Live life to the max
Has your respect for someone ever gone down when
you learned certain things about them?
Psalm 139:1, "O Lord you have searched me and you
know me," (NIV).
God knows everything about you, (even the stuff nobody
else knows, He knows).
And guess what? He still likes you. Repeat this after me,
"God likes me." Again, like you mean it: "God likes me."
Thank you.
We work to make ourselves look good to others. Even in our
closest relationships we hide things because we're afraid
of what people will think if they know the truth about who
we really are and what we're really like.
But God knows everything. And He still wants to hang out
with you. What's this say about Him? (That He must
be crazy!).
It says that God's love for you is stronger than your
faults, Max. And that He loves you not for what
you do or don't do...He just loves you.
To Your Spiritual Freedom,
you learned certain things about them?
Psalm 139:1, "O Lord you have searched me and you
know me," (NIV).
God knows everything about you, (even the stuff nobody
else knows, He knows).
And guess what? He still likes you. Repeat this after me,
"God likes me." Again, like you mean it: "God likes me."
Thank you.
We work to make ourselves look good to others. Even in our
closest relationships we hide things because we're afraid
of what people will think if they know the truth about who
we really are and what we're really like.
But God knows everything. And He still wants to hang out
with you. What's this say about Him? (That He must
be crazy!).
It says that God's love for you is stronger than your
faults, Max. And that He loves you not for what
you do or don't do...He just loves you.
To Your Spiritual Freedom,
3 issues people face
I was on the receiving end of a verbal slap this week-and it stung a little bit.
If you've been following my posts, then you know what I'm talking about. One of my readers said that my core message with Life Ignited is what he called a "Tylenol" message-he said it takes away the pain but it doesn't deal with the core issue people face.
So I've been thinking. What is the core issue?
I'm not sure how familiar you are with Life Ignited, but my message is a pure grace message. God's pure grace ignites us with life, laughter & love (we can talk more about that another time. But let's get back to "Dear Tylenol" and the core issue people face).
The core issue people face is threefold:
1. Life
2. Choice
3. Power
Let me explain.
See, people mistakenly think Christianity is a religion of Do's and Don'ts. It's not. But I hear it all the time.
It usually goes something like this:
"If I'm a good enough and do what's right, and don't do what's wrong, then there's nothing else for me to do but to hope for the best when I meet the Big Guy in the sky."
There's a Greek word for that kind of reasoning: Baloney.
Although there's a moral component to Christianity, spirituality isn't about right or wrong or good and bad.
The essence of Christianity is about this: being fully alive!
There are plenty of religious and moral people who are dead inside. I mean DEAD!
Their relationships are dead.
Their health is dead.
Their success is dead.
Their hope is dead.
Their faith is dead.
Their prayers are dead.
Their heart is dead.
Their walk with God is dead.
They are bleached-bones, dry-as-the-hills-of-Gilboa dead in the desert of self-righteous delusion.
Jesus spoke to the core of the issue in John 10:10 when He said,
"I have come that they may have life and have it in abundance."
Back in April of 2004 during one of my daily spiritual focusing times, I was reading Deuteronomy 30. A particular verse stuck with me like a sliver in my mind ---and I lived with it for 12 months, and, as a result, the concept of Life Ignited was born. Here's that verse:
"See, I set before you today life and prosperity, death and destruction," (Deuteronomy 30:15).
That's when it dawned on me like never before, that this whole things is about life and death, not right or wrong.
God is a God of life! He's the God of the living!
"Now choose life, so that you and your children may live and that you may love the Lord your God, listen to his voice, and hold fast to him. For the Lord is your life..." (Deuteronomy 30:19,20).
Those verses changed my life. Although I had read them many times before, they had never really sunk in. Know what I mean?
God wants us to be fully alive and prosperous-He wants us to succeed-He's on our side both NOW and forevermore.
I could teach on this subject for hours.
But let me summarize it here as I address the "core issue" people face:
The core issue people face is this: They're dead. The Source of LIfe is God. Period. No ifs, ands or buts. When a person is separated from God, then he or she is dead. This is the first of three parts in our threefold issue:
1. Life versus death.
By the way, life isn't found in doctrines, religious rituals, duties or obligations, life is found in God and in God alone.
The second of three parts is:
2. Choice.
Truth is, God created us with free will and the power to choose.
The ruthless but compassionate truth is this: people who are stuck stay stuck because they choose to stay stuck. Some people believe that life is a force on them. Others believe that they are a force on life.
And here's another thing, since we were created with a free will and the power to choose, God submits to our choices. How mind-blowing is that?!
Oh yes, He has the power and ability to force us to do what He wants, but He doesn't; He respects and honors our choices.
So, the second part of the threefold issue of the "core" issue people face is this:
They don't exercise their power of choice.
Which leads us to the third part of the threefold issue:
3. Power.
Since people are dead apart from God, and they fail to exercise their power of choice, it's impossible for them to live the Power.
When you're fully alive (because you're one with God), and are exercising your power of choice daily, then you are a person who's Living the Power. Make sense?
