Posts Tagged With: purpose

Sunrise and The Empty Tomb

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John 20

The Resurrection

Early on Sunday morning, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene came to the tomb and found that the stone had been rolled away from the entrance. She ran and found Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one whom Jesus loved. She said, “They have taken the Lord’s body out of the tomb, and we don’t know where they have put Him!”

Peter and the other disciple started out for the tomb. They were both running, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first. He stooped and looked in and saw the linen wrappings lying there, but he didn’t go in. Then Simon Peter arrived and went inside. He also noticed the linen wrappings lying there, while the cloth that had covered Jesus’ head was folded up and lying apart from the other wrappings. Then the disciple who had reached the tomb first also went in, and he saw and believed—for until then they still hadn’t understood the Scriptures that said Jesus must rise from the dead. Then they went home.

Jesus Appears to Mary Magdalene

Mary was standing outside the tomb crying, and as she wept, she stooped and looked in. She saw two white-robed angels, one sitting at the head and the other at the foot of the place where the body of Jesus had been lying.“Dear woman, why are you crying?” the angels asked her.

“Because they have taken away my Lord,” she replied, “and I don’t know where they have put Him.”

She turned to leave and saw someone standing there. It was Jesus, but she didn’t recognize Him. “Dear woman, why are you crying?” Jesus asked her. “Who are you looking for?”

She thought he was the gardener. “Sir,” she said, “if you have taken Him away, tell me where you have put Him, and I will go and get Him.”

“Mary!” Jesus said. She turned to Him and cried out, “Rabboni!” (which is Hebrew for “Teacher”).

“Don’t cling to Me,” Jesus said, “for I haven’t yet ascended to the Father. But go find my brothers and tell them, ‘I am ascending to My Father and your Father, to My God and your God.’”

Mary Magdalene found the disciples and told them, “I have seen the Lord!” Then she gave them His message.

Jesus Appears to His Disciples

That Sunday evening the disciples were meeting behind locked doors because they were afraid of the Jewish leaders. Suddenly, Jesus was standing there among them! “Peace be with you,” He said.  As He spoke, He showed them the wounds in His hands and His side. They were filled with joy when they saw the Lord! Again he said, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent Me, so I am sending you.”

Then He breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive anyone’s sins, they are forgiven. If you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven.”

Jesus Appears to Thomas

One of the twelve disciples, Thomas (nicknamed the Twin), was not with the others when Jesus came. They told him, “We have seen the Lord!”

But he replied, “I won’t believe it unless I see the nail wounds in His hands, put my fingers into them, and place my hand into the wound in His side.”

Eight days later the disciples were together again, and this time Thomas was with them. The doors were locked; but suddenly, as before, Jesus was standing among them. “Peace be with you,” he said. Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here, and look at my hands. Put your hand into the wound in my side. Don’t be faithless any longer. Believe!”

“My Lord and my God!” Thomas exclaimed.

Then Jesus told him, “You believe because you have seen Me. Blessed are those who believe without seeing Me.”

Purpose of the Book

The disciples saw Jesus do many other miraculous signs in addition to the ones recorded in this book. But these are written so that you may continue to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing in Him you will have life by the power of His name.

easterq

 

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10 Ways to Worship

WorshipGodWithAThankfulHeart

God designed us to worship Him with our whole lives. Are there actually spiritual habits that we can build into our lives that help us to worship God more deeply? Yes! Here are 10 habits than can help build worship into your life on a daily basis.

1. Worship through prayer. We often miss this important component of our prayer life. Think about the issues you usually pray about. How much of our prayer life is about us and how much of it is about God? Without a doubt God wants us to be able to share everything that is going on in our life. He wants us to get to know Him better.

When we affirm who God is through our prayers, we put our prayer life in proper perspective. That’s exactly how Jesus taught us to pray. Look at the Lord’s Prayer in the Gospel of Mathew (6: 9-13), Jesus starts the prayer off by saying “Our Father who is in Heaven, May Your name be honored.” (NLT) Jesus teaches us an important lesson with this prayer. Prayer starts with God.  Consider including in your prayers a time of focused attention on who God is.

