Month: August 2018

Episode 71

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Disciple Up #71

The Fruit of the Spirit – Faithfulness

By Louie Marsh, 8-29-2018

1) I cannot love if I fail to be faithful.

22  But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, Galatians 5:22 (ESV)

7  Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. 1 Corinthians 13:7 (ESV)

This is the word regularly translated faith.

persuasion, i.e. credence; moral conviction (of religious truth, or the truthfulness of God or a religious teacher), especially reliance upon Christ for salvation; abstract constancy in such profession; by extensive the system of religious (Gospel) truth itself :- assurance, belief, believe, faith, fidelity.
Strong’s Talking Greek & Hebrew Dictionary.

·       As a disciple of Jesus I am called to be faithful in ALL MY RELATIONSHIPS

5  Better is open rebuke than hidden love. 6  Faithful are the wounds of a friend; profuse are the kisses of an enemy. Proverbs 27:5-6 (ESV)

21  How the faithful city has become a whore, she who was full of justice! Righteousness lodged in her, but now murderers. Isaiah 1:21 (ESV)

2) I can count on Jesus REMAINING faithful to me.

18  And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19  Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20  teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” Matthew 28:18-20 (ESV)

10  Therefore I endure everything for the sake of the elect, that they also may obtain the salvation that is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory. 11  The saying is trustworthy, for: If we have died with him, we will also live with him; 12  if we endure, we will also reign with him; if we deny him, he also will deny us; 13  if we are faithless, he remains faithful— for he cannot deny himself. 2 Timothy 2:10-13 (ESV)

FAITHFULNESS QUOTES: https://www.brainyquote.com/topics/faithfulness

Nothing is more noble, nothing more venerable than fidelity. Faithfulness and truth are the most sacred excellences and endowments of the human mind. Marcus Tullius Cicero

What is faithfulness, anyway? Can you be unfaithful to your own feelings and faithful to someone else? Is it faithful to lie in bed night after night with someone you love but no longer desire while ardently dreaming of someone else? Mary Gaitskill

Faith is the virtue by which, clinging-to the faithfulness of God, we lean upon him, so that we may obtain what he gives to us. William Ames

Marriage has a unique place because it speaks of an absolute faithfulness, a covenant between radically different persons, male and female; and so it echoes the absolute covenant of God with his chosen, a covenant between radically different partners. Rowan Williams

Your faithfulness makes you trustworthy to God. Edwin Louis Cole

3) But can Jesus COUNT ON ME to be faithful to Him?

31  So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed him, “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, John 8:31 (ESV)

31  Jesus said to the people who believed in him, “You are truly my disciples if you remain faithful to my teachings. John 8:31 (NLT)

66  After this many of his disciples turned back and no longer walked with him. 67  So Jesus said to the Twelve, “Do you want to go away as well?” 68  Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life, 69  and we have believed, and have come to know, that you are the Holy One of God.” John 6:66-69 (ESV)

4) To be faithful I must LEARN TO SET Biblical Priorities.

PRIORITIES:

·       I make God & Jesus FIRST  in my life.

4  “Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one. 5  You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. 6  And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. Deuteronomy 6:4-6 (ESV)

24  “No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money. Matthew 6:24 (ESV)

·       I SHIFT PRIORITIES as my circumstances require.

Spouse

Kids

Ministry

Friends

Parents/family

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Episode 70

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Disciple Up # 70

How to Overcome Resistance & Do What God Calls You to Do.

By Louie Marsh, 8-22-2018

Give-A-Way – Grasshopper Myth – available to the first person who e-mails me at louie@discipleup.org.

1:17a: Get to work – be professional

But you, dress yourself for work; arise, and say to them everything that I command you… Jeremiah 1:17a (ESV)

THE UNLIVED LIFE – taken from The War of Art by Steven Pressfield.

 The War of Art – https://goo.gl/YLbrQr

 Gates of Fire – https://goo.gl/weqXDJ

What is Resistance?

For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am of the flesh, sold under sin. For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. Now if I do what I do not want, I agree with the law, that it is good. So now it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. Romans 7:14-20 (ESV)

1:17b-19: God’s promise of strength to Jeremiah

… Do not be dismayed by them, lest I dismay you before them. And I, behold, I make you this day a fortified city, an iron pillar, and bronze walls, against the whole land, against the kings of Judah, its officials, its priests, and the people of the land. They will fight against you, but they shall not prevail against you, for I am with you, declares the LORD, to deliver you.” Jeremiah 1:17b-19 (ESV)

What Strength really is:

For consider your calling, brothers: not many of you were wise according to worldly standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, so that no human being might boast in the presence of God. 1 Corinthians 1:26-29 (ESV)

For I think that God has exhibited us apostles as last of all, like men sentenced to death, because we have become a spectacle to the world, to angels, and to men. We are fools for Christ’s sake, but you are wise in Christ. We are weak, but you are strong. You are held in honor, but we in disrepute. To the present hour we hunger and thirst, we are poorly dressed and buffeted and homeless, and we labor, working with our own hands. When reviled, we bless; when persecuted, we endure; when slandered, we entreat. We have become, and are still, like the scum of the world, the refuse of all things. 1 Corinthians 4:9-13 (ESV)

