The Jesus Network US
Facebook community to share our relationship with Jesus Christ
... And one day I realized that I was taught to not lie, but no one except God taught me how to be honest. ~c
Kris Vallotton:
5 things you need to know about how your identity affects your ability to lead:
1- You will always reproduce the environment around you that you believe you have within you.
2- If somebody puts you in an environment around you that is better than the environment within you, you will reduce the environment around you to the environment you have within you.
3- You will never let someone love you more than you love you. If somebody loves you more than love yourself you will sabotage relationship with them.
4- You teach people how to treat you by the way you treat yourself. If you don’t like or respect yourself, neither will anyone like, or respect you.
5- Everything that you do is a manifestation of who you are. You first must be a human being before you can be a human doing.
06/07/2024
"Pecado"
Pecado, ¿qué es? Usamos esa palabra de muchas maneras, pero creo que tenemos una concepción extraña sobre lo que es, cómo llegó a estar allí, y por qué, oh por qué, ¿es un gran problema?
https://livinginhisname.org/pecado/
03/07/2024
Sabina and Richard Wurmbrand
Two of my Christian heroes.
Richard carried an amazing presence of God with him...
Richard and Sabina Wurmbrand: The Underground Pastor and His Wife | Full Movie Richard and Sabina Wurmbrand: The Underground Pastor and His Wife | Full Movie Before communism fell in Eastern Europe, Christians were often arrested and ke...
Is your Jesus a domesticated, well heeled Savior? At the thought of that, all i can say is “Yuk!”, who wants a savior like that? My God is very, very dangerous, but in a good way. The King i know is wild and wonderful that we may know Him and marvel! One of these days lightning is going to fill the sky from the rising of the sun in the east to its setting in the west, and there is going to appear in the clouds the faithful true one riding a white horse, His eyes shall be as flame and His vesture dipped in blood, and His name shall be called the Word of God. Whether from terror or sheer excitement, we will tremble and so, so many will wonder how, how we ever lived so long with the humanized version of a domesticated, harmless Christ.
These things are written that you may believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God who came into the world. Really believe.
30/06/2024
Outposts "The Quick And The Dead"
One to listen:
https://open.spotify.com/episode/46KF8AgQ79cyzQwNc5bcmS?si=6RRZDhctQmKSkObCFgKf1A
One to read:
https://livinginhisname.org/the-quick-and-the-dead/
The Quick And The Dead - Living in His Name Justice and judgment are built into the Name of the Lord. They are only two of many Holy attributes which comprise His character. In the Lord alone is the capacity to render to everyone their due with unbiased scales, i … Continue reading →
Kris Vallatton:
There’s a great grassroots move of God growing in America. We must not institutionalize it, sterilize it or criticize it, but we should disciple it with faith and wisdom. The fear of man is the catalyst to the deconstruction of a move of God. But faith in God and faith in His people creates an empowering culture that fuels revival and fans the flames of a “nothings impossible” generation.
Ahh, real peace...everyone wants it, but doesn’t know how to get it. Indifference and peace, at first glance, look very much the same, yet they are widely different. God is not indifferent about anything.
Not everyone sees the sharp line between real peace and the blur of indifference, often seeing only the blur. How often do we escape trials, sour feelings, or dismal responsibilities by claiming indifference, saying "i don't care. Fine!" How many times do we judge, of ourselves, that we have peace based on outward facts but inwardly something is wrong? Truthfully, facts have no feelings, they just are, and there is a distinct difference between facts and the truth. Real peace isn’t based on worldly facts but on Christ who is the truth. Jesus said "i leave you my peace, peace beyond your understanding" (my paraphrase), and "beyond your understanding" means beyond your purview, far past your imagination, or "you have no idea". WHY? Because we were born into a fallen state, dead in sin the day we were born and have never known anything but war on every side. War in our head, in our heart, in our flesh, in the world around us, war on every side, waking and sleeping. Conflicted i tell ya', conflicted! Often we call "turning down the volume of war" around us as peace, but it's not, it's just the volume, the "roar of war" turned down. But when Jesus comes into our lives, we get peace, His peace, and the "roar of war" goes to nothing and it is wild and so far outside our craziest dreams we can't hardly relate, but there it is. Jesus living in us and we are peace. Boom! The world in our heart goes quiet, and there is Jesus in the middle of our peace. Maybe we let the "roar of war" rise in us, but when we pursue Christ, His peace governs our war, and war no longer has exclusive control of the helm. His peace is "beyond our understanding" and without it we truly can't hardly relate to what God means when He says "Peace be with you".
