Words from the Never Changing to us the Ever Changing

Think about this, we as imperfect beings have never actually said anything perfectly. Even as I write this I know that I will have someone edit and look over what I wrote. We think we express things perfectly or say things perfectly in times but our perfect isn’t perfect by Gods standards. Is it not often that someone who speaks a good word to you that is just the right thing during your circumstances or in that moment, derives it from God’s truth? This comes from a good friend of mine who I was having a conversation with. He brought up the point of how people’s ideas about things seem to always get reworked like, “Augustine says this…but I think it could be better said like this…” but that doesnt happen to God’s Word, because its truth. People don't say, "Well I think Paul could have said this better this way." This point really struck me. It’s just like how the methods of presenting the Gospel change but the Message never does. It’s amazing to think that a never changing and perfect God who created language and first communicated with us presented a message in the only way He knew how which is perfectly, but tailored in such a way that it will relate to us always in this ever changing world. All by knowing exactly how to say something that when read or stated it pierces strait to the heart. This is not just limited to the message of the Gospel but it could be any verse of scripture that has the power to impact your life and always at the right time. There truly is nothing like Scripture.

“For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.”

- Hebrews 4:12 -

grace and peace,

Newt

Happy Givethanksing

Let us look past the hand of God, filled with blessings

and

Onto the face of God, who He is, His presence.

Surely goodness and mercy will follow us all the days of our lives.

let us dwell in the house of the Lord forever, starting now...

Two hearts beat within my breast,
One is foul, the other blest,
One I love,
One I hate,
The one I feed will dominate.

Hey guys,
Yesterday we talked about not trying to always please people but to work to please Jesus and Today I listened to this song and realized that it is saying exactly that. I have listened to this song a few times and today was the first time I realized what it was saying. I don't know if you like rap but the words in this song are pretty legit.
Heres the url check it out guys
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RyF2NN-ED6U

Ryan McEvoy

So Amanda's cousin had cancer, so her uncle made a facebook prayer group, and a recent post had this in it:

Matthew 6:25:

Jesus said, “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear... Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life? ...Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own."

I know that I am not alone with my battles of worry... I know that we are certainly not alone with our battles against bad health and work instability... May we all not lose sleep, hair, or precious living over worrying about tomorrow. We really can't even add an hour to life. May we all learn to trust Jesus' words knowing that God values each person He created.

God Chose You

²⁶For consider your calling, brothers:^(A) not many of you were wise according to worldly standards,^[a] not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. ²⁷But^(B) God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise;^(C) God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; ²⁸God chose what is low and despised in the world, even^(D) things that are not, to^(E) bring to nothing things that are, ²⁹so^(F) that no human being^[b] might boast in the presence of God. ³⁰And because of him^[c] you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us^(G) wisdom from God,^(H) righteousness and^(I) sanctification and^(J) redemption, ³¹so that, as it is written,^(K) "Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord."

This verse was a huge encouragement to me. To me it said, "God doesn't care about how much you know, how strong you think you are, or how popular you are... God still wants you." What an ecouragement! Just look at some of the lines... "God chose what is foolish [...] to shame the wise." or "God chose what is weak to shame the strong." What I got from that is that God CAN and WILL use you... IF you let him. God can do so many great things with so many people that wouldn't be qualified as "great" by our society. God will use you. Be available for him.

Have a great day!

Oh How He Loves Us

He is jealous for me,
Loves like a hurricane, I am a tree,
Bending beneath the weight of his wind and mercy.
When all of a sudden,
I am unaware of these afflictions eclipsed by glory,
And I realise just how beautiful You are,
And how great Your affections are for me.

And oh, how He loves us so,
Oh how He loves us,
How He loves us all

Yeah, He loves us,
Oh! how He loves us,
Oh! how He loves us,
Oh! how He loves.


We are His portion and He is our prize,
Drawn to redemption by the grace in His eyes,
If grace is an ocean, we’re all sinking.
And Heaven meets earth like an unforseen kiss,
And my heart turns violently inside of my chest,
I don’t have time to maintain these regrets,
When I think about, the way...

That He loves us,
Oh! how He loves us,
Oh! how He loves us,
Oh! how He loves.

Hungry?

Here's some food for thought in case you are hungry:

So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live in him, rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness. See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the basic principles of this world rather than on Christ. For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form, and you have been given fullness in Christ, who is the head over every power and authority.

