These words are so powerful! My prayer is that my life would be a reflection of the words. This truly is my hearts desire. Enjoy!
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Luke 11:33-54
“Then the Lord said to him, ‘You Pharisees are so careful to clean the outside of the cup and the dish, but inside you are filthy—full of greed and wickedness! 40 Fools! Didn’t God make the inside as well as the outside? 41 So clean the inside by giving gifts to the poor, and you will be clean all over.
42 What sorrow awaits you Pharisees! For you are careful to tithe even the tiniest income from your herb gardens,[c] but you ignore justice and the love of God. You should tithe, yes, but do not neglect the more important things.
43 What sorrow awaits you Pharisees! For you love to sit in the seats of honor in the synagogues and receive respectful greetings as you walk in the marketplaces. 44 Yes, what sorrow awaits you! For you are like hidden graves in a field. People walk over them without knowing the corruption they are stepping on.’” v. 39-44
Jesus is more concerned with what is going on on the inside than how you look on the outside. I remember growing up as a teenager, I could look like a Christian on Sunday. I could say the right answers, act the right way, and even pray the right prayers, but my heart wasn’t right. That was shown by how I lived everyday besides Sunday. When Jesus got a hold of all of me, my heart included, he started changing me from the inside out. Thus the name for this blog. I want to be changed from the inside out not from the outside in. I love what the NLT Life Application Study Bible says in its notes for this passage. Check it out:
Jesus criticized the Pharisees and the experts in religious law harshly because they
- Washed their outsides but not their insides.
- Remembered to give a tenth of their garden herbs but neglected justice.
- Loved praise and attention.
- Loaded people down with burdensome religious demands.
- Would not accept the truth about Jesus.
- Prevented others from believing the truth.
They went wrong by focusing on outward appearances and ignoring the inner condition of their heart.
People do the same when their service comes from a desire to be seen rather than from a pure heart that is full of love for others. People may sometimes be fooled, but God isn’t! Don’t be a Christian on the outside only. Bring your inner life under God’s control and your outer life will naturally reflect Him!
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Small Groups
Believe it or not . . . in fact ready or not, they will be here before we know it. Out of all the years of ministry I have been a part of, I have never been more excited for small groups to start as I am this year. I really feel like this year is going to be an amazing year at Fusion! All of our groups are meeting in homes and each home consists of a Coach, 1 guy and 1 girl Small Group Leader, 1 guy HS Intern 1 girl HS Intern, (interns are HS students) and of coarse students. Here is our calendar and the curriculum each small group will use this school year!
I am still thinking through this concept that I pitched to a community of youth workers when it comes to small groups. You can read it HERE! I would love to hear your thoughts and ideas!!!!
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Hillsong – Nothing But the Blood (Legendado Portugal)
As I was hanging out with the Lord today, this song captured my heart. It’s an old hymn but still very powerful words and meaning. Enjoy!!
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Luke 11:14-32
“He knew their thoughts, so he said, ‘Any kingdom divided by civil war is doomed. A family splintered by feuding will fall apart.’” v. 17
The great debate continues!!! People are seeing Jesus do these miracles, but they are questioning who He is, asking him to prove that He is “really” from God and not from the Devil. Jesus explains that if He was from Satan he wouldn’t be casting our Demons. It seemed that the crowd was trying to find every reason why they couldn’t or shouldn’t believe what Jesus was saying.
Doesn’t this sound like our world today? People are searching . . . and sadly, people are rejecting Christ and trying to believe something else in their hopes to become “spiritual”! However, Jesus didn’t come to make us spiritual, He came to restore us to a right relationship with God. Some of His teachings are hard and require us to have faith and discipline because we live in a sinful fallen world. But, He does give us a choice. Some people will choose to believe Jesus is who he says He is, while others will reject Him, His claims, and His teachings. Others will choose not to choose, meaning they haven’t rejected Christ, but they haven’t accepted Him either. However, the Bible says it is pretty clear:
“‘Anyone who isn’t with me opposes me, and anyone who isn’t working with me is actually working against me.’” v. 23
So, where are you? Do you believe Jesus is who He says He is? Does your life style match your beliefs?
