God Notes

The thief enters only to steal, kill, and destroy. I came so that they could have life—indeed, so that they could live life to the fullest.
-John 10:10

God is positive.

God is optimistic.  God is a "glass half full" person.  God sees the best in people- what they could be with grace.  God is hopeful and merciful.

God's love is relentless and crazy(1) by human standards.  One poet described God's relentless love as "the hound of heaven".

What are you thinking?

From now on, brothers and sisters, if anything is excellent and if anything is admirable, focus your thoughts on these things: all that is true, all that is holy, all that is just, all that is pure, all that is lovely, and all that is worthy of praise. -Philippians 4:8

That's life!

"I have come that you might have life", and, "I am the life", Jesus said.  Are you getting his life?  Do you have it?  He came to give us a life.  The Christian's life is life in Christ.    Go where and do what has Jesus life in it.

Jesus' emphasis was on living.  Living with God, living through him, and living with each other.  Our Christian culture has emphasized teaching and learning as the path to spiritual growth.  But we don't teach and learn the way that Jesus and the Apostles did.  We teach and learn in our heads, through our eyes and ears.  God wants to enlarge out hearts and make us like Jesus in our way of life.


Just do it!  (That's how you learn it)

What do you do for a living?

Jesus taught his disciples to do it.  The Jesus way is when your teacher is a guide by your side.  The Jesus way could also be called, "teach, do, learn".  It is kinetic and charordic: chaotic, with order.

Have you ever been to a birth?  It does not always go as planned and it is messy.  But look at the life.  Children make messes and break things.  Does that mean they should be institutionalized?  No.

People who are truly living out Christ and learning, have messy lives.  They fail, they blunder, they make messes; but their character is formed and they grow up in the Lord.



Jesus saves!

"I have come to seek and save that which is lost."  Has he been seeking you and saving you?  Has your lost-ness been found?  Are you on mission with Jesus to seek and save lost people?


Most of all, he loves the children.

At that time the disciples came to Jesus and asked, “Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?”

Then he called a little child over to sit among the disciples, and said, “I assure you that if you don’t turn your lives around and become like this little child, you will definitely not enter the kingdom of heaven. Those who humble themselves like this little child will be the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. Whoever welcomes one such child in my name welcomes me.  -Matthew 18:1-5

How are you doing with being child-like?  Childish and childlike are two different things.

To be childlike, is to be:

• Curious
• Honest
• Unselfconscious
• Fearless
• Trusting
• Approachable
• Wonder-filled
• Playful

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1. Crazy Love is a book by Francis Chan