It Is Finished
I am posting this from the comforts of our new home in Hamden, CT. Last night I got in having traveled for roughly 28 hours straight. I had noticed a sore throat, but assumed that it was because I was tired, but woke this morning to a full-fledge cold. I hate being sick, but I will get over it!
On the last day of the CONNECTION Week of Spiritual Emphasis the message It Is Finished was preached. We took a look at Jesus’ standard of righteousness that He would like each one of us to obtain in our lives. In Matthew 5 Jesus sets the bar quite high as He tells us that “unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees you will by no means enter the kingdom of Heaven.” After walking through what it looks like for us to be living the kingdom lifestyle, we find this passage in Matthew 6:33 which tells us that we need to “seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness.” You see, Jesus has finished the work. As He hung on the cross, right before He breathed His last, He cried out, “It is finished.” Because He lived the sinless life we are simply invited to look to Him and His righteousness. We are told that our righteousness is as filthy rags, but if we learn to seek His righteousness by beholding Him we will become changed.
It is my hope for those of you who attended this past week at the Parramatta Church found an invitation to behold Him.
Courage to you all.
mg
The Road Less Traveled
Last night I shared how Jesus took me from a life of selfishness and sin to a life of selflessness in service for Him. The Scripture reading was Isaiah 33:5,6 which tells us that : 5 The Lord is exalted, for he dwells on high;
he will fill Zion with justice and righteousness,
6 and he will be the stability of your times,
abundance of salvation, wisdom, and knowledge;
the fear of the Lord is Zion’s treasure.
When I first came across this passage something resonated deeply within me. The LORD IS EXALTED! HE WILL FILL US WITH JUSTICE AND RIGHTEOUSNESS! HE IS STABILITY FOR ALL TIME! AND!!!! HE HAS THIS TREASURE OF SALVATION, WISDOM AND KNOWLEDGE!!! How do we obtain these treasures? The “fear of the Lord”. What does this mean? I thought that Jesus didn’t give us a spirit of fear, but of adoption (Romans 8). The fear that is being spoken of here is one of reverence as we worship God with awe and adoration!
Keep on looking up to Him, the author and finisher of our faith!
mg
Enhance your prayer life
Tonight at 6:15 we jumped into a discussion of how to enhance your prayer life.
Sometime over the next week, schedule a time to meet Jesus.
1 - Take a moment to sit and be still with Jesus.
2 - Slowly read through the Lord’s prayer:
:1 Now it came to pass, as He was praying in a certain place, when He ceased, that one of His disciples said to Him, “Lord, teach us to pray, as John also taught his disciples.” 2 So He said to them, “When you pray, say: Our Father in heaven, Hallowed be Your name. Your kingdom come. Your will be done On earth as it is in heaven. 3 Give us day by day our daily bread. 4 And forgive us our sins, For we also forgive everyone who is indebted to us. And do not lead us into temptation, But deliver us from the evil one. For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen. - Luke 11/Matthew 6
3 - Writer a prayer response to God based on what you’ve just read.
4 - Allow Jesus to speak to you by writing a response in your journal from God to you based on the scripture you’ve just read.
If you are comfortable with it, let us know how your experience was.
Blessings and see you Thursday night at the Parramatta Church at 6:15 for discipleship and 7:30pm for the evening session.
For more information CLICK HERE.
I love it when you call me big Poppa!
G’day fellow journeyers!
Before we get into a recap, I just had the most amazing morning with a dear brother in Christ. GOD IS SO GOOD! He sends people into our lives at just the right time to encourage us and to let us know that we are not alone! PRAISE BE TO GOD!
Last night we started off by turning to I John 2:16, 17. We were reminded that all of our sins fall into one of three categories, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the pride of life. This is seen in the Garden of Eden story when sin entered in as well as in the ways that Satan tempted Jesus in the desert as well as in the ways that we are tempted each day of our lives. In verse 17 the Bible tells us that he or she who does the will of God will abide forever. The message last night was to understand more clearly how it is that we abide forever.
Turning to Romans 8 we discovered that there are two laws in the universe. The first law is a law of sin and death which when we break it down is the 10 commandments. Why is it a law of sin and death? Because when we look at the law it condemns us because it points out to us the sin issues that we have. Without the law, as Paul states elsewhere, we would not be aware of sin in our lives. The other law is a law of spirit and life that is found in Jesus Christ. Whereas the first law states that the wages of sin is death, the second law says, “But the gift of God is eternal life!”
