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NOTES FROM JOHN MACARTHUR

What God desires from man?  How do I know what God's will is for my life? He wants you to know it, he does not hide it from you.  It's not dependant upon your intuition or coincidence.  The Holy Scripture is God's will.   1. God's will is that you be saved   "This is good, and pleases God our Savior, 4 who wants all people to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth."  I Tim 2:3   That you embrace the Son. God's will that you repent. John 6:40 Believe in Him, have eternal life. I Cor 2:9   2. God's will that you be spirit filled Eph 5:17-20 filled with praise and thankfulness submissive, loving, respectful, obedient not operating in foolishness and ignorance not be drunk with wine controlled by the Holy Spirit and not another spirit John 16:6  Luke 6:11  5:26 so dominated by that force, under it's complete control alcohol is a controlling substance Romans 8:9 Col 3:16   3. God's will that you be sanctified sexually pur...

PREACH THE WORD

Stand to your feet or fall to your knees, The King is coming! We all have been called to preach the Word.  Temporary excuses keep us from focusing on the eternal. Somehow our intentions are like the roads that seem to always be ever 'under construction,' with signs flashing,  EXPECT DELAYS.  Words are plentiful these days, actions are nil. We have everything we need to accomplish the work we have been sent here to do, but we are unable to complete the task at hand because we insist on relying on our own abilities to figure things out during the technical difficulties of every day life. Then we wonder why we got problems. The Word of God is our solution. There is nothing else. No word that is more comforting, instructive, or more sure than the Word of the Lord. Nothing else is health to our bones and to all our flesh. He is the friend that sticks closer than a brother.  The Father that takes us up when our parents forsake us....

AMPED

I CHARGE [you] in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, Who is to judge the living and the dead, and by (in the light of) His coming and His kingdom: Herald and preach the Word! Keep your sense of urgency [stand by, be at hand and ready], whether the opportunity seems to be favorable or unfavorable. [Whether it is convenient or inconvenient, whether it is welcome or unwelcome, you as preacher of the Word are to show people in what way their lives are wrong.] And convince them, rebuking and correcting, warning and urging and encouraging them, being unflagging and inexhaustible in patience and teaching. For the time is coming when [people] will not tolerate (endure) sound and wholesome instruction, but, having ears itching [for something pleasing and gratifying], they will gather to themselves one teacher after another to a considerable number, chosen to satisfy their own liking and to foster the errors they hold, And will turn aside from hearing the truth and wander off into...

DEPOSIT THIS

Does your heart live or is it burried under the paperwork on your desk? Is it hiding behind all you are striving to be? Did it wave goodbye in the 9-5 of the daily grind? Does your heart live? Really live. Every day you are making a choice to use what you have been given.  Are you barely hanging on? Wondering why you're here? Are you longing for something more, but fear of the unknown keeping you down?  Does your heart live? "THE MEEK SHALL EAT AND BE SATISFIED: THEY SHALL PRAISE THE LORD THAT SEEK HIM: AND YOUR HEART SHALL LIVE FOR EVER."  Psalm 22:26 There is no good thing outside of Him who created all things. Alot of the frustrations we meet with on a daily basis is due mostly to our overlooking the simple truth... what we SEEK we will find. No ones journey is the same. So maybe we should stop comparing ourselves to others.  There is no one like you. God made you for His glory.  Why not ask the One who made ...

PLEASE

So you dream of the day, the time, the opportunity, and then there it is...there you are... in the middle of what seemed to be so far off.  Your requests have been granted. Your dreams have come true. Now what do you do? Smile and ponder the possiblities of what might be if you do whatever it takes to live life on purpose from this day forward.  Do things differently.  Stop making excuses.  Ask God for help to follow through with what you know you should do.  Measure everything by love.  Not how much someone should or could love you, but how much you can love others whether they ever choose to love you in return or not.  Do not slack off.  Be diligent.  Persevere.  Look up.  Overcome.  Be thankful.  Wake up from the busy blur and learn how to really rest. You might find that you have lost what has been holding you back for so long... self consciousness. The more you retain the knowledge of th...

PRESENT SUFFERINGS

"Paul can speak from authority about "present sufferings." In the depth of human suffering we discover the reality of God. In the depth of human suffering we encounter the fatherly presence. It is in the depth of human suffering that we learn (vs. 15-16) to cry "Abba, Father." I'm not sure that this is some great expression of somebody's who's gone up into the third heaven, thereby experiencing this intimacy but really this is the cry when we can cry nothing else because we're aware of all that we're going through. How do we articulate this notion of suffering in our world? How do we identify with those who are suffering when we ourselves always want to put the best face on things and pretend that we are not suffering? To do so is to violate what we find in the New Testament. Paul doesn't launch into this glorious exposition of what it means to be in Christ and to be filled with the Holy Spirit so as to say, "And so you all know t...

SOMETHING ELSE

Drop the controller lady. You want things to change so badly, but everything you're doing is directly working against the change you would like to see happen in your relationship. Cause and effect.  Stop analyzing his every little move, would you like to be cross examined every day of your life? After a while a person begins to feel accused, trapped, misunderstood, devalued, and run down.  To top it off after making manipulating statements, moaning, complaining, whining and making him feel less than a human being, you proceed to speak ill of him to others (Dripping faucet). Maybe you forgot that you were created to be his helpmeet, not his taskmaster, supervisor, instructor, or advisor. You do have a part to play. It is important that you have right perspective. Love must be your aim. Begin to focus on something else, something that will actually work, something that will make both of your lives better. If you poure...