http://www.gracepointdevotions.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/DT-commentary-for-Ezra6-10_Nehemiah_Esther_updated.docx

http://www.gracepointdevotions.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/DT-commentary-for-2-Chronicles-1-20.doc

http://www.gracepointdevotions.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/DT-commentary-for-1-Chronicles-9-29.doc

http://www.gracepointdevotions.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/DT-Commentary_1-Kings-11-22_2-Kings-1-10_Psalm-85-86_Proverbs-1-3.docx

http://www.gracepointdevotions.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/DT-Commentary_2-Samuel-16-24_1-Kings-1-15_Psalm-80-84.docx

DT commentary for 1Sam21-31_2sam1-15.doc

DT_Eph1-2a_Nov5-Nov10_2012_v3

Commentary_Luke3-13_Psalm55-59

Commentary_Joshua6-24_Luke1-2_Psalm50-54

Commentary_Deut16-34_Joshua1-5_Psalm 45-49_20130228

DT commentary for Deuteronomy 1-15

DT commentary for Numbers

10:1–3 Nadab and Abihu, the eldest of Aaron’s four sons, capriciously took censers of their own, put incense in them, and offered unauthorized fire (lit., strange or foreign fire; see ESV footnote) to the LORD. The offense lies in their doing it their own way instead of in a way authorized by the Lord, and as a result they were instantly killed. (This probably also involved entering—or trying to enter—the Most Holy Place [cf. 16:1–2] after drinking alcohol [cf. 10:8–11].) The point of the story is that God will not allow his holiness to be violated, not even by members of the high priest’s family. And Aaron held his peace. He raised no vocal objection against God’s justice in the death of his sons; perhaps he was simply dumbfounded.

10:16–20 The incident described here takes place on the final day of the installation of the priesthood. Moses discovers that Eleazar and Ithamar have not followed the regulations of sacrifice given by God (v. 16). It is dramatic because it follows so closely on the offense of Nadab and Abihu (vv. 1–3). Moses voices his anger; Aaron, however, intervenes on behalf of his two sons. He argues that the events of the day have been so exceptional as to show that it is too dangerous to perform the ritual. Aaron’s defense displays his fear of the holiness of God, which Moses is glad to see in his brother.

[Crossway Bibles, The ESV Study Bible (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2008). 228.]

Here are some for Leviticus:  Leviticus_HRBBB

We will be excerpting from the following resources (which might be good to have on your bookshelf):

• How to Read the Bible Book by Book (Fee & Stuart)
• ESV Study Bible (these are pretty much the same, just different size/style/price):
  • Paperback “Global” Edition ($14)
  • Hardcover “Student” Edition ($25)
  • Original Study Bible ($31)

Christ in the Tabernacle

This pdf is adapted from the following resources (retrieved 2/1/13):

• http://media.hhbc.com/pdfs/oneyearbible/tabernacle-christ.pdf
• http://www.cfcindia.com/web/mainpages/articles.php?display=article23

Below are additional pictures from Logos Bible Software: (click on the image for a larger version)

1. DT_CoreValues_Dec24-Dec31_2012_v5

Which of the following areas have I grown in this year? What are the circumstances or what acts of obedience led to growth in this area?

• Sharing God’s heart for the lost
• Creative and effective evangelism here and abroad
• Compassionate service to the needy

Matthew 9:36-38

³⁶ When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. ³⁷ Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; ³⁸ therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.”

In this past year, I’ve grown in sharing God’s heart for the lost. As we were preparing to reach out to a new class of college students this Fall quarter, there was a night where we gathered together as a church to pray for the new students who would be arriving on campus and to get equipped for how we might effectively meet them in order to share the gospel with them. Steve gave a short message to remind us why we were doing what we were doing, about how God’s heart is for us to seek and save the lost. One thing that really helped to drive the point home was the imaginary scenario that if his son Micah were missing one day, Steve would drive all over town looking for him and would go to any extent to get his son back. He would not stop searching until he found him, not give himself any rest, because of his great love and concern for his child. And he would hope that those who knew him and cared for him would also have the same heart and concern for his lost son. This illustration helped me see and feel God’s heart for the lost, who are also described as God’s lost children. I was reminded that this is how God views and feels toward those who don’t know Him. They are every bit as precious and valuable to Him as a missing son to a father, and God would go to any extent to find His lost children, even going to the cross to demonstrate His love and provide a way back to Him. And so as school started, this was my heart as I met people and started to build relationships so that I could one day have an opportunity to share the gospel with them so that they can be reconciled with our loving heavenly Father. Evangelism is about meeting people who may be lost, harassed by sin or the lies of Satan, helpless against the temptations of college life, addicted to some destructive behavior, and ultimately separated from their heavenly Father. Whether they’ve never heard of the good news of the gospel, or they’ve been burned by a bad experience at church, or they’ve got reason to be wary of organized religion, they are missing the amazing, unconditional love of God for which they were made. God grieves over them because the reality is that apart from Him, they are lost in their sins and headed toward an eternity apart from Him. So He wants them to experience the gospel, which offers them a chance to be saved from death, forgiven of sin, restored to God, and given eternal life. Remembering the truth about people’s greatest problem (sin) and their greatest need (the gospel) gave me a different perspective during welcome week: that each person was a precious son or daughter of God whom He wanted to save and invite into a personal relationship. And this motivated me to want to reach out to these students so they could have a chance for God to find them and welcome them home.

–

Submitted by Jenny C. from Gracepoint Riverside Church

One area I experienced growth in was sharing in God’s heart for the lost, as He taught me to lift up my eyes from the tasks and small dramas of my life and onto the people He wanted me to care about. This would happen when I least expected it, often when I felt stressed about preparing for life group prayer meeting, for course 101 discussion. I’ve gone into a meeting with someone not knowing how they’ll respond to the content I’ve prepared, unsure if they’ll understand the points I want to make, uncertain of how the conversation will go. I’m often feeling nervous and focused on the task at hand, trying to lead that time, and I can only pray that somehow the Holy Spirit will be at work in that person’s heart despite my inadequacy and lack of wisdom. I remember at a life group prayer time in which I was meeting one of the students for the very first time. I was still sick with a cold that had lasted for over a month and feeling weary. I contemplated having one of the other staff take over–after all I wasn’t fully recovered and it was just two students who were planning to come, but in the end decided to push through and make it, though my focus was just on making it through that time. Yet through the course of that prayer time, the person opened up really vulnerably about her past burdens and current struggles and I ended up being able to lift her up in prayer about those issues. God used incidents like this to increase my burden for people, and to realize with new sharpness that there are so many people out there who are “harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd” (cf. Matthew 9:36). Though I could hide behind excuses of why I should not be the one ministering to people (i.e. I’m not feeling well, I don’t know what I’m doing, I don’t have what it takes, etc.), the reality is that the harvest is plentiful but the laborers are few. Rather than just being relieved that the meeting is over, I get hit with a renewed sense that God’s desire is to seek the lost, bring back the strayed, bind up the injured, strengthen the weak (cf. Ezekiel 34:16), and He has somehow brought this person into my life so He can do those things through me.

Another way I’ve grown in sharing God’s heart for the lost is through hearing the stories of lives changed by God. Earlier this year, I had the chance to witness some of our students get baptized at our first Riverside baptism service. Their testimonies of where these brothers were before they met Christ and before they came to our church brought me to tears, as I heard them recount how alone they felt or how they believed they were worthless. Yet God had a purpose to bring them to our church, to bring them to life and salvation in the gospel, and it would leave me wondering–what if we did not start this church plant? What if we had clung to comforts or gave in to fears and never came? It was indeed God’s heart to seek and save the lost that He brought them into our midst and used us, even as the broken, struggling, imperfect people we are, to show these brothers His great love and compassion for them.

In which of the above areas do I want to experience growth in this coming year?

I want to engage more creatively in reaching out to people. This year, more than ever, I feel a greater hurdle in relating to younger people in my ministry. I think this has to do in large part with me becoming a mom, as it seems to take more to relate to the college freshmen who only a year ago were in high school, and who don’t really know what it takes to raise a child, the demands as a parent. Also as I get older, I feel more removed from what it’s like to be in college. Yet in 1 Corinthians 9, Apostle Paul says he becomes all things to all people for the sake of the gospel, so he can share with people in its blessings. In my context, this means I need to get into the mindset of being a college freshmen again – to revisit the days when I lived in the dorms, what kind of concerns I had, what my relational world was like, what my motivations were. Rather than sticking to things I’ve done before and assume what’s worked will work again, I want to try new things in order to meet them where they’re at. This means I have to devote more of my time to thinking about each person with care and intentionality, just as a good shepherd would take care to examine each of the sheep in his care.

