The Book of James - Volume 2

Attaining Spiritual Maturity

It is time for the church to grow up. The book of James teaches us that  spiritual maturity is evident when we turn our trials into triumphs, stand  against temptation, care for the poor, and are filled with patience and wisdom.  As spiritually mature Christians, the world will not define us, but we instead  will define the world.

The Book of James - Volume 1

Attaining Spiritual Maturity

It is time for the church to grow up. The book of James teaches us that spiritual maturity is evident when we turn our trials into triumphs, stand against temptation, care for the poor, and are filled with patience and wisdom. As spiritually mature Christians, the world will not define us, but we instead will define the world.

Making Space for the Words of Jesus -  Volume 2

Impacting your life with the Word of Life

Springing forth from the cross, every word Jesus had spoken suddenly took on new meaning. After His death, the disciple’s most likely thought about the things He had said while he was with them and they searched for their meaning.

Ask Seek Knock

Jesus had much to say about our asking, seeking and knocking through prayer. He told us to pray with faith and in agreement with His will. He told us to be persistent in prayer and to believe that He rewards those who seek Him. He told us to knock on the door of heaven believing that He is a good Father who longs to give good gifts to His children. It is true that we don?t always get what we ask for in prayer but we do know that Our Heavenly Father knows what is best for us. This week we will be Making Space for the words of Jesus expanding our understanding of the importance of prayer and how prayer influences our decisions and the outcome of the circumstances of our lives. We will learn that in the process of making space for prayer, God changes us.

Cleansing the Temple

Jesus was fiercely angry when He saw that His Father?s house, the temple, was being used for selling goods rather than a house of prayer. He drove out the money changers cleansing the temple of its misuse. Paul tells us that we are the temple of the Holy Spirit and we too must be cleansed to be a house of prayer. There are things in our lives that defile the work of God and from which we must be cleansed. As we examine the following Scriptures together, think about areas that need house cleaning. Have you been unwilling to forgive someone? Are you bitter or resentful? Are you unwilling to obey God in any way? Are you easily angered or has your heart become hardened towards someone? This week pay attention to the things that prick your heart recognizing that God desires to work in that area of your life. His greatest desire is for you to be free to love Him. As the obstacles are removed and your spiritual house is cleaned up, God has more space to live His life through you.

Take Up Your Cross

This week we will discuss what Jesus meant when He said: “If anyone would come after me he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.” (Matthew 16:24) We will look at what it means to deny ourselves and how we daily take up our cross and what part obedience plays in our life in Christ. As we study the following Scriptures, ask the Holy Spirit to show you any area of your life that you have refused to surrender to Jesus. Remember His promise: “ The man who loves his life will lose it, while the man who hates his life in this world, will keep it for eternal life.” (Matthew 12:25)

A Call To Be A Servant

Jesus Christ paid the ultimate price of love; He laid His life down for His friends. We are His friends if we call on Him as Lord. He went to the cross as the ultimate act of love. Jesus commands us to love others as He has loved us by laying our lives down for them in selfless acts of love. This goes against our nature and our personal “me first” desires, however He calls us to actively live out our faith selflessly. It is through the love of Christ in us that we can love with His supernatural agape love. He has poured out His love in us and as we are filled, we are able to pour back out to others. In the gospel of John, Jesus’ words to us ring true through the centuries: “Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another’s feet.” (John 13:12). That is the essence of this week’s lesson—washing the dirty dusty feet of those who are in need. Only through His love can we do it.

Keeping Watch

Jesus warned His followers to keep watch: watch out for false prophets, watch that no one deceives you, and beware of the times. Most importantly, he told His disciples to watch and pray. Watch, according to Webster’s dictionary means to be attentive or vigilant; to keep guard. We are called to be alert and attentive to the words of Jesus and He has told us to be attentive to prayer and to deception. It is easy for our spiritual eyes and ears to be congested with the noise and clatter of our busy lives and become unaware of what the Lord is saying to us. This week we will look at several key passages that address the theme of staying spiritually alert.

A Call to Worship

Jesus walked this earth only three years and His words were packed with deliberate, intentional meaning. He did not have time to waste! Try an exercise sometime. Try choosing your words carefully and packing each word with meaning. Recently I woke up at 6:00 a.m. I chattered away to my husband who was still half asleep. He looked at me (he likes quiet in the morning) and said: “You have used up all your words for the day.” He thinks he is so funny. So this week let’s try to carefully guard our words and see how it affects our actions. Jesus spoke a lot about worship. He knew that if we, His disciples, were to truly know Him we needed to learn to worship Him. Worship means to give value to and as we give value and make Jesus our top priority our lives are transformed.

