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Kindle Notes & Highlights
by
Chris Hodges
Read between
January 5 - February 13, 2018
How do I stand firm on some of the harder scriptures while still loving people well?
He gets the need to keep the words grace and truth together like harmonious notes of the most beautifully composed music.
“Thank you, Pastor!” they said in unison, shaking my hand and looking as though I had invited them to the Super Bowl instead of to a sermon series.
Love people and show them that God welcomes them with open arms not judgment or condemnation. Is in the showing love that people see Jesus and can respond to His calling. Make people feel valuable.
And that’s the problem. Often we mean well, but we don’t love well. In every single encounter Jesus had with people, we see an unwavering attitude of love even as he called them to leave their sin behind and follow him.
He doesn’t condemn the woman like the religious legalists; instead, he shows her grace.
Jesus avoids the extremes of either-or by
displaying both love and rig...
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how to stand firm and love well at the same time.
Truth without grace is mean. Grace without truth is meaningless. Truth and grace together are good medicine.
Daniel had no one else, yet still he trusted God to see him through. With humble confidence, Daniel glorified God through his actions and speech. His character and conduct stood out because it was both respectful and resolute.
He knew the goal wasn’t to be right; it was to have influence. He knew being right and being righteous are not the same.
Catalysts for Change Daniel stood firm and loved everyone around him—just as Jesus did.
While God calls us to be his people set apart, he also commands us to go into all the world and share the good news of Jesus Christ.
How can we remain anchored in our Christian faith when the white water rapids of cultural change threaten to carry us away?
How can we remain anchored in our Christian faith when the white water rapids of cultural change threaten to carry us away?
Like the prophet Daniel, you and I can become catalysts for redemptive change in our time. We can be people of influence who know our goal is not to be right but to be effective. We can be people who stand out because of the way we relate to others, especially those different from us. We can be people who serve those in need with a willing spirit and gracious generosity. We can be people who reflect the loving-kindness of a good God. We can be people who stand firm and love well.
It ain’t what they call you; it’s what you answer to. —W. C. FIELDS
Soon I had no doubt in my mind that I had been named by God—that I had a God-given identity that he knew before I was even created. But I could only be the man he created me to be if I understood and accepted my true name.
The importance of accepting and understanding the meaning behind a name.
What we believe about ourselves influences every decision we make and every action we take.
What matters most is the name we have written on our hearts and minds. It’s what we believe about ourselves and then live out.
names you allow to label you often title the scripts you live by. What you believe in dictates what you live out.
God has created me and called me for his purposes, not
my own.
The truth is, we don’t have the privilege of defining ourselves, and there are limits to how far we can reinvent ourselves. Why? The reason is simple: we’ve already been defined by God, our Creator. God knows who he made each of us to be, and in the end his design is always better than what we come up with on our own.
Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah. From Daniel: “God is my judge” to Belteshazzar: “Lady, protect the king”
From Hananiah: “Yahweh has been gracious” to Shadrach: “I am fearful of God”
From Mishael: “Who can compare to my God? No one!” to Meshach: “I am despised, contemptible, and humiliated”
From Azariah: “Yahweh has helped” to Abednego: “The servant of Nebo”
We still see the Enemy looking for opportunities to cast confusion on God’s goodness and our identities today.
I have to remind myself it’s not about what I’m doing; it’s about what God’s doing through me, through others, through the church.
Our identities shift when we value those looking at the art more than the Artist.
When culture shifts, we need to know who we are.
You are who God made you to be.
You are a unique, beloved child of the Lord of the universe, your Creator, Redeemer, and Savior. You have a unique purpose for your life that no one else has had or will ever have. You are a coheir with Jesus, adopted into the family of the King and granted eternal life with him in heaven after your mortal life on earth has ended (Rom. 8:17). This is your true identity.
Our Enemy has become adept at convincing us to accept false labels.
Another way the Enemy utilizes false labels is by convincing us to allow our past to define who we are.
The glorious truth is that when we let God control our lives, he gives us a new identity.
And it wasn’t until they gave up trying to control their own lives that they realized the fulfillment of who they’d been born to be.
God doesn’t see what you are based on where you are now; he sees what you can become based on where he wants to take you.
He knows the actualities, but he sees possibilities.
When you give him control of your life, he’ll give you back your name!
What am I missing in God’s plan because I don’t see what God sees in me? Or I don’t acknowledge that the name he has given me is what gives my life purpose?
What is the name He has given me?
When we’re not connected to our God-given identities, we will plug in to other outlets to define ourselves.
we all get older and life takes its toll on us.
Scripture reminds us that real beauty emanates from the inside.
“Yet when I surveyed all that my hands had done and what I had toiled to achieve, everything was meaningless, a chasing after the wind; nothing was gained under the sun” (Eccl. 2:11). It’s only after we embrace our true identities that work becomes purposeful and meaningful—perhaps because we know we’re not defined by our performance.
We’re God’s beloved sons and daughters—period!
“life does not consist in an abundance of possessions”
God who made us, knows us, and loves us. To become anchored by the knowledge of who God made us to be, we must see ourselves the way he sees us. How do we do this? Perhaps the first step in this process is recognizing the biblical truth that every person is born for a specific season.
God chose us and
has always loved
