This picture is showing people watching projection of general session…outside the general session room (which by the way had about 8000+ people there)
Blog
Conference Randomness
Hahahaha….I think I’ve been here too long…I’m at a workstation right now that has a Sun Keyboard…but its not a normal sun keyboard…its got the backspace where any PC user would come to expect it…so I’m actually having quite a hard time typing on it and keep ending up with \\\\\ everywhere out of force of habit of not reaching as far for backspace.
Sessions this morning have been really interesting, but my brain’s starting to get a little fried already.
The Temptation of Jesus
Today’s Daily Wordseemed quite aptly timed lesson about temptations 🙂“God never tempts us to do evil, but sometimes he allows us to go through seasons of temptation in order to make us stronger. In Greek, the words for “temptation” and “test” are the same.”
“temptation attacks us where our identity and mission as the children of God intersect”
“The temptations attempted to distort Jesus’ identity and pull him off mission.”
Temptations
1) turn stone into bread – attempt to get Jesus to use his power for selfish ends
2) throw self from atop temple – attempt to force God to rescue Jesus from a reckless choice
3) worship satan for riches – wrong means (worship satan) to a right end (all the kindoms of the earth under Jesus)?
Quotes Jesus used to refute satan: Deuteronomy 8:3, 6:13, 6:16 — from the period of wandering the wilderness following the exodus when Isrealites gretly tempted and “chose to fail often”.
“Jesus, however, read Scripture and learned the right lesson from Israel’s wrong example. He succeeded where they failed by leaning wholeheartedly on the wisdom of God the Father. The question is: Do we know what God has said, and do we heed his words?”
Screwtape Letters – Notes on Chapters 1-5
“Don’t waste time trying to make him think that materialism is true! Make him think that is is strong or stark or courageous–that it is the philosophy of the future. That’s the sort of thing he cares about” –> remember how the devil often skips trying to convince you by strong argument of something and instead just appeals to emotion or desire to influence your actions, or will just flat out strike at whatever part of you he has the biggest or most convenient stronghold on.
Unconscious difficulties with religion not brought to the surface, without clarity = exploitable point
The devil will flat out lie to you and tell you that God’s not going to help you but will leave you to “do things on your own”
Devil technique: “Keep his mind off the most elementary duties by directing it to the most advanced and spiritual ones.” –> @todo: what are the “elementary duties” vs. “advanced ones”. how does this relate to Hebrews 5-6 where they talk about the elementary teachings of Christ?
Devil technique: keep the focus on sins and irritations, anything that distracts from prayer, especially prayers of physical healing.
Things associated with evil (AVOID): irritation, judgment, quarreling, terror, self-pity, contented worldliness
“Hence [by having double standards] from every quarrel they can both go away convinced, or at least nearly convinced, that they are quite innocent. You know this kind of thing: ‘I simply ask her what time dinner will be and she flies into a temper.’ Once this habit is well established you have the delightful situation of a human saying things with the express purpose of offending and yet having a grievance when offense is taken.” …watch out for and be cautious of the second half of that statement 😉
God works from the center outward, gradually bringing more and more of your conduct under his control and new Godly standards
Effectiveness of prayer should not be judged by whether it produces the desired feeling.
“Wherever there is prayer, there is danger of His own immediate action” 🙂
“He pours out self-knowledge in a quite shameless fashion”
When you are attending to God, the devil is defeated. The devil will try to get you to turn your gaze away from God to yourself…don’t fall to that temptation
The devil often works not through putting things into your mind but by keeping things (ie. godly things) out.
differentiate mood from concentration of will and intelligence in prayer
“For if he ever comes to make the distinction, if he consciously directs his prayers ‘Not to what I think thou art but to what though knowest thyself to be,’ our situation is, for the moment, desperate”
Are you directing your prayers to an image of God, a physical object that represents God, or to the REAL god himself?
