Tag Archives: God

In Heaven

In Heaven: The Disciples' Prayer Series Part 3 [ 26:43 | 24.46 MB ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (914)
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The Disciples’ Prayer Series – Part 3

In Heaven

After Jesus uses the word Father in the disciples’ prayer, a word that expresses great intimacy, affection, and acceptance in God, He immediately uses a phrase that makes God completely untouchable: In Heaven.  Why the great disparity?

On the one hand, we seem invited to accept God as absolutely close and accessible.  On the other hand, he is lifted into the cosmos.  Ineffable.  Unreachable.

How are we supposed to manage such a dichotomy in our daily lives?  How do we wrap our theology around a God who is both so imminent and transcendent?

This teaching attempts to give some biblical clarity around these two ideas about God, and shows how–for the believer–God being “In Heaven” doesn’t put him so far away as we may have thought; although, His worthiness of being highly exalted is not diminished in the least.

We will come to this conclusion by looking at scriptures that answer the following questions:

  • What is Heaven?
  • What does that make God?
  • How do we approach Him?
  • What is our position with the God In Heaven?

I think you’ll enjoy this message.  You can read the attached notes and listen to the audio above.  Feel free to “like” this post below and leave your comments.  I’d love to hear your thoughts.

Father

Father: The Disciples' Prayer Series Part 2 [ 0.72 MB ] Download (1684)

The Disciples’ Prayer Series – Part 2

Lion and Cub

The devoted have repeated this word in their prayers for centuries. Jesus modeled the use of this word when teaching us how to pray in scripture. Why? I think it is of utmost importance to understand in-depth what it means for God to be our Father–and us to be His sons–from the rest of scripture.

In the teaching attached to the top of this entry we look into what the scripture explains about God our Father.  We’ll look at why we are sons, and how we are made into sons.  We answer the question, “Are we sons like Jesus is the Son of God?”

The teaching also explains what the benefits are for us to be sons of God, and they are amazing.  Among other things, this teaching also seeks to explain how our relationship with God the Father is defined in His acceptance and discipline, as well as presents an answer to the often-asked question, “If we are sons, then are we still servants?”

As a side note, being a Son of God is a spiritual position, and has nothing to do with physical gender.  Women believers are Sons of God in the same way that men believers are the Bride of Christ.  Both of these terms indicate spiritual truths about our position in God the Father and his Son Jesus Christ.

For those of you who like to download or stream the audio of these lessons, unfortunately there were technical difficulties that prevented this lesson from being recorded when I taught it at my church.  I will update audio if I’m able to get it recorded at some point in the future.

What is Love?

What Is Love? [ 0.72 MB ] Download (1426)

The Bible explains what it is in beautiful, yet easy to understand language.  whatIsLoveThis is one of the most important things that God wants us to get.  What is Love?

Is it a feeling?  A commitment?  A choice?  No.

Well, not in the context of what we are talking about here anyway.  The truth is that Love is God.  The Bible makes this very clear.

So, that begs the question, “If God is love, then how does love act?”  I believe the scripture gives us a concise picture of the nature of God in the description about love in 1 Corinthians.

1 Corinthians 13:4-8 (NIV) 4 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5 It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6 Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7 It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. 8 Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away.

The degree to which we love like the scripture says is the degree to which we are like God.

This teaching breaks down all 16 attributes of love given in the passage above, and seeks to bring better clarity to what love should look like in God’s people.  When I taught it at my church, there was such a sweet spirit of unity that arose from it that is hard for me to explain.  God is truly amazing.

I hope you enjoy this teaching.  We can discuss it in the comments section below if you’d like.

Love and Kindness

Love and Kindness [ 35:49 | 32.8 MB ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download (455)
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Love and Kindness

photo credit: Darinka Maja via photopin cc

God is not nice.

You can’t find a scripture that ever says that he is, and you can’t find him displaying the attribute of “being nice” in the scriptures.  What He is, though, is so much better…

God is kind.

In this lesson I talk about what the debt was that Jesus really paid, and what the most natural reaction from us should be to the grace he showed us: walking in love and kindness.

I then talk for some time on the differences between being nice and being kind, why it is important to understand the difference, and why being kind should be our goal–not being nice.

Here is a chart from the attached notes that gives you an idea of some of the things that I talk about:

Kindness Niceness
Gentle, Mild, Sympathetic, Forbearing, Affectionate Pleasant, Agreeable, Polite
Kindness has to do with one’s nature.  Inward condition. Nice has to do with how we appear to others.  Outward action or appearance.  It is so much related to outward appearance that it is commonly used to say things like:That’s a nice car.
That’s a nice house.
He has a nice smile.
Is always rooted in the Truth (based on scriptures about Kindness). Can be rooted in DECEPTION.  “I was just being nice.”
The Bible tells us to be Kind. The Bible NEVER tells us to be nice.

Finally, I present some warnings from scripture to those who do not walk in love.