From One Degree to Another

Tweets from Revelation 11

August 30, 2012 by Phil Auxier

In late May, I began 202 days of journaling through the 404 verses of the final book of the Bible, Revelation. To go along with my personal study and preparation to preach through this book in 2013, I’m trying to tweet something from every verse. Today I finished chapter 11. Here’s a compilation of my tweets followed by the reference.

Revelation 1 | Revelation 2 | Revelation 3 | Revelation 4 | Revelation 5 | Revelation 6 | Revelation 7 | Revelation 8 | Revelation 9 | Revelation 10

God instructs His people regarding the specifics of judgment. (Revelation 11:1)
God is in control of His judgment in keeping with His holiness. (Revelation 11:2)
God always warns people of coming terrors. (Revelation 11:3)
God has witnesses before Him that serve Him. (Revelation 11:4)
God’s witnesses have His full backing and protection. (Revelation 11:5)
God can also vindicate His witnesses with miraculous signs. (Revelation 11:6)
Typically, witnesses are met with resistance…sometimes including death. (Revelation 11:7)
The glory of witnesses is the opportunity to die like their Lord. (Revelation 11:8)
Again, all people are made aware of God’s threat of judgment and this is God’s mercy. (Revelation 11:9)
The world’s values ≠ the values of heaven. (Revelation 11:10)
The truth of resurrection is terrifying to a watching world. (Revelation 11:11)
God’s witnesses are meant for the upward call of heaven and vindication before their enemies. (Revelation 11:12)
God’s judgments are awesome and demand He be glorified as the true God of heaven. (Revelation 11:13)
God’s judgments seem to get greater in intensity. (Revelation 11:14)
God’s establishing His eternal kingdom involves His judicial acting. (Revelation 11:15)
All of heaven worships the God of heaven. (Revelation 11:16)
God is worthy of our worship because He’s the παντοκράτωρ — LORD GOD ALMIGHTY. (Revelation 11:17)
God’s wrath will have the final word while the nations rage. (Revelation 11:18)
God’s eternal temple displays His mighty, redemptive splendor. (Revelation 11:19)

Tuesday Leadership Lesson: HeartSpeak

August 28, 2012 by Phil Auxier

Here’s my weekly email to leaders in Reno County…

Having taken a few weeks to encourage you to manage yourself better, I thought today we’d get after a facet of leadership that (to quote the late Cajun Chef Justin Wilson) “I guarantee” will help you intervene more skillfully: speak from the heart.

If speaking from the heart makes you think of Valentine’s Day, then you might well be missing the point. Speaking from the heart gets us close to purpose. It helps expose why we care so deeply about the specific challenges in which we’re engaging.

As the recent KS Leadership Center journal (which I’m still waiting to link to online) points out (on pp.104-105), there are some key questions involved in speaking from the heart:

1) Why are you/I working on this?

2) What do I care about most related to this challenge?

3) How often do you/I share your/my beliefs and personal stories with stakeholders?

4) Are there some stakeholders with whom you/I haven’t shared these thoughts?
You can see through these questions what speaking from the heart does both in you and your stakeholders.

Furthermore, the Journal has us look at a continuum. Evidently, speaking from the heart is striking a balance between and not becoming overly emotional or overly detached. Where would you fall on this chart?

Today, then, no matter the leadership issue you’re engaged with. Speak from the heart and see if it doesn’t help you make progress on the issues you care about so deeply.

Weekend Recap – 2 Ways To Relate To God

August 27, 2012 by Phil Auxier

My sermon from 8/26/12AM entitled Relating To God from Hebrews 12:18-24 is now online. The sermon exposed the ways we try to relate to God but, in the end, showed that only relating to God through Christ is the path that allows us to face God, the judge of all, with confidence. Jesus’ blood speaks a better word than the blood of Abel. This also was an amazing lead in to the Lord’s Supper and Jesus’ blood of the covenant. It was an amazing Lord’s Day.

The morning, coupled with Jerry Bridges’ chapter “I am a new creation” (Who Am I? chapter 5) helped show the glorious realities that are ours in the Gospel. I hope you had a great Lord’s day reveling in truths like these.

Leadership Lesson: Manage Self, Self-Control & GI Joe

August 22, 2012 by Phil Auxier

Here’s my email to leaders in Reno County this past Monday:

Call me a geeky 80’s kid, but I grew up watching the cartoon G.I. Joe. It seemed in every episode, there would be a lesson of some sort and the conclusion would be: “Now you know and knowing is half the battle.” This is certainly true for those of us who step into leadership. One of the KLC’s Leadership Principles is that “IT STARTS WITH YOU…and must engage others.” Leadership begins when we make a conscious choice within ourselves. We know that managing self is an important component but that is just half the battle. Training ourselves to exercise self-control in leadership situations is where the rubber meets the road.

For the past two weeks, I’ve written to you about taking care of yourself and I’ve done this intentionally. I haven’t done it to breed some morbid self-interest, getting you to look in the mirror and say, “Mirror, mirror on the wall, who’s the fairest of them all,” expecting us to say we are the fairest. No. I’ve done it because our acts of leadership begin in us. We must manage self. We must exercise some self-control and knowing our strengths, vulnerabilities and triggers, choose among all the competing values to intervene. We step in to act. We want this to be more and more strategic and skillful each and every time we act in leadership. We have to experiment beyond our comfort zone. We have to increase our tolerance for uncertainty and conflict. This is what it means to be a leader.

