Its been a while just checking to see if this works

^“Do not neglect to do good and to share what you have, for such sacrifices are pleasing to God.” – Hebrews 13:16

 

The Gospel

Its been a while since last posting, but I’m wanting to keep up to date……

 

“ The real work of the Gospel is working with people in their brokenness” - DPJR

 

 

 

Do I resemble Jesus

I asked my daughter if her music teacher was a Christian? She shrugged said I dunno and kept right on messing with her phone, got me to thinking if someone asked if I was a follower of Jesus could they tell?

 

How to live

Live Dead

Train your soul

Be constant in prayer

Abide in Jesus

Walk in Shema Spiritually

Take every thought captive to obey the Messiah.

 

 

Being called by God is about laying down your life; doing small, secret things.

When we follow God, we enter into a reverse economy of sorts. Things that bring us the praise of men will not bring us God’s favor. He doesn’t care how much money we have, how witty we are or how much praise people are willing to give us.

I wish I’d have known that when I was younger. I interpreted God’s calling on my life to mean I was better than other people. I can see that clearly now. But this was a radical misunderstanding of how God works. – Donald Miller

 

 

 

Rule of life

if we are to succeed in "putting on the new" character of Jesus, we must follow an order of life, as a whole, that is modeled after him. We must have a plan that incorporates whatever is necessary to enable us to have the character and do the deeds indicated by Jesus teaching. Our plan for a life of growth in the life of the kingdom of God must be structured around the disciplines for the spiritual life. - Dallas Willard

Live Dead

Live as though you are dead

 

 

The Key to the good life.

The Key is being a disciple of Jesus……………But you have to ask yourself the question what makes me a disciple of Jesus??? Is it because I go to church? Is it because I said a “sinners prayer, and asked Jesus into my heart? Is it because I got baptized or do good works? Is it because I have Christian parents? Or because I went to a Christian school and or college? Its it because I believe in God and Jesus? Is it because I believe God created the heavens and earth? Is it because I believe in Heaven , hell and the devil? Is it because I believe the Bible is the inspired Word of God? Could it be because I confessed my sins and admitted I was a sinner in need of a Savior, does that make me a disciple? What exactly makes me a disciple of Jesus thus enabling me to live the good life???????? That’s the million dollar question, because I can do all of those other things, go to church, ask Jesus into my heart, confess my sins, be baptized, have Christian parents, go to  Christian schools and still not be a disciple. Will I go to “heaven” when I die? Well that would be up for debate.

 

Disciple is translated from the Hebrew word Talmid which is defined as an apprentice or student. Discipleship in first century practice was a process of the apprentice not only knowing what his Rabbi taught but in fact becoming just like his Rabbi, getting to know the Rabbi so well the disciple or apprentice became just like his Rabbi. This means getting to know the Rabbi intimately , which in the words of John 17:3 is eternal life. So being a disciple = knowing Jesus which = eternal life. This eternal life can begin now, this is the good life we have been talking about.

 

Now this begs the question of how do I become an apprentice of someone who lived on earth over 2000 years ago? First this cannot be done without the aid of the Holy Spirit, which I assure you if we do our part The Holy Spirit will do His. So what are the practical steps that I can take to be like Jesus, to be his apprentice, to get to know Him, how can I be with Him to be like Him?

 

First and foremost I have to do the things He did. Which are, scripture memory, fasting, reading scripture, praying, spending time in silence and solitude, service to others, and bringing healing to people just to name a few. We learn the things He did by reading the gospels. I suggest you read the gospels thru weekly, Matthew – John,  Sunday – Saturday, this takes about 14 chapters a day. I will attach a Bible reading plan. You have to ask yourself do I want to be a apprentice of Jesus, do I want to get to know Him? Am I willing to do what is needed to accomplish that? Anything worthwhile takes commitment, dedication, hard work, and focus with all your heart, mind, soul and strength to do. We have all put that much commitment into things that are not going to last and really mean nothing in light of eternity, a couple that come to mind are sports and entertainment. So we see this is going to take time, but guess what? it will be time spent with The Triune God, the creator of the Universe, Imagine meeting with the Being who created the Universe and who created you. We all know that, but I don’t think we realize what a privilege it is. So, if we are going to get to know someone practically speaking we must spend TIME with them. So here are the practical things we can do.

 

1.       Spend time reading scripture and meditating on scripture, 2hrs daily – I attached a good plan.

2.       Spend time in prayer at least an hour a day, you can break it up into smaller segments.

3.       Spend time memorizing scripture.- suggest starting with Colossians 3:1-18

4.       Fast one day a week

5.       Spend time in silence and solitude, this make take getting up extra early, sometimes taking a whole day somewhere by self.

6.       Always keep God and Jesus before your mind, this is done by one second of every min, think a God thought, like say Jesus have mercy……….. Our Father in Heaven hollowed be Your name………..Your Kingdom come Your will be done

 

These training exercises do not earn us any favor or merit with God, they help up get to know Him and become like Him. Jesus says, deny self, take up your cross and follow him, these are things we do. He also says train yourself unto godliness. It requires action on our part…………………………..so do you want to be an apprentice of Jesus, His disciple?

 

 

This is the key to the good life.

 

 

 

Beautiful wife in Africa at childrens village

 

 

 

Dwelling upon God

“To bring the mind to dwell intelligently upon God as he is presented in his Word will have the effect of causing us to love God passionately, and this love will in turn bring us to think of God steadily. Thus he will always be before our minds. To think of God rightly, as He is, one cannot help but lapse into worship; and worship is the single most powerful force in completing and sustaining the spiritual formation of the whole person. Worship naturally arises from thinking rightly of God on the basis of revealed truth confirmed in experience. We say flatly, "Worship is at once the overall character of the renovated thought life and the only safe place for any human being to stand." – Dallas Willard

 

Transformation of the mind

The ultimate freedom we have as human beings is the power to select what we will allow our minds to dwell upon. It is in our thoughts that the first movements toward the renovation of the heart occur. Thoughts are the place where we can and must begin to change. There the light of God first begins to move upon us through the word of Christ, and there the divine Spirit begins to direct our will to God and his way. We are not totally free in this respect, but we do have great freedom here. We still have the ability and responsibility to try to retain God in our knowledge. And those who do so will surely make progress toward Him; for if we truly do seek God as best we can, he, who always knows what is really in our hearts, will certainly make himself known to us. – Dallas Willard

 

 

Orphans

We are having a great time on Africa spending time with the orphans

Leaving Atlanta for Paris