Diagnosing Your Spiritual Health

Don Whitney's 10 Questions to Diagnose Your Spiritual Health, from the book of the same name:

1. Do you thirst for God?

2. Are you governed increasingly by God's Word?

3. Are you more loving?

4. Are you more sensitive to God's presence?

5. Do you have a growing concern for the spiritual and 
    temporal needs of others?

6. Do you delight in the bride of Christ?

7. Are the spiritual disciplines increasingly important to you?

8. Do you still grieve over sin?

9. Are you a quicker forgiver?

10. Do you yearn for heaven and to be with Jesus?

Just to add: These questions help diagnose. But "trying harder" is not the prescription. Behold and believe.

(HT: Jared Wilson)

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Where do we stand in our walk with God? Are we walking faithfully with Him or are we gradually drifting away? It's our hope that all Christians would really desire to grow in Christ. We hope this list will help you diagnose your spiritual health and trust God to continually transform you.

Watch and Support Andrew Cunningham!

Andrew Cunningham is a Rebelutionary from Georgia. Recently, he entered a contest on You Tube, called 104.7 The Fish Opening Act. If he wins, $10,000 will go to a student-led missions organization. So what are you waiting for? Watch and share!

The Good Christian Girl: A Fable | Christianity Today | A Magazine of Evangelical Conviction

An Article by Gina R. Dalfonzo from Christianity Today:

Once there was a good Christian girl who dreamed of growing up, getting married, and having children. She read all the right books and did all the right things. She read about how she was a princess in God's sight and how he wanted the very best for her. She committed herself to sexual purity, to high standards, and to waiting for the good Christian man that God was going to bring her. 

Just as she was getting old enough to start dating, however, she noticed something. Some of the popular Christian books were talking about not dating at all, and just being friends, until God had made it clear that the guy she liked was exactly the right one for her. Her Sunday school teachers taught from a very popular book about how dating was unbiblical, and how a truly righteous young Christian man would initiate a courtship with marriage as the goal, working in tandem with the girl's father and the pastor and others in the church body. 

The heroine of our story observed that as these things were being taught, the level of romantic involvement among her peers at church, not very high to begin with, shrank to practically nonexistent. 

Click here to read more

What do you think?

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Just to clear any misconceptions and misunderstandings, I thought I'd put my stand here. First, I don't believe in dating (therefore I believe in waiting :D). Second, I believe in keeping myself pure, and I believe in setting high standards that are God-glorifying.

I posted the article, not because I agree with the whole of it, but because I think there's an important lesson we can learn from it. Yes, the article focuses on dating and relationships, but if we look at the big picture, I think there's something else we can learn as well. It's not so much as finding your future mate as it is seeking godly advice.

Sometimes, we tend to listen and do what other people want us to do, forgetting that it is God we should follow and obey first and foremost of all. Yes, God sometimes speaks to us through the people around us, but we should check things first if the advice they are give is from Him and not a personal opinion. Sometimes, we follow what other people tell us to do to please them, forgetting that we must first please God.

We must remember—God's ways are not our way. The wisdom of man is nothing compared to the wisdom of God. Before we seek advice from other people, let us first go to God and ask Him to lead us to do His will.

A Message to the Philippine Rebelutionaries

Do Hard Things Prayer Day

Do Hard Things Prayer Day

June 14, 2010, Monday

1:00 - 4:00 PM

Audi A, Greenhills Christian Fellowship

(view map)

It will be an exciting time of prayer and worship! See you there!

Refund Your DHT Tickets

Please be informed that the Do Hard Things conference for Manila slated on June 19, 2010 at the PhilSports Arena (formerly Ultra) has been canceled. 

Tickets can be refunded in the outlets where you bought your tickets. Please be advised that payments will no longer be refunded after June 30, 2010. Please refund your tickets as soon as possible. Thank you.

Why Philippine DHT Conferences Are Cancelled

Dear Filipino Rebelutionary,

We are sad to announce that the Do Hard Things Conferences for the Philippines (Manila and Cebu) are cancelled.

God is sovereign and His purpose will stand. There happened to be a circumstance that neither we nor the Harrises expected to arrive which affected their plans on coming here. Mrs. Sono Harris, Alex and Brett’s mother, was diagnosed with cancer in the fourth stage.

The Harrises need our prayers more than anything now. The Lord has used their family to tremendously change people’s lives and though they cannot come here to minister to us, let us be the one to minister to them through prayers.

A lot has been prepared already for the conferences both in Manila and Cebu. Tickets have been bought and people have registered for it. Both teams from Manila and Cebu will be updating everyone on how you can refund your payments. Please check our  Facebook page more often for more updates in the coming days.

I know you were all excited for the conference and are now sad or even disappointed at the turn of events. Some things just do not happen the way we want it but all God requires of us is obedience.

