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How to Always be Effective and Fruitful

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How to Always be Effective and Fruitful

Do you want to always be fruitful and effective? Do this:

Make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, and virtue with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with steadfastness, and steadfastness with godliness, and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love. For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. 2 Peter 1:5-8

Peter says if you do these things it will keep you from being ineffective and unfruitful.

I think we’d all agree these are good qualities that every Jesus follower should have in their lives. So what does it mean if you do not have these qualities, what should you do? Does it mean you need to work harder to be a better Christian? Let’s see…

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You don't need answers, you need RESOLVE.

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You don't need answers, you need RESOLVE.

Life happens. Sometimes it’s good, sometimes it’s not. Sometimes it’s an unexpected blessing, sometimes it’s an unfortunate loss. Sometimes it’s welcoming a new child into your home, sometimes it’s losing a loved one. No matter what, we have reason to stay confident toward God knowing that he only has good plans for us.

When the bad things happen we tend to seek answers. How we see God will color what kind of answers we seek and which kinds of questions we’ll ask in the first place.

It’s fine to have questions but you really don’t need answers, you need resolve. Resolve over the character of God. Before you arrive at your conclusions about God and the circumstance you find yourself in, make sure you are standing firmly on the true character of God.

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Identity + Promise + Faith = Mind Renewal unto Transformation

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Identity + Promise + Faith = Mind Renewal unto Transformation

Jesus said he was going to prepare a place for us so we can be with him. I think it’s safe to call that place Heaven, would you agree? What is that place like? What is Heaven like? Take a minute and think about that for a minute before you finish reading this article.

For real, think about Heaven, where Jesus is walking around right now…

I’m a pastor, so teaching doctrine properly is important, but I want to suspend doctrine for a minute and just think about some things.

When I think about Jesus preparing a place for us, it makes me think of his prayer “your will be done on earth as it is in Heaven.” It’s something he wants for us. I think about what the garden of Eden must have been like, in all its perfection. I think of what it would have been like to see Jesus transform and openly talk with Moses and Elijah. It makes me think of all the times supernatural encounters with angels and the presence of God happened to ordinary men and women in the Bible.

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God Performed Spiritual Surgery On You So You Can Have A New Life

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God Performed Spiritual Surgery On You So You Can Have A New Life

The Gospel is Powerful in 2 Ways

THE INFORMATION OF THE GOSPEL: It’s incredibly wonderful information to know that God is no longer holding your sins against you and offers the free gift of righteousness and eternal life by grace through faith in Christ. But it doesn’t stop there, there are results of believing this truth.

THE RESULTS OF BELIEVING THE GOSPEL: The results of believing the Gospel are even better. He removes your old heart and gives you a new one that knows how to hear and follow him. God places his spirit in you. You become a new creature in Christ. After those things, you are actually righteous and holy because of the work of the spirit in you. You are empowered with graces to bless others. You are qualified for all the blessings of Abraham. God will never leave you or forsake you. He’ll lead and guide you into truth and blessing. The list just goes on and on.

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Obey God By Yielding to Him as an Instrument of His Righteousness

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Obey God By Yielding to Him as an Instrument of His Righteousness

God has always wanted you to obey him. His 613 Laws demand it but only FAITH can produce the kind of obedience that God really wants.

Obedience from the heart pleases God. Obedience that is the fruit of a responsive heart to his love is what God wants. God is pleased with the kind of obedience that seeks to preserve the freedom he offers in Christ. God is n0t impressed with obedience that is rooted in rule-keeping, his heart is after those who have been transformed by his love and now only desire to bring glory to his name.

The good news is, God gave you a new heart that has the capacity to actually obey him in this way, by faith.

Faith is this - God said it, I believe it, now I’ll make decisions in agreement with it.

Faith says…
”God said sin produces death, God said I’m dead to sin in Christ, God says there is more grace available than opportunities for sin, so I believe it. Now I yield myself to his inner strength, as an instrument in his hands. I receive his life-giving love in my heart and rise above the lure of sin.”

That pleases God much more than the kind of obedience that says, “God said I must obey, if I don’t he will punish me, therefore I must obey.”

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Jesus Went Through Hell and Back For You

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Jesus Went Through Hell and Back For You

Did Jesus go to hell after he died on the cross?

