5. 4. 3. 2. Play as 1!

5 - When Someone Arrives

N.E.T.S.?

NAME - Get to know others by their name. It is super meaningful to others that you remember them. Remember, people want to be treated as human beings, not objects. Using their name is the fastest and most reliable way of building rapport and creating a good first impression. Everyone has a name — use it to better connect to them. You will notice a difference in your relationships. God knows us all by name. “Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have summoned you by name; you are mine.” (Isaiah 43:1).

EYE CONTACT - The foundation of good eye contact truly comes from knowing whose you are (God’s Creation) The more you trust in God’s love for you, the easier it will be to look everyone you meet in the eye, and do it with confidence and a real smile. “The eye is the lamp of the body. So, if your eye is healthy, your whole body will be full of light.” (Matthew 6:22)

TOUCH - Touch builds trust. Often, when people meet face-to-face, they great each other with a touch. This can be ritualized (a high five or handshake) or just in the course of holding doors, or a business-appropriate touch on the arm at the end of a meeting. Regardless, touch is a powerful sense. An experiment done by researchers at the University of Chicago and Harvard found that negotiators who shook hands were more open and honest, and reached better outcomes. You are literally conveying warmth. "But Jesus came and touched them, saying, “Rise, and have no fear.” (Matthew 17:7)

SCALE ICE BREAKER - A great way to break the ice with someone is to ask a question. Using a scale is an easy way to get to know where someone is in their faith journey. On a scale of 1-10 what are the chances of someone getting to heaven? 13 “Enter by the narrow gate. For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. 14 For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few. (Matthew 7:13-14)

QUESTION? - Sharing God’s love with others is a privileged to do. Our job is simply to provide an opportunity for others to experience God’s love and God does the rest. A simple question to ask… “Would you like to know more about God?” 1 See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God; and so we are. The reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know him. (1 John 3:1)

4 - Lead them to the Door

♥ ÷ † ?

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God totally loves you! His love is boundless and unconditional. The love of God has shown itself through Jesus Christ. This loving God can be experienced, He is real and He wants nothing more than for you to experience His love personally and to discover the purpose of your life in your relationship with Him. 27 So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them. (Genesis 1:27) 16 For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. (John 3:16)

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Unfortunately, we do not experience God’s love because we ignore Him. We search everywhere for meaning and fulfillment – but not with God. We don’t trust Him and do not think that He wants the best for us. Going our own way and the selfish actions that result from it are what the Bible calls sin. Sin damages and destroys our relationships with others. Sin keeps us from living the fulfilling life that God intends for us. 23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23) 23 For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in[a] Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 6:23) But your iniquities have separated you from your God; your sins have hidden his face from you, so that he will not hear. (Isaiah 59:2)

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Our sin and our selfish actions do not stop God from loving us. He even became a human being in Jesus Christ and gave His life for us. He took our place on the cross, bearing all the consequences of sin Himself. Jesus died – but He rose to life again. He offers us peace with God and a personal relationship with Him. Through faith in Jesus, we can experience God’s love daily, discover our purpose, and have eternal life after death. 18 For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God. He was put to death in the body but made alive in the Spirit. (1 Peter 3:18) 3 For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, 4 that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures, 5 and that he appeared to Cephas, and then to the Twelve. 6 After that, he appeared to more than five hundred of the brothers and sisters at the same time, most of whom are still living, though some have fallen asleep. 7 Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles, 8 and last of all he appeared to me also, as to one abnormally born. (1 Corinthians 15:3-8) 8 But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. (Romans 5:8)

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God has already done everything to show us how much He loves us. Through Jesus Christ, He offers us fulfillment and eternal life. We can talk to God directly – we call it “prayer” – to ask for forgiveness for living our lives without Him. We can choose to live with God by trusting Jesus Christ from now on. How will you decide? 12 Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God. (John 1:12)

3 - The Call for You & Me

Be a Barnabas; Pursue a Paul; Train a Timothy

The Christian faith is about loving Jesus and loving people, and that is what we are trying to do with our organization and all of our programs. Whether it is an event, playing a sport, creating art, learning a vocational skill, or education, we focus on capturing the hearts of our community through discipleship. Our goal is to let people know that God loves them and that each one of them has eternal value. We want to be a faith community of disciples making disciples.

If every person would seek to be a Barnabas, pursue a Paul and train a Timothy, we could always realize the process the Lord has wondrously given us to grow as people and believers. We will never lack purpose nor encouragement in our lives.

We will realize the comfort and consolation of having a “Barnabas” to walk through life with who empowers, encourages and understands, and who we can be an intimate integral part of their lives as well by empowering, encouraging and understanding. We will not become proud, realizing we are still “in training” under a “Paul” at all times. We will learn that the things that have helped us through life we can steward and pass on to others, as we train a “Timothy” – knowing that we can still have something to give even though we haven’t yet “arrived.” 16 Now the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them. 17 And when they saw him they worshiped him, but some doubted. 18 And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” (Matthew 28:16-20)

2 - Heaven and Hell it is Up to You

HEAVEN
Though life in the intermediate Heaven will be wonderful, it’s not the place we’re made for, our true eternal home. The Bible promises that we’ll live with Christ and each other forever on the New Earth, where God—Father, Son (eternally incarnate), and Holy Spirit—will be at home with his people:

Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth. . . . I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God. . . . And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Now the dwelling of God is with men, and he will live with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God.” (Rev. 21:1-3)

This passage clearly indicates that ultimately God’s central dwelling place—Heaven—is on Earth. Some, including N. T. Wright, argue that the New Earth shouldn’t be called Heaven. But if Heaven, by definition, is God’s special dwelling place, and “the dwelling of God” will be with humankind on Earth, then Heaven and the New Earth will essentially be the same place. Heaven is also where we see God’s throne, and we’re told that “the throne of God and of the Lamb” will be in the New Jerusalem, on the New Earth (Rev. 22:1). (Randy Alcorn)

HELL
We know hell exists because Jesus—the one through whom all things were created (John 1:3; Col. 1:16)—tells us that hell exists. “Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather, be afraid of the One who can destroy both soul and body in hell. (Matthew 10:28)

1 - I’m Welcomed to the Kingdom

You can say this simple prayer:

Dear God, thank You for loving me. I realize that I have lived without You until now. I’m really sorry about that. Jesus Christ, thank You for forgiving me for going my own way and for all my sins and that You died for me and rose from the dead. I want to trust You, and I ask You: Come into my life. Be my Savior and Lord. Let me experience Your love and Your good intentions for my life. I thank You. Amen.

20 “My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, 21 that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. 22 I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one— 23 I in them and you in me—so that they may be brought to complete unity. Then the world will know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me. 24 “Father, I want those you have given me to be with me where I am, and to see my glory, the glory you have given me because you loved me before the creation of the world. 25 “Righteous Father, though the world does not know you, I know you, and they know that you have sent me. 26 I have made you known to them, and will continue to make you known in order that the love you have for me may be in them and that I myself may be in them.” (John 17:20-26)

Continue Your Faith Journey at : The Core