As we continued on through Romans 8 we came across a passage that I love deeply. Here we read that God did not give us a spirt of fear, rather a spirit of adoption by who we cry out “Abba, Father!” Translating Abba… we get Daddy or Poppa. GOD LOVES IT WHEN WE CALL HIM BIG POPPA!!!!
I leave you with this thought today… what does it mean for you to have a spirit of adoption?
Looking forward to the responses… thank you for taking the time to journey with us.
Courage to you wherever you are today.
mg
Born in Satan’s Image
Can you imagine being five years old and already a felon? That was the case with me. As a shorty I was in to stealing early on. If momma said that I couldn’t have something that I wanted I would simply take it. Nervous? YES! Convicted it was wrong? YES! But that didn’t stop me. I wanted it and was willing to do whatever it took to get it.
When we are born into this earth, we are born with a natural tendency to rebel. If someone tells us not to look in here, our curiosity gets the best of us and we look. Someone can tell us until they are blue in the fact that the fire will burn us, but many of us are too hard headed and we need to learn for ourselves.
That was the case with Prod, the main character in one of Jesus’ more popular parables found in Luke 15. Here a young guy treats his dad as though he is dead. Takes is pre-maturely received inheritance and hits the high road, spending the money living the high life. Then he goes through four major stages. First off, he begins to want something more than what he has. After hitting rock bottom, broke as can be Prod starts work as a pig feeder. After spending some time at the bottom of the barrel, the Bible says that he comes to his senses. This is crucial if you and I want to experience God’s amazing power and forgiveness is that we must come to our senses where we recognize that we have issues. Thirdly he figures out what he needs to do, and finally he does it.
Have you ever noticed that as you are trying to follow Jesus that you often begin to want something, that you come to our senses, and that you reach a place where you figure out what needs to be done? But how often does it occur that we sit there and do nothing? God is leading, but we get distracted.
God is good, because as we turn our will over to Him, He comes running to our need.
Where can you relate with the story of the prodigal son? What might Jesus be telling you out of this story tonight?
Blessings,
mg
Secondly
Created in God’s Image
Last night we continued The Battle Within series with a message entitled, Created in God’s Image. It is here that we started with the creation account looking how the human kind came into existence according to Scripture. We learned that in order for a living soul to exist, there must be a body (flesh) and breath (spirit). Take one of those components away and you no longer have a living soul. In Genesis 6 we find that “God looked upon the earth and found that all flesh was corrupt” [Genesis 6:12]. The reality is that in spite of being made in God’s image, the human race took advantage of freedom of choice and disobeyed the will of God. This disobedience finds at its core selfishness.
Out of a desire to understand what sin entails, we turned over to I John 2:16-17 which tells us that “all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the pride of life is not of the Father but is of the world. But he who does the will of God abides forever.” If you’ve ever wanted a definition of sin according to the Bible here is the verse. You see, all of your sins fall into one of these three categories: 1) lust of the flesh; 2) lust of the eyes; and 3) the pride of life. It seems to me that the latter of the three is the most deadly as at times it isn’t as tangible as the other three.
Can you relate with the battle within? Would you agree that your flesh is corrupt? Would you agree that you have sin issues fit into one of or all three of the above categories? If you answered yes to any or all of these, wouldn’t you agree that this is beyond coincidence that the rest of the human race can relate? The Bible presents a solution to this common issue that we all face and Jesus is dying to restore us back to the way that we were created to be; free from sin and suffering and separation from Him.
If you are living in the greater-Parramatta area I invite you to join us as we continue to discuss The Battle Within.
Hope to see you tonight!
mg
The Battle Within
Today I am writing from Parramatta, a suburb of the amazing city of Sydney, Australia.
Over the past two years I have been working with the team on the ground here to get a program up and running for the young adults in the local church. Finally the dreaming, the planning, and the preparation have been done and yesterday we kicked off with the first installment of eight corporate worship experiences. I cannot begin to tell you how inspired I was sitting in the second row awaiting my turn to contribute to the service. Why? Because this team of young adults (I am guessing about 20-30) pulled together an extremely solid worship block including a skit, a video, an audience including game, a puppet show based on Daniel, and worship music that lifted your spirit toward heaven! It all made of an amazing way to worship Jesus on the Sabbath.
