies as living sacrifices" and separate them (make them holy) only for God's use, we are in the purest sense worshiping God. Like Abraham offered up Isaac turning him over completely to God (by almost killing him and burning his body) so too we give our bodies completely over to God's use. Thus our bodies are in a state of continual worship as we become "living sacrifices" . > We get to that state of continual worship b...

Today I find myself in Honduras on some mountain in the middle of the country. I’m here to pray and fast and seek God’s face with the other pastors from GCLA . As I sat on a rock overlooking the mountains and valleys, I read Romans 5 through which God reminded me again of my need to “Rejoice” and practice “Joy” in my life. “Now that we have been put right with God through faith, we have peace with God, through our Lord Jesus Christ.” (Romans 5:1 TEV ) As I read this verse I was able to rejoice today because right now, I enjoy “PEACE with God”. God is holding nothing against me today. I am “right with God”. Furthermore, by faith, God has brought me “into this experience of God’s grace” in which I now live. (Romans 5:2 TEV ) In this experience of God’s grace I now greatly REJOICE! AS one who is “right with God”, is enjoying “peace with God”, and is experiencing “God’s grace” I can, along with Paul boast of “the hope we[I] have of sharing God’s glory.” (Romans 5:2 TEV ) One day I ...

The Life You’ ve Always Wanted by John Ortberg (My Thoughts) Chapter 7 “Pride destroys our capacity to love…Pride moves us to exclude instead of to embrace. Pride moves us to bow down before a mirror rather than before God. Pride moves us to judge rather than serve.” page 110 Pride in Eve got us into this mess we are all in. She wanted to be more like God than she already was, for she was made in the image and likeness of God when she was created. Pride messed her up and messed it up for us all. Pride in my life is still at the root of all my problems. It moves me to be isolated from others, judgmental of others, and extremely preoccupied with self. So I must search for pride in my life, pursue it, and destroy it. I must discover its various manifestations in my soul and hunt it down. One way I want to begin pummeling pride in me is by serving others and doing it in secret. “The flesh whines against service but screams against hidden service. It strains and pulls for honor and recogn...

People who fail to acknowledge God for who He is and refuse to gratefully allow Him to lead their lives are in danger eternal destruction. It all starts with disrespect and thankless hearts. In Romans 12:1 Paul writes how a person with an irreverent and unthankful heart will descend down a spiritual black hole that will lead to all kinds of sin and darkness. These people end up worshiping other gods (idols, material stuff, other people). Then God "gives them over" (vs. 24, 26, 28) to greater and greater wickedness. I want to be like Paul who said of God " I serve [Him] with my whole heart in preaching the gospel of his Son " -Romans 1:9

The Life You’ ve Always Wanted by John Ortberg (My Thoughts) Chapter 4 “God is the happiest being in the universe.” page 63 “The Bible puts joy in the non-optional category. Joy is a command. Joylessness is a serious sin, on the religious people are particularly prone to indulge in. It may be the sin most readily tolerated by the church.” page 63-64 “There is a being in the universe who wants you to live in sorrow, but it’s not God” page 64 I need to practice joy in my life. I need to discipline myself to do the things that will make my life more joyful. So here’s what I propose to do: 1. Practice Gratefulness – Thank God more for the great things in my life and the mundane. For “every tick of the clock is a gift from God.” Page 65 2. Enjoy the Moment – Enjoy my present activity and stop anticipating the next one. Live in the present. Enjoy the NOW. Enjoy those who are with me now. Stop thinking about what I could be doing. 3. Schedule Days of Celebration – O...

The Life You’ ve Always Wanted by John Ortberg (My Thoughts) Chapter 3 Spiritual disciplines are not a barometer of spirituality nor are they ways to earn God’s favor. I already have God’s favor and am already accepted by God through Christ. Spiritual disciplines “have value only insofar as they help me morph” (page 46)… "Our task is to use these activities to create opportunities for God to work” (page 52). If I truly understand these truths, I can learn to relax and enjoy those disciplines (reading the Word, prayer, etc…). The goal isn ’t how many verses I read or to see if I can pray more than yesterday, rather the goal is to have God transform my life through these activities. So reading, meditating and applying one verse is better than reading the entire book of Psalms in one sitting and thinking I am more spiritual for doing so. A sincere two-minute prayer of repentance and surrender is better than 1 hour of boisterous prayer if it was meant to impress others with my pass...

