One more day and I move back to school. Wow time has flown by the last couple of days. Today I went to the adult Sunday School at church for the first time and I really enjoyed it. Here's all the notes that I got out of today's class and service:
When we get to heaven we will get answers and gain a new perspective on life and things from the past. In heaven we will be in constant praise of God, and we will enjoy it. Some misconceptions are that everybody will be there, God didn't actually create a Hell because He's so loving, you will get your own planet to reign over, and it will be boring/Hell is a party. Everybody won't be there because some people will go to Hell. God is the judge of where we end up. Jesus is not ethnically white or has blue eyes etc. Misconceptions about faith are that there is more than one way to get to heaven, that all religions are aspects of the same God, meaning they are all right, and reincarnation. Christ said specifically that there is no other way to the Father than through Him.
Jesus is the Christ. He is the Savior. He had a 5-fold mission including: preaching the good news to the poor, binding up the brokenhearted, proclaiming freedom for the captives, releasing the prisoners from the darkness, and proclaiming the year of the Lord's favor.
What's it to you what God's plan is for someone else? It's their path, not yours, so stop comparing yourself to other people. Those who are the most humble are the greatest. Like children we need to be more focused on ourselves and our relationship with God rather than comparing ourselves to other Christians and their walks.
Service: Guest speaker- David Wheeler
Famous Last Words of Christ
Acts 1:6-11
What was Jesus all about? Or on the other hand what was not important to Jesus?
The disciples were often self-centered and focused on a "What's in it for me?" mentality. When a man learns to die to himself, he will then learn to live. We are supposed to be on God's mission but we are too worked up about what other people think. The disciples were more worried about what other people thought about what they were doing than the actual work they did.
In order for Him to increase, I must decrease. It's not for us to know the plan or what will happen, but for us to trust that He knows what He's doing.
Our purpose as Christians is to Glorify God, and our function is to join God's mission.
The thought that you will not learn to love God until you love yourself is false. If you love God, you will love yourself because He made you and is inside of you.
So How can we spread Christianity?
4 questions that you may think about when contemplating witnessing to someone or not:
Where is my boldness?- verse 8a
- Introverts have the ability to relate to other introverts, so you don't even need to be bold to reach someone.
Why should I share my spiritual story?- verse 8b
- We will be held accountable for the people we had the opportunity to share with but chose not to.
-We are not defined by what we do or have done, but what we are. Sharing faults and failures will help people to relate.
Where?- verse 8c
- Everywhere; Don't go on a mission trip if you aren't willing to do the same thing in your own neighborhood.
-The gospel is individual and inclusive. Everybody who comes to faith, comes individually.
What's the point?- verse 9-11
- Jesus is coming back! Don't worry about when He is coming back but what the state of the world will be in when He does come back.
- "If we'd have known you were coming, we'd have gone and got more people" mentality. We already know that He's coming, So where are the people?
Forgotten God: Intro and Chapter 1
Introduction-
Chan states here that by "Forgotten God" he is actually referencing the Holy Spirit. That we, as Christians, tend to focus on God and Jesus Christ, but lose focus on the Spirit. Many Christians feel when attending a church that they are "missing something", and Chan believes that this "something" is actually the Spirit. When we lose sight of the Spirit, we are limited to only accomplishing tasks that can use our human strength. A whole realm of things that we can do is gone, because we forget that with the Spirit we can even do them.
"I also believe that the Spirit is more obviously active in places where people are desperate for Him, humbled before Him, and not distracted by their pursuit of wealth or comforts." This goes along with what I was saying earlier about the greatest people being those who are the most humble. When we humble ourselves and forget about our own desires, we become more open to the Spirit to take control. Anything that we accomplish without the Spirit is of no consequence. We cannot live up to our full potential and even the church becomes irrelevant.
Chan describes the truths that he will lay out for us in the book as "Obvious, Neglected, and Crucial". He also hopes that these truths will help us look to the future and not stay stuck in the past. I'm hoping the same for myself and that I can do what he says next and "lay aside your baggage and stereotypes so you can be open to what God wants to teach you". I hope the same for you too, reader.
I love what Chan says about a "healthy balance". We truly cannot say that everyone needs a healthy balance of the Spirit or of God in their life, because that would imply that some people have too much. I don't know about you, but I can never have enough of God. You cannot be "overfilled" with the Holy Spirit. You can take and take and take as much as you want and there will always be room for more. The issue is not necessarily that we don't have enough, but that we are holding back too much. That when someone only has a "little bit of God" they are really unwilling to give up parts of themselves to Him. There is always more of God that we can experience, but we have to be willing to ask for it.
Chapter 1: I've Got Jesus. Why Do I Need the Spirit?
I agree with Chan that there is a problem with churches nowadays. More and more people are saying that they believe in God, but not in organized religion. The key to fixing that problem may very well be the Holy Spirit. The reason why people find organized religion to be faulty is that it's more like organized spoon-feeding. We sit, listen, and believe what we are told, but we don't challenge or look to see for ourselves why it is true. We know that what we believe is right, but we don't look to see how or why. We just accept that "that's the way it is".
After Jesus had died and was resurrected, He told the disciples to stay and wait for the Spirit to come. Chan says that the disciples obeyed because that's what people do when someone rises from the dead and gives you instructions LOL. If I saw that happened, I know for sure I would have obeyed as well. But as a people we don't "expect" the Holy Spirit to do anything for us. We don't "need" Him. Just because things are stirring and things seem to be working out, doesn't mean the Spirit is at work at all. We CAN do things on our own, but we can do so much MORE with the Spirit. You should be so caught up in the Spirit that if someone saw you for the first time they would know from your actions and lifestyle that you are a believer. The sad thing is when a nonbeliever has a lifestyle more "Christian-ly" than you. So what needs to happen is that when we encounter the Spirit, a change needs to take place and our lifestyles need to be affected. Truthfully, if we are so taken by Jesus and we are completely affected by Jesus's work in our lives, shouldn't we also be taken by the Spirit and completely affected by the Spirit's work in our lives? In the trinity there is no piece that is more beneficial or stronger or more necessary than the others. They are all powerful, all knowing, and all equal. So why do we not consider the Spirit as important as Jesus? Even Jesus said it was a good thing that He would die because then the Holy Spirit would come and take His place. Also, knowing of the Spirit, and experiencing the Spirit are two different things. I know in my life I have more head knowledge of the Spirit then I do experiences. So the goal for this book is to not just learn more about the Spirit, but to learn to be more aware of the Spirit.
Now to go pack more :)
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