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| A Challenge...to Grow | |
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| Tweet Topic Started: Jul 2 2004, 06:33 AM (432 Views) | |
| Buddee | Jul 2 2004, 06:33 AM Post #1 |
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Day 1- It All Starts with God The search for the purpose of life has puzzled people for thousands of years. That's because we typically begin at the wrong starting point...ourselves. But focusing on ourselves will never reveal our life's purpose. The Bible says, "It is God who directs the lives of his creatures; everyone's life is in his power." Many people try to use God for their own self-actualization, but that is a reversal of nature and is doomed to failure. You were made for God, not vice versa, and life is about letting God use you for his purposes, not using him for your own purpose. Andrei Bitov, a Russian novelist, grew up under an atheistic Communist regime. But God got his attention one dreary day. He recalls, "In my twenty-seventh year, while riding the metro in Leningrad I was overcome with a despair so great that life seemed to stop at once, preempting the future entirely, let alone any meaning. Suddenly, all by itself, a phrase appeared: Without God life makes no sense. Repeating it in astonishment, I rode the phrase up like a moving staircase, got out of the metro and walked into God's light." You may have felt in the dark about your purpose in life. Congratulations, you're about to walk into the light. -from Crossings 40 Day Challenge Newsletter |
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| Buddee | Jul 2 2004, 06:36 AM Post #2 |
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Day 2-You Are not An Accident Your birth was no mistake or mishap, and your life is no fluke of nature. Your parents may not have planned you, but God did. He was not at all surprised by your birth. In fact, he expected it. God never does anything accidentally, and he never makes mistakes. He has a reason for everything he creates. God planned every plant and every animal, and every person was designed with a purpose in mind. God's motive for creating you was his love. The Bible says, "Long before he laid down earth's foundations, he had us in mind, had settled on us as the focus of his love." Dr. Michael Denton, senior research fellow in human molecular genetics at the University of Otago in New Zealand, has concluded, "All the evidence available in the biological sciences supports the core proposition -- that the cosmos is a specially designed whole with life and mankind as its fundamental goal and purpose, a whole in which all facets of reality have their meaning and explanation in this central fact." The Bible said the same thing thousands of years earlier: "God formed the earth -- He did not create it to be empty but formed it to be inhabited." Why did God do all this? Why did he bother to go to all the trouble of creating a universe for us? Because he is a God of love. This kind of love is difficult to fathom, but it's fundamentally reliable. You were created as a special object of God's love! God made you so he could love you. This is a truth to build your life on. -from Crossings 40 Day Challenge Newsletter |
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| Buddee | Jul 2 2004, 06:39 AM Post #3 |
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Day 3-What Drives Your Life? Everyone's life is driven by something. Most dictionaries define the verb drive as "to guide, to control, or to direct." Whether you are driving a car, a nail, or a golf ball, you are guiding, controlling, and directing it at that moment. What is the driving force in your life? This forty-day journey will show you how to live a purpose-driven life--a life guided, controlled, and directed by God's purposes. Without a purpose, life is motion without meaning, activity without direction, and events without reason. There are five great benefits of living a purpose-driven life: Knowing your purpose gives meaning to your life, simplifies your life, focuses your life, motivates your life. And knowing your purpose prepares you for eternity. Many people spend their lives trying to create a lasting legacy on earth. Yet, what ultimately matters most will not be what others say about your life but what God says. In college James Dobson's goal was to become the school's tennis champion. He felt proud when his trophy was prominently placed in the school's trophy cabinet. Years later, someone mailed him that trophy. They had found it in a trashcan when the school was remodeled. Jim said, "Given enough time, all your trophies will be trashed by someone else!" Living to create an earthly legacy is a shortsighted goal. A wiser use of time is to build an eternal legacy. You weren't put on earth to be remembered. You were put here to prepare for eternity. -from Crossings 40 Day Challenge Newsletter |
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| Buddee | Jul 2 2004, 06:43 AM Post #4 |
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Day 4- Made to Last Forever This life is not all there is. Life on earth is just the dress rehearsal before the real production. You will spend far more time on the other side of death--in eternity--than you will here. This life is preparation for the next. The Bible says "God has planted eternity in the human heart." You have an inborn instinct that longs for immortality. This is because God designed you, in his image, to live for eternity. Even though we know everyone eventually dies, death always seems unnatural and unfair. The reason we feel we should live forever is that God wired our brains with that desire! Just as the nine months you spent in your mother's womb were not an end in themselves but preparation for life, so this life is preparation for the next. If you have a relationship with God through Jesus, you don't need to fear death. The Bible says, "This world is not our home; we are looking forward to our everlasting home in heaven." Measured against eternity, our time on earth is just a blink of an eye, but the consequences of it will last forever. Years ago a popular slogan encouraged people to live each day as "the first day of the rest of your life." Actually, it would be wiser to live each day as if it were the last day of your life. Matthew Henry said, "It ought to be the business of every day to prepare for our final day." -from Crossings 40 Day Challenge Newsletter |
