Category: The New Rebellion

Money and Materialism

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The Bible has a lot to say about money and materialism. Jesus spoke more about wealth and riches than heaven or hell. It seems that the way we respond to wealth is a good indication of our priorities. Where your treasure is, there will be your heart also (Matthew 6:21). The heart follows our treasure; the treasure never follows the heart.

Quotes:

Money will buy a bed but not sleep, books but not brains, food but not appetite, finery but not beauty, medicine but not health, luxury but not culture, amusement but not happiness, a crucifix but not a Savior, a temple of religion but not heaven. — Anonymous

It is not the persecution of China that I fear. The church has always been able to weather persecution. My fear is the love of money in the church. — A Chinese Pastor

You are rich if you had a meal today. –Billy Graham

Top 10 Warnings of Materialism:

  1. You subtly resent giving your tithe in church.
  2. You need to work overtime just to buy the latest fashions.
  3. You find it difficult to give generously to your friends and family.
  4. You constantly talk and think about money.
  5. You secretly want others to admire your possessions.
  6. You like to show off your best toys.
  7. You label people who are poor as being lazy or unmotivated.
  8. You pride yourself in buying only the best products.
  9. You respect wealthy people and value their opinions more than the opinions of others who are less well off.
  10. You extend yourself to help others only when it profits you.

Loving When It’s Hard

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We are called to love God and love others as ourselves (Matthew 22:37-39), and by our love all men will know that we are His disciples (John 13:35), and we are to love our enemies (Matthew 5:44), but sometimes it’s pretty difficult to do all this. Isn’t it great that God doesn’t leave us to do it on our own? He wants to live through us (Galatians 2:20).

Quotes:

Our love to God is measured by our everyday fellowship with others and the love it displays. — Andrew Murray

There is more hunger for love and appreciation in this world than for bread. — Mother Teresa

Am I not destroying my enemies when I make friends of them? — Abraham Lincoln

Top 10 Ways to Love When It’s Hard:

  1. Pray regularly for that person, even if he feels like an enemy.
  2. Look for practical ways to serve him, even if he doesn’t know.
  3. Be available; time is the most precious gift you can offer.
  4. Take opportunities to honor and speak well of that one.
  5. Include him, when appropriate, in special activities.
  6. Sometimes a hug or brief touch can communicate what words cannot.
  7. Take the risk to share your heart with that person; be the real you.
  8. If possible, worship or pray together or in a small group.
  9. Journal your desire for God’s good in his life.
  10. Thank God for changing your thoughts about that person.

Intimacy with God

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Christians talk about the presence of God, and I suppose it sounds rather odd to those who are not followers of Jesus. When we talk about Jesus being alive today, and that He walks with me and He talks with me, it’s the realization that we do not go through this life alone. It is an understanding of Christianity is all about, the resurrection and the Holy Spirit taking up residence in the life of a believer. God really does walk with us through the dark valleys of life. For many believers, getting closer to God is a heartfelt desire and worthwhile goal, but how can we draw nearer to God?

Quotes:

During those times you sit in the presence of God and your heart sighs for him, what is it you are sighing for? Understand that your sighing originated in his heart. — Graham Cooke

It is when we notice the dirt, that God is most present in us; it is the very sign of his presence. — C. S. Lewis

Whenever we move into a new spiritual dimension of our calling and ministry, we must take the time to upgrade our relationship with God. — Graham Cooke

Top 10 Ways to Draw Closer to God:

  1. Each morning when you wake up, start thanking God for the new day.
  2. Sing or say words that tell God how big and beautiful He is.
  3. Take one whole day to just be with God; to journal, pray and listen.
  4. Read books that draw you closer to God and enlarge your view of Him.
  5. Practice sitting quietly with your mind clear and free of other thoughts, to listen.
  6. Memorize a new verse each week from God’s own writings.
  7. Pray the Bible; let its truths examine you and lead you to the Truth.
  8. Carry on a conversation with God throughout the day.
  9. Let Jesus carry your heavy thoughts, complex issues and unsolvable problems.
  10. Learn God’s love language called “pursuit” (Jeremiah 29:13)

Heaven’s Aroma on Earth

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Many say that God is nowhere to be found, with no evidence of His existence. I submit to you that this top 10 list is not the result of a society of people who evolved through the “survival of the fittest.” Morality, compassion, kindness and forgiveness are qualities that are passed down from a personal Being with a plan for His special creation.

Since all we know and experience is this creation that is fallen and under the curse, just imagine what heaven will be like. Beauty, kindness, and love that we see here, as marvelously as we have experienced it, is still cursed. How much greater it will be when we are in God’s presence in eternity?

