Finding and Doing God's Will—James 4:13-17
Trying to fill God's shoes will always be a bad fit. Wearing our own shoes and walking in His steps is always a better way to live. Many people live with no thought of God's steps in mind. The culture is filled with statements that declare people's rights to do this and that, as if they were the final authority for their lives. "We have a right to decide our own destiny and choose what is best for us…" so the line goes.
and Leaving a Legacy for the Next Generation
Rungs Reaching Toward the Heart of Success—1 Peter 5:5-7
Growth and change are not easy transitions in a local church, but obviously there are specific actions and attitudes necessary if the church is to reflect the Lord and build a foundation for present and future generations.
I want you to think about this quote:
I want to restate a question I asked in our last session: How do we get truth from the Scripture into our lives? How do we bridge the gap from content to conduct? How do we get our theology, what we believe, translated into our biography? This is a step that must be taken if our faith is to work! It does no good to have a list of things we believe, if that list doesn’t work for us.
Proverbs 30:18; Job 39:27-28; Exodus 19:4; Deut. 32:11; Isaiah 40:30-31
I want to take a break from the way I usually teach and simply reflect on eagles. I am fascinated by eagles, even though there is much about them I don’t understand. I have had encounters with eagles many times in my life and am always amazed by them. One summer I went with friends through the Inside Passage off Vancouver Island, and we watched eagles from the boat as they swooped down to catch fish out of the water. What amazing hunters/"fisherbirds" they are.
Let me read a story that illustrates why some eagles don’t fly. I alluded to it in our last session entitled, With Eagles’ Wings. The story goes like this:
Numbers 10-12
Today in our study I would like to share with you a way which will absolutely guarantee that you can turn your life into a total and complete disaster. To illustrate how we can live disastrously, like a prairie chicken instead of an eagle, we will focus on a series of events from the lives of the people of Israel in Numbers 10-12.
Numbers 10-12
How do we turn our lives into disasters ? It’s a pretty negative story, but if we listen and learn from Numbers 11-12, we can see how Israel took the best of circumstances and, with a spirit of complaining, turned them into a disaster. What then can we learn from Israel’s example?