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Becoming confident in who you are in Christ

At Campaigners we try to create a place where people can come and feel loved. We try very hard to create a time of fellowship where people experience Jesus.

One of the things that we try to communicate at Campaigners is that when you experience God, as you grow in a relationship with him, you become confident in who you are as a person. You begin to see yourself in God’s eyes and you start to become the person God created you to be.

Being a Christian is more than just getting a ticket into heaven. There is so much more. One of those things is knowing who we are in Christ, it changes our current life. In fact everything else in life apart from God is worthless. In fact Paul said he counts everything apart from God as garbage. If the things that we do apart from God are garbage, it becomes clear why people struggle with self image. Because apart from God...

However with God everything changes. In the ancient cultures to know ones name was in essence to know that person. There is something in that idea; even God when asked by Moses who he should say sent him, said “Tell them I AM has sent you”. When I read the name “I AM” I see it as an open ended statement, I am love, I am life, I am justice, I AM … God is to be our everything.

So what does your name mean? I know that my name Jeremiah means “Appointed by God”. I take that seriously, mostly in part because my mom has told me that the name was given to her by God. So for me to know my name is to partially know who I am in Gods eyes.

Who are you in God’s Eyes? What talents has he given you? What are you good at? God has given us each specific abilities and it is part of our job to use those talents; to hone them and to improve our skills in those areas. Maybe it is something that we will use for a little while, maybe it is something that God has a plan for us to use only once. It is important to have put effort into doing the things God has planned for us. However we also need to realize that God has given us those talents. We did not make ourselves awesome.

When we know who we are in Christ, when we experience God in our life, and know our purpose we learn that life has meaning, life is abundant, life is an experience with God. With God, we can be confident in who we are. With God we do not need to try to conform to specific standards. We are free to become who he created us to be. It is not that we limited because he made us a specific way, but instead that we are free to live that way. We are free to experience true life outside of the constraints we put on ourselves because of how we think people perceive us.

God has united you with Christ Jesus. For our benefit God made him to be wisdom itself. Christ made us right with God; he made us pure and holy, and he freed us from sin. 1 Corinthians 1:30

All praise to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms because we are united with Christ. Ephesians 1:3

Yes, everything else is worthless when compared with the infinite value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have discarded everything else, counting it all as garbage, so that I could gain Christ Philippians 3:8

Life with God is it!

Here is the cheat sheet, a lot of the same stuff, but some examples of what we did. HERE

Also look at the rest of the campaigner stuff. Here

Posted Jan 23, 2012 8:42 PM by Jeremiah Seekins

by God's Spirit.

Slowly, we have been making our way through the first book of Samuel. With winter break, and holidays and snowstorms things have slowed down. However we are back in motion again. Bringing us back into the heart of a battle. When we ended for break we left the Israelites were in a tight spot, they were surrounded by a massive Philistine army.

Judges 3 tells us why these nations were still around after God brought them into the promised land.

1 These are the nations that the Lord left in the land to test those Israelites who had not experienced the wars of Canaan. 2 He did this to teach warfare to the generations of Israelites who had no experience in battle. 3 These are the nations: the Philistines (those living under the five Philistine Rulers), all the Canaanites, the Sidonians, and the Hivites living in the mountains of Lebanon from Mount Baal-hermon to Lebo-hamath. 4 These people were left to test the Israelites--to see whether they would obey the commands the LORD had given to their ancestors through Moses.

The Philistines were sent by God to test the Israelites, to see if they would obey the commands of the Lord. Saul, the peoples King, the King the people demanded is failing. Failing to keep Gods commands and failing to lead the people. The king is supposed to lead the people, but Saul has become a praise follower. As we read the book of Samuel, we begin to see that Saul seeks the praise of the people. This becomes obvious in chapter 15 when Saul says "I did this because I feared the people." He desired the praise of the people, instead of looking for God to be his source of worth. He replaced God with an Idol of praise.

