John Stott said that “worship is the highest and noblest activity of which man, by the grace of God, is capable.”
What is worship?
How do you define it?
What does it look like?
How does it sound?
What does it do?
How do you worship?
gaj
William Temple said “The Church is the only society on earth that exists for the benefits of non-members.”
What do you think would happen in our world today if every church operated and budgeted on this premise?
gaj
God’s love amazes me.
It is unconditional.
It is unfailing.
It is complete.
It never waivers.
Desmond Tutu said “The good news is that God loves me long before I could have done anything to deserve it.”
What do you think of when you think of God’s love for you?
gaj
"While I could sit in church and pray all I want, I wouldn't be fulfilling God's will unless I went out and did the Lord's work." ~ Barack Obama
Obama gets it.
What would happen if every person that goes to church would go out into their communities and minister at the point of need as Jesus did?
What would happen if every church goer would get it and do it?
gaj
What do you have that is inexhaustible?
God's love.
Nothing you can do will make God love you any less.
Nothing you can do will make God love you any more.
His love was completed for you at the cross of Christ.
And it's inexhaustible!
O Israel, put your hope in the LORD, for with the LORD is unfailing love and with him is full redemption. -- Psalm 130:7
gaj
God created each one of us with a void that only He can fill. Many go throughout life trying to fill this void with what this world has to offer only to find that it brings more emptiness. C.S. Lewis said “If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world.”
God created us to be His inheritance and His heart is that we spend eternity with Him. That’s why He has given us this void that only He can fill. It is so we will recognize that we are not of this world and long to be with Him.
Do you feel the void?
I like how Charles Finney defined revival.
Finney, who has been called the "father of modern revivalism," called for revival as a means of "breaking the power of the world and of sin over Christians." The essence of sin was selfishness, Finney taught, and to be converted from sin meant to turn from selfishness toward benevolence, doing good to all and becoming "useful" in the world. The key vehicles for these actions included hundreds of "benevolent societies" that focused on every imaginable social evil, from alcohol and slavery to the mistreatment of women. He could even be considered an early feminist, in that - in the face of criticism - he invited women to speak publicly at his revivals. Finney served as president of Oberlin, which became the first college in the country to award bachelor's degrees to women and African Americans, and which was a stop on the "underground railroad" for escaping slaves. ~ Jim Rice, The Roots of Justice Revival, Sojourners, April 2008, p.30.
May God send revival in our day with the fruit of it being displayed through human rights and social justice. I long for a revival such as this in our day!
gaj
Have you ever heard a promise from a person or a company that sounded too good to be true. With all of the broken promises it's easy to grow cynical in our day and we learn that if it sounds too good to be true that it probably is. God's Word is full of promises and you can stand on every one of them. Dwight L. Moody said that "God never made a promise that was too good to be true."
A promise of God that is close to my heart today came from the lips of Jesus who talked about what times would be like in our day and said (Matthew 24:12-13 NIV) "Because of the increase of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold, {13} but he who stands firm to the end will be saved."
I stand on that promise today. Life is an endurance race and not a sprint. Jesus builds our faith and that gives us the stamina to stand firm and endure until the end. Jesus is the author and the perfecter of our faith! As He perfects our faith, our love for Him and for others becomes red hot!
What favorite God promise is close to your heart today?
gaj
Today there are preachers who are taking away the veil from the bride of Christ. But God, by His grace, will put a groaning in your heart and you will not be satisfied until you are His and He is yours. You will not be among those who sit in so-called houses of God with their feet on the altar rail and a cup of coffee in their hand, listening to a PowerPoint sermon about a Christ they do not know. There is a stirring of the Holy Spirit in the true bride in this generation. We are living in a time, as the prophet Malachi said, when those who fear the Lord are going to know the difference between those who serve God and those who do not.
~ From the message titled "The Deep Groanings of the Righteous", Carter Conlon, Senior Pastor of Time Square Church, NYC.
Just a thought....
gaj
There is nothing more powerful than the Christian life lived out in obedience; there is nothing worse than a flat, self-righteous form of faith that parades around in Christian clothes. ~ David Kinnaman, from the book, unChristian, p.83.
And I say "right on!"
I'm getting into this book and I'm feeling another LGF Book Review night coming on at the Loving God Fellowship Salem campus. The last LGF Book Review night we had on The Shack was awesome.
What do you say on the above quote from unChristian?
gaj
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