Another area I want to grow in this coming year is being a person who will be able to teach and raise up others. 2 Timothy 2:2 says “what you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses entrust to faithful menwho will be able to teach others also.” I still see many ways in which I still need to mature so that I can become this faithful person who can pass down gospel truths so it will shape people who come after me. This is particularly true as I think about our current upperclassmen, who will graduate in a couple years, and some of whom may join our team at that time. I have this responsibility over them and I owe it to them to grow and mature myself so I can properly teach and train them. This means that I have to step up the ownership I have over our ministry and over my own spiritual life. I cannot defer decisions to my leaders, or expect things to happen because my leaders are there to make them happen. It means not shielding myself from the hard things in ministry–taking risks with people to speak truths to them; being intentional to think through and anticipate each person’s issues; being mindful of our students’ view of our church. It means being proactive in my relationships and myself first living out our core values (connecting with God, living it out, giving it all, getting close, etc.) with greater intensity and conviction before I can pass down the values of our church to this next generation. The way I live my life is what our students are looking to for the example of how to live as an Acts 2 church–and thinking about this brings to me a heightened sense of the enormity of this task.

Which of the following areas have I grown in this year? What are the circumstances or what acts of obedience led to growth in this area?

• Doing life together in all its ups and downs
• Having open homes and open lives
• Relating to each other in love, commitment and honesty
• Creating and sharing memorable moments

In our society, what you often see is that one is accepted to the extent that they are adding value. In many places, it is even more merciless because not only does the person need to be making a positive contribution, they need to be worth more than the cost of keeping them in their position. If there is someone could replace that person and do a better job, then that person will likely be gone at the next opportunity. This happens all the time, both in the workplace as well as in peoples’ personal relationships.

Thankfully, the church does not operate this way. The church was never supposed to be an organization made up of interchangeable, expendable human resources. Instead, we are “one body in Christ (Romans 12:5).”  We are each a member of one body and therefore members of one another. It’s not possible to switch out one part of your body for a different one just because it is underperforming. The only reason that anyone would ever amputate a part of his body would be if it were cancerous. But short of that, people learn to live with what they have. If one part is weak, then the other parts work to compensate. Of course ideally, the weak part would be rehabilitated and eventually be able to do what it was created to do so that the other parts of the body can do what they were created to do. But in short, giving up on or cutting off a member of the body is just not an option.

This past year has been one of the toughest years in my walk with God. It’s been a year of taking time off my typical ministry schedule to really rebuild my relationship with God. Throughout this time, I’ve often felt guilty that I was not serving at the same capacity as others around me. I felt insecure because I wondered whether others should just give up on me and focus their energies on other people who could yield more “return on their investment.”

Throughout this time, I found hope to know that Christ actually commands us to “bear one another’s burdens and so fulfill the law of Christ (Galatians 6:2).” It assured me that I’m not banking on my merit or even on others’ big heartedness, but I am banking on the fact that God commands the members of the body of Christ to stay committed to one another.

It is through being in this position that I have come to more deeply appreciate that we really are a church committed to doing life together through all its ups and downs. My leaders did not give up on me, but continued to minister to me and guide me back to God’s heart. Others in the ministry took on the responsibilities that I had so that I could focus on my relationship with God. My peers continued to be committed to me, prayed for me, and encouraged me through timely conversations. In the end, I was able to get closer in many of my relationships as I saw how unconditionally committed they were to me.

In which of the above areas do I want to experience growth in this coming year?

In order to get close, we have to relate to each other in love, commitment and honesty. As I get older and my life gets more complicated, there are different barriers that I have to overcome in order to relate in this way. As my life gets busier, I am tempted to operate out of a desire to go through my checklist of tasks as opposed to focus on genuinely connecting with the people whom God has placed before me to love. As my obligations and responsibilities grow, I am tempted to feel overwhelmed and excuse myself from committing my time and energy to others’ needs as they present themselves. Finally, as I am now one of the older ones in the ministry, there is the temptation to keep up the perception that I have it all together instead of being completely honest with where I am at.

The trend in society is that guys my age slowly become more and more isolated and lose their close relationships, no doubt partly due to the factors above. I pray that I can fight against each of these things that destroy relationships, and instead to relate to the people God has placed in my life with love, commitment, and honesty.

Which of the following areas have I grown in this year? What are the circumstances or what acts of obedience led to growth in this area?

• Living a passionate and sacrificial life
• Generosity in giving time, money, talent and energy
• Working hard and doing our best

One area I’ve grown is in a passionate and sacrificial life. I’ve found myself in the very obvious position of needing to mature, to get out of myself, to give of myself for others, to expand my scope of concern as several older staff left to help serve in our other churches, ministering to a fairly sizable life group with people of diverse needs and the start of our new Praxis ministry.

This past year was filled with challenges from the Word of God, from Jeremiah’s complete giving of himself to live out and preach God’s message, to DTs and Bible studies through Apostle Paul’s epistles demonstrating his passion and heart, that were always so timely for me.  The DT that stood out for me the most, and that continues to bring me back to my identity is 2 Corinthians 5, the amazing fact that God gave me—lazy, selfish, grumpy, full of failures me—the ministry of reconciliation, entrusted me the message of reconciliation, and has me as an ambassador for Christ, God making his appeal through me.  That was the motivational speech of the year, a “What on earth–” moment.  I saw how in every way, God has incomprehensibly entrusted me with such lofty roles and responsibilities, and I just couldn’t understand why.

Yet, as I reflected over it, I saw this as actually not so surprising when I looked at just who God is.  He’s demonstrated His love and grace in that while I was a sinner, Christ died for me.  He’s a God of grace, and He’s the one who does it all, and calls me to go along with Him, to follow Him.  How can I not respond with humility, gratitude and passion?  When I see all that God has entrusted to me–this precious ministry, the people in my live, I desire so much rise up to the task for which He has called me, to grow up, to give more of myself.  In response to this message, I’ve found myself becoming a lot more passionate about people, thinking not only of their immediate issues that they may present to me, but often being unable to sleep, thinking about how better to minister to them, take them to the next step in their walk with Christ, pull some out of the mud and mire in which they’re stuck, be a lot more proactive as I claimed greater ownership (as I should’ve from way back when) over this ministry group.

And if anything, I’ve come to realize that by God’s grace and power working within me, I have way more capacity than I thought I had, and in the coming year, I hope to find the same once again.

In which of the above areas do I want to experience growth in this coming year?

The area in which I need to grow is in the area of working hard and doing my best.  Though in the area of ministry, with the people entrusted to me, whom I’ve been called to love, serve and disciple, I’ve grown in understanding my identity, my role in their lives, and have come to realize that there’s still way more room in my life to give of myself in love, Acts 20:34-35 speaks of Apostle Paul’s total blamelessness in all that he does, striving in every way to be a blessing and not a burden to those around him.  He worked hard, not only in “spiritual” ministry, but the scope of his ministry was such that, in every way, his life would bless others.  He supported himself financially, so as not to burden or potentially stumble the church, even though he had every right to be supported by the churches he founded and led.  The fact that he can say, not only in this text but in other text as well, “You know me,” reveals how he never saw “downtime” for himself, but every moment was a ministering moment, a chance to be a blessing, to serve the Lord Christ.

And this is where I need to mature.  This past year, I’ve come to realize, with much shame, that, as CS Lewis had described in Problem of Pain, “They wanted some corner in the universe of which they could say to God, ‘This is our business, not yours.’ But there is no such corner,” there still existed those corners in my life where I did not serve the Lord Christ, but myself.  Those corners which I called “my room” or “my downtime,” where I chose to do was personally comfortable, rather than what would be befitting as a servant of Christ.  I am not my own, I was bought at a price, and I’m to honor God with my body, heart, mind, soul, strength.  Even when Jesus took time to rest, he invited interruptions out of his compassion for others and his clear identity of what He was here for.  My identity has been given me by God.  I’m a servant of God, He’s made me a minister of reconciliation, His ambassador, one through whom He makes His appeal, one who’s been called to love and He’s loved me, called to serve as He’s served me, obedient even to death on a cross.

Lord, may my standards in every area of my life be raised to honor you in greater and greater measures.  May my house be kept as the Levites meticulously kept the tabernacle, that whoever enters through my doors may experience Christ without distraction.  May every minute of my time be a ministering moment, be it with those I lead, my co-laborers, my leaders, my husband and child, or the random encounter.  It is more blessed to give than to receive, and I want to be a blessing to others, a blessing to you.

Reflect on one verse that particularly hit you.

2 Timothy 4:6-7

⁶ For I am already being poured out as a drink offering, and the time of my departure has come. ⁷ I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.

These are words that I want to be able to say, confidently that I have fought the good fight, finished the race, kept the faith!  The way I live is still too much like how I was running the 10K last year– run, walk, run, walk, walk, walk, fast sprint the last few yards.  The way I fight is not on the frontlines, but hiding behind others hoping I don’t get hit.  I don’t want to be a coward; I want to fight hard, like a good soldier of Christ Jesus, pleasing my commanding officer.  I want to run as one running to win the prize.  I want to keep the faith that has been given and entrusted to me.  So that when my time of departure comes, I may stand, able to say to my Lord, “I did my very best,” and be able to hear from my Lord, “Well done, good and faithful servant.”