Justice is often born when one oppressed person says "NO": NO. I will not go to the back of the bus. NO. I will not be silent before the king. NO. My country is a sovereign nation, not a colony. NO. Human trafficking must not be tolerated. NO. I will not be denied my right to vote. NO. I am a parent, not a paycheck. NO. You may not indiscriminately take my children. NO. We may not lie in court for vengeance and hatred. NO. You may not just take my house or listen to my private conversation, i have the right to privacy and to own my own property.
09/06/2024
Very very good!
Sermon on the Mount E12: Jesus' Vision for S*x and Desire What is Jesus' solution to avoid lust? Cut off a hand and gouge out an eye! Whoa–what is Jesus talking about? In this episode, Jon, Tim, and special guest Lucy Peppiatt discuss Jesus’ countercultural vision for s*x and marriage.
There is a difference between mentoring and taking charge of someone. There is a difference between letting people put you in a position to help them navigate as opposed to letting people make you the dominating directional force in their lives. There is a difference between encouraging people to do the right thing and demanding they do what they are told and then marginalizing them when they don’t do it or get delivered your way, when you say, or how you say.
13/05/2024
"18 Cosas Que Son “Siempre" "
En esta vida, hay muy pocas cosas que siempre son. A menos que estemos hablando de identidades estrictas....
https://livinginhisname.org/18-cosas-que-son-siempre/
If you are waiting on your church leadership to approve of you before you move out with God you will likely be waiting a long time. Here it is, approval is a lover that will always break your heart. I have no idea where I heard that, but it is always on my mind here lately while thinking about so many young people who have a dream of going out into the world and making an impact for the Lord, but they're just sitting there hoping that church leadership endorses them and approves of them for something, somehow. Let me say right here: if God has asked you to go then you have the endorsement of the King to go and do whatsoever He has asked of you to do and you don't have to wait on some one with a title to approve of you. Here it is again, approval is a lover that will always break your heart.
"Every day is the right day to do the right thing." Olivia Pope
And every day you purposely do the wrong thing, it becomes a little easier to do the wrong thing, until eventually, doing the wrong thing seems like the normal, right thing, and it becomes difficult to see the true right thing to do anymore.
We do not shine because we keep the rules so well, we shine because we are in love with Jesus. We can keep the rules perfectly but that doesn't mean we have a right heart. The Pharisees were perfect proof of this. They kept the rules better than anybody but yet their hearts were far from God. Again, we don't shine because we keep the rules, we shine because we are in love, in love with Jesus.
05/04/2024
"Offence, Mercy, & Forgiveness"
i met a young man the other day, covered in tattoos, quiet, life in turmoil and chaos … in trouble. Across his neck, he had the words in ink, “Expect No Mercy”. The tattoo reminded me of the words of someone who … Continue reading →
One to listen:
https://livinginhisname.org/mp3s/inspiration_point/IP_042.mp3
One to read:
https://livinginhisname.org/mercy-and-forgiveness/
Forgiveness isn't indifference. God is not indifferent about ANYTHING, at all, ever, and i am confident there is something very wrong with indifference in the Body of Christ, in any form. If we are to be like Him then there should never be ANY indifference in us...at....all. Are we forgiving or indifferent?
Going to church on Sunday morning is not enough. Did you know, according to a national survey from the Barna Group, it revealed that only 16% of churchgoers actually read their Bible every day, and only 32% read their Bibles once each week. Of those who go to church, only 37% agree that reading and studying the Bible have made a significant difference in their lives. i think a really good question is: Could it be that the 37% who believe the Bible makes a difference in their lives are among those who read their Bible every day or at least once a week? Maybe the 63% who don’t see a difference in their lives are merely going through the motions of attending church and giving a tithe, but may not be reading the Bible or applying the teaching of the Bible to their daily lives throughout the week. Maybe it does NOT mean that the Bible not effective to change a life, but that it is only effective if you read and study, and that requires time and discipline!
i read a short little story about a little boy who asked, “Dad, did Grandpa make you go to Sunday school and church when you were my age?” His father answered, “He sure did. We went every Sunday.” The boy said sadly, “Well, I bet it won’t do me any good either.” It is not enough to just go to church. We must apply the Bible to our everyday lives, we must ask the Lord to open our eyes to see Jesus, that He would give us understanding, and maybe even ask the Lord to inspire us to even be inspired, to give us the want to even want to. Friends, we simply must be honest and pursue Him. The days we live in are very, very dangerous.
i don’t know about you, but i need a righteous reference point of someone besides myself. i can not be my own reference point and pattern. That would be like saying “i am my own mother and father, my own beginning and end, and i will pray to myself and answer myself.” That’s absolute madness, but yet the more ungodly our nation gets, the more prevalent that kind of stinking thinking becomes. That lifestyle and thinking is destined to die because of the origins of its birth, meaning it is born of ourselves. If we are our focus and do the Burger King-thing, living out the idea of “Have it your way”, we will die without Christ.