King David, Peter and the Apostle Paul confirm he did. King David prophesied about it, Peter clarified those prophecies and Paul addressed it in his teachings.

Let me clarify what I mean by “hell.”

Jesus did not go into the Lake of Fire, he went into a place called Hades, which is typically translated as “hell.” The place or realm these three men referred to is called several things in scripture.

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Kanye West and Evangelism

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Kanye West and Evangelism

Kanye is forcing the conversation, and he’s doing it with the Gospel. Kanye isn’t telling the world they’re sinful and they need to repent, he’s telling them who Jesus is. He’s telling the world that Jesus was sent by God to die for them because God loves them. Believe it or not, millions of people still don’t know that. Their only encounter with Jesus has been through judgmental Christians that give them condemnation rather than mercy.

Think about how many celebrity Christians are radical for Jesus. Not many right? We see lots of public figures profess their faith or acknowledge Jesus when they win a football game, but how many high profile people are radically evangelizing the world for Jesus?

Most people that are famous walk their faith back a bit. They'll acknowledge Jesus but make concession for other beliefs. Especially politicians, most of them don’t want to offend people or lose votes so they don’t use their platform to encourage people to receive Jesus and be born again.

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The Little Things Build A Legacy

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The Little Things Build A Legacy

You don’t get to decide your own legacy. You set your goals, you live your life but history will judge your legacy. Funny thing is, your legacy is less about what you’ve done and more about how you treated people. Even if you’re known for what you do, it’s still judged by how what you did affected people.

History will judge your legacy but God will judge your works. Your deeds and actions matter. God will judge your works at the resurrection. The good news is your salvation is determined by your faith in Christ alone, but your works determine your rewards.

1 Corinthians 3:11 For no one can lay a foundation other than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. 12 Now if anyone builds on the foundation with gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, straw— 13 each one’s work will become manifest, for the Day will disclose it, because it will be revealed by fire, and the fire will test what sort of work each one has done. 14 If the work that anyone has built on the foundation survives, he will receive a reward. 15 If anyone’s work is burned up, he will suffer loss, though he himself will be saved, but only as through fire.

We’re not 100% sure what the rewards are but I think it’s safe to say God will still get all the glory for what you allowed him to do through you.

By the way, don’t forget about this passage when reading about the judgment of your works…

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Feeling Each Other's Pain - How to Carry Mercy and Grace from God's Throne to the Hurting

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Feeling Each Other's Pain - How to Carry Mercy and Grace from God's Throne to the Hurting

Have you ever been through something so difficult it felt like no one understood how bad you were hurting? I just lost my mom and it hurts, it’s hard to explain to people the emotional and mental struggle of losing a mom you’re very close with. I know where she is, I’m thankful she’s out of pain, I know I’ll see her again, but it still hurts.

One of the more reassuring things people did in this process was share their stories of losing their mom. There’s something comforting about knowing you’re not alone. Lots of people say nice things trying to help, but the most meaningful support came from people who have lost their mom. Those who have been through this knew what I was feeling and could specifically speak to and do things that were helpful because they’ve been there.

This lesson made me think of how Jesus is there for us and how we can be there for others. Jesus can empathize with our pain and suffering because he’s been through it as well. We can go to him for mercy and comfort when we’re hurting. And then we can help others experience mercy and strength from God in the things we’ve been through. He comforts and strengthens so we can in turn comfort and strengthen others with the love God has shown us in our weakness.

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You SHALL Inherit the Promises of God

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You SHALL Inherit the Promises of God

The children Manasseh had a giant problem, literally. They had seen God’s deliverance from Egypt’s oppression, daily experienced God’s provision, crossed the river into the land promised their father Abraham but there was still one problem…giants. They were in the promised land, it was under their feet, they could see it but it didn’t quite look like what they were expecting. Have you ever felt like you were where God wanted you to be but it was full of problems? Maybe those problems even caused you to question if you’re in the right place. You’re not alone.

The nation of Israel had the promised land in reach, all that was left was to take the land. We are in a similar position yet under a new covenant. We have been translated into the Kingdom of Jesus, delivered from the power of darkness with all spiritual blessings within our grasp yet our outer world may be full of problems. Let’s check back in with the tribe of Manasseh and see how they handled this issue.

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