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I Think I Want that Thingamabob Part 1
Power Your Self-control
I think I might want that thingamabob. I think I deserve that thingamabob. That thingamabob can be anything from money to what money can buy. It can be better money management skills to better character traits. It can be a child to a marriage. That thingamabob is what occupies your mind and your works. It is where you place all your time and your money. How bad do you want this thing? Do you want it bad enough to work for it? Do you want it bad enough to wait for it? Do you want it bad enough to give up something for it? How bad do you want it?
Everyone has desires of grandeur at one time or another. Desires of grandeur is good but we prove ourselves worthy of grandeur by the mundane, by the everyday, by the simplistic works we do. God’s Word tells us, He who is faithful in what is least is faithful also in much; and he who is unjust in what is least is unjust also in much (Luke 16:10). It is our daily mundane desires that get us to the grand desires. Without the mundane grand is not grand. There are those who are born into grand who never develop the skills for the mundane until they become homeless. There are those who are homeless who never develop the skills for the grand until they win the lottery. These folks may never develop the skills. It might be ingrained in us to be rich or it might be ingrained in us to be poor. Either way there are thingamabobs we want and if we are to get them we need to learn to go after them. There are two skills we definitely need if we are to acquire that thing and we will need two blogs to cover them. The first is self-control and the second is the plan. Both of these take commitment, steadfastness and patience.
Your Self-Control is Your Power
Our powerlessness comes from lacking self-control. Most of us are not wired for self-control. Our soul is corrupt unless we are conforming to the will of God. We are saved by God to do His good works and that is what we should control ourselves in doing. So, let’s just say for the sake of this blog that you are going after the will of God and not your own will because God will frustrate you on every turn if you are not. Nothing I say will make sense to you or work for you if God is against you. We are going to want that thingamabob for Jesus and His people.
I like to think of my power as electricity going from house to house. Our electrical power comes from Niagara Falls. One of the great wonders from God. Power goes from God to each of us like the electrical wires from Niagara Falls go to each house. Each one of us is an independent receiver of power in the whole from the Power House. Our body is wired with our individual desires from the Power House that feed the Body of Christ who is fed by Jesus which in turn feeds our body with new power again. We need to control this power lest our bill get to high.
Control Your Commitment
No matter what we want we must commit to having it. We are wired with God’s desires for us but He does not make our feet move. God has placed many desires in our heart. To have them we must commit all of our ways to the Lord and trust Him for Him to bring them to pass (Psalm 37:5). Wiring our self-control persistently toward this end will result in having it. If we committed to serving Jesus what we do will come to pass. This is a twofold process for us. We need commit to the works of Jesus and we need to commit our control to the works of Jesus. You know exactly what I am talking about. One day we want to lose control and serve self. Should we not control our commitment to Jesus it will commit to self. Then we will have to go through the process of rewiring it to commit to Jesus again. If this happens we need to be steadfast at rewiring quickly back to self-control.
Control Your Steadfastness
Controlling our steadfastness is not easy. We want to run all over the place and feed every house with our power. We need to control what we are setting our face too. There are good works and there are God works. Anyone can do good works but can everyone be steadfast at doing God works. If we could we would all be at the works of God rather than the works of self. It takes an infusion of power from the Power house Himself to be steadfast. Sometimes just touching the Wire will give us enough of a jolt to go back to being steadfast on our route but sometimes we need to be surrounded by an electrically charged fence to stay on path. Then, selfishly, we feel like we are imprisoned by this thing. It is sucking the life out of us with no noticeable fruit. The Source comes along and jolts us back to His reality and we control our desire to quit. We rewire our control to stay the course and are patient once again.
Control Your Patience
Along with self-control patience is one of the fruits of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22-23). As much as we do not want to control ourselves we do not want to be patient with people or God. Controlling our patience means we are conceding to a power higher than ourselves. We are conceding to the timing of God. We are not standing still we are conceding the thing we desire is going to come from God anyway so we might as well wait for Him to bring it about. I have to tell you once you come to this conclusion it is freeing. We do not have to work at this desire we just need to prepare ourselves for when it comes. That does not mean we will not again become impatient because it is a desire from God and He throw electrical bolts at it once in a while to remind us what we are getting ready for. This just shows us how much He loves us. The Power source lives inside us and He is waiting patiently for us to be ready to go. When we are ready to go He allows us to go. Along with this long awaited go are new grander desires so we don’t think we have arrived. We can always do so much more, more than we can even think or desire (Ephesians 3:20).