Today, then, manage self by exercising some good self-control. Assess yourself. And see if managing self doesn’t help you make progress on the issues you care about so deeply.

Tweets from Revelation 10

August 21, 2012 by Phil Auxier

Weekend Recap – Committed to Completion

August 20, 2012 by Phil Auxier

As I wrote over the weekend, yesterday, 8/19/12AM, my sermon was on Committed To Completing the Race from Hebrews 12:12-17. My opening illustration was from the ’92 Olympics and video of that can be found from Friday’s post. God’s marked out a race for all of us. This passage really encouraged us to demonstrate our commitment to complete the race by a Godly striving for peace and holiness in community and by a zealous fighting against all the things that would detract us from Gospel allegiances. I hope it proved helpful for you. And, I hope you had a great day of worship with other believers. Have a great week.

Committed To Finishing

August 17, 2012 by Phil Auxier

This coming Lord’s Day, we plan to look at Hebrews 12:12-17 and hear a call from God to strengthen our resolve and commitment to finish the race. This means striving hard after things like holiness and peace and fighting against things like sinful roots, immortality and the anti-grace mindset that so easily raises its head.

To introduce this message, I am going to use the story of Derek Redmond from the 1992 Olympic games where his father helped him finish the race and cross the finish line. Here’s a video of that story. As you watch it, think about your desire to finish the race that God has called you to run and come this Sunday expecting God to give you help in His Word.

Tweets from Revelation 9

August 15, 2012 by Phil Auxier

God’s judgment prepares for the end. (Revelation 9:1)
The torment pictured in God’s judgment is like a great furnace. (Revelation 9:2)
With judgment comes the sting of sin. (Revelation 9:3)
God’s people are protected from future judgment. (Revelation 9:4)
God’s judgment is completely under His control. (Revelation 9:5)
God’s judgment is so horrendous, death is preferred. (Revelation 9:6)
The judgment of God appears like envoys of a king going to battle. (Revelation 9:7)
There’s both a beauty and a ferociousness to God’s judgment. (Revelation 9:8)
God’s judgment sounds like an army going to battle. (Revelation 9:9)
God’s judgment, though restrained, still stings. (Revelation 9:10)
The sting of judgment is unleashed through a king, under God’s sovereign rule. (Revelation 9:11)
God’s judgment are woes…and there’s more to come. (Revelation 9:12)
Again, God’s judgment is tied to worship of Him. (Revelation 9:13)
Judgment is prepared beforehand and unleashed in God’s perfect timing. (Revelation 9:14)
Judgment, prepared specifically, is unleashed on mankind. (Revelation 9:15)
God’s judgment comes through many, many means. (Revelation 9:16)
Fire, smoke, sulfur…these images point us to God’s judgment. (Revelation 9:17)
The actual fire, smoke and sulfure are means of judgment. (Revelation 9:18)
God vividly portrays His judgment through the heads of serpents. (Revelation 9:19)
God’s judgment, which should humble mankind, only hardens them to Him. (Revelation 9:20)
Failure to repent sets us on a course to meet God’s judgment head on. (Revelation 9:21)

Leadership: Take Care of Yourself

August 14, 2012 by Phil Auxier

Each week, I write a short email to graduates of the Leadership Reno County program. Here’s this week’s:

Last week I posted an encouragement to “Take Care of Yourself.” As I was digging out from being gone, I came across the latest KLC Journal (Vol 4, Issue 1 – Summer 2012, which will hopefully be online soon) and in it, under the learning laboratory section on p.102, was the following items to encourage you to “Take Care of Yourself.” Here’s the info and questions:
“It’s not the load that breaks you down; it’s the way you carry it.” – Lena Horne
“As you engage others in difficult work, pay special attention to maintaining your own energy and enthusiasm. Take time to renew yourself. Call on friends and colleagues for support. Be purposeful about taking care of yourself over the long haul.”
“Ask yourself these questions:
1) How do you know when your energy is waning?
2) What activities, practices and places revitalize you?
3) Whom can you call on for support when you need it?
4) How might you create time or space to take care of yourself?
These are excellent thought. Take some time and consider these things and see if it doesn’t have an effect on your long term progress on those issues you care about so deeply.

Weekend Recap – 8/12/12

August 13, 2012 by Phil Auxier

We enjoyed a great Lord’s Day yesterday. For me personally, it was great to get back into the pulpit and, specifically, return to the book of Hebrews to find strength for enduring. My sermon, Father’s Discipline, from Hebrews 12:5-11 helped orient us to God the Father’s love and care for His children. God helps us endure by training us to run and encouraging us to be holy and bear fruit that is honoring to Him.

Also, before I preached, we saw a video as Arwen and TJ sang “The Prodigal.” Here’s that video:

In the evening, we met in small groups. My group worked through Chapter 4 of Jerry Bridges’ book Who Am I on the appropriate subject: “I am an adopted son of God.”

All in all, we had an amazing Lord’s day. I hope you were blessed through it.