A corner cutter often begins to think everyone else is cutting corners only after they have already started cheating, not before. That’s the same as saying some dreaded disease isn't so dreaded now that everyone else has it too. Or the daughter who says to her mother, "You just don't want me to have a life! It's not fair! All my friends are doing it Mom!" Hmmm ... are they really?
And many times don't we use similar language and think about God like spoiled teenagers to get our own way? When we don't get our way, we say with an aiming finger, "It's not fair! Why would you do this to me Lord?!" or "You are God! If you're SO good, how could you let this happen to me?! It's not fair!!" So then, what would actually be fair? Usually when we say "It's not fair", it means we're not getting what we want. (Sigh!) Good grief, we're always measuring, how good is good enough, and how bad is too bad. Actually, the Lord is more than fair, He went beyond fair and gave His life for us. You’re right. Christianity is not fair, truthfully, it’s more than fair. God the Father gave His only Son that we would have life more abundantly, and i think that's way more, infinite light years beyond "fair".
A parody of a typical U.S. based marketing scheme...
"Mammon And Company"
"Mammon And Company has done the research... we find that God requires a huge amount of commitment concerning things like “single-deity” clauses, compulsory goodness, and a never-ending litany..."
1:31 mins long
If God has thrown our sins as far as east is from west when we’ve accepted Christ’s atonement for our sins, why do we keep reminding ourselves of all our wrong? Is God’s goodness to us just too good to be true? Is it a point of us not having any worth? God says we were worth dying for, and who am i to re-decide what God has called truth?
By no means am i saying we should let ourselves off the hook of being responsible for our actions, but when we have made things right between ourselves and God, be at peace with others as much as is possible, and stop beating yourself up, stop doing penance. Stop it! Be kind to yourself. If you make a mistake, stop cursing yourself in the mirror. Think again, if someone spoke to you like you speak to yourself, how long would you let that person remain in your life? Don’t you know the enemy loves, i mean, LOVES it when we are stuck on what a failure we are instead of how blessed we are in Christ. Jesus has paid our debt, and the enemy wants you to bleed and bleed and bleed until he decides you have bled enough. Did Jesus bleed enough for you? And if He did, then be kind to yourself and move on. Did Jesus suffer enough for you? If He did, be kind to yourself and move on. Did Jesus die enough for you? If He did, then who is it who reminds us hourly of all the things we have done wrong? It’s not God, that’s for sure.
We’ve really gotta get this: Being faithful to God’s values does not mean blind loyalty to men....blind loyalty is not loyalty no more than peace at any cost is peace. There’s another one worthy to say and say again that we would hear and hear again: Being faithful to God’s values does not mean blind loyalty to men....blind loyalty is not loyalty no more than peace at any cost is peace. i think too many, these days, are more loyal to and in love with their brand, rather than being true to their source.... their brand being their denomination, their doctrine, church leadership, or even political party. Of course, their brand may BE their source, and in that case things are certainly a dead end in the end
These are the days of "the golden calf", the days of something to worship and be devoted to other than God. Could be a thing or person, and could even be our most beloved pet doctrine.
Exodus 32;24 "So I said to them, ‘Let any who have gold take it off.’ So they gave it to me, and I threw it into the fire, and out came this calf.”
😅🤣 It just jumped out of the fire huh? Boom 💥 and there it was? Just like that? Clueless as to how they got so far from God. These are the days of "the Golden calf", the days of something to worship and be devoted to other than God.
Most people look to causes (cause and effect thinking) as to the reason for sin, when the real problem is not causes but at the crossroads of choice, and beneath that choice is the thinking that persuades our choosing.
If we aren't living for Christ, who are we living for? If we aren't learning how to live from Jesus, who are we learning from? If you're in jail wearing a jumpsuit, again, obviously things have not gone well. Maybe it's time to do something different.