Consider Yourself Challenged.

This is taken from Jacob and Julie Bock’s Blog, so thank you to them.

The Challenge

You are desperate to live in Personal Revival. You are like the fellow that goes to the attic and stands in the middle of the room, takes out a piece of chalk and draws a circle on the floor. He then steps into the circle and says, “God, send a revival, but start it first right here in this circle.”

So I read this verse today – Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor, serving the Lord.

Man! That is good.

This is the CHALLENGE page. It is my challenge for you to set all your excuses aside and put forth the effort. If you do, I can assure you Personal Revival will come to your life.

CHALLENGE 1 Read through the NT in a month

If you have several bibles, take one you don’t use much and mark it up as you read it. Use a highlighter or a pen, write in the margins the revies God gives you. Try not to rush through the 9 chapters “just to get it done.” It will take about an hour, so that means you will have to sacrifice something else in your day to do this. It is so worth it

CHALLENGE 2 Pray in the Spirit (tongues) for an hour a day

If there is one thing that will charge your spirit, ignite your spiritual fire, teach you how to pray and keep you in fellowship with God, it is by praying in the Spirit. Sure we find ourself praying in the Spirit all day long, but this is a time when you get into your closet, or go for a walk and focus solely on the Spirit praying through you. As you pray, many times you will have the urge to pray with the understanding. Do it. You can sing in the Spirit too. I’m telling you, if you join challenge one and two, revival will invade your life within days.

CHALLENGE 3 Go out into your town and evangelize once a week.

One of the greatest things for your spiritual life is to evangelize. If you want to feel the smile of God on your life, evangelize. If you want rid your life of religious boredom, evangelize. Go with someone, buy some tracts, go to the mall, to the park, downtown, to the bus station or where ever people hang out and talk to them about eternity. It tough at first and the flesh belly aches, but pay not attention to that whiner. There are tons of hungry people out there. The harvest is ripe.

CHALLENGE 4 Memorize the Sermon on the Mount

When I was in Bible College, I memorize Matthew 5-7 with a friend.  That is ONLY 111 verses.  The most quoted verses in the Bible.  Live the Sermon and you will be perfect.  If you only had three chapters you could keep from the Bible, these are the three.  Memorize them in your favorite version.

CHALLENGE 5 Go on a date with God

Probably one of the things God likes most.  To spend time with you!  Go on a date with him.  For real.  Take a walk around the lake.  Go out for coffee with your Bible and journal.  Walk through the fields or through a park.  You don’t even have to have an agenda.  Just be with Him.

CHALLENGE 6 Fast

I have practiced fasting all my life.  Short fasts and long fasts.  The body is wimpy and fights against it, but your spirit will benefit.  You probably won’t feel spiritual when you do it, but you are spiritual when you do it.

CHALLENGE 7 Take a spiritual retreat

This will be the highlight of your year.  It can be a day or two weeks.  I have done both.  A retreat with just you and God in some alone place where you can just be together.  Bring your Bible, a good book, a journal, some MP3 sermons or music or whatever you do to feed your spirit.

CHALLENGE 8 Get the worldliness out of your heart

That will leave more room for Jesus.  You don’t need me to tell you what worldliness is.  The Spirit of God is telling you all the time.  But if you eliminate those things from your life, the Spirit of God will be quick to fill the void.

CHALLENGE 9 Take a missions trip

It changed my life.  Two weeks in Spain back in 82′ and the rest is history.  Not only will it open your eyes to something other than your world, but it will give you a heart for the lost.  And when you have a heart for the lost, you are close to God’s heart.

CHALLENGE 10 Worship and Praise

When you do, it just brings the Spirit close.  Put on the headphones and go for it.  Sit at the piano or guitar and sing make a new song unto the Lord.

CHALLENGE 11 Be in community

Go to church.  Go to a small group.  Hang out with those of like mind as you.  Iron sharpens iron.  You need each other to be sharp.  God will use them to form your character.

CHALLENGE 12 Be filled with good works

After all, you were created for them and God set them up for you to do before you were born.  It will make you feel great, pleasing to God.  When you stop living for yourself and live for others, that is when you start to live.

CHALLENGE 13 Consume the Word of God

Life proceeds from God and His Word.  Want to be full of God?  Be full of His Word.  Want to be full of life?  Be full of his Word.

CHALLENGE 14 Live in holiness

The pure in heart see God.  So a holy life, holy thoughts, holy conversation will bring God close.  You will sense His presence, you will feel his smile.

CHALLENGE 15 Walk in the Spirit

This is what the Christian life is.  Walking, living, speaking and being led by the Spirit.

