Pursuing God with Gene Appel

Temptation is the most important battle you will ever fight. That’s why Jesus included it in The Lord’s Prayer. We must keep our guard up and have a strategy to resist temptation. A key to overcome temptation is to look for a way out, one that God will provide. Pursuing God with Gene Appel is designed to help you pursue God, build community, and unleash compassion. Grounded in Scripture and shaped...

The Bible says there is a way that appears right, but the end is destruction. Today Gene challenges us with the question, “Why do we choose enticements that are the opposite of what we believe in?” He reminds us we don’t fight against flesh and blood, but against the spiritual realm, against the devil, who is very real. Pursuing God with Gene Appel is designed to help you pursue God, build communi...

Today Gene reminds us to be one who invites others to ‘come and see’ just like the Samaritan woman at the well. After her encounter with Jesus, she ran back to tell everyone to ‘come and see’ the man, Jesus. That’s the power of the invitational style of being the light. Pursuing God with Gene Appel is designed to help you pursue God, build community, and unleash compassion. Grounded in Scripture a...

Today Gene reminds us that sharing our story can be the best way to shine the light of the Gospel to others. This is where you look for opportunities to say, “Here’s the difference Jesus has made in my life....and I’m confident that He can make a difference in yours too.” Hearing your story could have a powerful impact on people. Whether your story is dramatic or simple, people need to hear about...

If you carefully examine the life of Jesus, you’ll discover He was constantly taking risks for the sake of people who were far from God. People who were living in spiritual darkness and needed the light. Today Gene challenges us to take more risks to be the light in the darkness. Pursuing God with Gene Appel is designed to help you pursue God, build community, and unleash compassion. Grounded in S...

One of the things you notice about Jesus is that there was always an underlying urgency in how He related to lost people. Jesus taught that Hell is real and real people go there for eternity. The reality of hell was a major theme in Jesus’ teaching ministry.  Again and again, He would break down and weep over a given evangelistic situation. Jesus understood like no one ever has that hell is real....

In today’s episode, Gene tells the story in 2 Kings about Samaria being under siege. God moved on some lepers to go to the enemy camp, and caused the enemy to run away. The lepers found abundant food and riches. Instead of keeping it all for themselves, they said, “This is a day of good news and we are keeping it to ourselves.” How often do we keep the good news of the Gospel to ourselves? Gene ch...

In today’s episode, Gene gives us a couple of ways we can be a light that aren’t going to take 1 more second of your time. He shows us how to turn mundane errands into adventurous evangelistic opportunities. He also shows us how we can use our work and hobby relationships to shine the light of the gospel to our communities. Pursuing God with Gene Appel is designed to help you pursue God, build com...

During our home stretch in these 21 days of prayer, I'm asking you to pray just one prayer. I’m asking you to pray:  God, show me how to be a light. In today’s episode, Gene takes a look at Matthew, also known as Levi, the former tax collector. When he leaves everything to follow Jesus, he throws a party so all his friends and associates can see what Jesus did for him. Matthew was the light t...

Today Gene reminds us of an old saying: “What God expects, God enables.” God wants us to be a light in our families, our communities, and our world. There’s no doubt that as we look around at all the challenging dark circumstances in our world, it’s a prayer that has never been more needed. The prayer is this: God, show me how to be a light. Pursuing God with Gene Appel is designed to help you pur...

The Bible teaches that God is searching throughout the Earth, looking for Christians who want to be used by him. Gene reminds us today that when you pray the ‘use me’ prayer, you’re praying, “God, I am making myself available for you to touch a life through me; to meet a need through me; to heal a hurt through me; to strengthen a church through me…I am making my life available for you to work thro...

When we pray a prayer that includes the words ‘lead me,’ we can’t possibly see where God will lead us. But when we’re willing to be led, He will take us into places and situations that will exceed anything you could have planned for ourselves. Today Gene challenges us to pray, like King David, “Lord lead me.” Pursuing God with Gene Appel is designed to help you pursue God, build community, and unl...