Quotes:

He is the end of our search, not the means to some further end. Our exceeding joy is he, the Lord–not the streets of gold, or the reunion with relatives or any blessing of heaven. — John Piper

If you read history you will find that the Christians who did most for the present world were precisely those who thought most of the next. — C. S. Lewis

The true object of all human life is play. Earth is a task garden; heaven is a playground. — G. K. Chesterton

Top 10 Evidences of Heaven’s Aroma on Earth:

  1. Hope in the midst of cynicism.
  2. Contentment in the midst of adversity.
  3. Genuine care for others in a self-centered world.
  4. Willing sacrifice of all the world holds clear for unseen reward.
  5. Unified community in an angry, fractured culture.
  6. Courage to gamble all of life upon a spiritual vision.
  7. A tenacious joy that is inexpiable in worldly terms.
  8. Supernatural healing of body, mind and spirit.
  9. Love for enemies.
  10. Forgiveness.

Enhancing Your Health

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I have a confession to make, I tend to work too much. I don’t separate my life into neat little compartments. I discovered this past weekend (at the Dave Ramsey EntreLeadership event) that we must pay attention to seven areas of our lives or we will become unbalanced. We must put these areas into balance: career, financial, spiritual, family, intellectual, physical and social. If we focus on one over the rest or neglect one in favor of the rest, we will get a “flat” in this “wheel of life.” This is a confessional; I need discipline in this area. The point is, it is for my health, not just for better time management.

Quotes:

While we may not be called to martyr our lives, we must martyr our way of life. We must put our selfish ways to death and march to a different beat. Then the world will see Jesus. — Michael Tait

We all live in a fallen world, are damaged, and need to be healed as we grow in our relationships with others and God. — Dan Allender

Top 10 Ways to Enhance Your Health:

  1. Tame workaholism and stress through spiritual disciplines.
  2. Protect your sleep as the gift of God.
  3. Eat when you are hungry; stop when you are full.
  4. Choose fresh, natural foods over processed ones.
  5. Integrate moderate exercise to sharpen mind and body.
  6. Seek balance between work and play, community and solitude.
  7. Use godly resources emotional and sexual health.
  8. Keep your conscience clear of sin and unforgiveness.
  9. Stimulate your mind through diverse reading and study.
  10. Learn to listen to the condition of your body, soul and spirit.

Giftedness and Talents

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We are called to love God and serve others, but many people don’t know where to begin to find out what they’re good at. We tend to discount our abilities believing that God can’t use us; ministry is for the one who received a special calling from God. But we can do various ministries with a certain ease and effectiveness if we would only discover our spiritual gift and seek to actively employ it in service to the Christ.

Besides these suggestion below, make sure to discover your spiritual gifts by using this free online spiritual gifts inventory:

[ www.TeamMinistry.com ]

Quotes:

Don’t ask yourself what the world needs. Ask yourself what makes you come alive, and go do that, because what the world needs is people who have come alive. — Gil Bailie

There is nothing with which every person is so afraid as getting to know how enormously much they are capable of doing and becoming. — Soren Kierkegaard

Top 10 Ways to Activate Your Gifts:

  1. Consider classes or seminars to develop your natural gifts.
  2. Take a spiritual gifts inventory to discover your strengths.
  3. Ask your friends and close family members what gifts they see in you.
  4. Tell God you eagerly desire your gift (1 Corinthians 14:1) and see what He does.
  5. Talk to your pastor about outlets for your gift.
  6. Experiment with your spiritual gifts in a small group.
  7. Spend time with someone who is spiritually mature in the areas of your giftedness.
  8. Read a book on spiritual gifts, or use the online inventory.
  9. Go to conferences and learn more about giftedness.
  10. Look for practical ways to use spiritual gifts in your school or workplace.

Forgiveness and Grace

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I’ve come to understand that Justice is getting what one deserves, mercy is not getting what one deserves and that grace is getting something that we definitely do not deserve. It is unmerited favor, something that only God can do. The closest we can come is probably being a parent; we do things for this little person that they do not deserve, but we do them for no other reason than because we love them. If we desire to become more like Christ (Romans 8:29), we must learn to grow in forgiveness and grace.

Quotes:

Forgiveness is the final form of love. — Reinhold Niebuhr

The world can do almost anything as well as or better than the church. You need not be a Christian to build houses, feed the hungry, or heal the sick. There is only one thing the world cannot do. It cannot offer grace. — George McDonald

I rejected the church for a time because I found so little grace there. I returned because I found grace nowhere else. — Philip Yancey

We must develop and maintain the capacity to forgive. He who is devoid of the power to forgive is devoid of the power to love. There is some good in the worst of us and some evil in the best of us. When we discover this, we are less prone to hate our enemies. — Martin Luther King, Jr.

