Adventure with Jesus

Transcription

1 Adventure with Jesus Enjoy Life Made New by God s Grace John Michael Milgate With illustrations by Justin Milgate Live in Grace Publications Concord, California July

2 Adventure with Jesus Enjoy Life Made New by God s Grace All scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the New King James Version. Copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved. Scripture taken from The Message, Copyright 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, Used by permission of NavPress Publishing Group. Scripture taken from the New American Standard Bible, Copyright 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. ( Scripture taken from the HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION. Copyright 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved. USA ISBN Printed in the United States of America Copyright 2008 by John Michael Milgate All Rights Reserved

3 Acknowledgments and Thanks This book was made possible because a number of people listened and followed the voice of Jesus. Some of those who heard Him and served as God s fellow workers on this project include my loving wife, Paula a constant encouragement to deeper love for Jesus, and the other pastors at A Community of Grace, Mark Barcelon, Don Case, Ron Holz, and Brad Smith, who gave me not only permission but encouragement to spend additional time writing as a part of my increased pastoral time starting in Special thanks also to my son, Justin, who took time from his pursuit of a college degree in fine arts to prepare the illustrations, and to Nicole Riddick, a dear fellow worker who took the time to read the early drafts of these pages, provide editing and grammatical comments, and provide encouragement. If you are encouraged and strengthened in your pursuit of adventure with Jesus as you read this book, thank Him for these and others who had a part in this publication.

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5 Adventure with Jesus Jesus invites us to a life of love and danger an adventure! Life with Jesus is not a system to be learned in any number of days: His adventure is life itself, which we suggest you begin like this: Day One: Day Two: Day Three: Day Four: Day Five: Day Six: Day Seven: Day Eight: Day Nine: Day Ten: Day Eleven: Day Twelve: Day Thirteen: Day Fourteen: Day Fifteen: Day Sixteen: Day Seventeen: Day Eighteen: Day Nineteen: Day Twenty: Day Twenty-One: Day Twenty-Two: Day Twenty-Three: Day Twenty-Four: Day Twenty-Five: Day Twenty-Six: Day Twenty-Seven: Every day: Welcome The Spirit Listen for the voice of Jesus Enjoy the New You! Live Resurrection Life Walk by The Spirit When You Fall, Confess & Walk On! The World at War Invisible Reality Talk with Jesus The World at War The Flesh Know Your Heart Don t be Fooled by Appearances Trust in Jesus Accept His Immense Love The World at War The Accuser Give Thanks! Seek Wisdom The World at War A Life of Worship Walk in The Spirit Live Free! Walk by Faith Allow Christ to be At Home in You Enjoy Blessing Extend Grace Keep Yourself in God s Love Grieve Not. Quench Not. Enjoy the Spring Gaze on Jesus Abide in Jesus

6 As We Begin... You have been given this book because you told someone that you have recently come to believe that Jesus died for you, made things right with God for you, and you want to follow Him. As Jesus Himself said, God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son [Jesus], that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life. That includes you! The moment you believed in Him, changes happened deep within you which open a new way of life for you, a life of adventure with Jesus. When you believed in Jesus you became God s child. You now have brothers and sisters you have never known before! Welcome to the Family! It will be good for you to get together regularly with others in the family; perhaps the person who gave you this book will meet with you each week, or maybe he or she will help you find some others in the family with whom you can talk regularly. The book is intended to be basic. It is only an introduction to the topics raised, but we feel it includes things which will help you live throughout the years ahead. This particular book is designed to be used one day at a time. We think you will get the most benefit if you read two pages or so each day over the next four weeks as part of your new life with Jesus, a kind of introduction to the adventure which you will continue with Him for the rest of your life. In addition to this book you need to spend time with others in the family as well, whether one-on-one or in a small group, so you can share with others what you are reading here, questions you have, and your struggles. Yeah, struggles. Despite the changes God has made within you the instant you believed in Jesus, He didn t take away your struggles. In fact, it s likely your struggles will increase! That s part of why finding some other members of the family you will get together with regularly right from the start is so important: think of them like work out partners. If you ve ever tried working out regularly you may have found that it is easier to stay focused and active when you have someone with whom you work out. Think about your one-on-one or group time with others in the family in similar terms. One of the great things about your new life in Jesus is that