The Power in Self-Control
If you haven’t received the message yet, here it is – there is more power in self-control than any other place. God teaches us about power by showing us His self-control. Jesus taught us about power through His self-control. He could have called down legends of angels to save Him but He did not (Matthew 26:53). He could have unleashed all manner of miracles but He did not (John 13:31). This same power lives in us and we are expected to tap into it especially when we are working for Jesus. Our work is supposed to draw people to the Father who supplies the Power. If you want that thingamabob you must have self-control in the area of commitment, steadfastness and patience but even that will not work if you do not have a plan. Next week we will look at planning that thingamabob you want.
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A Soul in Sync
I want to first start with a description of what the soul is because I keep forgetting myself. Our soul is our life and defines who we are, what we believe and what we stand for. It is our volition (desire), our mind (intellect), and our emotion. Our soul is moulded by experience, knowledge and understanding. God gave us talents that we nurtured with our soul. The Bible talks incessantly about soul, heart and mind being something that we need to guard. Our soul is what the world is after. They want us to think like them and in doing that we become them. They will not be happy until we are all like them. We are called by Jesus Christ to think differently from the world.
One Foot in the World One Foot in the Church
Our soul is sanctified (separated) from the world for us to think like Jesus., to take on the mind of Jesus. This is not as easy as it sounds. We read in the Bible we are being called out of the world but the world will hate us (John 15:19). This is why some of us have one foot in the world and one foot in the body. There are some who are just dipping their toe in the body because their soul is weak. A weak soul is a direct result of quenching the Spirit. A weak soul will not be allowed in the New Jerusalem because a weak soul has a penchant for sin. It follows its flesh and makes the flesh its master instead of the Spirit (Galatians 5:19-21).
Sanctification Not a Choice; Soul Sync a Choice!
Being sanctified is not our choice, it belongs to God alone, but after salvation we have the choice to live in the world or live in the body of Christ. We can choose to have our mind changed by God or we can choose to have the same mind as the world. The choice is ours to sync our soul with His Spirit or to sync it with the World. When we sync our mind with the Spirit we can expect change, we can expect wisdom, we can expect understanding and we can expect Jesus to move in us. We cannot expect any of this with the world. I do not need to go into a list of things the world expects from us but God expects Jesus from us. We are to have the mind of Jesus (1 Corinthians 2:16) therefore the deeds of Jesus. We are to sync our mind with the Spirit and bring our body into submission with our soul (1 Corinthians 9:27).
A Mind Meld with the Master
I know you are reading this thinking how impossible it is to kick habits, change ways, and most ridiculous to think like Jesus! God sent His only Son as an example to us but He also wrote this great book called the Holy Bible that we would have a reference book. Paul told Timothy All Scripture is given by the inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness that the man of God may be complete thoroughly equipped for every good work (2 Timothy 3:16). ALL Scripture can be used to train us up into the mind of God and that is exactly what we will do. We are going to create a mind meld with the Master that we will be equipped for every good work the Master sends us to do. God is more than willing to reveal Himself in the Scripture and reveal Himself in us to others. I pray that He reveal Himself in you just as He is revealed in me!
Action
For this week pray to the Master He would give you an open heart for knowledge while we mould our mind into the mind of Christ using Scripture to solve about worldly issues. Pray for me also to bring today’s problems to Him for solution. If you have an issue that keeps plaguing you please IM me or send me an email at Kathleen@thelifeskillsstrategist.com and I will point you in the direction of Jesus and His Word for correction advice.
I know that if we choose life in the Word we will find solid Biblical strategies to improve our life. I ask Jesus to reveal himself in you just as He is revealed in me.
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My Soul Longs for Him!