–

Submitted by Sarah S. from Gracepoint Austin Church

Which of the following areas have I grown in this year? What are the circumstances or what acts of obedience led to growth in this area?

• Living a passionate and sacrificial life

Looking back at this year, I see that there has been growth in this area of living passionately and sacrificially.  As I get older and life gets more complicated, there is that desire to not do as much or give of myself as much.  As I think of this past year, there were times when I felt that desire to just settle or slow down.  However, I think God knew my default desire to want comfort and ease and placed those boundaries for me so that I wouldn’t give into that temptation.  This year has been a growing year, involving growth in areas that I never felt that confident in such as leading groups on my own or leading a younger staff and growing pains of trying to embrace my role as a spiritual mentor and one of the older staff here in Austin.  After some older staff moved to help out at different ministries, I knew the choice was either for me to retreat and fall into that “little ol’ me” mindset, or to push through my feelings of inadequacy and insecurity and obey God in embracing this role.  Now, without someone older right above me, there is a much greater urgency to take complete ownership over those I’m ministering to.  Yet, even though as the pressure got higher, more responsibilities were placed upon me, and the realization of the gap where I am in my character and where I ought to be has widened, I see that my passion has grown.  It’s not just about tasks and getting things done or just trying to show like I’m doing ok.  I’ve learned this past year that there is too much at stake to operate in this way.  I don’t want to just operate as if I’m a “good staff”, though that strain of performance-orientedness is still within me, but I see that more than that is this deeper drive and motivation of wanting to see people saved by this gospel b/c I know as I’ve been ministering to people especially this year that sin is real, death is real, and the gospel is the only hope we have to give. I think another circumstance that has helped me to grow in my passion and in living a sacrificial life is as I’ve been helping some people go through more serious sin issues this past year, I’m more convicted that there can only be true hope in the cross of Jesus.  This world is so broken as I hear of people who are scarred from the past, from recurring sins, or just finding worth and security in this world as many of the seniors are looking towards graduation.  Although it’s been harder emotionally and often feeling at a loss in how to help people, but the fact has become clearer the only source of hope, of finding healing and renewal is in Jesus.

In which of the above areas do I want to experience growth in this coming year?

• I want to work on experiencing more growth in continuing to live a passionate and sacrificial life.  I feel like the other two areas are encompassed in living a passionate and sacrificial life, and I would only increase in becoming generous with my resources and work hard and do my best as my passion and zeal and sacrifice for the gospel increases.  Although, I know that growing in passion and sacrifice is directly related to how much I’m willing to surrender my own life and preferences and embrace even more suffering.  I don’t know what this new year has in store, but I want to pray and recommit myself to dig deeper in my convictions and guard myself from wanting to settle down especially when it feels harder.

Reflect on one verse that particularly hit you.

I’m hit by Apostle Paul’s description of his life in 2 Corinthians 11:23-29.  Reading this always brings me back to proper perspective about my life, what suffering really is, and challenging me of the standard to which I’m called to live a sacrificial life.  Apostle Paul never shied away from embracing suffering and giving himself to spread this gospel.  I think about the coming year and spring semester, and although I will never have to face the kinds of obstacles that Apostle Paul did, but it hits me again how God gives me a new year in which I can strive to give it my all again.  Yes, there are regrets of having given into my laziness or fears and passivity, I have been given a new year in which I can try to live wholly giving myself to God, just as Apostle Paul did, and not shy away from the opportunities of suffering that God may place in my life.

Which of the following areas have I grown in this year?  What are the circumstances or what acts of obedience led to growth in this area?

Living out scriptural values and mandates in all areas of life:

This past year has been a year of a lot of stretching. It’s like I am a broken record because I find myself saying that every year, but objectively, this year has truly been a lot more intense then years in the past. Being out on a church plant of course is a stretch, and I had experienced that in the first few years here in Austin, but another year brings more people to our church and hence more people to love and try to minister to. This year was the first year where we started up our very own Praxis (Young Adult) ministry in Austin, and Debbie (my wife) and I were asked to head that up. As I was reading through the passages for this first section, living out scriptural values and mandates, I felt like this was a summary of many things I experienced this past year. I remember during my undergrad days, my peers and I would dream dreams about placing our faith in God to lead us, and what we would love to do for Him. And I would look at these types of passages, where people weren’t able to give up their lives and follow God, and I would think “what’s wrong with these people? How come they can’t just go and follow Jesus?” But now as I read these passages, and particular parts about how the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head, or whoever does not bear his own cross and come after him cannot be his disciple, I feel like those challenges come at me every day now as I’m older. That call is not easy to obey, and this past year has been one where God has been pulling me to commit more and more of my life, my time, my emotion, indeed all of myself to him. It has often been the case that I would be fighting with myself, knowing what I need to do, what God is calling me to do, yet the voices inside of myself saying that I need to take a rest, or that I need to take care of myself or my family first, or just that I need to do what I want to do. And these voices come often, since it is every week that I have to prepare some kind of bible study, meet up with various people, plan out events and different things that come up in ministry. And it is spiritual battle at times fighting my own desires to control my life and instead to live out those scriptural values in my life. My flesh is always telling me to slow down a little. But it is my testimony that though it has been a difficult year and a lot of dying has happened to myself, at the same time I have experienced God giving me a rich reward for it. Seeing people change, getting to know God at a deeper level and grow in their faith, that is the fuel that gives me the drive to keep pushing myself, to put away my own desires and instead do the will of God. This past semester has been one of the most rewarding one-half year in my whole life! I have been able to see God work in so many lives, how they have come to terms with values that they need to change, how they have struggled through difficulties trying to live their spiritual life and how some of them have come back from a very misguided understanding of who God is. And how is it that I could experience that kind of thing? It is because I struggled against my own desires to preserve my life, struggled against my laziness, struggled to try and live out the things that the bible mandates for the followers of Christ.

Yet, it isn’t really “me” that is doing all of that, because I know that there is no way I could have held on if it weren’t for the church, for the other people around me who were also striving and pushing on, denying themselves as well. It is through our collective attempt to form that biblical community, that is what gives me the encouragement and accountability to struggle at living out the spiritual values in my own life. It is because it is “all of us” doing this together, that is what helps me along, because I do not have the willpower and discipline to do it myself, not when my body is pushed and my emotions are stretched. I need help during those times. And that is when the church has really come in, because I know I am one of the many building blocks of this community. I experience what it says in Acts 2 often. It’s often the case that I will see various other members of our church every day of the week! And that is what helps me to push forward, helps me keep my identity and maintain my spiritual disciplines. And even within the church, there is the real life “great cloud of witnesses” right here next to me, and they spur me on (often times without even knowing it!). I have people that I can follow, people whom I can look at with my own eyes and see that they have also given up just as much as I have if not more, they have pushed themselves, and that gives me courage to keep pushing on. So these parts kind of all play together. This year has been one where I struggled trying to deepen in my devotion and commitment to scriptural values and mandates in my life, but I did it through the church as we see in Acts 2 and other passages, that helped me through those difficult times. And I know that this stretching will not end with the end of this year, YET I also know that God will also give me the means to “live it out” as I move on to 2013.

In which of the above areas do I want to experience growth in this coming year?

It is difficult to separate those areas out as they are so intermingled. For sure I know that God still has a way to go before he is done with me in the realm of living out scriptural values and mandates in all areas of my life, especially giving over control of my life to God. But also this year we will be another year older, and that means that, as I am one of the oldest members of the Austin church, I really need to live a life that is worthy of emulation for the younger ones. As our church gets older, more and more we will need people who are examples, who have lived a bit longer and have learned how to struggle through issues and help others. I really want to push hard this upcoming year so that I would grow into that kind of a person. I know it is a high calling for me to be someone that would leave a spiritual legacy, because I know all the different shortcoming and sins that are so much a part of my life still. But I do not want to be a stumbling block or road-block as our church groans another year, as we get another year more mature. So, together with the stretching that God will do in the upcoming year, along with my desire to continue to build the church that God built in Acts 2, I want to grow into being a person who will leave a spiritual legacy at our church, who can be a light on the way for many of the younger ones. That is what I commit to, what I want to struggle towards and become.

Reflect on one verse that particularly hit you.

It was referenced in the first section/question, Luke 9 and 14, about the need to take up my cross, and not having a place to lay my head. There were many times this past year where I felt like finding a place to “lay my head,” to take a break, to not have to think about the worries or about what I need to do, a reprieve from ministry.  But these passages say it clearly, that to people who are seeking to live like that, to have that escape, they are not ready to follow Jesus. Following Jesus is not easy, that is never a characteristic that Jesus nor his apostles offer up. It is hard work. But this year has also been one of the most fulfilling/rewarding ones of my life as well. And that is no coincidence. Those two go hand in hand. Jesus was able to save the world because he denied himself and took up the cross. It is going to be no different for me. To the degree that I can take up my cross and follow him, to that degree will I be able to experience the salvation work happening around me and also in me. That is the encouragement helps me keep going.

