MXTV | "Re-Presenting" God's Word! » Tim’s Brain

Salvation is free, but Discipleship will cost you EVERYTHING! Part 3

Tim B. — Fri, 25 May 2012 14:39:26 +0000

“Then Jesus said to His disciples, ‘If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me. For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it; but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it. For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul?” Matthew 16:24-26 *to follow Him – This is referring to “following Him” in every aspect of our lives. Think of it like this: We were slaves to a master that was going to kill us, but at the right time another master came along and bought us from our “original” slave master. Our new Master promises us life and love and that He’ll ALWAYS be there for us…providing ALL of our needs! How awesome is that! When you have someone like that in your life, you will desire to do everything that they would want you too. This topic of following Jesus is so huge that we could talk about it forever and we still wouldn’t cover everything! But, to start it off…God tells us in His Word that after He saves us, we should publically profess what has happened by being baptized. Ultimately, by reading the Bible, God will teach us what it means to follow Him. Part 4: “Then Jesus said to His disciples, ‘If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me. For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it; but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it. For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul?” Matthew 16:24-26 *This is referring to the person who rejects the Gospel and instead goes after everything this world has to offer, whether it be money, pleasure, or status. Ultimately, losing all of that and instead getting eternal separation from God. The “things” in this world a person spent their entire life trying to get all burn up anyway. So, the question is…is what this world has to offer worth losing your soul over? Is your love of money and power worth more to you than where you spend eternity? If so, Jesus lets you know that’s EXACTLY what you will get.

Salvation is free, but Discipleship will cost you EVERYTHING! Part 2

Tim B. — Fri, 25 May 2012 14:38:56 +0000

Part 2: “Then Jesus said to His disciples, ‘If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me. For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it; but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it. For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul?” Matthew 16:24-26 *to take up our cross – This statement can seem to be very over used in church or in the “church culture,” but one commentary said this: “Crucifixion is a shocking metaphor for discipleship. A disciple must deny himself (die to self-will), take up his cross (embrace God’s will, no matter the cost), and follow Christ.” This goes hand in hand with Jesus telling us to deny ourselves. When Jesus “took up His cross” He was a dead man walking. He was doing EXACTLY what God had planned for Him to do. That’s all He cared about…no will of His own…He even said, “not my will, but Yours be done.” We are living for Christ! That’s a hard thing for us to do, but God gives us the strength to do it. By reading the Bible and spending time with other believers the Holy Spirit puts that drive in us to do what God wants us to.

Salvation is free, but Discipleship will cost you EVERYTHING! PART 1

Tim B. — Fri, 25 May 2012 14:38:17 +0000

Part 1: “Then Jesus said to His disciples, ‘If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me. For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it; but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it. For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul?” Matthew 16:24-26 *to deny ourselves – This is used in the same way when Peter denies Jesus (Matthew 26:69-75). The first time Peter said, “I do not know what you are talking about,” when a servant girl said that he was “with Jesus the Galilean.” The second time Peter denied Jesus he said, “I do not know the man.” The third time Peter “began to curse and swear” saying, “I do not know the man!” So, Jesus is telling us that if we desire…if we wish to follow him we have to treat our past life like Peter treated Jesus. When you began your relationship with Jesus you were a “New Creation.” All your past desires and all you wished to be mean nothing…it’s like you don’t know who that person is! How crazy is that! All you desire is to follow Jesus!

STRESS

Tim B. — Fri, 13 May 2011 04:33:34 +0000

A lecturer when explaining stress management to an audience, Raised a glass of water and asked 'How heavy is this glass of water?' Answers called out ranged from 20g to 500g. The lecturer replied, 'The absolute weight doesn't matter. It depends on how long you try to hold it.

Half Full?

