Two Power Sources for Christians

God’s Word and the Holy Spirit are the two most important power sources for Christians. The Bible gives us the power to know God, defend our faith and reap countless benefits. The Holy Spirit gives the power to share our faith with other people and meet their needs.

Again - Jesus said in Luke 4:18-19 “The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to set the oppressed free, ¹⁹ to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”

The spirit was upon Him – it filled Him. And it came upon Him for a very specific reason – to share the gospel and do the harvest work. We need to be filled too. And for a specific reason. There are people with needs. People to serve. People to save.

Jesus in His human body needed the spirit.

In the book of Acts it was the Holy Spirit who gave the Apostles boldness. When we read Acts we can see what our life might be like as a Christian if we completely yield to, fully receive and totally obey the Holy Spirit.

Jesus gave the disciples the great commission in Matthew 28:16 – 20, but in Acts 1:4-8 He told them to wait for the promise of the Father before they began His work. That they be baptized with the Holy Spirit first. He told them they would receive power to be His witnesses. 10 days later the Holy Spirit came and Peter preached and saved 3000 people. The same Peter who a month or so earlier had denied Christ three times.

Peter was a simple man, but he studied under Jesus and he knew his Bible and relied on the Holy Spirit to help him share what he knew. It’s the Word in us that the Spirit will enliven, embolden and enflame.

In Acts 2:37-38 it says when the people heard Peter they were cut to the heart. They asked, “What shall we do?” Peter told them “Repent and be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.” It’s exactly what Peter had done, so people couldn’t refute it. People can argue all kinds of things. But not your personal experience. Your changed life.

Tell people how Jesus saved you, forgave you and how the Holy Spirit is daily renewing and making you more like Jesus. We’re not responsible for the outcome of our sharing, the Holy Spirit is, but we have to stand up and speak up to people who need to hear it.

But here’s a warning. Paul wrote in Ephesians 4:30 And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.

Grieving the Holy Spirit is doing what he says not to. It’s walking in disobedience. When we grieve him we diminish his power to transform us. An example of this is Samson. Several times it’s written that the Holy Spirit came mightily on him, but left him as he persisted in sin. King Saul was disobedient and the Holy Spirit departed from him. When the Holy Spirit leaves we are left on our own to try to work things out and that’s not the way Kingdom work is done.

Paul also wrote in 1 Thessalonians 5:19 Do not quench the Spirit.

Quenching is putting out His fire. It’s not doing what he says to do. So we lose him when we do what he says not to and also when we don’t do what he says to do! In other words – obey him!

We need to constantly invite him into our lives and hearts. It’s not a one time event like being saved.

All believers are eternally secure in Christ.

Last Sunday our Pastor shared some great Bible verses to support a believer's eternal security:

We are secure because it is God’s Will and Purpose.

John 6:39-40 39 And this is the will of him who sent me, that I shall lose none of all those he has given me, but raise them up at the last day. 40 For my Father’s will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in him shall have eternal life, and I will raise them up at the last day.”

Ephesians 1:4-5 4 For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love 5 he predestined us for adoption to sonship through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will.

Romans 8:28-30 28 And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. 29 For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters. 30 And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified.

John 1:12-13 12 Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God— 13 children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God.
The security of the believer has everything to do with God’s plan. Salvation is His will, His purpose and His plan.

We are also secure because we are God’s gifts to Jesus.

John 17:2 For you granted him authority over all people that he might give eternal life to all those you have given him.
Revelation 19:6-8 6 Then I heard what sounded like a great multitude, like the roar of rushing waters and like loud peals of thunder, shouting:
“Hallelujah!
For our Lord God Almighty reigns.
7 Let us rejoice and be glad
and give him glory!
For the wedding of the Lamb has come,
and his bride has made herself ready.
8 Fine linen, bright and clean,
was given her to wear.”

And because He went through too much to lose us now!

John 17:12 and 18:9 12 While I was with them, I protected them and kept them safe by[a] that name you gave me. None has been lost except the one doomed to destruction so that Scripture would be fulfilled. 9 This happened so that the words he had spoken would be fulfilled: “I have not lost one of those you gave me.”

And we can trust Him. His last words were “It is finished”!

More Thoughts from the Following Him Conference

Some random thoughts I took a way from the two days:

A God we can imagine is no God at all! The world makes light of God. Our job is not to make up a God, but to stand in awe of Him who has revealed Himself to us!

“We talk of the 2nd coming. Half the world has never heard of the first.” Oswald J. Smith. We need to be disciples and share the good news.

When we look up (worship God), we work out (service and missions), and as we live out, they will look up!

The number one discipline for a Christian is to read the Bible and pray. There is no substitute for simple time with God.

