How to Really Know-Selah 57-CMAW153

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From Sep 27

 

Emerging from Isolation

[ 1 min read ★ ]

  For where two or three are gathered in my name,  there am I among them—Matthew 18:20

Imagine, for a moment, a man ever isolated, living alone in the mountains, perhaps. Imagine him living a vigorous, adventurous, spiritual life, but lacking community. The knowledge this man would have of God, the knowledge he’d have of himself, would be modest compared to the knowledge he’d have of both, were he to have full access to relationships, friendships, brotherhood.

 

You see, the isolated man may know aboutGod. But, no matter how much he might read and study, he cannot know God. That takes community. We get to know God by seeing his Holy Spirit moving in others. We encounter God, we experience him, we understand him when he works through the love and sacrifice of other people. In brotherhood, we get to show God to one another. And, the more we’re in community with brothers, the deeper our understanding becomes.

 

The isolated man may also know abouthimself—his talents, his likes, his dislikes. But, he cannot know himself. He cannot know the man God intends him to become. That too takes community. It takes others around him, who know his story, who spend time with him, who watch him, to discern and affirm and call forth things true and eternal in him, things God longs for to emerge. It takes brotherhood to call forth the true man.

 

 

 

Okay, so what do we do? 

Though we live in cities and towns, many of us are yet like the man isolated in the mountains. We know about God, but we don’t know him. We know the men we’dlike to be, but we don’t know the men he created us to be. This message, right now, is another call for brotherhood. It’s a call for you, brother, to get into community with other men. Find some brothers; find your place.

 

 

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A.w.Tozer “It is not what a man does that that determines whether his work is sacred or secular, it is why he does it”

 

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You yourselves know that these hands ministered to my necessities and to those who were with me. In all things I have shown you that by working hard in this way we must help the weak and remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how he himself said, ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.’ ”

Acts 20:34-35 - https://www.biblegateway.com/passage?search=Acts%2020:34-35&version=ESV

 

 

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• Be more time focused rather than task focused.  Carve out times to do certain things.
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