Lake Highlands Church

Are we relating to our high priest the way Abram did?  Are we feasting on his presence?  Are we seeing life from His perspective?  Are we receiving His blessing?  Are we giving to Him out of the abundance that God has given us?  We need to recognize the glory of having a Melchizedekian priest. Scripture reading: Genesis 14:17-20; Psalm 110:1-4; Hebrews 7

Is our growth academic or is it real?  The problem that most of us face is that our growth is academic.  We read our Bible, we go to church, we go to Bible studies; we’ve got it all up here, but we are unwilling to do what it takes to get it into our lives. If we want to see real growth in our lives, it’s going to happen through being tested. Scripture reading: Genesis 14

Lot had no personal relationship with God; he focused on the material things that the world could give him right now; he was led by his passions.  But Abraham knew God, and he focused on what God would give him later and eternally; Abe was led by those promises. Are we more like Lot or Abe? Scripture reading: Genesis 13:5-18

No failure is permanent.  We can go back to the cross of Jesus Christ and receive the grace and mercy of God offered through him.  And, by God’s grace, when we find ourselves in a situation where we are tempted again, if we hold on to God and His promises we can overcome.  In times of testing, the question to ask is not, “How can I get out of this?” but rather “What can I get out of this?”  God is at work building your faith. Scripture reading: Genesis 12:10-13:4

Scripture reading: Genesis 12:1-9

We can’t allow ourselves to be seduced by the world-building for ourselves, trying to make a name for ourselves.  If we do, if we rebel (like Nimrod) trying to create our own gate to God, we too will be scattered.  We must trust in the only One who is the way to God—Jesus. Scripture reading: Gen 10:8-12; 11:1-9

Only God has the ability to say “never” and live up to His word. God has provided a way to escape judgement: the way of sacrifice. And through that sacrifice—Jesus—God says, “whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst,” “he who comes to me will never go hungry, and he who believes in me will never be thirsty;” “If a man keeps my word, he will never see death;” “I know my sheep. I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish.” He says, “never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.”   Scripture reading: Genesis 6:1-9:17

The power of God's word through Scripture is his gift of revelation to us. It is crucial in helping us know him, to know ourselves, and to walk out a life of love in a broken world.    Scripture reading: Luke 24:25-27

Why do we serve? Christians serve because Jesus was a servant. Jesus viewed himself as the fulfillment of God’s promises that a servant would come and bring the kingdom. Jesus served us by healing the sick, feeding the hungry, and by his great love for us in his self-sacrificial death. After being humbled unto death, Jesus was exalted. In the kingdom, we follow the path of service if we want to be exalted.   Scripture reading: Isaiah 42:1-9, Philippians 2:3-11, Matthew 20:25-28

Fasting reminds us that we are sustained by God.  Fasting humbles us and puts us in a position where we recognize our dependence on God and thus can hear more clearly from God. Scripture reading: Matthew 9: 14-17

The power of repentance is that it clears the obstructions in our relationship with God allows us to take a giant step toward wholeness and health; toward the full and abundant life that Jesus came to give us. And we can have confidence that a prayer of confession God will always answer, with guaranteed forgiveness. Scripture reading: Ezra 9:1-15

Scripture reading: Romans 12:2, ll Chronicles 7:11-16, l Chronicles 4:9-10

The reason we give up things, things that are pleasurable, is not so that we somehow earn favor with God, but it is so that we re-orient our lives and get intentional about our relationship with God.  We give up a pleasure for a brief time in order to allow God to replace that pleasure with Himself.   Scripture reading: various

With the first Adam came the curse, but the last Adam, the offspring of the woman, Jesus, came and bore the curse for us on the cross so that we could be born again, into the family of God.   Scripture reading: Genesis 3:7-24

Too often we listen to voices that do not have our best interest in mind.  The voice we need to have our ears trained to hear is the voice of our loving creator who will always call us into fellowship and freedom.   Scripture reading: Genesis 3:1-13

This is about more than marriage; this is about the dynamics of humanity…that we need both male and female perspective, male and female gifting.  It is about community. Scripture reading: Genesis 2:18-25

For 5 and a  half days God created and filled the earth, but if he had stopped there all he would have had was a greenhouse and a zoo.  But God wanted someone to be in relationship with—to be love and be loved by—so he created humanity, in his image, giving them provision and purpose and privilege and prerogative.   Scripture reading: Genesis 1:26-31; 2:4-9

The Jewish day doesn’t begin in the morning, as we westerners tend to think; the Jewish day begins at sunset.  The mindset is, your day doesn’t begin with production; your day begins with resting.  The idea is, your identity lies in who you are (as created by God), not in what you do. Scripture Reading: Genesis 1:31-2:3