Lots of illustration stories or
the second one here
Thursday, April 30, 2009
Monday, April 27, 2009
http://www.coach22.com/discovercoaching/
Christian coaching resources.
Tony Stolzfus' paper for willow creek
Christian coaching resources.
Tony Stolzfus' paper for willow creek
Tuesday, April 14, 2009
Easter- what it means
He is risen! He is risen indeed! Good morning and welcome to the Easter celebration of Valley View Community Church! We're so glad you're hear today as Christ followers all over the world gather to celebrate that the tomb is empty, Jesus is alive, and God's dream to rescue this world, reverse the curse and make all things new has already begun. This is a great day!
Easter is about the resurrection of Jesus Christ who miraculously came back to life from the dead. He was executed on a Roman cross, buried in a borrowed tomb, and three days later he was seen walking and talking and eating with his friends with a heartbeat and pulse very much alive.
This week I read about a pastor who was really concerned that the kids in his church didn't know what Easter was about so he went into the fourth grade classroom and asked a girl named Susie, "When's Easter and what happens on that day?"
And Susie said, "Well, Easter's in the fall and that's when we dress up in costumes and go out trick-or-treating."
And he thought to himself, "Oh no, we've got a problem." So he went to another child named Jimmy and asked him the same question. And Jimmy said, "Well, Easter's in the winter and we put up a tree and decorate it and get lots of presents." Then he said, "Why are you asking me? You should know when Easter is you're the pastor!"
Well now he was really worried so he went up to Bobby and he thought if anyone's going to know when Easter is it's going to be Bobby. So he prayed and said, "Bobby, when's Easter and what happens on that day?" Bobby said, "Oh, that's easy. Easter is in the spring and that's when Jesus came out of the grave."
And the pastor said, "Yes! Thank you God, at least somebody gets it." And as he was turning around to leave the room Bobby said, "Yea, and if hesees his shadow, he goes back, and we have another six more weeks of winter!"
Read my lips. Easter is about the resurrection of Jesus Christ. It's always in the spring and he never went back into the tomb! But Easter is more than that. It's more than a historical event that we look back to. It's also a future event that we look forward to.
Easter is about the resurrection of our bodies someday and of all those who believe that Jesus is the rescuer, the savior of this world, the hero of God's great story, the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. In other words, what happened to Jesus 2,000 years ago will one day happen to all of us who believe in him. We will come back to life again from the dead. We will be resurrected like Jesus and receive a glorified body like he had after he came out of the tomb. That's the hope we cherish as Christ followers. But Easter is more than that.
Easter is about the resurrection of the entire universe that one day will be set free from the bondage of sin and suffering and sickness and death and poverty and pollution and prejudice and hatred and war and AIDS and injustice and tornados and floods and tsunamis and terrorism and random acts of violence and all the other expressions of evil in this world that grieve us every single day.
And our resurrection and the resurrection of all creation will happen when the risen Christ returns to set up his kingdom on this earth that will last forever.
But believe it or not Easter means more than even that. Easter is more than a historical event that we look back to and more than a future event that we look forward to. The impact of Easter is happening all around us and inside us right now.
Easter is about the transformation of our lives and that is an ongoing process that God is up to every single day.
If anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come. The old is gone, the new is here! 2 Corinthians 5:17
When we put our faith in the risen Christ we become new creations of God and the transformation process begins. We don't get our resurrection body right away. That will come later. But we do get the Holy Spirit as a guarantee that that body is on its way. And the Holy Spirit is in the process of transforming us into men and women who think and act and live like Jesus. And none of that would be possible apart from Easter and the resurrection of Jesus Christ. A dead Jesus couldn't pull that off, but living one can.
By Bruce Carter
Easter is about the resurrection of Jesus Christ who miraculously came back to life from the dead. He was executed on a Roman cross, buried in a borrowed tomb, and three days later he was seen walking and talking and eating with his friends with a heartbeat and pulse very much alive.
This week I read about a pastor who was really concerned that the kids in his church didn't know what Easter was about so he went into the fourth grade classroom and asked a girl named Susie, "When's Easter and what happens on that day?"
And Susie said, "Well, Easter's in the fall and that's when we dress up in costumes and go out trick-or-treating."
And he thought to himself, "Oh no, we've got a problem." So he went to another child named Jimmy and asked him the same question. And Jimmy said, "Well, Easter's in the winter and we put up a tree and decorate it and get lots of presents." Then he said, "Why are you asking me? You should know when Easter is you're the pastor!"
Well now he was really worried so he went up to Bobby and he thought if anyone's going to know when Easter is it's going to be Bobby. So he prayed and said, "Bobby, when's Easter and what happens on that day?" Bobby said, "Oh, that's easy. Easter is in the spring and that's when Jesus came out of the grave."
And the pastor said, "Yes! Thank you God, at least somebody gets it." And as he was turning around to leave the room Bobby said, "Yea, and if hesees his shadow, he goes back, and we have another six more weeks of winter!"
