iRise: Recent Episodes
iRise
A Conclusion with Truth | Jazmin Aviles
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BIG IDEA: Make it a Habit to Worship God With My Life.
To some people, "worship" is just a genre of music or that thing you do on Sundays before the sermon. It's something that happens inside the walls of a church, or when there is music involved, or when your eyes are closed and hands are raised. Yes, all of this is worship, but it's not all that worship is. In fact, you can worship God while doing all sorts of things, as long as what you're doing is meant to bring God glory. That's how the apostle Paul describes it. He wrote most of the New Testament of the Bible, and he once said that whatever we do or say, we can do it for God's glory. So whether we're at church, at school, walking, eating, shopping, playing football, doing homework, or hanging with friends, we always have opportunities to honor and connect with God through worship.
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Big Idea: Make it a Habit to Spend Time With God
Habits! We all have them, so let's talk about them. Whether you've got good habits (like getting enough sleep or remembering to floss) or bad habits (like biting your nails or checking your phone too often), most of your habits are probably small, tiny, hardly noticeable habits. But over time, those tiny habits can really impact your life — for good, or bad. So what about your spiritual habits? What are the small things you do every day that either draw you closer to God or keep you at a distance? To answer that, let's take a look at Peter, one of Jesus' closest disciples. Peter was definitely not a perfect Jesus-follower, but he made it a habit to be close to Jesus. In fact, he spent so much time with Jesus that God eventually used him to do some pretty big things in the world. Which makes you think, "What could Jesus do in my life if I made it a habit to spend time with God?"
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BIG IDEA: FOCUS ON REST
Life can be kind of stressful, right? There's homework, projects, exams, chores, sports, friends, jobs, family, church, plus everything else we're trying to juggle. It's no wonder we sometimes pull all-nighters to get it all done — or just go to sleep and leave it unfinished. Our culture might tell us to keep going, push harder, and do all the things, but Scripture tells us a different story. In the Gospels, Jesus prioritized rest for himself and his disciples, knowing rest would keep them healthy and prepared for the mission ahead of them. So in that way, rest is a habit we can practice. But Scripture also tells us God is a shepherd who guides us to a place of rest when we're feeling tired, grieving, or hopeless because of the difficulties life has thrown at us. So what kind of rest do you need? Rest from meaningless busyness so you can focus on what God has for you? Rest from what's causing you pain or fear? Whatever it is, God's inviting you today to focus on rest.
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BIG IDEA: Focus On Talking To God
Have you ever zoned out in the middle of a conversation? Like, your friend is in the middle of a story, or your teacheris in the middle of a lecture, when you hear those dreaded words: "Hey. Are you even listening to me?" The answer,of course, is no. You were busy thinking about that TikTok someone sent you earlier, and have no idea what they'retalking about. And if it's that easy to zone out in a conversation with a person who's standing right in front of us, youknow it's a million times easier to zone out in the middle of a conversation with God, who we can't really see or hearin the usual ways. In those moments, I think about a conversation Jesus had with a woman at a well, because that'sexactly prayer is — a conversation. A back and forth. I know prayer can be a challenge, but remembering I'm talking toa God who is both listening and talking back to me is what helps me focus on talking to God.
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BIG IDEA: Focus on giving something up
Question. What's something you're pretty sure you couldn't live without? Pizza? Ice cream? Video games? Your phone?If we're honest, there are probably a lot of things we act like we couldn't live without — but we totally could. In somecases, giving up those things for a little while might even be what's best for us. There's an ancient spiritual practicecalled "fasting." Maybe you've heard of it. It's the act of giving something up, for a specific period of time, in order tospend more time focusing on God. But in Matthew 6, Jesus confronted some religious people about the ways theymisunderstood and misused fasting. Instead of making their fasts something between them and God, they used theirfasts to get attention and praise. But that's not the point of fasting at all. Whether we decide to temporarily give uppizza, ice cream, video games, or so much time looking at our phones, the point of fasting is to grow our closenesswith God. That's the power of focusing on giving something up.
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BIG IDEA: If God is good, why do bad things happen?
Have you ever played Jenga? You know, that game where you stack a bunch of blocks and try not to make them fall? Of course, they always fall. Sometimes, it happens out of nowhere.
In life, that's kind of how tragedies happen too. One minute everything seems great. The next, everything has fallen apart and we're asking, "God, how could You let this happen?" To answer that, we need to look at Scripture — from the ancient prophets like Amos all the way to the very last page of the Bible. Over and over, we see this is true: God loves us, God has a plan to make wrong things right, and God's people are part of that plan. So if you've ever wondered, "If God is good, why do bad things happen?" maybe it's time to ask a new question. Like,
"If something is wrong in the world, what can God's people do to help make it right?"
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BIG IDEA: Healing Of Our Mind
Many have no control over their actions because they have not disciplined their thoughts. This happens because the enemy, through the world, the flesh, the wounds of the past, has bound and strengthened in their mind. The battlefield of the enemy is the mind. For years, Satan has bombarded us with temptations, fears, negativism, complexes, doubts, immorality, and judgment.
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BIG IDEA: Sexual Healing
God wants us to enjoy our sexuality and to be grateful and pleased with it, since sex is pleasurable and "delightful". A sign of emotional health is when you’re able to say "I value my sexuality" and thank God for it. Any physical demonstration of affection, including sexual intercourse, is only negative when it is used to exploit another person, for our personal satisfaction or to punish and manipulate our spouse. That’s why it’s necessary to review in what areas of our sexuality we need to be healed.
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BIG IDEA: Healing of our Emotions
Jesus came not only to save us but also to give us life and life in abundance. This includes healing our emotions. The Lord wants to heal the wounds we bring from the past and that affect our present, because he wants to teach us how to live in the midst of the difficult situations we encounter in our daily lives.
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How to be a good friend in a world that's not. It starts with you!
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If you’ll let Jesus into your story. He’ll change your story.
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Hold onto the dream God gives you even if those closest to you reject you. May our God-given dreams be revitalized and may we continue to dream bigger!
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What do you want to be when you grow up?
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