I tell you the truth, anyone who has faith in me will do what I have been doing. He will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father. And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Son may bring glory to the Father. You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it.

Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of men in their deceitful scheming. Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will in all things grow up into him who is the Head, that is, Christ.

For this reason I kneel before the Father, from whom his whole family in heaven and on earth derives its name. I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God. Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen.

In the midst of a heavy load of school work, we all need some encouragement and endurance...

oh hey look what I found... Romans 15:5-6:

⁵May the God who gives endurance and encouragement give you a spirit of unity among yourselves as you follow Christ Jesus, ⁶so that with one heart and mouth you may glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

When I was trying to apply that, I found myself thinking....wait, the endurance and encouragement is just the first part. The majority of the passage is about following Jesus as a group of believers so we can glorify God the Father with one heart and mouth. Through this we will feel encouraged and we will be able to endure.

-Josh

Last Night

Was great! I was wondering if we could somehow break into smaller groups earlier because I know how beneficial that time has been for myself and for others. God found out a way: he brought us less people! We didn't even end up breaking up.

A few things that God has been teaching us are 1) the fear of the Lord 2) listening to his Spirit. We are trying to be receptive. On that note, many of us have felt prompted or led to take our faith outside the walls it has grown in. We are in an environment that will allow us to float and drift and never be tested against the personalities that don't love God. It will be interesting to see how this materializes.

Praying for you guys. Stay strong, fear God, serve others.

Peace out

E

Needtobreathe - Valley of Tomorrow

"I never second-guessed the little voice I heard
It's just a whisper that sounded like a scream
I ain't never felt so free."

Taught But Not Yet Learned

Here are some things we've been taught on Tuesdays by the Teacher, and we will likely take our entire lives understanding...

PRAY BIG. Trust God and expect Him to move powerfully.

READ THE BIBLE and be ready to SHARE IT.

REJECT COMPLACENCY and dwell in the Spirit which prompts us to go outside our comfort zone.

DONT JUDGE. We all need God's grace and love.

GOD ORCHESTRATES. He is constantly bringing us together, speaking through each other through one another

BE RIGHTEOUS. I must be righteous in order for my prayers to be heard and accepted by God (James 5:16).

SHARE YOUR FAITH. .

WE ARE THE CHURCH. What we're doing is right and good but it feels weird because it isn't normal.

BE FAITHFUL IN THE SPACES BETWEEN. We need to be a shepherd before we can be king.

WE DON"T LET GOD DOWN: we were never holding Him up! He holds us up :)

WHAT DO WE KNOW OF HOLY? Arrogance makes us think we've figured God out. We know nothing of divine Holiness.

Mary Anoints Jesus at Bethany

“Six days before the Passover, Jesus therefore came to Bethany, where Lazarus was, whom Jesus had raised from the dead. So they gave a dinner for him there. Martha served, and Lazarus was one of those reclining with him at table. Mary therefore took a pound of expensive ointment made from pure nard, and anointed the feet of Jesus and wiped his feet with her hair. The house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume. But Judas Iscariot, one of his disciples (he who was about to betray him), said, “Why was this ointment not sold for three hundred denarii and given to the poor?” He said this, not because he cared about the poor, but because he was a thief, and having charge of the moneybag he used to help himself to what was put into it. Jesus said, “Leave her alone, so that she may keep it for the day of my burial. For the poor you always have with you, but you do not always have me.”