I have been juggling three very good books over the last week and wonder how much more does God need to teach me. The most phenomenal thing is that they all are related to each other at this very moment. How amazing is that? Not at all because we are dealing with our God here! I am reading The One Year Chronological Bible, Water in the Dessert and The Spiritual Man. Each book has its own theme yet each book at this moment is speaking to me loud and clear.The One Year Chronological Bible is designed to allow us to read Scripture in the order in which it happened. I have read the New Testament already and am reading the Old Testament now, Numbers 5. I have read about the building of the Tabernacle and the placement of the tribes around the Tabernacle. Since I am not a numbers person I have to really force myself to go through any part of the Bible that adds, subtracts and divides people. I am reading it differently now based on the other books I am reading at the same time. What I learn in this Book continuously is when God chooses His people He takes good care of them and since I will never be done reading this book He will continue to teach me this fact. This Book continuously makes my soul long for Him.
The second book I pick up is Water in the Dessert by Sherry Stahl. To tell you the truth I didn’t want to pick this book up at all because first, I am not in a dessert right now and second, the green eyed giant. Each of them was a darn good excuse for not reading this book but they were just that, excuses. Sherry bases this book, so far, on the Exodus account of the Israelites being freed by God. Ironic enough that is what I just got finished reading. My Spirit was there but my soul and flesh did not want to pick this book up. That giant had a hold of me and I couldn’t shake it so I have to have a talk with soul. Had my soul not been transformed by the Spirit I could have been years longer letting that giant take me down. This book (or study) has helped me to bury deep in me the truths I know about our Jesus Christ and make my soul long even more for Him!
Then I pick up the most simple but complex book The Spiritual Man by Watchman Nee. This book is most fantastic. It is a pondering book for certain. It is not one of those books you can read and walk away from without pondering the information. I have read a couple of Watchman’s books thus far and my soul is changed forever because I understand my soul better. As I read this book (I am on page 61) my soul becomes more aware of exactly what it should be doing. What wonderful information to know! It makes every Word I read in the Scriptures jump out at me and leave a mark so deep that I will be able to feel it forever. It, and Watchman’s other books together, have helped to create in me a longing for Jesus that cannot be quenched with just Sunday meetings. I long to hear the Spirit talk to me all day long.
Reading three books together may sound daunting to you but to me it is exciting. I read the Bible to know Jesus so the rest of the books I read have meaning in my life. Can they help me to understand the Word better? Can they help me live the Word better? Can they help me teach the Word better? These are the questions I ask when I read a book. If I am stranded on an island and I could pick three books to have I would choose these three books. BUT if I could only choose one it would most definitely be the Holy Bible. We will never long for Jesus by reading any other book! When God reveals Himself to us He does it through His own Word! Choose the Word over any book and He will reveal Himself to you!
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The Rewards for Study
I don’t know about you, I am an instant gratification person! Well, that might be a little strong but I like to see the reward from my work. I am a hard worker and I can see the reward sometimes but there are times when I work hard and see nothing, if you know what I mean. I don’t see the reward right away and it bothers me! I see that sometimes when I study the Bible! We have been talking about studying the Bible but do we know what we get out of studying the Bible? What is the reward and exactly when will we see this reward? Does each person get the same reward? Let’s see what the Bible says about that….
2 Timothy 2:15 says rightly dividing the Word of Truth, which is studying the Word and knowing it, means we can present ourselves approved to God an unashamed worker. If we diligently study the Word, God will approve us along with the rest of those who study the Word. Each of us will receive the same reward. This is an amazing thing all by itself because everyone will stand before Jesus one day but we will already be approved before we even stand before Him. That is a great thing to know while I live here on this earth but I must continue to study the Word to continue in that approval.
Joshua 1:8 Meditating in the Word, day and night, will surely help us do all that is written in it therefore we will be rewarded with a prosperous way and good success in what we do. If we meditate in the Word and do the Word, God will make our way prosper and give us good success along with the rest of those who do that same. Each of us will receive the same reward. Another great thing to know while here but I need to continue to meditate on His Word and observing to do all that is written in it to continue going in a prosperous way and having good success in that way!
John 8:31-32 A Disciple of Jesus who abides in His Word shall know the truth and that truth shall set him free. The reward for abiding in His Word is freedom. Abiding is more than just doing it is living. If we spend our days abiding in the things of Jesus we shall know the truth, which in turn shall set us free. Each of us will receive the same reward. Oh, freedom is the greatest thing to know but we must abide and continue to abide to know this freedom in the truth.