Saul should have realized that the things he had accomplished were because of what God had done. Saul in chapter 9 asked the question, "who am I that you should treat me this way." Implying that Saul hasn’t done anything worthy of making him King. But from then till now God had worked in and through Saul preparing Saul to lead the people. Saul should have kept his eyes on God. Instead Saul was focusing on how to please the people, how to save his kingship. Thus as a result Saul was not living in Gods power. It’s easy to trust God when you have a hundred thousand men; but when you have six hundred vs. an army so massive that they just labeled in such a way that it seems impossible to have that many warriors. Well that takes more faith. But it is God, not the army, not the people that is going to save Israel.

God says its "Not by might, nor by power, but by My Spirit..." If God works who can stand against? Saul should have known this, he had heard Samuel speak of Gods mighty power when Samuel had addressed the people during his farewell address. Samuel had laid out his argument that God was the one who had rescued the people of Israel, that God is God, and He will not abandon them for that would dishonor His great name. Saul should have known this, and he might have, but somehow it had not moved from his mind to his heart. It was Saul's responsibility to lead the people into battle, but Saul wasn't living empowered by God, and thus Saul wasn’t fulfilling his responsibility.

Jonathan Saul's son, had probably been waiting for Saul to lead the people of Israel into battle, but Saul wasn't leading the people. So Jonathan said to his armor bearer “Come on, let’s go over to where the Philistines have their outpost.... Perhaps the LORD will help us, for nothing can hinder the LORD. He can win a battle whether he has many warriors or only a few!” somehow Jonathan had allowed the stories of who God is to not only saturate his mind, but to also become real in his heart. Jonathan new that the battle was not going to be won because of the might of an army, or by human strength but by Gods spirit. Jonathan was trusting God. Jonathan was living life with God, keeping his eyes and heart focused on God. It wasn't Jonathan’s duty to lead Israel, it was Saul's, but because Jonathan partnered with God, amazing things happened.

Did God tell Jonathan to attack the Philistines, no. But his actions were inside of Gods previous commands. There was no guarantee that God would act, no guarantee that Jonathan or his armor bearer would live. All there was the knowledge and a heart that knew that God was God, and that God could win the victory if God chose to do so.

Are you living under your own strength, your own abilities? Or are you living in Gods presence, keeping your eyes on Jesus. Does God need you to do his work? No, God will do his work through his spirit. It isn’t by war like might, or human strength, but by Gods spirit. As Zwingli said "Jesus Christ is our justice from which follows that our works in so far as they are good, so far they are of Christ, but in so far as they are ours, they are neither right nor good." It is only because of Jesus grace and mercy that we are able to do good. It is through his spirit that empowers us.

You can take a look at a powerpoint here

You can also find the cheat sheet here

Find the rest of the campaigners talks here.

Posted Jan 19, 2012 4:41 PM by Jeremiah Seekins

Jesus + Nothing = Everything

I just wanted to share this sermon from Tullian Tchividjian, he gave this sermon at the Village Church in Texas. It is my desire that Christians would rest in what Jesus has done. That they would not get caught up in DOING the Christian life, but would be transformed through the power of the Holy Spirit, and that they would because of what Jesus is doing in them live in such a way that it is only possible through the power of the Holy Spirit.

The gadget spec URL could not be found

You can also download the file here

Posted Jan 25, 2012 4:20 PM by Jeremiah Seekins

Jesus the True Vine

Well this is our last talk of the semester. it is also our last talk in the "I am" series that we have been doing. instead of telling the students who Jesus is, we decided that we would let Jesus tell them. There are several places in the bible where Jesus said "I am..." So we used seven of these. The last being Jesus is the True Vine.

At this point in Jesus ministry he is just about to be crucified. He is about to give his life up for us. Jesus at this point in the story is telling his disciples who he is, what the plan is, and how life is meant to be lived.

Jesus is the True vine, or "Jesus is the vine of life." (my words) Jesus is the vine of life, because apart from him there is no life, apart from him the branches will die. Meaning that tonight we will tell the students, that if they want life they will need to be grafted onto Jesus. What happens when a branch is removed from a tree, it eventually dies. it dries up, and gets hard. It then starts to decay and rot.

What happens when we are not in a relationship with Jesus, our life dries up, it gets hard. Its easy to see in some old people that have lost their fight, they used to think there was something worth living for, but now after their friends or family have died, and after years of numbness, they are just old and cranky. They are hard, and do not have any life in them. Eventually without Christ we will all end up there, a place where life is more work than we want to put into it. Life is supposed to be full of joy, but instead its full of heart ache, work and pain.