The power is within you because of God's indwelling presence (if you allow Him), and then you choose to daily leverage His power in your life, so, in this way, you're living the power-you ARE the power.
That's why Jesus said that He came to give us life-and to give it to us abundantly-He came to give us the Power of Life-a power to which even death itself must submit.
That, along with everything else I've just said, is the core message of Life Ignited. That's the theme I write about-it's the running thread in the 443+ newsletters I've written.
Maybe I've not made it this clear before...and maybe I'm not making it totally clear right now. But I'm of the deep conviction that there's absolutely, positively, no way that this message is a "Tylenol Message."
Dedicated to Your Spiritual Freedom,
If you've been following my posts, then you know what I'm talking about. One of my readers said that my core message with Life Ignited is what he called a "Tylenol" message-he said it takes away the pain but it doesn't deal with the core issue people face.
So I've been thinking. What is the core issue?
I'm not sure how familiar you are with Life Ignited, but my message is a pure grace message. God's pure grace ignites us with life, laughter & love (we can talk more about that another time. But let's get back to "Dear Tylenol" and the core issue people face).
The core issue people face is threefold:
1. Life
2. Choice
3. Power
Let me explain.
See, people mistakenly think Christianity is a religion of Do's and Don'ts. It's not. But I hear it all the time.
It usually goes something like this:
"If I'm a good enough and do what's right, and don't do what's wrong, then there's nothing else for me to do but to hope for the best when I meet the Big Guy in the sky."
There's a Greek word for that kind of reasoning: Baloney.
Although there's a moral component to Christianity, spirituality isn't about right or wrong or good and bad.
The essence of Christianity is about this: being fully alive!
There are plenty of religious and moral people who are dead inside. I mean DEAD!
Their relationships are dead.
Their health is dead.
Their success is dead.
Their hope is dead.
Their faith is dead.
Their prayers are dead.
Their heart is dead.
Their walk with God is dead.
They are bleached-bones, dry-as-the-hills-of-Gilboa dead in the desert of self-righteous delusion.
Jesus spoke to the core of the issue in John 10:10 when He said,
"I have come that they may have life and have it in abundance."
Back in April of 2004 during one of my daily spiritual focusing times, I was reading Deuteronomy 30. A particular verse stuck with me like a sliver in my mind ---and I lived with it for 12 months, and, as a result, the concept of Life Ignited was born. Here's that verse:
"See, I set before you today life and prosperity, death and destruction," (Deuteronomy 30:15).
That's when it dawned on me like never before, that this whole things is about life and death, not right or wrong.
God is a God of life! He's the God of the living!
"Now choose life, so that you and your children may live and that you may love the Lord your God, listen to his voice, and hold fast to him. For the Lord is your life..." (Deuteronomy 30:19,20).
Those verses changed my life. Although I had read them many times before, they had never really sunk in. Know what I mean?
God wants us to be fully alive and prosperous-He wants us to succeed-He's on our side both NOW and forevermore.
I could teach on this subject for hours.
But let me summarize it here as I address the "core issue" people face:
The core issue people face is this: They're dead. The Source of LIfe is God. Period. No ifs, ands or buts. When a person is separated from God, then he or she is dead. This is the first of three parts in our threefold issue:
1. Life versus death.
By the way, life isn't found in doctrines, religious rituals, duties or obligations, life is found in God and in God alone.
The second of three parts is:
2. Choice.
Truth is, God created us with free will and the power to choose.
The ruthless but compassionate truth is this: people who are stuck stay stuck because they choose to stay stuck. Some people believe that life is a force on them. Others believe that they are a force on life.
And here's another thing, since we were created with a free will and the power to choose, God submits to our choices. How mind-blowing is that?!
Oh yes, He has the power and ability to force us to do what He wants, but He doesn't; He respects and honors our choices.
So, the second part of the threefold issue of the "core" issue people face is this:
They don't exercise their power of choice.
Which leads us to the third part of the threefold issue:
3. Power.
Since people are dead apart from God, and they fail to exercise their power of choice, it's impossible for them to live the Power.
When you're fully alive (because you're one with God), and are exercising your power of choice daily, then you are a person who's Living the Power. Make sense?
The power is within you because of God's indwelling presence (if you allow Him), and then you choose to daily leverage His power in your life, so, in this way, you're living the power-you ARE the power.
That's why Jesus said that He came to give us life-and to give it to us abundantly-He came to give us the Power of Life-a power to which even death itself must submit.
That, along with everything else I've just said, is the core message of Life Ignited. That's the theme I write about-it's the running thread in the 443+ newsletters I've written.
Maybe I've not made it this clear before...and maybe I'm not making it totally clear right now. But I'm of the deep conviction that there's absolutely, positively, no way that this message is a "Tylenol Message."
Dedicated to Your Spiritual Freedom,
New Amazon Voting (Plexo)
by Harry_Selent_Medical_software_ex
I'm Harry Selent, founder and president of scheduleview.com , developer of appointment scheduling software We help service businesses, profess... (more)
