Beth Moore - breakout session

Immediately after Beth's morning session, she did a breakout session for girls. It was amazing. We had just talked about the mind, and now we were going to talk about the heart. She did make it clear that we weren't talking about the heart without the guys because they don't struggle with heart issues. That was not the case. It was just how things fell.

Beth started out by talking about this being a new beginning, that God has a tremendous plan for all of us. Don't let anything ever convince you that God cannot work a miracle out of you. He is a God of wonders.

We looked at Psalm 37:1-9

"Do not fret because of those who are evil or be envious of those who do wrong; for like the grass they will soon wither, like green plants they will soon die away. Trust in the LORD and do good; dwell in the land and enjoy safe pasture. Take delight in the LORD, and he will give you the desires of your heart. Commit your way to the LORD; trust in him and he will do this: He will make your righteous reward shine like the dawn, your vindication like the noonday sun. Be still before the LORD and wait patiently for him; do not fret when people succeed in their ways, when they carry out their wicked schemes. Refrain from anger and turn from wrath; do not fret—it leads only to evil. For those who are evil will be destroyed, but those who hope in the LORD will inherit the land."

This is a psalm of David and was written as an acrostic, which means it was meant to be memorized. Beth seriously stressed the importance of memorizing scripture.

We act out of what we believe. (Referring back to the previous talk) If we keep believing the same thing, we will keep doing the same thing. It is not until something strategically changes our belief system that it starts to change our behavior.

Referring back to Psalm 37, we all have desires of our flesh, they can be daily struggles, but we're going to be looking at something deeper. The desire of our hearts. "Delight yourself in the Lord and he will give you the desires of your heart."

Beth went on to talk about 6 crucial things we need to remember when talking about our hearts.

1. Nothing dictates our lives like our desires.

You will be most driven by what it is you really want. You think, "what I need to do is the right thing - I'm not going to make that bad decision again." You cannot sustain the long term on what you need to do alone - it may help to get you out of a pit, but you won't stay out of it. In the end, we will follow our hearts, we will follow our desires. We will default back into what we want to do. Something in your heart needs to be healed or reformed because something in your heart will continue to lead you astray.

In John 1:38 the first question Jesus asks John is, "what do you want?" These are not cravings, not something you want in the next 2 hours, this is a sustained longing. Something unaffected by mood or surroundings. Psalm 38:9 says, "all my longings lie open before the Lord." What is it you long for? Beth gave an example of her grandson wanting chocolate cake, yelling, "I want CAAAAAKE!" We get fixated. Tunnel locked. I want a man, I want ministry, I want to be perfect, etc. What is is that is driving that?

2. Beneath the desire of our heart is the heart of our desire.

Okay, this gets a little tricky, try to follow, I'll try to explain it well.

In Psalm 37 the Lord says - you delight yourself in me and I will give you the desires of your heart. That is an enormous promise. We often view this as saying to God, "okay, I deserve this and this and I will delight in you and you will give me all of it."

God will either give you the desire of your heart, or the heart of your desire. He will give you one, and you want the heart of your desire to trump.

Some people have dreams of what they want to do or be from when they are very young. Beth shared about her daughter that kept changing what she wanted and where her life direction was. Thankfully, the Lord knows what it is that we really, actually want most.

This was Beth's example: if God did not listen to the heart of our desire, we would have married that guy when we were 13 (because that's what we WANTED!) But God goes beyond the desire of your heart because he knew that guy was not the heart of your desire.

If he is withholding the desire of your heart it is because he will give you the heart of your desire.

3. Delighting in God make our truest desires inevitable.

Psalm 37:4, 23-24 "Take delight in the LORD, and he will give you the desires of your heart. If the LORD delights in a man’s way, he makes his steps firm; though he stumble, he will not fall, for the LORD upholds him with his hand."

This is a reciprocal desire. He delights in me.

God is not just a big boss. He is the biggest blast you will ever have!

Luke 10: 17-21, "The seventy-two returned with joy and said, “Lord, even the demons submit to us in your name.” He replied, “I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven. I have given you authority to trample on snakes and scorpions and to overcome all the power of the enemy; nothing will harm you. However, do not rejoice that the spirits submit to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven.” At that time Jesus, full of joy through the Holy Spirit, said, “I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and learned, and revealed them to little children. Yes, Father, for this was your good pleasure.