Sincere forgiveness isn’t colored with expectations that the other person apologize or change. Don’t worry whether or not they finally understand you. Love them and release them. Life feeds back truth to people in its own way. — Sara Paddison

Top 10 Ways to Grow in Grace:

  1. Be quick to acknowledge sin and guilt.
  2. Live in the confidence of your divine ownership.
  3. Easily receive God’s forgiveness that invites you into intimacy.
  4. Stop trying to earn God’s favor when you already have it.
  5. Reject false guilt; the enemy’s favorite lie.
  6. Take every opportunity to overlook the failures of others.
  7. Call attention to people’s potential, not their faults.
  8. Speak the truth in gentleness and love.
  9. Don’t pretend to have your life all neatly together.
  10. Be quick to forgive and slow to offend.

Trust and Faith

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The essence of the Christian life is faith and trust. It’s one thing to simply believe the right stuff about Jesus but it totally another thing to live a life worthy of being called a Christian. Trusting God that He wants the best for you and any restrictions are for our benefit. Trust is a learned skill, and is something that is earned. The most we trust God, the more we come to realize that He is worthy of our trust (Jeremiah 29:11).

Quotes:

Jesus says that the root of anxiety is inadequate faith in our Father’s future grace. As unbelief gets the upper hand in our hearts, one of the effects is anxiety. The root cause of anxiety is a failure to trust all that God has promised to be for us in Jesus. — John Piper

The one who has faith, no explanation is necessary. To one without faith, no explanation is possible. — Thomas Aquinas

Faith is the art of holding on to things your reason has once accepted in spite of your changing moods. — C. S. Lewis

Top 10 Places in Life That Require Trust:

  1. Prayer: knowing that He’s there and hears every word. Even the ones you have not said.
  2. Friendships: knowing that He can sustain the ones that matter.
  3. Parents: knowing that He can bring understanding and respect.
  4. Children: knowing that they are held by stronger arms than yours.
  5. Church: knowing that God is bigger than problems and messes.
  6. Personality: knowing that He is changing you and unlocking your true self.
  7. Career: knowing that God is preparing you for important things.
  8. Finances: knowing that God is absolutely committed to your supply.
  9. Destiny: knowing that your journey has a good destination (John 14:3).
  10. Your life: knowing that God will finish what He has started (Philippians 1:6).

Determining Destiny

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One of the chief goals of parents is to help our children make good decisions. If we get that right, the children just might turn out OK. Anyone who is trapped in some sort of vice or addiction probably is not that good at making decisions. When it comes to following God versus walking my own path, while it may come down to commitment, there is also a decision making process that must be utilized.

Quotes:

One of life’s greatest tragedies is a person with a 10-by-12 capacity and a two-by-four soul. — Kenneth Hildebrand

God has created me to do him some definite service; he has committed some work to me which he has not committed to another. I have my mission. — John Henry Newman

Top 10 Ways to Make Good Decisions:

  1. Invite counsel from trusted people within your spiritual community.
  2. Let God reshape or amplify the desires in your heart.
  3. Look for your story inside of God’s story throughout the Bible.
  4. Pay attention to God’s still, small voice.
  5. When unsure or confused, wait for confirmation.
  6. Pursue the vision God has given until more comes.
  7. If God isn’t speaking, go back to # 1.
  8. Look for God to confirm His will in several ways.
  9. Capitalize on both the mistakes and the victories of the past.
  10. Listen constantly, trust unceasingly and act boldly.

Cultivating Courage

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I believe that God is calling for people of faith to courageously stand up for Him and His mission without the fear that binds us and drags us down to a level of mediocrity. Life is meant to be lived with boldness, not like a beer commercials but His faithful walking with the confidence that God is real, He has revealed His truth and will to us, and has given us a mission to accomplish.

Quotes:

Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts. — Winston Churchill

Courage is contagious. When a brave man takes a stand, the spines of others are often stiffened. — Billy Graham

Decision is a risk rooted in the courage of being free. — Paul Tillich

Courage is not simply one of the virtues, but the form of every virtue at the testing point. — C. S. Lewis

Research has shown that one’s thought life influences every aspect of one’s being. Whether we are filled with confidence or fear depends on the kind of thoughts that habitually occupy our minds. — John Ortberg

Top 10 Steps to Cultivate Courage:

  1. Identify your calling.
  2. Identify your fears.
  3. Consider how your fears will thwart your calling.
  4. Consider the authority of Christ over your fears.
  5. Trust God’s ability rather than your limitations.
  6. Decide whether you want a life of compliance or rebellion.
  7. Always choose obedience in the face of fear.
  8. Join forces with other of similar calling.
  9. Remind yourself that God’s side wins.
  10. Embrace the adventure of a life of significance.