Who am I without God?

What am I without God?

Where am I without God?

When will I figure this out?

How will it change my life?

What's For Lunch?

Life is about you, but it’s not just about you! Stop for just a minute and let that thought sink in.  “Life is about you, but it’s not just about you!” Life is also about others.  The fact is – you cannot get all that God desires for you to get out of this life without others and others will not get all that God desires for them to get out of this life without you.  God created us to do life together and when we do it together and do it right, we get what He intended – growth, blessing, fulfillment and peace!

We need to become “others-minded”! We spend so much of our time thinking about ourselves, about what we want, need and deserve.  We spend very little time thinking about others and what they want, need and deserve.  Start thinking of others right now and ask yourself “What do they want, need and deserve?”

What does your spouse want, need and deserve? What do your children want, need and deserve?  What do your parents want, need and deserve?  What do your friends want, need and deserve?  Extended Family?  Neighbors?  Co-workers?  Enemies?  Strangers?  You get the idea!  Start asking and answering the question:  “What do they want, need and deserve?”

Jesus shared eight attitudes in the beginning of his “Sermon On The Mount” message. As we work our way through these attitudes found in Matthew 5:1-12, we will discover that they encourage us to be “others-minded.”  One other person that we need to consider is Jesus – what does he want, need and deserve?  Looks like we’ve got some work to do!

My Cuz Craig & His Little Angel!

Don’t miss the “teachable moments” today! God will teach you through the circumstances of life  and use you to teach others! In Matthew 5:1-12 we find Jesus going up on a mountain and his disciples following and right there is the secret to taking advantage of teachable moments!  We must be willing to follow!

The reason so many of us often miss out on and fail to take advantage of teachable moments is because we have trouble with following. Our trouble is – we are not willing to follow or we are following the wrong leader.  We all need leadership – you cannot do life and do it right by yourself!  God created us to do life in partnership with Him and one another.  We need to make sure that we are following the right leader, because not just any leader will do.  You can’t go wrong in following Jesus!  He loves you and given his life for you and desires for you to grow and be blessed!

Another problem that we will encounter in following is when we become overly concerned with where we are going. If you have a good leader, you do not have to be worried about where he is taking you, because if he is a good leader, he will be taking you exactly where you need to be going.  This is exactly what Jesus does with us in the Beatitudes – he leads us to exactly where we need to be going.

Make the choice today to follow Jesus! Make the choice to be the attitudes that he is talking about!  Make the choice to not waste, but take advantage of the “teachable moments!”

Want One?

Alright!  You made it back!  Great! I hope that you are excited about what God is going to do in and through our lives as we work our way through the Beatitudes found in Matthew 5:1-12!

1 And seeing the multitudes, he went up into a mountain: and when he was set, his disciples came unto him:2 And he opened his mouth, and taught them, saying,3 Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Jesus went up on the mountain, his disciples came to him and he opened his mouth and taught them! Here is the simple truth we all need to grasp today:  There will always be something for us to learn! When we think we know it all – we rob ourselves of going to a whole new place that God has for us!

Realize and admit that you have much to learn and then pay attention to what Jesus is saying and think about what you can and will do about it. What do you need to learn today and how will what you learn make your life better?  Don’t forget to begin and end your day with Matthew 5:1-12 and try to memorize as much as possible and enjoy the journey!

I thought that I would start sharing a few closing thoughts about all that God has been up to and all that He is doing in my life and the life of our church as we get ready to end our Sunday and begin our work week!  I will try to do this each Sunday evening as a review for those of us that got to take part and as a reminder for those that might have missed out!

Bible Fellowship/Sunday School was down in attendance, but good in spirit!  I estimate we had at least a hundred people that were taking advantage of the long weekend and getting in one more vacation.  (We missed you guys and hope that you thought about us!)  I want to encourage everyone to make sure that you are working to make small group Bible study and fellowship a priority.  You need to make sure that you are here and doing all that you can to invite and bring others back with you!  Those of you that did get to enjoy a vacation this Sunday – work extra hard to bring someone with you next Sunday!  You know you can do it, so don’t just think about it – be intentional and make that call or ask that person you’ve been thinking about asking!  See ya next Sunday at 8:45 A.M.

Worship attendance was down, but the crowd that was here looked good and really seemed excited to be here.  We had a great time of praise that really helped and encouraged us to take our eyes off of ourselves and the frustrations of life.  I know that as the service began, I was just a little bummed for a variety of different reasons, but as my focus shifted off of myself and onto Jesus – I found my hope strengthened, my faith be enlarged and my excitement growing.

