Posts Tagged ‘relationship with god’

God Wants a Relationship with you

Posted: September 27, 2018 in 8:10-20, relationship with god
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Under Gods Command

God wants a relationship with you

Philippians 1:9-11

9I pray that your love will overflow more and more, and that you will keep on growing in knowledge and understanding. 10For I want you to understand what really matters, so that you may live pure and blameless lives until the day of Christ’s return. 11May you always be filled with the fruit of your salvation— the righteous character produced in your life by Jesus Christ*— for this will bring much glory and praise to God.

We studied these verses at one of my Bible Studies. It stuck with me for these reasons of my own. The only way to grow in knowledge and understanding is more than going to Church on Sunday. How can you understand what really matters to live a pure and blameless life if you don’t understand the requirements according to Gods standard?

Get involved with a Bible Study or Life Group. Start a reading plan of your own and ask God to give you the wisdom to understand. Read the first 4 books of the Gospel to get to know this Jesus that we always mention and most of us don’t know anything about Him.

Commentary Life Application Study Bible NLT broke it down like this

Often the best way to influence someone is to pray for him or her. Paul’s prayer for the Philippians was that they would be unified in love. Their love was to result in greater knowledge of Christ and deeper understanding (moral discernment). Their love was not based on feelings but on what Christ had done for them. As you grow in Christ’s love, your heart and mind must grow together. Are your love and insight growing?

Paul prayed that the Philippian believers would have the ability to differentiate between right and wrong, good and bad, vital and trivial. We ought to pray for moral discernment so we can maintain our Christian morals and values. Hebrews 5: 14 emphasizes the need for discernment.

“The day of Christ’s return” refers to the time when God will judge the world through Jesus Christ. We should live each day as though he might return at any moment.

The “fruit of your salvation” includes all of the character traits flowing from a right relationship with God. There is no other way for us to gain this fruit of righteousness than through Christ. See Galatians 5: 22-23 for the “fruit of the Spirit.”

Let’s Bring It Home: How many of us can really say we Love the Lord? Jesus said, how can you love me and hate your brother.

 

Spiritual Training 30 August 2013

Posted: August 30, 2013 in 1 Timothy, Acceptance, Bible Study, Encourgement, Inspiration, Personal Growth, Spiritual Training, trust in the Lord with all your heart, Uncategorized, Under Gods Command
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Under Gods Command

1 Timothy 2:8 I want men everywhere to lift up holy hands in prayer, without anger or disputing.  

Besides displeasing God, anger and strife make prayer difficult.  That is why Jesus said that we should interrupt our prayers, if necessary, to make peace with others (Matthew 5:23,24).  God wants us to obey him immediately and thoroughly.

Lets Bring it Home:  Our goal should be to have a right relationship with God and also with others.

Spiritual Training 11 April 2013

Posted: April 11, 2013 in Acceptance, Bible Study, Encourgement, Inspiration, Personal Growth, Romans, Spiritual Training, trust in the Lord with all your heart, Uncategorized, Under Gods Command
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Under Gods Command

Romans 09:15-16 For he says to Moses, “ I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.” It does not, therefore, depend on man’s desire or effort, but on God’s mercy.

The fallacy of gaining salvation by human effort remains as strong as ever-people still think good intentions are the key to unlock the door to eternal life. By the time they get to try the lock, they will find that their key does not fit. Others imagine that their efforts are building an invisible ladder to heaven made up of service, family, position, reputation, good work, and desire, although none of these rungs will support a feather. People are so busy trying to reach God that they completely miss the truth that God has already reached down to them. We cannot earn God’s mercy-if we could, it would not be mercy.

Lets Bring it Home: Are we as Christians living a lie? Are some Churches trying to reach God by the things mention above? When it is all said and done, the physical Church can’t save you, no matter how hard you work there or the things you do for the Church. You can be at Church all week and think your doing the right thing, but your family is being neglected due to you being there. What is more important? You can bless God my spending time with the family and the ones you love. Salivation is up to you my brother and sisters. If God has already reached down, back up and find his hand and grab on to it and learn to have a relationship with God’s son Jesus. By Faith!

