What I am Learning Right Now July 29, 2009
Posted by oneofhis in Uncategorized.add a comment
There will be no deep theological insights in this post. Maybe. Lol!
1) Apart from the grace of God, I am lost and there is no good in me. (Humility)
2) I need His grace and forgiveness every day.
3) I need to forgive and show grace every day to others.
4) To forgive myself
5) To rejoice in the victories and accomplishments of others
6) To do all things as unto God. No matter how big or small.
7) To confront my fears. After all, to be apart from the body is to be with the Lord. Lol!
8) Patience is NOT a virtue. It is a necessity.
9) Being a good husband and father requires selflessness and I am still selfish at times.
10) Failures are mandatory for success.
Kevin
How Theology Has Helped Me July 15, 2009
Posted by oneofhis in Bible Study, Calvinism, christian living.Tags: Holy Spirit, Theology
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I just wanted to share some ways that theology has actually helped me.
You may think “how does theology help anyone?” This is a question I used to ask myself for a long time. I think many hear the word “theology” and it causes people to go into seizures and seek the nearest window to jump out of. To some, it reminds them of years of dead, lifeless, sermons they heard in church. Some see theology as a problem because they believe that how to live the Christian life is just based on your life experiences and not on the Holy Word of God.
I used to think theology was just a conglomeration of what we believe as Christians, but it’s so much more than that! When right doctrine and theology is mixed with the power of the Holy Spirit, it can empower a believer and bring understanding to a great many questions. Theology and doctrine apart from the Holy Spirit is dangerous in that it only brings knowledge. Knowledge without a heart humbled by the Holy Spirit is a heart full of pride and self-exaltation.
Luke 18:
18) And a ruler asked him, “Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” 19)And Jesus said to him, “Why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone. 20)You know the commandments: ‘Do not commit adultery, Do not murder, Do not steal, Do not bear false witness, Honor your father and mother.’” 21)And he said, “All these I have kept from my youth.” 22)When Jesus heard this, he said to him, “One thing you still lack. Sell all that you have and distribute to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me.” 23) But when he heard these things, he became very sad, for he was extremely rich. 24)Jesus, seeing that he had become sad, said, “How difficult it is for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God! 25)For it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God.” 26)Those who heard it said, “Then who can be saved?” 27)But he said, “What is impossible with men is possible with God.”
Here’s an example of a young man who knew the scriptures but they were in his head, but not in his heart. This young ruler was an example of knowledge without the power of the Holy Spirit. He was rich and educated in the scriptures, but that knowledge. Many times these are the hardest folks to convince they need an encounter with God. It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than to help these people cause they know everything but they know nothing.
For many years I knew a lot of things, but looking back, I didn’t know as much as I thought I did. I had to go through a very painful process over many years to get that thinking out of my head. I am so thankful that God didn’t give up on me, despite how prideful and arrogant I was!
The Holy Spirit is essential in any study of theology. He helps us to apply theology in a practical way so we have understanding beyond being able to quote some scriptures. I have been able to encourage others and be encouraged in my own life cause He has allowed me to take what I am learning and use it in different situations I have been faced with. Theology is so much more powerful when you can apply it in your daily life.
Kevin
What I am Learning From Mountain Biking IV July 10, 2009
Posted by oneofhis in Food for Thought, Life Experiences, Things That Inspire Me, christian living.Tags: christian living, Jesus, Life, Life Experiences, motivation, Mountain Biking, Pacing Yourself
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4) Pace Yourself- One thing you learn when you start riding quickly is that you are not as fit as some of the guys that do it all the time. Many of these guys have hit the trail for a while and can go faster, and handle things that you starting out can’t do. If you as a newbie start out hauling butt down some trails, you will be asking for oxygen within 5 mins, if not sooner. There is a level of fitness and experience you have to get to, in order to be successful in completing the trail strong or at least without breaking your neck! Even after a few months, there are still things I am learning and my body is getting where it needs to be to handle some of the harder areas of the trail.
There are many people who receive God’s gift of salvation or have received it and they are excited and want to change the world now! Unfortunately, situations in life test us and our zeal can grow cold and cynicism can replace the joy and excitement we felt when got saved or had an incredible encounter with God. Many don’t realize there is a process to get from point “A” to point “B”. Sometimes the process takes a lot of change on our part, and change doesn’t take place instantaneously in most cases. Life and the world have a way of taking the wind out of your sails. Bills, disagreements with your spouse, kids that are not living up to the potential you see in them, and the cares of life will attempt to sap the life out of you.
