Growing with God

-Hebrews 12:1-3
Spiritual growth isn’t easy

Growing spiritually begins with Jesus, the central focus of a maturing faith.
When you find yourself in the slums, usually we have lost our focus on Jesus.
Sin has many traps to entangle you in it’s web.

-Galatians 5:16-25
Who is leading you?

Jesus Christ should lead our lives, and we should follow his footsteps. That doesn’t mean we will always have a keen peachy time doing what God wants, or even have an easy time doing it. There will always be trials in our lives. But God never gives us anything we can’t handle.
God wants us to reach our potential for what he has planned our life to be. Not we reach our potential with God out setting on the sidelines. God should be our coach; we should be the quarterback making the plays he tells us to make.
Some Do’s and Don’ts AND WHAT THEY PRODUCE


The Do’s with Jesus leading us THEY PRODUCE
LOVE
JOY
PEACE
PATIENCE
KINDNESS
GOODNESS
FAITHFULNESS
GENTLENESS
SELF-CONTROL


The Don’ts having our own sinful ways lead us THEY PRODUCE
SEXUAL IMMORALITY
IMPURE THOUGHTS
EAGERNESS FOR LUSTFUL PLEASURE
IDOLATRY
PARTICIPATION IN DEMONIC ACTIVITIES
HOSTILITY
QUARRELING
JEALOUSY
OUTBURSTS OF ANGER
SELFISH AMBITION
DIVISIONS
EVERYONES WRONG EXCEPT YOU
ENVY
DRUNKENNESS
AND MANY MORE TYPES OF SINS


Making time for The Big Man Upstairs

Sometimes life just gets in the way of our time with God. What a shame! Because this world has nothing to offer us except junk. Why do we make excuses to put God in a box and carry him with us and only use him when we think we need him? Fooey he should be in front of us leading the way for us. (EVERYDAY)

LIFE becomes a schedule of sorts. When that happens you usually find it hard to make room for anything else in your life. (Probably like some of the teens bedrooms (so cluttered you can’t really fit anything else in the thing!!) Well finding time for God sometimes can seem unrealistic especially if you don’t know how to do it!

Lets stop making excuses and learn how to get rid of the junk and get the spunk going in our lives. Because the bible says all things are possible when GOD IS IN CONTROL.







DIFFERENT WAYS TO GROW WITH GOD
Not everyone can just wake up and know what to do right? That would be like a parent expecting a new born baby to know how to walk right away.
It doesn’t work like that. We all need to be taught how to do things.
Especially Growing Spiritually with God.

Bible Reading
Prayer
Quiet time (Shhhh, that means quiet time)
Alone time (just you)
singing or playing an instrument
fasting
scripture memory
serving


These are all ways to spend time with God, (Hang out with Him) The core of the group is Bible reading and prayer. We can’t grow without having these 2 in our life.


DEVELOPING AN APPETITE FOR GOD’S WORD

Don’t we want to know about God and his son Jesus Christ? I mean why wouldn’t you want to know about your savior that shed his blood for our sins! But so many times Bibles collect dust. But again it is something you have to learn to do. You have to be taught some way of reading what the bible has to offer you (and make it interesting for you so it will keep your attention) The Bible is God’s love letter to us, and most people like to read love letters don’t they! Reading your bible comes an attitude change, and comes an appetite for reading his love letter to us.






Some ways to help with reading the Bible

O bservation: Just the facts
Begin with prayer to prepare your heart to learn. Then read through the passage you have chosen (Anywhere from a chapter, a verse, etc.) take notice of the basic facts. (Read it more than once) SLOWLY so it soaks in to your brain. Ask yourself the basic question (Who? What? When? Where? Why? How?) Find out what the author wanted the reader to get from this book, or verse, or chapter of the bible?

U nderstanding: Nothing but the truth
Once you’ve done a thorough job of figuring out the original message, it’s time to figure out the truth of the passage. Ask yourself What is it about this passage that is true no matter what? Your looking for answers. Question is simple but the answers are tough.

A pplication: What’s the point?
The final stage of studying the Bible is to take the truth and consider it in our personal life. Many people consider this the practical side of Bible study because God’s word helps you change your practices. James 1:22 says it like this: “Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what is SAYS” People can know a lot of Bible facts (observation) but not live a life that honors God (Application). Some people believe that knowing God’s word is as good as doing it.



When pain leads to gain!

When life gets tough what would you normally do? Many people feel sorry for themselves, hang their heads, and wait for the pain to go away.
In the life of a believer, God can use the pain to bring about life-change gain. Don’t hang your head just know that God is their, and learn by what he shows us!




James 1:2-8
2Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, 3because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. 4Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything. 5If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him. 6But when he asks, he must believe and not doubt, because he who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind. 7That man should not think he will receive anything from the Lord; 8He is a double minded man, unstable in all he does.


Whenever you face trials
This passage doesn’t give us helpful advice in case we face troubles.
James knows that everyone will face troubles. The truth in this passage is like a parachute that slows our fall and keeps us from eternal harm. The world is not a perfect place, bad things will happen. The question is whether we’ll endure them with God’s help or not.

The Testing of your faith
God doesn’t make the pain. Some trials are so bad that it seems impossible to view them as character builders. Just because God uses terrible events to accomplish good does not mean that he makes such tragedies happen. Evil and suffering remain mysteries. But knowing God brings good out of bad gives us hope.

If any of you lacks wisdom
Wisdom is unusual insight into what’s real, how things work, what’s important in life, and how to live well. We can either try to make sense of trials on our own or we can ask God to guide us. God may not answer all of our questions, but he’ll give us wisdom into what’s important in our lives and how to live well in the midst of pain.

Ask God
A stubborn heart can’t learn. We can’t learn anything, gain wisdom, if we’re not firmly convinced that we need it. God doesn’t override our ability to choose him and his ways, so he doesn’t cram wisdom down our throats. We have to ask God because that’s the only way we’ll ever accept it.