How many times have you seen a person make a decision based on an emotion or a feeling? How often were those decisions wrong? Whether it’s a person “falling in love” or the purchase of a lottery ticket due to a “hunch,” we are often seduced by our feelings. How does a person get off the merry-go-round of making emotional decisions? Do what Jesus did. Since Jesus was human and never made a bad decision, it makes sense to follow the pattern of His life.

First, consider the life-focus that Jesus had that served as a backdrop for all of His decisions:

“I tell you the truth, the Son can do nothing by Himself; he can only do what

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How many times have you seen a person make a decision based on an emotion or a feeling? How often were those decisions wrong? Whether it’s a person “falling in love” or the purchase of a lottery ticket due to a “hunch,” we are often seduced by our feelings. Since Jesus was human, do you think He ever made a decision based on feelings alone? We know he didn’t make any bad decisions… so how did Jesus live life yet never make an emotional “knee-jerk” decision? Today, we will continue to consider the model that Jesus provides for us in order to discern how to overcome our often self-oriented feelings and build our lives on …

 

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In yesterday’s Connections class, I mentioned a couple of sermons by D.A. Carson titled “On Being Prepared for Suffering and Evil.” I cannot recommend this teaching strongly enough; this isn’t the first time I’ve commended these messages, and it won’t be the last.

Here are the free download links:

On Being Prepared for Suffering and Evil: Part 1

On Being Prepared for Suffering and Evil: Part 2

In addition, Dr. Carson has published an extensive treatment on the subject in his book How Long, O Lord?: Reflections on Suffering and Evil. I’m only a few chapters in, but it is off to a fantastic start—I highly recommend it

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The effects of Jesus’ trust in the Father are profound and tremendously instructive. Since the desire of Jesus was to please the Father, the emotions and desires that Jesus had were always God-centered. The opposite is true for us today. Even as Christians our emotions and desires are rooted in a desire to trust and to please ourselves. Therefore, we often find ourselves experiencing (and fighting!) self-centered living. Today, we will continue to consider the model that Jesus provided and discern how to overcome our self-oriented feelings in order to build our lives around what is true. Simply put, Jesus is our model for true spiritual living. MP3 download.

 

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Check out our women’s ministry and Facebook page for the retreat promo video.

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As we consider the serious side of Jesus’ humanity, this video from Mark Driscoll shows us a another side we probably think about too little:

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Some thoughts on pain and suffering and how our current teaching series on the humanity of Jesus helps me make sense of it all:

As a thoughtful Christian, I have to be able to make sense of that most difficult of questions: how do you reconcile the reality of suffering and evil with the existence of an all-good, all-powerful God? … As the atheist philosopher Bertrand Russell famously asked, “what are you going to say as you kneel next to a dying child?”

Bringing logic to bear on that situation is, for most people, simply a case study in using the wrong tool for the job. Instead, comfort comes from understanding that God is familiar with suffering through first-hand experience

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We apologize for the incomplete recording of today’s class due to technical difficulties.

 

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During his earthly life, Jesus trusted in the Father to sustain and guide him. Jesus also submitted to the Spirit of God to move through Him to touch the lives of the people. In this way Jesus provides for us a model of living by the Spirit of God. Today, we will consider the dynamics of this truth through employing the life-story of a young man named Brian. Today, we hope you will savor the amazing grace expressed in a very personal Jesus. MP3 download.

 

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