Power Verse #3:
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John 3:16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. Partner Song #3: |
I . Warm UP.
Welcome to station number 3! This verse along with the previous two bring us into scriptural balance of knowing Christ as WAY, TRUTH, and LIFE. The emphasis of this verse is TRUTH.
1. Go over the verse John 3:16 slowly and carefully. Think about every Word. Understand that the cross of Jesus is God loving you. Think about the time Jesus was in the garden preparing and trying to search out if there was any other way to avoid a horrible shameful death, and not only that but something far worse - to ingest all the darkness (sin) of the world and consume it in exchange for His life.
2. Listen to the song "I stand in awe" . Learn the words and what they mean so that we can all sing as a group from the heart and focus on Jesus instead of song sheets!
II. Work "IN"
John 3:16 is a core TRUTH essential to our salvation, the beginning of our new eternal life with God. If I was limited in what scripture I could give or translate to a people I would choose John 3:16 as that one. This is the "seed" we call the GOSPEL which God uses to stir faith response in individuals unto belief and new life. The balance of the scriptures are equally TRUTH and can described as water and light (understanding and power) which nourish that seed into a mature plant that bears fruit.
But I am already "saved", do I need to do this workstation? Yes, to be refreshed and revived in the power of the Gospel, for in the same way we received Him we are called to walk in Him. So a good starting point to set the pace for each day! If we lose sight of the the core gospel TRUTH we can drift away or even fall away because of (1) lies of satan stealing away our identity (2) persecution or difficulty of being a christian (3) deceit of riches and materialism and pride of human capability (4) business and choking out by the cares of the world.
Being a christian means I am (1) IN CHRIST and CHRIST IS IN ME, and through CHRIST a new life is planted inside of me which is (2) DEAD TO SIN and (3) ALIVE TO GOD. (Rom 6:11)
For our WORK IN time please Go through the Q and A's (Questions and Answers) and carefully think about the question before reading the answer given.
Q. Why does this new life need to happen to me?
A. I am a slave to sin. (Rom 6:17). Not only does the bible state this, I ABSOLUTELY KNOW THIS!
Q. So what is the big deal about sin?
A. Sin seperates you from God - forever.
The longer I live the more I understand how sin offends a Holy God. I HATE SIN TOO! I AM SICK OF IT TOO! I HAVE HAD ENOUGH OF WARS, MURDERS, MOLESTATIONS, AND ABUSE, I AM SICK OF DRUGS AND ALCOHOL AND BROKEN FAMILIES, I HAVE HAD ENOUGH OF GOSSIP AND SCANDAL! MATERIALISM AND WHATEVER-ISM DRIVES ME INSANE! Nevertheless I do not need anyone to tell me ..I am fully aware the same darkness lurks in my own wicked heart. I have common ties to the very things I hate. No matter how much I hide behind various masks of pride that I call myself .... the same darkness speaks in my soul. I look at the darkness and shake my head all the while knowing I am its next of kin. The very thing I hate is in me.
Ultimately, it is hopeless for me to escape the darkness and I will go on into the next life beyond the grave into the fullness of this darkness to which I am eternally bound. The fullness of darkness is the fullness of void in the totality of emptiness, raging hungers, and intense burnings for a substance which can never be reached even in thought. At least for the moment the darkness now has substance that can be reached, and for a time it devours the very substance of creation around it. It lusts and wars. It desires and kills....but soon it will be contained in the grandest void of all - HELL, where desire and want can only feed on itself, gnawing at its own tongue in the absolute darkness.
Q. How can this be changed?
A. It can't. At best people "manage" darkness in various ways from governments to religions, and excess of medicines and philosophy and education, to "doing good" and building extravagant institutions of "doing good". It all can be a "white washing" or decoration of a grave site. (Matt 23:27) if it is done for the glory of man.
Q. So it is hopeless?
A. Yes, for me it is...... but but With God all things are possible. (Matt 19:26)
Q. How is it possible with God to set me free from the darkness?
A. I am created clean and new from scratch by God through the substance of Christ Jesus.
Q. How does Jesus change (save/deliver) me?
A. His death contains and consumes my darkness while His resurrection implants new life in me in His likeness and substance (spirit).
