I Timothy 6:11-16
One of our problems in our modern church is sometimes we are known for what we DON'T do. By that I mean we are known by who we don't associate with. Yet we are called also to PURSUE something also: righteousness. So don't define ourselves by what we don't do, instead be known for our pursuit of Christ! "Fight the good fight" in context means we don't see the person we are fighting as the enemy but as the goal!
"Take hold of the good faith" grab onto that which is most important and cast aside that which isn't.
"to keep the commandment without stain or reproachment UNTIL the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ"
The sole reason we will finish the race is because we have a Father to help carry us to the finish.
Thursday, July 28, 2011
Saturday, July 16, 2011
Thoughts on Houston Project
Had to take a day to recover from Houston Project, Houston Project is a outreach that Houston's First Baptist Church http://houstonsfirst.org does during July, to communities around Houston. The church does vacation Bible study, women's Bible study, men's Bible study, a nursery, middle school and high school outreach along with feeding whoever shows up and feed those around the community we are in.
I worked in the food serving, preparing food up to be brought to classes and then putting the juice on the snowcones, we had a very good group working together, some very administrative types that organized us to a well-oiled machine.
Our group was assigned to food prep, but all of us volunteers got opportunities to wear lots of hats to lots of people. I for example was doorman, when I first got to the site, Kelly Village, there was myself and the two leaders, who needed to be able to set up for the night without children from neighborhood running around. During one of those times, I got opportunity to chat with a woman from community about what we are doing. She didn't understand why a church would be interested in reaching out to a community they weren't actually located in. I explained that God's love knows no bounds or locations. That we as a church were called to be the physical representation to people of His Love. She asked if it was too late to become involved and what she could do with her baby and other little one. I said we had a loving group that would enjoy taking care of her baby and we have vacation Bible study for her little boy. She asked if she needed to feed them before bringing them, but told her we have that covered also.
God has equipped us to be His hands and feet and go to reach a world who either has no clue about Who God is or an inaccurate view of Who He is. Our call is to help show the world through our loving actions a small picture of Who God is in our lives. It was enjoyable to have opportunity to share God with the community of Kelly Village.
I worked in the food serving, preparing food up to be brought to classes and then putting the juice on the snowcones, we had a very good group working together, some very administrative types that organized us to a well-oiled machine.
Our group was assigned to food prep, but all of us volunteers got opportunities to wear lots of hats to lots of people. I for example was doorman, when I first got to the site, Kelly Village, there was myself and the two leaders, who needed to be able to set up for the night without children from neighborhood running around. During one of those times, I got opportunity to chat with a woman from community about what we are doing. She didn't understand why a church would be interested in reaching out to a community they weren't actually located in. I explained that God's love knows no bounds or locations. That we as a church were called to be the physical representation to people of His Love. She asked if it was too late to become involved and what she could do with her baby and other little one. I said we had a loving group that would enjoy taking care of her baby and we have vacation Bible study for her little boy. She asked if she needed to feed them before bringing them, but told her we have that covered also.
God has equipped us to be His hands and feet and go to reach a world who either has no clue about Who God is or an inaccurate view of Who He is. Our call is to help show the world through our loving actions a small picture of Who God is in our lives. It was enjoyable to have opportunity to share God with the community of Kelly Village.
Monday, June 20, 2011
Jerrell Altic's message at MetroLive
Acts 6:1-15, 7:1. Stephen models "Outlive Your Life" through this way: 1) Would the gospel of God go forward if you died?!? Or do fears of insecurities;of man, of loss of prestige...hold it back? We should expect those in authority to be in opposition to God's message through our lives. We want to give up but our call is to hang on just a little longer. Alot of times God advances the gospel through intense persecution. "Obedience opens eyes." Equally disobedience closes eyes. Are we " Stephen-available to be used or are we there like Saul giving approval to people's death around us?!?"
2) The world around us only worships that which it can see. We like Stephen need to worship the unseen to eventually see Christ for Who He truly is.
Our call is lived out by being there to plant, to water and sometimes harvest the people in which the gospel has been planted in. Our call is to be bold/courageous and pray/evangelize. If we don't raise the level of obedience (fill in the blank) then we will not be available to help those coming up behind us! Let's raise the level of obedience 1 level tonight!