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| Buddee | Jul 4 2004, 05:25 AM Post #5 |
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Day 5- Seeing Life from God's View How you define life determines your destiny. The way you view life is your life metaphor. It's your description of how life works and what you expect from it; it influences your life more than you realize and determines your expectations, values, relationships, goals, and priorities. To fulfill the purposes God has for you, you will have to base your view on the biblical metaphors of life. These are: Life is a test, life is a trust, and life is a temporary assignment. Life is a test. God continually tests people's character, faith, obedience, love, integrity, and loyalty. Character is both developed and revealed, and all of life is a test. When you understand that life is a test, you realize that every day is important. God wants you to pass the tests of life, so he never allows the tests to be greater than the grace he gives you to handle them. Life is a trust. We are to be stewards of whatever God gives us. All we enjoy is to be treated as a trust that God has placed in our hands. If you treat everything as a trust, God promises three rewards in eternity: affirmation, promotion, and celebration. Life is a test and a trust; the more God gives you, the more responsible he expects you to be. -from Crossings 40 Day Challenge Newsletter |
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| Buddee | Jul 4 2004, 05:32 AM Post #6 |
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Day 6- Life is a Temporary Assignment To make the best use of your life, you must never forget two truths: First, compared with eternity, life is extremely brief. Second, earth is only a temporary residence. You won't be here long, so don't get too attached. Ask God to help you see life on earth as he sees it. David prayed, "Lord, help me to realize how brief my time on earth will be. Help me to know that I am here for but a moment more." In order to keep us from becoming too attached to earth, God allows us to feel a significant amount of discontent and dissatisfaction in life--longings that will never be fulfilled on this side of eternity. We're not completely happy here because we're not supposed to be! Earth is not our final home; we were created for something much better. In God's eyes, the greatest heroes of faith are not those who achieve prosperity, success, and power in this life, but those who treat this life as a temporary assignment and serve faithfully, expecting their promised reward in eternity. Your time on earth is not the complete story of your life. You must wait until heaven for the rest of the chapters. It takes faith to live on earth as a foreigner. When life gets tough, when you're overwhelmed with doubt, or when you wonder if living for Christ is worth the effort, remember that you are not home yet. At death you won't leave home--you'll go home. -from Crossings 40 Day Challenge Newsletter |
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| Buddee | Jul 5 2004, 07:53 AM Post #7 |
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Day 7 – The Reason for Everything The ultimate goal of the universe is to show the glory of God. It is the reason for everything that exists, including you. God made it all for his glory. Without God's glory, there would be nothing. The glory of God is who God is. It is the essence of his nature, the weight of his importance, the radiance of his splendor, the demonstration of his power, and the atmosphere of his presence. God's glory is best seen in Jesus Christ. He, the Light of the world, illuminates God's nature. Because of Jesus, we are no longer in the dark about what God is really like There are many ways to bring glory to God, but they can be summarized in God's five purposes for your life. We bring God glory by worshiping him, loving other believers, becoming like Christ, serving others with our gifts, and by telling others about him. It's time to settle this issue. Who are you going to live for--yourself or God? Right now, God is inviting you to live for his glory by fulfilling the purposes he made you for. Real life begins by committing yourself completely to Jesus Christ. If you are not sure you have done this, all you need to do is receive and believe. The Bible promises, "To all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God." Will you accept God's offer? -from Crossings 40 Day Challenge Newsletter |
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| Buddee | Jul 6 2004, 05:30 AM Post #8 |