Q. What happens when I believe I am saved by Jesus?
A. Redemption: Fully accept the exchange: my darkness for His light (Justification). . My will for His will (Sanctification 1 Cor. 6:11) My earthly life for His gift of eternal life (Glorification). Redemption can be applied to every part of me: My body for His body- the church; My thoughts for His mind; My control for His leading; My goals for His commands; My purpose for His calling; My "good works" for His perfect work. Can you imagine receiving 10 billion dollars for one empty soda can at your redemtion center? It would be super crazy and hard to believe... you have much value in the eyes of God for reasons of His goodness - but the redemption must take place or the soda can stays a soda can! Come to the redemption center in prayer now and make the exchange!
Think of the John 3:16 Gospel TRUTH as seeds (just like Jesus did in Matt 13)
I have a relationship with THE TRUTH, I can talk with Him and HEAR Him! As I UNDERSTAND THE TRUTH, He makes clear THE WAY to follow Him! His LIFE in me empowers me to follow Him!
To finish our "WORK IN", Let's take the three power verses and see how they fit into knowing Jesus as the WAY, TRUTH and LIFE (John 14:6). I like to think of "rightly dividing" (2 Tim 2:15) the scripture so it is organized by its primary function as WAY, TRUTH and LIFE. The experience of the power of Jesus as the WAY, TRUTH and LIFE comes into our new life by HEARING, UNDERSTANDING, and DOING (Matt 7:24,13;19).
HEARING: **TRUTH** - CORE CENTRAL TRUTH, GOSPEL.
UNDERSTANDING: **WAY** - DESCRIBES and EXPOUNDS TRUTH, CAUSES GROWTH, LIGHT AND WATER (Ps 119, Isaiah 55)
DOING: **LIFE** - APPLIES TRUTH
Let's take a some time and re-absorb our three power verses in light of Jesus as WAY, TRUTH and LIFE.
JESUS IS THE TRUTH. (Power Verse #3):
Jhn 3:16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
This is GOSPEL TRUTH , A SEED READY TO SPRING TO LIFE IN THE SOIL OF YOU AND ME
Just like a regular seed has life inside it, so does the gospel. This life is eternal life and is from God. This seed is surrounded by a fruit which is the love of God. The fruit is expressed in the giving of the Son. The truth is planted when I see that I am perishing apart from God and place my belief in what God's giving of His Son is cleansing and generating new life in me. This TRUTH of God's love for us can be understood in the natural fruits which God has created all around us. The free floating seed and parachute (below) is a picture of God's gentleness toward us and His meekness; how God the Son took on the form of a few cells in Mary's womb to come forth as a child in the most humble setting of an animal stable and feeding trough. This is how God chose to accurately and carefully express His love for you and me.
Beyond His GENTLENESS toward you, there are more fruit and seed illustrations in nature that we can use to see the full spectrum of love that God has for you and me. I would like to do a more complete work on that in future workstations. The giving of the Son from the birth in human form to His death and resurrection reveal a love for you and me that can't help but sprout life in us... a life that is in His likeness. God's love for you has JOY regarding your salvation and your fellowship (friendship, a loving parent to child relationship) with Him (Heb 12:2). God's love for you comes with perfect PEACE (Rom 5:1) in His triumph over sin and disease; and total victory over anything else that might seperate His love completely saturating us (Rom 8:39, Eph 3:18). His love for us makes me stand in awe (hint, our theme song for this workstation) of His FAITHFULNESS, that he will complete the work (start of a new life) which he began in me ( Phl 1:6).
"Whosoever should
believe" .... Belief causes new life to break
out!
JESUS IS THE WAY. (Power Verse #1)
Pro 10:12 Hatred stirreth up
strifes: but love covereth all sins.
This is a good time to go back through workstation number #1 with the desire to UNDERSTAND and to know HOW sins are forgiven and covered. Our sins were forgiven by His perfect love towards us. That love was demonstrated in the giving of the Son Jesus Christ. Sins break realtionships. We are all too familiar with broken relationships, beginning with God and man (Genesis 3), and also man to wife, brother to brother, sister to sister, nation to nation and so on. This verse tells me that, to heal relationships, the answer or THE WAY is love, as demonstrated by THE WAY - Jesus. He is the WAY, and becomes the WAY to us. This type of understanding can be likened to water, and light, and direction, which cause our new life in Jesus to grow both roots and shoots! Jesus is the Truth and brings new life. Understanding causes growth of that new life. Daily devotion and bible study is the recipe for undertanding and growth of your new life in Jesus.
water + light +
direction = Growth, Maturity, Preparing to bear fruit!