Sometimes God makes you do things you don't think you're capable of. God tells you what your capable of doing, but its mind blowing when you actually do it.

Beth Moore is terrified of public speaking.

Don't say you cannot do what you are just scared of doing. There is nothing like doing something you knew you were incapable of doing, because the spirit came and did it for you. Every single time you do something you thought you couldn't do and then the Lord does it with you, Satan falls like lightening from heaven. Some of us owe Satan some big ones. Make him sorry he ever messed with you.

Verse 21 in the Luke passage says, "at that time, Jesus full of joy..."

The Greek word for joy is chara - this is joy on steroids - can't keep this joy internalized. It is characterized by leaping and dancing. Christ is having a physical reaction to his joy.

Jesus delights in me. When I have a big victory, he is cheering right beside me. He is never unmoved. Yet you move him. We are a delight to him.

It's like when babies smile back at you, or laugh along with you. It is the same reaction with the Lord.

God is leaning over you saying, "do you have any idea how loved you are?" He brings us to a point where we smile and laugh back and there is delight. Mutual, beautiful delight.

That's how he feels when you smile back. There ain't no high like the most high! :)

Beth shared about going for walks with her ipod, singing along to the music. One time she stopped and played the air guitar. Sometimes you just can't help it. The joy and delight becomes a physical expression.

4. Nothing external can steal our right to delight.

Nothing circumstantial has the right to steal your delight. Only other emotions can take it from you.

What takes a bite out of delight? (all forms of desire) use the acronym JAW

J- Jealousy (Psalm 37:1)
it undercuts others
really not how we feel about them, but rather how we feel they make us feel about ourselves
something about that person that makes us feel something about ourselves that we do not like
will cheat joy out of your life
you're not meant to be someone else
A- Anger (Psalm 37:8)
we want to feel - be motivated (I know lots of athletes that would motivate themselves out of anger) - but it is meant to be holy passion. Anger is destructive passion.
anger is the antithesis of delight
anger is motivating, but it is destructive
what is it you're so mad about? sometimes we have reasons to be mad - Beth has a past of sexual abuse - she wanted to say to God, "it isn't fair. That wasn't fair." That is the destructive (unfair) side. But on the other side - there is nothing fair about grace. There is more grace to sweep you up in the river of God's mercy than you would ever need in a lifetime. There is nothing fair about the life he has planned.
I want to trade my anger for delight
W- Worry (fret) (Psalm 37:1,8)
worry is all wrapped up in control
at the root of our worry, we think we can control the situation. We can't.
it does not add one single second to our lives
fret - means to eat or gnaw into
our worry says Jesus may be Savior, but he is not Lord
our worry brings him no honor, no delight
trust is the cure for worry

5. To make room for delight, we've got to commit.

Psalm 37:5 "Commit your way to the Lord..."

We think we need to not commit to anything - keep our options open all the time - in order to experience delight

Commit your way to the Lord. The Hebrew word Galal - means to roll over upon, to roll yourself upon

Roll yourself over upon Him - dwell in the shadow of the most high. He's got a plan for your life. Perfectly suited for you. Even with your background, even with your failure in the past. He's got a plan that is perfectly suited for you - Commit!

It is time to commit.

6. Patiently waiting for desire to turn into delight is not passive.

Psalm 37:7 "be still before the Lord and wait patiently for him" - be still, and wait patiently - are not the same thing.

Be still - means shut up, be still, let him speak a word over you

Wait patiently - does not mean sitting and doing nothing. The Hebrew word means to twist or whirl, to dance or writhe in pain. Do it with anguish or delight.

There are times to be still and times to come before him and have a fit. Take every bit of anguish to him, and every bit of delight to him. Pour out your heart before him, he is a refuge for you. That writhing turns into a dance and you're free.

You can't beat life with Jesus for anything else in this world. He will be so good to you. He loves you so much.

Delight yourself in the Lord! And he will give you the desires of your heart.

Update

It is crazy to me that the last time I posted on here was the day before I started teaching. Much has happened. Wow. Tons.