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Day 8 – Planned for God’s Pleasure The moment you were born into the world, God was there as an unseen witness, smiling at your birth. He wanted you alive, and your arrival gave him great pleasure. God did not need to create you, but he chose to create you for his own enjoyment. You exist for his benefit, his glory, his purpose, and his delight. Bringing enjoyment to God, living for his pleasure, is the first purpose of your life. When you fully understand this truth, you will never again have a problem with feeling insignificant. It proves your worth. You are a child of God, and you bring pleasure to God like nothing else he has ever created. The Bible says, "Because of his love God had already decided that through Jesus Christ he would make us his children--this was his pleasure and purpose." We often forget that God has emotions, too. He feels things very deeply. The Bible tells us that God grieves, gets jealous and angry, and feels compassion, pity, and sympathy as well as happiness, gladness, and satisfaction. Anything you do that brings pleasure to God is an act of worship. Like a diamond, worship is multifaceted. Worship is not a part of your life - it is your life. We are told to "worship him continually" and to "praise him from sunrise to sunset." Praise should be the first activity when you open your eyes in the morning and the last activity when you close them at night. David said, "I will thank the Lord at all times. My mouth will always praise him." -from Crossings 40 Day Challenge Newsletter |
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| Buddee | Jul 7 2004, 06:36 AM Post #9 |
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Day 9 - What Makes God Smile? The smile of God is the goal of your life. Since pleasing God is the first purpose of your life, your most important task is to discover how to do that. The Bible says, "Figure out what will please Christ, and then do it." Today, we'll learn the five acts of worship that make God smile. God smiles when we love him supremely. God smiles when we trust him completely. God smiles when we obey him wholeheartedly. God smiles when we praise and thank him continually. And God smiles when we use our abilities. You may feel that the only time God is pleased with you is when you're doing "spiritual" activities--like reading the Bible, attending church, praying, or sharing your faith. And you may think God is unconcerned about the other parts of your life. Actually, God enjoys watching every detail of your life, whether you are working, playing, resting, or eating. He doesn't miss a single move you make. The Bible tells us, "The steps of the godly are directed by the LORD. He delights in every detail of their lives." Every human activity, except sin, can be done for God's pleasure if you do it with the attitude of praise. Will you make pleasing God the goal of your life? There is nothing that God won't do for the person totally absorbed with this goal. -from Crossings 40 Day Challenge Newsletter |
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| Buddee | Jul 8 2004, 06:24 AM Post #10 |
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Day 10 – The Heart of Worship The heart of worship is surrender. In today's competitive culture we are taught to never give up and never give in--so we don't hear much about surrendering. If winning is everything, surrendering is unthinkable. We would rather talk about winning, succeeding, overcoming, and conquering than yielding, submitting, obeying, and surrendering. But surrendering to God is the heart of worship. We give ourselves to him, not out of fear or duty, but in love, "because he first loved us." True worship--bringing God pleasure--happens when you give yourself completely to God. As Joshua approached the biggest battle of his life, he encountered God, fell in worship before him, and surrendered his plans. That surrender led to a stunning victory at Jericho. This is the paradox: Victory comes through surrender. Surrender doesn't weaken you; it strengthens you. William Booth, founder of the Salvation Army, said, "The greatness of a man's power is the measure of his surrender." Surrender is not the best way to live; it is the only way to live. Surrendered people are the ones God uses. God chose Mary to be the mother of Jesus, not because she was talented or wealthy or beautiful, but because she was totally surrendered to him. When the angel explained God's improbable plan, she calmly responded, "I am the Lord's servant, and I am willing to accept whatever he wants." Nothing is more powerful than a surrendered life in the hands of God. "So give yourselves completely to God" -from Crossings 40 Day Challenge Newsletter |
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| Buddee | Jul 9 2004, 07:30 AM Post #11 |
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Day 11- Becoming Best Friends with God Your relationship to God has many different aspects: God is your Creator and Maker, Lord and Master, Judge, Redeemer, Father, Savior, and much more. But the most shocking truth is this: Almighty God yearns to be your Friend! Friendship with God is possible only because of the grace of God and the sacrifice of Jesus. The old hymn says, "What a friend we have in Jesus," but actually, God invites us to enjoy friendship and fellowship with all three persons of the Trinity: our Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Jesus said, "I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master's business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you." The word for friend in this verse does not mean a casual acquaintance but a close, trusted relationship. The same word is used to refer to the best man at a wedding and a king's inner circle of intimate, trusted friends. In royal courts, servants must keep their distance from the king, but the inner circle of trusted friends enjoy close contact, direct access, and confidential information. Knowing and loving God is our greatest privilege, and being known and loved is God's greatest pleasure. God says, "If any want to boast, they should boast that they know and understand me. These are the things that please me." -from Crossings 40 Day Challenge Newsletter |
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| Buddee | Jul 10 2004, 12:47 PM Post #12 |