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Leaders Summit @ Grace – Day 2
Well day two of the Leaders Summit went much better than the first day. It seemed that Chris (one of the speakers) was more relaxed and able to connect with the audience (our staff) a lot better today. Again we covered some things that aren’t new when it comes to leadership and then other concepts that really challenge and stretch you. For me, I am able to look at where I was four months ago compared to where I am now. I am thankful that i see some consistency with my answers. That tells me that I am not delusional or lack self awareness. Here are the four areas of leadership that we covered today
Change Agent
Character
Emotional AwarenessI might be missing one? I am sure that says something about my learning ability. But anyhow, the three above had some great times of learning and discussion, even some quiet moments as we avoided awkward conversations or what some call pink elephants. However, I believe today was a healthy learning day for all of us and it will be interesting to see how we apply some of the principles that we learned today. I also enjoyed getting to know some of the staff that I don’t know to well during our table discussions.
I still have a lot to learn and process! I will post more of my learning about each skill at a later time!
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Luke 11:1-13
Once Jesus was in a certain place praying. As he finished, one of his disciples came to him and said, ‘Lord, teach us to pray, just as John taught his disciples.’
2 Jesus said, ‘This is how you should pray:[a]
“Father, may your name be kept holy.
May your Kingdom come soon.
3 Give us each day the food we need,[b]
4 and forgive us our sins,
as we forgive those who sin against us.
And don’t let us yield to temptation.[c]‘“Can you picture this scene. Jesus is praying and one of the Disciples is watching! He is watching How Jesus talks with God. Once Jesus is done, the disciple asks Him to teach them how to pray. And Jesus does.
He teaches them a simple prayer that is not to complicated. Notice it doesn’t have big words and isn’t supper long. Prayer is simply talking to God. Many times we make it harder than it is.
You don’t have to use big words, you just simply need to talk with God like you would talk with a friend. He wants to listen . . . will you give him a call?
Gods Phone Number: Jeremiah 33:3
“‘Call to me and I will answer you and tell you great and unsearchable things you do not know.’”
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Volunteer Staff / Small Group Training
Tonight, we had our first training meeting with our new team of Volunteers serving in Small Groups for the year! What a great team. Tonight we met at The Zone in McKinney! If you are in the area this is one place that you should use for events. They are so great and work so well with us. We were there for three hours. Ate pizza, had our meeting in a private room and then played laser tag. It was a great way to kick off a great school year. I have been excited about small groups before, but this year has get me really excited!!! I believe we are on the verge of God doing something huge!!!
If you are looking for a great opportunity, come join us at Fusion. We would love to have you on our team!!!
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Influence
Tomorrow, we are wrapping up our series called “The Epistle”, which was our summer Bible study of 1st-3rd John, with a two part talk on Influence. Here is our theme verse for the next two weeks:
“Dear friend, don’t let this bad example influence you. Follow only what is good. Remember that those who do good prove that they are God’s children, and those who do evil prove that they do not know God. ” v.11
Would you consider yourself to be a person of influence? How are you an influence? Who are you influencing? Are you a good or bad influence? Who is influencing you?
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Crazy Good
This week has been crazy busy, but as I write this I can’t help but think how good the week was. Here is a brief shakedown of my week:
Monday – All day leadership training at Grace click here to read more!
Tuesday – Student Staff Meeting, Interview and audition/practice with perspective Student Worship Candidate.
Wednesday – Jackson had a doctor appointment in the AM, this always make for an exciting PM and it did. At about 6:00 pm as we were getting ready to leave for a ball game with students, Jackson starts crying and throwing his head back as if he is in pain. He would calm down for a little while, like a minute, and then start again. Each time he would wear himself out causing him to have to try to catch his breath because he was crying so hard. After about thirty minutes I got him to calm down by talking loudly to him saying, “Daddy’s here, you are going to be ok, Jackson Daddy’s here, you are going to be ok!” It amazes me how a comforting voice can can change how others feel. He started to calm down after that. However, it was really scary.
From this, we went to the ball park. It may sound bad but our thought was if we were going to have to take him to the hospital, the ball park is closer to the hospital than our house is.
The Rough Riders Stadium is nice. For 15.00 dollars, we saw a game, ate all you could eat hot dogs, burgers, chicken sandwiches, and BBQ pork, chips, and drink, AND got a Rough Riders hat. Pretty sweet deal. the home team won, the weather was perfect, and everyone had a good time!
Thursday – Plowed through small group curriculum for the year for each age group. Made training books for Small Group Leader/Coaches and our B2S Retreat curriculum and held band practice with potential Student Worship Coordinator.
Friday – NOTHING – Blogging and then hanging out with the family! Well my wife just asked if we could go shopping for the Cafe’, so . . . I guess its not nothing!
Here are some pic of our Fusion Family Night at the Rough Riders Game!
Dan Gould 