Month: June 2024

By Rick Warren – Source: nhulieuthanhkinh.com

“Continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfill his good purpose.”  Philippians 2:12-13 (NIV)

It’s not enough to want to change. It’s not even enough to say, “I have a dream of changing.” Dreams are worthless unless you wake up and actually act on them. You’re not going to change the problems in your life until you choose to change.

How are you going to be different in six months? Are you going to be emotionally stronger? Are you going to be mentally sharper? Are you going to be physically healthier? Are you going to be more spiritually mature?

It isn’t going to happen automatically. You aren’t just going to get healthier by accident in any category of your life. A lot of times we think we’re waiting on God to change us. You’re not waiting on God. God is waiting on you.

There is no growth in your life without change. There is no change without loss. And there is no loss without pain. You’ve got to let go of some old stuff, and it’s not always going to be easy.

Some of you are stuck right now because you haven’t learned how to let go. That’s a choice. Ephesians 4:22 says, “Throw off your old sinful nature and your former way of life, which is corrupted by lust and deception” (NLT).

You might say that your defects are from your circumstances or your chromosomes. But it doesn’t really matter where they come from. You need to deal with them. Genetics explains your inclinations, but it doesn’t excuse your sin.

Here’s the good news: Once you become a believer, you have a new power in you that is greater than those old tendencies. That power is the Holy Spirit.

Philippians 2:12-13 says, “Continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfill his good purpose” (NIV).

Does that mean you are supposed to be afraid of God? Of course not! It means be afraid that you’ll miss God’s best and waste your life. Be afraid that you will go your entire life and never know God’s purpose.

The secret to changing your life is not willpower. It’s God giving you the will and the power through the Holy Spirit to do what needs to be done.

By Rick Warren – Source: nhulieuthanhkinh.com

“Those who are led by God’s Spirit are God’s children. For the Spirit that God has given you does not make you slaves and cause you to be afraid; instead, the Spirit makes you God’s children, and by the Spirit’s power we cry out to God, ‘Father! my Father!’ God’s Spirit joins himself to our spirits to declare that we are God’s children.”  Romans 8:14-16 (GNT)

When I was a kid, I didn’t get scared often. I played fearlessly. But whenever I did get scared, I always cried out to my dad. I knew I could depend on him. He was strong, and he could take on anyone.

That’s what you and I are called to do when we’re scared, too: Call out to our Father for help.

Stop focusing on your fear. Focus on God your Father instead. Ask him for help! Romans 8:14-16 says, “Those who are led by God’s Spirit are God’s children. For the Spirit that God has given you does not make you slaves and cause you to be afraid; instead, the Spirit makes you God’s children, and by the Spirit’s power we cry out to God, ‘Father! my Father!’ God’s Spirit joins himself to our spirits to declare that we are God’s children” (GNT).

The antidote to fear is the truth that you are no longer a slave but a child of God. Being a child of God changes everything. You’re part of a family now. And families take care of one another.

Let’s say you grew up in a big city, and your family was a part of the family—the Mafia. And, as a kid, someone starts to assault you. You could say, “Wait just a minute! Do you know who I am? My father is Guido. Are you sure you want to touch me? Because I’m in the family.”

That’s what God wants you to know when you’re scared. You’re part of his family, and he takes care of his children. He has your back. And he has all the power in the world—all the power you’ll need to face whatever makes you afraid.

Knowing you’re a child of the Creator of the universe changes everything.

When you’re afraid, you need to be reminded of who you are and the family you belong to. With the Holy Spirit’s help, all you have to do is call out to your Father. You can depend on him!

By Rick Warren – Source: nhulieuthanhkinh.com

“Those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires. The mind governed by the flesh is death, but the mind governed by the Spirit is life and peace.”  Romans 8:5-6 (NIV)

You haven’t been sentenced to a life of frustration and stress. You don’t have to be stuck in your hurts, habits, and hang-ups. God has something far better for you.

We all want peace and freedom—and the good news is it may be closer than you think.

The Bible teaches that, for those who follow Jesus, peace is a mindset. If you’re not at peace, it’s your choice.

In the next few months, the economy more than likely won’t change. Your work situation won’t change. Your broken relationships may not get healed.

But your mindset can change. That will be the difference between a life of self-destruction and a life of peace.