Proverbs 25:2 God takes glory in concealing a matter so that His kings can search it out to our glory. The reward for searching out a matter is glory from God. We should never be satisfied with our current knowledge but always searching out the matters of God. If we spend our days searching out matters from the Word we will obtain glory from God just like the rest of us kings who do the same. Each of us will receive the same reward. How wonderful it is to know that Jesus will see me as a king and bestow glory on me as long as I continue to search out the matters of God.
We know that all of these rewards are contingent on us continuing in mining for the treasures of God. He wants us to study so that our soul will be overtaken with doing the right thing, the will of God. Our soul will always want to do the ME thing but God wants us to do His thing and that is why we study the Word; to know God and to love Him so much that we do His will out of love.
Please don’t study the Word for your head or for the world, study for your heart and God will reward you mightily with approval, freedom, glory, a prosperous way, good success and so many more. Study the Bible to find other rewards and be further rewarded.
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What Will it Take? Part 3
I have asked you what it will take to get you to read the Bible – what was your answer? I have also asked you what it will take to get you to study the Bible – what was you answer to that question? Now a new question if you can handle it. What will it take for you to memorize the Bible? I am not asking you to memorize the whole thing just parts of it. What is your biggest excuse for refusing to memorize Scripture? Actually, no matter what the excuse, there is no excuse for not knowing the Word of God. In Proverbs 1:7 Solomon says that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge and that fools reject wisdom and instruction. I am going to tell you on this day that memorizing Scripture is part of this knowledge because memorizing Scripture makes us ponder what it means to us right here, right now and it give us something to hang onto for future use. Shall you present yourself to Jesus mature in the things of God or not?
I hear all the time that people have “life verses” that they have memorized but I am confused about what exactly that means, or more so, what does it mean to them. They memorize a verse like Romans 8:28 but miss the verses before and after where it says that we are predestined to do good works. They memorize Jeremiah 29:11 but skip the fact that God said seek me first and you shall have this. Seeking Him means knowing everything that He says not just what we want to know at that moment or even for life. Has our soul been so spoiled by what we have been feeding it that we want to have life verses that tell us that we are only going to have good things for the future. What about memorizing Hebrews 4:12 or Psalm 149:5 or Isaiah 49:2 or even Jeremiah 23:29 and John 12:48? We are going to be judged by the Words of Jesus when we stand before Him and if we have never buried them in our soul we will not even know what we will be judged by. This is what the Word means to us right here and right now. It is not about our soul here on Earth it is about our soul in Heaven. Paul said to bring your soul into submission (1 Corinthians 9:26-27). Do not run aimlessly through life only putting fluffy verses into your soul, run to win this race to Jesus. Put verses into your soul that change you, encourage you to keep going and keep you on the pavement. Since our life is constantly changing so should our “life verse or verses” change. Challenge yourself and your soul to memorize a whole Psalm this week. Some good ones would be Psalm 8, Psalm 91, Psalm 100 and the all-favourite Psalm 23. Bring your soul into submission so that in the future you will be able to continue running through that desert.
A time is coming when you will not feel the Father around or Jesus or the Holy Spirit because your soul is inundated with worldly woes. Are you prepared for that? Will your whole Spirit come to a stand still? Will you wish you had prepared yourself? Yes, you will unless you let your soul whining take over. Will God be to blame if life happens and you have not prepared your soul to handle it with dignity? You won’t be alone. There are many Christians out there who have not prepared their souls for what is about to happen but that is still no excuse for them to be unprepared. What is it that you are preparing for? Are you preparing for financial disaster, a death in the family, kids coming or kids moving out, job or job loss? Jesus tells us that where our heart is, that is where our treasure is (Matthew 6:21) but our heart is supposed to be in Heaven and we are supposed to be preparing ourselves for when Jesus comes again. We are being sought after by a roaring lion to be devoured and the only way to beat him at his game is the Word. He will continue to come after us but if we know the Truth it shall set us free from the oppression that he has laid upon us. We are not without power but it is not our power that can beat the devil it is the power of God that beats him. The power of God is His Word and it is sharper than a two-edged sword piercing even to the separating of soul and spirit (Hebrews 4:12).
