The Axis of Spiritual Privilege: A Covenant and Connection with God from a Place in Your Heart Pt 6

The Axis of Spiritual Privilege: A Covenant and Connection with God from a Place in Your Heart Pt 6

Colossians 1:22-23 MSG

21-23 You yourselves are a case study of what he does. At one time you all had your backs turned to God, thinking rebellious thoughts of him, giving him trouble every chance you got. But now, by giving himself completely at the Cross, actually dying for you, Christ brought you over to God’s side and put your lives together, whole and holy in his presence. You don’t walk away from a gift like that! You stay grounded and steady in that bond of trust, constantly tuned in to the Message, careful not to be distracted or diverted. There is no other Message—just this one. Every creature under heaven gets this same Message. I, Paul, am a messenger of this Message.

Psalm 34:10 MSG

10

Young lions on the prowl get hungry,�but God-seekers are full of God.

Psalm 119:2-8 MSG

119

1-8 You’re blessed when you stay on course,� walking steadily on the road revealed by God.�You’re blessed when you follow his directions,� doing your best to find him.�That’s right—you don’t go off on your own;� you walk straight along the road he set.�You, God, prescribed the right way to live;� now you expect us to live it.�Oh, that my steps might be steady,� keeping to the course you set;�Then I’d never have any regrets� in comparing my life with your counsel.�I thank you for speaking straight from your heart;� I learn the pattern of your righteous ways.�I’m going to do what you tell me to do;� don’t ever walk off and leave me.

Psalm 119:45-48 MSG

41-48

Let your love, God, shape my life� with salvation, exactly as you promised;�Then I’ll be able to stand up to mockery� because I trusted your Word.�Don’t ever deprive me of truth, not ever—� your commandments are what I depend on.�Oh, I’ll guard with my life what you’ve revealed to me,� guard it now, guard it ever;�And I’ll stride freely through wide open spaces� as I look for your truth and your wisdom;�Then I’ll tell the world what I find,� speak out boldly in public, unembarrassed.�I cherish your commandments—oh, how I love them!—� relishing every fragment of your counsel.

Romans 14:13-23 MSG

13-14 Forget about deciding what’s right for each other. Here’s what you need to be concerned about: that you don’t get in the way of someone else, making life more difficult than it already is. I’m convinced—Jesus convinced me!—that everything as it is in itself is holy. We, of course, by the way we treat it or talk about it, can contaminate it.

15-16 If you confuse others by making a big issue over what they eat or don’t eat, you’re no longer a companion with them in love, are you? These, remember, are persons for whom Christ died. Would you risk sending them to hell over an item in their diet? Don’t you dare let a piece of God-blessed food become an occasion of soul-poisoning!

17-18 God’s kingdom isn’t a matter of what you put in your stomach, for goodness’ sake. It’s what God does with your life as he sets it right, puts it together, and completes it with joy. Your task is to single-mindedly serve Christ. Do that and you’ll kill two birds with one stone: pleasing the God above you and proving your worth to the people around you.

19-21 So let’s agree to use all our energy in getting along with each other. Help others with encouraging words; don’t drag them down by finding fault. You’re certainly not going to permit an argument over what is served or not served at supper to wreck God’s work among you, are you? I said it before and I’ll say it again: All food is good, but it can turn bad if you use it badly, if you use it to trip others up and send them sprawling. When you sit down to a meal, your primary concern should not be to feed your own face but to share the life of Jesus. So be sensitive and courteous to the others who are eating. Don’t eat or say or do things that might interfere with the free exchange of love.

22-23 Cultivate your own relationship with God, but don’t impose it on others. You’re fortunate if your behavior and your belief are coherent. But if you’re not sure, if you notice that you are acting in ways inconsistent with what you believe—some days trying to impose your opinions on others, other days just trying to please them—then you know that you’re out of line. If the way you live isn’t consistent with what you believe, then it’s wrong.

1 Samuel 16:7 MSG

7 But God told Samuel, “Looks aren’t everything. Don’t be impressed with his looks and stature. I’ve already eliminated him. God judges persons differently than humans do. Men and women look at the face; God looks into the heart.”