In today’s episode, Gene reminds us that sometimes God wants to take us out of our comfort zone.  When we’re no longer content with the status quo, sometimes we need to pray, “Lord, stretch me.” Listen to Psalm 66:10, “For you, Oh God, tested us, you refined us like silver.”What’s he saying? “God, you stretched us…you put us through fires that refined us like silver, by turning up the heat and rem...

All throughout the pages of the Bible, people are faced with patterns that they need to knock down and break, and it all really begins when you pray the “break me” prayer. In today’s episode, Gene reminds us that  if you’re unwilling to pray the “break me” prayer…God WILL find another way to break you. Hebrews 12 says God disciplines those that He loves. And in order to get your attention and to b...

Sometimes we have to be brave and swim into the deep end of the pool by praying dangerous prayers. “Search me” is one of those prayers.  This is the kind of prayer that says, “God, aim your searchlight into the inner recesses of my soul, my heart, and my mind and expose whatever’s down there inside of me that ought not to be there. Gene challenges us in today’s episode to pray that prayer. Pursuin...

Are you at a pressure point in your life right now? Is the bottom falling out? Jesus gives us an example of how to pray in the Garden of Gethsemane before He goes to the cross. He did two things: First, He made a courteous request.. He said, “Father, if it’s at all possible, take this assignment from me.” Then Jesus followed up immediately with humble submission to God’s will. “But your will be do...

In today’s episode, Gene reminds us that asking God for His protection is a part of our daily prayer routine. He encourages us to use this model:  “Lord, put a hedge of protection around my life, around my family, around my kids, my grandkids, and around this church from the evil one… Protect us from disunity, from apathy, from destruction within or without.” In addition, we need to affirm God’s l...

When we pray, it is important to go to God with the needs in your life. Gene admonishes us to ask for ‘daily bread,’ and not what we think we need to make us happy. Another thing needed for balanced praying according to this model prayer from Jesus found in Matthew 6 is the confession component. Friends, this may be the hardest part for many of us to include in our prayers because the 2 hardest wo...

When we pray, it is important to include both worship and submission into our prayers. The Lord’s prayer begins with the words, “Holy is Your name.” I don’t think Jesus was saying, “Start every prayer with these words.” He was saying near the top of your prayer time ought to be the component of worship. The second component needed to avoid prayer abuse is submission. Submission is where we pray, “...

Today, Gene reminds us that it is possible to abuse the power of prayer. James 4:3 says, “When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures.” Sometimes we don’t receive because we’re asking with the wrong motives. We’re abusing the power of prayer because we’re more concerned about having our pain and discomfort removed, than in...

Do you know what Jesus did just before He miraculously fed over 5,000 people with a little boy’s sack lunch? …Matthew 14:19 says that He looked up to Heaven…and gave thanks. Jesus took 5 small loaves of bread and 2 fish from a child’s lunch… and he prayed, and then He broke the bread… and it kept breaking and breaking and feeding and feeding. It was only after He prayed that God did immeasurably m...

In today’s episode, Gene reminds us that God wants to give us, His children, good gifts. Matthew 7:9 says, “Which of you, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake?” What Jesus is saying is: “If you will pray passionately... keep asking, keep seeking, keep knocking… God is going to give you good gifts.”  In other words, through that process,...

In Matthew 7, Jesus gives us some eye-opening insight into how we should conduct our lives. He was speaking to Jewish people who, all their lives, have been taught that goodness is about doing the right thing and following the rules. But Jesus comes along and says that with God, goodness is much deeper and starts on the inside… it’s about being transformed on the inside in your heart and spirit. H...

Don’t expect hundreds of these in your lifetime. You may only have a handful of these dramatic experiences throughout your lifetime. Don’t hesitate to ask God for one of these world rocking experiences. If God answers that prayer, Gene encourages us to say YES. Pursuing God with Gene Appel is designed to help you pursue God, build community, and unleash compassion. Grounded in Scripture and shaped...

In today’s episode, Gene reminds us that we need to be open to the leading of the Holy Spirit. Sometimes God uses crises to get our attention. Other times, He speaks to us through the needs of others. We need to be ready to let God rock our world. Pursuing God with Gene Appel is designed to help you pursue God, build community, and unleash compassion. Grounded in Scripture and shaped by Eastside’s...