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Submitted by James C. from Gracepoint Austin Church

Living it out

Which of the following areas have I grown in this year?  What are the circumstances or what acts of obedience led to growth in this area?

• Living out scriptural values and mandates in all areas of life
• Being an active member of a biblical, countercultural community
• Honoring and emulating exemplary Christians – historical and contemporary
• Leaving a spiritual legacy for the next generation

One way that I grew in “living it out” this year was in submitting myself to meet the needs of the Gospel and increasing in the sense that my life is about the Gospel and loosen the hold on my own time and life. Even though as a Christian these are things that I’ve committed to before, but for me the concrete step of being on a church plant really helped me to deepen in this sense. Through being in the San Diego church plant, having a much smaller ministry team partly meant that there are less people to help out with the ministry needs and in a way more falls onto each team member to contribute. I found myself having to be in a better position to see the needs of the church and to meet these needs. One particular way was with the outreach week and welcome nights that we have typically at the beginning of each quarter. I tried to help out in whatever ways I could. Each opportunity to sacrifice a bit of my time, sleep, money—they became moments for me to remember why I had joined a church plant in the first place. Not that they were great sacrifices in any way, but these small steps to obey helped forge that sense of my identity as someone engaging in ministry of the Gospel as the most important thing, and that I will prioritize this before other areas of my life. Although this was not something new in my life, but through the concrete circumstances of being on a church plant, and even those small decision moments to volunteer myself and actively give my time really helped to deepened this identity.

Looking back, these experiences came at a time as I am in a season in life where I’m getting older and now building a family and with my career in a more stable place, and these can cause people to slow down in their devotion to God. These really helped to combat the tendency to settle down, and provided concrete opportunities for me to make clear, even to myself, what my life is about and what are the highest priorities of my life. When I heard about the needs in our church in Austin and had an opportunity to join, even though it meant another set of changes in my life, it actually wasn’t so hard to make the decision to respond to the needs and move out to Texas. Knowing that I am such a risk-averse person who tends to make decisions slowly after weighing the options and wanting a great sense of control over the situations, I was really surprised at how I was able to make such a decision fairly quickly, and I think the time in San Diego really was an important time that helped me to be clear about my life’s purpose and provided many opportunities to loosen my hold on my life.

Reflect on one verse that particularly hit you.

Acts 2:46-47  46 And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts, 47 praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved.

These verses from Acts 2 describe what the early church community was like, and how it was such a powerful and dynamic community. For me as a non-Christian back when I was a freshman, seeing Christians live in this way at our church was really such a powerful sign that there is something different and something special here. I saw church members meeting together and sharing life together, people over at each other’s homes, people getting together to study the Bible, to celebrate what God has done. All of these things made such a deep impression on me, and really served as one of the main things that sparked my interest to learn more about Christianity even though I had so much intellectual bias at that time against Christianity and knew almost nothing about it. Seeing this a community of people living like this really served as a key indicator that these people are serious about God and what they believed, and that turned out to be such a turning point in my seeking of God.

Now years later, I find myself in such a community and having experienced it for many years, and sometimes it feels as though this was just how things are. But as I read this verse, and think about my experience as well as the experience of so many others, I am reminded that building such a community where together we live out values so contrary to the world and where we value each other and strive together for God really is one huge way that we live out our faith. Even though sometimes I can take relationships and community for granted, as I step back and think about it, what we have here is so rare in this world where people are so isolated and people are defined more by entertainment common higher purpose. And it is also through our community as we co-labor together to build the church and even as we live out the vision of how he wanted us to relate to one another and to him collectively that we experience God drawing people to him and saving them. All the more, I just feel so privileged to be given such a community and an opportunity to be joined together with others so that others can come to know God.

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Submitted by Margaret C. from Gracepoint Austin Church

Which of the following areas have I grown in this year?  What are the circumstances or what acts of obedience led to growth in this area?

• Living out scriptural values and mandates in all areas of life 

In the past year, I think that I have grown in being able to live out scriptural values in all areas of life.  Situations arose in which I had to exercise my faith and what I knew to be true through practical action regardless of how I felt.  One of the things that stick out to me from Luke 9 and 14 is how the call to follow persists as strongly as ever even in the midst of understandable personal circumstances.  To the one who wants to care for their father first and the one who desires to say farewell to their home first, the force of the call to respond is not diminished.  The dead are to bury their own dead and no one who turns back is fit for the kingdom of God.  In Luke 14, Jesus plainly states that anyone who follows Him must hate his father, mother, wife, children, brothers, sisters, and even his own life.  Jesus’ description of discipleship illustrates to me perfectly how total discipleship is.  Discipleship cannot be lived out in 80% or 90% of me.  There is no place in my life that I can hold back or excuse from God’s call to follow.  Even those parts of my life that I think surely I might understandably bide my time with – I see how even these parts of my life God claims as belonging to Him to be controlled by His timetable and not my own.  As I went through some personal struggles this past year, I think the hardest part was not so much coming to grips with who I was because I always knew I was a sinner, but more so trying to obey God’s command to follow Him in the midst of all that I was going through.  To not let even understandable hardships in my life overcome the greater thing of all, which is to follow God and to do His will each day.  For these would-be followers, they each had a hold on arguably legitimate things that kept them back from fully responding to Jesus’ invitation – their family, parents, and close friends.  For me, those legitimate things recently have been my personal struggles.  Oftentimes, I feel weak and as though I don’t have what it takes to meet the needs that are all around me.  There have been many times when I felt so painfully the gap of who I am and what I needed to do as well as times when I did things out of sheer obligation because I knew that I had to do it for the sake of others and myself.  In these moments, when it is painful to give of myself because of the inadequacies that I feel within, I know that in a small way, I am trying to live out Jesus’ call to follow Him despite how I might feel and despite the inner struggles I am going through.  I can come up with all sorts of excuses why the call to follow might be too extreme given my particular situation just as many of the people in the crowds who accompanied Jesus perhaps could, but in the end, Jesus calls me to follow in the circumstances I find myself in.  One basic thing I am reminded of from Luke 9 and 14 is that the circumstances of life will never be ripe for me to follow God.  Like it says in Luke 14:27, to be a disciple is to bear our own cross.  It would be nice if all my personal struggles could be resolved first, but the call to follow is independent of what good or bad things are going on in my life.  Moreover, in the end, I know that the invitation to follow is an invitation to turn from death and enter into life, which is why I think Jesus was so confident and insistent in his invitation to follow Him.  One thing that I cannot deny is how since I made my decision to follow Jesus, I have been experiencing transformation and life at the fullest.  As I look to a new year, I pray that I would trust God and refuse to let the things I am personally going through overcome the greatest command God gives me to follow Him wherever He may lead.

In which of the above areas do I want to experience growth in this coming year?

• Honoring and emulating exemplary Christians – historical and contemporary 

One area that I would like to grow in would be honoring and emulating exemplary Christians historically as well as those around me today.  For as long as I can remember, I’ve always been so individualistic and independent thinking that I self-generated in many ways.  It wasn’t until I became Christian that I began to see myself as such a dependent being.  One thing I have learned this past year is how connected we all are and how all that I have and am has been received rather than earned.  With some struggles I have been going through, I know that I would not have made the progress I was able to make had it not been for each part of the church functioning with one spirit and mind.  It has really made me appreciate the many people who have gone before in history as well as the many people presently in our church who have labored tirelessly, putting down their lives, so that people like me could live and know the love of God.  I cannot deny how I am here only because of so many people who took their identity as Christ-followers seriously and sacrificed for others leaving a spiritual legacy behind that has empowered future generations like me to reap the benefit.  Thinking about my own personal leaders even and the love I have received from them and to witness them laboring to build up the church and minister to people first before their careers or families, I know that I am here because of them and so many others like them.  Ever since I started serving church on a more full-time basis, I have been able to witness at a closer level the work, sacrifice, costs, stress, and burden that my leaders have been going through all along and it has opened my eyes that much more to how my life truly is surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses.  My default is to see myself as self-made, but I realize how wicked this line of thinking is.  As I look to another year, one thing I pray I can hold onto is the truth that I am the product of a great cloud of many witnesses all connected together.  I can’t do anything to pay them back but I know that one thing I can concretely do to honor them is to lay aside every sin that clings so closely to me.  To run the race with perseverance and to count it as a privilege to serve God in any small way possible rather than shrink back because of my fears or to preserve myself in any way.

Which of the following areas have I grown in this year?  What are the circumstances or what acts of obedience led to growth in this area?