New Wineskins

Jesus told us that His words would never pass away (Matthew 24:35). As we continue in our study together carefully examining the words of Jesus, we have come to a dialogue between Jesus and the people questioning Him about fasting: How is that John’s disciples and the disciples of the Pharisees are fasting, but yours are not? Jesus answered by describing that the time had come for a new order. They would fast when the bridegroom (Jesus) was no longer with them. But what catches my attention is that after the dialogue about fasting, Jesus describes the new order, a new wineskin. Jesus and His kingdom are new wine that cannot be kept in the old wineskins. In ancient times goatskins were used to hold wine. As the fresh grape juice fermented, the wine would expand and the new wineskin would stretch. A used skin could not contain the new wine. As we work out way through this week’s lesson, keep in mind that Jesus ushered in a new kingdom and as people of the kingdom we must expand with His likeness, becoming more like Him.

The Work of the Spirit

Jesus said that the words that He spoke to the disciples were spirit and life (John 6:63). He knew that He had to accomplish the will of the Father by dying on the cross for the forgiveness of our sins. He also knew that He had to go in order for the Holy Spirit to come: It is for your good that I am going away. Unless I go away, the Counselor will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you. (John 16:7) He knew that we would need all the help we could get in order to live our lives as a light to the world. He told us that we would need the power of the Spirit to witness and to share the gospel message to those who do not know Christ. This week we will look at how the spirit gives life and leads us into truth and conviction. Take time to ask the Lord to reveal Himself to you in new ways by the power of His Spirit. Ask Him to remove any clutter in your spiritual house that would inhibit the work of His Spirit. Make space for more of Him and less of you. It is amazing what a difference it makes when we allow the Holy Spirit to have full reign in our lives!

Love One Another

We began this course by saying that the words of a dying friend or relative are always of great significance. As Jesus hung on the cross He spoke words that expressed His supernatural love for humanity: Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing. (Mark 23:34) Jesus had many things to say as He walked this earth but the most significant thing He did was to die on the cross for our sins. The most significant words were words of forgiveness. His entire life’s message was one of hope and love. This week we will be looking at His message of love. He taught about love but above all He demonstrated love: It was just before the Passover Feast. Jesus knew that His time had come for him to leave the world and go to the Father. Having loved His own who were in the world, He now showed them the full extent of His love. (John 13:1) It was time for Jesus to leave this world and He chose that moment to wash the feet of His disciples. Ultimately He demonstrated His sacrificial selfless love on the cross. As you work through this lesson on love, ask the Holy Spirit to pour His love into you, removing any blocks to His love so that you can in turn pour His love out to others.  
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Making Space for the Words of Jesus -Volume 1

Impacting your life with the Word of Life

Have you ever thought about what Jesus really said and what He really meant when He walked the earth? His words break through the darkest corners of our lives bringing direction, revelation, and transformation. Join us as we study the "red letter" words of the Bible.

Making Space for the Words of Jesus Volume 1 Contains:

Will I Find Faith When I Return?

Jesus commended faith. Faith was the fuel for Jesus to heal; for the blind to see and the deaf to hear. In the following passages we will see that faith was a key element in setting the captives free. Pay particular attention to the words of Jesus concerning faith and when you complete the questions, journal what you think Jesus was saying to you about faith.

Faith for the Impossible

This week as we continue studying the words of Jesus, we will be examining His words: With God all things are possible. (Matthew 19:26) As we continue to make space for increased faith we will examine the story of the feeding the five thousand, the parable of the mustard seed, and the sower. Each story builds on the theme of God who desires to multiply and grow our faith to impact His kingdom. The key point in this lesson is our willingness to allow Him to till the soil of our hearts to prepare for increase. What stands in the way of your believing God for the impossible?

Who Do You Say That I Am?

