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!!