Read my lips. Easter is about the resurrection of Jesus Christ. It's always in the spring and he never went back into the tomb! But Easter is more than that. It's more than a historical event that we look back to. It's also a future event that we look forward to.
Easter is about the resurrection of our bodies someday and of all those who believe that Jesus is the rescuer, the savior of this world, the hero of God's great story, the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. In other words, what happened to Jesus 2,000 years ago will one day happen to all of us who believe in him. We will come back to life again from the dead. We will be resurrected like Jesus and receive a glorified body like he had after he came out of the tomb. That's the hope we cherish as Christ followers. But Easter is more than that.
Easter is about the resurrection of the entire universe that one day will be set free from the bondage of sin and suffering and sickness and death and poverty and pollution and prejudice and hatred and war and AIDS and injustice and tornados and floods and tsunamis and terrorism and random acts of violence and all the other expressions of evil in this world that grieve us every single day.
And our resurrection and the resurrection of all creation will happen when the risen Christ returns to set up his kingdom on this earth that will last forever.
But believe it or not Easter means more than even that. Easter is more than a historical event that we look back to and more than a future event that we look forward to. The impact of Easter is happening all around us and inside us right now.
Easter is about the transformation of our lives and that is an ongoing process that God is up to every single day.
If anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come. The old is gone, the new is here! 2 Corinthians 5:17
When we put our faith in the risen Christ we become new creations of God and the transformation process begins. We don't get our resurrection body right away. That will come later. But we do get the Holy Spirit as a guarantee that that body is on its way. And the Holy Spirit is in the process of transforming us into men and women who think and act and live like Jesus. And none of that would be possible apart from Easter and the resurrection of Jesus Christ. A dead Jesus couldn't pull that off, but living one can.
By Bruce Carter
Martyrdom of the disciples
There are a lot of reasons to believe that Jesus rose from the dead. The tomb was empty. His corpse was never found. Hundreds of people saw Jesus alive, believers and skeptics alike. But perhaps the most compelling reason, at least for me anyway, is the dramatic change that occurred in the lives of Jesus' disciples.
We've been studying through the gospel of Mark and again and again we've been reminded how slow the disciples have been to understand who Jesus is and what he came to accomplish. At times Jesus seems exasperated with them. "Why are you so afraid? Do you still have no faith? Why are you so dull? Don't you understand? Are your hearts hardened? Do you have eyes but fail to see, and ears but fail to hear? Don't you get it? How long shall I stay with you? How long shall I put up with you?"
Jesus may not have had kids, but he did have twelve disciples and they were enough to keep him on his knees! These guys were by no means spiritual giants. If anything they were spiritually challenged. They just didn't get it. And they seemed to fail all along the way.
But their greatest failure, their lowest point came on the night Jesus was arrested and taken into custody just hours before his crucifixion. That night Judas betrayed him. Peter denied him. And all the rest ran for cover like scared rabbits when Jesus was taken away in handcuffs.
And as much as they loved Jesus they were not ready to be seen with him, to be identified with him, to be arrested with him, and certainly not ready to go to a cross and die with him.
But by the end of their lives something dramatically changed in these men. Every one of the Twelve, except Judas of course, was willing to lay down their lives for Jesus. Everyone was willing to pay the ultimate price. There's a well known book that was written back in the 1500's by a man named John Foxe called Foxe's Book of Martyrs and in it he details the stories of how each one of the disciples died.
The first disciple to lose his life was James, the brother of John. He was a fisherman when Jesus called him, one of the Sons of Thunder. He was beheaded by King Herod about eleven years after the death of Christ and we can read about in Acts 12. He's the only disciple whose death is recorded in Scripture, the rest of our accounts come from church history.
Matthew the tax collector who wrote the book of Matthew later took the gospel to Africa where he was martyred in Ethiopia beheaded by a sword just like James.
Bartholomew also known as Nathanael was a missionary to Asia and started churches in what is now present-day Turkey. He was martyred in Armenia, flayed to death by a whip.
Andrew, Peter's brother, was crucified on an x-shaped cross in Greece, tied there with ropes to prolong his agony. And as he was being led to the cross eyewitnesses reported that he saluted his executioners and said, "I have long desired and expected this happy hour. The cross has been consecrated by the body of Christ hanging on it. The nearer I come to the cross, the nearer I come to God. The farther I am from the cross, the farther I remain from God." Andrew hung on that cross for two days preaching the good news of Jesus to all those who stood and watched.
Thomas whom we call the doubting Thomas, the skeptic who had to see for himself the nail prints in Jesus' hands and the wound in Jesus' side later took the gospel to India and started churches there. But eventually he was arrested, tortured, thrown into an oven, and then finished off with spears.
James the son of Alphaeus was taken up to the pinnacle of the Jewish Temple in Jerusalem, the highest point on the roof over 100 feet above the ground, the same place that the devil took Jesus during his temptation, and was thrown off. And when his accusers realized that the fall didn't kill him they stoned him and when that didn't kill him they finally beat him to death.