2. Get in a regular habit of reading the Bible. The Bible says that we worship God in “spirit and in truth.” How can we ever worship God without a clear understanding of who He is? The truth about God is essential to worship. Pay special attention to the books of Psalms. No book in the Bible spends as much time carefully describing who God is.

3. Obey God. We worship God when we obey Him. We all need to build the habit of obedience into our lives. Take practical steps to see that this is a part of your life. Whenever you sense God is speaking to you, make it a regular practice to do it immediately. Don’t let procrastination weigh you down. If you can’t do it immediately, write down whatever God has been putting on your heart, so that you can do it soon!

4. Tithe. If you want to know what in your life you worship, look at your checkbook register. The Bible teaches us this important lesson: “For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” (Mathew 6:21 NIV) God wants us to surrender our entire being to Him. One way to show that is by making Him Lord of our pocketbook. If you are already a committed tither, consider raising the percentage you are willing to give.

5. Build deep relationships with other Christians.   The Bible teaches that God designed us to live in community with other Christians. We bring God pleasure by getting to know others and being known by them. Here with 116 Boyz, the primary way we do this is through fellowship while we game. Or joining a small group/bible study.

6. Share your faith. John Piper made many of us re-look at why we share our faith when he wrote a few years ago: “Missions exists because worship doesn’t.” God wants every person on the planet to worship him, not because He is an egomaniac who needs our praise, but because worship is how we are designed by God. He wants the best for us.

Take time this week to share your spiritual journey with someone else. Tell them how you came to faith in Christ. Don’t worry about their response. Relax in the knowledge that you are playing a part in expanding God’s world-wide worship.

7. Serve others. Jesus tells us that “when you did it to the least of these my brothers and sisters, you did to Me!” (Matt. 25:40 NLT) When we serve one another, Jesus tells us we are really serving Him. If you don’t think you have any gifts that are useful to serve, you are wrong. God made you with talents and gifts that He specifically gave you to serve others.

8. Build into your life the attitude of thankfulness. This requires looking at the world through a different set of eyes. When we look through the lens of thankfulness, we see our lives – and everything in it – as all gifts from God. Develop your own spiritual exercise each morning that demonstrates that you are putting on your lens of thankfulness. Then begin to thank God for all of the good things in your life.

9. Begin turning over to God areas of your life that you have never committed to Him. This is the heart of worship – surrender. God won’t settle for 90 percent of your life; He wants all of it. You might have been a follower of Jesus for years, but you still have areas of your life that you are holding back from Him. What are those areas? Only you know that. Three good places to look are your checkbook, your planner and your tongue. Look at the areas of your life where you spend the most money and the most time and what you speak. Do they honor God?

If you are human, you have sin in your life that you need to surrender. Think back over the past month and write down all of the times you remember disobeying clear teaching from God. Then look for patterns. If you find patterns of sin in your life, these are areas of your life you need to surrender to God. Right at the moment start praying for God to help you overcome that sin. Ask your small group or 116 Boyz to pray for you. If you think this chronic sin might be something you can’t stop doing, please contact us (116 Boyz) so we can guide you in the right direction.

10.  Live a life of purpose. God has a reason for your existence. In fact, He has five: fellowship, discipleship, ministry, evangelism and worship. You please God when you live in step with His purposes. God doesn’t want you to waste your life. To continue to grow in God’s five purposes, please join our gaming ministry.

You were designed for God’s pleasure. The purpose of worship is the foundation of the other four purposes. Fellowship without the spirit of worship is just “hanging out.” Discipleship without worship is nothing but a fruitless mental exercise. Ministry without worship is called “spinning your wheels.” Evangelism without worship is a misplaced sales pitch.

Worship isn’t simply one area of your life; it is your whole life. Start right this moment by surrendering your life to Jesus. Then spend the rest of your life learning to worship Him more fully.

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Purpose of the Cross!