I have hundreds of teaching stories, many that are funny and I would love to share. But I'm not really sure the rules about all of that. Some people know where I work and things like that, and then its putting information about students online. I don't know how all of that works, but I don't want to have it come back to me. So, sorry. Maybe sometimes I'll try to share anonymously.

Teaching as a whole has been...good. Really really hard job, with students that require gobs of patience, but I definitely don't hate it, which is what I thought was going to happen. So it's been good. Good only because God is good. He has been carrying me through every second of everyday.

Man, lots has happened. I started a new job, experienced ups and downs with another job, saw two of my dear dear friends get married, had two students move out of my class on one move in, have made many new friends through church, moved in with a family from church because my brother moved, my sister got engaged!!!!, went on a surprise visit or Orlando, got to hangout in NYC before Christmas while seeing a dear friend who just accepted the Lord!!!, had Christmas with the fam, and have been hanging out in the outer banks. Many stories in there, many fantastic times. Ask me if you want to hear about it :)

A serious miracle that has happened is that my principal is allowing me to go to Passion 2012 in Atlanta!!!! AHH!!! And an even bigger miracle is my little brother is going with me!!! Oh. My. Goodness. Words cannot describe my excitement. I literally can't wait!!!!

Which brings me to one of my reasons for posting. I'm only half way through Passion 2011 on my blog. Such amazing messages, such an amazing experience. I've failed at going through it all. I am going to write some tonight and hopefully a little tomorrow, but I don't think I'll get to them all. Sorry. Life happened. There will be updates over the next two days though. And then I'm off to experience it all over again!!! Love it.

New Seasons

Well, it's been forever. And MUCH has happened. I thought I would do an insanely quick catch up before my life turns into insanity starting tomorrow.

My summer was absolutely fantastic. I did a TON of traveling and got to see SO many friends this summer! Like almost all of them! Which is pretty intense if you knew where all my friends lived. I made multiple trips to Lake Champion, which is always the best. I was even able to make some new friends while being there!

I went to the Outer Banks for a week, did a New Jersey and camp trip twice, went to Shelter Island for a week with the fam, made a trip to Norfolk, went to Grand Rapids, MI for two weddings, got to see SO many dear friends while there, went to Cincinnati to see two of my favorite guys, spent a whole week at Lake Champion, worked, and hung out at the pool. It was quite fantastic.

In the midst of all that I managed to score a teaching job as well. Not exactly the dream job I was hoping for, but it's exactly where the Lord has me. I'm going to be teaching at the school I was aiding at for a couple months this past school year. It's an all special ed school and I'm going to be teaching kids with emotional disabilities. (so dealing with a lot of aggressive behavior) Honestly, I didn't want the job. I almost didn't take it. But after a TON of prayer, I had a huge peace about taking the job. It is definitely where the Lord wants me and I am now very excited about it! I have my reservations, but I'm trusting that the Lord will walk me through, one day at a time.

My first day as a real, live teacher is TOMORROW!!! Exciting, scary, so much to think about! I would love any and all prayers. I want to establish a good routine and clear expectations on my first day. Already praying for my students a lot!

Everything is about to get crazy and I'm trying to work out my schedule to not be overwhelmed. So we'll see how the blogging goes. Since I've already been horrible about it. Somehow, I don't know how, Passion 2011 will get completed before Passion 2012 happens. I still need to go through and listen to the talks again. Such rich stuff, I hope it is blessing you. It's definitely been a blessing to go back and experience it all again.

Well here I go into a whole new world! Always up for an adventure :)

Session 2 - Beth Moore (part 1)

Well, finally, I am here again, and this time, I'm actually going to write about Beth Moore's morning session talk. It's going to be long, and sorry if it doesn't make a ton of sense, I'm writing from the notes I took.

The passage she spoke on was Romans 12:1-2 "Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God - this is your spiritual act of worship. Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is - his good, pleasing and perfect will."

God's will is perfect. The Bible says we have to be transformed by the renewing of our minds. Then, and ONLY then, will you be able to discern what the will of God is. We cannot know the will of God, without the renewing of our minds.

Anything that impacts our calling, God has direction for in our lives. He has a will for our lives, and his will is the most fulfilling.

