This Day With God – A Spiritual Journey | Share The Word

Take Courage

Posted on October 17, 2012 by Mark Shields

Courage (Photo credit: Pete Reed)

Pressure is mounting in Haggai 2:1-9 to rebuild the temple to the glorious state it was during Solomon’s time. The Lord is stirring the people to carry out the work (v.4). The word of God comes through the prophet Haggai for the people to take courage. In what ways do you need to take courage? As stated in a post of a fellow blogger at this link: Justification By Grace, the truth of Christ can fill us with courage.

Christ is prophesied (v. 7) and as explained in the gospel writings, we are each chosen as the Temple. Because of our acceptance of Christ as Savior, the Spirit lives in us and we can be encouraged that God is with us. We can gain strength and courage from prayer, Bible study, and worship. This is the first step and the second is to apply our faith in how we live at work or home.

Building up spiritual strength is similar to building up physical strength and needs some attention. Many pay attention to their physical work outs. Go to any health club and you will see exercise equipment for all muscle groups. In a way, all that read or write about faith are creating exercises for the Spirit. We are developing thoughts and ideas through writing or responding that help build healthy souls.

Today, I’m praying for my walk with God. It will be an amazing day because He is beside me all the way. We can all take courage and feel protected because we are a cherished child of His.

Letting Go of Fear (bradnd24.wordpress.com)
The Six Attributes of Courage (psychologytoday.com)
Step 2 (starrynight2204.wordpress.com)

Posted in Haggai | Tagged Bible, Bible Study, Christ, Christianity, Courage, courage christ, Faith, God, Grace, Prayer, prayer bible study, prophet haggai, religion, Solomon, Soul, Spirit, Temple | 6 Comments

Game Plan

Posted on October 16, 2012 by Mark Shields

The message this past weekend at my church was titled “Game Plan”. Brought out in the message was this question “why do we dream so small?” Dreams should be big because God is big. We should also realize that God’s plan for our life is unique. Pray this prayer: God would you show me your plan for my life? A spiritual gift is given to each of us to help His church.

Below is an outline of the message. The words in black are notes provided by the church staff and the notes in blue are notes I added as I listened to the Podcast.

1. RULE # 1: TAKE A LEAP OF FAITH.

“It was by faith that Abraham obeyed when God called him to leave home and go to another land that God would give him….He went without knowing where he was going.” – Hebrews 11:8 (NLT)

Take a leap of faith and God will show you what He can do. Together, there’s nothing we can’t do

2. RULE # 2: SOMETIMES YOUR GREATEST GIFTS ARE YOUR WOUNDS, NOT YOUR COMPETENCIES

“Each time he said, ‘My gracious favor is all you need. My power works best in your weakness….” – 2 Corinthians 12:9 (NLT)

The hurts in our life defines how God might use us for great purposes.

3. RULE # 3: GOD’S SCOREBOARD WORKS IN MYSTERIOUS WAYS. DON’T FORFEIT THE GAME!

“ ‘Anyone who wants to be first must take last place and be the servant of everyone else.’ ” – Mark 9:35b (NLT)

God measures success differently. The moments of faith that we don’t even know about are what matters the most. We may think we struck out but we may have hit a home run. We may never know how the things we do and say make a difference in someone’s life.

4. RULE # 4: GET ON THE FIELD AND LEAN INTO YOUR GIFTS.

“Use the gift you have, which was given to you through prophecy when the group of elders laid their hands on you. Continue to do those things; give your life to doing them so your progress may be seen by everyone.” – 1Timothy 4:14-15 (NCV)

Just use the gifts God has given you. God will bring success and everyone will be blessed.

5. RULE # 5: GOD’S GIFTS AND GOD’S PLAN GO TOGETHER.

“This is why I remind you to fan into flames the spiritual gift God gave you when I laid my hands on you. For God has not given us the spirit of fear and timidity, but of power, love and self-discipline.” – 2 Timothy 1:6-7(NLT)

God has placed a fire within us and He has given each of us gifts but we must open them up. Once opened, God will bring success and everyone will be blessed. Ask Him each day: GOD, WOULD YOU SHOW ME YOUR PLAN FOR MY LIFE?

Feel free to use this outline and message to study or share with others. There is also a Podcast of all sermons at this link. I found this video below and I hope it will inspire your day as much as it has mine: Be Somebody – Thousand Foot Krutch. God Bless! 🙂

Help your kids discover their spiritual gifts (whatfamiliesdo.net)
The Lord Bless You (achristianmeditation.wordpress.com)
Come out, Come Out, Where Ever You Are (mpactgroupstcc.wordpress.com)

Posted in Sermon Outline | Tagged Abraham, Dream, Faith, Game Plan, God, God’s Plan, Holy Spirit, Podcast, Pray, Second Epistle to Timothy, Spiritual Gift, Timothy | Leave a comment

Priorities are the Foundation

Posted on October 15, 2012 by Mark Shields

Like the plans to building a house, the Bible is God’s plan for our life and priorities are the foundation. Build upon a solid faith in Jesus Christ. Condition the heart by remembering the lessons, applying them in life, and sharing these lasting treasures with others.