But if you notice in this passage Jesus talks about Joy, he talks about life, and he talks friends and about love. I find it curious that Jesus refers to his desciples as friends. I say this because Jesus is talking about life, and the strange thing about friendship according to Lewis is, "It is essentially unnecessary, like philosophy, like art... It has no survival value; rather it is one of those things that give value to survival." So Jesus tells us to remain in him, he tells us to live the way he lived, because then our Joy will be full. And one of the ways that Jesus lived is he had friends. Life is ment to be lived in relationship, and friends are not for survival, they are for life.

Are you Jesus friend? In order to be Jesus friend you need to be attached to Jesus. Are you attached to Jesus? If your Jesus friend, then you will live life like Jesus? Are you living like Jesus? How did Jesus live his life, he lived his life loving God, and loving others. This was Jesus command, "love each other!"

Jesus said if you are in me you will produce fruit, what is the first fruit of the spirit? Love are you loving God, are you loving people, are you loving yourself? We cannot produce this love ourselves. The type of love the world needs is not achivable through human means, it is only achievable through God. He will produce that love in us, and it will flow through us, that is if we are friends with Jesus, if we are in a relationship with Jesus, if we are branches on the True vine.

Posted Dec 19, 2011 5:33 PM by Jeremiah Seekins

Keep your eyes on Jesus

Do you know the hymn Turn your eyes on Jesus? It was first published in Glad Songs, by the British National Sunday School Union. Its lyrics were inspired by the Gospel tract Focused, by Lilias Trotter, which included these words:

So then, turn your eyes upon Him, look full into His face and you will find that the things of earth will acquire a strange new dimness.

Well in the hymn, there is a section that goes like so

" Turn your eyes upon Jesus,Look full in His wonderful face,

And the things of earth will grow strangely dim,
In the light of His glory and grace."

There is something amazing that happens when we focus on Jesus instead of the things around us. After a while those things that we once thought so massive become less substantial. In fact this idea is biblical. David in his Psalm 37 penned

1Don’t worry about the wicked

or envy those who do wrong.

2For like grass, they soon fade away.

Like spring flowers, they soon wither.

3Trust in the LORD and do good.

Then you will live safely in the land and prosper.

4Take delight in the LORD,

and he will give you your heart’s desires.

5Commit everything you do to the LORD.

Trust him, and he will help you.

6He will make your innocence radiate like the dawn,

and the justice of your cause will shine like the noonday sun.

7Be still in the presence of the LORD,

and wait patiently for him to act.

Don’t worry about evil people who prosper

or fret about their wicked schemes.

In order to do the things David is talking about you need to have a relationship with the lord. And just like having a relationship with anyone else you need to be around the person. So if you are looking to Jesus, then you are Trusting in him, if you are looking to Jesus you are committing your life to him, if you are looking to Jesus you are taking delight in him.

In contrast to this passage of scripture where David describes how to live life, we find Saul in 1st Samuel 13, not looking to Jesus, he is pursuing the desire of his heart. Saul has tasted public approval, and it seems as though he is trying to protect his image. Saul trusted God when he had 300000 troops, but now that he has 600 vs a massive army, so big that it seems innumerable, Saul seeks God not for relationship, but for protection of Saul Idol. Saul turned to God to save his image. To save his kingship. As a result God removed his Kingship, the very thing Saul was trying to save.

God is about God, God is about God's Glory. And if you come to God looking for him to save your little gods. Well that doesn't work, for God doesn't share his Glory. (well with false Gods, God has through Jesus given us his glory, so that we may no longer have to have fallen short of his Glory) So like God did with Aaron and Moses "But the LORD said to Moses and Aaron, 'Because you did not trust in me enough to honor me as holy in the sight of the Israelites, you will not bring this community into the land I give them.' ” God wanted Saul trust God, to seek God in order to honor God, not to seek God to honor Saul. Therefore sense God is about reconciliation, God removed Saul's Idol. Thus making room for God in Saul's life.