Please visit Jacob and Julie Bock’s Blog at  jacobbock.wordpress.com

New feature!

I am pleased to announce a new feature that has been added to this site. Your Soar Men’s Ministry will now have a calendar that you can download and import into your computer’s calendar.  This calendar will be updated frequently, so check back to this site frequently to make sure you don’t miss anything.  This calendar also includes a one year Bible reading schedule.

You can find this calendar on the “*Events*” tab at the top of this website.  But you can download and import it right now by clicking here.

I hope you enjoy this feature and it is a valuable resource for you.  Let me know if there is anything I can do to make it better, If there is an event that needs to be added, or if you need help importing it into your computer.

Courage and God Speed,

Brian Caruthers

The Lion

So Samson went down to Timnah with his father and mother, and came to the vineyards of Timnah.  Now to his surprise, a young lion came roaring against him.  And the Spirit of the Lord came mightily upon him, and he tore the lion apart as one would have torn apart a young goat, though he had nothing in his hand.-Judges 14:5-6 NKJV

There are times in my life that I am flat out scared.  I have found myself in some rather unique and odd encounters as a Christian, and before I was a Christian.  There are times when I was bold and brave, but there are many more times I was afraid and turned away to run away.  Scared of what the outcome may be of the situation I found myself in.  Scared of the reaction as I’m facing a person handing them a gospel tract or talking about our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.  Yes, the enemy is very crafty in many ways that play on your mind and emotions, especially when you are trying to step forward for the Lord.  At times you can feel strong, and then out of know where, satan slams into you.  I’m sure everyone reading this, that has taken any kind of step out of life for the Lord, knows what I am talking about.  It isn’t easy.

But that is exactly what satan wants us to feel and feel like.  He wants us to feel pressured, scared, like we are being pushy or arrogant in some way.  He wants us to feel like we are doing a dis-service to the person, people, or community we are trying to reach for the Lord.  You know what really gets hard?  When you work with the people.  Then you are walking on thin ice because you might make someone mad, or say something and that person won’t be your friend, or make fun of you.  Or maybe God may ask you in your heart to witness to someone you are friends with and it could cost you your friendship.  You might seem like a person that is too pushy, or maybe, you just might not have all the answers.

Samson was a man set apart by God before his birth.  The man made terrible, foolish mistakes.  He ignored the Lord, he didn’t always tell the truth, he just kind of did what he wanted.  God chose Samson to do many great things, to be a Judge, to be a leader over Israel.  If you have ever read the story, you know he didn’t quite fit the bill so to speak.  But God didn’t give up on him, just like he won’t give up on us, those He has “set apart”.  Jeremiah 1:5 tells us that God knew us before we were formed in our mothers womb.  God already had your life planned if you would follow His will.  Jesus knew your name and seen your face when He was hanging on the cross, He knows who He called to be His and who is listening to Him alone.

Did you notice in that verse above that Samson didn’t run away?  He didn’t even have to stand and fight.  The verse says that the Spirit of the Lord came upon him, and he tore the lion in two.  With such ease, “as though he had nothing in his hand”, the lion was defeated.  1 Peter 5:8 says: Be sober, be vigilant, because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour.  What better way to be sober, to be vigilant, than to stay in the Word, stay close to Jesus in your heart, and stand fast in the Holy Spirit.  When we are trusting completely in Jesus, we have nothing to fear.  He alone will see us through whatever we are facing.  But we have to give it to Him, we have to be trusting in Him.  Are we?  Do we?

We don’t have to stand and fight.  We don’t have to be afraid of what people might say or think.  We don’t have to run away.  What we have to do is listen to our Lord.  We should want to listen to His heart.  His heart is that none should perish.  It is not our job to save them, it is only our job to plant the seed and water it from time to time as God directs us.  But when we run, instead of trusting in the Holy Spirit, we fail.  That same Spirit of God that came upon Samson, is the same Spirit of God that will come upon you when He is needed.  God knows our encounters.  He knows our friends.  He knows our hearts.

We all make mistakes.  We all make foolish mistakes.  We all run away, instead of trusting in God.  John 15:16 reflects the words of the Father in Jeremiah: You did not choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit.  The verse goes on tell us that what we ask the Father in Jesus name, He may, not will, but may give to us.  There are times we have to learn.  There are times we will make mistakes.  But we will never learn without trying and making sure that we are listening to the Word of God.  So many verses reflect the Heart of Jesus and command us to try and reach the lost.  When we do nothing, we made a choice.  When we decide to live our lives our own way, on our own terms with Jesus, Satan has won.  When our lives seem to be going along smooth and calm and great with no issues in them, satan is leaving you alone, he has won.  He hates when people are working for the Lord.  Satan has made a choice to try and devour us anyway he can.  He wants to destroy us.  When we don’t listen to the Word of God, when we don’t listen to the still small voice in our hearts, when we choose to not listen, satan has won.

