Vocation By Dr. Ricklytle. Cornerstone.

Vocation

Work is the form inwhich we make ourselves useful to others, we add value to others.

Many people use their callings to make a difference.

Presidents, athletes, singers, writers...

What do you want to be?

What is your vocation?

Who has God called you to be?

Think.

Lives can be changed for eternity.

Think about the higher call.

Training for vocaion

Living your vocation

Divine appointment:

Each of us have been put on a divine post. Granted by God and those around us. By our parents, friends, spouses, etc...

Be faithful to our divine appointments.

When we have been given a position, take charge.

Use the power we have.

The parable of the talents.

People we have been given talents and use them will be given more, those who don't use any will have their talentstaken away.

Jesus cursed the fig tree, because it didn't fulfill its purpose. The fig tree had no fruit. It had water, soil, and nutrients, but no fruit.

Story:

Adolf Hitler, asked to design a people's car. Porsche, created VolksWagen. He asks people what do they do at a work yard, many answered they just worked. But one man answered, "I build cathedrals..."

Take all your gifts that God has given you and make the world a better place.

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Shipwrecks and Snakebites by Jonathan Storment from Highland Church, Guest Speaker. Beltway.

RThe huge story of Jesus: eternal life, salvation, victory.

The significance of using the name of Jesus.

Genesis 3:1-6

Adam and Eve fall to pieces. Humans will fall and later on the sea; the flood.

Job 38:8-11

The sea was thought of a permitive force. That is monstrous.

Genesis 3:14-15

Women, birth.

Genesis 3:17-18

The ground before men is cursed.

Acts 27:13-26

They do not know went the weather will change. Scared to death.

Acts 28:1-6

They landed on an island and Paul was bitten by a viper. He shakes of the snake bite and did not die.

Jesus is still bigger.

Sometimes Jesus saves us through the storm. Sometimes the storm gives us perspectives. God is big enough to redeem all of it.

Acts 28:7-

Paul heals an important man on the island. Paul wasn't suppose to be at Malta, be bitten by a snake, or heal a sick man.

Satan does not have the last word. God takes all that happens and turns it into His works. God makes everything end with great glory.

The world can feel like its crashing you, but evil does not have the final word.

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Revealed Truth by Randy Harris , Cornerstone Week 11. Oct 7, 2011.

How revelation is a way of knowing?

Think about sports.

Bill Belichick.

Why do the pros and famous people think that he made a bad choice when the facts show that he made the right choice?

Bad choices made by bad arguments.

Think about God.

What can you trust about God?

There are people who want you to know about God but does not have your interest in their hearts.

Not all claims to Revelation are valid, but does that mean none are?

If there is a God, we would expect for God make himself known.

Can we have knowledge of God, or is faith disconnected from knowledge?

Revelation: Seeing the divine in the human.

Natural revelation vs. Special revelation:

Natural revelation: is how God revelas Himself through nature and reason.

Special revelation: is the things God does in history.

The Passion of Christ, the scourging of Christ scene:

Can you see "God" here?

Some people see Jesus giving His life for us.

Others see the gruesome, violence.

Authenticating Revelation:

Revelation brings with it, its own authentication.

Abraham sacrificing Isaac.

Did it out of the immediacy of God coming to him, thus he doesn't question what he was told to do.

But this is dangerous, so..

1.It has to match the character of God.

2.We have to trust a community around us.

If you have mentors and wise people around you to decide.

3. Your preparation to receive God's revelation.

The preparation of the individual

(Training of the Eyes)

What you train your eyes to look for your probably not going to see other things that you don't train.

The mystical tradition: to preceive God through prayer. That God will only come to you by His own choice and there's nothing you can do.

Our task is to stand where God is shooting. We have no control of the shooting; when, where, how. We can place ourselves in a postion to receive.

Conclusion:

I have never been more open...

I have never been more skeptical...

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Those People, The Manipulator. November 6, 2011. Week 2

Those People -- 2

Manipulating People

Examples from the Bible:

Two women manipulated. Herod Mark 6:21-28

Jacob manipulated Esau. Genesis 25:29-34

Delilah manipulated Samson. Judges 16:15-19

Judges 16:15-16

"Then she said to him, 'How can you say, "I love you," when you won't confide in me? This is the third time you have made a fool of me and haven't told me the secret of your great strength.' With such nagging she prodded him day after day until he was tired to death.'

COMMON TACTICS OF MANIPULATORS

1. Flatery

2. Threats

3. Guilt

A lot of us are giving into these three things. Letting some one else control the strings and making us dance.

BREAKING THE POWER OF MANIPULATION

1. God, help me recognize when someone is trying to manipulate me.

Matthew 16:21-22

"From that time on Jesus began to explain to his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things at the hands of the elders, chief priests and teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and on the third day be raised to life. Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. 'Never, Lord!' He said. 'This shall never happen to you!' "

Manipulators will pull you aside because they lose their strength in groups.

Some manipulations are good and bad.

Peter has good intentions because he doesn't want Jesus to die. But he is trying to stop Jesus from doing His will.

Other intentions are bad, abuse.

How do you know if you're being manipulated?

1.You often feel guilty and fine it hard to say "no."

2.You compromise your values to please others.

Peer pressure.

Relationship pressure.

Compromising your values to do something you won't do.

You have to be strong enough to fight against the controller.

2. God, empower me to put healthy boundaries in place.

Matthew 16:23

"Jesus turned and said to Peter, 'Get behind me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to me; you do not have in mind the things of God, but the things of men.' "

If someone else has control of you, your committing the sin of idolatry. Your letting a person be your god.

In your life, you will have to make an important decision that will affect you greatly. Who will you let to make that decision? The manipulator? God?

Do not allow someone else to be in the role of god.

3. God, help me see my own need to control and surrender everything to you.

All of us want to control life. We think that because our lives are great, we worked hard and received success, then we do not need god. We think that we're a better god.

Isaiah 26:3-4

"You will keep in perfect peace all who trust in you, all whose thoughts are fixed on you! Trust in the Lord always, for the Lord God is the eternal Rock."

Trust in the Lord to make your decisions. Nothing is ours. All we have is God's. When we get to that place then we will have perfect peace. The reason we do not have peace is because we try to control and play god. Pray before God and uphold everything to Him, then peace is yours.

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