But we have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us.
We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair;
persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our bodies.
For we who live are always being given over to death for Jesus’ sake, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh. So death is at work in us, but life in you.
Since we have the same spirit of faith according to what has been written, “I believed, and so I spoke,” we also believe, and so we also speak, knowing that he who raised the Lord Jesus will raise us also with Jesus and bring us with you into his presence. For it is all for your sake, so that as grace extends to more and more people it may increase thanksgiving, to the glory of God.
So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal. 2 Corinthians 4:7-18 (ESV)

So to keep me from becoming conceited because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to harass me, to keep me from becoming conceited.
Three times I pleaded with the Lord about this, that it should leave me.
But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me.
For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong. 2 Corinthians 12:7-10 (ESV)

“Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. Matthew 5:5 (ESV)

For this reason I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God, which is in you through the laying on of my hands, for God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control. 2 Timothy 1:6-7 (ESV)

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Episode 69

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Disciple Up #69
Think & Believe SMALL!
By Louie Marsh, 8-15-2018

First Ever Disciple Up Give-A-Way – details later!

1) God loves small beginnings.

10  For whoever has despised the day of small things shall rejoice, and shall see the plumb line in the hand of Zerubbabel. “These seven are the eyes of the LORD, which range through the whole earth.” Zechariah 4:10 (ESV)

6  Then he said to me, “This is the word of the LORD to Zerubbabel: Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, says the LORD of hosts. 7  Who are you, O great mountain? Before Zerubbabel you shall become a plain. And he shall bring forward the top stone amid shouts of ‘Grace, grace to it!’” Zechariah 4:6-7 (ESV)

The man who moves a mountain begins by carrying away small stones. – Confucius

2) God uses small (narrow) to accelerate our growth.

13  “Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. 14  For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few. Matthew 7:13-14 (ESV)

Small Beginnings Quotes:

https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/tag/small-beginnings

https://www.azquotes.com/quotes/topics/small-beginnings.html

“Thus out of small beginnings greater things have been produced by His hand that made all things of nothing, and gives being to all things that are; and, as one small candle may light a thousand, so the light here kindled hath shone unto many…”  ― William Bradford, Bradford: Of Plymouth Plantation

According to the ancient Chinese proverb, A journey of a thousand miles must begin with a single step. – John F. Kennedy

Think small and act small, and we’ll get bigger. Think big and act big, and we’ll get smaller. – Herb Kelleher (Herbert David “Herb” Kelleher is the co-founder, Chairman Emeritus and former CEO of Southwest Airlines.)

It all adds up; never discount your efforts, because small efforts build big things. One word doesn’t make a novel, but one word does begin a novel, and from that small beginning everything else follows. Even if it’s just ‘The’, write something on that blank page. – Laurell K. Hamilton

The world has been evolved, not created: it has arisen little by little from a small beginning, and has increased through the activity of the elemental forces embodied in itself, and so has rather grown than come into being at an almighty word. – August Weismann (August Friedrich Leopold Weismann was a German evolutionary biologist. Ernst Mayr ranked him as the second most notable evolutionary theorist of the 19th century, after Charles Darwin.)

3) God almost always works by starting small.

31  He put another parable before them, saying, “The kingdom of heaven is like a grain of mustard seed that a man took and sowed in his field. 32  It is the smallest of all seeds, but when it has grown it is larger than all the garden plants and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and make nests in its branches.” 33  He told them another parable. “The kingdom of heaven is like leaven that a woman took and hid in three measures of flour, till it was all leavened.” Matthew 13:31-33 (ESV)

4) A small open door from God is all anyone needs.

8  “‘I know your works. Behold, I have set before you an open door, which no one is able to shut. I know that you have but little power, and yet you have kept my word and have not denied my name. Revelation 3:8 (ESV)

5) In the end – even big is just a lot of small groups together

Saddleback just had it’s 50,000th baptism! Amazing.

Giving away one copy of The Grasshopper Myth, Big Churches, Small Churches and the small thinking that divides us. By Karl Vaters.

 Please Get In Touch!Email – louie@discipleup.org

 


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Episode 68

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Disciple Up #68
Short Term Mission Trips – Effective or a Waste of Time?
By Louie Marsh, 8-8-2018

 A listener response on the FB page!!!  August 7th  at 5:06 AM · Stonemont, GA, ‎Marvin Fore · “Very cool podcast, I’ve really enjoyed the show since I found it.”

A brief – or maybe not so brief – summary of my just completed two week trip to Thailand & Myanmar.

Some thoughts on what happened, etc.

Are Short Term Mission Trips Effective?

Today most would say no to this, and I agree there are problems with them. But I know from personal experience they CAN be. Bad example Marylin Hickey’s “mission trip” promos from years ago.  Look – she’s still doing it: http://www.marilynandsarah.org/events/dubai-hungary-austria-tour-2018/

My personal story – lasting change is possible.

https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/article/why-you-should-consider-cancelling-your-short-term-mission-trips/

Here’s some of my thoughts on how to make them work.

1) Make them ministry focused, not glorified vacations

2) No money. While you may have to provide funds for the ministry work there, you shouldn’t get involved in funding projects, people. Etc. In the end this only makes people more dependent upon American’s and that’s NOT a good thing.

3) Spend as much time with the nationals and be as close to their living conditions as you can safely be.

4) The keys to cross cultural communication – LISTEN!!  Ask questions! Don’t assume ANYTHING! Or in a word just try and be as HUMBLE as you can be.

 Next Week – another Life Lesson from Jeremiah.

 Please Get In Touch!Email – louie@discipleup.org

 


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