Tag Archives: according to scripture

Greg Laurie

Greg Laurie – What Do We Do with the Dash?

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By this My Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit; so you will be My disciples. —John 15:8

What are you supposed to do with your life? According to Scripture, we are all placed here on this earth to glorify and honor God and produce spiritual fruit in our lives. In fact, one of the songs we will sing in heaven is this one:

“You are worthy, O Lord,

To receive glory and honor and power;

For You created all things,

And by Your will they exist and were created.” (Revelation 4:11)

We exist for the pleasure of God. We were created to bring glory to Him and to produce spiritual fruit. Jesus said, “You did not choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain” (John 15:16). He also said, “By this My Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit; so you will be My disciples” (verse 8).

We don’t determine how long we will live on this earth. We may try. We can hang out at health food stores and take all kinds of vitamins and do all the right things, and we may even improve the quality of our lives by doing these things, but it is God who determines the length of our lives. It is God who decided when we were to be born. And it is God who decides when we will die. We have nothing to say about those dates. But we have everything to say about the dash in between them.

So what do we do with the dash? How do we live out the dash? We are here to glorify God. We don’t all have the same talents, but we have all been given our lives. So let’s not waste them in the pursuit of nothingness. Let’s invest our lives in the pursuit of God.

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Greg Laurie – Look Up!

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“Now when these things begin to happen, look up and lift up your heads, because your redemption draws near.” —Luke 21:28

Over the years people have come up with some crazy theories of who they think the Antichrist is. But according to Scripture, the Antichrist cannot emerge until Christians are caught up to meet the Lord in the air.

The Bible says, “For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work; only He who now restrains will do so until He is taken out of the way. And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord will consume with the breath of His mouth and destroy with the brightness of His coming” (2 Thessalonians 2:7–8).

Who is restraining evil today? It is the Holy Spirit, working through the church, working through Christians who stand up for what is right, who speak out against evil, who function as light and salt in our culture. Jesus said that as believers, we are the light of the world, and we are the salt of the earth (see Matthew 5:13–14).

Light, obviously, illuminates. And salt was used in the first century to preserve meat, preventing spoilage in the absence of refrigeration. We are here to tell the world about Jesus and shine our light. We are here to stop the spread of evil.

Regarding the signs of the end of the age, Jesus said, “Now when these things begin to happen, look up and lift up your heads, because your redemption draws near” (Luke 21:28).

Notice that Jesus said, “When these things begin to happen, look up. . . .” He didn’t say, “When these things are happening, . . .” We should not be looking for the Antichrist; we should be looking for Jesus Christ. That is the emphasis of Scripture.

So look up. Your redemption is drawing near.

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Campus Crusade for Christ; Bill Bright – The Right Priorities

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“Constantly remind the people about these laws, and you yourself must think about them every day and every night so that you will be sure to obey all of them. For only then will you succeed” (Joshua 1:8).

Jim was a driven man. He loved his wife and his four children. But the thing that consumed almost every waking thought was, “How can I be a greater success? How can I earn the praise of men?”

Through neglect his family began to disintegrate, and he came to me for counsel. His wife was interested in another man; he was alienated from his children. Three were involved in drugs and one had attempted suicide twice.

“Where have I gone wrong?” Jim asked.

I reminded him of the Scripture, “What does it profit a man if he gains the whole world and loses his own soul?”

According to Scripture, a man’s priorities are first, to love God with all his heart, his soul and his mind, and then to love his neighbor as himself. Since his closest neighbors are his wife and children, his second priority is his wife. A good marriage takes the Ephesians 5:25 kind of love. “Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church,” a sacrificial, giving love.

The third priority is his children. He must show love to them, not by giving them things, but by giving them himself, spending time with them, letting them know they are far more important to him than his business.

A man must love his wife and children unconditionally as God loves him – not when, if, or because they are good and deserve to be loved.

And the fourth priority I discussed with Jim was his business. A man’s business must be dedicated to the Lord Jesus Christ.

Jim surrendered his life to Christ. After almost three years of implementing the Bible’s priorities, Jim’s family again was united in the love of Christ, and God had given Jim and his wife a new-found love for Himself and for each other.

The law of God is clear: When we disobey Him, he disciplines us as a loving father and mother discipline their child, and when we obey Him, He will bless us.

Bible Reading: James 2:-8

TODAY’S ACTION POINT:  I will seek to please the Lord in all that I do, knowing that I will experience His blessings when I obey Him, and His discipline when I disobey Him.