There is no one like our God! There is nothing like him. And he has a will, a plan for your life.

In order to fulfill our callings, we need the Holy Spirit. We cannot do it on our own. We cannot accomplish what the Lord has called us to accomplish on our own. We have to fight for perseverance. It will not come easily and it will not come naturally. It requires a renewed mind.

Hebrews 10:35-36 says, "So do not throw away your confidence; it will be richly rewarded. You need to persevere so that when you have done the will of God, you will receive what he has promised."

Our minds need to be renewed. Let's just take a second to look at the beauty of our minds. Some facts about the brain (courtesy of Beth Moore)

Our brains are about the size of both fists. About three pounds. (these are three pounds you would NOT want to loose.)

Decisions are made in the front part of your brain. (Funny how people often touch their forehead when thinking about making a decision)

The memory part of the brain is close to your temple. (Again, often touched when trying to remember of something)

There are 100 billion neurons in our brains that make 100 trillion connections. (We can't even comprehend how big those numbers are!)

Off of these neurons are synapses - which kind of look like trees.
Matthew 7:20 says, "Thus, by their fruit, you will recognize them."
Whatever is going on in our minds - produces fruit in the activation of our lives

There is no way to measure the capacity of our brains. (kind of crazy to think about)

Our minds are brilliant. The capabilities of our minds are amazing. Beth told us about a story she saw in the news, or read somewhere about a guy who dove into a pool and hit his head on the bottom. He got a concussion and had some brain damage. When he had recovered, he was at a friends house who owned a piano. For some reason he was drawn to it. He sat down and started masterfully playing the piano. He had never touched a piano in his life. He could play Beethoven, and Mozart beautifully. Our brains are so cool!

The same mind that has the capacity for brilliance, has a capacity for darkness beyond what any of us have ever imagined. Henry Ward Beacher said, "there are materials enough in every mans mind to make a hell there."

Job 21:6 says, "when I think about this, I am terrified; trembling seizes my body." Our thoughts can produce physical results. Our mind controls our body.

God has given us the ability to reason and know what we do and why.

The King James Version of Jeremiah 29:11 says, "For I know the thoughts I think towards you, says the Lord. Thoughts of peace and not of evil. To give you a future and a hope." It may sound repetitive - the thoughts I think towards you - but God thinks thoughts towards us! Part of what separates us from animals is our intellect. The ability to think thoughts.

If we try to zero in on what is going on in our heads, we often think that real change is not even possible. That is a lie. WE CAN CHANGE OUR MINDS!

A word that is used over and over and over in scriptures, which means to change my mind, is the word repentance. Which means to change my mind in such a way that it changes my actions. Our ability to discern and distinguish the will of God is dependent on repentance - the changing of our minds.

Our minds have to be transformed.

I am only just getting started. I didn't realize quite how many pages of notes I took. But in the interest of trying to not loose you in length, I will continue in another post. Just hold tight, the best is yet to come. Don't forget this though.

Session 2 - Beth Moore (part 2)

Okay, so our minds are amazing. And we have the ability to change them. The Bible says that we have to be renewed by the transforming of our minds. This doesn't come easily and naturally. You have to work at it.

2 Corinthians 10:3-5 says, "For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ."

The transformation of our minds is not just going to happen. It is a battle we have to fight and we have to fight it deliberately. We have divine power to demolish strongholds, we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ - another way of saying renewing the mind.

If we reflect and look at what our lives would really be like if we gave our lives fully to Christ - it goes all the way back to the garden in Genesis. We somehow got into our heads that God is trying to cheat us, that we would be freer if we were out from under his control. We think he is about limiting us and taking from us. And we don't even begin to understand that he says - this is where life is beyond your imagination - when you bring your thoughts to me. Not to captivate them, but to give them a focus. To tell you, "this is your direction. This is what you were meant to do."

A stronghold is anything that gets a strong hold on your mind. It has mastery over you. It can be an addiction, greed, pride, forgiveness, lust, insecurity, jealousy, rejection, etc.

