Sharing is Caring

  God of heaven   [Nehemiah 9:13-15a]     Christian A. Schwarz surveyed 1,000 of the healthiest growing churches in 32 countries worldwide and found eight characteristics (Internet): (1) Leadership that develops the spiritual potential of the laity, (2) Gift-oriented ministry given by the power of the Holy Spirit, (3) ‘Passionate spirituality’ rather than just fulfilling one’s religious duties, (4) Functional structure according to the mission of the church, (5) Worship that inspires the work of the Holy Spirit regardless of style and language of worship, (6) Holistic small group activities that apply the message to their specific daily lives rather than just discussing Bible passages, (7) Needs of non-believers focus on evangelism, not "manipulating", and (8) Relationships that do not talk about love, but practice Christian love.   How about our church?   In order for our church to become a healthy church established by the Lord, what our chur...

  Let us store up for ourselves treasures in heaven. [Matthew 6:19-24] Do you have any fears? If yes, what fears do you have? According to Deuteronomy 8:17, Moses, the great leader of Israel, was afraid. The fear was that the Israelites would say in their hearts, “My power and the strength of my hand made me this wealth.” Obviously, according to Deuteronomy 8:18, Moses was afraid that the Israelites might say that they obtained wealth by means of their own power and strength, even though God had given them the ability to obtain wealth. In a word, Moses was afraid that the Israelites would become proud and forget God (v. 14). When were the Israelites in danger of becoming proud? It was when all they had was abundant (v. 13). In other words, the Israelites went into Canaan, a land in which they lacked nothing (v. 9), a good land (v. 7), and ate and was satisfied (vv. 10, 12), built and lived in good houses (v. 12), their cattle multiplied, their silver and gold were m...

https://www.desiringgod.org/articles/fill-your-heavy-heart-with-heaven