7 you are not alone: God is now living in you, and His family is here for you. As you begin, I invite you to join in as I talk with God: Father, thank you so much for [your name], your new child! I know that all of Heaven is celebrating this latest addition to your family. As we explore some of your marvelous works over the next few weeks, I ask that he/she will know in ever increasing experience the love you have for him/her personally, and that his/her love for Jesus will grow greater each day. May that process of greater love for you not end with this book, may it continue, day by day, for the rest of time and into eternity. John Michael Milgate Concord, California August, 2008

8 Day One: Welcome The Spirit... all the prophets witness that, through His name [Jesus], whoever believes in Him will receive remission of sins. While Peter was still speaking these words, the Holy Spirit fell upon all those who heard the word. Acts 10:43, 44 NASB Each day I will share with you a sentence or two from the Bible. Today s sentences (called verses ) are from Acts. Although they are printed on the page, it will be most helpful for you if you also take the time to look them up in your own Bible (if you have one). The Bible is God s love letters to us! If you don t have a Bible, I encourage you to get one if you can (my preference is a parallel Bible with The Message and New American Standard translations side by side [look for one in bonded leather at Whenever I provide a text, I will include it s location, so you can find the book in your Bible s table of contents. In time you will become familiar with where these various books or letters are in your Bible and you won t need to use the table of contents as often. Today we are looking at the 10 th chapter of Acts (or The Acts of the Apostles, in the New Testament ), and I will start at verse 43 (but if you want to read more you could go back to verse 17 [or even earlier]). We will focus on just a few verses. But before we do, let s ask God to speak with us today: Father. Wow! That s new: Father. Thank you that we are your children. We ask that as we take a few minutes to focus on Jesus, Your Spirit will allow us to see Him and spend time with Him. We don t want just words, we want to be with Jesus. Thank you for making Him real to us. In Acts 10 Peter is talking to some people who didn t know Jesus when he said:... whoever believes in [Jesus] will receive remission of sins. While Peter was still speaking these words, the Holy Spirit fell upon all those who heard the word. verses 43, 44 NASB

9 There is really only one thing I want you to see in these verses: God s Spirit came into these people at the moment they believed. Peter wasn t even done preaching! Do you see it? While Peter was still speaking.... Those who were with Peter were surprised because the Spirit came upon these gentiles [non-jews] just like he had on Jews [read more about that back in Acts 2]. From that day on, whenever a person believes in Jesus, the Holy Spirit immediately comes to live in him or her. That means He recently came to live inside you! This is a fundamental change. We will talk more in the days to come about who the Holy Spirit is and what He does, but my main points today are (1) that He now lives inside you and, therefore, (2) you may hear Him in new ways. Because the Spirit now lives inside you, you will have new thoughts, ideas, or pictures come to you from Him as you read the Bible, talk with God, or just go through your day. At times you will sense that you should do some things differently than in the past. Don t ignore what s happening; if you re not sure you can ask: God, is that You? If you turn back just one book, to the gospel of John, Chapter 16, at verses 13 & 14, Jesus tells us of the Spirit:... He will guide you into all truth... Father, thank you that, because of Jesus, you have sent Your Spirit to live within each of Your children. We ask that You would make us alert to the Spirit s prompting, thoughts, words, and pictures. Allow us to know when He is speaking. Thank you.

10 Day Two: Listen for the voice of Jesus My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow Me. John 10:27 Father, keep us rejoicing in the wonderful reality that You have made each of us Your beloved child. We open ourselves to what You have for us today. Cause us to be responsive to You. Again today we have a short sentence (just one verse), but it would be good to read more in your own Bible. We are in the book we ended with yesterday, the Gospel of John, the 10 th chapter. Most of the chapter is about Jesus as the True Shepherd or Good Shepherd. At verse 27 Jesus says: My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow Me. This is related to what we read yesterday. The Spirit that Jesus sent is His own Spirit; to be with the Spirit is to be with Jesus. But the fundamental change I want you to recognize as soon as possible is that you can now hear His voice! Do you see the promise in verse 27? My sheep hear my voice... Hearing His voice is something we should expect. I have never heard an audible voice from Jesus (I m not saying that can t happen; it just hasn t happened to me). But I do hear His voice. For me, this often happens in the early hours of the morning as I am waking up. I have had it happen near mid-day, while on the beach. His voice, for me, often comes as a complete thought not something I am thinking through but more as a phrase which conveys a thought. Sometimes it is just one word (often a word which seems out of place in my thoughts, but which comes to