Spiritual Training 14 December 2012

Posted: December 15, 2012 in Acceptance, Bible Study, Encourgement, Inspiration, Personal Growth, Spiritual Training, trust in the Lord with all your heart, Uncategorized, Under Gods Command
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Under Gods Command

Romans 3:27-31 Where, then, is boasting?  It is excluded.  On what principle? On that of observing the law?  No, but on that of faith.  For we maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from observing the law.  Is God the God of Jews only?  Is he not the God of Gentiles too?  Yes, of Gentiles too, since there is only one God, who will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through that same faith.  Do we, then, nullify the law by this faith? Not at all! Rather, we uphold the law. 

Most religions prescribe specific duties that must be performed to make a person acceptable to a god.  Christianity is unique in teaching that the good deeds we do will not make us right with God.  No amount of human achievement or progress in personal development will close the gap between God’s moral perfection and our imperfect daily performance.  Good deeds are important, but they will not earn us eternal life.  We are saved only by trusting in what God has done for us.

(Ephesians 2:8-10).  For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith-and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God-not by works, so that no one can boast.  For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.

 Lets Bring It Home: Why does God save us by faith alone? (1) Faith eliminates the pride of human effort, because faith is not a deed that we do.  (2) Faith exalts what God has done, not what people do. (3) Faith admits that we can’t keep the law or measure up to God’s standards-we need help.  (4) Faith is based on our relationship with God, not our performance for God.

Spiritual Training 22 August 2012

Posted: August 22, 2012 in Acceptance, Bible Study, Encourgement, Inspiration, Personal Growth, Spiritual Training, trust in the Lord with all your heart, Uncategorized, Under Gods Command
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Under Gods Command

Delilah: Her story is told in Judges 16

DELILAH:  A person’s greatest accomplishment may well be helping others accomplish great things.  Likewise, a person’s greatest failure may be preventing others from achieving greatness.  Delilah played a minor role in Samson’s life, but her effect was devastating, for she influenced him to betray his special calling from God.  Motivated by greed, Delilah used her persistence to wear down Samson.  His infatuation with her maid Samson a vulnerable target.  For all his physical strength, he was no match for her, and he paid a great price for giving into her.  Delilah is never mentioned again in the Bible.  Her unfaithfulness to Samson brought ruin to him and to her people.

Lets Bring it Home:  Are people helped by knowing you?  Do they find that knowing you challenges them to be the best they can be?  Even more important does knowing you help their relationship with God?  What do your demands for their time and attention tell them about you real care for them?  Are you willing to be God’s instrument in the lives of others?

Spiritual Training 03 May 2012

Posted: May 3, 2012 in Acceptance, Bible Study, Encourgement, Inspiration, Judges, Personal Growth, Proverbs, Spiritual Training, trust in the Lord with all your heart, Uncategorized, Under Gods Command
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Under Gods Command
Israel Fights the Remaining Canaanites

Judges 2:1-3 The angel of the Lord went up from Gilgal to Bokim and said, “I brought you out of Egypt and led you into the land that I swore to give to your forefathers. I said, I will never break my covenant with you, and you shall not make a covenant with the people of this land, but you shall break down their altars. Yet you have disobeyed me. Why have you done this? Now therefore I tell you that I will not drive them out before you; they will be thorns in your sides and their gods will be a snare to you.

This event marks a significant change in Israel’s relationship with God. At Mount Sinai, God made a sacred and binding agreement with the Israelites called a covenant (Exodus 19:5-8).

Because they rejected and disobeyed God, the agreement to protect them was no longer in effect. But God wasn’t going to abandon his people. They would receive wonderful blessings if they asked God to forgive them and sincerely followed him again.

Although God’s agreement to help Israel conquer the land was no longer in effect, his promise to make Israel a nation through whom the whole world would be blessed (fulfilled in the Messiah’s coming) remained valid. God still wanted the Israelites to be a holy people (just as he wants us to be holy), and he often used oppression to bring them back to him, just as he warned he would (Leviticus 26; Deuteronomy 28).

The book of Judges records a number of instances where God allowed his people to be oppressed so that they would repent of their sins and return to him.

Too often people want God to fulfill his promises, while excusing themselves from their responsibilities. Before you claim God’s promises, ask, “Have I done my part?”

Proverbs 3:5-6
Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight.

