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Showing posts from February, 2018

Gone but not Forgotten.

Do you ever feel like you are dragging your past around like a dead weight? No matter how much time goes by you look back and---THERE IT IS---still just as close as the last time you looked. You know that Jesus has paid the price, and you are forgiven of all the rubbish contained in those weights, but they still seem to drag you down. Lighten up dude How is the christian suppose to lighten his load? Jesus said, "My burden is easy"? The Accuser Rev 12:10 "And I heard a loud voice in heaven, saying, 'Now the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God and the authority of his Christ have come, for the accuser of our brothers has been thrown down, who accuses them day and night before our God'".  We have an accuser. What do accusers do? They accuse. Satan and demons will remind us of every bad thing we have ever done since we were two years old. As a matter of fact, they will even accuse us of things we didn't do--because they are liar

The Killing Fields

The deeds of the body In the book of Romans we are presented with this truth: " 12 So then, brothers, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh. 13 For if you live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. 14 For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. " As we walk with God we sometimes wonder how we actually accomplish such a task. Do we use a sword? Do we cut off our hand like Jesus said? How do we use the Spirit? Sometimes theological statements are no help in our life until we bring them out of general principles and put them into real life situations. Theological truths can sometimes become clichés if we are not careful. Growing a garden When you grow a garden you are always contending with weeds. Weeds are like sin--if you don't keep them in check--they could take over. But is the goal of gardening to keep the weeds away? No, of course no

Be Holy as I am Holy

Holiness--what is it? God is holy. God tells us to be holy like He is holy. But what in the world does that mean? When we put our faith in Him, He says we ARE holy, so what does it mean to be holy after that? Can we become un-holy? What does holy even mean? Is it just some religious word that is to be thrown around in the church? A good Christianese term to confuse outsiders? My son's pants always have holes in the knees, is he to be considered holy? When we are spoken of by God to be holy, it simply means to be "cleaned and set apart for a special use". Particularly as used in religious devotion. It is used in contrast to the ordinary and common use items. In our house, we have used "Mama's special dishes" to demonstrate an example of something that is clean and set aside for a special use. We wouldn't call them holy, but when you are speaking in relation to a deity, the reference is "holy". Be holy as I am holy In 1 Peter

It's MY Gift and I'm NOT Giving it Away!

The big question What do you love to do? If you had your choice to wake up--assuming sleeping isn't your favorite-- and do something every day, what would it be? What gets you fired up? What do you dream about? What do you spend your money on? What makes you the most happy when you are doing it? What are you good at? Desires of your heart In Psalm 37:4 it says this, "Delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart". Assuming that delighting yourself in the Lord is your highest priority as a believer, what are the desires of your heart? What is your passion? These righteous passions are given to you by God. Follow your heart? but, but--cue the Hallmark music! We all have certain "gifts". Spiritual gifts. God has given you these desires and passions--gifts. There is one catch though--these gifts aren't for you. He provides you with these gifts so that you may give them away for Him. You are only th

Hate Your Neighbor

Reaching out to a neighbor Sometimes the best of intentions can back fire. We intend to make a friend and we make a new enemy. Why is this? What happens that changes things so quickly? There is a story in 2 Samuel 10 where King David desires to befriend a neighboring king. "10 After this the king of the Ammonites died, and Hanun his son reigned in his place. 2 And David said, 'I will deal loyally with Hanun the son of Nahash, as his father dealt loyally with me.' So David sent by his servants to console him concerning his father".  What a good thing David intends to do. How could this possibly go wrong? Self-fulfilling prophecies When David's men get to the Ammonites, do they get a warm greeting? No. They get humiliated! Why? “ Do you think, because David has sent comforters to you, that he is honoring your father? Has not David sent his servants to you to search the city and to spy it out and to overthrow it ”? Distrust Have you ever assumed th