Tag: Lord

D.T.R.

by Dr. William A. Horton, posted in Uncategorized

DEFINE THE RELATIONSHIP…

            Last night in church we started a new small group that really gets you to think about where you are with Christ.  It is based off the book by Kyle Idleman called Not a Fan.  Define your relationship with God?   This is not for us to judge others based off of our relationship with God but to take a good self-evaluation of where we truly are with our creature… Are you a fan our are you a follower?  Most fans would say they are followers… the Pharisees would have said they were followers and yet they killed Jesus.  A fan is an enthusiastic admirer, you may know all the scripture in the world but do you have a true relationship with God.  Followers are devoted and sacrifice is required to be a follower.

Luke 9:23, “Then he (Jesus) said to them all: “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me.”

As Uncle Ben would say, “With great power comes great responsibility.”  God has empowered us with the Holy Spirit now we are responsible to do something with that daily!  In the Gospels Jesus says believe in me something like five times but He says follow me twenty!  We are to follow Him!  Being a committed follower of Jesus means that He has an all access pass to your life.  Is there rooms that you are trying to keep Jesus out of?

So have you DEFINED THE RELATIONSHIP with God yet… or did you just say a prayer of salvation and left it at that?  God does not want a causal relationship with you where you come to church and put your two dollars in the tithe plate then forget about Him the rest of the week…

JESUS WANTS TO GIVE YOU A COMPLETE OVERHAUL NOT JUST A TUNE UP!

SO ARE YOU A FAN OR A FOLLOWER?

Are We Just Glorified Slaves?

by Dr. William A. Horton, posted in Uncategorized

Are you locked up and don’t even know it…  Are you just a glorified slave?  IMG_20150401_194008

Romans 1:25, “They exchanged the truth about God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator–who is forever praised. Amen.”

 

We live in a world that is full of technology that is supposed to make life easier, but instead we all know that it just makes our lives more complicated.  The fact that we can sit with our heads buried in our phones and not even recognize that there is someone next to you struggling is proof of that.  This web of technology does entangle us in a never ending web of busyness and hurry, which makes us forget about the fact that there are real people hurting around us.  Having our cell phones with us everywhere we go including the bathroom makes us forget the importance of human contact and even takes away time from God.  When we wake up and the first thing that we do is look to see how many likes we have on a post or maybe you check to see your Twitter numbers… When we do these things there is something completely wrong with our thought process!  The first thing that we should do in the morning is not to check social media but it should be to connect with God!  Have a real heart to heart with our creature.  We are too busy with the created things that we phase out the one who made them all possible.  Imagine if you spent as much time with God as you do on Facebook, I have to be totally honest with all of you if I did that my relationship with God would be much, much stronger than it is now.  It is sad to think that we have all this technology to get things at a moment’s notice yet we forget that God just wants a little of that precious time that we are trying to save.  Today I will look at my life and see how I can truly give myself a way to God…

So what will keep you from God…?

Romans 8:38-39, “For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers,  nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

 

I am convinced that in this modern world that we live in we could add to this list; neither cell phone or tablet, computer nor job…

Whom are you a slave to?  We can be a slave to technology or we can be a slave to God… The choose is yours!

Here is to NEW beginnings!

by Dr. William A. Horton, posted in Uncategorized

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BE PREPARED TO BE UNCOMFORTABLE…

            “Therefore, If anyone is in Christ he is a new creation, old things have passed away behold all things have become new” (2 Cor. 5:17).

The renewed man acts upon new principles, by new rules, with new ends, and in new company. The believer is created anew; his heart is not merely set right, but a new heart is given to him. But sometimes you have to crash and burn first…

Evil Knievel attempted more than 75 ramp to ramp jumps in his life time. A failed jump over Snake River Canyon left him with 433 broken bones.  He had to crash and burn to become what most people call one of the greatest American Icons.  In the Silicon Valley fortune 500 companies won’t hire you until you have lost a million dollars first.  Why you may ask?  They want to see what you do after you crash and burn… Our lives are full of testimonies but until we come to Christ we do not see them as such.  Like the Phoenix that rises from the ashes we are also new creations in Christ and everything that we go through is the uncomfortable things that we need to grow closer to God.

BE PREPARED TO BE UNCOMFORTABLE!

If you want to grow you better be prepared to live outside your comfort zone…

“Then said Jesus unto his disciples, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me” (Matt. 16:24).

The cross that Jesus was hung on weighed over 400 pounds to be on the conservative side.  Jesus told us to deny ourselves and carry that cross… Talk about out of your comfort zone.  Anyone that has lifted weights knows that after a few reps of shoulder presses you feel the burn, but it is not until you push past that burn that you get to the next level. Sometimes crashing and burning draws you closer to God.

So… “Let us not grow tired of doing what is right, for after a while you will reap a harvest of blessings if you don’t get discouraged and give up” (Gal. 6:9).

So when you crash and burn and feel uncomfortable remember that you are a new creation, and diamonds are forged out of pressure… Metals are forged in the fire 🔥
“And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.” (Romans 8:28).
This includes the crash and burns of life!

BUT IN THE END BEAUTIFUL THINGS COME FROM THAT PRESSURE AND FORGING!

Humble yet Hungry

by Dr. William A. Horton, posted in Uncategorized

“God resists the proud but gives grace to the humble.  Therefore humble yourself under the mighty hand of God that He may exalt you in due time” (1 Peter 5:6).

