by Dave Carey
Heaven part 2 was Bible study chaos as we started to consider what the Bible might be saying about the believers' eternal dwelling place, the New Earth and New Heavens and New Jerusalem…
www.biblestudyforeverybody.net/
Bible Study For Everybody by Dave Carey Heaven part 2 was Bible study chaos as we started to consider what the Bible might be saying about the believers' eternal dwelling place, the New Earth and New Heavens and New Jerusalem… www.biblestudyforeverybody.net/
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Pac-12 and USC record-breaking quarterback Matt Barkley sat down with FCA to talk about his passion for the Trojans, his relationship with the Lord, and how he has seen God's divine plan for his life play out while at Southern Cal. For more on this and other athlete videos, visit FCA.org www.ted.com Pastor, philanthropist, and author Rick Warren reflects on how the success of his book The Purpose-Driven Life triggered his own crisis of purpose. What should he do with this unanticipated wealth and attention? Warren uses his own story to explain the central tenet of his teaching: that the antidote to spiritual emptiness is recognizing what we have been given -- wealth, creativity, talent -- and using those gifts to make the world a better place. by Chris Norman “Football is one of the best things anyone could ever do… but true life — what it means to live — is all wrapped up in the way you follow Christ.” Click here to see Chris's testimony. “Your life isn't any better than people I know that aren't Christians”. Would people who know you to be a Christian, say that about you? Would you say that about yourself? Do they even know you are a Christian? Being a Christian isn't about living according to Christian principles, it is about letting God’s Spirit live His life through you with the results being the fruit of His Spirit being evident in your life and to others. This video explains how to let that happen. by Bob Nideffer Roma grew up on the street in Brooklyn, and all he ever wanted to be as youngster was a gangster. At thirteen he was running a drug business and paying off the police. “I used to sit in front of my store sniffing cocaine and drinking champagne, that’s how nuts I was.” Roma’s testimony about his transformation from a gangster to a disciple and servant of God is both powerful and inspiring.[1] Roma’s transformation didn’t happen overnight, it took a long time. According to Roma, however the transformation began when a young woman walked into “his store,” handed him a Bible tract, and said, “Jesus loves you.” “I balled the tract up and I hit her in the face with it and I tell her ‘get out of my store.’ I don’t need God, I make my own bones, church is for wimps and for cowards. I don’t need God, I make my own money. I don’t need God to make money for me. I don’t need God. She walked out. Mind you, two days, three days later her is another young lady she comes in, and she does the same thing. Well I do the same thing. ‘Get out of my store.’” “The amazing thing about that is I started to think about it. And what was so fascinating about those two young ladies was when I hit them in their face with those tracts all I saw was love. That blew my mind. Even when I disrespected them and cursed them out. I was enamored by that love man. I couldn't figure that out.” “My partner who was a cocaine dealer, his father was a preacher. So one day he comes into my store. He comes to the counter and he says; ‘Roma God is calling you to preach the gospel. You’re going to get saved.’ I looked at him and I said, ‘No disrespect, but how can the Devil’s son get saved.’ It was amazing he said to me: ‘You’re going to become a Christian. You’re going to be saved and God is going to use you in a mighty way.’” “I’m in my store and I am talking to a retired gangster and when I hear his name I say, ‘wait a minute I know someone in Harlem by that name,’ and he says ‘Yes, that’s my son. About a month later a black Mercedes pulls up to my store and I’m thinking, ‘what do they want with me,’ cause his son is a contract killer. That’s what he does. “He pulls in front of my store I see him I go out I jump in the car and I say; ‘Listen man, what do you want with me,’ and what he says sent chills through me. ‘I know where you live, you got a cute little baby girl, cute little girl friend. You are doing about a million a year from this store. I’m impressed, no mob connections. It’s all black owned. He told me where my mother lives, he knew everything about me because that’s what you do when you’re a hitter. You research your people.” “He said to me, ‘we’re going to create a hit team like murder incorporated back in the 30’s. But the only thing Roma we’re going to be bigger than them. What I want you to do is recruit young men and we’re going to train them to be contract killers. We’re going to be rich,” and he had his gun right on his side. So all of a sudden all those thoughts come back, the little girls giving me those tracts. My partner’s father saying ‘God is calling you to the ministry,’ and in my heart I said to myself ‘God if you are real, I need you now.’ When I said that the power of God came into that car. All my fear was gone. I looked at him and I pointed my finger at him and I said: ‘I don’t want no part of you or your plans. Besides, I’m giving my life to Jesus Christ.’ And when I said that, the atmosphere changed in the car.”
