Fountain of Living Water: Living Abundantly

Whoever believes in me, as the scripture has said,

'Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.'"

John 7:38

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What does it look like to live a life flowing with living water?

But whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst, but the water that I shall give him shall become in him a well of living water springing up to eternal life.

John 4:14

A life leaping up. Bubbling up. Welling up. Springing up to eternal life.

Life experiencing God's gift. This is the kind of life reserved for the one who believes and drinks the water.

What is the water?

The water is the Holy Spirit! He puts His Spirit in us and brings to life the work we were called to do (that which has laid doormat for lack of wisdom and understanding).

He breathes life into our nostrils and gives us purpose and meaning and work to accomplish through His spirit. The fuel to be friutful.

The thief comes only to still, kill, and destroy; I came that they might have life

and might have it abundantly.

John 10:10

There is an enemy who doesn't want you to flourish. His tactic from the very beginning has been to get you to doubt God's goodness. To frustrate the work God has prepared for you.

God desires for us to live abundant lives.

Abundantly - more, excessive, exceedingly, going past the expected limit.

The abundant life is living in Christ through His spirit. And this is available to everyone who believes.

When we acknowledge Him as Lord and believe in Him, we are given a sweet gift... our purpose and work our restored...to be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth and subdue it.

What we are believe.

We are to believe that Jesus was born of a virgin, suffered, was crucified, died, and buried. He rose on the third day, he ascended into heaven and sits at the right hand of God.

We need to believe that HE IS LORD!

But I would add this one other treasure tucked away in scripture which I believe is the most important piece.

But to each of us [believers] was given according to the measure of Christ's gift.

Therefore it says, "When He ascended on High, He led captive a host of captives,

and gave gifts to men.

Ephesians 4:7-8

Gift- Dórea - a free gift, a gift without payment.

God gave us His son, Jesus, as the perfect sacrifice whereby we are able to come to Him, not by works of our own, but by the work of His Son, Jesus, on the cross. It is FREE to us!

A Gift.

But look what else we get...

Gifts - Doma - a gift, a present.

As a conqueror distributes the token of his triumph (the spoils of the enemy) as gifts among his people.

Don't miss this.

The spoils taken from us from the very beginning have been restored to us. Everything we need to be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth, and subdue it! The gifts to accomplish the work!

Satan succeeded in his plot to get Adam and Eve to doubt God's goodness and plan for their lives. But God had a remedy to restore that which was corrupted through sin.

A seed...Jesus...God's own son who would accomplish the work God had prepared for Him to do...Restoring hearts and restoring lives.

By Jesus sinless life, He became the perfect sacrifice for our wayward hearts toward God. And through His life, death, burial and resurrection we are given a gift. He has given us the Holy Spirit to guide us. He is the living water...the fountain that wells up within us to do the good work that He prepared in advance for us to do. He has conquered Satan. He has redeemed for us our purpose...our ability to be flourish, make much of Him , fill the earth with His glory, and to make good use of all He has given us.

We are one body with many members. When each one is doing their work properly and using their gifts wisely, then the world begins to transform into a glorious reflection of Him. This is the river flowing from our hearts.

Do you believe this? Your very purpose depends on it.

Discipleship Material on the Holy Spirit

Listen to the Podcast that correlates with this blog post.

The Coronavirus and our Family

We are like any other family...watching the news, popping on our social media every morning to see what's new with this evil virus.

I have gone through a wide range of emotions. I still continue to vacillate from one extreme to the other. Here are some facts about our family that come into play when dealing with the coronavirus.

We have a child who is immunocompromised.

As most of you know, our oldest son, Eli, received a kidney transplant in 2018. In order to keep his body from rejecting the new kidney, he needs to be on immunosuppressant drugs for the rest of his life. This puts him at risk for developing several things, cornonavirus included.

Just last year he was diagnosed with lymphoma as a result of his suppressed immune system. But, praise God, two weeks ago Eli concluded his very last chemo treatment. There are no signs of cancer anywhere in his body! We have learned to celebrate sweet victories like these while anticipating the next hurdle. We know that although we have cleared the hurdle of cancer, Eli’s suppressed immune system still puts him at risk for sicknesses and diseases.