Jesus is THE LIFE. (Power Verse #2).
Psa 77:12 I will meditate also of all thy work, and talk of thy doings.
When God's WAY and TRUTH are working in us, we cannot help but bear fruit. The fruit is the evidence or action part of our faith. It is what others see of this new life God is developing in us working itself outwards. Simply sharing the gospel with someone when it is something God motivates you to do is LIFE. Sharing the gospel (for example JOHN3:16) with someone because you are supposed to do it as a christian is the opposite of life, aka DEATH. Rather, He works in and through us - it's His power- we simply YIELD TO IT. Life comes from the process of the new creation that God is growing inside of you. That new life is fed with the Word of God. Verses like this tell us and describe to us what LIFE is so we can recognize the work of God in us, For example, Psalm 77:12 reveals to us that LIFE is a focus on His work, resulting in a effect of what we talk about. If we spend our lives talking about carnal, worldly things, that is probably a good indicator of what is happening inside. We cannot FORCE LIFE any more than we can start yanking ears of corn out of one kernel. There is a process that brings that kernel to maturity. It will NATURALLY PRODUCE ears of corn. The seed (TRUTH) combined with rain (understanding), sun (power), direction (WAY) planted in soil (ME) will eventually bear the SAME FRUIT AND SEEDS which were planted in it. God's perfect love for me packaged in Christ is the gospel seed that will eventually result in me perfectly loving others and sharing TRUTH with them. His seed is going to yield His likeness in me, just as ONE kernel of corn yields many ears of corn, some 100, some 60, some 30 (ears or baskets of corn).
| Mat 13:23 |
But he that received seed into the good ground is he that heareth the word, and understandeth [it]; which also beareth fruit, and bringeth forth, some an hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty.
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Hey we started where we began - same seeds and fruit (the fluffy parachute is the biological fruit)! Time to work out NEXT!
III. Work OUT.
Caution! Never Work out unless you have Warmed Up and Worked In - see above! You may pull a muscle trying to use something that has not been developed in you yet (we call it hypocracy).
What are working OUT? We are working out the gospel TRUTH. John 3:16 .....
Did you notice that the work IN phase started and ended with the same fruit-seed illustations (picture of a dandelion)? Likewise, the same seed that was planted in us will bear of like kind. For example, the gentleness and humility in which God sent His son to save the world is an expression of one of the facets of His love toward us. This same gentleness and humility will appear in me as I trust and believe in Jesus, in particular this aspect of His entry into the world will bear gentleness in me.
In our work out we are going to draw out from the new life He is working in us and share this scrumptious fruit with others. The fruit we give others is always interwoven with seeds (eedless fruit is nice but it does not plant new life and the fruit ends there). Love and Truth are likened to fruit and seeds. The fruit lays down its life to deliver the seed, and the seed is broken forth into life to bring the same fruit, and so on. His gentleness planted in me (as I believe) brings gentleness in me through the power of His life working in me.
This power verse brings us into the core TRUTH of our relationship with God; how it is broken and how it was healed. This seed of TRUTH was delivered to us in the fruit of LOVE which layed its life down to bring that seed into the soil of my heart. When I accept his love, I am also consuming the seeds of Him, his likeness - which is born and reproduced in me.
At this point I would like to introduce the recipe book that our church is going to put togther. This is not an ordinary recipe book, but one that contains recipes for relationships. We are going to share the love and truth that God is working in us with others. Everyone is invited to seek the Lord and to share from existing recipes or new ones. Each recipe will convey a facet of God's nature and His love that is working in us. For example, this workstation has used the illustration of gentleness and humility - an aspect of the Gospel realized in Christ's birth. There may be something you do with a friend, sibling, spouse, or brother or sister in Christ which conveys gentleness and might be something others could do as well to express the same. A scriptural verse and descriptive story can help make it meaningful and fun.
The leading recipe (of course):
Recipe #1 "Wine and Bread"
1Cr 11:23-25 For I have received of the Lord
that which also I delivered unto you, That the Lord Jesus the [same] night in
which he was betrayed took bread: And when he had given thanks, he brake
[it], and said, Take, eat: this is my body, which is broken for you: this do in
remembrance of me.