If I hold it for a minute, that's not a problem. If I hold it for an hour, I'll have an ache in my right arm. If I hold it for a day, you'll have to call an ambulance. In each case, it's the same weight, but the longer I hold it, the heavier it becomes.' He continued, 'And that's the way it is with stress management. If we carry our burdens all the time, sooner or later, As the burden becomes increasingly heavy, We won't be able to carry on.' 'As with the glass of water,You have to put it down for a while and rest before holding it again. When we're refreshed, we can carry on with the burden.' 'So, before you return home tonight, 1. Put the burden of work down. 2. Don't carry it home. 3. You can pick it up tomorrow.Whatever burdens you're carrying now. Let them down for a moment if you can.' Tune in tomorrow for some tried and true ways to relieve that STRESS. Tim

SPACES

Tim B. — Mon, 09 May 2011 19:08:45 +0000

Philippians 4:6-7 “Don't fret or worry. Instead of worrying, pray. Let petitions and praises shape your worries into prayers…It's wonderful what happens when Christ displaces worry at the center of your life.” In today’s world, ‘speed’ is possibly our most valued commodity. But, being hooked on hurry causes us to miss ‘our spaces.’ - Space happens between work, school, home and the rest of our blurry life. Space corrects our vision. Spaces allow our thoughts to land and allow the next thought to take flight.

Space

Hitting the ‘space bar’ between words allows a sentence to make sense. A sentence (much like our lives) without spaces between the words cause us to overlook it’s meaning. Unfortunately, a sentence that could’ve been inspirational is now overlooked as Indecipherable and meaningless. - In contrast, it’s in the ‘spaces’ of our lives where we often experience Jesus, things make sense and we find meaning. Tim Bisagno // MXTV // 615.456.1901

I DON’T WANT TO LIMP INTO HEAVEN!

Tim B. — Fri, 11 Feb 2011 20:47:23 +0000

I don’t want to limp into heaven
I want to break the tape at full pace!
I want to be more focused on Christ, more passionate about His service!

Possible because one of the greatest gifts of walking with the Lord… the further we go in Christ, the more real He is.

We are meant to press on… tasting that little bit of heaven of that perfection right now. THIS is one of the greatest joys of this journey.

HOW to keep our focus: continually check our hearts for lurking in the corner:

ungratefulness
indifference
selfishness
pride
subtle self-righteous

Paul said that his greatest fear was to be disqualified from the race. These things will slowly but surely disqualify you from the race.

God’s greatest desire for us IS to keep our eye on Jesus.

If we do that God knows that means …. In spite of all else that happens that we will get it.

Keep you eye on Jesus and grow forward!

With all of this in place, we will finish well.

PRAYER = THAT WE MAY FINISH STRONG, FINISH WELL, EVERYDAY ACCELERATING TOWARDS WHAT IS AHEAD … = BECAUSE TRULY … HERE COME THE BETTER DAYS!

--Tim

ARE YOU ALWAYS LOOKING AT YOUR BEHIND?

Tim B. — Wed, 02 Feb 2011 01:49:21 +0000

OUR BEST YEARS ARE NOT BEHIND US… THEY ARE IN CHRIST… ALWAYS AHEAD OF US… KNOWING HIM MORE DEEPLY.

II Corinthians 4:16 (NIV)

“Though we decay on the outside the inward man is being renewed!”

Philippians 3:10-11

Paul refers to the resurrection 3 times in reference to personally knowing Christ. Did you know that “Resurrection” is used 42 times in the New Testament. There are no mistakes in the Bible. That was done for a reason. So we would ‘get it’.

The definition of Resurrection “The standing up from among the corpses”. When we rise in our resurrection we leave our past behind, rising among the corpses of our past.

So, it is plain and simple to me. We need to always want to be like Jesus. If Jesus showed us His resurrection so clearly, then it is time for us to resurrect and leave our past behind.

--Tim

DO YOU CHOOSE HAPPY?

Tim B. — Wed, 26 Jan 2011 01:42:04 +0000

Happiness is not a word we can understand from the dictionary. It has to be experienced, but by the very root of the word, happiness can be up and down, b/c it’s determined by what “happens” to us.

We have more than that! Much more.

The book of Phillipians in the bible is about that “much more.”

It’s called “Joy.”

When we read what Paul wrote to the Christian believers in the city of Phillipi, Paul doesn’t tell us that we can be happy or how to be happy. He simply and unmistakably IS happy. None of his circumstances contribute to his joy; he wrote from a jail cell.

Christ is, among much else, the revelation that God cannot be contained or horded. It is this “spilling-out” quality of Christ’s life that accounts for the happiness of Christians, for joy is life in excess, the overflow of what cannot be contained in any one person.

Ever notice how “the old people in the Lord” look sweeter and sweeter with age?

Today is the day to ‘CHOOSE HAPPY!”

--Tim

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