2) The world around us only worships that which it can see. We like Stephen need to worship the unseen to eventually see Christ for Who He truly is.
Our call is lived out by being there to plant, to water and sometimes harvest the people in which the gospel has been planted in. Our call is to be bold/courageous and pray/evangelize. If we don't raise the level of obedience (fill in the blank) then we will not be available to help those coming up behind us! Let's raise the level of obedience 1 level tonight!
Ben Stuart's 2nd MetroLive talk
I Peter 1:3. We are people of Jesus but we need to go beyond that in we are called to be the people of resurrection. The world is going "Ok, but what is that to us?!?" Resurrection should be life-changing but the question is it to us? Our present and future should be different because Jesus' action in the past. Our present and future is affected by our view of death but Christ's substitute for us, secured our future hope. Christ's triumph over death gives us victory over our "little deaths" we face daily.
Christ's death establishes purpose: Share Christ's peace in a world that desperately needs it. "Death loses it eternalness when Christ makes His sacrifice for us"
We are born-again to show God and His Glory to a world that has been blinded and bored. What a sad commentary. Christ is our "Living Hope" waiting to be shared with a desperate and seeking world. This is a despite the world, ie. Stephen Hawking saying it's crazy and pathetic to "make-believe" that Christ's story is anything other than make-believe.
The world can explain Christ away but it cannot explain away His followers! So step up and answer the call/questions that the world presents...
Christ's death establishes purpose: Share Christ's peace in a world that desperately needs it. "Death loses it eternalness when Christ makes His sacrifice for us"
We are born-again to show God and His Glory to a world that has been blinded and bored. What a sad commentary. Christ is our "Living Hope" waiting to be shared with a desperate and seeking world. This is a despite the world, ie. Stephen Hawking saying it's crazy and pathetic to "make-believe" that Christ's story is anything other than make-believe.
The world can explain Christ away but it cannot explain away His followers! So step up and answer the call/questions that the world presents...
Friday, June 3, 2011
Notes from MetroLive:Ben Stuart
Some of my notes from last night's opening night of MetroLive 2011, from Ben Stuart, the director of BreakAway Ministries, up at College Station. MetroLive is held at my homechurch, Houston's First Baptist Church at 7:30pm.
Ben Stuart spoke on John 21, which deals with, Peter going to Galilee to return to fishing and Jesus speaking to him from the shore after a fruitless night of fishing. Ben puts out the question for us to consider: "How does God view us in our time of failure?"
The answer is that God views with love,care and concern. He seeks to restore us, to make us useful to Him.
To do this He brings us, as He did Peter, to the place of our call that God places on our life. In Peter's case, Christ recreates Peter's first encounter with Christ, after a fruitless night of fishing, Christ calls out to Peter from the shoreline, and asks a question, He fully knows the answer to, "Children, have you caught any fish?" Then Christ says "Why don't you try fishing from the rightside?" To which the disciples do and begin to catch fish aplenty. They realize it's Jesus and Peter dives into the water and swims ashore to meet the Lord. Jesus then provides breakfast for disciples.
Jesus then knowing the poison of Peter's failure which if left unchecked and unaddressed could potentially kill Peter's ministry for Christ, so Christ draws out the venom of failure by recreating the scene of Peter's denial. And proceeds to confront the failure head on by asking Peter about his devotion to Christ and allows Peter to see how his power and desire to follow Christ wasn't enough, Peter would need Christ's strength to accomplish all Christ had for him.
Christ shows it's not just about being a "fisher of men" but to go beyond that and be ready to feed His sheep.
We need to seek out Christ and ask for His help both to remember our call and when necessary to go and return to scene of our greatest failure and seek Christ's help in drawing out venom of the failure, so we may be fully ready to be used by Christ.
Ben Stuart spoke on John 21, which deals with, Peter going to Galilee to return to fishing and Jesus speaking to him from the shore after a fruitless night of fishing. Ben puts out the question for us to consider: "How does God view us in our time of failure?"
The answer is that God views with love,care and concern. He seeks to restore us, to make us useful to Him.