“I got out of the car and I’m walking into my store because I’m figuring he’s going to shoot me because now he’s revealed his plans. He can’t allow me to live cause I’m not going to get down with him. When I went into the store and when I turned around to look out the door his car was gone. To this very day I never saw him again. “I immediately called my mother and I said ‘Mom I’m going to come to church.’ So I walk into the church and I’m sitting in the back because I still think wimps go to church I didn't want anybody to see me go into the church. So I am sitting there and the preacher is preaching my life. So I’m sitting there and I’m thinking, ‘how does this man know how I was living?” “When I said, ‘My mother must have…’ I got caught because I said, ‘man only me and God knows this. It’s God funneling this information to this guy. Anyway, as I’m sitting there he makes an alter call. No there is no one beside me, not a single person. I’m sitting there and a voice says into my ear, ‘Go!’ I Go ‘whoa where did this come from.’ I look around I say ‘this is getting spooky.’ “People go up to give their life to the Lord and the pastor says, ‘For some reason I can’t go on. There is someone here God sent today I don’t know who you are but I can’t continue my message until you come. It’s your last chance.’ And when he said ‘It’s your last chance,’ an invisible hand, I felt the hand it touched my shoulder and when that hand touched my shoulder I felt a love that I can’t describe. And the voice said again, ‘Go!’ and that was the Holy Ghost. “And when I walked down that aisle I was saying to the Lord, God do I have to give up my cigarettes? And he was saying to me ‘Yes, I’ll give you something better.’ Lord, I got to give up the cocaine? ‘Yes, I’ll give you something better.’ Lord, not the women. ‘Yes, I’ll give you something better. “When the pastor got to me I remember going down on my knees and he was saying the sinners prayer, my life went into recall. And the Holy Spirit brought my mind to all of those dangerous times when I should have been killed. The Holy Spirit was saying ‘I delivered you from that.’… There was two chilling things that the Holy Spirit said to me. The first one was this, ‘the very people that you were around wanted to kill you.’ The last one was the most devastating and the Holy Spirit said, ‘If you would have not come you would have been in hell.’ And when I said that sinner’s prayer I literally felt my sins being lifted from me. After that, for the last twenty seven years I’ve been serving the Lord.” Common Threads With Many Men, Myself Included: Roma’s testimony had a big impact on me because several of the key elements in his story seemed to speak directly to me. Don’t get me wrong, I didn't do drugs, I didn't sell drugs, and I wasn't asked to recruit killers. Well, at least not the kind of murder for hire killers that Roma was asked to recruit. What Roma and I did share were similar roadblocks to coming into the faith and to trusting and developing faith in God’s unconditional love and grace. The pattern that I see in Roma’s life and in my own, seems to me to be fairly common to a lot of men and that pattern is what I want to share with you. 1. I don’t need God: As a young man Roma didn't see any need for God and neither did I. As a young man, Roma felt that God was for wimps and weaklings, and so did I. I suspect, especially for those of us brought up outside of the church, the belief that we don’t need God is relatively common. It’s a belief that is reinforced by a world, and by a masculine code that tells us it is our willingness to take responsibility, to control our own destiny that is the true mark of a man. It is difficult for me to understand how anyone who professes to have faith in God can do so with any great confidence, without first being forced to recognize their need for God. I suspect that one of the reasons there are so many “luke warm,” Christians is that they grew up in the faith, accepted the beliefs of their parents, but have never really felt a great need for God and as a result never had their faith tested. The first step toward entering into a relationship with God has to do with recognizing what it is that we need God for. Roma yelled “I don’t need God for money, I make my own money.” Roma was right he didn't need God for money, or for a reputation and respect in the eyes of the world. What Roma needed God for, and what I needed God for was his unconditional love and grace. Roma and I, and a lot of others spent a good portion of our lives looking for love in all the wrong places because we didn't realize it was love we were looking for. We thought the feelings associated with “The Fruit of the Spirit,” could be obtained through worldly success. The truth is, they can only be obtained through faith in God’s love and grace. Roma was a big man based on the criteria that he grew up with and saw as important, and so was I. But in spite of being successful by our own definition and by the definition of our respective worlds, there was a gnawing emptiness inside of us. We weren't fulfilled, and we couldn't understand why. 2. I was enamored by that love man. For Roma, it was the love that he saw in the eyes of the two women in response to his insults that began to breakdown the barrier preventing him from recognizing his need for a loving relationship with God. For me, it was talking to a young woman who was prepared to end her life to protect those she loved. Like Roma I was enamored by that love. I wanted someone to love me, and I wanted to be able to love someone in the same way that those young women loved. The events that take place in our lives that help to make us aware of selfless, unconditional love, do two things for us. First, they make us aware of our need for that kind of love. Second, the give us hope and that encourages us to begin to take the risk of reaching out. Ironically, for that hope to be realized for Roma, and for myself, we would first have to recognize that we were beyond hope. Only then, would we be able to feel the fullness of God’s redeeming love. 3. No disrespect, but how can the Devil’s son get saved. Developing faith in the belief that God loves us unconditionally is very difficult for many of us. For Roma it was difficult because he believed that his sins were beyond redemption. It is surprising how many people feel that way. It is undoubtedly what Paul and Peter felt because they viewed their sins as extreme, and they were. But for many others sins that many of would consider minor are major in their eyes. For others of us, faith in God’s unconditional love is all but impossible because we have been hurt too many times by the conditional nature of the love that we have received from those that we care for. We live in a world where love is often treated as a powerful too or weapon that people can use to get their selfish needs met by placing conditions on both the giving and receiving of love. Finally, there are many of us who won’t develop faith in God’s unconditional love because we believe we need to be punished for our sins and we are afraid that if we accept God’s grace, if he forgives us and we forgive ourselves, we will go out and sin again. 4. I felt the hand it touched my shoulder…. I recognize that there are many people who enter into the faith without having a dramatic conversion experience. The kind of experience that Paul had on the road to Damascus, the kind of experience that Roma had in the car and in the church, the kind of experience I had in my office at home. I believe, however, that the greater the distrust or lack of faith you have for any of the reasons I listed above, the greater the likelihood that God is going to have to enter into your life in a much more physical and dramatic way. I say that based on my own experience and on my observations of others. I am reasonably confident that the doubts and concerns that I had about God and about faith in God would never have been overcome had He not intervened in my life in a very personal and dramatic fashion. Which, if any, of the four phases identified above seem to speak to your experience and/or to the experience of someone you are trying to witness to? Can you think of any ways you can reach out to help others transition through the different phases? [1] Roma’s testimony can be seen and listened to on YouTube. Click here. |
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