We started a new series this morning called “Be-Attitudes!”  I am really excited about this series of messages and the possibilities that it presents to us “Wooders!”  Today – we took a look at Matthew 5:1-12 and discovered eight attitudes that come with a promise of blessings from God.  Our goal over the next several weeks will be to incorporate and adopt these attitudes of Jesus as attitudes of our own.  Try to begin each day and end each day with a reading of and thinking through this Scripture.  It would be great if the whole congregation memorized these twelve verses over the next few weeks.  Even more important than memorizing these verses is living them out moment by moment and day by day.

See you back here tomorrow as we take some time to start working the Be-Attitudes into our lives!  Don’t just know the Beatitudes – Be Them!

I know that a lot of folks are out of town for the long weekend, but I hope that all of you will make every effort to be at one of our two campuses this coming Sunday morning for the beginning of our new series:  ”BE-ATTITUDES!” We will be spending the next several weeks working our way through Matthew 5:1-12.  In this passage we find some of the most important teaching that ever flowed out of the life and lips of our Savior Jesus!

Take some time before Sunday to read through the passage and consider trying to memorize it as we work our way through it during the next few weeks. These attitudes are very different from what most of us live with and in every day.  In fact, these attitudes are almost the opposite of the attitudes that most of the world lives with on a daily basis.  As we seek to live with these attitudes of Jesus – it will change our lives and allow our lives to bring change to others!

Looking forward to our learning and growing together!

I have heard from a lot of people this week that seem to be facing frustration big time! For most of us, not experiencing frustration is not an option, so what are we going to do about it?  If we are going to have to deal with frustration, then we must make sure that we get the most out of it.

Our goal is to learn from our frustration and move on! So here are some very important steps to take:

PRAY!  PRAY!  PRAY! We need to talk to God about it.  I know that this sounds simple and most people try it and it does not make the difference that you are looking for.  We don’t need to just go through the motions of prayer.  We need to make sure that we are praying – actually talking and listening to God.  Seek to really make a connection with God in your praying!  Pour your heart out and then make sure that you take some time to open your heart for what God has to give you!

Think Through! If you have actually taken the time to really pray about your frustration, then you will through the process of talking and listening to God already have taken the time to think through the frustration.  Here are some questions to help you think through the frustration:  Where is it coming from? Are you the source or is someone else the source?  What can you do about it? Figure out what you can and can’t do and do what you can and let go of the can’t do!  How can you move on? Whatever you need to do to move forward according to God’s plan – do it!

Get Ready! Another frustration is just around the corner.  We will never totally get away from frustration, but we can always get the most out of it!  One more thing that you can do to help yourself with frustration is ask others to pray for you.  If I can pray for you just facebook, twitter, text or call me!  God Bless and Keep It Real!

No one that I know likes frustration. Most people hate it and try their best to avoid it!  It does not matter how hard you try.  Live life long enough and you will discover rather quickly that you cannot live life without frustration – it just seems to find a way to creep back into your life again and again.  Since there is no getting away from frustration, then the next best thing is to learn from it.  Here are a few things that I have learned about learning from frustration.

Figure Out The Source! Is it internal or external?  Is the frustration coming from you or is it coming from others?  Is it something that you have done or failed to do?  Is it something that someone else has done or failed to do?  Once you figure this out, then you can begin to think about what your next steps will be.

When You Are The Source! If you are the source, then you will need to do some self inspection and figure out what is going on in you that would cause you to do or not do the things that impact you in a negative and frustrating way.  You need to figure out the “CAUSE”!  What is it that is causing you to do or not do whatever it is that is leading to the frustration?  Deal with the cause and you can change the outcome!  This is really not all that difficult.  Most of us or just lazy or unwilling to take the time or practice the discipline of actually “thinking through!”  Thinking through will help you to allow God to take your life to a whole new level.  Here is the question that you need to ask yourself and answer very honestly:  ”Is there anything that I can or could have done differently?  If so, what?  And what are you going to do about it?

When Someone Else Is The Source! When someone else is the source, things get a little more difficult.  When you are the source – all you have to do is work on yourself.  When someone else is the source, you have to take the time to figure out why they are causing you frustration.  Most people that frustrate you – probably do not have any idea that they are doing it.  Most people do not get up in the morning thinking:  ”I wonder who I can frustrate today?”  Most people that cause other people to be frustrated are usually frustrated themselves and they do not have any idea what to do about their own frustration.  Now here is the important question:  What can I do about it?  Is there anything that you can do or say that you have not done or said that will help the other person?  If so, then what are you waiting on?  If there is nothing else, then it is time to turn it over!  Tomorrow we will talk about how to turn it over and move on!