We are all susceptable to letting these things steal our joy and energy but there are a few things that I have learned, not necessarily mastered yet, that I’m still working on, that help me keep perspective:
a) I have to accept that I am not where I want to be. This is that frustration we feel when we want to be further in our walk with God, ministry, family, ect. We can channel that frustration toward God and get angry or we can use it to attack those areas in our life that are hindering us. Our choice.
b) I need other’s help. While on the trail you can get frustrated in some areas. You try to get some momentum and you hit a root or some other object on the trail that just slows you right down, which means you have to work that much harder to get your momentum going again, and ultimately begins to sap your strength. This is why it’s important to listen to people that have been where you are going. They can tell you about things that you might have found out the harder way. They can offer encouragement cause they were where you are now. We were never meant to ride this trail alone. We need others.
c) There will be season in my walk with God. Keeping this in mind helps me pace myself better. I know there will be seasons in life that will blow my mind with the amazing things that God will do. I also know that there will be times that I will not feel a warm fuzzy or it will “feel” like God is nowhere to be seen. Feelings are very deceiving. Feelings don’t determine fact. Just cause I don’t “feel” God, doesn’t mean He is not there. It’s during those times that I must peddle that much harder. My lungs develop more during the uphill climbs than speeding downhill. We can grow or shrink in our spiritual growth by how we respond in these times. Will we despair or worship? Will we complain or praise?
Be patient. Be humble. Be teachable, and you will be everything that God has promised.
Kevin
What I am Learning From Mountain Biking III July 9, 2009
Posted by oneofhis in Food for Thought, Life Experiences, Things That Inspire Me.Tags: God, Knowledge, Mountain Biking, Safety, Security, Trust
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3) Trust Your Equipment- You can have the best bike with all the best parts money can buy, but if you don’t trust that it will do what it was designed to do it is just a useless and worthless piece of metal, rubber, and plastic.
We live in a time in history when we have some of the greatest biblical minds alive to learn, listen, and glean from. Revelation is flowing like a river, revealing a simplicity and a depth to the scripture we have not seen before. We have resources of early church fathers that we can glean from as well. Lifetimes of biblical and life experiences at our fingertips or a click of a mouse.
All this knowledge, and we still have people who have been in church for years that their lives are the same as the day they accepted Christ as their Savior. Please notice I did not say “Lord and Savior”. When we make someone or some people or something our lord, we submit to them. We are entrusting our well-being, safety, security, and our future to someone or a group of people that we believe has the ability to do be entrusted with these things. We believe that they have our best interests at heart and will act in those best interests.
In the words of Billy Joel: “It’s a matter of trust”. In relating God to the bike, we look at the bike, we study the bike, we even say how good the bike is, but we won’t get on the bike and see what the bike can do. We don’t trust it to give us the results we say we say with our mouths it can produce. We can trust He has saved our soul, but we can’t trust that He can take care of us. He provided for others, but He can’t provide for us. We can’t trust that God truly has our best interests, therefore He is not the Lord of our lives!
I don’t have a pat religious cliched answer on how to trust God. It’s a matter of trust. It’s a matter between you and God. What is He asking you to do that you can’t trust Him to take care of? Are you afraid of making a mistake? Your listening to a guy who has made his share and more. God has brought me to a point that it is more painful to think of what I might be able to do and not do it, then to go for it and make a mistake. Put your trust in Him. Let Him be the Lord of your life and see what He will do.
His Love Never Fails
Kevin
What I am Learning From Mountain Biking II July 8, 2009
Posted by oneofhis in Food for Thought, Life Experiences, Ministry.Tags: Empowerment, Equipping, Mountain Biking, Patience, Wisdom
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2) You Have to be Equipped Properly. It is very important that you have the right equipment when you are mountain biking. Just because someone lists to sell a bike as a mountain bike, doesn’t mean it’s a mountain bike. Just because it is a Trek, or a Cannondale, or a Specialized brand bike doesn’t make it a mountain bike. They make more than mountain bikes. It’s important that you are equipped properly for the task at hand or you can go out and get hurt pretty bad. You may want to invest in a hydration pack (especially in Florida) so you can stay hydrated and endure the heat and don’t have to be carried off the trail because of heat stroke.
This is an issue sometimes for Christians who feel called to do different things. The problem is that they have never done what they feel called to do before, or they did it for a while somewhere else and had a measure of success elsewhere, and think they know how it should be done somewhere else.
I wanted to address empowerment and equipping for a moment. Jesus said in Acts 1:8 that the Holy Spirit would come upon His disciples to empower them to become witnesses. Many would take that scripture and run with it saying that God has empowered me to do what He has called me to do. This is true, but I think most forget at this point that Jesus spent 3 years teaching the disciples the things they needed to know, equipping them for what they were called to do. Doing what you are called to do could be the most disasterous thing that could ever happen to you if you haven’t been equipped.
