Want to be a hero? Want to press on and fight on! Do you want to finish the race and see the finish line! If you do then that is great! Let me introduce you to your new best friend, Discipline is his name. It is a character trait that every hero needs so that they might finish the race! Discipline keeps us on track and keeps us focused on the end goal that is before us. Think about it this way, have you ever had so many things going on that you lost track of all the things that were going on. You did not know what you needed to do and life just seemed a little crazy? Chances are you did not have discipline as a friend during that moment of you life. Dictionary.com defines discipline this way: 1. training to act in accordance with rules; drill: military discipline. 2. activity, exercise, or a regimen that develops or improves a skill; training. Discipline keeps you on target and on track with the things that you have going on in your life! What are your disciplines? What are the things that you do every day no matter what. It is just what you do, no matter what. These things are the starting point of discipline. From there we need to add things that are tied directly to your end goal, and help you develop the skills you need for your end goal. The book of Hebrews 12: 1-2 puts it this way: It means we'd better get on with it. Strip down, start running-- and never quit! No extra spiritual fat, no parasitic sins. Keep your eyes on Jesus. In our race we need discipline to keep running! We need focus to stay the course. We need to strip down and get rid of anything that does not allow our eyes to stay focused on Jesus. We need to press into Him. Without discipline we quickly believe that we are doing great and we believe that we have everything under control, but it is only an illusion. Before we know it we have junk hanging on us thoughts that slow us down. We are not running as fast as we could be running, we are only walking and we think we are running. Discipline allows us to stay focused and in tune with all that is before us. Before we know it we are fat with stuff that we think brings us closer to God, but really it is just wasted time, and we allow stupid sin to hang onto us. Discipline makes us the heroes that we all long to be because everyday is used to run the race and to fight for the kingdom! What are your disciplines? How fast are you running?
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It’s the end of the day, you got everything done today, and you feel a sense of peace. But it wasn’t like this all day, at different times of the day you had to endure and press through to reach this point. Endurance got you here, but it may not have been smooth you may have whinnied, you may have lost self-control at some point, but in the end you had to push through to finish the work that needed to be done. Our lives are extremely busy for most of us we take on more things than we should ever try to do. There are many reasons for this but that is not the point of todays EFMag. Today we are talking about and looking to understand that in this life, we have to have endurance to finish the race that is before us. What is endurance? Dictionary.com defines endurance this way: 1.the fact or power of enduring or bearing pain, hardships, etc. 2.the ability or strength to continue or last, especially despite fatigue, stress or other adverse conditions; stamina: He has amazing physical endurance. Endurance is the character trait of a hero, to press through pain and discomfort to complete a task, or assignment. We all have the ability to have and to live with endurance to get through the rough and hard times of our days. A hero endures and fights on, is a big statement. If we are enduring then we are going through hard ships, and endurance is what allows us to fight on. Without endurance we would quit and give up. The Bible is very clear that we all have the ability to receive and live out of endurance. Romans 15:5 puts it this way. May the God who gives endurance and encouragement give you a spirit of unity among yourselves as you follow Christ Jesus. God gives out endurance and strength to us when we call on Him and ask for it. He also gives us encouragement to press on. The task and the job that we have been given to complete will stretch us and test us, and in the end will cause us to be dependent upon God to get the job done. This is the mission, to tell the world that Jesus is Lord and that He loves the world. We are all on a mission from God to carry out the message of Jesus Christ! If you are living out this mission then you will need endurance and you will need to depend on God every step of the way! A hero endures and fights on, is a character trait that we each need to have to see our family and friends come to know who Jesus is. So press on and depend on God! Po What Make A Hero? " A Hero Follows God No Matter What..." XGT Experience Lesson for the week...7/1/2013 No matter what you do, no matter where you go with you life, do this one thing and you will be a hero. “Follow God No Matter What...” Sounds simple enough but this is the the truth. Follow God and keep moving forward at all times. I know we all like to say that we follow God, and we all do but a Hero follows God no matter what. Hey there has been times that I have been a hero and I have followed God no matter what, and there have been other times where I ran as fast as I could. To be a hero I need to follow God, and keep trying harder and harder each day. Not so that God will love me more, no there is nothing that I can do to make God love me more, He loves me when I fail, and He loves me when I win. That’s just the cool thing about God. But here’s the deal, deep down in me I want to follow God with everything, because I love Him Soooo MUCH! My following God no matter what has everything to do with the fact that I love God and it is how I show Him I love Him. As I do this I become a hero because God is the maker of Heroes! Look all through the Bible and you will find where God has taken ordinary people and made them a Hero. It is what God does. The cool thing is He can do this with anybody and we all fall into the category of anybody. So how does it work, well we make a choice to follow God no matter what..., and when we do this we are telling God that we love Him and that we care about Him more than anything else in life. When we are living this way I guarantee that you will hear the voice of God and you will follow it and He will lead you to places that you will have a powerful impact and influence on others. Remember a Hero is “A person, who makes a radial impact on another person causing that person to be completely changed because of the interaction or experience.” God leads us and then allows us to become Heroes to other people as we go about doing the work of the Kingdom. We have been digging out of Romans 15 to learn more about How God defines what makes a hero. Verse 5 says this, Even if it was written in Scripture long ago, you can be sure it's written for us. God wants the combination of his steady, constant calling and warm, personal counsel in Scripture to come to characterize us, keeping us alert for whatever he will do next. That says it all we are to follow God and be built upon His scripture. We are to be Heroes because His word comes alive in us and allows us to be a people who will follow Him no matter what... Take the challenge and follow God! |
Cover Articles from Extreme Faith MagazineWritten and Posted by The XGT Experience Team of leaders Archives
October 2015
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