This week as we continue examining the words of Jesus, we find Jesus asking the disciples a significant question: Who do you say that I am? (Matthew 16:15) Philosophers, Theologians, Secularists, have all tried to answer this question. Jesus heard what the people thought; some said He was John the Baptist and others thought He was Elijah. But Jesus was not interested in what others thought of Him; He wanted to know what His very own disciples thought. He asks the same question to us today: ?Do you know who I really am, or am I just a great teacher and a miracle worker?? He wants us to know Him as the Son of God, the Savior, who came to a lost world that we might have eternal life in Him. He wants us to know Him intimately and be in love with Him. He wants to call us friend.

What Do You Want Me To Do For You?

When the blind man, Bartimaeus saw Jesus he cried out: Jesus, Son of David, have mercy on me. (Mark 10:47) He was blind and in need of Jesus? mercy to heal him. Jesus replies by asking him this question: What do you want me to do for you? (v.51) I am convinced that Jesus knew that Bartimaeus was blind and that he was asking for Jesus to heal him. However he wanted Bartimaes to confess with his mouth his need. Jesus is waiting for us to confess our need for Him, whether it is a need for healing, a need for financial security, a need for a broken relationship to be healed. He wants us to ask. As you work through today?s lesson consider asking Jesus specifically for things that you need. He may not give you what you expect, but He will give you what is far greater than you can imagine.

My God Why Have You Forsaken Me?

The gospel of Mark tells us that at noon while Jesus was hanging on the cross, darkness came over the land. At 3 p.m. Jesus cried out: My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? For three hours darkness and despair came over the land and Jesus cried out to His Father as His life slipped away. Have you ever felt that way? Have you ever felt darkness hanging over you like a blanket bringing sorrow, sometimes confusion and pain? This week we will consider our darkest moments and see that Jesus identifies with us in our pain; that His pain on the cross was real; that He carries our pain when we suffer. Examine His word that bring hope even in the midst of our darkest hour.

Repent and Believe

Jesus? first public words were: The Kingdom of God is near. Repent and believe the good news. (Mark 1:15) Why did Jesus begin His ministry with these words? He knew that in order to draw near to a holy God we must turn away from our sins and turn towards God. It is our sin that separates us from God and His mission was to bridge that gap on the cross. His death on the cross, enabled us to draw near to God through forgiveness of our sins. That is indeed good news! What the law could not do for us, Jesus did on the cross. Soon after that, Jesus tells the paralytic that his sins are forgiven and the teachers of the law nearly went mad: Why does this fellow talk like that? He?s blaspheming! Who can forgive sins but God alone. (2:5-7) The teachers of the law were so caught up with their law and their self- righteousness they did not recognize who Jesus was.

Follow Me

As Jesus was walking, He saw Simon and his brother Andrew fishing beside the Sea of Galilee. They were fisherman by trade and He called out to them: Come, follow me, and I will make you fishers of men. (Mark 1:17) I have often wondered what it must have been like for these two fishermen, working as they did on any ordinary day and suddenly hearing the voice of Jesus calling out to them. But what happened next is what changed an ordinary day into an extraordinary day. They went at once! I don?t know about you but I might have told them I would go pray about it, ask someone else?s opinion, perhaps ask to see a character reference before I dropped my nets and went with a perfect stranger. But you see Jesus was bigger than life; He was and IS life. Something about this stranger called them out - something bigger than themselves or even their profession. They were in the Presence of God. They didn?t know who He was at the time, but there was just something about Him? irresistible. Jesus stands at the door of our hearts and knocks. He beckons us to open the door; to follow Him. But the choice still remains ours. This week we will study what it means to respond to the call to follow Jesus.

Abide in Me

This week we will take a look at how we must stay connected to Jesus. We will learn that we must be intentional about growing in our relationship with Jesus. This requires effort on our part to seek Him, learn from Him, and grow to be more like Him. Come with me up the mountain to a vineyard where Jesus is teaching His disciples about the importance of staying connected to Him, the vine. In the last of Jesus? ?I am? statements, Jesus tells His disciples that He is the ?true vine?. He refers to His Father as the vinedresser who does two things to ensure fruitfulness: He removes unfruitful branches and prunes all others. He then explains that the branches must abide in Him in order to bear fruit. Abide, meaning to remain stable or fixed, was the key to bearing fruit; that apart from the union between Jesus, the vine, and believers (the branches) nothing can be done. Jesus had much to say when He walked this earth about the importance of our relationship with Him. He wanted His words to remain close to their hearts knowing that his words would sustain them in the days ahead. We too must stay close to Jesus so that His words to us will bring us life: The words I have spoken to you are spirit and they are life. (John 6:63)