Trinity Evangelical Presbyterian Church
Because of our human limitations and spiritual weakness, the Lord is going to have to do the Lion share of the work if we are going to regularly tap into Him as our Source of life. That is not to say that we have no part to play in staying connected to the Lord but it can be helpful for us to realize that the Lord is doing most of the heavy lifting for us so that we may give Him credit for.
Sooner or later in our relationship with Christ, a time will come when God seems distant. Perhaps you won’t be able to feel His presence as you once had. Maybe you heard something from Him very clearly, but that word hasn’t come together as you had anticipated it would. Maybe you stepped out in faith to honor the Lord, but now He seems silent. This can be a very disorienting experience for us as Christ's followers, and we need to realize how the Lord is often at work in these silent times.
Trinity Evangelical Presbyterian Church
Mary’s submission to what the angel promised is astounding. It was the complete disruption of all her life and all her plans up to that point. Not only that, it would dominate every aspect of her life moving forward, especially over the next 9 months.
We recently looked at Jesus as our Good Shepherd. He cares for each of us intimately and individually. He leads us to the places He desires us to go and we follow Him. We come to know His voice, listen for Him to speak and then obey what He says. We are incredibly blessed to be Shepherded by our God in this way.
Jesus was often followed by large crowds during His earthly ministry but they never swayed Him away from saying the hard thing. In fact, when the crowds got larger, Jesus tended to proclaim the harder truths to weed out those who were following Him for the wrong reason or who wrong expectations of Him. This seems to be one of those instances.
Pruning is an essential part of regular fruit bearing. For starters, when the optimal time in the growth season comes, the gardener prunes the vine so that it will respond properly to nutrients and produce fruit when the time comes. This involves cutting away the parts of the branch that are dead or that sap the nutrients that should be prioritized for fruit growth.
Our good shepherd cares for us in ways that we can’t possibly understand. We will never know the enemies and attacks that He shields us from every moment of everyday.
Jesus equates His care for His people with how a good shepherd cares for his flock. From there, He starts a discussion of how sheep are protected by a sheep pen and the shepherd’s role in that.
-Manna was a physical provision but a spiritual lesson. -The means of provision was designed to test their obedience. -It was a faith solution to their lack of trust in God. -The Lord provided as much as they needed. -The Lord provided it as long as they needed.
The call of Jesus on our lives is to take the message of reconciliation and become ministers of reconciliation. We cannot leave that work to others and hope it gets accomplished. We must be willing to serve those whom no one else will. We must be willing to get uncomfortable to see the Kingdom pushed forward. We must be willing to learn how to share the Gospel clearly and then have courage to share it faithfully. People are far from Jesus. He wants us to become His hands and feet in the world to reach them. Will we step up to the challenge?
Christ has challenged his closest followers that the way of Kingdom leadership is the way of servanthood. Christ himself modeled this for them throughout His ministry but especially in the next few hours. He will lay down His life for those who did not deserve it and serve them despite their betrayal, unfaithfulness and rejection.
Trinity Evangelical Presbyterian Church
The blood of the lambs led to Israel’s transformation. -It freed them from bondage. -It marked them as a people. -It charted their future.
The blood of animals was given to God’s people to provide a means of atonement for them. Atonement is an act performed so that relationship with God may be restored. In other words, the blood of an animal was shed so that the blood of God’s people would not have to be. The shedding of an animal’s blood each year covered the sins of God’s people for another year so that they could remain in right relationship with God. So why do we not continue to kill animals to make atonement for our sins?
This week we are doing a deep dive into some of the things that Christ told us the Holy Spirit would do on our behalf. Salting these ideas away can help us relate to the Holy Spirit as a person more fully but also deepen our trust in Him as we experience Him in these ways.
A loving challenge to seek the Lord in this difficult last days.
In John 16:7-15, We see 6 life-altering truths regarding the Paraclete that, if we internalize them, can forever transform our approach to Him.
One of the most overlooked aspects of the Holy Spirit’s work is the role He plays in our salvation. From start to finish, it is the Holy Spirit’s work to initiate our salvation, sustain it, and seal it until our death or the Lord’s return. Having a working knowledge of this powerful work on our behalf leads to gratitude in our hearts and a confidence that emboldens us to purse deeper relationship with the Spirit.
If He is a person then we can relate to Him. And if we are able to relate to Him then we should do everything in our power to cultivate that relationship. One of the keys to relating well to the Holy Spirit is to understand the role He plays in our growth and on-going relationship with the Lord. One of the little-known roles of the Holy Spirit is that of the Paraclete.
The personhood of the Holy Spirit. If we do not view Him as a person to relate to, we will mistake Him as a force to be utilized. -We do not serve forces, we are served by them. I don’t serve fire; fire serves me. I don’t serve electricity; electricity serves me. I don’t serve water; water serves me. I believe the symbolism surrounding the Holy Spirit in Scripture is meant to help us understand how He is often experienced but not to communicate that He is a force. If we view Him as a force we will make Him our servant rather than submitting to His Lordship over us.
God tells us something different than the voices around us, he tells us that we are unique, that he created us with value, with purpose, and for a purpose; our calling to serve him and be about his Kingdom work is a calling to live faithfully into who he has created us to be, trusting that he has equipped us to do his work.
To this point in our study we have seen the faithfulness of God on display. He has laid out for us the principles and promises we will need for success. But those alone will not make us successful. For us to be prosperous and successful in all that the Lord is leading us into there are things that are going to be required of us. We will have to do our part if we desire to succeed in all that the Lord has called us to.
Trinity Evangelical Presbyterian Church
Let's see three powerful promises that God made Joshua as he prepares to lead the people into the Promised Land. Verse 5 says, “No one will be able to stand against you all the days of your life. As I was with Moses, so I will be with you; I will never leave you or forsake you.” While these promises were unique to Joshua’s call and circumstance of the day I believe that they are ours for the taking as well as we seek to lead as Joshua led and step into the new things God has for us as a church.
The Lord has promised to give us every place where we set our feet. But for this promise to be realized we must understand some critical principles.
This passage from the Book of Joshua lays out a blueprint for how the Lord worked as the Israelites moved into the land the Lord had promised them. The various circumstances changed but the outline remained pretty much the same at each stage of their conquest. If they followed the pattern, they were successful….every time. If they strayed from God’s pattern they faced defeat….every time.
Mary’s submission to what the angel promised is astounding. It was complete disruption of all her life and all her plans up to that point. Not only that, it would dominate every aspect of her life moving forward, especially over the next 9 months.
The Lord is still using stars that shine in the darkness to lead outsiders to His Son. But now those stars are not shining in the heavens but shining in our lives.
Christ wanted His followers to understand that the giving of things is always more blessed than the receiving of things. The world tells us the opposite and constantly assaults this truth. Which is why we must reclaim it in our hearts again and again…especially at Christmas. If we are going to reclaim the attitude of giving verses receiving we would do well to look to the life of Paul as a model of what such a life looks like.
In Matthew 21:43-46 Jesus tells an incredible parable that clearly portrays the unfaithfulness of the religious leaders of His day in their responsibilities before God. The parable ends with Christ’s challenge that the Kingdom will continue to advance but not in their hands. In fact, It would be taken away from them and given to a people who will produce its fruit. This is exactly what took place beginning with Acts 2.
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