Firm Foundation with Bryan Hudson

Your Defining Moments, Pt 1: Lessons from John Starks & Blind Bartimaeus

LInk to YouTube video of performance by youth experiencing a defining moment when producing an original tune.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sO95q0fZB3M&feature=player_embedded

Lessons In Listening

MAR 4:23 "If anyone has ears to hear, let him hear." 24] And He said to them, "Take heed what you hear. With the same measure you use, it will be measured to you; and to you who hear, more will be given. 25] For whoever has, to him more will be given; but whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken away from him."
Jesus Himself made it abundant clear that what we hear and how we hear, makes a tremendous in our lives, one way or another. How many times have we done the wrong thing or gone in the wrong direction for not listening or for failing to hear with understanding.
1. Listening and hearing are not always the same thing.
2. While listening is a function of our ears to detect sound waves and convert them to recognizable words that register in our brain,
3. hearing is a function of our will to understanding what is being said. The fact is: Many people do not hear—not just in church, but in many areas of life.
4. Listening is a natural, physical ability, but hearing must be cultivated through training one’s heart and mind to grasp what is being said.

Making Progress Though Listening and Hearing

Mark 4:23 "If anyone has ears to hear, let him hear." 24] And He said to them, "Take heed what you hear. With the same measure you use, it will be measured to you; and to you who hear, more will be given. 25] For whoever has, to him more will be given; but whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken away from him."
Jesus Himself made it abundant clear that what we hear and how we hear, makes a tremendous in our lives, one way or another. How many times have we done the wrong thing or gone in the wrong direction for not listening or for failing to hear with understanding.
1. Listening and hearing are not always the same thing.
2. While listening is a function of our ears to detect sound waves and convert them to recognizable words that register in our brain,
3. hearing is a function of our will to understanding what is being said. The fact is: Many people do not hear—not just in church, but in many areas of life.
4. Listening is a natural, physical ability, but hearing must be cultivated through training one’s heart and mind to grasp what is being said.

M.E.N. Meeting Every Need

M.E.N. Meeting Every Need

Forward With Excellence

2 Cor. 4:7 But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellence of the power may be of God and not of us.
God is raising up a people who wiil not be limited by the mediocrity of this world. People who function by the power and life of Jesus Christ. Mediorcre defined: A quality that is acceptable but not very good
We are God’s excellent ones.
Psalm 16:2, "O my soul, you have said to the Lord, “You are my Lord, My goodness is nothing apart from You.” 3 As for the saints who are on the earth, “They are the excellent ones, in whom is all my delight.”

Walking in Newness of Life

Romans 6:3 Or do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? 4 Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.
Raise your hand if you want to die right now. Okay, Raise you hand if you are already dead.
The word death or dead can be a very disturbing term. It can be an uncomfortable subject especially when we are talking about our mortality, or our physical life.
But that’s not what we are talking about here. We are talking about life, life in the absolute and eternal sense. There is an old saying that goes, “Born one die twice. Born twice, die once.” (explain)
We are talking about life and walking in the newness of life.
This word “newness” is an interesting word. It is only used twice in the NT. Other versions simply read “new life,” which is correct, but I like the emphasis of the unique word “newness.”
Newness literally means, “In the new state of life in which the Holy Spirit places us so as to produce a new state which is eternal life.”
Newness is a new state or another level of life that produces a new state, or another level.
Sometimes we think of being a Christian or becoming born again as the new state or new level of living. The new birth is the first state. It’s not all that God has for you.

Living on Purpose, Intentional Living

We are living in the age of Facebook, Twitter, in what we call “virtual reality,” People create alter egos of their true selves, and build relationships based on a made-up online profile. It seems like people are living like go to the cinema to watch a 3D movie. People put on 3D glasses and experience a depiction of reality, a virtual reality, that ends when the movie ends and the glasses come off. Sometimes people have difficulty separating the virtual from the real.
I heard a report once where someone in church requested prayer for one of the characters in a television soap opera. This sounds silly, but sometimes people confuse virtual with the real.
Today, more than ever, those of us who follow Jesus have the opportunity to show our world something intentional, something authentic, something real
Those of us who follow Jesus have the opportunity to show people a lifestyle that can be lived out in the real world, and that can be lived victoriously.
In the virtual world of Facebook you have 600 friends. In the real world, you may only have 10 real friends, and you can only count on three of them!
The word intentional is defined: Calculated, intended, planned, meant, studie, willful, purposeful, premeditated, preplanned, and designed.

Living on Purpose, Wisdom for Temporary Times

PSA 90:12 So teach us to number our days, That we may gain a heart of wisdom.

Living on Purpose, Destined & Directed

For everything, absolutely everything... got started in him and finds its purpose in him. Colossians 1:16 (Message Bible)

Freedom God's Way

Rom. 8:1, There is therefore no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit. 2 For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin and death.