• Being faithful in spiritual disciplines
• Maturing in godly character
• Growing in love and service for others

Galatians 5:13-14

• ¹³ For you were called to freedom, brothers. Only do not use your freedom as an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another. ¹⁴ For the whole law is fulfilled in one word: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”

One of the areas that I have experienced some growth in this past year is in the area of growing in love and service for others.  Thinking back to the beginning of the year, while I was serving in ministry, I think there was a subtle sense of assurance knowing that there was a life group lead above me who was ultimately responsible for the spiritual progress and maturation of students in the life group. However this past semester I was placed in a position to lead my own life group, and this forced me to expand my heart and range of concern with a sense of awe and trepidation, knowing that the buck stopped with me this time.  This caused me to take greater ownership over the ministry plans for each week, actively engaged in reviewing the life circumstances of each person in my group to determine what ministry activity would be appropriate for that week.  This caused me to wonder a lot more about my students, thinking about what I needed to do to help them move to the next step spiritually.  Thinking back on this year, I realize how I artificially limited my range of concern simply because of position, and how contrary that is to fundamental core of the gospel, which calls me to be an imitator of God, as a beloved child.  Now looking back on this past semester, I see how foolish that kind of attitude is, as there is a spiritual war raging on all around me, and people falling to the lies of satan, relationships broken and hearts scarred by sin.  There is so much work to be done, and I recognize that God has given me a tremendous opportunity to make a spiritual impact on students around me.  I see now the frustration of people artificially limiting their heart and concern just because of some title or lack thereof.  Through this past semester, I had to push myself to embrace more people’s needs, concerns, having more challenging conversations, doing life group prayer meeting for the first time, thinking about the needs of younger staff for the first time, managing a house full of guys for the first time, thinking about their needs, the needs of the house, how to improve various aspects of their experience living there.  I experienced the diminishment of my “free time,” but now as I look back, though it was tiring, I am thankful that God pushed me in these various aspects of my life, pushing me to be spent for Him, as a safeguard from being idle and allowing my heart to wander.  God filled my life with people and opportunities to think about their needs and to grow in my ownership over them and ownership over the life group – indeed this is God’s blessing and way of helping me to grow up to become someone who is able to help others grow in their spiritual journey.

In which of the above areas do I want to experience growth in this coming year?

One area that I want to experience growth in this coming year is delighting on the law of the Lord and meditating on it day and night.  When things get busy, and that is often the case most of the time, it is easy to treat God’s word like a chore to be completed during DT times, understanding its value but still approaching it with a sense of duty and task orientedness.  I am called to “delight” in the law of the Lord.  The word of God is a balm to my soul and sharper than any double-edged sword, and has the power to demolish spiritual strongholds in my life, struggles that imprison me and hinder me from becoming what God intended me to become.  I know that the growth I have experienced in the past is directly a function of prolonged meditation and reflection over the word of God.  The freedom from selfishness, fears of rejection, voices of insecurity, and temptations of this world have been the direct result of God’s word combatting the lies and the deception that satan throws at me, and so all the more I want to fill my mind and heart with the word of God, as it reminds me of the heavenly reality, that I have a Father in heaven who calls me his son, that I don’t need to rely on my meager resources to run this race, that I have been well equipped through His truth to face every challenge and difficulty that comes my way.

Reflect on one verse that particularly hit you.

2 Tim 2:15 “¹⁵ Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved.”  As I think about this verse, I realize that this is really the antidote to treating ministry and relating with God out of obligation or moral duty.  It starts off with “do your best.”  It implies that serving God is something exciting for which we need to do our best.  Like when I was younger and wanted to do my best to do well in school to please my parents, as a beloved child of God my heart and attitude should be the same – to strive to do the best I can to please God and to honor God for the immense privilege of serving Him.  The very language and tone of the passage speaks to a fundamental relational underpinning and foundation that serves as the basis for which I ought to do my best and to present myself as a workman approved by God.  This attitude of doing my best is a far cry from the heavy-laden, minimalistic, dreary attitude that serving out of obligation results in.  I am convicted once again to return to the gospel message over and over, so that my awe over this gift of salvation and forgiveness of sins would never wane, so that my excitement and zeal for the Lord would only increase, and so that I may never approach ministry and people with a heavy heart of moral oughtness, but with the amazing privilege I have been given to do my best to present myself as one approved.

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Submitted by Joyce L. from Gracepoint Austin Church

Which of the following areas have I grown in this year?  What are the circumstances or what acts of obedience led to growth in this area?

• Being faithful in spiritual disciplines

I have been able to experience growth in the area of spiritual disciplines this past year – in my daily devotions and prayer.  Overall, in this past year, I have felt a lot more desperate for God’s wisdom, God’s strength, His Spirit’s working through various situations, and it has caused me to really turn to prayer and turn to His word for guidance.  As I personally felt inadequate and lacking throughout the year through leading the Soph/Junior class, directing skit for Glive, overseeing Interhigh, being a LIFE group lead, ministering to the students, helping them with various issues that came up, etc., these things caused me to be desperate for God’s word, his wisdom and guidance in each of these situations.  I felt the need for God’s word to lead me, his Spirit to teach/guide me in the words that I needed to speak in ministering to various people God placed under my care.  And there have been many instances in this past year where I experienced His word being so perfect, timely – for myself, and in regards to leading others, and that has caused me to be more hungry for God’s word.  And through the many times of feeling weak, and inadequate, yet the task/responsibility was entrusted to me, I’ve been able to pray a lot more, whether it’s before a conversation that I am going to have with someone, through crying out for people, various requests, and even the many health prayer requests throughout the year, I have been able to pray more diligently especially through having experienced prayers lifted up for my family the past couple years in regards to my mom and the kind of strength/encouragement that was to us.

• Submitting to the vital role of spiritual leaders for discipleship

The role of my spiritual leaders has been vital to my discipleship this past year.  Through the one-on-one meetings that we have had, the staff meetings, mentor’s meetings, I have gained so much ministry wisdom that I didn’t have, receiving their guidance on how best to minister to people were they are at, learning concretely what loving each person thoroughly looks like through their example of how they live out that life of love, the amount of creativity and forethought that is displayed that always challenges me in my discipleship. In addition, these times have been used to address various issues in my life, ways in which I haven’t been faithful or proactive, ways that I didn’t take ownership over our church, etc… Especially through the entrustment that was given to me and my husband to be leads, ministering to those younger, I have learned much about myself through the guidance of my leaders, through their speaking truth into my life.  Submitting to their role, opening myself up to receiving their wisdom and guidance has allowed me at the end of this year to see much more of myself, to have an accurate picture of where I am, not being deluded in my own thinking, and through their guidance, prayers, presence in my life, and I have been able to engage in struggle for holiness and obedience in my own life.  I have been able to experience my leaders being people who keep watch over my soul, as people who will have to give an account – as they hold me to a higher standard than even myself, and I see and have experienced their desire for me to become mature so that I can be a person that can build up the body of Christ, that can go out and disciple others.

In which of the above areas do I want to experience growth in this coming year?

I want to experience growth in terms of love and service for others this coming year. As I look back at this year, there are ways/times that I have been hindered in terms of fully loving and serving others – and it has been because of the way I have allowed sin to sabotage the work that God desires to do through my life.  There are ways in which I have allowed my own insecurities to keep my eyes focused on myself – which means that time and energy was taken away from being able to think about others, and thoroughly love and serve them.  I want to experience much growth in the area of love and service to others in my life – in all of my relationships, whether it’s my husband, co-workers in Christ, interns and students that I’m ministering to – so that as I take my eyes off of myself, I can fully invest myself into thinking about others, to give of my heart and energy fully, so that God can somehow use my life to be a source of blessing to others.  I also want to continue to experience growth in the area of spiritual disciplines.  I see that it has been the lifeline for me over this past year, and the thing that has kept me anchored and persevering through the challenges of life and ministry.  As life gets even busier as I get older, and the responsibilities grow, rather than shrink back in terms of giving, refusing to grow up, I want to experience going to God, and through His word, through times of prayer, receive His strength and wisdom, be replenished through daily times with God in devotions and prayer, that I can continue to obey God and give of myself fully to His work.  I want to experience growth in terms of my own personal love for God’s word, dwelling in God’s truth longer, letting it fill my mind, so that through whatever I may face, difficulties of life, ministry, struggling with my own sins, feeling stretched beyond what I feel like I can handle, my sense of security and confidence would come through the gospel and God’s promises in His words.

Which of the following areas have I grown in this year?  What are the circumstances or what acts of obedience led to growth in this area?