If you know the things of God you shall present yourself to Jesus mature in the things of God! Is that not what we want? Therefore there is nothing in this world that should stop us from becoming mature and running the race well. Memorizing Scripture will give us this knowledge we need to present ourselves mature because memorizing Scripture makes us ponder what it means to us right here, right now and it give us something to fight the devil with in the future. I cannot say this enough – reading the Bible, studying the Bible and knowing the Bible is the only way to mature in the things of God. It is disappointing to find Christians who are not hell bent on knowing God. Yes, it is work but how well do you know how to search the Internet or run your computer? Do you think that will give you a free pass into the New Jerusalem? How many songs can you sing from memory? What is stopping you from singing a Psalm instead of a song? Can you see how weak your current excuse is, if you just ponder that excuse for just one moment? When Jesus comes He will take no excuses, only the Truth and His Word will judge us! Ignorance of His Word will not save us, it will kill us. We are to bring our soul into submission and make it do what Jesus wants us to do! Unless you read, study and know Scripture you will never know what that is! What will it take for you to understand that God’s will for us will not be thwarted by stubbornness? He knows what you will and won’t do and He will pull you along kicking and screaming if He has too so why don’t you just do what He wants! He wants you to know Him and to know Him you need to read the Word, study the Word and know the Words.
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Guard those Pieces with Your Life!
Joining the pieces of information together that God gives us takes time and knowledge to accomplish. We all use different methods to join those pieces together. To follow the will of God we need to be able to put those pieces together. Putting these pieces together takes a steadfast mind on the task. If we are keeping these pieces in our mind we cannot allow ourselves to be caught off guard. We need to guard these pieces with out life. Each of those pieces keeps us alive in Jesus so when we do not guard them we will lose them. Keeping guard of these pieces with your life will lead to two rewards, more pieces and growing up.As we learned from the last blog, pieces are bits of information that the Holy Spirit places in our heart/mind to help us stay in the Fathers will. As we guard the pieces we already have he will supply us with more. Jesus said in Matthew 13:12 that those who have will be given more but those who do not guard their pieces will lose their pieces. This applies to all knowledge and wisdom given us by the Father. We are gathering information because it helps us to get into position to fulfill the will of God in our life. Some of these pieces of information include how we are gifted, who Jesus is inside those gifts, how we can use those gifts each day and what other information we need. No information is complete by itself so we need to gather more to fully understand all the pieces. Guarding all the pieces information results in more and our growth as well.
With each piece of information we gather and guard we will grow in our faith of Jesus Christ but what is more important is that we will grow in the knowledge of Jesus Christ. When we grow in our knowledge of Jesus Christ we begin to grow up in Him too. It does not take a rocket scientist to learn Jesus Christ it takes someone dedicated to learning Him and dedicated to growing up in Him. We can spend our whole lives warming the bench at church but once we leave our hope, our faith, and our stamina fail to continue as we go to work, parent our children, submit to our husband and follow our leaders. Gathering pieces together to grow is imperative to being who Jesus wants us to be.
It is all about who Jesus wants us to be. He gives us pieces of information so that we can keep doing what He has created us to do. He has created all things and all things hold together because of Him (Colossians 1:16-17). It is His great pleasure to give us more pieces and it behoves us to grow with those pieces. To live in ignorance about who Jesus is, is to live in ignorance about who you are. We are defined by who Jesus is which is why we need to guard those pieces with our lives and He will surely reveal the rewards to us.
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Let Him Choose!
Elijah, the prophet of God Almighty, killed 450 prophets of Baal and believed at this time that he alone stood for God (1 Kings 18-19). He was exhausted and ready to give up. He went up to the top of carmel and put his head between his knees waiting for the rain to come. It came but it poured down more than just water. Elijah had to run for his life to Bersheba. God ministered to him there but he was still running under the impression that he was the only one. It is a great encouragement to know that God has a plan and you are not the only one working it but until you know you are still alone. God asked Elijah what he was doing in Horeb. He told God he alone is zealous for Him. God, before He told Elijah about His plan first showed him His glory then He informed him he is not alone.
Elijah built his ministry by himself. He walked by himself in the zeal of the Lord! He alone went against Jezebel. He looked around and listened but there was not anyone with this same zeal. I feel like this sometimes. I feel like I alone am filled with the zeal of God and it is draining sometimes. Over this couple of weeks I have seen that Jesus has spoken the same words to others as He has spoken to me. He is training me with the same instruction He is using with others. He is showing us His glory before He chooses our fellow workers for His cause. When we are ready He will unite us!
