From the Latin: apathos – a, “without” and pathos, “emotion”…….without emotion. Apathy


In this day and age it is so easy for me to just slip out of passion for God…and this is me being honest (in other words, it’s not easy to admit).

But it doesn’t make sense…I believe God exists and that He sent His Son, Christ, to die for me. So why do I lose passion? I mean what He has done and is doing is amazing! Think of what He has done and what He’s doing!!!

But then I slip out of passion. It’s like I fall asleep in my awareness of and love for God…

It’s like all of a sudden – swoosh --- there it goes. It’s like it is blindly taken away from me…

Every once in a while I become apathetic (definition above) toward the things of God.

How about you? Right now? Have you lost the passion you once had? Does your passion for God seem to come and go? Rise and fall? It’s there one day, but the next it just disappears? Or has it been gone for a while?

Hmmm…let me think: Why would our passion fluctuate? Why would our emotions for the things of God go up and down?

Satan’s Experiments for this generation: Make God’s people apathetic

But why would Satan want to make us emotionless? Why would he want to steal our passion?

The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy…     John 10:10

Well, I believe it’s pretty simple: Satan removes passion = we become uncaring = people don’t see or hear Christ through us.

And if we don’t live representing Christ and the message of salvation…then Satan gets more people to go to hell with him.

But NO! We must stop allowing ourselves to slip into these areas of apathy! Satan makes it so easy! Because to become apathetic, we don’t have to do anything…all we have to do is sit. And that’s where Satan’s power lies – in nothingness.

But again, no! We were not given spirits without passion! We, who are in Christ, have been given spirits with passion! “For this reason I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God…For God did not give us a spirit of timidity, but a spirit of power, of love and of self-discipline.” (2 Timothy 1:6-7)

So what do we do?

Well Jesus, speaking to the church of Sardis, said, “I know your deeds; you have a reputation of being alive, but you are dead.” Let’s stop right here again. Is that you?

If so, read on to the solution: “Wake up! Strengthen what remains and is about to die...Remember, therefore what you have received and heard; obey it, and repent. But if you do not wake up, I will come like a thief, and you will not know at what time I will come to you.”    Revelation 3:1-3

What’s the solution? Strengthen what remains and is about to die.

Did you used to read God’s Word more often?

Do it.

Did you used to pray more often?

Restart talking with God, your Creator – and again do it more often.

Repent (turn) and do the things you did at first.

Bottom line: WAKE UP! We all need to wake up to the reality of what is going on around us! We need to wake up and remember who died for us, why he died for us and how we don’t deserve it! We need to pray for forgiveness and pray God gives us passion again!

And then you will once again see yourself with passion for the things of God.

 Satan is trying to make us apathetic to the things of God! But here’s the deal: he has to bow to the name of Christ.

So tell him to leave in the name of Christ. Explain to him how he will no longer have power over you…and then run to Christ, pray again for passion………and RUN!

Pray

Read

Run! (and I mean it! I’ll run with you! Let’s run with Christ to accomplish the mission He has given us! Matthew 28:18-20)

 

For those of you who don’t yet know Christ:

…you probably would say that you have always been apathetic toward God (or maybe for you it was passion against God). He offers you Life (notice the capital “L”). As I noted above, God sent His Son Jesus Christ as payment for your sins – He died for you – because He loves you. God said your payment could be met in Christ…and He loves you so much that He did give His only Son (John 3:16). And now He says, “Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone opens the door, I will come in and eat with him, and he with me” (Revelation 3:20). That signifies a relationship. Will you open the door to the Messiah, Savior, Christ? God’s grace? If you feel him “knocking” on your heart, will you open the door and say, “Come in…”?

“…if you confess with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved.” Romans 10:9-10

If you feel Christ invading your life right now, open up and give him your life. If you have more questions about how to begin a relationship with God, call or text me @ 405-315-4837 or Facebook message me…

Because whoever finds God……..finds Life!

LOVE

Right now I am flying at 11,500ft in a private plane…and I was just thinking how interesting it is with the different viewpoints we get throughout life.

You know, one day my viewpoint will be one completely looking at God.

The next day I’ll be looking at my own wants.

And I’ve found that everyday my focus is completely on God I am completely full of joy!

Focus & viewpoint completely on God = complete joy

So why do I keep going back to a mindset and viewpoint of life focused on me? It’s one of Satan’s experiments for this generation. He deceives us into thinking we'll have more joy focusing on what we want and attaining those things.

But every time I pull a switcheroo (that’s an actual word by the way) and focus on God, I am filled with so much more happiness and joy!

Chance? No, it’s just how God has set things up. We keep our view and focus on Him and life is better!

And I’m glad….b/c I love God and it reminds me to constantly be with Him.

Life sucky? Pull a switcheroo and change your life focus to God. It’s God’s way of life.

I encourage you to pray that God helps renew and refine your mind to constantly look at life with a perspective focused on Him….and His love.

God bless you!

 

And as a quick side note: Of course we have to think about certain things throughout life, like school, work, and life in general. But we need to go throughout life with a focus and perspective centered on God…Just make sure he is first and then comes school, work and etc.

Because that’s how God created life to be beautiful!

