Who are you following?
A message given to the youth at Reston Bible Church – March 25, 2018
Questions for Reflection:
1. What counterfeit adventures or solutions to life’s struggles have you been following? How is that working out for you?
2. What is holding you back from following Jesus?
Meeting of the Waters – Parts 1 & 2
A series on the journey to marriage oneness, given at Reston Bible Church’s HomeFront couples fellowship. March 2018
Part 1
Part 2
Upcoming Marriage Booster event
Join me this Friday, February 2, at Reston Bible Church where I’ll be moderating a panel discussion on cultivating a safe harbor for communication in yourself, your marriage, and your home.
Registration is free online. www.restonbible.org/event/marriagebooster/
Marriage Booster: Safe Harbor from Reston Bible Church on Vimeo.
Shabbat – God’s Gift of Rest
A talk given to Parent’s and Jr. High Students at Reston Bible Church on December 6, 2017
AND WITH ALL YOUR SOUL
Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength. – Mark 12:30
When we talked about loving God with our heart we referenced our personality and passions. That’s pretty deep. When we talk about loving God with our soul, that’s deeper still because our soul is the innermost part of who we are. It is used as a synonym for life, our life, our essence. It’s the part God created to last for eternity. Sadly when sin entered the world it separated our soul, our life, from God’s presence. We are eternally dissatisfied until our soul finds rest in Him. Why? Because before we accepted Christ our soul was enslaved to sin. We were longing for Him, for a perfect leader in this Quest called life. After we know Jesus our souls can rest because we have “returned to the shepherd and guardian of our souls” (1 Peter 2:25).
King David was Israel’s Poet King. He often spoke about His soul, “my soul is greatly dismayed…I will lift up my soul…my soul may sing praise…my soul will rejoice…” King David knew there was more to him than his mind and body. My soul is my immaterial essence, my life breath. It is that part of me that can be separated from Him if I choose to put myself on the throne of my life. As a Christian I desire a makeover that will reform my soul so that I can love and put God at the center of everything in my life. God has promised this makeover in Romans 8:29. “For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers.” Everyday God is reshaping me to resemble Jesus and that includes my soul.
MEDITATING ON THE WORD:
Psalm 63:1-5
Matthew 10:28
Ezekiel 18:4
Luke 16:19-31
Mark 8:36
Matthew 16:26
3 John 1:2
(Excerpt from Extreme Makeover: Spiritual Edition, a curriculum by Michael J. Meyers)
The Lord is close to the brokenhearted
Part 3 on loving God with the heart
“Love the Lord your God with all your heart…”
“So what’s on your heart this week?” Hopefully you have taken some time during our study to reflect on how to use your interests and passions for God. But what about when you see things in yourself that fall short of God’s standard? Do we assume we’re a lost cause and of no use to God? We cannot hide our good qualities or our failures from Him. He “alone knows every human heart” (1 Kings 8:39). But be of good cheer, the ungodly things I find in my heart bring me to Him in a special way, a humble way. I wish I could bring to Him a “Great Commandment Christian,” fully assembled and ready to serve, but I came broken and, though I’m no longer a slave to sin, my flesh still fights against my makeover. When I recognize this and grieve my sin then I am in a position for God to transform my heart. Yes, it’s uncomfortable, but the Lord promises that He is near to the brokenhearted.
In Psalm 147 we are reminded that it is fitting to praise God. The best way to praise God is to think about His actions and his attributes. The Psalm tells us:
God heals the brokenhearted. He names the stars.
He sends rain to the earth.
He delights in those who fear him.
He has unfailing love.
He sends us his protection.
He shares his commands with us.
He controls all nature.
He communicates his word to us!
Praise the Lord.
Loving God has many facets, praising Him for all He has done is one of them. Aligning our lifestyles with His word is another. What kind of heart does God want me to have? A pure heart, a clean heart, a kind heart, and of course a heart that loves Him above all else. The kind of heart that Jesus displayed for us.
Have a blessed Thanksgiving!
Mike
MEDITATING ON THE WORD:
Psalm 34:18
Matthew 11:28
Psalm 147:3
Isaiah 61:1
Luke 4:8
1 Peter 2:24
UNIT VERSE:
Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength. – Mark 12:30
Wisdom – God’s Operating System for Your Heart
(Excerpt from Extreme Makeover: Spiritual Edition, a curriculum by Michael J. Meyers)
About five years ago I started using a Mac laptop instead of my old PC. One thing that prompted that switch was the problems I was having with viruses on my PC. As it turns out, the Mac operating system is much less prone to virus problems. It does a better job on its own, without the expense of extra virus protection services, of keeping out unwanted and damaging material that could slow down or freeze up my machine. 
Last time we talked about the good passions and desires that God has put in our hearts, let’s call them the pre-loaded software. We also talked about guarding our hearts from storing up ungodly things, let’s call them malware or viruses, that corrupt our God-given passions and desires. The human heart was made for loving and glorifying God. Sin has corrupted that heart, but by faith in Jesus we can have our hard-drive (heart) wiped clean of sin and reinstalled with God’s programs, so that it is free to function as it was intended.
The problem is that we still live in a sinful world where there are new viruses around every corner. That’s where God’s heart operating system comes into play. Wisdom. It comes from God and is the atmosphere in which all of your pre-loaded heart software works best. It is also highly resistant to viruses and will prevent unwanted items from piling up in your heart and slowing down or freezing up your system. If we, or our kids, want to love God with ALL our heart, then we need the right operating system…wisdom. “Whatever else you get, get wisdom” (Prov. 4:7) and we get wisdom by downloading it from the living and active word of God.
MEDITATING ON THE WORD:
Proverbs 2:1-11
Jeremiah 33:3
James 1:5
Psalm 19:7
Proverbs 10:8
Proverbs 16:23
Proverbs 2:10
