10 Truths to Live By

10 Truths to Live By
By Kent Humphreys www.fcci.org

1. Don’t be religious, but passionately seek to know and love God. Seventy years on this earth will seem but a moment in all eternity.

“Love your God with all of your heart, with all of your soul, and with all of your might” Deuteronomy 6:4, 5

2. Make your family a priority. Love is spelled “T-I-M-E”. Create opportunities to work and play together.

“Husbands love, wives respect, young children obey, and grown children honor” Ephesians 5, 6

3. Have a career that you enjoy and be the best at what you do, both in your company and industry. Never compare yourself to someone else. Balance times of work and rest.

“God will teach him how to choose the best” Psalms 25:12 (L)

4. Love and serve those people around you as you observe, listen, and become available to them. Don’t seek to control others, but unselfishly give your life for them.

“Through love serve one another” Galatians 5:13

5. Build your life on established truths. The latest “opinion polls,” how people “feel,” or current fads are weak foundations on which to build your life.

“I am the Truth” John 14:6 “A wise man who built his house upon a rock” Matthew 7:24

6. Establish a few intimate friendships and become transparent in small groups. True friends are invaluable and necessary during the storms of life.

“A cord of three standards is not quickly torn apart” Ecclesiastes 4:12

7. Keep your word whatever it cost! Be totally honest, trustworthy, and a person of character. Yes, character does matter.

“Who can find a trustworthy man?” Proverbs 20:6

8. Work hard at learning to be a good communicator. Read a lot, learn to speak, to write and to spell. Be an enthusiastic leader, not a dumb sheep following the crowd over the cliff.

“A wise man will then increase in learning” Proverbs 1:5

9. Make money your slave, not your master, save regularly and avoid debt. “Use it up, wear it out, make it do, or do without.”

“Whoever loves money will not be satisfied” Ecclesiastes 5:10

10. Persist. Never give up! Know where you are going.

“Trials --> Perseverance --> Character --> Hope” Romans 5:3, 4

Born of God's Seed

Born of God's Seed
By Bob Mumford

For you have been born again not of seed which is perishable but imperishable, that is, through the living and enduring word of God.

The Seed has the power to produce after its kind. Just as Jesus carried the Father’s DNA, so should we. Jesus lived a life of Agape because of God’s DNA. A more careful reading of this passage regarding the Eternal Seed is helpful:

Since by your obedience to the Truth through the [Holy] Spirit you have purified your hearts for the sincere affection of the brethren, [see that you] love one another fervently from a pure heart. You have been regenerated (born again), not from a mortal origin (seed, sperm), but from one that is immortal by the ever living and lasting Word of God. For all flesh (mankind) is like grass, and all its glory (honor) like [the] flower of grass. The grass withers and the flower drops off.

Peter’s appeal is love (Agape) for one another due to the reception of the Eternal, Incorruptible Seed that was given to us at the time of our New Birth. This Incorruptible Seed must produce “fruit after its kind” according to the laws of creation in Genesis.

The word of God is Christ, Incarnate, Who gave Himself in life, death, burial, resurrection, and ascension so that the Eternal Seed could come in spiritual form: “Christ (Himself) dwelling in my heart by faith.” When Christ is fully formed in our person, as Paul prays, we discover that the Eternal Seed produces the fruit of Agape—love, joy, and peace. Father has provided Himself “sons unto glory” – men and women who are able to display His Glory as the seven aspects of His DNA. It is the Father’s intent that just as Jesus carried His DNA, so should we.

THOUGHTS & QUESTIONS
• In what ways can you see Peter’s appeal for Agape in this Scripture?
• At what point does the Eternal Seed begin to produce fruit?
• Why is it important for us to be “sons unto glory”?

Study References

1 Peter 1:23 – NASU
1 Pe 1:22-24 AMP
Eph. 3:17
Galatians 4:19
Galatians 5:22-23

Being Known and Knowing!

Being Known and Knowing!


Hello Friends
Recently I read an excellent article on the five ministry gifts of Ephesians 4:11 and began to ask why years of such teaching has produced so little fruit. At times there even seems to be an obsession with finding our ministry gift. The thinking being that if I know what gift I am, I will be that gift. Or worse, if I announce what gift I am, I will be received as such. This leadership by declaration may work in some Christian cultural ghettoes but in the real world nobody cares what title is on your business card.

Certainly knowledge is power to release technological breakthrough after technological break through but it does work that way in the Kingdom of God! You are not an ipod or a computer chip.

There are two principles of knowing mentioned by Jesus. We know by obedience (John 7:17) and we know through revelation based in humility (Matthew 11:25- 30). This is offensive to rationalism and individualism. It is also offensive to most bible schools, seminaries and teaching ministries who want you to buy their books and attend their conferences for more and more teaching! We want to know through the rational exercises of accessing all the information and weighing all the options since that leaves us in control and free of risk. Knowledge through humility/obedience and humility/revelation is knowledge through a living, working relationship with Jesus. Jesus is the Truth that sets free.

How we know is more important than what we know. Do we know through partaking of the tree of knowledge of good and evil? Do we know through our intellect and its relationship to information? Or do we know through our love and faith relationship with Jesus, the Tree of Life? Jesus did not start a bible school, hand out study notes and hide behind a podium. He took his disciples to the streets and into the lives of people.

Jesus mentions one principle of being known. We are known by our fruit (Matthew 7:16- 20). Often ministry gifts are defined in such a way that the focus is on performance and stage presence rather than character and transformed lives. It is not the feeling of the moment but the fruit of a lifetime which defines us!

Success is in the grandkids!

If you have fruit it does not matter what people call you or who criticizes you!
If you have no fruit it does not matter what people call you or who praises you!

Every blessing
Steve & Marilyn
_____________________________________________________

www.harvest-now.org

North America
35 Colony Trail Blvd
Holland Landing ON L9N 1C6
+1.905.836.8943

Europe
Hoenderhoeve 23
Houten 3992 XK, NL
+31.30.638.4377