Satan’s experiment is to distract you and change your view to one looking away from God.

But we know to keep our eyes on the King :) !

 

Discussion Questions:

Is your current life perspective focused on God?

How does Satan try to distract you or remove your focus from God?

Identify those things and pray for God’s help concerning them! He loves you so much!!

wk 1: Intro

God, may you bring us out of the deceptions and lies of Satan and into your Truth….

Jesus, speaking of Satan, said “…the devil…was a murderer from the beginning and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a falsehood, he speaks what is natural to him, for he is a liar [himself] and the father of lies and of all that is false.” John 8:44 AMP

The New International Version uses the phrase “native tongue” to describe the devil’s lying nature.

The next few weeks we will be talking about the devil’s schemes and tricks I see him currently using in our generation. You might honestly see some of them affecting you…so I would encourage you to read intently and pray for God’s eye-opening and healing for you. Let’s go ahead and jump in!

First off, I think it’s very important to start this series with each of us recognizing the reality of the “devil” and of his nature – so that is what I want to do this week.

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To me, it’s pretty simple to believe Satan is real. Over time Scripture has been tried and tested…and proven true. And personally, in my life, God had spoken to me through Scripture. So when I put 2 and 2 together, I get this: The Bible is God’s Word. God’s Word talks about Satan. Therefore Satan must be real.

And then we can take all the things the Bible says about Satan and begin to understand the nature of this real, supernatural being.

He’s a schemer. I’m a schemer too, but this guy is of a different perspective and league. I say, “I want to trick my friend into thinking I’m dead,” or “I’m going to dress up like a Walmart manager and redo my friend’s Walmart ID so it looks like I’m a regional manager, put on a wig and fake black mustache and go to Walmart and try to trick the managers into thinking I’m superior in authority to them.” (that was a long sentence!)

But Satan’s of a different league. He genuinely wants to trick you. Not for fun, but to hurt. Disrupt. Steal. Kill. Destroy. (John 10:10) Everything that matters to the heart of God, he wants to hurt. So that pretty much sums up all of humanity (John 3:16).

He wants to distract you. So he’ll do everything he can to warp your mindset.

And those are the things we will be talking about and bringing into light beginning next week. 

So, as for right now, I encourage you to read Ephesians 6:10-18 and begin to study this in waiting for next week’s message. This passage will teach you how to fight against Satan's schemes. God loves you and doesn't want you to fall for them...so that's why He put those verses in the Bible. Maybe read a verse a day. IDK, but just trust me: Satan will probably try to stop you from reading this series – so pray for yourselves (as I will be praying for you too) and make a commitment to read each week. Cause I’m darn sure he doesn’t like me spoiling his schemes (I know this, because I sure hate it when people spoil mine!).

I want to take a second to thank all of you who read this blog. It really means a lot to me! I also believe it means a lot to God that we join in together to get into His Word! So, thank you! I also want to give a shout out of thanks to God for everything He is doing here! Thank you God!!

My Final Lesson from Kenya

Hey, over the past month I’ve spoken to all of you about a broad range of things I learned in Kenya, but there is one person I have spoken of the entire time: God.

There is a reason I’m speaking to you about God. I don’t just think He’s cool…if that was all I thought of Him I’d also be speaking to you about cars, my friend Paul Hobbs and the movie Transformers.

No, the reason I’ve been speaking about God, and the whole reason I write this blog is because I believe He is the single most important “one” there is. He’s not just something extra that I write about, but He IS what, whom, I write about – because He is so important to me.

So instead of me communicating more to you right now, I want you to communicate with God.

So I’m asking, daring (yes, I just threw out a triple-dog, no erasee dare your way), you to approach God for the next 5 minutes. Here is a possible structure you could use (bend it whichever way you’d like!):

5 Minutes
- 1 Minute talking to God and seeking Him
- 4 Minutes waiting and listening to Him

And do this all recognizing that He wants to talk to you and communicate with you (otherwise I don’t think He would have made you)…

“’For I know the plans I have for you,’ declares the LORD, ‘plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. I will be found by you…’” Jeremiah 29:11-14

Start talking to God….

Now for those of you who don’t yet have a relationship with God, know that it is not something you earn, but something you are given. God loves giving something called grace – a free gift. The Bible says in Romans chapter 5 – “You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly…God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”  You see, it’s a gift…from God. See, sin separates us from God, but He gave the greatest gift of grace ever recorded in history – and gave him the name Jesus Christ.  Jesus Christ is God’s perfect Son who died in your place for your sinful ways (just like he died for mine)…He didn’t do this to neglect you or push you away, but to open up the possibility of a relationship between you and His Father, God…Because sin separates us from God, He had to do this in order for us to be made right with the Father…and Scripture says, “Everyone who calls on the name of the LORD will be saved.” (Romans 10:13) It also says, “…if you confess with your mouth, ‘Jesus is LORD,’ and believe [trust] in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.” (Romans 10:9)

And know it is by faith you are saved, not works……Ephesians 2:8, 9

Begin a relationship with God today…

And everyone reading…right now, take the extra time of reading I have freed up (by shortening this) to get in touch with God for the next 5 minutes at least.