• The Bible as God’s word and as our highest authority
• Personally experiencing and testifying to God’s saving grace
• Depending on God through prayer
• Doing all that we do as acts of worship unto God

As I think back on this year, I am so thankful for the ways I’ve experienced the Word of God as my highest authority and as the lamp unto my path. As I’ve encountered some esp. tough ministry scenarios this year, I’ve experienced the Word of God giving me clarity and direction in the most crucial moments. I had a front row seat as I saw the tender, yet piercing ways God’s word would cut through some deep cynicism and hopelessness in people and patiently lead them back to a place of trust, hope and finding their purpose in God again. Many a times I felt so helpless as I helped someone through their struggles, but as I lifted them up in prayer, God literally would show me what to say or how to process something through that next day’s DT passage. And as I brought His words to others, I saw God literally breathe life/hope/trust back into His people. The net effect has been that those same people gained just enough desire and strength to remain on this path of discipleship and recommit to trust in His promises again, that He will redeem all things. When I look back, I think the net effect these experiences have had on me – of having experienced the total authority of God’s word over all situations in mine/other’s lives reminds me of something I heard in a recent bible study which was that “those of us who are in Christ and have the bible no longer need to guess through life.” How true that is as I have the Word of God at my complete disposal to be used, to be shared, to be preached, to hold onto in times of fear, uncertainty, in need of comfort, to receive insight as I look out onto the world and understand people, etc. I want this to increase with greater zeal in this coming year.

I think had I not had daily devotions this past year, I would’ve literally missed out on an abundance of wisdom and actual words to share with others, which God made available for me on a daily basis. Truly, God is always at work and is always speaking to lead and guide us. And it is my job  as His servant to listen and be attentive. I shudder to think if I had neglected this basic spiritual discipline, how much I and those I minister to would’ve really missed out on hearing God’s words of hope and forgiveness that were crucially needed.

Another area of growth that I’ve experienced is testifying to myself and to others “God’s saving grace”. There were several people who I ministered to who could cognitively understand the love and grace of God and at some point could testify to it, but through recent struggles, were now in a difficult place and unable to claim this powerful truth as before.  But through the bible studies in Romans and DT passages in 2 Corinthians, God not only reminded me of His saving power and grace, but also, gave me ample opportunities to proclaim this message multiple times throughout the year and the net effect it’s had upon me is a greater appreciation for the Gospel, upon seeing how the message of God’s saving grace could resuscitate the most callous of hearts and I have been left in frequent awe at the scandal of the cross in response to my sin.  The significance of Christmas cannot come at a more appropriate time as I pause in the midst of much preparation for the year-end and stand amazed at my Savior’s birth knowing that the cross was what His future held and yet, He still came. I pray that God’s saving grace would be what gets testified most of all through my life in 2013.

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Submitted by Jessica C. from Gracepoint Austin Church

Which of the following areas have I grown in this year?  What are the circumstances or what acts of obedience led to growth in this area?

§  The Bible as God’s word and as our highest authority

§  Personally experiencing and testifying to God’s saving grace

§  Depending on God through prayer

§  Doing all that we do as acts of worship unto God

I think I’ve grown in the area of doing all that we do as acts of worship unto God.  One circumstance that led to growth in this area would be moving into a duplex that is right next door to Pastor Manny and Sunny’s place.  People come in and out freely, our kitchen is used for cooking Sunday meals, and our downstairs and upstairs areas are used for babysitting during all weekly church meetings.  Opening up our home has been one way I’ve been able to surrender our home as an act of worship unto God.  Our church’s value of open homes has always been something that I believed and valued, but at the end of the day, I was able go back to my home and that was my personal space where I could have my privacy.  However, I do not hold such a view with our home in Austin, because our duplex home is essentially our church’s headquarters building.  Going into Austin, I knew that I really needed to have a shift of mindset to not see our home as “mine.”  I think one way in which I was better prepared for this was seeing how Pastor Daniel and Sarah’s house in San Diego was the church’s headquarters building there.  During our time in San Diego, I saw how they opened up their home for all and any church needs—food prep, various meetings, babysitting.  Unemployed people or those of us who didn’t work spent our days at their house.  I knew that it was a sacrifice on their part to open up every square foot of their home, but it was done as an act of personal worship onto God, to let go and surrender all.  Therefore, as we moved to Austin, I prepared myself for this and committed to doing the same, knowing that John and Kelly (who lived there before) also surrendered their homes in the same spirit.  It’s been 5 months now since we moved to Austin, and I have had multiple times throughout the week when I was able make that personal connection to God, as weekly I cleaned and set up our house for babysitting, and welcomed the kids as they walked through our doors.  These have been ways in which I’ve learned to take our home and surrender it to God as an act of worship to Him.

In which of the above areas do I want to experience growth in this coming year?

I want to experience growth in seeing the Bible as God’s word and as my highest authority.  It’s not that I had issues with the Bible and what it said.  But I recognize that there’s still a part of me that has a hard time really believing the truth of God’s words.  How I really am God’s beloved, and that nothing can separate me from His love.  Nothing can threaten my standing before Him as one forgiven and redeemed.  How I no longer have to operate under the old law, because through Christ, I was set free from the punishment of sin.  While I believe and know this to be true, I see how I need to grow in this area to not just cognitively believe this, but really consider this to be true and trust in God’s words to be the highest authority over other voices that I hear.  These voices tell me that if I do not perform well, if I’m not able to do much or show much results, then I will lose favor with God, that God will love me less and be disappointed with me.  These are the ways in which I still consider my thoughts and voices to have the final say and the ultimate authority, and reveal how I don’t really trust in God’s words.  Therefore, as I look to next year, one thing that I want to grow in is my understanding of God’s great love for me, and how this can happen as I really consider His words as my highest authority, instead of listening and believing other voices that challenge His words.

Reflect on one verse that particularly hit you.

Ephesians 2:8-9

⁸ For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, ⁹ not a result of works, so that no one may boast.

This verse reminded me that my salvation was something that was totally and completely done by God.  My salvation wasn’t dependent on my works or performance.  There wasn’t anything that I did that earned or merited my salvation.  Rather, it is by God’s grace that I’ve been saved, and the faith to believe this—that God was pleased to give me this priceless gift.  As I think about how I want to grow in the area of really believing God’s words and living out the truth of His words as my highest authority, I was reminded through this verse that I really have to fight against turning Christian life into a works-based faith.  My salvation came not as a result of works, but it was given to me as a gift from God.  I didn’t deserve it nor did I do anything in order to earn it.  But it was freely given to me, because I desperately needed it.  This was how my Christian life started—it started with grace, and even now after 12 years after becoming Christian, the story needs to remain the same.  That 12 years since becoming Christian, I am still a product of God’s grace, and I must not boast of any “works” of mine that I could use in order to deem myself as deserving of His grace.

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Submitted by Judge H. from Gracepoint Austin Church

Which of the following areas have I grown in this year?  What are the circumstances or what acts of obedience led to growth in this area?

• The Bible as God’s word and as our highest authority

Looking back on the past year, it’s amazing to see how God has challenged my heart to see His word in a new way and used it to connect my heart with Him in a fresh relationship. In the midst of growing in responsibilities as part of our staff group and transitioning to working life from school, I experienced anew the power of God’s word to shape me with truth and conviction.  I had to struggle with my desire for comfort and my convictions about how I was going to use my time, energy and money, whether for myself or for others, and many times in the midst of those experiences I would come face to face with truths from God’s Word that pointed me down the proper way. And often, it was only after the fact that I saw how right and true the Word was, how God’s way provided the best possible outcome and having gone down the other way would have just led to more power for sin in my life and a colder, darker, more shriveled heart. These were not comfortable moments, being confronted by God’s Word, but in the times when I submitted and followed I found it to be the path to life and a deeper relationship with God.

• Personally experiencing and testifying to God’s saving grace

This past year has been one where I’ve had a lot of opportunity to minister to guys in a much more direct and personal way than ever before. I used to think I could develop the skills and knowledge I needed to be a good minister and competent in sharing the Gospel and that as long as I was practiced enough and competent, they would always respond. That was a pretty brash and arrogant assessment, because it relied on my skills alone and assumed I could be everything on my own. But this past year has shattered that picture and I’ve come to see that ministry is, in one way, sharing about what God has done in my life and taught me, and passing that on to people. So much of how God has worked in me this past year is just sharing what He’s done in my life, testifying to His grace and mercy in my life and passing on a little bit of wisdom from how He’s led me. I want to look ahead to this next year and pass it on more, because this is how He is going to be able to use me to touch peoples’ lives.

• Depending on God through prayer

This past year has also given me much opportunity to reflect on my prayer life. I never had much of a consistent prayer life, and when I did pray mostly it was for my own needs, my own struggles. I think a large part of my lack of prayer life was my own confidence and prayer in my own ability. I would pray, but in the back of my mind I usually just trusted myself to be able to accomplish whatever I needed. But this past year God has allowed situation to arise where I had absolutely no control. There were family issues I had to deal with which I could not solve as well as issues in students’ lives that seemed so desperate and impossible for me to do anything. God broke my proud heart this past year and showed me how much I really need to rely on Him in prayer, both this past year and how I should have been every year past. I’ve come to know some of the peace God promises, a peace I didn’t have before and my faith and trust in God has grown as I’ve learned to rely more deeply on Him in prayer. He’s shown me my weakness but His power at the same time, and it gives me greater reason to press on and follow Him.