John 12:1-8

Instantly I am struck with many questions after reading this like, “Would I do that?” If so what does that look like in my life? I certainly hope that I would do that, but really anoint Jesus’ head and feet (Mark says head and feet) wiping his feet with my hair?! For her she did something that Jewish girls never did which is letting her hair down in public but for her to wipe his feet with her hair is unthinkable only slaves cleaned feet. Let alone the nard that she broke over Jesus’ head as Mark says was worth a year’s wages and it was perfume oil which is only used for devotion. This is why Judas was criticizing her. But in this action as everyone is sitting at the table in what was probably an awkward silence that filled the room and as people saying wow in their minds we see a supreme devotion by Mary to Jesus. All of this was done by giving Jesus her best. Letting all her hair out, showing no shame, letting all of what she was out, holding nothing back from him. Putting all of her at His feet where we belong—bowed. She, in that moment, was embracing something we often forget, that He is worthy and all we have is His. The Fragrance of her act filled the room; no one could have missed it. We see fragrance or aroma mentioned a lot in the Bible. It is often referred to in Old Testament when someone was giving a sacrifice to God and He liked it describing it as a “pleasing aroma”. So by Mary’s sacrifice and service to Christ it produced a pleasing aroma to Jesus, as he says in the other gospels she was doing a beautiful thing. But can I say that my actions this week or last week have been pleasing to God? Did I create a pleasing aroma with my service or sacrifice to Him? Did I even serve Him this week? Let us serve and sacrifice to others as we are called to do, and to do it as if it were Christ. So that they may smell that pleasing aroma, that love that fills the room penetrating their hearts. So others may ask just as Judas did, “why are you doing this?” In that we may say –because of Christ. See Christ was soon about to be broken as a sacrifice to us, as He foreshadows in those verses. So He was anointed as He should be as King by Mary. Though he was something that was also precious and holy He still died. Giving us all that He had, His life, poured out so that we might be clean. So our life as a sacrifice to Him is pleasing, and we are equipped with all that He is inside of us so that others may share that aroma as we serve. And that aroma was meant to fill the earth, spreading the message of what Christ has done for us. So go, be a pleasing aroma, serve Christ.

“But thanks be to God, who in Christ always leads us in triumphal procession, and through us spreads the fragrance of the knowledge of him everywhere. For we are the aroma of Christ to God among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing,”

2 Corinthians 2:14-15

Grace be with you,

-Newt

"Walking on the water is easy to impulsive pluck (as it is happening), but walking on dry land as a disciple of Jesus Christ is a different thing. Peter walked on the water to go to Jesus, but he followed Him afar off on the dry land. We do not need the grace of God to stand crises, human nature and pride are sufficient; but it does require the supernatural grace of God to live twenty-four hours in every day as a saint, to go through drudgery as a disciple, to live an ordinary, unobserved, and ignored existence as a disciple of Jesus. It is inbred in us that we have to do exceptional things for God; but we have not. We have to be exceptional in the ordinary things, to be holy in mean streets, among mean people, and this is not learned in five minutes."

This goes along with what we were talking about: Being faithful to God in the ordinary times of life (David as a shepherd, Moses' 40 years wandering before the exodus, Joseph in prison)...sometimes we feel like God is ignoring us as we live our ordinary and unobserved lives, but we need to be faithful in the "spaces between" the exciting moments of our lives...Peter was able to walk on water because he followed him on the land! Be faithful and obedient 24 hours a day, and you will be do exceptional things!

Ephesians 1:16-17

¹⁶I have not stopped giving thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers. ¹⁷I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better.

crazy love

i read this in the book crazy love this week. its my prayer for myself, and all of us.

o God, i have tasted Thy goodness, and it has both satisfied

me and made me thirsty for more. i am painfully conscious

of my need for further grace. i am ashamed of my lack of

desire. o God, the triune God, i want to want Thee; I long

to be filled with longing; i thirst to be made more thirsty still.

show me Thy glory, i pray Thee, so that i may know Thee

indeed. begin in mercy a new work of love within me. say to

my soul, "rise up my love, my fair one, and come away."

then give me grace to rise and follow Thee up form this

misty lowland where i have wandered so long.

amen.

one last thing to be thinking about... "it is when we stop actively loving Him that we find ourselves restless and gravitating toward other means of fulfillment."

how would our lives be different if we actively pursued God everyday?

-perry

Phil Wickham- You're Beautiful.

So good. One line that gets me (and Geren)...

Where death is just a memory and tears are no more

Just imagine that. Death being just a memory.

-Josh

Ephesians 6

Be strong

in the Lord and in his mighty power.

Put on

the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil's schemes. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the

spiritual forces of evil

in the heavenly realms. Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. Stand firm then, with the

belt of truth

buckled around your waist, with the

breastplate of righteousness

in place, and with your

feet

fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. In addition to all this, take up the

shield of faith,

with which you can

extinguish all the flaming arrows

of the evil one. Take the

helmet of salvation

and the

sword of the Spirit,

which is the word of God. And

pray in the Spirit on all occasions

with all kinds of prayers and requests...

Philippians 4:4 "Rejoice in the Lord ALWAYS, I will say it again: rejoice."

Even in the hard times, praise Him.