To do this He brings us, as He did Peter, to the place of our call that God places on our life. In Peter's case, Christ recreates Peter's first encounter with Christ, after a fruitless night of fishing, Christ calls out to Peter from the shoreline, and asks a question, He fully knows the answer to, "Children, have you caught any fish?" Then Christ says "Why don't you try fishing from the rightside?" To which the disciples do and begin to catch fish aplenty. They realize it's Jesus and Peter dives into the water and swims ashore to meet the Lord. Jesus then provides breakfast for disciples.
Jesus then knowing the poison of Peter's failure which if left unchecked and unaddressed could potentially kill Peter's ministry for Christ, so Christ draws out the venom of failure by recreating the scene of Peter's denial. And proceeds to confront the failure head on by asking Peter about his devotion to Christ and allows Peter to see how his power and desire to follow Christ wasn't enough, Peter would need Christ's strength to accomplish all Christ had for him.
Christ shows it's not just about being a "fisher of men" but to go beyond that and be ready to feed His sheep.
We need to seek out Christ and ask for His help both to remember our call and when necessary to go and return to scene of our greatest failure and seek Christ's help in drawing out venom of the failure, so we may be fully ready to be used by Christ.
Monday, March 14, 2011
Message at @houstonsfirst by @afshinziafat
This is www.twitter.com/afshinziafat message to my church www.twitter.com/houstonsfirst last night,coming from Philippians 1:20-21, 3:2-9 and few other sections.
The overarching principal we need to understand for this and any message about the gospel or Christ is this: Bible teaches that life is only found in Christ. In otherwords, life cannot truly be found apart from Him and just doesn't make sense.
Paul's singular passion is that Christ would be honored in his life and body. Fully and in such a way that Paul would be unashamed of his message to the world, free or in chains, let Christ's will be done in all circumstances.
Paul then helps redefine the definitions of life and death, by completely and totally turn them on their heads. Life becomes completely immersion in Christ and His being both, physically and spiritually. We are custom-made for Christ and His use of us as His bond-servants, until we fully understand that, then life cannot fully be experienced.
This allows Paul to reassess his life and what he had been striving for and hoping to achieve, as a Pharisee, a Jew...Paul realizes that all his "good works" to fulfill the law and all he put his trust in and believed in, were not assets as he once believed but in actuality losses.
"Religion is man's way to God. Jesus is God's way to man."
Paul not only counts everything as loss but then actually does lose everything that he had held dear, prior to his conversion to being led by Christ's mindset, areas such as: freedom, his standing as a religious leader all were stripped from him as he put self aside and picked up Christ'sview of life. A full understanding of relationship with Christ and His call on our life equals out to us putting aside all the trappings that the world offers as a substitute to Christ. Sin if left unchecked will lead us down the treacherous slope of Entitlement and conceit: which is empty or vain glory.
Grace leads us to put down self and pick up Christ's view of life and put others in front of ourselves.
Paul then redefines death as gain, since death leads Christ's followers to His side for all eternity. So when your life is all about Christ, death is sought after and prized since it brings us to Christ, but if our life is about something else, the loss becomes an even greater loss that is uncomprehensible. Only in Christ, does death go from the enemy of life to a sought-after goal of life!
Our call is to cling to Christ and all He is and nothing else. Thus allowing us to live out what should be our singular passion: live out a self-less life that advances Christ and knowledge of Who He is. The grace from a Christ-led life should cause us to constantly set aside self and reach out to the world and help meet their needs with the Love of Christ.
The overarching principal we need to understand for this and any message about the gospel or Christ is this: Bible teaches that life is only found in Christ. In otherwords, life cannot truly be found apart from Him and just doesn't make sense.
Paul's singular passion is that Christ would be honored in his life and body. Fully and in such a way that Paul would be unashamed of his message to the world, free or in chains, let Christ's will be done in all circumstances.
Paul then helps redefine the definitions of life and death, by completely and totally turn them on their heads. Life becomes completely immersion in Christ and His being both, physically and spiritually. We are custom-made for Christ and His use of us as His bond-servants, until we fully understand that, then life cannot fully be experienced.
This allows Paul to reassess his life and what he had been striving for and hoping to achieve, as a Pharisee, a Jew...Paul realizes that all his "good works" to fulfill the law and all he put his trust in and believed in, were not assets as he once believed but in actuality losses.
"Religion is man's way to God. Jesus is God's way to man."