People watch Christians. They want to know if it works! They need us to show them unconditional love along with our faith and trust in God. We are all called to be ambassadors for Christ. It’s a huge responsibility to show God to the world. What if we are the only Christian someone sees?

We are God’s marketing campaign! How are we doing?

Putting God in His Place Part II

Centering our lives on Christ clarifies our self-understanding and provides us a sense of direction for living. Basically centering our lives on Christ shapes our thoughts, monitors our conversation, questions our attitudes and evaluates our achievements. It helps us sort out the passing from the eternal.

It helps us develop healthy, happy homes, restore relationships, give up destructive habit patterns in both thought and conduct. It takes away our fear of the future. While it won’t keep bad things from happening to us – it will help us deal with those things when they do.

To begin shifting our thoughts from self to Christ we need to pay attention more to our motives and intentions and less to our good appearance and impression. And actually this is probably the biggest stress reliever we could adopt.

Here are some suggestions for centering our lives:

Think small – It’s not all going to be mountain top experiences. Bigger is not always better and louder is not always more true. There is a lot of good to be found in ordinary days and quiet times. We should cherish each day. And resist distractions – our world is full of airplanes flying over, barking dogs, ringing phones, crying babies, beeping computers and blaring TVs – how can we hear God above all that racket? We need to be still sometimes.

Make a faith statement with your living. Thomas R. Kelly said that a centered life is a heaven directed life and our way of life advertises what we believe. Our choices either give credibility to our values or undermines them. And our lives catch people’s attention the most when we are spiritually strong dealing with problems.

Listen to people and events. God can teach us in a thousand ways, but we need to cultivate a willing receptivity to understand His will and purpose. We need to dig in to Scripture. To ask questions of other Christians who may be further along the journey then we are. We need to ask – What is God saying to me here? We can learn something from every person we cross paths with if we let ourselves

Practice God’s presence. This tunes us in to Him. To practice His presence, we may think of Him reading the letter we’re writing to someone, listening to a phone call we make or a conversation we’re having, reading the book we’re reading over our shoulder, sitting in the same room we are, etc.

Be satisfied with enough. It seems like everyone has a problem with money. They either don’t have enough – they have enough, but want more or they worry about keeping what they’ve got! We can trust God to take care of our needs.

Try to act like you think Jesus would in a situation.

And we learn how He would act through Bible study and prayer. God meant prayer to simplify life. It’s like a kid who has a problem, going to his or her dad for either the answer or a solution or just a hug. The kid feels better just going to his dad. Humans have made it more complicated. We are the ones who have divided it into 5 classes, “Adoration, Confession, Petition, Thanksgiving and Intercession.” We tend to stick thees and thous in when we would never say that in a normal conversation – and how often when we are asked to pray in a group do we say – “lets have a short prayer” – Have you ever heard anyone say “lets have a long prayer”? Why do we feel like we need to say “this will only take a second.”?

There are lots of questions people have about prayer – do we need all the answers before we pray? No – I don’t really understand how I can talk on the phone to someone half way around the world, but I do it! And it works!

We work so hard at getting the prayer “just right” so God will be pleased and give us what we want!

But, prayer really is just talking to God. Telling Him what we think, what we’re worried about, what our hopes are for a situation or for the future. Asking for His help – which could be anything from taking the problem away to giving us the strength to live with it!

The more time we spend in prayer and reading the Bible – the more we will begin to see where God is coming from in things. Sometimes just talking to God about a problem organizes it in your mind, calms you down enough to get perspective and helps you see what He might think of the whole thing, which then gives you an idea how to handle it.

Commit to stop dabbling in religion and give your all to God through your church.
Do we come to church on Sunday mornings out of habit? Or to worship God? Do we come to be entertained? Or to Praise His name? Do we come because we think it’s right that our children should go to Sunday School? Or to show them by joyful example how to live their lives?

If we would all just quit dabbling in religion. Quit thinking that just showing up for a little while Sunday mornings was enough, and commit ourselves to jumping in wholeheartedly – we would have a church on fire for God and people would flock here to join us!

Colossians 1:2-8

Colossians 1:2-8 To the holy and faithful brothers in Christ at Colossae: Grace and peace to you from God our Father. We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you, because we have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love you have for all the saints— the faith and love that spring from the hope that is stored up for you in heaven and that you have already heard about in the word of truth, the gospel that has come to you. All over the world this gospel is bearing fruit and growing, just as it has been doing among you since the day you heard it and understood God's grace in all its truth. You learned it from Epaphras, our dear fellow servant, who is a faithful minister of Christ on our behalf, and who also told us of your love in the Spirit.