-Josh

Righteousness

This morning I read about righteousness. Since the beginning of the year I have been striving to become more righteous for a couple different reasons. The main one is so that I can be more intimate with God. This leads to the second one: so that I can pray for others, and since my relationship with God is where it needs to be, my prayers are heard and answered.

So this morning I was in Philippians 3, and the passage was:

"...be found in Him, not having righteousness that comes from the law, but coming from faith in Christ -- the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith" (verse 9).

This made me realize that it not what I do that makes me righteous, I can't try to merit God's approval and blessing by following the law, but rather having faith in him.

-Josh

LOVE

Love must be sincere. Hate what is evil; cling to what is good. Be devoted to one another in brotherly love. Honor one another above yourselves. Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor, serving the Lord. Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer.

Romans 12:9-12

your joy will be full

"If you live gladly to make others glad in God, your life will be hard, your risks will be high, and your joy will be full." -- John Piper (Don't Waste Your Life)


I love this quote :) I feel like its just telling us that, as long as we are loving God and loving others, and loving them TO God, that our life will be more joyful than we can ever imagine. However, thats not saying that it's going to be easy. Its never easy trying to share Jesus with others that don't want to hear it, but all we can do is love on them and show them Jesus's love verbally and through actions. We may lose them as friends or they may not talk to us for a little while because they feel pressured, but it will all be worth it in the end, and through it we'll glorify God. Thats so awesome, and God works in incredibly ways.
This group has been so encouraging to me and I think it will continue to encourage us all in many different ways! Can't wait to see what Gods got in store for us :)

We Are Expecting God To Move

"Always be in a state of expectancy, and see that you leave room for God to come in as He likes."

-Oswald Chambers

Colossians 1:11-14

I've had the best two days of my life. And part of it was due to this blog. It's awesome to see what God's doing in everyone's life! And before I talk about Colossians 1:11-14, I wanna talk about verses 3 and 4. It says, "We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you..." Even though Paul is writing this to the Colossians, I feel like it can be applied to my prayer life. I've always thought, "it's so cliche to thank God for dying on the cross." I don't really know why I've thought that, and I know it's the basis of our salvation, but I've always felt people said it to get an "Amen" or "mmhmmm." But after reading this verse, I feel like God was telling me that I was wrong all along. IT'S OUR BASIS FOR OUR SALVATION! I guess I just needed to break that thought out of my head. Sorry for the rabbit trail...

So I just started reading Colossians and I came across verses 11-14:

"(11)May you be strengthened with all power, according to his glorious might, for all endurance and patience with joy, (12)giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in light. (13) He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, (14) in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.

This verse has a lot of power behind it. And you could probably break this down verse by verse, but I just want to quickly look at the first verse that is pretty powerful. "May you be strengthened with all power..." How much power? "...according to his glorious might..." Ohhh. That much!"...for all endurance and patience with joy..." So whenever you feel like you can't go on, God will provide you with patience and endurance... WITH JOY! What a powerful statement.

And another verse I've had on my mind is John 16:33... "But take heart; I have overcome the world." THE WORLD!!! God has our backs and we need to trust Him. He's the only one we can truly trust! Have a great day!

G

John 11.40

i came across this verse. it says

Jesus responded "Didn't I tell you that you would see God's glory if you believed?"

me and eric were talking a little bit after tuesday night about how we don't see God work in our lives like we he works in the stories we hear from around the world. its time that changes. i am really being challenged to put all my faith in God to see him do BIG things. Jesus raised lazarus from the dead right after he said that sentence. i just wanted to send this out to challenge us this week to truly believe in what God can do through our lives. lets have a genuine faith and belief in God. i seriously feel that we are going to see Gods glory through this group on tuesdays. people are going to be healed. people are going to come to Jesus. lets start praying bigger and believing in God for bigger things.

Why are we doing this?

I've asked myself this question many times, and God always finds a new way to answer it. For most of us, this new gathering on our own agendas is a new thing. We are trying to be more God-like/fearing/minded and this is just a step in that direction. I know it's not just me, because I've talked to people about this, but how many of us feel almost obligated to attend every convo and campus church service that is offered? I feel as though I would be disrespecting God by not going to an event that is expected of me by Him and by others (that's a completely different story itself: going to church to be seen of others). Even for these Tuesday nights, there has been 1 or 2 times that I thought I was too busy to attend...but I learn something new and valuable each week, so why not give up 2 hours of sleep to hear from my family "my church" and my God!?! Every single week I've left our gathering praising God and thanking Him for these people and their honesty. I find myself pondering over things that have been discussed, and I talk to people about it throughout the week. Here are several things that have impacted me simply from taking time out of my schedule to talk about my Savior with your people:

PRAY BIG!!! Why pray small to get small results?? Do I not trust God? Am I just afraid that my prayers won't come true? Do I pray small to see them happen and then say it was just a coincidence? I need to pray powerful things because I have that power through the Holy Spirit!

