God's Will for Us

Where Do Your Treasures Lie?

What is God’s will for our lives? God’s purpose for our lives should always take a precedent over our own desires, and that includes all aspects of our marriage, work, career, family, and play. If we are not sure if we are doing the will of God, then we need to carefully consider our actions and pray about it. I know it is difficult to make God first in our lives, but He has shown us how to give Him first place in our hearts.

So do not worry, saying, “What shall we eat?” Or “What shall we drink?” or “What shall we wear?” For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first His Kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. (Matthew 6:31 NIV)

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The Gospel – Key To Change

by Tim Keller

The Greek term “gospel” (ev-angelion) distinguished the Christian message from that of other religions. An ‘ev-angel’ was news of a great historical event, such as a victory in war or the ascension of a new king, that changed the listeners’ condition and required a response from the listener.So the gospel is news of what God has done to reach us.It is not advice about what we must do to reach God. What is this news? God has entered the world in Jesus Christ to achieve a salvation that we could not achieve for ourselves which now:

1) converts and transforms individuals, forming them into a new humanity, and eventually

2) will renew the whole world and all creation.

This is the ‘good news’—the gospel. And it is good news in three important ways.

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God’s Role in Tragedy

God does not allow evil and suffering to continue because He does not love us, or is in some way detached and removed from us. God takes our suffering so seriously, that he took it upon himself on the cross. ~ Tim Keller

When I speak to a group about RELENTLESS GRACE, the questions are frequently penetrating and gut-wrenchingly honest. One question is asked more than any other. “Do you believe that God caused your injury?”

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Submission to Others

Romans 15:1-2, 5-7
We then who are strong ought to bear with the scruples of the weak, and not to please ourselves. Let each of us please his neighbor for his good, leading to edification. . . . Now may the God of patience and comfort grant you to be like-minded toward one another, according to Christ Jesus, that you may with one mind and one mouth glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore receive one another, just as Christ also received us, to the glory of God.

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Sound Doctrine

2 Timothy 4:2-5 NRSV
Proclaim the message; be persistent whether the time is favorable or unfavorable; convince, rebuke, and encourage, with the utmost patience in teaching. For the time is coming when people will not put up with sound doctrine, but having itching ears, they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own desires, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander away to myths. As for you, always be sober, endure suffering, do the work of an evangelist, carry out your ministry fully.

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Are You Self-Serving or God-Serving?

Then He brought us out from there, that He might bring us in,
to give us the land of which He swore to our fathers. Deuteronomy 6:23

It’s amazing how many of us believers are satisfied to be “brought out” and forget that God also wants to “bring us in.” We are content with the proverbial “fire insurance” that spares us an eternity in hell yet care little about fulfilling our God-ordained purpose during our brief sojourn here on earth.

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Getting “Rich” Through Debt

Proverbs 22:7 NKJV
The rich rules over the poor,
and the borrower is servant to the lender.

Somehow, somewhere the United States decided that being in debt was good business. I’m not a historian, sociologist, or anthropologist, so I’m not sure when or why. But it’s clear as we face national debt into the trillions and corporate and personal debt not far behind that we have decided living beyond our means is productive.

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Relationships: My “Rights” or God’s Will

Proverbs 21:9 NRSV
It is better to live in a corner of the housetop
than in a house shared with a contentious wife.

Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility regard others as better than yourselves. Let each of you look not to your own interests, but to the interests of others. Philippians 2:3-4 NRSV

Be subject to one another out of reverence for Christ. Ephesians 5:21 NRSV

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Are You Doing the Right Thing?

Proverbs 20:10 NRSV
Even children make themselves known by their acts,
by whether what they do is pure and right.

Known by their acts. We are not who we say we are; we are who we show we are. The Lord Jesus taught that “either make the tree good, and its fruit good; or make the tree bad, and its fruit bad; for the tree is known by its fruit.” Matthew 12:33 NRSV

The idea of fruit is used in scripture to depict behavior that comes from the spirit. (Did you know that all behavior comes from a spirit?) And what’s interesting is that Galatians 5 begins the discussion about behavior with this verse:

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