Stand and wait upon the Lord, He will renew your strength.  Whatever holds you back, whatever keeps you from reaching out, whatever challenge your facing with impossible odds, ask Jesus to help.  The Holy Spirit is mighty and strong.  Strong enough that when we come face to face with a person, crowd, or community God has placed before us, that He will destroy the influence of satan, He will destroy the fear, He will see you through the situation, “as though He had nothing in His hands.”

And He said to them, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature.”  And they went out and preached everywhere, the Lord working with them and confirming the Word through the accompanying signs.  Amen.-Mark 16:15, 20 NKJV

“Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”-Matthew 28:19-20 NKJV

“He who has my commandments and keeps them, it is he who loves Me.  And he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and manifest Myself to him.”-John 14:21 NKJV

The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, a broken and contrite heart-These, O God, You will not despise.-Psalm 51:17 NKJV

“Abide in Me, and I in you.  As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me.  I am the vine, you are the branches.  He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing.  If anyone does not abide in Me, he is cast out as a branch and is withered; and they gather them and throw them into the fire, and they are burned.  If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you.  By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit; so you will be My disciples.”-John 15:4-8 NKJV

You must lose your life, to find true life.  Let go.  Jesus Christ is not a mere choice, He is a conscience change of life.  Trust Him.

Remember the Cross,
Tom

“I only have two dates on my calendar-today and Judgment Day.”-Martin Luther

Please visit my blog at this link for additional topics of discussion: http://jesusismyrefuge.wordpress.com

Death Crawl

We rented Facing the Giants and watched it last night. I love that movie. Especially the death crawl scene, where the coach has the team captain crawl on his hands and feet (can’t touch with your knees) down the field with another player on his back. Usually the players go about 30 yards and they drop. This time the coach asked if the player would give him 100%, no quitting, leaving everything he had on the field. And because the boy believed that he could only go about 50 yards, the coach said that he had to perform the excersize blindfolded. The player (being a well built athlete) started out strong and his team mates were joking while they were watching. Because of the tight shot of the camera, you can’t tell where on the field the boy was, but we know he started in the right end-zone.

As the hash marks pass on the boy starts to grumble to the coach that he doesn’t think he can go on. His coach, crawling sideways in the boy’s face, is encouraging him on. The load on his back gets heavier and heavier. His knees and elbow begin to shake and the complaints get louder. The on looking teammates start to quite down and stand up to see the player crawling farther and farther down the field. He can’t make it any more. TWENTY MORE STEPS! DON’T YOU QUIT ON ME! GIVE ME EVERYTHING YOU GOT! TEN MORE! TEN MORE! yells the coach, egging him on as the team watches with their jaws dropped.

The player is totally spent, how is he still going. He has to be at the 50 yard line by now. DON’T YOU QUIT! DON’T YOU QUIT! FIVE MORE, JUST FIVE MORE STEPS! YOU PROMISED ME YOUR BEST! DON’T YOU QUIT! The coach is going nuts, screaming at this boy. Screams of pain coming from a blindfolded boy with another boy bobbing back and forth on his back.

Finally, the boy has nothing left, he has left it ALL on the field. Collapsing onto the ground crying and convulsing, the boy is sorrowful that he let his coach down, that he didn’t have enough to please one of his most respected mentors. His coach takes the blindfold off the crying gridiron warrior and tells him to look where was. The boy looks up to see that he had performed a death crawl a full 100 yards to the other end-zone. The coach tells him that he is the most influential players on the team and that the other players look up to him. If he shows up with a defeated attitude, the rest of the team will. “You just carried a 140 lb. man on your back for 100 yards.” The boy who served as the payload for this little stroll across the field interrupted the coach to inform him that he actually weighed 160 lbs.

We are capable of much more than we think we are. We think we know our limits. Limits that we set when things start to get hard or uncomfortable. But what if we pressed through that limit. Broke our own glass ceiling. Christ is encouraging us every step of the way, crawling through the dirt and mud right along side us. We think we know how far we can go, how much we have to give, how much time we have to spend, but we are blindfolded. He can see clearly down the field. He can see the end-zone. “Just twenty more steps.” When we gave our lives to Christ and called Him Lord, we promised Him our best. When you leave this life, do you want to be able to say that you left it all on the field? “Just ten more steps.” Are you selling yourself short? Do you have a preset limit on the amount of time you can pray, because you start to get sleepy after 20 minutes?