Spiritual Training 10 February 2012

Posted: February 10, 2012 in Acceptance, Bible Study, Encourgement, Inspiration, Personal Growth, Spiritual Training, The book of John, trust in the Lord with all your heart, Uncategorized, Under Gods Command
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Under Gods Command
Jesus Prays for Himself

John 17:1-5 “Father, the time has come. Glorify your Son, that your Son may glorify you. For you granted him authority over all people that he might give eternal life to all those you have given him. Now this is eternal life: that he may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent. I have brought you glory on earth by completing the work you gave me to do. And now, Father, glorify me in your presence with the glory I had with you before the world began.

The world is a tremendous battleground where the forces under Satan’s power and those under God’s authority are at war. Satan and his forces are motivated by bitter hatred for Christ and his forces. Jesus prayed for his disciples, including those of us who follow him today. He prayed that God would keep his chosen believers safe from Satan’s power, setting them apart and making them pure and holy, uniting them through his truth.

How do we get eternal life? Jesus tells us clearly here-by knowing God the Father himself through his Son, Jesus Christ. Eternal life requires entering into a personal relationship with God in Jesus Christ. When we admit our sin and turn away from it, Christ’s love lives in us by the Holy Spirit.

Before Jesus came to earth, he was one with God. At this point, when his mission on earth was almost finished, Jesus was asking his Father to restore him to his original place of honor and authority. Jesus resurrection and ascension-and Stephen’s dying exclamation (Acts 7:56: “Look,” he said, “I see heaven open and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God) – attest that Jesus did return to his exalted position at the right hand of God.

Spiritual Training 02 February 2012

Posted: February 2, 2012 in Acceptance, Bible Study, Encourgement, Inspiration, Personal Growth, Spiritual Training, The book of John, trust in the Lord with all your heart, Uncategorized, Under Gods Command
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Under Gods Command

John 16:07-11 But I tell you the truth: It is for your good that I am going away. Unless I go away, the Counselor will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you. When he comes, he will convict the world of guilt in regard to sin and righteousness and judgment: in regard to sin, because men do not believe in me; in regard to righteousness, because I am going to the Father, where you can see me no longer, and in regard to judgment, because the prince of this world now stands condemned.

Three important tasks of the Holy Spirit are:

(1) Convicting the world of its sin and calling it to repentance,
(2) Revealing the standard of God’s righteousness to anyone who believes, because Christ would no longer be physically present on earth, and
(3) Demonstrating Chris’s judgment over Satan.

According to Jesus, not believing in him is sin. Christ’s death on the cross made a personal relationship with God available to us. When we confess our sin, God declares us righteous and delivers us from judgment for our sins.

Proverbs 3:5 Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight.

Spiritual Training 14 December 2011 (Sleepless Nights)

Posted: December 15, 2011 in Acceptance, Bible Study, Encourgement, Inspiration, Personal Growth, Spiritual Training, trust in the Lord with all your heart, Uncategorized, Under Gods Command
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Sleepless nights

In Bible Study tonight, it was mentioned about a mother who could not sleep due to worrying about her daughter who is going through something. How many of us had that same issue of not sleeping behind worrying about someone else’s burden, or even your own? He is a piece of scripture that can help you find rest when issues are keeping you up all night.

Matthew 12:28-30 – “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”

A yoke is heavy wooden harness that fits over the shoulders of an ox or oxen. It is attached to a piece of equipment the oxen are to pull. A person may be carrying heavy burdens of (1) sin, (2) excessive demands of religious leaders (23:4 Acts 15:10), (3) oppression and persecution, or (4) weariness in the search for God.
Jesus frees people from all these burdens. The rest that Jesus promises is love, healing, and peace with God, not the end of all labor. A relationship with God changes meaningless, wearisome toil into spiritual productivity and purpose.

In what sense was Jesus yoke easy? The yoke emphasizes the challenges, work, and difficulties of partnering with Christ in life. Responsibilities weigh us down, even the effort of staying true to God. But Jesus yoke remains easy compared to the crushing alternative.
Jesus doesn’t offer a life of luxurious ease, the yoke is still an oxen’s tool for working hard. But it’s a shared yoke, with weight falling on bigger shoulders than yours. Someone with more pulling power is up front helping. Suddenly you are participating in life’s responsibilities with a great Partner and now that frown can turn into a smile, and that gripe into a song.

So the next time you run into a situation where you cannot find rest at night. Turn to this Scripture and Pray to the Lord Jesus Christ and asked him to take this burden from you so you can rest.