More than anyone, the volunteers for the conferences are the ones heavily affected by this news. They’ve spent the past three months preparing for the conferences and everyone was shocked to learn that we have to stop everything we are doing. Though we will be stopping the preparation, we will not stop doing hard things. And we’d also like to challenge you to continue doing hard things, conference or no conference.

Our human nature teaches us to think that everything is a waste; all the efforts are now trash. But when we think like this, we're actually just thinking of ourselves and not of God. We think of what we've done and our accomplishments but not of the favor He's bestowed upon us. Nowhere in the world would you find anyone who would fully entrust organizing a big conference to inexperienced and money-less teenagers but the Creator of the universe did.

God knows what He is doing and He does all this for His own sake--that He can make Himself known more in our lives. Often, we think that we already know much of Him but really we don't and in a situation like this does He often make Himself even more known.

We would not be humans if we say we're happy and excited that the event got cancelled. We are sad and disappointed, yes. It's something that we have to go through for a moment but tomorrow will find us glad on what God will bring into our lives. In the end we will realize and be glad we tried and did something than have done nothing at all. Do Hard Things is more than a book and a conference. It's a mindset that has got a lot of people taking up their arms to fight and will take on more people in the future--all for His glory.

Yes, this is hard. But we’re rebelutionaries. We do hard things.

In behalf of all volunteers for the conferences,



With Much Gladness In Christ,


Christin A.

OIC

DHT Conference

Do Hard Things in the Philippines

We are very pleased to announce that the DO HARD THINGS Conferences are coming to the Philippines.

The Rebelution's first stop will be in Cebu! Be there on June 12, 9am-5pm
at the Plenary Hall, Cebu International Convention Center Mandaue, Cebu
Conference fee is at P200. Register NOW before you run out of slots!
For more details visit www.rebelutioncebu.tk

Second and last stop will be in Manila on June 19
at the PhilSports Arena (ULTRA) Pasig
Conference ticket price is at P250* and will be P350* starting May 20

*all Manila conference tickets are inclusive of a free Do Hard Things Philippine conference edition

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There's always something hard and exciting to do. And it starts with you. Be involved in making these conferences happen. Be part of the Cebu or Manila team! Interested? Sign up HERE.

Papuri Grand Reunion Concert 2010

Earthquake Scare

A 6.0-magnitude earthquake hit Manila this afternoon which caused people to fear and run out of their buildings. While some people who hardly pray prayed, many take it as a countdown to 2012, a.k.a end of the world. The earthquake scare began when it hit Haiti (7.0) last January killing a great number of people. Then it was followed by the one in Chile (8.8),  then Taiwan, (6.4), Sumatra (6.8), Turkey (5.5), Peru (6.0), Japan (6.5), Cuba (5.6), and now here in the city where I live.

I had my earphones on listening to Owl City while working on emails. I thought I was just getting dizzy when the earthquake struck. It shook the table I was on. You'll probably think I'm crazy and totally insane but I tell you, I am in the right mind and I honestly think that the earthquake was pretty exciting! Now you probably think I don't care about people's lives. Well, I do. Much more than the life that you probably know.

I never wished to experience an earthquake but neither did I wish not to experience it. The tragedies caused by the recent earthquakes are heart-wrenching and it's easy to get scared that it might happen to me or to anyone I know but I rest in the comfort and assurance of my Father in heaven.

It was He who laid the foundations of the earth and if He chooses to shake it and destroy the structures humans built, what have I got to question? And if the end that He has set is to come and the earthquakes are the introduction of the end, what have I to fear?

All I know is that I'm excited to see Jesus in my lifetime. Whether it be He comes today or I get smashed by falling debris I don't really care. Either way I will see Him in my lifetime.

I'm sure you understand what I'm talking about or probably not.

If you do understand what I'm talking about, aren't you excited with what's happening, knowing that Jesus might be coming so soon? And that we'll get to finally see Him face to face? If you're not excited, might it be that even if you know Jesus, He's probably not your priority. Or you're busy with other "important" things more than the Gospel work He left?

Now, if you're lost with what I'm talking about, don't be. You can probably sum up now that I might have lost some screws in my brain. Well, I actually have lost a lot of it ever since I truly knew Jesus. I am not scared of earthquakes because I am friends with the One who made the heaven and the earth. And if He wants to take me to meet Him through it, I'd be glad to.

Jesus must be a crazy man to have made people (e.g. me) like this. Well, yes and no. He's crazy because even if you don't know Him, He chose to die for you and He's not crazy because He knew He must do it because He wants to share eternity with you--even if He doesn't really need you.

Jesus Christ is my Lord, Savior, Father, Brother and Best Friend. He is my everything. My life. I can never imagine what life would be like without Him.

Your life is so precious, don't waste it! I care about your life not because I really care but because He cares for you. I'm writing this not because I want to but because He wants me to tell you that He loves you more than you know. Would you care to love Him back?