Category: Verses of Instruction

Matthew 28:19 – “Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,”

Disciple – a personal follower of Jesus during his life, especially one of the twelve Apostles. A follower of the teachings of Jesus Christ.

Let’s go back for a moment to Judea in the first century A.D. Understand that the “bible” at that time was the first five books of the Bible; Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy, also known as the Torah. Jews didn’t walk around with a Torah app on their phones, or a bound Torah under their arms. There were no printed Torahs. There were a precious few handwritten scrolls that contained the Torah, and those scrolls were in the possession of the “masters of the scripture”, the Rabbis. A Rabbi would teach the Torah to students, and the students who excelled in memorizing the Torah would be chosen to follow the Rabbi. These followers, many of them teenagers, were known as the Rabbi’s Talmidim, or disciples.

In first century A.D., God’s word was spoken, not read. Jews attended temple services to hear the word of God as it was read from the Torah. This was their only contact with the word of God. Jewish followers of a particular Rabbi were said to be “yoked” to that Rabbi. That Rabbi controlled their access to God’s word simply by what he chose to read from the Torah.

Think about the access you and I have to the Word of God. We not only have the Word at our disposal, but we have every imaginable commentary and discussion instantly available on our phone or computer. Being a disciple means focusing time and effort to learn the teachings of Christ and God’s word.

Disciple was probably always a hard word for me because it is the root word of discipline… So I didn’t read or study God’s word as a teen, or as a twenty-something, or for much of my thirties… That lack of Bible knowledge cost me dearly over those years and kept me from finding my faith. Now I will admit that I wasn’t receptive to learning God’s word either, but I hope you have been impressed by Joe, Erika and the Fuel leaders that learning, become a disciple of God’s word is critical to your growth, not only as a Christian but in making important life decisions as well. Being a disciple means having a hunger to learn what God has for you. I got that hunger after a lot of battles in life, and finally realizing I didn’t have all the answers I thought I did. My constant prayer for each of you when I upload these posts is that you will find that hunger now, like the Talmidim did 2,000 years ago.

“Don’t let anyone look down on you because you are young, but set an example for the believers in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith, and in purity.”

Now let’s study the second part of this verse – “BUT SET AN EXAMPLE FOR THE BELIEVERS IN SPEECH, IN CONDUCT, IN LOVE, IN FAITH, AND IN PURITY.”  I’m going to refrain from my commentary and ask for yours. Now to be fair, putting this in the context of Paul’s message, the Apostle Paul was stressing to Timothy that he was now in charge. He was going to lead their movement and he needed to set the example for the believers.

How do these words apply to your life and you walk? Leave a comment!

“Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. 7 And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”

Today I ask that we reflect on what we have covered thus far, Philippians 4:6 – “DO NOT BE ANXIOUS ABOUT ANYTHING, BUT IN EVERY SITUATION, BY PRAYER AND PETITION, WITH THANKSGIVING, PRESENT YOUR REQUESTS TO GOD.” As we all prepare our hearts for Thanksgiving, I ask that you take time to really reflect on what you are thankful for. Maybe you are thankful for your family, or thankful for your teachers, or thankful for your friends. Whoever that is, take time to pray for them, and take a moment this Thanksgiving to tell them how much you appreciate them.  But most importantly, thank God! Thank Him and praise Him for all He did and all He is doing in your life. Thank Him for the ultimate rescue mission of love the world has ever known – the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross for you and me.

This is my last post before Thanksgiving. We will resume with Philippians 4:7 next week. I want to thank you! I want to thank you for being a part of this journey with me to explore God’s word. I want to thank you for your heart and your willingness to participate each week at Fuel. It is a blessing to me to watch each of you engage in the discussion, to worship God during our worship time, and to seek Him as you do, and to grow in your faith. All of us as Youth Leaders want your experience at Fuel to not only be a positive part of your week, but we want you to embrace your faith and grow closer to Christ. We know that is not always easy, but I encourage you with the words of Paul to Timothy in 1 Timothy 6:12 –“Fight the good fight of the faith. Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called when you made your good confession in the presence of many witnesses.”