I am capable of carrying the load a lot farther than I have been. I have been setting my sights on the 50 yard line, when my Coach and my team need me to make it to the end-zone. For that I apologize. It’s time for me to put on the blindfold that will keep me from seeing my preset limits and start listening to my Coach and to his guidance. He knows me and my capabilities better than I do. It’s a new game, and I’m in it to win it.

I thank you for indulging me this little ramble, and if you haven’t see Facing the Giants, I suggest you do. If you have seen it, see it again, you’ll see new things in it that will speak encouragement and faith into your life.

Courage and God Speed.

The Race for the Crown

The Apostle Paul was an amazing man. He endured hardships and beatings and being stoned and left for dead, all to further the advance of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. The following article is taken from my study Bible. I love to read this article and many times attempt to write it down to pass along and share with others, only to set it down and get distracted with something else. Maybe you have read this before, or maybe not. I myself cannot pass it by without stopping and hurling myself into deep thought of what if I was like that? What if I could do things like Paul? The truth of the matter is, that Jesus asks me to be like that, He tells me to do things like that. To take it further, He commands us all to be like the Apostle Paul, to give all we have to reach out for Christ. It is easy for us, and I say that the majority of us, to live as if the Apostle Paul was the exception, one of God’s special chosen people. The truth of the matter is, the Apostle Paul was the standard, the model for us to live by in Jesus Christ.

I hope you take the time to enjoy this article. I hope you take the time to let it sink in to your heart and soul, and want to be everything you can for Jesus Christ.

God Bless!

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What does it take to be a champion in a given sport? For one, it is necessary to have a dedication to succeed no matter what the cost. A passion for the game is certainly essential, as is a single-minded determination to accomplish the task at hand. A willingness to train incessantly is also required. And a burning desire for the trophy or prize awarded to the one who wins is an absolute must.
In his letter to the Corinthians, the apostle Paul drew a direct comparison between the Christian life and an athletic competition. This comparison would have had immediate resonance with Paul’s Corinthian readers. Corinth was the site of the Isthmian games, a great athletic festival that was very similar to the Olympic games. Contestants in the Isthmian games endured ten months of mandatory training. Anyone who failed to complete this training was barred from competing in the games. The highlight of the Isthmian games was a great endurance race. It was the race that Paul used as an illustration to depict the faithful Christian life.
In the Isthmian games, several athletes competed for one prize; there could be only one winner. In contrast, the Christian life offers the opportunity for many people to be winners. The winner of the Isthmian games received a pine wreath crown. Those who faithfully complete the Christian life, on the other hand, will receive an imperishable crown.
Paul illustrates the “champion” mindset required to faithfully complete the Christian life with his statements, “I run thus: not with uncertainty” and “Thus I fight: not as one who beats the air” (1 Cor 9:26). Paul was not an aimless competitor. He had a clearly defined goal. Like an athlete preparing for a race or a boxing match, Paul knew that he had to discipline his body; he had to force himself to maintain the strenuous, consistent practice needed for success.
The race that Paul prepared himself for, the race that all Christians need to prepare themselves for, was the calling of God. Paul taught that Christians are rewarded for the calling that God gives them. Paul had an apostolic ministry for which he sacrificed all things. He knew that if he was faithful to his calling he would receive a reward from the Lord for his service (1 Cor 4:2). Paul also knew that if he ignored or treated lightly his mission he would not receive from God the victor’s crown for service. Having seen some of his close friends forsake their calling (see 2 Tim 4:10), Paul recognized that the loss of the victor’s crown was a very real possibility for any believer, regardless of his or her standing in the Christian community. The apostle’s overwhelming passion was to fulfill his ministry at all costs, to stay faithful to the “fight” (1Cor 9:26) to the very end. In Paul’s last letter, written shortly before his death, we discover that he accomplished his goal (see 2 Tim 4:6-8).
Paul’s spiritual training was the very best available. Yet he did not assume that he would automatically persevere to the end of the race. He continued to discipline himself, to fight, and to follow his calling from God. In doing so, Paul provided an ideal model for all Christians striving to become champions.

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Remember the Cross,

Tom

Let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit, but in lowliness of mind let each esteem others better than himself. Let each of you look out not only for his own interests, but also for the interests of others. Philippians 2:3-4 NKJV

Please visit my blog at this link for additional topics of discussion: http://jesusismyrefuge.wordpress.com