Yesterday I opened with a message entitled The Greatest Controversy. At the core of the message was a challenge to consider the fact that we already know the outcome of the cosmic battle that we often think of when we hear the phrase, the great controversy. We already know that Jesus defeated Satan, sin and death. Satan was kicked out of Heaven. The battle has been won. BUT!!!! There is still a great controversy going on for our souls; your soul and my soul. Yesterday we looked at the fact that inspite of what we may do or don’t do, that Jesus knows everything about us and is still dying to have a relationship with us. He knows that while Satan is defeated in Heaven, that he is still on this planet seeking to devour even the elect of God. The challenge to each one of us this week is to remain in a posture where we are surrendered to the Holy Spirits leading in our lives.
I want to invite you to check back here regularly as I will be posting a blog every day after the meeting. I would be great to have you comment on your experience as we journey together this week with The Battle Within.
Blessings,
Matthew Gamble
Sydney, Australia
GODencounters
For all of you out in blogging land, my apologies for not posting much lately. I have been running around like a head with my chicken cut of with finishing up my doctor of ministry degree, getting our house sold here in Seattle and buying a house in Hamden, CT. My wife graduated last weekend with her MD degree so now we’ve got two doctors in the house; one covering the spiritual, the other covering the physical. We are off on Sunday for Yale where Susan is to begin residency on Monday.
Over the next couple of weeks some exciting things are happening that I wanted to let you in on and they both have to do with an experience called GODencounters. For those of you who have never heard of it before, GODencounters started with a few young adults in Orlando, FL seven years ago. The group came together for the purpose of just that, encountering God. Two years ago I was invited to speak at the annual GODencounters Campmeeting and then also that Fall at the GODencounters Retreat. While I was told that the campmeeting saw over 7,000 people come out through the 9 day event, this was more than just a big show. There wasn’t the big hype of announcements and showcasing people and their skills, it was all about lifting up Jesus and drawing our hearts closer to HIM!
Because of this vision and commitment to focus on lifting up Jesus, GODencounters has continued to grow and now GODencounter events are occurring all across the nation. I am honored to have the opportunity to speak at the GODencounters in both Pennsylvania (June 20-21) and New Jersey (June 28) this year. If you are are around, please be sure to check it out. If you are willing, I believe that you will have an encounter with the Most High God!
I will be writing more about these events in the coming weeks.
Blessings on your day!
- mwg -
Seattle
Live @ PUC
Last night (Thursday) and today I am on the campus of Pacific Union College, located just north of the Napa Valley in California.
I must confess that my life was filled with peace yesterday. Flying into SFO, hopping into a rental car, heading north of I-80… only facing one traffic jam due to a flipped over car… life was pretty God. I had an enjoyable meal at Armadillos Mexican Restaurant (phenomenal) and made my way on up to the campus. I was warmly greeted by my good friend Chaplain Roy Ice of SalvationCoach.com
I cannot tell you how excited I am to be here at PUC. Yesterday I had the opportunity of talking to primarily freshmen who are in a cohort to equip them in their lives as college students. Last night I talked about addictions. Tonight I will be presenting out of the Gospel of Matthew chapters 5 & 6.
If you are around the area, please swing by. For those of you who attend, let me know your thoughts!
Piece yo’s!
mwg
Rob Bell in Seattle
A couple of weeks ago, pastor Rob Bell from the Mars Hill Bible Church in Grand Rapids, MI was in Seattle for the Seeds of Compassion event. I heard him speak on a panel that consisted of the Dalai Lama as well as Desmond Tutu, amongst others. It was a great day in Seattle (although as typical it was raining) as some of the worlds spiritual movers and shakers converged on the city.
After the “Seeds” event was done, my friend Jim Henderson hosted an event through his organization called Off-The-Map (PodCast), where Rob Bell, Doug Paggit, and Todd Hunter shared the bulk of the time answering questions about progressive culture and the church. Of special interest to me was Rob’s comments that: “Eucharist is a way of life… you break yourself open and pour yourself out. This means that you will suffer and on the otherside there is resurrection and new life. If we were to chart the most significant points of your journey it would center around times where you have cried out.” Lately my world feels like it is spinning out of control. There have been times where I have thought to myself, “Self, who can you talk to? Where can you turn?” And it has been there that Jesus has reminded me that He is there. That He is ultimately in control. That I have no need to fear the future with its trying to finish a DMin, trying to buy a house in New Haven, trying to sell a house in the worst market in years, trying to say goodbye to people I love deeply, etc. All God asks of me is to chill in Him. This has certainly been a season of crying out and learning that God cares deeply about me, He cares deeply about you!
mwg