Ephesians 4:17-19 says, "So I tell you this, and insist on it in the Lord, that you must no longer live as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their thinking. They are darkened in their understanding and separated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to the hardening of their hearts. Having lost all sensitivity, they have given themselves over to sensuality so as to indulge in every kind of impurity, with a continual lust for more."

This is basically the New Testament definition of addiction. They had given themselves over...with a continual lust for more.

Our temptation is to think, "I just want to manage it (my stronghold or addiction), I can handle it." But the nature of addictions that it only calls for more and more and more and then the old thing that used to cut it for us no longer works. It then takes over and has a strong hold on us. A stronghold is anything that is pretending to have more power than God. It has exalted itself over your life.

2 Timothy 2:26 says, "and that they will come to their senses and escape from the trap of the devil, who has taken them captive to do his will."

The devil really does exist. The enemy has a plot to destroy God's will for your life. Anything he can do. God has a will for your life, and Satan has a will for your life. And both continually call for more. More and more for the spirit of Christ, or more and more bondage. But we will never be able to maintain where we are. That's not how the mind works. You are constantly moving in one direction or the other.

Okay, so is it really possible to live in mental victory? To live without any strongholds?

Psalm 119:133 says, "direct my footsteps according to your word; let no sin rule over me."

Sanctification (the process of being more like Christ) is an ongoing process. We are fully capable of living life completely victoriously. There is enough power in Christ that we can walk without any kind of sin having dominion over us.

1 Corinthians 6:12 says, "everything is permissible for me - but I will not be mastered by anything." Nothing in this world will have mastery over me. Like Louie had talked about in his talk the night before - we have to chain our lives to Christ. If he is truly our master, nothing else can be.

If we're really going to do what God has called us to do in our lives - it is really going to take some focus on Him. There have always been challenges, there will always be distractions. You have to let distractions go, and zero in on God. If you want a mind for God, if you want to be anointed by His power to do what you could not possibly do on your own - we've got to be able to frequently let go of everything else. To shut the door to every single pipe that is trying to get to us, and have our minds renewed before God. He doesn't yell. He speaks in a small still voice and we are desperate to hear it.

Psalm 27:4 says, "One thing I ask of the Lord, this is what I seek: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord and to see him in his temple."

We have so many distractions. It is scary to think that the greatest minds in the world, the greatest minds of our generation may not make an impact because the mind has not been renewed enough to completely get God's will. One thing - God is a jealous God. He wants to be our one thing. Shut off every other thing to hear the Lord and do just one thing.

It's never been harder to do just one thing. Are we willing to work the mind that God has given us? Not to just watch something, but to read. And read a lot. And with all the capacity we have in our minds - to take captive the thoughts of Christ. Memorize scripture. Memorize chapters of scripture. Memorize whole books of the Bible. You're brain has the capacity to do it! And when it is in your head, you will see results in your actions. Your life will be renewed by the thoughts of Christ.

Luke 2:18-19 says, "and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds said to them. But Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart."

Mary treasured the things that she heard from Jesus and pondered them in her heart. Everyone else was amazed, but Mary actually took the time to think things through. We can come together and be amazed. The conference was amazing. But it is pointless if we walk away just amazed. We need it to change our lives. The change comes when we don't stop at amazement, but we think it through. If we shut it down and do the next thing, we're going to miss what God has for us. Don't just be amazed. Think things through. For just one thing.

Session 2 - Beth Moore (part 3)

So our minds are amazing. And with an amazing mind, we can do really great things. We can also do really destructive things. Looking back at what Beth had said earlier in her talk, the same mind that has the capacity for brilliance, has a capacity for darkness beyond what any of us have ever imagined.

We're now going to look at the destructive patterns in our brains.

The really cool thing about our brains is that we can create pathways in our brains. A chain reaction is happening in neurons when we think the same way over and over again. The more we think that way, the more we burn a path in our brain through the neurons. When we think the same way over and over again it paves paths in our minds. These can either be destructive or constructive.

You basically pave a path. Which then turns into a road. And then a highway. If I get in this situation - this is the thing that I am going to think. Automatically. Because you have been thinking that way for so long. After the highway, we get on the toll road with it, and it acquires quite a cost to us. We really do have the right and the capacity to decide how we are going to think, what we're going to use our minds to do and what kind of path we are going to tread. We get to decide that this is going to become the reaction instead of that.