The Bible says in Romans 8:5-6, “Those who live according to the flesh have their minds set on what the flesh desires; but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires. The mind governed by the flesh is death, but the mind governed by the Spirit is life and peace” (NIV).

Ask the Holy Spirit to give you better thoughts—thoughts that bring peace, not frustration. You need to look at your situation differently: in the Holy Spirit way.

Will you look at your life the way you’ve always looked at it, or will you look at it the way God does? Remember, the “mind governed by the flesh is death.” Choosing to look at your situation through your own lens is self-destructive.

Ask the Holy Spirit to replace the self-destructive thoughts with his own. When you’ve got something negative in your life, don’t resist it. Replace it.

If you turn on the TV, and there’s something on that you don’t want to watch or you shouldn’t watch, you can’t just sit there and tell yourself you shouldn’t be watching it. You have to change the channel. You replace it—immediately.

You choose what you dwell on. Ask the Holy Spirit to give you the thoughts you need to focus on. He’ll do it! He will change your perspective. And that will change your life.

By Rick Warren – Source: nhulieuthanhkinh.com

“There is no condemnation for those who belong to Christ Jesus.” Romans 8:1 (NLT)

Do you get it right all the time? Of course you don’t! None of us do. None of us is perfect.

There is a lot of pressure in our society to have it all together, to be successful in every endeavor, to be everything to everyone. But those expectations are unrealistic. Why? Because you are human. And being a Christian does not make you a super-human.

The Bible says you won’t be perfect after you become a Christian. If someone tells you that, that person is not telling the truth. You’re going to mess up. You’re going to fail at times. And most likely you will beat yourself up for your failures.

But, if you’re a follower of Jesus, you can be sure of this: God never condemns you.

Way too many believers live in fear, bitterness, and insecurity. Although they’re saved, you’d never know it by how they live. They’re too stressed out with fear that God will condemn them for what they’ve done wrong. They’re walking around with tension in their mind and body, and it shows in how they look at the future and how they treat others. Instead of dealing with their own guilt, they often pile it on others.

Yet the Bible says there’s no need: “There is no condemnation for those who belong to Christ Jesus” (Romans 8:1 NLT).

In other words, God doesn’t judge you for all the things you’ve done wrong if you’ve trusted Christ. Jesus took all that judgment upon himself on the cross. God doesn’t have to judge you because Jesus was judged. He took the blame for your sins.

That’s amazing news. That is Good News—the Gospel! There’s no reason for a Christian to walk around in shame. There’s no reason to be bitter. Before you were ever born, God knew all the sins you’d ever commit—and he paid the price for every single one of them.

Whatever you’ve done in your past, whoever you’ve hurt, no matter what other people tell you—you can be sure of this: If you’ve given your life to Christ, you’re forgiven.

By Rick Warren – Source: nhulieuthanhkinh.com

“I love God’s law with all my heart. But there is another power within me that is at war with my mind. This power makes me a slave to the sin that is still within me.”  Romans 7:22-23 (NLT)

You have a war inside of you that will rage for your entire life between who you used to be and who you’ve become in Jesus Christ. Even Paul, the most decorated missionary in the history of Christianity and the author of most of the New Testament, battled with it.

The Bible says in Romans 7:22-23, “I love God’s law with all my heart. But there is another power within me that is at war with my mind. This power makes me a slave to the sin that is still within me” (NLT, second edition).

I hate to tell you this, but you’ll always have this battle. You’ll never outgrow it. You can’t read enough Scripture to make the temptations go away. You can’t hide from them.

Until you get to Heaven, you’re stuck with an all-out battle between your two natures. I’ve been a believer for a long time, but my old nature is still there. My old nature wants me to be prideful, lustful, self-centered, deceptive, and downright sinful sometimes.

You have the same old nature always trying to get the best of you. The question is, what are you going to do about it?

Willpower won’t solve the problem. Just because you want to change and put everything into making that change doesn’t mean you’ll make the change. It may work for a bit, but you’ll get tired and stop the effort.

In your spiritual walk, you have to choose to follow your new nature, meaning you choose not to follow your old nature. For instance, if you’re tempted with lust but you immediately remove yourself from the temptation, you’ll starve the old self. If, when you’re tempted with pride, you remember your dependence upon God, your old nature can’t last long.

You have to make choices—maybe a hundred a day—to put the old nature aside and follow your new nature that is becoming like Jesus Christ.