We are a blended family.

My two boys from my previous marriage spend every other week with us. I am not going to lie. This makes it hard on my momma heart because I want to be able to control their potential exposure to this evil virus. Plus, I just want all my peeps near me. I get into protective mom mode. But we can't live in fear. We just need to be smart and make wise decisions.

We are trying to explain to our three boys the seriousness of this while still trying to figure out the seriousness ourselves. Everything is happening so fast and new information is coming out every day. Yesterday it might have been okay to go out to eat with your friends to help a local restaurant. Today, not so much! I don't know about you, but I feel a little bipolar in my parenting today!

There's a doctor in the house.

Not only am I having to let go of my mommy control. I am having to let go of my wifey control. I sent Craig off to work this morning with a kiss and prayer. One of my sweet mentors would always tell me when I was feeling anxious about my peeps to "pray the blood of Jesus over them." So that is what I did this morning.

A lot of you can identify. You may be someone or have someone in your family getting up everyday to head into the hospital. They are vulnerable to the virus themselves as well as posing a risk of bringing the virus home to loved ones.

Craig is an Ob-gyn doc. He specializes in women's health and delivering those sweet babies. When I asked him about his plan for the next 2-4 weeks, his response was, "the babies still have to be delivered."

As we talked about it more, we realized that the stark reality is that me and the boys might need to be quarantined from Craig if this thing spreads like wildfire here in Knoxville. This makes my wifey heart hurt even worse. The thought of him being vulnerable AND away from us is too much to bear. We can’t turn a blind eye to the fact that we have a son who is immunocompromised and we can't risk him getting exposed to this beast of a virus. Only time will tell what hard decisions we will need to make.

The reality is, everyone is having to make decisions. Some of those decisions our made by our Government. No matter what our opinions are on the coronavirus, let‘s commit to social-distancing and washing our hands. And for the love, let us look NOT to our own interests but to the interests of others.

This is not about you. It’s about the world as we know it. I am not an alarmists but let’s just go down that road for a bit. What if we didn’t take this seriously? What if the virus continued to spread at a rapid rate and we began to see our hospitals begin to turn people away because of limited beds, equipment and workers? What if our nation was in such a crisis that even the grocery stores, pharmacies, and gas stations shut down? What if we went through an economic downturn as a result of the Coronavirus spreading throughout the country?

These are the things we can avoid if we all did our part to starve this virus. That means social-distancing and staying in as much as you can. If we all go out and continue to live life as usual, we are giving this virus an opportunity to live and continue spreading.

You may get the coronavirus and do well. But unless we starve this beast, we are ALL vulnerable to the effects of it.

Stay home and be still. This is our greatest weapon.

“The Lord will fight for you, you need only to be still.” - Exodus 14:14

The True Hustle: A Call to be a Powerful and Irresistible Influence in the Lives of Others

Never before has it been essential that Christians know what they believe. In a world that is progressively losing the ability to reproduce the faith, we are faced with the reality that the command to "go and make disciples" has been replaced with "go and promote yourself."

But this isn't anything new. Satan has been tempting man to "be like God," and "make a name for yourself" from the very beginning. The Cambridge Dictionary defines it this way..."to become famous or respected by a lot of people." And if you google this same phrase you will find all sorts of help on how to make a name for yourself, creating an identity in the marketplace, personal branding strategy for success, etc.

There is nothing wrong with being known or famous. The question is, what are you known or famous for?

A popular word among entrepreneurs is "hustle." A quote that pops up when you google making your name great is... "Hustle until you no longer have to introduce yourself."

hus・tle /huhs -uhl/ - force someone to move hurriedly or unceremoniously

in a specific direction, obtain by forceful action or persuasion,

busy movement to activity.

"Hustle" in the business world. Does this mean we shouldn't get things done in a productive manner? Absolutely not! But we should be careful. Are we hustling for the next promotion or recognition? Instead, realize that as Entrepreneurs we have been given a platform for reaching those God has placed in our path with the Good News.

What is the Good News?