Sometimes we feel we are alone but when God tells us that He is going to do something He does it. We CANNOT do God’s works on our own and if He has shown us that we will join with others He has those others already chosen. He is moving them into place just as He is moving us into place. God knows exactly what we need in a partner worker to accomplish His Word. I am finished trying to pick my fellow workers I am going to let Jesus do that for me and see the wonderful people He adds to my life for the glory of God. He definitely has revealed to me that He can do a better job choosing His workers than I can!
Action Plan: If you feel alone you are in a good place because your aloneness will make you available to view the glory of God from the place where you can see it best. This week open you eyes and ears to what others are saying so you can hear how God is working just for you. Sometimes you have to reveal God’s plan for you even though you have discounted it out of barrenness. That is when God will reveal to you the work He is doing!
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A Hardened Heart!
The will of God is not easy to see nor is it easy to listen to God when we are in sin but the Bible tells us not to harden our heart when we hear God speaking to us. This has perplexed me to the fullest – how can I say I am a Christian and harden my heart to the things of God? It happens often and I see it every day as I come in contact with people who profess to be “Christians.” Are they saved from Hell? I don’t know but this I do know – some of their hearts are black to the things of God just as mine is sometimes!
“How do I know this?” you say, our actions give us away! The saying, your actions speak louder than your words, is not a cliché it is a fact. Only God can judge the heart but we are called to judge the actions. Everything we do and every word that comes out of our mouth is subject to judgment by our brethren. We are not to judge the world but to judge our brethren (1 Corinthians 5, Matthew 7:15-20). I can judge if your heart is hard and you can judge if mine is hard. Oh, we might have this little piece of our heart that is red and pliable but the majority of it is hard. God tells me to go here and I don’t. God tells me to do this and I don’t. He calls me to take care of my money, I don’t. He tells me to love my brethren, I don’t! He tells me to be patient and I am not! Each time I say ‘no’ my heart gets harder and harder until pretty soon I will not be able to hear His voice at all. I do not want a hard heart and I do not want you to have a hard heart. Together we will practice keeping our hearts soft and pliable so that we can hear the voice of Jesus when He calls.Action Plan: This week ask Jesus to search our heart, listen to what He has to say and DO IT! This is going to hurt! We are going to be disappointed with what we hear BUT don’t harden your heart to Jesus because He cannot use a hard hearted person in the Kingdom of God!
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RIM1: Why the ‘Revealed in Me’ Blog
When it pleased God, who separated me from my mother’s womb and called me through His grace, He revealed His Son in me that I might preach Him among the gentiles… [Galatians 1:15-16]
At the time of this Scripture reading I had already decided that I would stop writing the Under the Wings of Love Newsletter I have loved writing for almost 8 years and move to a weekly blog. Jesus was talking to me about how I can better improve my learning and yours. I am looking for focus in my learning to develop a brand of learning so I can develop a brand of teaching. Not always as easy as it sounds especially when you teach the Word of God. Expansive is a small word for exactly what you can learn in the Book of Life. This Book is filled with information that can overwhelm and deter others from even opening the Book but I have not been deterred nor have I been ignorant of its power to change my life.
Jesus has been working in me the power to understand His Word, the power to simplify His Word and the power to teach His Word. It is in this work that He has ‘Revealed in Me’ what needs to be relayed to you. I am the Life Skills Strategist and I am doing it the Biblical way. I am teaching life skills the way Jesus wants it to be taught so you will live the abundant life He so desires for you.
Then the other obstacle comes into play – what kind of life skills to teach and to what end? What is the thing that I want to change most? What is the thing that bothers me the most? If I walked into a gathering place for Christians what is it that I would see that needs to change? After I ask these questions of myself I find the one thing that makes me the saddest – my brethren do not KNOW the will of God furthermore since they do not know the will of God they do not DO the will of God. As a result they do not know joy and they do not have peace! Look up Romans 12:2. This Scripture is my motto for teaching from now on – transform your mind…
Let us transform our minds together so we can grow toward the good and acceptable and perfect will of God!