If Saul had been looking to God/Jesus then Saul's Idol of his Kingship would have faded away, but not only that, God would have saved his Kingship. Are you looking to Jesus for Jesus, or are you looking to Jesus for yourself? God wanted Saul to run the race with endurance to succeed as king, Saul failed.

How do we run the race with endurance? We do this by keeping our eyes on Jesus

Also if you want to see the cheat sheet used at campaigners, look HERE

Posted Dec 15, 2011 2:29 PM by Jeremiah Seekins

Jesus the Way the Truth and the Life

I once drove a motorhome from Texas to Alaska because a friend asked me to. He had bought the thing on eBay, and had asked if I would be willing to drive it up to Alaska, he did preface it with "I will probably have one of my guys do it, but if that doesn't work out," well it didn't work out. So I fly to Texas, not knowing how the thing will actually run or travel. After the first day of driving, about 5 hours, all seemed well. In fact the next day went well, except for some intermittent power issues. Knowing that I needed to be able to make it through the Yukon, I had the motorhome checked out at a dealership in Fargo North Dakota. Turns out there was some problems with the spark plugs and wiring. All was good, drove about 12 hours the next day, and started to have the similar problems as before. So what did I do, I decided I was going to fix it myself. The next day I put new spark plugs in, and that worked, for a couple hours. So I decided to stop at the next down and take a look. turns out a spark plug wire had burned up. So I got a replacement, and a couple hours later a different one burned up. this time I got an entire set of spark plug cables.

Well eventually the expected happened, I was traveling up a hill, and started to loose power, the old boy was sputtering and popping, and lurching, and I was like oh no you don't. But even with all my encouragement and loud words, I still ended up broken down somewhere in the middle of Canada. I pulled out my map of the the entire country of Canada, and found the last city I passed through, which was several hours away. I needed to know where the next town was, turns out about 100km away.

But there was still hope, about a km away I saw what looked like an oil refinery, so after I figured out what was wrong I started walking. I did find someone, and I let them know what was going on. Turned out, the next town was only about 6km away, and this guy was going to be heading there in about an hour. Long story short, got the thing fixed and didn't have any more trouble after that. However it would have been nice to know that there was a town just a couple km away, that would have been less beats on my heart.

A better map, with more direction that is what I needed. There happens to be a story in the bible about A rich young ruler who comes to Jesus asking for better direction. He says Good teacher what must I do to gain eternal life? The conversation goes back and forth for a bit. and at the end Jesus says, sell all you have, give the money to the poor and come follow me.

Jesus has said that he is the Way, the Truth and the Life. So when the rich young ruler was asking Jesus for better directions, Jesus said, directions wont get you there, I am what will get you there. So I ask you, whats better a map, or a guide. Jesus has lived the life we should have lived, He has died the death we should have died. Jesus is the way the truth and the life.

Posted Dec 15, 2011 3:37 PM by Jeremiah Seekins

By the power of the Holy Spirit.

Two weeks ago, at campaigners we talked about living life through the power of the Holy Spirit. In 1st Samuel 11, we see God lead the people of Israel to victory over the ammorites. This happens as he causes Saul to become angry, and as he causes the people of Israel to fear Saul because of his anger. This is all done through the power of the holy spirit. So lets see how this plays out in our lives.

How does this story come about? From the previous chapter we see that Saul was declared King in front of the people of Israel by Samuel. But we find Saul back at his home in chapter 11 plowing in the field, something that doesn't seem very King like. If Saul has been declared King, why is he plowing in the field.

From this passage we might be able to conclude that there is a difference in being declared, and being king. So Saul has been declared king, but he hasn't become King. This is a good example of being declared Righteous and being sanctified.

As Christians we have been declared Righteous though the work of Jesus on the Cross, but that doesn't mean we will live life the way God designed life to be lived. This living life the way it is meant to be lived is what Jesus called the abundant life. So how does one transfer from being declared righteous to being Sanctified. This is done the same way that Saul goes from being declared King, to being King. This is done through the power of the Holy Spirit.

