Includes...
Several years ago, I was talking with my grandpa on the phone, and he said he had just finished eating Romans 8 for breakfast. Then he said, "You should read it today and read it at least twice." So, I took his advice and read it twice, and Romans 8:11 seemed to jump off the page at me (it is bolded down below). Today we are going to take communion over the first couple of paragraphs in Romans 8 and then continue through the chapter over the next several days.
Romans 8:1-11 Life Through the Spirit
8 Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, 2 because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit who gives life has set you free from the law of sin and death. 3 For what the law was powerless to do because it was weakened by the flesh, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh to be a sin offering. And so he condemned sin in the flesh, 4 in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fully met in us, w...
Recently we had Groundhog Day, and it made me think of the movie where Bill Murray gets stuck in the daily loop. He wakes up to the same day every day. There are a bunch of movies with this theme now and they all follow the same plot. The person who is stuck in the same day over and over starts to go eat a bunch of food, spending money, and indulge themselves. Then they realize this doesn't make them happy, so they usually get depressed and basically give up for a while. Then they eventually turn and start to focus on how they can do good and love others during the day. They realize the amazing gift they have been given and start to develop new skills like playing instruments, art, etc and start to see all of the opportunities to do good for others. Eventually this new way of living is what breaks them out of the vicious cycle they were in.
In life sometimes we get stuck in vicious cycles that seem very hard to break free from. If we are in a cycle, it means we ne...
Here is this week's Yearly Cycle Update.
It seems like every year during February and March God keeps bringing up the topic of confidence.
1 John 3:21-22 says If our hearts do not condemn us, we will have confidence before God and receive from him anything we ask, because we keep his commands and do what pleases him.
For us to move to a place of confidence we must deal with condemnation, and there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. To have condemnation means we have doubts, while confidence is the state where all of the doubt is removed.
Sometimes we have doubts because we look out ourselves, but our confidence is meant to be in God and the righteousness of Jesus not our own
I am praying for you.
Daniel
In today's communion we are asking God to help us break any habits of procrastination on things we know we should be doing. Business coach Dan Sullivan has a teaching he calls the Procrastination Priority, in which he says that often the things we are procrastinating on, should be turned into high priorities because we all have a tendency to procrastinate on the things that are really most important.
One of the ways God speaks to us is through our conscience and bringing things to our remembrance. I have found that if something keeps coming to mind that I haven't done yet, then it is often God trying to get me to take action. Whenever we have things, we know to do but are not executing or taking action on they build up in our conscience and block our mental clarity along with our ability to hear as clearly from God. They also block our confidence because we know internally that we are not walking in what we know to do.
There are a number of reasons for procrast...
Here are some scriptures to meditate on today about grace teaching us how to live. Notice it is not rules and laws... but grace.
For sin shall no longer be your master, because you are not under the law, but under grace. Romans 6:14
For the grace of God has appeared that offers salvation to all people. It teaches us to say “No” to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age, Titus 2:11
Today's communion is a time of gratitude that because of grace sin will no longer be our master and that grace teaches us to live self-controlled upright and godly lives in this present age.
Today's Workout/Health Tip
If you miss a workout or have a bad meal, then give yourself grace. Don't beat yourself up over it. Just get right back on track as quickly as possible.
I am praying for you.
Daniel
One of the concepts we discuss every day on the communion videos is becoming magnetic. When God's grace is flowing through us it is magnetic. With magnets like forces repel and opposites attract. I have found that when we pursue our goals through our own efforts, grinding away, and trying to force it to happen it only repels the goals further away from us. The more we try to push toward them the further away they get. But when we take the pressure off and instead seek after God then all of those goals are pulled into our lives. Jesus says to seek first the kingdom of Heaven and his righteousness and all of the things we need will be added to our lives. When we seek first the kingdom it magnetizes and pulls everything into our lives rather than having to chase after the stuff... But this does take trust!
I am not saying there is no work involved. In fact, when grace is flowing, we will probably do more work and be more productive than ever, but we are at rest in ou...
The other day my daughter and I were reading the Power of Positive Thinking for Teens by Norman Vincent Peale and in the book was the example of a boy who was having trouble making friends. The boy was given the suggestion of praying consistently for the people around him, the people he encountered every day. His prayer was simply to think kindly of all the people around him.
As the boy did this it turned his focus from himself to others and it softened his heart toward other people because he had been very judgmental of others. And the boy began to make many more friends, because he became much friendlier.
Praying for those around us is very powerful because it also changes us in the process. Something else I have found to be true is that praying for those around us also seems to open up many opportunities in life. Our monthly message this month is to Be Ready and Watching for Opportunities and one of the ways to do this is praying for others consistently.
Th...
One of the concepts in the Abundant Life Blueprint is that health and time are balancing areas of life. What we do with our time impacts our health and vice versa. In fact, I don't think of these as two different areas of life. To me they are one thing, that is inseparable.
Through the years of training clients in the gym the biggest thing I noticed was that time was the biggest reason why people weren't successful. It takes time to be healthy because nobody can do our exercise, eat our meals, or get our rest for us. Many people are also defeated by time because they put unrealistic time expectations on their results that will never lead to long term health.
Health must be prioritized because there will be many things that try to steal the time needed to be healthy. Something I have also come to realize is that to truly understand that connection between health and time and get it right only happens by God's grace.
Today's communion is a time of gratitude for ...
I once heard a story from business mentor Jay Abraham about the principle of access. During a seminar someone asked him about the best way to raise $10 million in order to build a factory. His response was you don't need to raise the $10 million or build the factory. Find a factory that is already built that is not using it during the night hours and offer to partner with them and split the profits in exchange for using the factory during the night. The businessman took the advice and ended up splitting several million dollars in profits with an existing factory without having to go through all of the trouble of raising $10 million and building a factory. This is the power of the principle of access.
Romans 5:1-5 says
Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, 2 through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we boast in the hope of the glory of God. 3 Not on...
The other day I learned that when there are big quick changes in air pressure it can cause the water that comes out of the sink to be cloudy because it has more air in it. We had a day when the temperature went from about 30 degrees up to the mid 50s and this also changed the air pressure, which caused some cloudy water. This reminded me of a communion meditation we did a few months ago on Priming the Pump.
In that communion meditation we said that God has placed a well of living water inside of us, but the pump must be primed to remove all of the air so that the water flows. This happens by the pump using mechanical pressure to pull the air out of the pipeline. In the Old Testament and New Testament the word for Spirit is translated as wind or breath. Praying in the Spirit primes the pump and removes the air out of the pipeline(the prayers God needs prayed) so that the living water flows.
But sometimes we go through times of lower pressure or have quick change...
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