As a disciple, Judas was close to Jesus. The pattern of behavior was a spiral downward. Judas could have resisted Satan’s temptation, but he didn’t. We have choices to make. We can resist the Devil and he will flee and we can draw near to God and He will draw near to us. Application: In what ways can (do) you show love for your enemies?
Jealousy, Enemies of the Heart #5
Jealousy, like all enemies to our heart, stem from the root cause of our now getting what we want. Jealousy, specifically, comes from our not having what someone else has. The key to uprooting jealousy is admitting that we need to be going to God with our needs and wants, rather than coveting what others have. The habits of celebrating what others have that we would like and being thankful to God for what He has already given us will finish the work of keeping jealousy from disrupting the rhythm of our heart.
Greed, Enemies of the Heart #4
Greed is the assumption that what we have is for our consumption. Greed believes the lie that we owe it to ourselves to make sure we have the kind of lifestyle we want to have. Greed results in the refusal to bless others with the extra that God has given us, whether that in with money, time, skill, possessions or any other resource we have been blessed with. While as Christians we say and believe that God is the owner and we are stewards, greed moves us to live differently. Generosity is the antidote to greed in our hearts, freeing us to love God and others as our hearts have been made to do.
Anger, Enemies of the Heart #3
Anger comes when we don’t get what we want or deserve or think we deserve. We feel and believe that the person who wronged us owes us a debt for what they’ve done. Anger is not wrong in itself, but if it is not addressed and remains in our hearts it will spill over into our other relationships. The key to removing anger from our hearts is forgiveness. Jesus taught forgiveness is about cancelling the debts owed to us. Just like God cancelled our debt to Him through Jesus.
Guilt, Enemies of the Heart #2
Guilt attacks our heart by creating in us an “I owe you” dynamic in our relationship. Guilt is healthy when we do something wrong, but if unaddressed it will get our heart out of rhythm. The way out from guilt is confession. Agreeing to the truth of the wrong(s) we’ve done, and looking to make what restitution we can as part of a pledge to change our behaviour in the future. Confession is not about fixing our relationship, though that is a hopeful outcome. Confession is about freeing our heart from guilt, so we can freely love.
How's Your Heart?, Enemies of the Heart #1
While we are likely aware of the need to care for our physical heart, many of us may not be sure how to take care of our spiritual heart. While we may be tempted to see our negative emotions or reactions to life coming because of what is happening around us, Jesus taught these negative actions, attitudes and words come from within. God’s solution to our spiritual heart issues is not to fix our heart, but to give us a new one … His own.
Aliens in a Playdoh World
God created you out of the abundance of His love and He desires to have a relationship with you; to adopt you as a child into his family. We then get to live out the rest of our lives as God’s children, connected to Him by the Holy Spirit.
Mexico Team Q&A
Ten people ventured out from Faith EMC on January 9th to spend a week serving alongside some of our supported missionaries in La Paz, Mexico, under YUGO Ministries . A wall, overhang, and kitchen structures were built as were new friendships with brothers and sisters in Christ. Enjoy hearing a bit of the teams stories and hearts in this Q&A.
Connect to the Lost, Connect #4
The 4th Connect in our language of what following Jesus involves is Connecting to the Lost. Lost people are those who are not home with God through Jesus. Jesus is sending his disciples to bless others and invite them to follow Him. And our motivation for connecting with lost people needs to come not from emotion, but from conviction, as evidenced by the early church.
Connect in Service, Connects #3
Connect in Service is the 3rd of our 4 Connects language. We are called and equipped by God to be able to serve others. We can sometimes see the call to service as an addition to our already busy schedules. But Jesus in the Great Commission instructs us to see service not as an addition to our schedule, but as the underlying purpose in what we are already doing.