The break was amazing, but it is officially over... I'm kind of excited to get back into the groove of things, trying to get more disciplined and direct my energy to purpose. This entire week we've been doing a "spiritual boot camp" at 6:30 AM everyday in order to prepare and train ourselves physically and spiritually for the semester. Russ started us off with "step it up" at mount Helix, using Jeremiah 30 and some awesome analogies (escalator, we need to help each other up) some of them even carried people on their backs up a huge flight of stairs! Then Reach preached the word with "running for the prize" I believe at lake murray, using Philippians 3:12-14, 1 Corinthians 9:24-27, and Hebrews 12:1-2. He did an AMAZING job, was one of the best charges I've ever heard and I was just fired up and very proud of him. We did aimless running and then running to a certain item. Today Daniel did "take it higher" using 2 Corinthians 5:17-21 describing how we are Christ's ambassadors (like a US ambassador) and people see who we are and then believe all of Christ's people are that way, therefore we must represent in the best way!, Proverbs 25:26 sometimes we represent Christ with a contaminated view and just like when your super thirsty and go get something to drink but its dirty you get mad, then when people try to drink or listen to us they get a bad impression and don't want to come back..., Matthew 5:27-28, and 5:31-32 demonstrating how Jesus took it way higher challenging the Jews... we jumped up on steps doing sets of like 30 starting with just a stair and then taking it higher to a step about up to our waist! I thought it would be impossible for me but it wasn't! thats the same spiritually we don't know how high we can go or how much we can do until we try, though it looks impossible, it most certainly is!
I get to preach tomorrow and I'm gonna write it HERE but i'm about to go chill with D-Smith so it will have to wait.
THURSDAY 1/21/10
"BEING USEFUL"
Everybody wants to be useful right? We all want to accomplish something, have some kind of progression in our lives... what do you guys want to accomplish? I hope you guys aren't too too mad at me for making you clean this place up... but the reason we did that was to demonstrate that its best to be working to get something done productively. We can say the reason we jump stairs and run is to make our bodies stronger, but how much better is it to accomplish something with that--even if its as lame as cleaning up. In the same way, we absolutely need to "work-out" spiritually, reading, praying, memorizing scriptures, etc. but whats the point in doing that if it has no purpose? Not working AIMLESSLY but PRODUCTIVELY... dont just read, read with a PURPOSE!!! its like what Russ shared at church on Sunday... why do we do things the way we do? well hopefully because theres some kind of positive effect, it works best that way maybe...
2 Timothy 2:20-22
20In a large house there are articles not only of gold and silver, but also of wood and clay; some are for noble purposes and some for ignoble. 21If a man cleanses himself from the latter, he will be an instrument for noble purposes, made holy, useful to the Master and prepared to do any good work.
ARE you prepared to do any good work?
How do we become "instruments for noble purposes?" (get rid of the cheap china...?)
22Flee the evil desires of youth, and pursue righteousness, faith, love and peace, along with those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart.
(NEW LIVING TRANSLATION)
20 In a wealthy home some utensils are made of gold and silver, and some are made of wood and clay. The expensive utensils are used for special occasions, and the cheap ones are for everyday use. 21 If you keep yourself pure, you will be a special utensil for honorable use. Your life will be clean, and you will be ready for the Master to use you for every good work.
22 Run from anything that stimulates youthful lusts. Instead, pursue righteous living, faithfulness, love, and peace. Enjoy the companionship of those who call on the Lord with pure hearts!
V 20...Sometimes you got to bust out the expensive china (THAT IS IF YOU HAVE IT...we dont at CPR)
an example of this though... we get all fixed up, fired up after big events like the ICMC or even church every sunday.. but then the next day we kind of just put away the expensive china... the stuff we learned, the goals and decisions we made and save it for later...but if we "CLEANSE ourselves" from the cheap stuff we use on an every day basis, then we will be God's instrument!! he can use us for noble purposes!! IDK about you guys but that fires me up! This is why I brought some dirty dishes over here, because we need to
the reason we looked at the other version is because they substitute the word cleanse for "keep yourself pure."
My first class was chill tho i met a cool guy named Thomas!
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