life church tv | Still Learning Something New

“No, he’s not a Christian, but he’s got a good heart.”

“NO, he’s unemployed! He lives in his van down by the river. He smokes weed for dinner…”

“But, he’s got a good heart!”

The van in the photo does not have anything to do with our family, it just happened to be parked at the neighbor’s across the street from our house. And that conversation, thank GOD, was not between my E17 and me, or about one of my boys. It was from last Sunday’s sermon. My church is just one of many Life Church TV locations. That means when we meet, we watch a sermon on a video feed along with people all over the world. This past Sunday Pastor Craig tackled the message of purity in the second part of the sermon series, Bless This Home.

Matthew 5:8 “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.”

Usually I do not think much about my long-term goals as a homeschooling mom because I’m so busy just trying to meet our immediate daily goals. But I do have some long term goals. One is to help my children learn to “see God”.

According to Matthew 5:8, this means that I must teach them the importance of purity. I have found that trying to teach my kids purity is most difficult as so much of the world seems so very determined to teach them impurity.

Sunday’s message has me asking myself these questions, and realizing that I currently have much that can be improved on about the attitude of purity in both my personal life and teaching about this Godly attribute to my kids.

1) How would you describe the current condition of your heart? 2) What impurities have you allowed into your family? What can you do to remove them? 3) What steps do you need to take to create a permanent culture of purity in your family?

As my kids and I seek answers to those questions we’ll be meditating on these Scriptures from my sermon notes.

Jeremiah 17:9-10 “The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it? “I the lord search the heart and examine the mind, to reward each person according to their conduct, according to what their deeds deserve.”

Ephesians 4:18-19 NIV “They are darkened in their understanding and separated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to the hardening of their hearts. Having lost all sensitivity, they have given themselves over to sensuality so as to indulge in every kind of impurity, and they are full of greed”.

Psalm 119:9-10 NIV “How can a young person stay on the path of purity? By living according to your word. I seek you with all my heart; do not let me stray from your commands.”

Proverbs 4:23 NIV “Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it.”

1 Samuel 16:7 NIV “But the lord said to Samuel, “Do not consider his appearance or his height, for I have rejected him. The lord does not look at the things people look at. People look at the outward appearance, but the lord looks at the heart.”

Ephesians 5:3 NIV “But among you there must not be even a hint of sexual immorality, or of any kind of impurity, or of greed, because these are improper for God’s holy people”

.Ezekiel 36:26 NIV “I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.”

To view other teaching purity related posts click here https://stilllearningsomethingnew.com/2013/03/08/keeping-the-code/ and here https://stilllearningsomethingnew.com/2013/03/10/calling-for-reinforcements/

You can view Bless This Home 2 here http://www.lifechurch.tv/watch

betty jo

We belong to a “cool and hip” kind of church. We have a coffee bar with the absolute best donuts, wi-fi, 2 large video screens and 1 HUGE one, special lighting, large speakers, and powerpoint There is so much musical talent in the church that the bands and worship leaders have to rotate. Our pastor is well educated, a marvelous speaker, tells jokes, juggles, preforms magic, and loves and cares. Dressing up is not a requirement. And the Presence of Christ is powerful, alive, and active. Yeah, like I said “cool and hip” very. Just last Sunday we started a new thing by watching video from Life Church TV’s series Altar Ego. With the broken car just sitting in the driveway waiting for the garage to have an opening, we were trying not to be bummed about missing today.

My husband takes his work truck to the donut shop and I make coffee. There is a kind of peace that we don’t usually experience on Sunday mornings. No one arguing about who’s turn it is for the bathroom, no one panicking over not being able to find a matching pair of socks, and no pressure to get all 8 of us somewhere on time. With the sermon available on the web we were going to have church at home. We have school at home nearly everyday, why not church sometimes, too

We send the two youngest off to another room (because last weeks sermon was PG) and husband, big kids and I settle in for Altar Ego part 2 – “Need for Control”. What?, Wait a minute- “Need for Control”? I’m thinking this might not be so good after all. I’m a momma, I control my household, my kids, our budgets, menus , our activities and schedules. If you asked my husband he’d tell you I have a lot of control over him, too. Control freak? Maybe, maybe not. I know to turn over my worries, I know God has better plans than I do..He’s the only one who really needs to be in control over our situations.

The preacher poses some questions about our need to be in control. The second one pierces me right in the heart…”Is it mine to control?”

My first born is 21 now. He works, he goes to college, he has a steady, serious long distance.relationship. He’s drug/alcohol free. But he messes up sometimes. And recently he messed up BIG TIME. While part of me wishes I could just step in and fix everything for him like I did when he was little (take control), the other part of me almost jumps for joy that he didn’t mess up like this during my watch. Today I know that he is not mine to control just to love. Below is the link to Altar Ego 2 . betty jo

http://www.lifechurch.tv/watch/altar-ego/2