Here are Some Thoughts to Consider for the New Year

Read John chapters 14:1-6 and 15:1-8; 11-14:

Knowing you are Christ's friend and are called to abide in Him:

1. What do you need to do, to be focused upon to build your life on His precepts?

2. What can you do to live by faith as a verb (action)? Most Christians just “think” about living the Christian life and do not really apply their faith into the reality of their daily life.

3. Can you benchmark some goals? That is draw up a spiritual action plan for 2004, like a business plan is essential to establish vision and build a business, so is establishing a plan to build your faith.

a. What is this plans vision and goal?

b. How will you accomplish this goal?

c. Who will help you be accountable?

4. What can you do to see that these goals turn to reality and not end up on a piece of paper in the trash?

5. Consider you cannot change how others treat you, but you can change how you treat and react to how others treat you!

a. So how do you treat others?

b. How do you react to others?

c. Are these actions inline with the character that Christ calls us too?

What should we do? What do we need to consider and to avoid? For this quest, let us venture into God’s most precious Word, and examine the Scriptures carefully to find His Will. Use one of our Bible Reading Plans, and for deeper insights and self study, ask what does this mean, how can I be changed because of these precepts and how will it affect my life if I do and… then do it!

Read more here:
http://www.intothyword.org/apps/articles/default.asp?articleid=52676&columnid=3803

Christmas Greetings from the Krejcir’s

Merry Christmas to all our family and friends all over the world!

Greetings Favored One! The Lord is with you! (Luke 1:28)

See our “pdf” newsletter here:

krejcltrDec08.pdf
http://70030.netministry.com/images/krejcltrDec08.pdf

Thank-you for all who have supported and prayed for us! May God continue to Bless and keep you!

Richard, Mary and Ryan Krejcir
Num 6:24

Serving the Lord through Into Thy Word Ministries the Schaeffer Institute and at Lake Avenue Church Pasadena, Ca

"He that watereth shall be watered also himself."
Proverbs 11:25

A Christmas Devotion

Are you an Incarnational Christian?

Learning from Who Christ is and what He has done to be a display of His Love!

We, as followers of Christ who worship, fellowship, and serve Him must realize we are the containers of His grace, both as individuals and as a communal assembly.

This means we are also the display cases of His presence, love, and principles for one another in the church as well as to others outside of the church. This comes about from our faithfulness and fruitfulness; we must do a better job at this. When we do live in and for and through Christ, something extraordinary happens.

Ourselves and our churches become beacons of His grace, lighthouses of collective abundance by our love and care, and we even go to people in need. People feel loved and part of something real, impacting, and effectual. Unfortunately, we tend to miss the mark on what Christ would have us do concerning how we relate to and treat one another in His Body, His Church. Unfortunately, many who come to our homes and places of worship see little evidence of this abundance of faith and fruit in action; neither do they see us coming to them in His love.

(Mark 3:1-6; 1 Cor. 15:20; 2 Cor. 5:20; Gal. 5:19-23; Eph. 3; Heb. 10:38; 13; James 2:12-13; 2 John 1:6; Rev 2:1-3:22).

Being an Incarnational Christian means, as Jesus Christ is birthed in the world, He is also birthed in us, so we First and Foremost exhibit Him!

All this is a result of His sacrifice of redemption, His permanence, and His love for us. He lived, died, and rose again for you and me! This is what Christmas is about! All we are to do is trust and obey Him, and as we continue in this endeavor. His permanence, grace and protection are the gifts He gives to help us keep our faith going and growing. He gives us even more empowerment for enduring life and performing ministry along with His special favor and peace!

What does Christ need to do to intervene into your deepest recesses to first save you, then mold, shape, and use you for your betterment and His glory?

What will you life look like if you let Him do this even more?

How well is Christ displayed and deployed in you and your church?

Are you identified in and with Christ?

We, as human beings, tend to sway easily by ideas, people’s personalities, new encounters, and experiences that tantalize us. New religious formats and thinking are appealing as we seek the latest and greatest, but what we think is great usually is not. We become captive to traditions and influenced by arguments and feelings that are persuasive. But, we must never substitute our ideas for God’s! We will follow the latest fad and want more. We get bored with our car and want a new and better one, and so forth. We do this with our doctrines too! The advertising machine in Madison Avenue knows this well, as we all want more, and they use this trait to appeal to us, pushing us in the direction they want to sell or influence us in some way. At the same time, we must be on guard not to allow such things to infuse, influence, or govern us.

We have His Word, wisdom, influence, and Holy Spirit; there is nothing better! We have His fullness; there is no better filler than His presence! Therefore, we must be aware of our nature to seek what is wrong and fleeting, and always be on guard. Never allow yourself to be cheated by wrong thinking or chasing the wrong things, because they rob us of greater opportunities and treasures in Christ! The bottom line is we do not need any substitute or the world’s distractions because we are complete in Him! Do not be the one who seeks to please the world while rejecting our Loving and living Lord, in your doctrines or in your life!

more here:
http://www.intothyword.org/apps/articles/default.asp?articleid=52214&columnid=3803

How does the decay of our understanding of God and our standing in Christ affect your virtue?

How will this cause the decay of yourselves, your church, and our culture?

What do you think?

New Blog!

With an avalanche of requests, we finally did it, a new blog site dedicated to Biblical Eschatology where you can review the research findings and views and post your thoughts:
http://www.biblicaleschatology.org/

This blog, Heart after Christ will continue with Bible and devotional thoughts to challenge and make us think and pray….