Has a leader said no to you? How do you react when a leader says no? Face it, most of us don’t take no to our ideas or agendas very well. Our gut-level response to leaders telling us no is to feel slighted and rejected. In other words, we tend to take no personally—way too personally! Because we take it personally, the response is a mix of defensiveness, anger, offense, and even oppositional behavior—usually through some form of passive-resistance to leadership.
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Making disciples of Jesus Christ is the goal of the Great Commission. Christ commands us to go into all of the world and make disciples of all nations and then goes on to declare that making disciples includes water baptism and teaching them to obey whatever Jesus says! Most of us understand the importance of obeying Christ, but what is the big deal about water baptism as a part of making a disciple? read more »
2 Corinthians 5:17a, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation….” “In Christ” is one of Paul’s favorite ways of understanding the New Creation and describing what it is to be a Christian. The best way to understand what it means to be in Christ is by comparing it to the phrase in Adam. 1 Corinthians 15:22, “For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive.”
Paul teaches that there really are two kinds of human beings on the earth now: the old people who are in Adam—and we all are born to this world in Adam—and the New Creation people who are in Christ. Those who are born again of the Holy Spirit are now no longer in Adam, they are in Christ! When you believe in the Lord Jesus Christ you are now “in” Christ. read more »
From the moment I received Christ Jesus as Lord, life ceased to be about me any more. From now on, “For to me, to live is Christ…” (Philippians 1:21). This is much more than just a life choice on my part (I’m now living for Christ) it is a statement of the strong spiritual reality of the Christian experience. When I received Christ as Lord of my life, I so completely identified with Christ and immersed my life into Christ that “I” simply am out of the equation! Paul says it this way, “I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me” (Galatians 2:20). Paul goes on to say, “And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again” (2 Corinthians 5:15).
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