After the same manner also [he took] the cup, when
he had supped, saying, This cup is the new testament in my blood: this do ye, as
oft as ye drink [it], in remembrance of me.
On occassion I come across a love letter from my wife from many years ago. At these times I have never picked the letter up and just pushed it aside with the rest of the stuff but it is almost as if time freezes and I am brought into a reflection of something very special and of great importance. The significance of the bread and wine are of the same nature, I am brought into a reflection of something very special and of great importance. A covenant that God entered in with me even before I said "I do".
One thing that is nice to do is pull out His love letter at random times and places. Break bread and take the cup as a family, at a prayer meeting, or even by yourself. The Lords declaration of love toward us is our resource for life and foundation for relationship with others.
Yields: Direction, Truth and New Life.... Abundant Life.
Recipe #2 "Kissy Soup"
Luk 24:13-15 And, behold, two of them
went that same day to a village called Emmaus, which was from Jerusalem [about]
threescore furlongs. And they talked together of all these things which
had happened. And it came to pass, that, while they communed [together] and
reasoned, Jesus himself drew near, and went with them.
This scripture shows two taking a walk discussing "all the goings on" and Jesus joining in and bringing understanding. Taking a walk is unique because you are not head-to-head but going in the same direction - a good setting for conversation to flow, and opportunity for the Lord to pop in. One of things I really look forward to is taking a walk with my wife, not just any walk - but to "our spot" at the river. When she had recently hurt her leg and was put out of comission I realized how important this walk was. There is always something to see in the sky or in the field, and sometimes an interesting suprise. By the time we would get to the river it would be the right time to pray on our prayer log (if it isn't wet), also, we make sure we kiss at the river! So, here is the recipe. Enjoy!
1. Pick out a special place to walk to (ie. a river, pond or park)
2. Pick out a special spot at that place to give a kiss and pray.
3. Write your initials in the sand or scratch them on a rock.
4. Don't be afraid to walk quietly and be one with God in thought.
5. Do all year long, enjoy the seasons.
Yields: Unity and Peace.
Recipe #3 "No-Mom Bean Bake"
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Proverbs 3:5 Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding.
This recipe is for Dads and their kids. Moms are not allowed. Take 2 or 3 small to medium sized kids and pack them in the car and head off for your local nature trail or lake. Do all the things that Mom would normally be concerned about. Climb trees, scale rock faces and cross rickety bridges over creeks. Kids learn to trust so use good judgement! Bring a simple pack of gross survival food. For intance, those cans of wierd stuff that have been in the cupboard for too long - like lima beans and beats. Find a place in the wild where you can make a survival dinner. Pretend Mom is lost and you are on a survival trip to find her. Invoke great feats of courage and heroism. Here is the recipe. Enjoy ! 1 can lima beans or whatever is in cupboard over 18 months old. 1 small pot or pan. No forks or spoons or napkins. A place to explore - for example along Seneca river. Yields: 2 or 3 messy kids excited to see their mom again.
Recipe #4 "ScraBBled Eggs by the Fire"
James 3:2
For we all stumble in many things. If anyone does not stumble in
word, he is a perfect man, able also to bridle the whole
body. Words mean
life in the kingdom of God and also mean success in the game of
scrabble. Scrabble is a
simple game and easy to setup and play. It involves building from each
others words. Just like a conversation builds from each others words. I
like to play this game with one other person by the woodstove. Gretchen and I use a couple
sections of a bee hive for a table and a couple lawn chairs. Having your
favorite tea is a a great idea. This is a relationship builder. Try this
experiment: watch tv shows
with your spouse for 10 years, then replace with scrabble, compare and
take notes. One variation on the recipe is that both of you select a
different hat to wear each game night, or you can even dress
up. Ingredients Two sections of beehives and
lawn chairs (substitute - 2
milk crates)
Two people
Two cups of tea
Two hats Yields Building from each other. Being more careful with our words.
Please send more recipes to paulm360@yahoo.com !!!!
Here is the format to follow:
Recipe
Name
____________________________ Bible Verse
__________________________________________________________________________
Description:
____________________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________________________ Ingredients (List of what is
involved) _________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________ Yields.
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