There are others (like myself) that we have done certain things in the past who think we know how everything ought to happen and be done. We are a pain in the butt sometimes for new, innovative leaders . Yoda in “The Empire Strikes Back” said something that has really been sticking with me for a while now. He said “You must unlearn what you have learned.” This is what people like myself that have been raised in church need to do. By default, when we don’t know what to do, we will go back to doing things that we used to do cause they are familiar and safe. This isn’t 100% percent bad, but if it’s stuff you did 10 years ago, then you need to be reequipped to face today’s challenges in a new and fresh way. The church has changed in the last 10 years. What worked before isn’t necessarily going to work or be relevant to today’s culture. We have to get a fresh revelation of who He is and what He wants to do in our communities so we can be effective to do what He has called us to do.
Being called by God to do something is incredible! Remember that patience and wisdom will put you in what God has for you at the right time and equipped properly for the trail He has for you to ride.
Kevin
What I am Learning From Mountain Biking I July 7, 2009
Posted by oneofhis in Fear, Life Experiences.Tags: Commit, Fear, Life, Mountain Biking, stretching, success, Trust
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I have been mountain biking for a couple months now. It has been so much fun! It has been challenging both physically and mentally (mostly physically, Lol!). I have learned a lot about myself since I’ve started. I thought I would share a few thoughts and principles we can all apply to our lives:
1) You have to commit to take on and face whatever the trail throws at you. Most trails are one way, which means you cannot turn around and go back. You have to commit to go forward, no matter what. You have to purpose in your mind that no matter what you face, you are going forward. You will face rough terrain. You will face roots, sand, rocks, drops just like in life. Noone is going to go out and pave the trail you are on and make it smooth. The Bible says you will face tough situations and difficult people. It’s just the way it is. We must commit to move forward in whatever God has called us to be.
Will we be scared? Maybe. There’s a good possibility you could get hurt, possibly pretty bad. How many of us sit at the entrance of the trail that God has designed for our lives and look into the trees scared of what we might face and stay at the entrance. You might wonder what the payoff of going down your trail is and you are frozen in fear of what could happen.
Something I have been learning is that a healthy dose of fear is good. Sometimes we just have to do something just to see if we can do it. Check out what Sampson did:
Judges 16:2
The Gazites were told, “Samson has come here.” And they surrounded the place and set an ambush for him all night at the gate of the city. They kept quiet all night, saying, “Let us wait till the light of the morning; then we will kill him.” 3)But Samson lay till midnight, and at midnight he arose and took hold of the doors of the gate of the city and the two posts, and pulled them up, bar and all, and put them on his shoulders and carried them to the top of the hill that is in front of Hebron.
He could have snuck out. That would have been a lot safer approach than to rip the gates of the city and carry them 30-40 miles up a 2000 foot mountain. What if he wasn’t strong enough? What if he failed? I don’t see Samson as the most cerebral person. He committed himself to do it and God gave him the strength. We talk ourselves out of lot of things.
What could you do if you were fully committed to God, and His purpose for your life and was willing to do whatever He asked you to do? What couldn’t we do?
Kevin
Relentless July 2, 2009
Posted by oneofhis in God's Love, Life Experiences, Things That Inspire Me.Tags: christian living, God, Jesus, Life, love, passion, worship
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It is a great truth, wonderful as it is undeniable, that all our happiness–temporal, spiritual and eternal–consists in one thing; namely, in resigning ourselves to God, and in leaving ourselves with Him, to do with us and in us just as He pleases. – Madame Guyon
Something God has been showing me is that He is relentless. He is not satisfied until the smallest piece of our heart that we try to withhold from Him is His. If there is one area that He is not Lord in our lives, He will not rest till it surrendered to Him. He is a jealous God.
Song of Solomon 8:6-7
6)Set me as a seal upon your heart,
as a seal upon your arm,
for love is strong as death,
jealousy is fierce as the grave.
Its flashes are flashes of fire,
the very flame of the LORD.
7Many waters cannot quench love,
neither can floods drown it………
He will not share your heart with other gods. He will not be a passing thought in your mind! He will not settle for being an “important part of your life”! He wants to be your life! He wants to be the center of your universe! He will not be your co-pilot! He will be Lord of every area of your heart and your life and He will not stop till He is!
This is all driven by a love that we can scarce understand. This comes from a love that was willing to lay down His own life that we may have relationship with our Heavenly Father. This love is not requited by half-hearted worship or lives that are not fully devoted to Him. He will go after those areas in our lives that we refuse to give to Him, not because He is some control freak! He is our loving Heavenly Father! How many times have we accused our own parents of trying to control our lives, when the whole basis of that control was love?
God, please help us to give those things that we have put in front of You to You. Help us to know and understand that Your ways are so much better and higher than anything we can fathom. Help us to love You with a fully devoted heart!
Kevin