Not only does God declare us righteous because of Jesus work on the Cross, he also Sanctifies us... IE makes us into the person he created us to be, the person living in relationship with him, the source of abundant life. Living life through the power of the Holy spirit is important, and we see Saul giving God the Glory, when he says, It was God not me, who lead us to victory. We also see the importance of living life through the power of the Holy Spirit in Jesus. Jesus has because of his life, death and resurrection made it possible for us to be right with God. His perfect life, death and resurrection were achieved because Jesus lived by the power of the Holy Spirit. As many scriptures reveal, like

Hebrew 9:14

For by the power of the Holy Spirit, Christ offered himself to God as a perfect sacrifice for our sins.

The thing here is we are not to try to live life by the power of the Holy Spirit. God is the one who is enabling us to live the abundant life, and this happens through the power of the Holy Spirit as...

Philippians 2:13

For God is working in you giving you the desire and the power to do what pleases Him.

God is the one changing our hearts, God is the one enabling us. God is the one who changes our lives, we just participate with him as he is working. We can always refuse to participate, and eventually we will see Saul, decide to do his own thing instead of participate as God leads.

You can find the document used Here

Posted Dec 9, 2011 11:09 AM by Jeremiah Seekins

What is the Gospel?

The Gospel says that God counts us as righteous and then he sanctifies us. Or because of Jesus' work on the Cross, he has made a way for us to be right with God. He, Jesus is our propitiation... He takes our unrighteousness and gives us His righteousness. So because of his life, death and resurrection, we are now counted as righteous, and then through the power of the holy spirit we do good. Most people think that because I do good, then I am righteous. but that is man’s foolishness.

In Samuel chapter 8, we see mans deliberateness in their sin. The people of Israel said to God, you are not enough, we need something else (a king) to fulfill us. We used James chapter 1 to show that it is our desire that entices and then drags us into sin. We see that man does not desire God, otherwise we would choose God, instead we desire something that Sin promises to give us. But eventually we realize that sin fails to live up to that promise, or eventually there are consequences that press upon us causing us to regret making that decision.

In Samuel chapter 12 we see sin catching up with the people of Israel, we see them regretting making the decision to get a King, even though a king did exactly what they wanted, protection and guidance in war. So at this point the people of Israel realize that what they really need is God, but they cant un-ask for a King... so they ask Samuel to pray for them. It is here where we see the Gospel, the fact that the people of Israel did nothing to deserve Gods favor, but he gave it to them anyway. The fact that God is not holding their past against them in the way he treats them now. God because of who he is, chooses them, and because of who he is, is teaching them over and over again how life is meant to be lived.... With him, in relationship with him, through his power.

you can find the link to our document we used Here

Posted Dec 8, 2011 1:05 PM by Jeremiah Seekins

Jesus the Resurrection and the Life

So I am a little late getting this update out, but Club number 5 went well. And when I say well, the way we judge that is did those kids who came, did they have a good time, and did they listen to story of Jesus be presented to them in such a way that they are presented with the truth of the Gospel. So yes all that happened. We had 5 kids, and they had a blast, so did all the leaders. sometimes its fun to just hang out, and do things at a slower pace, which we did. The thing about younglife leaders, is we need to be able to adapt to the situation. and with a few kids we will change things up and make it more personal.

So what did the kids hear about Jesus, they heard about Jesus describing himself as the resurrection and the life. we showed this video

We then talked about how in our lives we have those things that we build our life upon, those things that are our foundation, the foundation of our castle. but Jesus asked the question, is your foundation sand, or the rock. for when the wind and the waves come, the sand will was away. but if we sow ourselves into the rock (Jesus), our castle may take damage, but it will stand because we have build it on Jesus.

He is the resurrection and the life, meaning that after our house has washed away, he can rebuild it, and after he rebuilds it oh what the life we will have for he injects life into us, and he is our source of life. So we left them with the question, what have you build your life upon?

Posted Dec 9, 2011 11:56 AM by Jeremiah Seekins

Jesus is the good shepherd

Jesus said "I am the good shepherd", so continuing our talks on who Jesus said he is, we will be talking about what a good shepherd looks like. What a good shepherd does and why the shepherd does what a shepherd does. So what is important about Jesus being our shepherd? What is important about Jesus being the good shepherd? Those are the things that we are talking about tonight.

Well try and get you some video to watch of club tonight, but no guarantees, as sometimes there are technology problems.

Posted Dec 19, 2011 1:21 PM by Jeremiah Seekins

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