Paul not only counts everything as loss but then actually does lose everything that he had held dear, prior to his conversion to being led by Christ's mindset, areas such as: freedom, his standing as a religious leader all were stripped from him as he put self aside and picked up Christ'sview of life. A full understanding of relationship with Christ and His call on our life equals out to us putting aside all the trappings that the world offers as a substitute to Christ. Sin if left unchecked will lead us down the treacherous slope of Entitlement and conceit: which is empty or vain glory.
Grace leads us to put down self and pick up Christ's view of life and put others in front of ourselves.
Paul then redefines death as gain, since death leads Christ's followers to His side for all eternity. So when your life is all about Christ, death is sought after and prized since it brings us to Christ, but if our life is about something else, the loss becomes an even greater loss that is uncomprehensible. Only in Christ, does death go from the enemy of life to a sought-after goal of life!
Our call is to cling to Christ and all He is and nothing else. Thus allowing us to live out what should be our singular passion: live out a self-less life that advances Christ and knowledge of Who He is. The grace from a Christ-led life should cause us to constantly set aside self and reach out to the world and help meet their needs with the Love of Christ.
Saturday, March 5, 2011
Stronger,seems to be based in/on Book of Romans
Anyone who knows me knows I love the song #Stronger by www.twitter.com/hillsong and feel that it has the book of Romans woven all through it and since that is the book I'm helping lead,then I am relating to it even more than usual, first noticed the song, primarily because prior to leading study, I was doing quiet time on the book,not knowing I would be asked to lead a study on it for my sunday school class: http://nightlightbiblestudy.blinkweb.com which you all can check out if you are in Houston or planning on being here anytime soon.
Meanwhile back at the ranch,haha,love working in ridiculous and irrelevant phrases into a blog or conversation! I fell in love with "Stronger" and the words resonated with my soul "You are stronger,You are stronger, Sin is broken, You have saved me, It is written, Christ is risen. Jesus, You are Lord of All."
Think that chorus resonated with me so strongly, since I daily struggle with feeling like much I have done in my extremely checkered past and how it affects my future. I have made a vow to make as big a difference for God equal to or exceeding how much I'm well-known in bars,clubs and shady dives across the city of Houston, and that is a HUGE task! I gave myself over to a life fairly well separated from God and His influence on my life for such a long time.
" so let Your Name be lifted higher,be lifted higher,be lifted higher,be lifter higher." it is Jesus' name that we are called to lift up,not our own. I forgot that for such a long time and allowed my name, my reputation as the "party/good time guy" become what was important and what mattered most to me!
"There is Love that came for us, humbled to the sinner's cross,broke my shame and sinfulness, rose again victorious." Jesus came and is here for you and I anytime we ask. Think on that,let it percolate and simmer in your soul and being. It is NEVER about us and what we bring to the relationship with our Savior. It is Christ that is breaking my shame and sinfulness. The One paying the price set down for us is not us, but only the Perfect and Sinless Christ. So ends my sermon for the day!
Meanwhile back at the ranch,haha,love working in ridiculous and irrelevant phrases into a blog or conversation! I fell in love with "Stronger" and the words resonated with my soul "You are stronger,You are stronger, Sin is broken, You have saved me, It is written, Christ is risen. Jesus, You are Lord of All."
Think that chorus resonated with me so strongly, since I daily struggle with feeling like much I have done in my extremely checkered past and how it affects my future. I have made a vow to make as big a difference for God equal to or exceeding how much I'm well-known in bars,clubs and shady dives across the city of Houston, and that is a HUGE task! I gave myself over to a life fairly well separated from God and His influence on my life for such a long time.
" so let Your Name be lifted higher,be lifted higher,be lifted higher,be lifter higher." it is Jesus' name that we are called to lift up,not our own. I forgot that for such a long time and allowed my name, my reputation as the "party/good time guy" become what was important and what mattered most to me!
"There is Love that came for us, humbled to the sinner's cross,broke my shame and sinfulness, rose again victorious." Jesus came and is here for you and I anytime we ask. Think on that,let it percolate and simmer in your soul and being. It is NEVER about us and what we bring to the relationship with our Savior. It is Christ that is breaking my shame and sinfulness. The One paying the price set down for us is not us, but only the Perfect and Sinless Christ. So ends my sermon for the day!
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