The devil may try to paint a picture of terror about your future and fill you with self-pity about a happy past…–> counter = belt of truth
“The Enemy [ie. God], true to His barbarous methods of warfare, allows us to see the short misery of His favorites only to tantalize and torment us”
From the preface:
- no uncreated being except God, God has no opposite (no such thing as perfect badness)
- devils = angels gone bad…abuse their free will to oppose God and therefore by extension, God’s people
- Satan = opposite of Micheal, not God
- images (symbolic representations) of angels have wings in art & literature to suggest swiftness of unimpeded intellectual energy & human form because man is the only rational creature we know
- Bad angels are practical. Two motives: fear of punishment, hunger to dominate
Something Cool I read Yesterday
In a sermon on “Discouragement” which he delivered over a century ago, Charles Spurgeon told his London congregation, “Depression comes over me whenever the Lord is preparing a larger blessing for my ministry. The cloud is black before it breaks, and overshadows before it yields its deluge of mercy. –From “For the Love of Mike” by Mike Macintosh
Encouragement of the Day
luke 18:1 ~ The parable of the persistent widow ~ “Then Jesus used this story to teach his followers that they should always pray and never lose hope”
That verse totally stuck out in my reading tonight. I kind of randomly opened up somewhere, with a heart that “God would show me something really cool” and ooohmygosh, yep, this was exactly the kind of verse that’d put that kind of smile on my face. Don’t lose hope, just keep praying, God will give you the desires of your heart, just stay faithful and don’t lose hope. 🙂
And then there was a quote from a book that kept popping into my head all day so I finally looked it up exactly…”Media never reasons with us in its attempts to convince us to love lust and sin. You never see a CEO of a television network stand in front of a flip chart explaining why adultery is good–[but through emotion they make it] seem appealing.” –Not Even a Hint
Yep, it doesn’t reason. It just lies and says “this will bring you happiness”–but it won’t, not for long, its never a lasting happiness, its always just a mirage of imminent happiness…not like the kind of lasting happiness that comes from God.
Ephesians Class Notes (wed 5/4/05) – Belt of Truth & Breastplate of righteousness
Review from first class
Ways Satan Attacks:
1. undermine god’s character and credibility (so you doubt god)
2. makes it hard to live the christian life (eg. persecution, opposition, lethargy, etc)
3. false doctrine (usually causes an emotional pull, often Satan will take a little bit of truth and twist it with a lot of lies)
4. hinders effective service to god
5. causes division w/in the body of christ (so the enemy is one another rather than satan)
6. leads us to trust our own resources (rather than god’s)
7. causes us to be hypocritical, phony, and wear a mask
8. make us worldy and materialistic (worship anything BUT god)
9. causes us to act in disobedience to god’s word
sword (the word) is *attached* to the belt (commitment to truth)
Satan infiltrates the church w/ Tares — Matt 13
non-believers = the tares among the wheat (look like the real thing but don’t give fruit)
satan infiltrates the church w/ these counterfits
sons of the kingdom (13:38) = the true believers
need counsel? how’s your walk? 😉
“beauty that is only skin deep will suck the brains out of a man”
Belt of Truth
Gird your loins was a common phrase at the time. the belt holds together your robes (loose material) so they stay in place and you’re ready to get up and go and won’t get caught on something and have your robes pulled over your head blinding you or the like.
ex. 12:11-14 – have a belt on your waits, be girded–committed & ready to go–how you’re dressed when you’re on your way out.
luke 12:35-40
What you do when no one is looking show who you really are.
2tim2:4 — no one engaged in warfare *entangles* himself with the affairs of the world. (belt ties up the loose material so it doesn’t tangle. Similarly we must gird up our loose thinking (our mind) 1pet1:13-16 (be sober minded). main thrust of belt = commitment to truth (be holy, obedient)
1cor9:24-27 persevere in not giving up.
heb12:1-3 sin and bulk — many who aren’t committed are sim. to those weighted down with sin (ties up your feet so you can’t move) and bulk (just slows you down whether or not its sinful). Anything that slows you down in seeking God is bulk, and you don’t need it.
“Rom12:1-2 Sacrifice: Most christians say they would be burned at the stake for Christ, yet, don’t likve their lives for Him here and now”
“Phil. 1:9-11 Abounding *more and more*. Knowing and partaking of that which is most *excellent*”
Breastplate of Righteousness (key to whole armor)
the “key” to the “whole armor” = breastplate of righteousness. Righteousness = having a right relationship with god
* regeneration john3:3, 1pet1:23 —> spiritual birth
* faith in jesus – rom 10:9, john1:12,eph1:13
* relationship john 17:3
* eternal transaction john3:36,heb10:14
The armor of God isn’t effective if you only put part of it on–how much of you do you want to protect? (“put on the WHOLE armor of god”). Many people today = wearing paper armor. Spend time with God (all day if needed) so he can point out any holes in your armor.
God doesn’t just want your heart, he wants *all* of your being (a sacrifice to commitment at that).
The belt of truth => commitment to integrity & discipline. w/ integrity you start building inside out (may take a while to show fruit, but its more important than outisde-in growth). But w/o righteousness there willl be no commitment.
