Tag: Lifestyle

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Out of The Cave Book Review by Jeff Bush

By Chris Hodges 

  • 1 out of 9 people in the US are on some form of anxiety medication. 1 out of 5 people have used it in the past. 
  • Depression has surpassed other diseases in our world such as cancer, etc.
  • Many things we tell someone that is depressed it’s not helpful – quit thinking about it, try harder, at least your problems are not as big as others, read your Bible more, etc. We should learn to listen and sympathize.
  • We need to stop talking about chemical imbalances and start talking about imbalances in our lifestyle. What we eat, how little we sleep, always on the run, not going outside, etc.
  • If we are burning the candle at both ends, we might not be as bright as we think we are. – Rick Warren
  • Motions are the precursors for emotions. When you feel …, you will… 
  • When someone throws up, the problem is a result of something happening in their body. And in the same manner, depression is not the problem, but a result of something that is happening within them.
  • An overwhelmed schedule produces an overwhelmed soul. Just because we can do something doesn’t mean we should. 
  • The comparison culture eats us alive. Proverbs 14:30
  • Experts agree that we’ve never been so connected yet so lonely at the same time.
  • The same social media that connects us also controls us, condemns us, manipulates us, and deceives us. 
  • Your social media very likely needs to be regulated and reduced. It is the number one reason for comparison and envy in the lives of most people.
  • If you want to come out of your cave, you have to stop comparing because God made you incomparable.
  • We cannot change our lives until we change the way we think.
  • The first problem was not sin but isolation. It was not good for Adam to be alone. We were not designed to be self-sufficient. 
  • In Exodus 17, Aaron and Hur held up the arms of Moses. Moses was used of God to open the Red Sea, but he needed help to keep his hands up. Who is helping you keep your hands lifted high?
  • Joy is an attitude that trusts God despite the circumstances. 
  • Instead of asking why to God, we should learn to ask what He wants to teach us through this situation.
  • Fight with light. The devil is dead set against you, but the good news is that the devil and demons are subject unto our God.
  • Prayer is both communion with God and confrontation against the devil.
  • If we want to win over depression, we must let God fill us. 
  • Perhaps our physical needs (rest and nutritious food) is more important then we think. God confronted Elijah‘s physical needs before his spiritual needs.
  • The opposite of depression is not happiness rather meaning and purpose in life.
  • Whether you like it or not, your ministry is strengthen by times you have been through. Your hard times can be either a prison of misery or schooling to help you learn.
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Organic Church Book Review by Jeff Bush

By Neil Cole 

  • We expect people to come to church, when the Great Commission commands us to go to them. 
  • God did not expect for us to go to Him, He came to us. 
  • Since we are the light of the world, we should not be running from darkness but running towards darkness to lighten it up. 
  • The key to starting churches that reproduce spontaneously is taking Jesus to the lost people.
  • We should not be interested in starting a regional church, rather making Jesus available to a whole region.
  • Lower the bar to how church is done and raise the bar to what it means to be a disciple of Christ. 
  • The gospel says go, but we seem to stay. The gospel says take the good news to the lost, but we wait for the lost to come to us.
  • Someone said that we shape our buildings, and then our buildings shape us. A church building should not confine God’s work.
  • Church worship is much more than what we do weekly for one hour. The only time God mentions church and worship together was about a lifestyle of serving him 24 hours a day.
  • The kingdom of God is to be decentralized, but God’s people constantly try to centralize it. God wants his people to fill the Earth with His glory.
  • Apostles specifically means sent ones. 
  • The church in Jerusalem was told to go, but they stayed. God had to bring persecution on the church in order for the gospel to be spread.
  • Southern Baptist have said that only 4% of churches in America will produce a daughter church. 
  • We cannot compete with the world’s show. Wherever the next best show is, that’s where people run. 
  • The key to a healthy church is not more attendance, more money, nicer buildings, or better activities. 
  • Healthy disciples make a healthy church, and reproducing disciples make a reproducing church. 
  • Accountability, confidentiality, caring for needs of each other, flexibility, communication, direction, and leadership is better done in smaller groups/churches.
  • One reason churches are not growing today is because they have left out the outreach chromosome.
  • We are tempted to focus on models that work when we should be focused on the Master. 
  • The Ethiopian eunuch was one of the best evangelists we know. After being saved, he only had the Holy Spirit and the Scripture, but he went back to his people and shared the gospel. 
  • As Christians, we should repent of: 
      1. Underestimating what God can do through new believers
      2. Overestimating what we think our value is in the growth of new believers.