The lesson learned for me from reading Haggai 1 is that we also need to put God as our top priority. We should pray for directions, listen for instructions on what needs to be done, and get to work. Concern should be given to self-examination of our spiritual state and working on the condition of the heart. Here is a video that’s about working on the condition of the heart: Heart of Worship – Matt Redman.

For you know that it was not with perishable things such as silver or gold that you were redeemed from the empty way of life handed down to you from your ancestors, but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without blemish or defect. – 1 Peter 1:18-19

Knock, Knock (part 3) (plymouthcongregationalchurch.wordpress.com)
“Living Hope” ( 1 Peter 1:3, WYC ) by Carley Evans (lambskinny.wordpress.com)

Posted in Haggai | Tagged Bible, Blood of Christ, Christ, Christianity, condition of the heart, Faith, First Epistle of Peter, God, Haggai, Heart, heart of worship, Jesus, Jesus Christ, Lessons, Plans, Pray, Priorities, Treasures | 7 Comments

Ideas for Building Up Physical and Spiritual Health

Posted on October 13, 2012 by Mark Shields

Over the last few weeks, I’ve been writing about the importance of physical and spiritual health. In this final post on this subject, I’d like to put forth some ideas. Each day is a new day and our today can be better than yesterday. This day with God, we can get off on the right track, have the right frame of mind, feel better, be happy, and do amazing things. There are many dietary rules in the Bible that test our obedience. These rules can apply today for the food we take in for our souls including what we read, watch, or think about.

One idea is to go on short vacations by surfing the net for images that help connect to a Bible verse, find something that makes us laugh, or find facts about our Creator’s amazing world. This activity has two goals in mind. First, it relaxes our body and mind. Second, it equips us for sharing thoughts and ideas with others.

A prescription for stress is working out with God’s Word, praying, and listening to the Spirit. These activities build muscles of faith which stay strong and build forever. Unlike muscles of the physical body, building up muscles for the soul provides an everlasting gain.

One idea I’ve tried is to mix scripture and exercise into a routine that I call believersize. What you do is find a scripture to memorize and search the internet for pictures that crystallizes a principle from that scripture. You then can put these together into an application like PowerPoint. As you ride your stationary bike or walk on the treadmill, you can view the slides. This is a way to take in God’s Word and exercise at the same time.

The Bible says in 1 Corinthians 3:16, “Don’t you know that you yourselves are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in your midst?” The goal is to take care of God’s temple through a system of scripture memory and exercise. You can have all the latest and greatest exercise equipment but if you never take it out of the box, it’s useless. You have to find something that inspires and there’s nothing like God’s Word to get you started. With believersize, you begin to notice things seem easier. That’s because the intangibles of a winner are being built from the inside and all that internal good stuff just oozes out.

Biblical Fasting (chettesblog.wordpress.com)
participating with the Spirit – a healthy Body, Gifts of the Spirit #2 (eatinglocusts.wordpress.com)
Social media can change spiritual habits (alanrudnick.org)

Posted in Physical and Mental Health | Tagged Bible, Church, Creator, dietary rules, Exercise, Faith, Goal, God, God’s Word, Happy, Health, Holy Spirit, Ideas, Inspiration, Jesus, Mental health, Physical body, Relax, religion, Scripture, scripture memory, Soul, spirituality, Thoughts, Vacation | 1 Comment

The First Step

Posted on October 12, 2012 by Mark Shields

English: The Second Jewish Temple. Model in the Israel Museum. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

To get work done, the first step is to set priorities. Haggai 1 has a good lesson on priorities. To set up the historical context, the nation of Israel had been in exile in Babylon and the people began to return to their homeland in 538 B. C. to rebuild the Temple in Jerusalem. Their work was slowed up by opposition and had actually stopped for 15 years.

The prophet named Haggai is sent by God to stir up the people to finish the Temple. They had neglected this top priority using the excuse that they didn’t have time because they needed to get their own house in order. Haggai delivers a message to them about how they focused too much on their own houses instead of God’s house. He highlighted that the main priority should be the building of the Lord’s house and then all other aspects of life would fall into place.

Those who work on the condition of their heart will have God there to help. Small things become big things when our thoughts are about giving glory to God. Like the plans to building a house, the Bible is God’s plan for our life and priorities are the foundation so build upon a solid faith in Jesus Christ. Condition the heart by remembering the lessons, applying them in life, and sharing these lasting treasures with others.

This day with God will be amazing because there are things I can learn from history that will help in making decisions. The problems I go through in life are not stop signs; they are guidelines and it is during tough times that He provides sure signs of a brighter future. Today, I’m praying for that first step; asking God to help me have the right priorities and showing me what areas of my life I need to trust in Him more.