The Hill By: Daniel M. Stevenson (a.k.a my Dad)

Colossians 3:12-17

Colossians 3:12-17

Therefore as the elect of God, holy and beloved; thank you for choosing me from way before the foundation of the world, for imputing your holiness and righteousness to me and for loving me unconditionally.

-I put on humility and ask that you live through me your humility – please cleanse me of pride, doctrinal pride, pride of life, arrogance, self-righteousness, self- sufficiency, self-reliance, selfishness, self- centeredness, self-pity, self-aggrandizement, thinking of myself as better or more important than others.

-I put on tender mercies; thank you that your mercies are new every morning. Thank you that today is a new day, a new beginning for me. Please live your mercies through me today.

-I put on kindness; please live through me your kindness as I have none of my own.

-I put on meekness; please live through me your meekness, your gentleness, your ability to accept anything and everything that comes into my life.

-I put on longsuffering. Please live through me your longsuffering, your patience.

-I will bear with others and forgive others by your Holy Spirit as I can’t do it myself.

-I put on love which is the bond of perfection. Please live through me your extreme love.

-I will let your peace rule in my heart and your word dwell in me richly with all thanksgiving.

Please take my thoughts off myself and onto you and onto others today.

Please put a watch over my tongue and my lips; keep me from saying, doing or thinking anything that doesn’t glorify you. (Psalm 141:3)

He must increase, but I must decrease (John 3:30)

In His Grip,

Jakoby/Jacobo

Col. 3:3

Servanthood

-Servanthood: First our job is to train servants.

          -It is Gods responsibility to rise up Leaders.

          -Now a day’s Servanthood is very difficult because:

Servanthood: Mark 10:43-44 --> Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant,  and whoever wants to be first must be slave of all.

John 12:26 --> Whoever serves me must follow me; and where I am, my servant also will be. My Father will honor the one who serves me.

John 3:2-17 --> He came to Jesus at night and said, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God. For no one could perform the signs you are doing if God were not with him.”

Jesus replied, “Very truly I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God unless they are born again.”

 “How can someone be born when they are old?” Nicodemus asked. “Surely they cannot enter a second time into their mother’s womb to be born!”

 Jesus answered, “Very truly I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless they are born of water and the Spirit. Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit.  You should not be surprised at my saying, ‘You must be born again.’  The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.”

“How can this be?” Nicodemus asked.

 “You are Israel’s teacher,” said Jesus, “and do you not understand these things?  Very truly I tell you, we speak of what we know, and we testify to what we have seen, but still you people do not accept our testimony.  I have spoken to you of earthly things and you do not believe; how then will you believe if I speak of heavenly things?  No one has ever gone into heaven except the one who came from heaven—the Son of Man. Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, that everyone who believes may have eternal life in him.”

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.  For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.

1 Peter 2:18 -->  Slaves, in reverent fear of God submit yourselves to your masters, not only to those who are good and considerate, but also to those who are harsh.

-We don’t like to be treated like a servant yet, we like to be known as one.

1 Corinthians 15:58 --> Therefore, my dear brothers and sisters, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain.

-We don’t like to serve when the visible results are meager or nonexistent. 

1 Thessalonians 3:5 --> For this reason, when I could stand it no longer, I sent to find out about your faith. I was afraid that in some way the tempter had tempted you and that our labors might have been in vain.

Luke 17:10 --> So you also, when you have done everything you were told to do, should say, ‘We are unworthy servants; we have only done our duty.’”

         -We don’t like to be taken for granted

2 Corinthians 6:4-5 --> Rather, as servants of God we commend ourselves in every way: in great endurance; in troubles, hardships and distresses; in beatings, imprisonments and riots; in hard work, sleepless nights and hunger;

-We don’t like to be maligned, misunderstood, or judged for our efforts.

1 Corinthians 4:13 --> when we are slandered, we answer kindly. We have become the scum of the earth, the garbage of the world—right up to this moment.

2 Timothy 2:10 --> Therefore I endure everything for the sake of the elect, that they too may obtain the salvation that is in Christ Jesus, with eternal glory.

-We don’t like what it costs us in terms of time, resources, comfort, and/or safety. 

1 Corinthians 9:19-24 --> Though I am free and belong to no one, I have made myself a slave to everyone, to win as many as possible.  To the Jews I became like a Jew, to win the Jews. To those under the law I became like one under the law (though I myself am not under the law), so as to win those under the law.  To those not having the law I became like one not having the law (though I am not free from God’s law but am under Christ’s law), so as to win those not having the law. To the weak I became weak, to win the weak. I have become all things to all people so that by all possible means I might save some.  I do all this for the sake of the gospel that I may share in its blessings.

