Week 12 IBS

Week 12 Unity

Monday: Acts 2:42-43

And they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers. And awe came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were being done through the apostles.

This is an example of what the model 1^st century church should be about BIBLICAL teaching (teaching of the apostles), fellowship, and prayer. When this happened in Acts 2 awe came over the people because they were following the example that was intended for the church. The best ways that our churches can follow that example is to do these three things teaching, fellowship, and prayer. Far too many churches have strayed away from this but I have to have confidence that the Lord will direct the hearts of all of the people that are seeking and fallowing after him.

“Having an awe come upon every soul” this statement seems that I could be referring to a lot of things. My personal conviction is that the people were filled with awe because they never had felt a peace and contentment that was brought by the Holy Spirit. This seems so foreign to the American church it always seems that there has to be something new or better that can be improved; whether the church needs better child care or the youth department wants to build a rec center or the congregation wants more comfortable chairs there always seems to be something. This is not to say any of those things are bad but I feel so many Christians miss the amazement of God that satisfies far more than any child care program, or rec center, or comfortable pew ever could.

My Application: To spend an extra 30 minutes with the Lord in the morning worshiping him and spending time in the Word.

Week 11 IBS

Week 11   Purpose/Righteousness

Monday: Matthew 5:16

In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they might see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.

 On the surface this verse reads that “We are to glorify our heavenly Father through our good deeds” to me this sounds like we only have to glorify Christ when we are performing good works but when we accepted Christ we allowed his will to overtake our own will. This means that when he has called us to do something it is good but as we learn in??? we are to do everything we do to the glory of God. In my head there seems to be a slight contradiction here but the clarification of it is that all of the things we do are to be good works. So when we allow our lights to shine before all men we bring him glory because of all the good things that we are doing for Him.

I often times feel as though that I don’t allow my light to shine if I do not feel like having to answer questions about it.

My application: To pray for five minutes that I will never allow my light to dim but in all that I do I will bring glory to my heavenly Father. Also I am going to pray that God will allow me to sit next to someone on the plane home that I can share the gospel with. 

Tuesday: Matthew 5:17

Do not think I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them.

I have heard this verse quoted innumerable times! We are still to fallow Gods Law even though we are free in Christ. Paul put it beautifully when he said “Should I continue sinning that grace may abound? By no means!” we should strive to fallow the Law even more because Christ fallowed the Law in every aspect. And even though our carnal flesh will hardly ever allow us to do that, we can still chose not to sin.

When Christ fulfilled the law by living a perfect life, he created the bridge that we needed in order to be able to attain heaven. The fact that Jesus fulfilled every single Old Testament prophecy about the Messiah is incredible and defies statistics. I all too often forget to realize that Jesus ministry was so much more than on the cross; he resisted every single temptation that I have and will ever suffer and it was that that qualified him to be able to die in the cross. The perfect, sinless man could become sin that we might become His righteousness.

My application: To pray that God would continue to reveal the areas in my life that is not bringing total glory to Him and I will talk with my teammate Kyle about those things so he can hold me accountable.

Wednesday: Matthew 5:18

For truly, I say to you that, until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the Law until all is accomplished.

I feel that this verse is referring to the fact that nobody is going to escape judgment; nothing will pass from the Law. This is good reminder that everyone is accountable for their actions. Each one of us are responsible for the decisions we make; some of the decisions I have made are that I will rationalize the reason why I should not share the gospel with someone. Well I am accountable for each one of those decisions.

This verse reminds me that we don’t have all of the time that we want that Jesus could come back very soon and then there will be no changing someone’s destiny.

My application: to pray that God will burden my heart for the people I am around so I won’t pass up any opportunities I have to share the Good News.

Thursday: Matthew 5:19

Therefore whoever relaxes one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of but whoever does them and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven.

 This verse is interesting because of one specific saying we all say and that is “a relationship with Christ is not just a list of do’s and don’ts”. The truth in the matter is that there is a list of things we should and shouldn’t do, but there is much more to the Christian life than merely legalism. A relationship with Christ is about us recognizing our need and his sacrifice that he made out of love for each one of us and when I recognize that I should be compelled to do the things that he instructed me to do in both the New and Old Testament. However, I need to make sure that I strive to fallow all of the Old and New Testament commandments so when I teach people to fallow those laws they will see that I am doing the same thing that I teach.

When Jesus said this all of the New Testament commandments had not yet been given so he must be referring to the Old Testament Laws. I often times overlook many of these because I rationalize that I am in the new covenant of Christ, which I am but, The old testament Laws were given to the Israelites that they would be able to practice godly lifestyles. So why would I, a child of God, not want to practice the instructions that he gave his own people.

My Application: to do a study on the Old Testament laws. And to spend 10 minutes reflecting on how I might be able to practice these better in my life.