Happy Thanksgiving! I hope you have a blessed time!

“Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. 7 And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”

“WITH THANKSGIVING, PRESENT YOUR REQUESTS TO GOD.” Now we get to the core of what we should do.

This is a simplistic but accurate way we should approach each day. We can’t always control our environment or circumstances, but we can control our attitude and how we react to those circumstances. Paul tells the Philippians, and us, that we can overcome the stress and anxiety of life if we will approach God with Thanksgiving and turn it over to Him.

I hope this means something to you. I have learned in my nearly 53 years now that we don’t control much. In fact, we really don’t control anything. However, we do control our attitude and our reaction to things we face. Being thankful to God for everything, even the problems and the burdens we face, develops our character. And speaking from a lot of experience, it makes you humble, and as I have said in previous posts, being humble and dying to self is where the blessings and true joy in life are found…

“Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. 7 And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”

Friday we started this verse with focusing on the opening statement – “DO NOT BE ANXIOUS ABOUT ANYTHING”. You can say, “Okay, I should not be anxious about anything, but how do I do that?” Today, Paul leads us into the answer – “BUT IN EVERY SITUATION, BY PRAYER AND PETITION”. Paul says that we should be in prayer in every situation, and by doing so, we will ease the stress and the anxiety of the things we face each day.

So my question to you and to all of us, how much time do you spend in prayer each day? Are you praying throughout the day? Are you petitioning, or in other words, requesting the Lord’s guidance and direction during the day? Paul put it another way in 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18:

“Rejoice always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.”

I will leave you with this: Many years ago, I was in a bible study with a group of very successful businessmen in Birmingham. I was way out of my league and felt it a privilege to be able to spend time with these men each week and learn from them. One of them was the Chief Financial Officer of Brasfield & Gorrie Construction Co. Brasfield & Gorrie is an extremely successful, multi-billion dollar construction company who built most of Birmingham and Atlanta’s skyline and built the Georgia Aquarium. He shared something that has always stayed with me; he prayed continuously every day at work. Wow? I thought how could this executive, who was probably in and out of meetings, flying on airplanes, dealing with project deadlines, how could he be praying continuously every day?

He told us that he prayed on the way to work that God would give him wisdom and discernment. He said he prayed before phone calls that he knew might be difficult. He prayed walking to meetings in the office and he prayed in his office when he had moments alone during the day. This floored me. This extremely successful man was continually praying during the day, every day, despite the demands of his schedule.

We studied a previous verse – Proverbs 3:5-6 “Trust in the Lord with all your heart
and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him,
and he will guide your paths.” If we submit to Him, He will guide our paths. This executive understands this verse. He wasn’t praying continuously because it made him feel good, or made him sound like a great Christian. No, he prayed continually because it was the linkage to his success. His continual prayer sustained him and kept him properly aligned to the real priorities of his life. I believe it also kept him humble and thankful, because he recognized God was in control, and God was guiding his path.

I hope you will take time to reflect on this today and this week as we study this verse.

“Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. 7 And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”

This is a fitting verse for us to study enlight of Joe and Erika’s message at Fuel about stress and for us to reflect on our own reasons for having a thankful heart as we approach Thanksgiving. On a personal note, this was my mother’s favorite verse. She often quoted this verse, and when she passed away, I thumbed through her bible and this verse was not only highlighted, but she had written her own notes about this verse. I encourage you to do the same. You are going to find in this life that circumstances are going to have you clinging to God’s word, and certain verses will get you through some tough times.

Let’s start today with the opening statement-  “DO NOT BE ANXIOUS ABOUT ANYTHING”. I look back on my life and there are many times I could have used those words on my heart. I have not met anyone who hasn’t gone through trying times in their life. But having a mindset to not be anxious is not in our DNA. Being anxious leads to bad decisions in my experience. Being a “hot mess” is not an attractive character trait, and it steals your joy and the joy of those around you.