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Day 12 - Your Choice You are as close to God as you choose to be. Like any friendship, you must work at developing your friendship with God. It won't happen by accident. It takes desire, time, and energy. The first building block of a deeper friendship with God is complete honesty about your faults and your feelings. God doesn't expect you to be perfect, but he does insist on complete honesty. None of God's friends in the Bible were perfect. If perfection was a requirement for friendship with God, we would never be able to be his friends. Fortunately, because of God's grace, Jesus is still the friend of sinners. Every time you trust God's wisdom and do whatever he says, even when you don't understand it, you deepen your friendship with God. We don't normally think of obedience as a characteristic of friendship; that's reserved for relationships with a parent or the boss or a superior officer, not a friend. However, Jesus made it clear that obedience is a condition of intimacy with God. He said, You are my friends if you do what I command. There is nothing absolutely nothing more important than developing a friendship with God. Paul told Timothy, "Some of these people have missed the most important thing in life they don't know God. Have you been missing out on the most important thing in life? You can do something about it starting now. Remember, it's your choice. You are as close to God as you choose to be. -from Crossings 40 Day Challenge Newsletter |
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| Buddee | Jul 11 2004, 06:07 AM Post #13 |
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Day 13 Worship That Pleases God God doesn't want a part of your life. He asks for all your heart, all your soul, all your mind, and all your strength. God is not interested in halfhearted commitment, partial obedience, and the leftovers of your time and money. He desires your full devotion, not little bits of your life. A Samaritan woman once tried to debate Jesus on the best time, place, and style for worship. Jesus replied that these external issues are irrelevant. Where you worship is not as important as why you worship and how much of yourself you offer to God when you worship. The Bible says, Let us be grateful and worship God in a way that will please him. The kind of worship that pleases God has four characteristics: God is pleased when our worship is accurate. God is pleased when our worship is authentic. God is pleased when our worship is thoughtful. And God is pleased when our worship is practical. When Jesus said, Love God with all your strength, he pointed out that worship takes effort and energy. It is not always convenient or comfortable, and sometimes worship is a sheer act of the will a willing sacrifice. When you praise God even when you don't feel like it, when you get out of bed to worship when you're tired, or when you help others when you are worn out, you are offering a sacrifice of worship to God. That pleases God. -from Crossings 40 Day Challenge Newsletter |
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| Buddee | Jul 12 2004, 06:53 AM Post #14 |
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Day 14 - When God Seems Distant God is real, no matter how you feel. It is easy to worship God when things are going great in your life when he has provided food, friends, family, health, and happy situations. But circumstances are not always pleasant. How do you worship God then? What do you do when God seems a million miles away? The deepest level of worship is praising God in spite of pain, thanking God during a trial, trusting him when tempted, surrendering while suffering, and loving him when he seems distant. How do you praise God when you don't understand what's happening in your life and God is silent? How do you stay connected in a crisis without communication? How do you keep your eyes on Jesus when they're full of tears? You do what Job did: Then he fell to the ground in worship and said: 'Naked I came from my mother's womb, and naked I will depart. The LORD gave and the LORD has taken away; may the name of the LORD be praised. Tell God exactly how you feel. Focus on who God is his unchanging nature. Trust God to keep his promises. And remember what God has already done for you. Jesus gave up everything so you could have everything. He died so you could live forever. That alone is worthy of your continual thanks and praise. Never again should you wonder what you have to be thankful for. -from Crossings 40 Day Challenge Newsletter |
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| Buddee | Jul 13 2004, 01:16 PM Post #15 |
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Day 15 Formed for God Family God wants a family, and he created you to be a part of it. The entire Bible is the story of God building a family who will love him, honor him, and reign with him forever. It says, His unchanging plan has always been to adopt us into his own family by bringing us to himself through Jesus Christ. And this gave him great pleasure. When we place our faith in Christ, God becomes our Father, we become his children, other believers become our brothers and sisters, and the church becomes our spiritual family. The family of God includes all believers in the past, the present, and the future. Our families on earth are wonderful gifts from God, but they are temporary and fragile, often broken by divorce, distance, growing old, and inevitably, death. On the other hand, our spiritual familyour relationship to other believers will continue throughout eternity. The Bible says, Jesus and the people he makes holy all belong to the same family. That is why he isn't ashamed to call them his brothers and sisters. Let that amazing truth sink in. You are a part of God's family, and because Jesus makes you holy, God is proud of you! Being included in God's family is the highest honor and the greatest privilege you will ever receive. Nothing else comes close. Whenever you feel unimportant, unloved, or insecure, remember to whom you belong. -from Crossings 40 Day Challenge Newsletter |
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7:24 PM Jul 10