2 Corinthians 6:4-5 --> Rather, as servants of God we commend ourselves in every way: in great endurance; in troubles, hardships and distresses;  in beatings, imprisonments and riots; in hard work, sleepless nights and hunger;

2 Corinthians 11: 23-29 -->  Are they servants of Christ? (I am out of my mind to talk like this.) I am more. I have worked much harder, been in prison more frequently, been flogged more severely, and been exposed to death again and again.  Five times I received from the Jews the forty lashes minus one.  Three times I was beaten with rods, once I was pelted with stones, three times I was shipwrecked, I spent a night and a day in the open sea, I have been constantly on the move. I have been in danger from rivers, in danger from bandits, in danger from my fellow Jews, in danger from Gentiles; in danger in the city, in danger in the country, in danger at sea; and in danger from false believers. I have labored and toiled and have often gone without sleep; I have known hunger and thirst and have often gone without food; I have been cold and naked. Besides everything else, I face daily the pressure of my concern for all the churches.  Who is weak, and I do not feel weak? Who is led into sin, and I do not inwardly burn?

Matthew 25:21 --> “His master replied, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master’s happiness!’

-Encouragement

 2 Corinthian 5:9 --> So we make it our goal to please him, whether we are at home in the body or away from it.

 In His Grip,

 Jakoby/Jacobo

 Col. 3:3/ 2 Cor. 5:9 

A Call to Anguish - David Wilkerson

True words! Hard to Hear, but needed to hear!

In His Grip,

Jakoby/Jacobo 

Disciple: Did Jesus mean Hate?

If anyone comes to Me and does not hate his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and his own life also . . . . And whoever does not bear his cross and come after Me . . . . So likewise, whoever of you does not forsake all that he has cannot be My disciple Luke 14:26-27, 33

If the closest relationships of a disciple’s life conflict with the claims of Jesus Christ, then our Lord requires instant obedience to Himself. Discipleship means personal, passionate devotion to a Person -- our Lord Jesus Christ. There is a vast difference between devotion to a person and devotion to principles or to a cause. Our Lord never proclaimed a cause— He proclaimed personal devotion to Himself. To be a disciple is to be a devoted bondservant motivated by love for the Lord Jesus. Many of us who call ourselves Christians are not truly devoted to Jesus Christ. No one on earth has this passionate love for the Lord Jesus unless the Holy Spirit has given it to him. We may admire, respect, and revere Him, but we cannot love Him on our own. The only One who truly loves the Lord Jesus is the Holy Spirit, and it is He who has “poured out in our hearts” the very “love of God” (Romans 5:5). Whenever the Holy Spirit sees an opportunity to glorify Jesus through you, He will take your entire being and set you with true devotion to Jesus Christ.

 But Jesus Christ was always consistent in His relationship to God, and a Christian must be consistent in his relationship to the life of the Son of God in him, not consistent to strict, unyielding doctrines. People pour themselves into their own doctrines, and God has to get them out of their preconceived ideas before they can become devoted to Jesus Christ.

Standing On Our Tiptoes

And in your godliness, brotherly kindness, and in your brotherly kindness, love. à 2 Peter 1:7 

Love is indefinite to most of us; we do not know what we mean when we speak of love. Love is the sovereign preference of one person for another, and spiritually Jesus demands that that preference be for Himself (Luke 14:26). When the love of God is shed in our hearts by the Holy Spirit, Jesus Christ is easily first; then we must practice the working out of these things mentioned by Peter. The first thing God does is remove pretense and pious pose right out of us. The Holy Spirit reveals that God loved us not because we were lovable, but because it was His nature to do so. "Now," He says to us, "show the same love to others. Love as I have loved you. I will bring any number of people about you whom you can not respect, and you must exhibit My love to them as I have exhibited it to you." We won't reach it by standing on our tiptoes. Some of us have tried to, but we have soon become tired. The Lord, however, suffered long; let us look within and see His dealings with us. The knowledge that God has loved us to the highest level, to the end of all our sin - our meanness, selfishness, pride, and wrong - should cause us to go into the world and love others in the same way. God's love for us is inexhaustible; thus, we must love others from the rock of God's love for us. Growth in grace stops the moment we become angry because we have a difficult person to live with. But think how disagreeable we ourselves have been to God! Are we prepared to be so identified with the Lord Jesus that His life and His sweetness is being poured out of us all the time? Neither natural love nor Divine love will remain unless it is cultivated. Love is spontaneous, but it has to be maintained by discipline. 

Joy in your Salvation

 ... And being found in appearance as a man, He Humbled Himself, and became obedient to death, even death on the cross. Therefore God exalted Him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above Every Name; That at the Name of Jesus Every knee should Bow in Heaven and on Earth, and under the Earth. And Every Tongue Confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, To the Glory and Praise of God the Father!!! 

--> Philippians 2:8-11