* In (?? suffering), until you understand the depth of the love that god has for you, you will resort to the last thing that brought you pleasure. ”
* all that bible study is useless if you don’t apply it. * Your righteousness will not get you to heaven (saved by grace).
* Our conscience is our friend as believers…”suppression of the conscience is dangerous”
1John1:4–if you aren’t feeling god’s joy (your joy should be in full) something is probably wrong. (these things are so you will have joy!) Edify one another. Engage in exhortations
breastplate (in war) protects *vital* organs (eg heart lungs intestines)
Jewish thought: heart represents mind or thinking and intestines represents seat of emotion
Stan wants to attack our thoughts and emotions (the way we think & feel) Theological understanding is irrelevant to winning the spiritual battle. you will remain a loser in the war unless you properly apply the spiritual armor *daily*
imputed righteousness
jerimiah17:9 – self-righteousness != righteousness
imputed righteousness = gods veil of righteousness granted through salvation b/c of christs sacrifice (eph2:8, rom 4:5, rom11:6)
impute = “To consider or calculate as a value or cost” or to assign or attribute something to
“Even Christ righteousness *is only the basis* of the breastplate” (??)
phil 3:1-11
“the believer has to apply righteous principles given to him in christ, to the matter of daily LIVING. it does matter what we DO. James 1:22,2:20, Phil2:12”
2 types of sorrows
2cor7:8-11
1) worldly sorrow (leads to death)
2) godly sorrow (leads to repentance and salvation)
how we respond determines which of these it is.
the church = hospital for the spiritually sick
poor in spirit – surrender to god & begin to see our sin as god sees it
we can be sorry b/c we got caught OR because we sinned against god
1cor3 -> a judgment for (how much) rewards
2john8 — do not lose what we’ve work for, but see that we receive the full reward (don’t to start sinning)
1pet 2:11-12 confess, repent, and *turn* — we are aliens on this earth, passing through. Abstain from fleshly lusts b/c they war against the soul (breastblate of righteousness)
rom 13:12-13 – let us not walk in envy or jealousy!
if facing thoughts that are from satan it is good to pray “Lord, please purify my mind” and quote scriptures
Memory Verses
wisdom verses:
“Many times a man plans his steps but the Lord directs His path” Proverbs 16:9 or 20:24
“even in laughter the heart may ache, and joy may end in grief” – proverbs
14:13
Resisting temptation:
“Be self-controlled and alert. your enemy the devil prowls like a roaring
lion looking for someone to devour. Resist him, standing firm in faith…”
-1 Peter 5:8
“Be clear minded and self controlled so that you can pray” -1 Peter 4:7
Convicting verse:
“For you have spent enough time in the past doing what pagans chose to do–liking in debauchery, lust, drunkenness, orgies, carousing, and detestable idolatry” -1 Peter 4:3
How to live life instead:
Above all, love earch other deeply, because love covers a multitude of sins. Offer hospitality to one another without grumbling…” -1 Peter 4:8-9
Encouraging verse of the day:
“If anyone serves, he should do it with the strength God provides” -1 Peter
Verses of the Week
Romans 12:12 (New International Version) Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer.
Church liturgies… One in particular … it is derived from a Psalm of David:
Create in me a clean heart oh God, and renew a right spirit within me. Cast me not away from your presence, and take not your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of your salvation and uphold me with your free spirit.
James 5:16
“ Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective.”
Where Is God through all of this?
“Sing me a lullaby soft as you can. Its alright. Its alright” just keeps echoing through my head almost as if to counter just what an emotionally rough and tumble weekend its been.
“Where exactly is God through all of this? Why can’t I feel him? Why isn’t he here right now” my emotions would lie to me, despite the rational part of my brain telling me “You know God’s here, you know he said he’ll never leave you or forsake you, you know sometimes he holds back the feeling of his presence to test us and make our faith stronger, and most of all, you know perfectly well that even if you can’t see him, he’s still standing right there, just out of sight, watching over everything ready to step in the moment anything is out of control.”
“Many, many times I’ve simply come under a cloak of confusion so think I suddenly find myself wondering why I ever believed in Jesus in the first place. That sweet communion I normally enjoy with God is cut off, gone, vanished like the sun behind a cloud. If you don’t know what’s up you’ll think you have lost your faith or been abandoned by God or whatever spin the Enemy puts on it.” -Wild At Heart
Yep, that would pretty much be it. But I know what’s up. “He [the Enemy] simply loves to blame everything on us, get us feeling hurt, misunderstood, suspicious, and resentful of one another.” -Wild At Heart.