Verse 2 is interesting. Paul calls them saints and faithful brethren in Christ. In earlier letters Paul addressed his letters to the church in a region: “To the church of the Thessalonians” “To the church of God which is at Corinth” “To the churches of Galatia.” But, later in his life, he came more and more to see that what matters is individual people. The church is made up of individuals. So starting with Romans he changes his greetings. “To all God’s beloved in Rome, who are called to be saints.” In Ephesians he wrote, “To the saints who are faithful in Christ Jesus.” And here: “To the saints and faithful brethren in Christ at Colossae.”

When he says they are in Christ at Colossai, it’s important to realize, Christians move in 2 different spheres. They are in a place – a town – a society – but also in Christ. So while a Christian lives in the world and takes the duties and relationships of the world seriously, fulfilling any obligations he has, above and beyond that, he is in Christ. So his outward circumstances make little difference to his peace and happiness. Things change, but Christ doesn’t.

2 things Paul says he is thankful for are that he has heard that the Colossians were showing faith in Christ and living for their fellowman. He also mentions their hope and these 3 things are the 3 main emphasis of Christianity: faith, hope and love.

“Because of the hope laid up for you in heaven.” We live a life of faith, loving and serving others, because we are sure of heaven and all that means. We know that in spite of the world’s ways and standards, God’s way of love will have the last word. God’s way is the best way.

One commentator wrote, “The only happiness, the only peace, the only joy, the only true and lasting reward are to be found in the way of God. The Christian hope is the certainty that it is better to stake one’s life on God, than to believe the world.”

Verses 6-8 kind of summarizes what the gospel is and does:

1. The gospel is first – a gospel – which means good news. It is good news that we have a right relationship with God.
2. The gospel is truth
3. The gospel is universal, it is for the world. Nothing in the world equals out men like Christianity.
4. The gospel is productive. It bears fruit and increases. It has been shown over and over that it changes people’s lives.The gospel is humanly transmitted. It was Epaphras who brought it to the Colossians. God uses a human channel. And this is where we come in. This knowledge we have, comes with an obligation to share it. We have often heard and said, “Jesus needs us to be His hands and feet and lips.”

An Encounter with Christ

Galatians 1:11-17 For I make known to you, brethren, as touching the gospel which was preached by me, that it is not after man. For neither did I receive it from man, nor was I taught it, but it came to me through revelation of Jesus Christ. For ye have heard of my manner of life in time past in the Jews' religion, how that beyond measure I persecuted the church of God, and made havoc of it: and I advanced in the Jews' religion beyond many of mine own age among my countrymen, being more exceedingly zealous for the traditions of my fathers.
But when it was the good pleasure of God, who separated me, even from my mother's womb, and called me through his grace, to reveal his Son in me, that I might preach him among the Gentiles; straightway I conferred not with flesh and blood: neither went I up to Jerusalem to them that were apostles before me: but I went away into Arabia; and again I returned unto Damascus.

Paul has given his credentials before. Especially in Philippians 3: 4-9. I think what is important in this section of Galatians, and I felt a flavor of it in the earlier part of the chapter, is that all the training in religion doesn’t mean as much as a personal encounter with Christ. And the best thing a person can do to show someone the Gospel is a changed life. Paul knew he was chosen for a task and that was to serve.

Christians, Trials and Jesus

Christians are not promised a trial free life. If they were, people would flock to Christianity for all the wrong reasons. Also a trial free life does not allow faith to grow. If we know for a fact that we would never get sick, or that if we did it wouldn’t be serious, or that we would live to a ripe old age and then die in our sleep, or never have financial worries, we wouldn’t lean on God to get us through however He pleases.

People find it especially hard to understand when something happens to a person who seems to be doing exactly what God wants: a missionary killed on his way to a mission trip, someone trying to save someone’s life and himself dying in the process.

This is where we can go to the Bible and find comfort and meaning.

Most people have heard the story of the three young men who were thrown into the fire for refusing to worship the king and instead only worshipping their God. Shadrack, Meshach and Abednego were doing God’s will and God could have kept them from the furnace. He could have had the king change his mind or even have all the people involved totally forget about it, but He didn’t. He let them be thrown into a furnace that was so hot it killed some of the guards close by. Later, when other guards looked in, they saw not three, but four men. What does this tell us? God didn’t keep them from the furnace, but He came down into it with them!

And when we are at our lowest and most miserable, we should look around, because that’s when God is closest and He will be with us every step of the way!

If the family worships together and trusts God for guidance, God will surely bless each member with the wisdom and courage to meet all problems that arise.

“No perfume is more costly and more aromatic to God than the faithfulness of believers who are suffering.”