Friday: Matthew 5:20

For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.

My own righteousness will never exceed the scribes and the Pharisees. Although they seem that they were not very righteous because a lot of their deeds were out of selfish ambition and so I need to allow the love that Christ has shown me to move towards righteousness even then I will not be righteousness enough for heaven. However Christ’s sacrifice in living a perfect sinless life & dies allows his righteousness to cover me as long as I accept his free gift.

My Application: to continue my study on the Old Testament laws. And discover how to practice them in my life.

Week 10 IBS

Monday: 1 Cor. 9:22-23

To the weak I became weak that I might win the weak. I have become all things to all people that by any means I might save some. I do it all for the sake of the Gospel that I may share with them in its blessing.

When Paul referred to becoming weak I don’t think he literally meant that he gave up his strength. This verse instructs us that we should be conscientious of the manner in which we act.

We need to show that we are willing to become like the people in the countries that we will be deployed to. Not only so that we can fit in there but also so we can demonstrate the love of Christ by our actions there. We have to resolve not to judge the cultural differences of the people that we will be working with and because of the American attitude a lot of us possess is a reflection of Christ and if we only come in as someone who wants to change what the people do then we are only affecting their behavior not their world view. Paul also mentions how he will only save some. Unfortunely this is true that there will be people that will reject the Gospel, and therefore be damned. But if we are even able to bring one extra person then all of our efforts are worth it.

My application is that I would strive to be all things to all men, and tonight to pray for 10 minutes about doing this in Uganda.

Tuesday: 1 Cor. 9:24

Do you not know that in a race all the runners run but only one receives the prize? So run that you may obtain it.

Paul exhorts each of us that we should run the race that each of us have before us with all of our might. He also encourages us to run so that we might attain the prize, the prize being Christ Jesus. The analogy of the Christian life being a race is very interesting because 100 meter runners are to run with all their might for the 10 seconds that they compete. Short distance runners also should never look to the right or the left because the distraction of the other runners will slow them down; they also want to keep their head fixed straight ahead and not wavering this is so the runner won’t take extra time to take large breaths.

There are plenty of parallels between these two. Christians are to keep their gaze fixed on Christ and not allow their eyes look to the left or the right. All to often I look to other runners (Christians) and set my pace based on how fast others are running, but Paul at the end of this versed tells us that we should run like a 100 meter runner with all our might for the small amount of time that we compete.

My application: tonight I will reflect and pray about the areas of my life that I am not running my hardest in.

Wednesday: 1 Cor. 9:25

Every athlete exercises self-control in all things. They do it to receive a perishable wealth, but we an imperishable.

As Paul stays with the race theme in this verse; he speaks of how every athlete exercises self-control in what he eats and how he trains and in all of the practice. We also should take our Christian “race” just as serious but all too often we will get lazy and complacent with our Christian walk.

Thursday: 1 Cor. 9:26

So do not run aimlessly; I do not box as one beating the air.

We can’t run aimlessly, if you run aimlessly then you usually won’t receive as much benefit from that training as if you were running to a set point and back. It is better to have a set point because then you know what direction you want/need to go and you can figure the best route for you to take so you get there. This verse reminds me an experience I had: often times when I get upset or frustrated I will go on a run to blow off some steam. I would just run aimlessly and so I would often lose track of time, and end up running for several hours. It wasn’t ever a bad thing that I ran for several hours but I usually would tire myself out on the first half of the run that when I had to turn around and run all the way back home I would just have to jog or walk the second half because I didn’t have any more strength. Thankfully all of us can renew our strength in the Lord. So we can run our hardest because every day we can come back before the Lord and then he can refill us as long as we are willing to be filled.

 We are not in a practice match after we are saved Satan wants to do everything he can do to distract and destroy us. So I need to train and perform like this is a live battle.

My Application: Tonight I will pray for five minutes seeking the Lord to renew my strength and be able to finish the weeks strong!

Friday: 1 Cor. 9:27

But I discipline my body and keep it under control, lest after preaching to others I myself should be disqualified.

            Paul refers to disciplining his body I believe he means as in a physical way as well as a spiritual manor this way he could be a man who was studying and knew the Word (because of his Jewish background) and someone who wasn’t going to offend anybody because of his body stature. This may seem trivial but in those times people did not seem to be very lenient so Paul went the extra mile to present himself properly.

Do I go through extra measures as Paul did? No, I can see that I am far more selfish than Paul. We (Christians) all should be willing to go the extra mile but, we make excuse such as well they just need to adapt to the culture or they can get over it. These excuses are unacceptable for me to make when I am referring to anyone let alone the nonbelievers.

My application: to reflect on what I will need to do so that I can effectively and properly share the gospel with the people I will we coming into contact with here, in Uganda as well as in my home town of Jacksonville, Florida.