History tells us that the apostle John was immersed in a huge vat of boiling oil in the city of Rome, but he miraculously survived. And when the Romans discovered they couldn't cook him to death they exiled him to the island of Patmos where he wrote the book of Revelation. Later on he was released and served as a leader in a church in Turkey where he eventually died at an old age. John was the only disciple who wasn't killed for his faith, but he was willing to die for Christ.
Peter we're told was confined in the Mamertine prison in Rome for nine months, a place where many people died just from the filth and the fumes and the disease. It's said that he was chained to a pole in complete darkness standing in human waste up to his knees and during that time he led over 40 Roman guards to Christ. And when they took him out of the dungeon to Nero's Circus to be crucified he told the guards, "I'm not worthy to be crucified like my Lord. Crucify me upside down." And they did.
And I could on and on. Philip was stoned to death. Simon the Zealot was cut in two. Mark the writer of the gospel we've been studying died in Alexandria, Egypt, after being dragged through the city streets for two days by a team of horses.
We've been studying through the gospel of Mark and again and again we've been reminded how slow the disciples have been to understand who Jesus is and what he came to accomplish. At times Jesus seems exasperated with them. "Why are you so afraid? Do you still have no faith? Why are you so dull? Don't you understand? Are your hearts hardened? Do you have eyes but fail to see, and ears but fail to hear? Don't you get it? How long shall I stay with you? How long shall I put up with you?"
Jesus may not have had kids, but he did have twelve disciples and they were enough to keep him on his knees! These guys were by no means spiritual giants. If anything they were spiritually challenged. They just didn't get it. And they seemed to fail all along the way.
But their greatest failure, their lowest point came on the night Jesus was arrested and taken into custody just hours before his crucifixion. That night Judas betrayed him. Peter denied him. And all the rest ran for cover like scared rabbits when Jesus was taken away in handcuffs.
And as much as they loved Jesus they were not ready to be seen with him, to be identified with him, to be arrested with him, and certainly not ready to go to a cross and die with him.
But by the end of their lives something dramatically changed in these men. Every one of the Twelve, except Judas of course, was willing to lay down their lives for Jesus. Everyone was willing to pay the ultimate price. There's a well known book that was written back in the 1500's by a man named John Foxe called Foxe's Book of Martyrs and in it he details the stories of how each one of the disciples died.
The first disciple to lose his life was James, the brother of John. He was a fisherman when Jesus called him, one of the Sons of Thunder. He was beheaded by King Herod about eleven years after the death of Christ and we can read about in Acts 12. He's the only disciple whose death is recorded in Scripture, the rest of our accounts come from church history.
Matthew the tax collector who wrote the book of Matthew later took the gospel to Africa where he was martyred in Ethiopia beheaded by a sword just like James.
Bartholomew also known as Nathanael was a missionary to Asia and started churches in what is now present-day Turkey. He was martyred in Armenia, flayed to death by a whip.
Andrew, Peter's brother, was crucified on an x-shaped cross in Greece, tied there with ropes to prolong his agony. And as he was being led to the cross eyewitnesses reported that he saluted his executioners and said, "I have long desired and expected this happy hour. The cross has been consecrated by the body of Christ hanging on it. The nearer I come to the cross, the nearer I come to God. The farther I am from the cross, the farther I remain from God." Andrew hung on that cross for two days preaching the good news of Jesus to all those who stood and watched.
Thomas whom we call the doubting Thomas, the skeptic who had to see for himself the nail prints in Jesus' hands and the wound in Jesus' side later took the gospel to India and started churches there. But eventually he was arrested, tortured, thrown into an oven, and then finished off with spears.
James the son of Alphaeus was taken up to the pinnacle of the Jewish Temple in Jerusalem, the highest point on the roof over 100 feet above the ground, the same place that the devil took Jesus during his temptation, and was thrown off. And when his accusers realized that the fall didn't kill him they stoned him and when that didn't kill him they finally beat him to death.
History tells us that the apostle John was immersed in a huge vat of boiling oil in the city of Rome, but he miraculously survived. And when the Romans discovered they couldn't cook him to death they exiled him to the island of Patmos where he wrote the book of Revelation. Later on he was released and served as a leader in a church in Turkey where he eventually died at an old age. John was the only disciple who wasn't killed for his faith, but he was willing to die for Christ.
Peter we're told was confined in the Mamertine prison in Rome for nine months, a place where many people died just from the filth and the fumes and the disease. It's said that he was chained to a pole in complete darkness standing in human waste up to his knees and during that time he led over 40 Roman guards to Christ. And when they took him out of the dungeon to Nero's Circus to be crucified he told the guards, "I'm not worthy to be crucified like my Lord. Crucify me upside down." And they did.
And I could on and on. Philip was stoned to death. Simon the Zealot was cut in two. Mark the writer of the gospel we've been studying died in Alexandria, Egypt, after being dragged through the city streets for two days by a team of horses.
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