6.7.11 "This Life"

"This Life"

I Kings 2:1 - 3:2
Acts 5:1-42
Psalm 125:1-5
Proverbs 16:25

The book of Acts tells the story of the birth of the Christian church. Things are quite interesting from the get-go for these early believers.

"The High Priest and his relatives and friends among the Sadducees reacted with violent jealousy and arrested the apostles, and put them in the public jail. But an angel of the Lord came at night, opened the gates of the jail and brought them out. Then he told them, 'Go over to the Temple and preach about this Life!" (Acts 5:17-20)

"Preach about this Life!" What a great phrase! Do you realize that everyday you preach about this Life? What's your story? What's your life? If people were to look at you, and listen to your words and watch the way you live, what would they see?

I take this as a personal challenge. What does my life look like? Is it motivated by the circumstances around me? Are my "moods" influenced by minor occurrences or do my words and actions reveal an inner strength that has been developed by the working of the Spirit in me?

Peter had a "Life" to tell about. "Sick people were brought out into the streets on beds and mats so that at least Peter's shadow would fall across some of them as he went by! And crowds came in from the Jerusalem suburbs, bringing their sick folk and those possessed by demons; and every one of them was healed." (Acts 5:15-16)

So "this Life" that Peter had... is it available to us? You bet it is! We have been given the Holy Spirit, and he is as ready and able to work through us today as he was then. What's the difference? Us.

I think one of the biggest hinderances to the full experience of "This Life" is shown in Psalm 125:1, "Those who trust the the Lord are steady as Mount Zion, unmoved by any circumstance." I think too often the people of God have this story to tell: "George 'says' he trusts the Lord, but is kicked around by every circumstance."

The apostles of the early church knew God in such an intimate way that they could see the big picture. They weren't affected by what was seen on the outside. The beatings they received not only did not push them off course, it gave them motivation to live the Life! "The [Jewish] Council... called in the apostles, had them beaten, and then told them never again to speak in the name of Jesus, and finally let them go. They left the Council chamber rejoicing that God had counted them worthy to suffer dishonor for his name." (Acts 5:40-41)

Did you catch that? It does something inside of me to realize that the "beating" and the "rejoicing" are intertwined. Too often for us, it's "I'm not in the mood to worship today because I had a flat tire." When we are truly full of the Holy Spirit, and we walk in surrendered lives, we can experience "This Life" in an incredible way. The Holy Spirit can only be hindered by each one of us. When he moves on our heart and leads us to lay down areas of our life that are sinful, we quench his power when we cease to surrender. We must walk in daily surrender. We must be consistent in the word and in studying together. This is what it means to be Empowered through Biblical Training.

"And every day, in the temple and in their home Bible classes, they continued to teach and preach that Jesus is the Messiah." (Acts 5:42)

You wanna live this Life? Then LIVE it! When we have the power of the Holy Spirit working in us and through us, and we put scriptural application of the DREAM principles to our lives each and every day, we are positioning ourselves for the miraculous. God desires to heal and deliver, and bust out of prison, and move mountains. He's just waiting for us to let him.

Go preach about this Life!




Through the Power of the Spirit,
Live the DREAM!

Pastor Greg Lathe

Dynamic Lifestyle of Worship
Relationships Devoted to Unity
Empowered Through Biblical Training
Active Ministry Involvement
Mission to Reach our World for Christ

2.24.11 "What Worship Isn't"

"What Worship Isn't"

Leviticus 15:1-16:28
Mark 7:1-23
Psalm 40:11-17
Proverbs 10:13-14

A great way to discover what God wants is to find out what he doesn't want! In today's reading in Mark, the Pharisees are questioning Jesus about why the disciples don't fully follow their ceremonial washing traditions. Jesus definitely has an opinion about this!

"You bunch of hypocrites! Isaiah the prophet described you very well when he said, 'These people speak very prettily about the Lord but they have no love for him at all. Their worship is a farce, for they claim that God commands the people to obey their petty rules.' How right Isaiah was! For you ignore God's specific orders and substitute your own traditions. You are simply rejecting God's laws and trampling them under your feet for the sake of tradition." (Mark 7:6-9)

We know from past studies that the Dynamic Lifestyle of Worship is a life of Obedience. It's possible to know this and still not "get it". Worshipful Obedience is not a matter of obeying "tradition". It's not a matter of going through the motions of a Christian life. It's not a matter of trying to act in a way that doesn't offend other people. It's not trying to "look" holy.

The Obedience God desires is obedience that comes from knowing him. From spending time with him. Time in his word. Time in prayer and listening to his voice. When you know God and you know his heart, THEN there's an obedience that's pure. Righteous acts are the fruit of knowing him. There's a sincere desire to be holy and to keep from sin because you know it displeases him.

God's plan is not for a bunch of sour judgmental people to walk around pointing out the faults of others, and complaining about what's wrong in the world. People who are very "traditional" in action, but cold of heart are too common, and that is not what God has in mind for his people.

We need to worship him in Spirit and in truth. We need to allow his Spirit to work freely in our lives to direct us in His way. We must love one another, get into the word, use our resources for his glory, and be a light to this dark world. We must live the DREAM!


Through the Power of the Spirit,
Live the DREAM!

Pastor Greg Lathe

Dynamic Lifestyle of Worship
Relationships Devoted to Unity
Empowered Through Biblical Training
Active Ministry Involvement
Mission to Reach our World for Christ