In which of the above areas do I want to experience growth in this coming year?

• Doing all that we do as acts of worship unto God

As I look ahead to what God is going to bring in 2013, I can already see many chances to apply this truth. Our church is growing and this means many new opportunities to serve, in starting new areas of outreach, spreading out around to various elements and people in the campus that we haven’t reached, and expanding into new areas of service. There are so many people left to reach on UT campus alone, let alone everywhere else God will lead us, and much of the work in the year ahead may be the sort that isn’t very glamorous, doesn’t get noticed much, or doesn’t seem to bear fruit right away. On top of that, we are starting our Longhorn Lodge project, and this will be a lot of work. I want to tackle everything God brings with this kind of attitude, with a  vision for how He can use it and for the ways that laying the foundation, of a ministry or of a house, or the Gospel in someone’s heart, can one day be built up to God’s glory. This is my hope and for 2013, that I can respond to whatever God brings and give it my all, knowing His name will be glorified.

Reflect on one verse that particularly hit you.

1 Corinthians 15:58

⁵⁸ Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain.

On my own, I can often be pretty pessimistic or cynical, and when this attitude gets transferred to ministry and serving people, it can be deadly. It would mean giving up on loving someone because they aren’t too responsive or interested, or not wanting to try something new because it doesn’t seem likely to succeed or will be a lot of work. This attitude can really stifle God’s work, and I’ve painfully seen how it’s hobbled me in the past. I don’t want it to have a foothold in 2013. I want to take hold of God’s promise in this verse, that He is faithful and sovereign and will not let my work for Him go on in vain. It will produce fruit, in me and in people, no matter what. And in light of this truth, I want to abound in every way, giving myself fully to whatever and whoever God brings into my life. He is faithful and trustworthy and can use any challenge He brings for His glory and to bring life to a dying people. I want to grab hold and take Him up on this promise in 2013!

1. DT_Phil2b-4_Dec17-Dec22_2012_v4

Philippians 4:1-9

In this passage, Apostle Paul addresses joy (v. 4) and peace (vv. 7, 9), and exhorts the Philippians to do some things in order to experience this kind of joy and peace that transcends circumstances.

• Why is it important to pray “with thanksgiving,” especially when I am feeling “anxious”?

It is important to pray “with thanksgiving,” especially when I am feeling “anxious” because when I pause to pray with thanksgiving, I am able to look at my life as a whole, and not just the thing I’m feeling anxious about. There are many times when I’m anxious about something, and I come to God in prayer and I focus on what I’m feeling anxious about – relational problems, a concern I have over someone, a mistake I made and I’m not sure how it will affect others, an area of uncertainty regarding my future. I quickly feel discouraged or overwhelmed, or unsure of how I am to process this or deal with my anxiety. But if I pray with thanksgiving when I am feeling anxious, I am able to shift my focus away from my anxiety and I’m able to zoom out on my life and able to lift up my eyes. So prayer isn’t just bringing my worries, cares and anxieties to God, but prayer is approaching God with an attitude of thanksgiving and trust, acknowledging who God is and how he has already blessed me, how he has already been at work in my life. In that context, I can come to him with my anxieties and ask for his guidance, ask for his strength, ask for his provision. And rather than being overwhelmed by anxiety, instead I remember who God is, I remember who I’m praying to, I remember how I have experienced God in similar situations, or even if not in similar situations, how I have experienced God in my life.

• What are some concrete ways I can direct my mind as described in v. 8?

Some concrete ways I can direct my mind as described in v. 8 is through journaling. When I take the time to journal before I do DT, I have an opportunity to think about what is true in my life – what I’m really thinking and feeling, why I did or said what I did yesterday, why I responded the way I did, etc. – and I can then process it rather than just gloss over events and incidents in my life and be disconnected from myself.

I can direct my mind to things that are excellent by reading good books, especially as it’s winter break. I can read books like Mere Christianity by C.S. Lewis and try to put together the logic and flow of the arguments rather than just read the book. I can direct my mind to people who are commendable – to people who are doing ministry in different parts of the world – by remembering them and praying for them.

• What are some things I have “learned and received and heard and seen” in my leaders that I can “practice”?

Some things I have “learned and received and heard and seen” in my leaders that I can “practice” are being others-centered and relational. Ever since my freshman year, back in 1997, I have been the recipient of care and concern, prayer, many Bible studies and messages, many talks and conversations. Though I was standoffish, though I stiff-armed them during my first few years at our church, my leaders continued to care for me, to teach me God’s Word, to pray for me. And not just being on the receiving end, but I have learned and seen a lot about what it means to be relational, what it means to put yourself in the other person’s shoes as I have seen my leaders do that with different staff, different students, and as they teach me what it means to be a person of love. I can “practice” this by opening up my heart to people and letting them occupy my heart, noticing other people’s needs and doing something about it, changing my schedule for other people. I can practice what I’ve seen my leaders do in opening up their homes, not holding tightly to their plans or agenda or expectations.

Philippians 4:10-23

• To what extent can I lay claim to the “secret” that Apostle Paul describes in vv. 11-13? 

To be honest, I have a long way to go in laying claim to the “secret” that Apostle Paul describes in vv. 11-13 – “for I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content… I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need.” The different circumstances in my life aren’t related to plenty and need in terms of money or material things, but it’s related to my personality, my character, my abilities, my skills. In terms of my life circumstances, I have nothing to complain about and in fact, I have a lot to be thankful for – I have plenty in many ways. But I was challenged by how Apostle Paul says, “I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content.” I can’t say that about myself as I so easily become discontent about my situation, about the resources or skills I have on hand. I often wish that things were easier, that things worked out smoother. I’ve never been in need in monetary or material things, but even when it comes to my “need” in terms of intangible things, they aren’t areas of real need, but just based on my perspective of what is a good or easy life. I need to grow in this area of being content in whatever situation I am in – to recognize what I have already received and how I have already been provided for, and to learn to receive and accept the lot I have received in life, to claim and trust that the boundary lines have fallen for me in pleasant places.

• How did the Philippians distinguish themselves from the other churches with respect to their relationship with Paul?  What kind of relationship did Paul have with the Philippians as a result?

The Philippians distinguished themselves from the other churches with respect to their relationship with Paul by having concern for him, partnering with him in giving and receiving, and sending help for his needs once and again.

As a result of their concern for him and their commitment to him, the Philippians had a relationship of partnering with Paul where they came alongside him and supported him in his ministry. And as they expressed their concern in concrete ways, they brought him help and support he needed, as well as brought him joy that they were committed to him and to the gospel so that they would back it up with financial support. Apostle Paul describes the partnering as “giving and receiving” – they were able to have a close and open relationship with Apostle Paul where money issues or their own need didn’t prevent them from giving to Apostle Paul and the need that he had or the churches had. Apostle Paul could trust and rely on their commitment to him and the gospel as they showed it concretely through their support.

Philippians 4:14-19

“The verb sygkoinoneo [to share] is a com­pound of the verb also translated ‘shared’ in v. 15; equivalent nouns are used in 1:5 and 7 (‘partnership’ and, lit., ‘fellow participants’). The fel­lowship of those in Christ involves sharing with one another at all levels: The Philippians have shared Paul’s distress, just as they shared with him ‘in the matter of giving and receiving’.” [Leander E. Keck, "Philippians," The New Interpreter's Bible, Vol. XI (Nashville, TN: Abingdon Press, 2000) 544.]

• What does it mean for those who are in fellowship with each other in Christ to share with one another at all levels?  How can I concretely practice this in my life?

For those who are in fellowship with each other in Christ to share with one another at all levels means to have a partnership in the gospel that goes beyond just agreeing about the gospel and having the same beliefs, but it means to labor together for the gospel, to share in one another’s distress and concerns, to share whatever means or resources we have with each other as we all seek to share the gospel. The different levels of sharing that happens is sharing in the same heart and vision, sharing the same purpose, sharing emotionally in one another’s lives, sharing materially with one another as others have need and not holding onto your possessions or resources as your own. It’s to have an attitude of – what’s mine is yours, and what’s yours is mine – not just in terms of belongings, but in terms of concerns, in terms of burdens, in terms of working together to share the gospel.

I can concretely practice this in my life by opening up my heart to people – to their cares and worries, their burdens and distresses. This is one growth area for me as I often try to keep things easy for me emotionally. At times, I don’t even deal well with issues in my own life because I don’t want to have to deal with the mess, the problems, the potential ramifications. And this comes out in my relationships with people – where they mention something to me, or a thought occurs to me to ask about how something is going, but I don’t act on it, I don’t try to dig deeper, I don’t try to put myself in their shoes and think about what challenges or struggles they might be facing. But to have fellowship with others in Christ, I need to open up my whole life to people and open myself to others opening up their whole lives to me. People won’t be able to have fellowship with me if my heart is closed to them because I’m afraid of being disturbed, afraid of being overwhelmed by their troubles or their distresses. I need to concretely live this out by talking more with people, and asking more questions – getting into their lives and getting into the details of their lives. I need to concretely live this out by acting on different things I notice, or different promptings I have to move towards people and to ask them something or to offer them help.