We can begin to think a new thought about an old situation. This is the renewing of your mind.

It is not an overnight fix. You can't just say, "I'm never going to think about this again."

A renewed mind - thinking new thoughts about the old thing - will defuse the power it has over you.

Beth said that people often say to her, "I can't change the way I feel." No. But you can change the way you think, and that will change the way you feel.

We have the capability, we have the invitation to know the thoughts we think. We can change our minds, and that will change our hearts.

Luke 24:45 says, "Then he opened their minds so they could understand the scriptures."

1 Corinthians 2:9-10 says, "no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him - but God has revealed it to us by his Spirit."

In order to hear one thing from Him, we have to frequently close everything out.

If you give him your mind, he will blow it for you.

Yellow Community Group - Philippians 2

So I was here with the intent on finally reflecting on Beth Moore's morning session talk at Passion. I re-watched the message a couple weeks ago and took down more notes. I was all prepared and then I went back to look at the notes I took at Passion and realized that we had a community group meeting that morning before the main session. It was some good stuff, so here it is. Beth Moore will be next.

We were split into smaller community groups to try and create a sense of community at Passion. I was in the Yellow community group which had about 1,000 people in it. But we all broke up into groups of about 6-8 people, got to know them and were able to talk and reflect as the weekend went on. It was a really great way to get to know people and I really enjoyed being able to talk things through and process it all with others who were hearing and experiencing all the same stuff.

That morning we talked about Philippians 2:1-11. Our community group leader was a guy, (I think his name was Aaron, but I don't remember) from New York City. He was really great and I really enjoyed the community group time.

So just a warning. This might be all over the place. I took notes, but I don't have it recorded or anything to re-live it and I don't remember everything. My notes are a little scattered, so sorry.

Okay, so Philippians 2. I'll type it out for you.

"If you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, any comfort from his love, any fellowship with the spirit, and tenderness and compassion, then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and purpose. Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vein conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also the interests of others.

Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus: Who being the very nature God did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death - even death on a cross!

Therefore, God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father."

I love these verses!

Aaron started off by talking about people who were being persecuted daily, something that I don't think we understand or have really experienced. At least I haven't. To the extent of people in the Bible or people in countries where worshiping God is illegal. Aaron, I think, started talking about people who meet in caves, or underground places. When they met, they knew that there was a good chance not all of them would be there the next time. It was that dangerous. And because of that, each time they met, they preached the gospel to each other.

In chapter 2 Paul turns to the Philippians and encourages them to advance the gospel.

It is hard for us to talk about identifying with Jesus in his humiliation. We don't get it in the same way he experienced it.

We are going to have to give up everything. Lay it all out there. For the sake of the gospel. You have to loose some things in order to gain some things. My life for your life.

Jesus humbled himself - became humiliated in order to become obedient to death. Even death on a cross. I find that I often don't associate being humble and humiliated in as close of context as they are. Jesus was humiliated in his death on the cross.

But Paul reminds the Philippians of the prize. "THEREFORE - God exalted him to the highest place..." Jesus is the prize. God's glory is the result. Humiliation had to happen in order for the resurrection to happen.

Do we understand the God-centeredness of Jesus?

If Jesus is truly God, how do we re-shape our lives? How does that change the way you live your life? What does that look like?

Is he real to you?

Jesus made himself nothing. He made himself a servant. Jesus is God (verse 6). YET willfully gave up all rights and privileges of being God. He subjected himself to the humiliation of death on a cross. He gave up everything.

In the church in Acts they were willing to give up everything for each other. In our society we think we have earned rights to certain things. We feel a sense of entitlement.

Am I willing to give that up?

Verse 9 is the prize. God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name. We are able to celebrate the resurrection of Jesus! But the resurrection isn't possible, if the humiliation didn't happen.

Sanctification (the process of becoming more like Christ) requires hardship.

********************

Looking back at this on Resurrection Sunday, I am yet again refreshed by the gospel. The message at the church I went to this morning was an excellent representation of the gospel. Here it is if you are interested. http://redemptionhill.com/easter-it-matters-part-1/ (just copy and paste, I couldn't figure out the link thing)