Something Greater

Restoration of All Things "Jesus, whom heaven must receive until the time for restoring all the things about which God spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets long ago." Acts 3:21 (ESV) HEAVEN: ouranos (the sky, the abode of God, implying happiness, power, eternity); from oros (a mountain); from oro (to rise or rear) RECEIVE: dechomai (to receive, to take or accept) Jesus is physically in heaven, decribed as being in the sky, implying separated from earth and unreachable by mortal humans. Luke described Jesus as being "taken up" (Acts 1:2). Later, Luke said that Jesus had been "raised up", using a different word that means to lift or sail away (Acts 1:9). Being raised up involved being carried upward by a cloud, taken up out of sight. Angels explained to the disciples that Jesus would "come in the same way as you saw him go into heaven". RESTORING: apokatastasis (reconstitution); from apokathistemi (to reconstitute in health, home

The Holy and Righteous One The God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, the God of our fathers, glorified his servant Jesus, whom you delivered over and denied in the presence of Pilate, when he had decided to release him. But you denied the Holy and Righteous One, and asked for a murderer to be granted to you, and you killed the Author of life, whom God raised from the dead. To this we are witnesses. Acts 3:13-15 (ESV) To this point in Luke's book of Acts of the Apostles, Jesus has been named Lord and Christ. In his second great instance of preaching, Peter is speaking to Jews at the temple. They've all gathered in amazement, responding to the miraculous healing of a lame man. Peter is even more descriptive of the glory of Jesus . Peter begins by calling upon the Almighty God, using references that are most meaningful to devout Jews: " The God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the God of our fathers ." Then, Peter describes Jesus as the Servant o

12 Steps to Identifying Your Functional Saviors In The Bookends of the Christian Life , Jerry Bridges offers twelve "questions" to help us identify our functional saviors. These are great questions to ask yourself to gain insight to the direction our inner attitudes and desires are pointing us. 1. I am preoccupied with ________. 2. If only ________, then I would be happy. 3. I get my sense of significance from ________. 4. I would protect and preserve ________ at any cost. 5. I fear losing ________. 6. The thing that gives me greatest pleasure is ________. 7. When I lose ________, I get angry, resentful, frustrated, anxious, or depressed. 8. For me, life depends on ________. 9. The thing I value more than anything in the world is ________. 10. When I daydream, my mind goes to________. 11. The best thing I can think of is ________. 12. The thing that makes me want to get out of bed in the morning is ________. Source: http://thinklings.org/posts/12-steps-t

Seek The Things That Are Above "Him we proclaim, warning everyone and teaching everyone with all wisdom, that we may present everyone mature in Christ. For this I toil, struggling with all his energy that he powerfully works within me." (Colossians, 1:28-29) It's difficult for me to identify with this passage...I don't remember a time when I felt I was proclaiming Christ. I struggle daily with many things, but not with warning and teaching everyone about Jesus. How should a Christian tell others about Jesus? Is everyone a proclaimer like Paul was? Do we, do I, need to change things in our lives to make witnessing of Jesus a higher priority? The word proclaim, translated from the Greek, means to make known by announcing in a public place . It comes from two words meaning "down" and "messenger". Messenger in the Greek is aggelos (ang'-el-os), which is often translated as angel. The focus of the word proclaim is importance. Public announce