Romans 12 MSG

Place Your Life Before God

12 1-2 So here’s what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. Don’t become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You’ll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you.

3 I’m speaking to you out of deep gratitude for all that God has given me, and especially as I have responsibilities in relation to you. Living then, as every one of you does, in pure grace, it’s important that you not misinterpret yourselves as people who are bringing this goodness to God. No, God brings it all to you. The only accurate way to understand ourselves is by what God is and by what he does for us, not by what we are and what we do for him.

Remember that there is:

Ecclesiastes 3:8 MSG

2-8

A right time for birth and another for death,�A right time to plant and another to reap,�A right time to kill and another to heal,�A right time to destroy and another to construct,�A right time to cry and another to laugh,�A right time to lament and another to cheer,�A right time to make love and another to abstain,�A right time to embrace and another to part,�A right time to search and another to count your losses,�A right time to hold on and another to let go,�A right time to rip out and another to mend,�A right time to shut up and another to speak up,�A right time to love and another to hate,�A right time to wage war and another to make peace.

Ecclesiastes 3:8-9 NIV

8 a time to love and a time to hate,� a time for war and a time for peace.

Psalm 40:6-8 NIV

6

Sacrifice and offering you did not desire—� but my ears you have opened[a]—� burnt offerings and sin offerings[b] you did not require.

7

Then I said, “Here I am, I have come—� it is written about me in the scroll.[c]

8

I desire to do your will, my God;� your law is within my heart.”

Psalm 78:2-4 MSG

1-4 Listen, dear friends, to God’s truth,� bend your ears to what I tell you.�I’m chewing on the morsel of a proverb;� I’ll let you in on the sweet old truths,�Stories we heard from our fathers,� counsel we learned at our mother’s knee.�We’re not keeping this to ourselves,� we’re passing it along to the next generation—�God’s fame and fortune,� the marvelous things he has done.

Psalm 94:8-11 NIV

8

Take notice, you senseless ones among the people;� you fools, when will you become wise?

9

Does he who fashioned the ear not hear?� Does he who formed the eye not see?

10

Does he who disciplines nations not punish?� Does he who teaches mankind lack knowledge?

11

The Lord knows all human plans;� he knows that they are futile.

Psalm 85:10-13 NIV

10

Love and faithfulness meet together;� righteousness and peace kiss each other.

11

Faithfulness springs forth from the earth,� and righteousness looks down from heaven.

12

The Lord will indeed give what is good,� and our land will yield its harvest.

13

Righteousness goes before him� and prepares the way for his ste

Psalm 86:15 NIV

15

But you, Lord, are a compassionate and gracious God,� slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness.

John 1:51 MSG

50-51 Jesus said, “You’ve become a believer simply because I say I saw you one day sitting under the fig tree? You haven’t seen anything yet! Before this is over you’re going to see heaven open and God’s angels descending to the Son of Man and ascending again.”

John 1:12-18 MSG

9-13

The Life-Light was the real thing:� Every person entering Life� he brings into Light.�He was in the world,� the world was there through him,� and yet the world didn’t even notice.�He came to his own people,� but they didn’t want him.�But whoever did want him,� who believed he was who he claimed� and would do what he said,�He made to be their true selves,� their child-of-God selves.�These are the God-begotten,� not blood-begotten,� not flesh-begotten,� not sex-begotten.

14

The Word became flesh and blood,� and moved into the neighborhood.�We saw the glory with our own eyes,� the one-of-a-kind glory,� like Father, like Son,�Generous inside and out,� true from start to finish.

15 John pointed him out and called, “This is the One! The One I told you was coming after me but in fact was ahead of me. He has always been ahead of me, has always had the first word.”

16-18

We all live off his generous abundance,� gift after gift after gift.�We got the basics from Moses,� and then this exuberant giving and receiving,�This endless knowing and understanding—� all this came through Jesus, the Messiah.�No one has ever seen God,� not so much as a glimpse.�This one-of-a-kind God-Expression,� who exists at the very heart of the Father,� has made him plain as day.