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No matter how foolish it may seem to nonbelievers, the Cross serves four key purposes.
First, Jesus died on the Cross to satisfy His own justice. God’s Word says that “the wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23). When we break God’s Law, we must pay the penalty. Jesus, the only sinless one, paid that penalty for us on the Cross.
Second, Jesus died on the Cross to redeem His own children. He delivered us from sin and death. Every one of us is born into enmity with God, but God has provided the way back to Him through the Cross.
Third, Jesus died on the Cross to justify believers. It was an act of gracious justice. God does not excuse our sin as a minor concern, but He forgives and restores us when we come to Him in repentance and humility through faith in Jesus Christ. God gives us salvation from sin and death as a gift—a very costly gift.
Fourth, Jesus died on the Cross to reconcile all of those who will believe in Him to His Father. Sin creates a wall between us and God; only Jesus can tear down that wall. When we are reconciled with God, it transforms us from being God’s enemies to being His children.
Prayer: Thank You, Jesus, for all that You accomplished on the Cross. Thank You for the reconciliation I now have with God because of the price You paid.
“For if, when we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life” (Romans 5:10).

But none of these things move me; nor do I count my life dear to myself, so that I may finish my race with joy, and the ministry which I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify to the gospel of the grace of God. (Acts 20:24 NKJV)

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The Trap of Discouragement

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The Trap of Discouragement

Habakkuk 1:2

Do you feel stuck in discouragement? If so, you are not alone.

At some point everyone experiences dashed hopes. Disappointment—an emotional response to a failed expectation—is the normal initial reaction. But allowed to linger, it can turn into discouragement, which hovers like a dense cloud. When that’s the case, there is no sense of joy or contentment, no matter what you do.

The circumstances that trigger these emotions may be unavoidable, but the way we respond is a choice. We can either let sadness overwhelm our souls or face the situation with courage and bring it before the One who can help us.

Living in discouragement will divide the mind, making it hard to focus on anything besides our pain. Then as anger becomes habitual, we’ll look for someone to blame—whether God, people around us, or ourselves.

Frustration that isn’t handled well may develop into depression, which in turn can estrange us from others—people do not enjoy the company of someone who’s bitter and defeated. This isolation leads to a low self-esteem. Finally, in a fog of discouragement, we can make poor decisions based on crushed emotions instead of truth. Obviously, choosing this self-destructive path is not God’s best for our lives.

Though we’ll all face disappointment from time to time, believers are not to wallow in it. Instead, God wants us to trust Him with everything—even our unmet expectations and deepest sadness. Remember, there is divine purpose for everything He allows to touch His children’s lives (Rom. 8:28).

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Question Two: Why Are We Here?

Atheists, of course, believe that there is no reason for us to exist. Like the rest of the world, we are accidents of nature. How we live and what we do with our lives ultimately doesn’t matter.

Among theists – people who believe in some god – there are two different answers to this important question.

World Religions present different views of what God is like, why He created us, and how we are to live. For instance, some religions teach that God is a person; other teach that God is an impersonal Life Force. But all world religions agree that we are here to work for our salvation. One religion says that we must follow the Four Noble Truths, another the Five Pillars, still another the Ten Commandments. Though the laws and traditions of each religion differ, each one teaches that we must work hard in this life to earn’s God’s favor and escape judgment in the life to come.

Christianity teaches that God is a person who created us to live in friendship with Him. We are not here to work for His approval, but to accept it as a gift, enjoying His love and participating in His plans.

But the Bible teaches that we cannot enter into friendship with God through our own efforts, however hard we might try. Our “sin” blocks the way. Because we know right from wrong, our decisions to do wrong things are a rejection of God, who placed His law in our hearts. Our guilt reminds us that we have broken God’s law, but we are unable to stop.

Like our own system of law, God’s law says that there must be a penalty when the law is broken. The penalty for rejecting God is death. But God loves us and does not want us to die. So He sent His own Son to Earth to pay the penalty for our sin. Jesus, who never broke God’s law, paid the penalty of death for us.

Now, men and women who admit their wrongdoing and ask forgiveness can receive – as a gift – peace and friendship with God that will never come to an end.

Decision:

Do you believe that there is a reason or purpose for your life? If you believe that there is a God who created the world and every living thing, do you think that He knows you personally and has a loving plan for your life?

FD

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