Personal Prayer

Heavenly Father, thank you for reminding me that you are a faithful, trustworthy God. I often focus on my lack, my worries, my fears, and I forget the bigger picture of my life of how I have already received so many spiritual blessings.  I have many things to give you thanks for as I have leaders who through their lives have shown me how to navigate through different ups and downs, as I have a community with whom I can fellowship with in you and in the gospel. My life is so full and so rich, and I can be content in whatever situation because of my security in you. Please forgive me for the ways that I feel discontent because of my situation or because of my inadequacy or because of difficulties I face. Please forgive me for the ways I focus on myself and my situation rather than on the bigger picture of my life, and rather than focusing on things that are true about my life and about you, on things that are excellent and praiseworthy that will lift my eyes off of myself. I commit to lifting my eyes off of myself by lifting my eyes to others – to open myself up to fellowship with them on all levels, and to embrace the people in my sphere of concern. Thank you for this reminder of the kind of life you have blessed me with, and the kind of life and relationships you want me to have.

In Jesus’ Name, Amen.

–

Submitted by Roy L. from Gracepoint Minneapolis Church

Philippians 4:1-9

In this passage, Apostle Paul addresses joy (v. 4) and peace (vv. 7, 9), and exhorts the Philippians to do some things in order to experience this kind of joy and peace that transcends circumstances.

•                Why is it important to pray “with thanksgiving,” especially when I am feeling “anxious”?

It is important for me to pray with thanksgiving because often what drives me to prayer is not wonderful circumstances that produce a natural sense of gratitude, but difficult or challenging circumstances that produce frustration or anxiety.  So when I come to God with these situations and requests, I need to be particularly careful about my heart and attitude towards Him.  In my anxiety I am quick to rattle off a wish list to God of things I wish He would do for me, to solve my problems, to get me out of a mess.  But when I pray without a conscious effort first to give thanks, I end up treating God like a cosmic vending machine, even as I ask for things supposedly in his name.

And even as I ask God for something, I must not forget to thank Him for what He has already given me.  Indeed, many of my prayer requests are “issues” for which I ought to be thankful.  For example, even as I pray about someone who I am trying to lead but is not responsive or interested in the Gospel, I ought to thank God that He caused this person to cross paths with me in life, so that I have an opportunity to build a personal relationship with him and intercede on his behalf.  It could have been that I never met this person, and today I would be unaware of his spiritual plight, much less trying to do something about it.  Or, as I pray for God to help me prepare for Bible study, I ought to always thank God for the astounding fact that I get to teach Bible study!  What an amazing turn my life has taken, that I now have the privilege of proclaiming the faith I once tried to mock and tear down.

• What are some concrete ways I can direct my mind as described in v. 8?

Apostle Paul advises the Philippians to meditate on whatever is excellent or praiseworthy.  Unfortunately, the media outlets of our age are not so interested in these things.  Thus, I need to make a conscious effort to find that which is excellent and praiseworthy for my mind to dwell on, so that my mind is not instead filled with the garbage that passes for entertainment in the world.  In addition to DT, I am thankful for the weekly staff Bible reading times, which help me fill my mind with scripture that I would not otherwise have the discipline to read on my own.  I am also thankful for Bible Teachers Training and the challenge of having to teach Bible study every week, because I need to be familiar with God’s word myself before I can talk about it with anyone else, and it has forced me to think about God’s word and his truths throughout the day, as I drive or stand in line somewhere, and also think about how it is relevant and applicable to daily life.  I am also trying to be more alert and reflective when I read the news, and pay attention to conversations and events in my life, because I never know when a really good message illustration can pop up that illustrates something true, honorable, just, pure, lovely, or commendable.  I myself am blessed as I think about such things, and motivated to try to imitate them.

•                What are some things I have “learned and received and heard and seen” in my leaders that I can “practice”?

I am thankful for the close community we have in a church plant setting, when I get to see everyone pretty much every day, and I am in the home of my leaders every day as well.  Due to this constant exposure, I have learned, received, heard and seen a lot.  I’ve learned and received much wisdom and advice, as I ask them for their thoughts on how to approach an issue in ministry and listen as they help me think through the implications involved in making a decision.  I’ve also received from them the benefit of their decades of ministry experience, and can learn the easy way by listening to how they made mistakes and learned the hard way.  I can put these things into practice by being humble and taking their advice seriously, and also trying to pass it on to younger staff by being interested in how they are handling ministry and life, and seeing if I can help or encourage them in some way.

I have also heard and seen my leaders’ way of life, how they really deny themselves daily to take up their role as the top leaders of our church, whether it means staying up long nights to finish the budget, or talking again for the Nth time about details like room reservations for next semester, or pouring out their hearts praying for and counseling the students and staff.  Even though I’m not faced with the same kinds of pressures they face right now, these are all things that I can and must imitate in my ministry, as God has also entrusted me with people to love and care for.  I can put into practice their heart of love and perseverance that refuses to give up on anyone, that is not daunted by challenges or setbacks, that never despairs but always hopes and trusts in God.

Philippians 4:10-23

•                To what extent can I lay claim to the “secret” that Apostle Paul describes in vv. 11-13? 

I can lay claim to the “secret” of Apostle Paul to the extent I have experienced circumstances of hunger and need, of being brought low.  I have never suffered true hunger, but I have been in some times of need, or have been brought low in the eyes of the world, like when I was unemployed and dealing with my parents’ rejection and disappointment over my commitment to serve God instead of catering to their expectations and desires.  It was not a pleasant time, but looking back I am thankful for it because it forced me to struggle with this very issue, whether my relationship with God would be enough for me to be content, even when life is not turning out the way I wanted it to.  Through this time, I did experience the power of this “secret”–my relationship with God–filling me with a sense of peace and purpose, as I struggled with the truths I found in the Bible and through prayer to affirm the basic facts I’ve known all along–that God loves me, that God is for me, that God is watching over my life, that God has secured my eternal destiny in Christ.  I have not yet suffered privation and lack to any significant extent compared to Apostle Paul, but when such times come, I know that I can see them as an opportunity to be better acquainted with this secret, to experience the sufficiency of God’s love in all situations, and to be able to be at peace during times when the rest of the world would be filled with anxiety and despair.

•                How did the Philippians distinguish themselves from the other churches with respect to their relationship with Paul?  What kind of relationship did Paul have with the Philippians as a result?

The Philippians distinguished themselves from the others by being the only one to enter into partnership with Apostle Paul in giving and receiving.  As a result, their relationship with Apostle Paul was such that they brought him great joy (v.10), and Apostle Paul loved and longed for them, calling them his “joy and crown” (v.1).  They shared a relational closeness available only to true partners in the Gospel, who have thrown in their lot together and committed to a common destiny of serving Christ.  I’ve experienced this with the Minnesota team, who I barely knew before coming out here 2.5 years ago.  As soon as we arrived, we knew we had all thrown in our lots together.  As we met for our first staff meetings and looked around the room, we all knew we were together with one another for the foreseeable future, for better or for worse.  And that common commitment helped us forge a bond and sense of oneness in a much shorter time than I expected.  I feel like I’ve known my fellow co-laborers for much longer, even though we’ve only survived two winters together.

Philippians 4:14-19

•                What does it mean for those who are in fellowship with each other in Christ to share with one another at all levels?  How can I concretely practice this in my life?

At the most basic level, sharing with one another means not holding on to the time, money, and other resources that God entrusted to me as if they were my own, but to recognize that God gave these to me for the common good.  It means using my money wisely, spending less on myself and living a simple life so I have more to share with others.  It means being diligent with my time, learning to do things quickly and efficiently so I am more available to meet up with people or serve in other capacities.  It means putting my other talents and assets to work in ministry, whether it’s giving rides or giving a Bible study.

Sharing with one another also means taking up each others’ burdens through prayer.  Thanks to the Gracepoint Prayer List (GPL), each week I can share in the burdens of hundreds of brothers and sisters throughout our churches by lifting them up in prayer.  There are many brothers and sisters who are in need or brought low by life circumstances, and I ought to share their burdens to fulfill the law of Christ.  I myself have been the recipient of this kind of love from my leaders, peers, and the whole church, and I’ve experienced how strengthening it is to know that the entire body of Christ is lifting up my concerns in prayer out of love for me.

Finally, sharing with one another means that I take on my share of the burden in the ministry of our church.  Each of us may shoulder a different part, but there’s plenty of labor of love to be done, and especially as I see my leaders really denying themselves for the sake of the Gospel, I ought to share in their burden for our ministry and take more ownership.  This means I must not be content with being passive, just a good trooper waiting for orders, but sharing in their heart to improve our ministry, having more personal concern for each person who walks through the door, learning how to assess a situation to see what is lacking and how I can improve it.