There is a story of a little girl who loved playing in her mom’s jewelry and one day she decided, without her mother’s permission, to wear one of her moms beautiful necklaces outside to play to impress her friends.  After a while of playing outside, before returning home, the girl noticed that her mother’s beautiful necklace was no longer around her neck.  In a panic, she searched and searched all over where she had been playing but could not find it.  After a long while of searching the girl eventually hung her head and returned home and told her mother.

And upon hearing the news the mother immediately asked her daughter one question.  She said, “Where were you playing?” The girl answered, “At the park.”  And after hearing that vital piece of information the mother immediately left and was back with the necklace in less than fifteen minutes. 

When she got home, her daughter was shocked that her mom found the necklace so quickly.  She said, “Mom I can’t believe you found it, I looked all over for it.  How did you find it so quickly?”  The mom said, “The reason I found it quicker than you is because we were not looking for the same thing.  You were looking for a necklace you play with in mommy’s closet, and I was looking for a $500 necklace that your father gave me on our 10th Wedding Anniversary.” 

Here’s the point of this story...THE RIGHT MOTIVATION MAKES ALL THE DIFFERENCE IN THE WORLD.  That’s true when it comes to finding expensive piece of jewelry with sentimental value that’s been lost on a playground and it’s true when it comes to your spiritual life.  And one thing that we find throughout the Scriptures is that we as believers have great reason for following hard after God and walking worthy for Him.  In Ephesians 1:3-14, Paul gives us three reasons. 

He tells us that we as believers should walk worthy for God because, THE FATHER HAS SELECTED US (vv. 4-6), THE SON HAS SACRIFICED FOR US (vv. 7-12) and because THE SPIRIT HAS SEALED US (vv. 13-14).

For more on our motivation for walking worthy click HERE and listen to “BE MOTIVATED TO WALK WORTHY.”  

"Quote" of the Week

"If Jesus Christ be God and died for me, then no sacrifice can be too great for me to make for Him."  -C.T. Studd

It is impossible to know how to please God without an adequate and developing understanding of Scripture. Therefore, knowing biblical doctrine is required for maturing in the faith — it is necessary for true spiritual adulthood. At the same time, we must always remember that mere knowledge is insufficient for spiritual maturity. Satan, after all, has an intellectual knowledge of God and His Word (Matt. 4:1–11; James 2:19), but he is anything but spiritually mature. 

More than just a mental grasp of the content of biblical theology is needed, for spiritual maturity only comes as we receive the Word in our hearts and allow it to transform us through the power of the Holy Spirit. Only the Spirit can give us the willingness and the ability to respond to divine revelation in this manner (John 3:1–14).  Still, because spiritual maturity requires theological study, there can be no growth without it.

"Quote" of the Week

“Many people believe that theological study holds little value.  They say, “I don’t need theology; I just need to know Jesus.”  Yet theology is unavoidable for every Christian.  It is our attempt to understand the truth that God has revealed to us—something every Christian does.  So it is not a question of whether we are going to engage in theology; it is a question of whether our theology is sound or unsound.  It is important to study and learn because God has taken great pains to reveal Himself to His people.  He gave us a book, one that is not meant to sit on a shelf pressing dried flowers, but to be read, searched, digested, studied, and chiefly to be understood.”  -R.C. Sproul 

Sproul, R.C.  Everyone’s a Theologian:  An Introduction to Systematic Theology.  Ligonier Ministries:  Sanford, Florida.  2014.  12

We humans sense the need to belong to a time and place.  We perceive that we are part of something bigger than we are, that we are not isolated, random happenings, but that life has meaning and purpose.  Religions, mythologies, larger-than-life stories of patriotism and national origin are some ways that we seek to satisfy this desire.  For several decades, however, many observers of contemporary Western society have lamented that people in developed countries have gradually lost their sense of time and place.  We don’t seem to belong anymore.  We don’t know what “story” we are part of.  In the language of specialists, there is no accepted metanarrative, no grand story to help us interpret time and space (generally) and our place in it (particularly). 

Some recent thinkers have celebrated the loss of metanarrative.  They have suggested that people only use such beliefs to marginalize others or to advance their own power agendas.  But Christianity—at least historic Christianity—has always argued that there is a grand story.  Christianity, in fact, can only be understood as part of God’s story, or, as this book will call it, the Kingdom Story.  Christians believe that the Bible wonderfully answers the questions, What’s life all about?  What’s the purpose of history?  What story are we human beings involved in?

The Bible is at its heart a story—a true story and the best story of all.  Better than a book of theology, the Bible contains the one true grand narrative.  It records more historical material than it does anything else (for example, laws, poems, prophesies, doctrinal explanations).  If we are to understand the Bible, first of all we need to know its story, the Kingdom Story, from start to finish. 

For the story from start to finish, click HERE and listen to “A WALK THROUGH THE BIBLE” with Dr. Kendell Easley.

"Quote" of the Week

The entire biblical narrative is summed up in one sweeping statement:

The Lord God through His Christ is graciously building a kingdom of  redeemed people for their joy and for His own glory.  
-Dr. Kendell Easley

All persons everywhere have a deep, inner sense that God exists, that they are his creatures, and that he is their Creator. Paul says that even Gentile unbelievers “knew God” but did not honor him as God or give thanks to him (Rom. 1:21). He says that wicked unbelievers have “exchanged the truth about God for a lie” (Rom. 1:25), implying that they actively or willfully rejected some truth about God’s existence and character that they knew. Paul says that “what can be known about God is plain to them,” and adds that this is “because God has shown it to them” (Rom. 1:19).

Yet Scripture also recognizes that some people deny this inner sense of God and even deny that God exists. It is “the fool” who says in his heart, “There is no God” (Ps. 14:1; 53:1). It is the wicked person who first “curses and renounces the LORD” and then in pride repeatedly thinks “there is no God” (Ps. 10:3–4). These passages indicate both that sin leads people to think irrationally and to deny God’s existence, and that it is someone who is thinking irrationally or who has been deceived who will say, “There is no God.”

Paul also recognizes that sin will cause people to deny their knowledge of God: he speaks of those who “by their wickedness suppress the truth” (Rom. 1:18) and says that those who do this are “without excuse” for this denial of God (Rom. 1:20). A series of active verbs indicates that this is a willful suppression of the truth (Rom. 1:23, 25, 28, 32).

In the life of a Christian this inner awareness of God becomes stronger and more distinct. We begin to know God as our loving Father in heaven (Rom. 8:15), the Holy Spirit bears witness with our spirits that we are children of God (Rom. 8:16), and we come to know Jesus Christ living within our hearts (Eph. 3:17; Phil. 3:8, 10; Col. 1:27; John 14:23). The intensity of this awareness for a Christian is such that though we have not seen our Lord Jesus Christ, we indeed love him (1 Peter 1:8).

Grudem, Wayne A. Systematic Theology: An Introduction to Biblical Doctrine. Leicester, England; Grand Rapids, MI: Inter-Varsity Press; Zondervan Pub. House, 2004.

For more on this click HERE and listen to "WE ARE ALL ABOUT IMPACTING THE WORLD FOR CHRIST."  

"Quote" of the Week

"How do we know that God exists?  The answer can be given in two parts:  First, all people have an inner sense of God.  Second, we believe the evidence that is found in Scripture and in nature."  -Wayne Grudem