Posts Tagged ‘Spiritual Growth’

In The Word…

Posted: 21st July 2010 by Addis Andy in Bible Stuff, Spiritual Growth
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First of all… Sorry about the locusts. Imagine being here. Second, we all need God’s Word, but don’t wait for a crisis to start getting into it… In the word… from Andy Addis on Vimeo. Bible Study tools: 1. Bible Gateway 2. Reading Plans at Youversion 3. Logos.com

Over the last few weeks I have been studying the book of Hebrews with some awesome guys.

I’ll be honest, it’s a tough book. It’s tough enough that most scholars aren’t even really sure who wrote it, but they are confident that it lines up with Scripture and is a valuable part of our Bible.

As the name implies, it was written to Hebrews, so even though it’s a New Testament book it reflects back on much of what happened in the Hebrew nation of the Old Testament. In the first quarter of the book, there is a warning that basically goes like this: “Do not make the same mistakes you saw those who came before you make.” (Hebrews 3:16-4:2)

Pretty easy advice, eh?

Not so much.

Have you ever seen somebody run into a car because they were watching a wreck on the other side of the road?
Have you ever seen someone fail a test because they cheated off someone dumber than they were?
Have you ever told your children not to do something and explained a specific consequence, only to walk out of the room and have them do exactly what you told them not to do?
We humans are difficult that way. Kind of slow, a little rebellious and continually irritating. (Resist the urge to put these labels on someone else… if you’re human, this applies to us all)

John 15:7 But if you remain in me and my words remain in you…

These words of Jesus were the subject of the weekend services in our church (CrossPoint Church) over the past weekend. I promised a blog entry with some resources and further instruction on “how to” remain in Jesus and have His words remain in you. Well, here you go.

Below the video are several clickable resources that either link you to different resource sites, or connect to downloadable resources. Many blessings!

Are You Ready To Rumble?

Posted: 13th May 2010 by Addis Andy in Bible Stuff
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A great Passage from the book of Judges speaks to our lives today:

Judges 3

1 These are the nations the LORD left to test all those Israelites who had not experienced any of the wars in Canaan 2 (he did this only to teach warfare to the descendants of the Israelites who had not had previous battle experience)

What are the lessons here?

1. Sometimes its not the devil

2. God will test His own

3. God wants us ready to fight

Cleaning out the muck and mire of our lives, we need to remove the junk that flowed into, but never flowed out of our lives.

It’s a process called confession that comes with a promise from God: He is faithful, He will forgive, He will heal.

Don’t miss out on the incredible Christian discipline called confession. It’s how we get degunkified!

1 John 1:9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.

Don’t come up short

Posted: 8th March 2010 by Addis Andy in Nonsensical Junk
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ere’s the process…

1. God plants a dream in you

2. Hope is you believing in what is yet unseen, and you go public with the dream

3. Faith gets you through the hard times as you trust the arm of the Lord is not too short

4. Reality comes when the dream arrives

Don’t bailout in any part of this process! Its too important to give up.

Numbers 11:23 The Lord answered Moses, “Is the Lord’s arm too short? You will now see whether or not what I say will come true for you.”

Isaiah 59:1 Surely the arm of the Lord is not too short to save, nor his ear too dull to hear.

Isaiah 50:2 When I came, why was there no one? When I called, why was there no one to answer? Was my arm too short to ransom you? Do I lack the strength to rescue you?

My wife and I are never closer to divorce than when she is right.

Just kidding. We’ve already ruled out divorce as an option, but homicide… well.

Once again, just kidding.

Seriously, it really peeves me when my wife and I are engaged in passionate discourse (aka fighting) and in the midst of the battle it becomes abundantly clear that she is right.

The one time that happened was really rough on me.

You know that feeling that you have been missing the obvious? That the answer has been right there all along and you’ve just been too blind, busy or bored to pick up on it.

Just to make it today…

Posted: 7th January 2010 by Addis Andy in Uncategorized
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I can’t believe how 80s I am.

Every time I think, or hear, the phrase “You’ve got to pray,” I envision MC Hammer pants. That can’t be healthy.

But, here we go… You’ve got to pray (just to make it today… wow, it is an illness).

Communication is essential to any relationship, and without it the relationship will wither and die. Or, at least go into a period of hibernation until the spring thaw.

What is communication? When we think about prayer this is the bigger question, because I think we have too often pigeon-holed our definition a prayer to being a close-eyed, bowed-head recitation of our forgiveness requests followed by a listing of our most common wants disguised as needs.

Where’s the interplay? Where the dialogue? Where’s the relationship?

That definition of prayer would never fly as real communication in marriage. Garuntee you. Try it. Wait, don’t try it. I don’t have any counseling slots left, and you’d need it after that.

Feeling a little withered?

Posted: 11th December 2009 by Addis Andy in Bible Stuff
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This holiday season or any season that we find ourself drained, it’s important to try and find God’s answer to our days.

Let’s turn to the first Psalm and see what God’s answer is for a life that thrives!

What’s better than getting up at 4 am on Black Friday to fight the crowds and strategically rifle through a well-thought out plan of attack documented only by a string of newspaper ads marked in Sharpie and ordered by store opening times?

Almost anything.

Anything is better than that.

Still, that was today for my bride and I as the kiddos slept in at Grandmas. We spent a small fortune (as opposed to the large fortune it could have been) and got about 90% of what we hunted.

We dominated Wal-Mart, K-Mart, Target Mart and Home Depot Mart and even squeezed in a romantic breakfast for two at IHOP Mart.

While we were wolfing down some pancakes (actually, I was wolfing… Kathy never wolfs… she delicately cuts, slowly eats and cutely chews… she never wolfs) we were discussing how crazy some people were.