What actions help to best reinforce your “forever-connection” to Jesus (I’m secure in him!)?
Here’s the real deal: When I feel discouraged, down, and misunderstood, I naturally move towards isolation. Isolation is the key to all things destructive and “death-like.” Satan sells us lie-based thoughts that imply we’re all alone.
We not only feel abandoned, not important to others, we sometimes even believe we’re far from God.
Finding physical ways to reinforce the truth that God will never leave you is so vital to strong, healthy relationships. The more we match our beliefs with our physical actions, the stronger our thoughts, beliefs, and, most important, our trust grows! The stories and verses below will make a difference in your life. See you Wednesday night (6:55 p.m.) for a small-group Refresh.
Luke 21:1-4 While Jesus was in the Temple, he watched the rich people dropping their gifts in the collection box. 2 Then a poor widow came by and dropped in two small coins. 3 “I tell you the truth,” Jesus said, “this poor widow has given more than all the rest of them. 4 For they have given a tiny part of their surplus, but she, poor as she is, has given everything she has.”
I Timothy 6:6-21 (We will do a “story-based-parsing exercise” – I’m guessing 96% of us have never used this “experience-based” study tool before. It’s an amazing way to hear God speak through the Bible. Check back on Tuesday night if you want to prep ahead of time :)
Note verses 18-19 in the Message Bible – “Tell them to go after God, who piles on all the riches we could ever manage—to do good, to be rich in helping others, to be extravagantly generous. If they do that, they'll build a treasury that will last, gaining life that is truly life.”
Luke 11:34-36 “Your eye is a lamp that provides light for your body. When your eye is good, your whole body is filled with light. But when it is bad, your body is filled with darkness. 35 Make sure that the light you think you have is not actually darkness. 36 If you are filled with light, with no dark corners, then your whole life will be radiant, as though a floodlight were filling you with light.”
How do we determine value of things? of people? Your use of time? Philosophical values? If you had but one belief that who trump all other beliefs, what would it be? Can you write or state this belief in one sentence?
Measuring Value (From the Weekend Teaching):
Source: The creator, designer, manufacture
Durability: Non-perishable shelf life, quality
Quantity: Rarity, demand, uniqueness
Potential: growth potential, long-term profit
Market Value: What one is willing to pay
Pastor Bruce has uses the acronym MONEY to describe societies most ancient and popular ways of measuring value (There is an amazing story in I Samuel 16 – note verse 7): Come early and get this worksheet; it could help you see where Satan most effectively attacks you regarding your value.)
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