There is something about being humble yet hungry… We should be happy with where we are but not content to stay there.  Humble that God has brought us this far but we should also realize that God has so much more for us than just this…

“Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us” (Eph. 3:20)

God wants to do more than you are I can think or imagine in our lives, and let’s be honest we can all think of great things we would want to happen in our lives.  But the kicker is that we have to stay humble… you have to have your heart in the right place and your motives have to be true…

“And even when you ask, you don’t get it because your motives are all wrong–you want only what will give you pleasure” (James 4:3)

So to stay humble yet hungry is the key!

We are not static in our nature we are dynamic and always changing.  You will wake up tomorrow and you will be a little different than you were the day before.  Soon your tomorrow becomes your yesterday that shapes your future, and what did you do with it?

Are you Humble yet Hungry?

God resists the proud because they have no room for Him in their lives, you or I would not be alive without God first.  He knew us before we were knitted together in our mother’s womb and He has a plan for us to prosper, but are we to proud to give Him time.

“…Don’t you realize that friendship with the world makes you an enemy of God? I say it again: If you want to be a friend of the world, you make yourself an enemy of God.”  (James 4:4)

So if you want to be proud and fed by the worlds standards you make yourself an enemy of God, but if you stay HUMBLE YET HUNGRY God will feed you with the living bread and water.

Don’t be satisfied to stay where you are in your relationship with God but be Humble enough to know that God has you VERY best interest at heart.

STAY HUMBLE YET HUNGRY!

We need a Savoir

by Dr. William A. Horton, posted in Uncategorized

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Let’s be honest in the world today people see right and wrong in totally different ways. There is slowly becoming no absolute truths. Know one wants to be wrong and every ones opinions count and matter…which I respect in some ways but there is an absolute truth that is still alive today in our beliefs that God lays out for us in the Bible. We are not people that make mistakes in need of correction.We are sinners in need of a Savior.We need more than a second chance.We need a Savoir!

William A Horton

1000 Steps begins with one…

by Dr. William A. Horton, posted in Finding God's will

The journey of a thousand miles begins with one step, so are you going to let something that happened to you 40 years ago, 4 weeks ago, or 4 days ago affect your step you take today? In every situation there are three factors: the situation itself, the other person and you. Out of those three things you only have control over you…so take that step and don’t let the past determine the future.

Imagine to yourself, Jesus walking over His three and a half-year ministry on earth or the road to Calvary.  It is said that Jesus walked around 25 miles a day, and He carried the cross to Calvary which was according to archaeology of the city, the distance from Pilate’s palace through the network of alleys of Old Jerusalem through to Golgotha (The ‘Place of the Skull’) where the Crucifixion took place would be probably less than a mile or two, even considering all the twists and turns of the alleys. In agony, being beat and spit on… He (Jesus) took on step after another, after another knowing what He was walking into..

HIS JOURNEY BEGAN WITH ONE STEP AT A TIME DURING HIS MINISTRY, ENDING WITH LONG WALK TO HIS DEATH… FOLLOWED BY HIS GLORIOUS RETURN.

 YOUR JOURNEY OF A THOUSAND MILES HOWEVER HARD IT MAY SEEM BEGINS WITH ONE STEP. THE PRICES OF LIFE ARE NOT AT THE BEGINNING OF THE JOURNEY AND IT IS NOT TO US TO KNOW HOW MANY STEPS IT WILL TAKE TO GET THERE…

SO TAKE THE FIRST STEP.

Dare to Disciple

by Dr. William A. Horton, posted in Finding God's will

Discerning God’s will, how do you do that?  Can anyone do it?  What a loaded question, right? Well, I am not going to act like at 33 years old I know how to discern God’s Will for your life.  I probably will not know how to do it at 93 either but I know that the Bible gives us a few examples on how to discern God’s Will…  There is a lot to God’s Will and this is only a part of it but let’s be challenged…

Matthew 7:21-23 “21 “Not everyone who calls out to me, ‘Lord! Lord!’ will enter the Kingdom of Heaven. Only those who actually do the will of my Father in heaven will enter.22 On judgment day many will say to me, ‘Lord! Lord! We prophesied in your name and cast out demons in your name and performed many miracles in your name.’ 23 But I will reply, ‘I never knew you. Get away from me, you who break God’s laws.’

This verse confused me for the longest time because in verse 21 it says “Only those who actually do the will of my Father in heaven will enter.”  What does that mean by doing the will of the Father and if I cannot figure it out does that mean I am screwed and I do not get in to heaven?  Of course not…

Let’s use Bible to uncover what this truly means, 2 Peter 3:9, “The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is long-suffering toward us, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance”

When I read this together with the verses in Matthew it all can together for me.  “The Lord is not willing that any should perish but all should come to repentance” (2Peter3:9) and tied together with “I never knew you.”  (Matt7:23).

    It is simple

God’s Will is that everyone know Jesus as their personal Lord and Savior.

     Jesus said He never knew them after they performed signs and wonders because they did not know Jesus, SO HERE IS THE GOLDEN TICKET NOW THAT YOU KNOW GODS WILL.  HE WANTS EVERYONE TO KNOW JESUS HIS SON, WHO DIED FOR OUR SINS.  MANY PEOPLE SAY HE WOULD HAVE DIED JUST FOR YOU ALONE, AND WHILE THAT IS TRUE LET’S NOT FORGET HE DID NOT JUST DIE FOR YOU ALONE.  HE DIED FOR EVERYONE.

SO WHEN YOU LOOK BACK AT TODAY CAN YOU TRULY SAY THAT YOU TRIED TO FULLFILL GODS WILL IN HAVING EVERYONE KNOW HIS SON?

ARE YOU DARING TO DISCIPLE SOMEONE?