The Good News is the story of Jesus who came to earth to live a selfless sinless life and became the perfect gift for us. A sacrifice. A spotless lamb. He suffered to the point of death on a cross taking our sin and nailing it there. He rose from the dead, conquering death and giving us the Holy Spirit, to enable us to have life (eternal life), and live righteous lives. His righteousness was given to us not by works we have done but by faith in Him and the work He did on the Cross. He now sits at the right hand of the Father where He has the special place of honor.

Are you honoring Him with your life?

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If I take care of my character, my reputation will take care of itself.

D.L. Moody

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Our goal should be Christlike character. We will reproduce what we are.

What are you reproducing?

Are you reproducing people who are hustling to making their name great? Or are you producing image bearers of Christ?

In Christ, we no longer have to prove our existence. We are simply loved because He first loved us before the foundation of the world, before we could even prove ourselves. By Christ's death on the cross we no longer live by the flesh but by the Spirit. The "hustle" demands of me to prove what I can do. But God's grace says I am enough because my identity is found in Christ and His strength not in what I can do. The only true hustle is the reality that time is short and many still don't know of this wonderful life in Christ.

It's time to be bold fellow Christians. It's time to take our eyes off of ourselves and place them on the One who created us, gave us gifts and talents, and a unique story to tell.

“Followers of Christ have something essential and meaningful to share with their families, neighbors, friends and those they come into contact with,”says Roxanne Stone, editor in chief at Barna Group. “As pastors and leaders, we must invest the resources of our churches toward coming alongside fellow believers and empowering them with confidence to talk about their faith despite the obvious barriers. We ought to help Christians begin to make the connections between their everyday, ordinary life—their sleeping, eating, going-to-work and walking-around life—and the faith that sustains them.”

We have something amazing to share! So why are we not sharing it?

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“Every Christian has a responsibility to share their faith." In1993, nine out of 10 Christians who had shared their faith agreed (89%). Today, just two-thirds say so (64%)—a 25-point drop. --Barna Group, 2018

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I once heard someone say that the greatest tragedy in Christianity is the inability to reproduce the faith. I agree. As followers of Christ, we are ALL called to "go make disciples of all nations." It is not just for pastors and evangelist. If you are breathing, you are leading someone somewhere. What are you leading people to? Are you pointing others back to Jesus with your life story?

Did you know that today we have the ability to share a message with people from all over the globe? A lot of people are taking to social media and hustling to get their message and brand out in the world. What if, as believers, we all utilized social media to share the Good News and point them to Jesus?

The reality is...we are all, as followers of Christ, called to share our faith.

This is where I get super passionate. I was a fringe kid. I was awkward. Aren't we all? But someone invested in me early on. The first time I started realizing that I had value was when I was in High school because a Sunday school teacher pursued me. She was consistent in her pursuit of me and taught me so much about God and life. I remember when I was asked to prom, I was terrified because I knew my date had made reservations at a fancy restaurant. So my Sunday school teacher asked me over to her house where she had arranged all her dishes, flatware, and stemware (at that age I would have just called them all "dishes"). She took the time to teach me what everything was and how I was to use them. She even taught me how to use my napkin, how to excuse myself from the table, and how to indicate that I was done with my meal.

Why do I tell you that story?

Because I believe the great tragedy in Christianity is the unwillingness to invest in others and take the time to be a powerful and irresistible influence. Reflecting God's character, praying, teaching God's Word, listening, and doing life.

It's called "discipleship".

It sounds scary but it is actually very sweet and powerful. It is the way that God's name is made great throughout the world. Without it no one would know the great great love of Jesus.

We are called to "Come alongside fellow believers and empowering them with confidence to talk about their faith" and help them "make the connections between their everyday, ordinary life--their sleeping, eating, going-to-work and walking-around life--and the faith that sustains them."

I am not going to lie. I get off track a lot of the time. Satan loves to tempt me with making my name great instead of being an image bearer of Christ.

The true hustle is making HIS name great! Are you willing to invest in someone to begin sharing the love of Christ?

Think through the people God has placed in your life and how he might want to use your gifts, talents, and life story to reach them. Make wise use of your time because the days are short.

Hustle.

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