Be With Me: 7 Minutes of Biblical Wonder

We all want to get to God's Presence and enjoy His power.  So what are the steps to this spiritual sufficiency? Pauls tells his spiritual story:

• Personal: it is a spiritual story that only he can tell. It's unique
• Painful: he describes it as an ongoing THORN. Enough said
• Pleading: it results in repeated prayers of passion to God
• Platform: this "spiritual-topic" for him is his battlefield-place where epic good and evil, God and Satan meet in a real way, in real time, in his real life
• Presence: with all this put together, THIS is where he meets God and experiences His presence
• Power: this is how he sees and accesses the sufficiency given by God

Likely, you too have a spiritual story that only you can tell.  It is the place where there is pain and prayer.  It is a platform of epic conflict brought home. There, you meet God and enjoy His presence.  Join me for 7 minutes as we walk these steps to sufficiency. Bewithme.us instagram LinkedIn FB or any podcast directory subscriptions. Free!

Has anybody spiritually cared for you like a parent cares for their child?  Have they had a "spiritual anxiety" over you?  Do they feel your pains as their pains? Do they not know where their heart stops and your's begins?

If you find a Pastor like that, you probably have the right guy. 

In general, we are not supposed to be anxious, especially for ourselves. Phil 4:6. However, there is room for some "pastoral anxiety" which looks a whole lot like "parental anxiety." This is care for another.  This is their wounds are your wounds.  This is feeling like when someone is knocked down, it is as if it happened to you.  

May we all have pastors like that.

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When you have LOST EVERYTHING where might we FIND YOU? For Paul, he is ultimately found in the arms of Christ. 

For Paul, he had a lot to lose.  Conveniently, he lists it all for our benefit.  There are shipwrecks, beatings and being left for dead.  There are dangers and deceptions that he battles all along.  Of note, he's only about 2/3rds of the way thru his Christian walk and we know that there is more to come.

Let's boast in the Lord.  Let's be found in Him. When we have lost it all, Let's be found in His arms.

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Christianity in many ways, is an inconvenient truth. It's message is one of sin, error, the necessity of change, suffering, death, and sacrifice. 

The so called, "super-apostles" dodge the inconvenient parts for a slicker, more profitable message.  There is only one problem: it isn't TRUE

What is it then, that makes this inconvenient truth WINSOME? That it is true. There is no plan-b with God.  What other paths are there to deal with one's DEATH PROBLEM, and ones SIN PROBLEM? There are none.

Listen  7 minutes today as Paul makes his inconvenient yet wonderfully winsome argument. And listen tomorrow too by subscribing at Google podcasts.

The so called "Super-Apostles" turn out to be not very super and certainly not apostles.  In fact, they are deceivers who are beguiling people just like Satan did to Eve in the Garden of Eden.

They come in disguise. They come disguised as apostles, Christians, in the family, on mission, and as servants for the King.  In truth, they are the opposite of all those things.  

Unlike Eve, let's take a step back and identify truth from falsehood.  Let's see past the disguise to the real actor.  Let's not do what Eve did. Let's stick to truth.  I don't know a better way to do that than to stick to His Word in the Bible.  That's why there will be another step in the New Testament tomorrow. We'll send you  the blog and podcast if you go to bewithme.us and subscribe.

You have a spiritual area of influence.  God divvies up His kingdom into bite-sized pieces of real estate and then assigns them to individuals.  YOU are MAYOR over one of these pieces of the kingdom.
 
Like a real place, there are people there among whom you have an inordinate amount of influence.  You are to occupy this land, be faithful with your assignment, prioritize people, and possibly enlarge the borders.

Join me for 7 minutes of eye-opening realization of being in charge of a piece of spiritual real estate.  Please make a foot hold for tomorrow and the next day's thought at bewithme.us or Spotify. 

Spiritual authority is tricky business.  It is tricky for the leaders, and it is tricky for the followers.  What it is not, is optional.

Because it is critical, it is important that it is exercised carefully by the leaders.  That is the goldilocks part: Start with just the right amounts of humility and add occasional boldness, all the while before the watchful eye of God.

It is also important that those under authority do this right.  There is a way that receiving authority must be exercised correctly.  Sometimes it is right to expose and flee abusive authority; sometimes forgive previous failings;  but always to forge ongoing appropriate authority over oneself.  Why? Authority is specifically to build you up.  It is for your benefit.  It is self-destructive to remove yourself from a process that is specifically designed by God for your blessing.  

Listen 7 minutes with me as we negotiate this very important topic.  Please subscribe at bewithme.us or Apple Podcasts. 

Christianity is at war. It is in a war of ideas, thoughts, opinions, pride and of the heart.  Those things result in behaviors.

Paul is fighting with meekness, humility, and lowliness + DIVINE power to have success.  He is being mis-understood in today's passage for the way he is doing battle.  Make no mistake.  Paul KNOWS he is in a fight.  He knows he is at war.

Likely, you'll be on a war-footing today in the battlefield of ideas.  Be ready by thinking this through for 7 minutes with a listen today.  bewithme.us

Join me for 7 minutes today as we see what Cesar Millan, Paul and Jesus have in common.

They all have ultimate power and authority in each of their realms.  However, each chooses to be gentle and lowly of heart.  The reason isn't because of powerlessness or cluelessness.  Each understands what is at stake. And, it is exactly because they understand that each chooses a posture of humility and smallness. 

Each chooses to whisper.  Each chooses to be gentle positionally.  Why?  For Cesar Millan, sometimes the only language a dog-who-has-lost-his-way can understand is WHISPERS. For us, sometimes the only thing we will actually listen to us positional humility.  He is gentle and lowly.  Let's listen.  And then sign up for more gentle teaching tomorrow at google podcasts or bewithme.us

If you prayed for me and this podcast, it would be the most valuable thing in the world.  That's because, if prayer is true, and God is real, and He really listens, then prayer is other-worldly.  It unleashes an intergalactic power that goes way beyond THIS world.

So I believe in prayer. I value prayer. It is beyond price of this world.  There are no coins here that can buy it.  There are no jobs that the paycheck is one of prayer.

Listen 7 minutes today as I consider with you the VALUE of prayer.  At the end, I will beg for your prayers.  It is a treasure I could never purchase.  Pray:

• that I'd be accurate and handle the Word well
• that the footprint and borders of this podcast would grow
• that the Lord would protect me from all the spiritual harm that can befall people who proclaim, teach and do podcasts.

After you pray, subscribe on bewithme.us and apple podcasts.