The Life You’ ve Always Wanted by John Ortberg (My Thoughts) Pages 35-40 “Spirituality wrongly understood or pursued is a major source of human misery and rebellion against God.” -Dallas Willard When the focus of our lives is to appear to be spiritual, it is exhausting. Doing spiritual activity only to appear to others that we are spiritual or to deceive ourselves into thinking we are spiritual, leads to a miserable and tired life. What we do for God should flow from a heart that loves God and is seeking to know Him more. Therefore, spiritual activities such as Quiet Times, going to church and church activities, reading good Christian books, or witnessing should be done with the attitude of loving God and loving others. If these activities are done solely to follow the rules of good Christian conduct, we will miss the point, become judgmental of those not following the rules, and eventually become so weary of trying to measure up to “God’s” standards that we will drop out of the r...

The Life You’ve Always Wanted by John Ortberg (My Thoughts) Chapter 2 Pages 30-34 – “…if we are not marked by greater and greater amounts of love and joy, we will inevitably look for substitute ways of distinguishing ourselves from those who are not Christians.” This is called “pseudo transformation” – fake transformation that focuses on outside appearances rather than interior change. This is why: Jesus focused on the heart – the center of mankind. The greatest commands were to Love God and Love People. Paul said that if we can do great and miraculous deeds but don’t have love we are nothing (1 Cor. 13). John said that “Everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, for God is love.” (1 John 4:7-8) If we focus only on exterior deeds to determine spirituality, we will harm ourselves by buying into pseudo-transformation rather than what Jesus wanted – real transformation of the heart (loving God and loving people) which expresses itself by doin...

The Life You’ve Always Wanted by John Ortberg (My Thoughts) Page 21- “When morphing happens, I don’t just do the things Jesus would have done; I find myself wanting to do them. They appeal to me. They make sense, I don’t just go around trying to do right things; I become the right sort of person.” – John Ortberg. The transformation God wants to create in me starts on the inside (my thoughts, values, attitudes) and then is manifested on the outside by what I do. > Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is — his good, pleasing and perfect will. Rom. 12:2

The Life You’ ve Always Wanted by John Ortberg (My Thoughts) Page 19 – God looked past what Moses was to what he could be. So he chose him for one of the greatest tasks in the history of mankind – to free an enslaved nation of around 1 million people from the greatest power that existed at the time. God then gave him the one power source to accomplish the mission – Himself. He promised Moses “I will be with you”. What else did he really need? God has promised me the same thing. Jesus gave us the Great Commission to make disciples of all nations and then gave us his promise, “surely I am with you always to the very end of the age”. On top of that Jesus promised that the Holy Spirit would be inside of us providing power, direction and comfort. So like Moses, I must make a decision – to allow God to change me and use me for his purposes OR to shrink back and continue living an insignificant, puny life of self-absorbed existence. I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly...

The Life You’ve Always Wanted by John Ortberg (My Thoughts) Page 14 – Am I increasingly growing spiritually? Am I looking a people and the world as Jesus would if He were in my shoes? Am I seeing what Jesus would see, feel what Jesus would feel, doing what Jesus would do? Sometimes YES & sometimes NO. My desire is for it to be ever increasingly YES. 5 For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; 6 and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; 7 and to godliness, brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness, love. 8 For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. 9 But if anyone does not have them, he is nearsighted and blind, and has forgotten that he has been cleansed from his past sins. 2 Peter 1:5-9

The Life You’ve Always Wanted by John Ortberg (My Thoughts) Chapter 1 Page 12 – How do I use my authority or power? Do I abuse it? Do I yell at my kids because I’m the parent and can get away with it. Do I mistreat the sheep in my church because I am the pastor – the one in charge? I HOPE NOT. My Lord came to serve, not to be served. The one who is the Ultimate Authority used his position and power to serve and do good to others. How am I using my authority? > For even the Son of Man did not come to be served , but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many. Mark 10:45