Ken Fong - Seizing The Gift Of Courage - 090415

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Seizing the Gift

of COURAGE

+We all yearn to be brave because God made us to be like Him

COURAGECOURAGEthe power to do the right thing even when it’s scary or hard

+1: Reflect and Pray 1: Reflect and Pray MoreMoreFor many of us, the first step in preparing ourselves to rescue others is to acknowledge and receive our rescue by God.1Thess 1:10 “…whom God raised from the dead

—Jesus, who rescues us from the coming wrath.”

How much are we still trying to save ourselves? Afraid God won’t accept us without our merit badges? Afraid people won’t love us if we stop hiding our sins and messes? Afraid that our life is only worth what we earn or own?

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2: Risk Taking God at His 2: Risk Taking God at His WordWordTake Christ at his word and see if he is true.Do we really believe God can be trusted?

Jesus said that the forces of darkness cannot resist the forces of light. “This is the message we have heard from him and

declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all.” 1John 1:5

“Let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven.” Matthew 5:16

+3: Embark on The Heroes’ The Heroes’ JourneyJourney of Reformation & Revolution“It’s not by sheer will that we become brave.

It takes reformation of the heart. God doesn’t call us to try to be brave but to train to be brave. We won’t arrive at it tomorrow, but hopefully, by the grace of God, we’ll become more brave ten years from now.” Haugen (108)

Our Maker asks: Do you want to be brave or safe? Truly rescued souls are called to become courageous rescuers of other souls.

+Spiritual Reformation & Kingdom Revolution Go Together“I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead.” Phil 3:10-11

For a Christian is only a Christian when she unceasingly asks critical questions of the society in which she lives and continuously stresses the necessity for conversion, not only of the individual but also of the world.

+Spiritual Reformation & Kingdom Revolution Go Together

A Christian is only a Christian when he refuses to allow himself or anyone else to settle into a comfortable rest. He remains dissatisfied with the status quo. And he believes that he has an essential role to play in the realization of the new world to come—even if he cannot say how that world will come about.

A Christian is only a Christian when she keeps saying to everyone she meets that the good news of the Kingdom has to be proclaimed to the whole world and witnessed to all nations (Mt. 24:14).


As long as a Christian lives he keeps searching for a new order without divisions between people, for a new structure that allows every man to shake hands with every other man, and a new life in which there will be lasting unity and peace.

She will not allow her neighbor to stop moving, to lose courage, or to escape into small everyday pleasures to which she can cling.


He is irritated by satisfaction and self-content in himself as well as in others since he knows, with an unshakeable certainty, that something great is coming of which he has already seen the first rays of light.

She believes that this world not only passes but has to pass in order to let the new world be born. She believes that there will never be a moment in this life in which one can rest in the supposition that there is nothing left to do.


But we will not despair when we do not see the result we want to see. For in the midst of all our work we keep hearing the words of the One sitting on the throne: "I am making the whole of creation new." (Rev. 21:5)

Henri Nouwen, Creative Ministry