Read the Bible as if you were going to share what you've learned...and then SHARE IT! This has helped me from reading the Bible as a checklist and not comprehending one word I just read.

Don't get complacent with my situation. Always go for bigger and better! In other words, never put God in a box and think He can't use me for something I can't even imagine.

Never judge people! This group has opened my eyes to some people I would have never gotten to know..and I love those people and hearing their stories...their stories have touched me more than I could have hoped.

I have seen God work through big and small things so far (healing, speaking my thoughts through other people to enforce it, etc.)

GRIDIRON! That encourages much more than the football team.

I must be righteous in order for my prayers to be heard and accepted by God (James 5:16). I want my prayers to count when I pray for you people, so that has been an accountability I have used several times. Also just remembering that my sins hurt more people than myself!

Sharing your faith!!! Something I try to avoid thinking about because it's a scary thought, but we need to do it!

It only takes 1 bad decision to fall back into those past sins.

Americanized Christianity: We cannot complicate the Bible's message by thinking church is a building and singing hymns...The message is that Christ died for us!! We are the church, and we cannot EVER look past that simple yet mind-boggling fact, that Christ died for us!

Witnessing to our unsaved friends and continually praying for them (Gabe, Donald, Erica, McGinleys, Taylor, Downtown Lynchburg folk...) Luke 9:26

Paul broke out of the chains of prison by praising God, even when he didn't feel like it!! We cannot let our relationship with our Savior become an emotion-based event. When we don't feel like it, we need to serve God! That will change our hearts right away, guaranteed!

We should never feel like we've let God down, because we were never holding Him up!! He holds us up:)

We are arrogant people who think we know the Bible and we know God...WE KNOW GOD??? How disgusting is that to hear out loud?? We can never think we've figured God out!! The only way to keep learning and yearning for God is by reading His Word and letting Him speak to us through that Book!! I never want to think I'm "done" reading the Bible because I've read it before and know the stories! Verses still jump out to me from passages I've read 20 times, because it's the Holy Spirit talking to us and showing us what we need to understand...

Why do we submit to coaches and authority, but we tell God we know what we're doing without His help and guidance?? God knows us better than we do, so obey Him!!

I love this group...let's keep the good times rollin:) Keep praying for each other and be living a righteous life so your prayers mean something!!

Isaiah 58

So it begins...

Last week I was reading Crazy Love by Francis Chan and he quoted Isaiah 58. He said it was worth the read, and I agreed. Through this chapter, God is teaching me (not has taught; is teaching) that I, just like the Israelites, must be careful of the tendency to, "seem eager... to know [God's] ways" and "seem eager for God to come near" without meaning it in my heart. God tells Israel that their religious activities and prayers are useless. He says, "you cannot [do] as you do today and expect your voice to be heard on high". How horrible is that? If we pretend to be one thing, doing religiousy type stuff and then go right back into sin the very next moment, God says our prayers won't even be heard.

But He does not end there. God begins to tell Israel, and me, how to properly do "Religion". We are meant to "loose the chains of injustice, and untie the cords of the yoke, to set the oppressed free... to share [our] food with the hungry... and not turn away from [our] own flesh and blood." And here is my favorite part...

"Then your light shall break forth like the dawn, and your healing will quickly appear; then righteousness will go before you and the splendor of the Lord will be your protection. Then you will call, and the Lord will answer; you will cry for help, and He will say:

Here I Am."

-Eric

A Spark

There is a need and this blog can meet that need. Well, the blog is just a tool actually...

God is working and moving and its time to use technology to tell the world.

Bonfire is designed to be an outlet for stories, a channel for prayers, an avenue of hope, and a vessel of blessing.

So let the stories roll and prayers fly. But know one thing. This blog is to honor God and encourage one another. There is no maximum or minimum post; just say exactly what God has put on your heart. I am sure it will be an unimaginable blessing...

Here's to growth, hope, change, joy, righteousness, maturity, and holiness.