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April 25, 2020

A Son is Part of the Family Forever”

35 A slave is not a permanent member of the family, but a son is part of the family forever.- John 8:35  NIV

Our Father 

We are born of the flesh and thus we follow after the lusts of the flesh just like the crowds in the day of Jesus. We follow the advice of our fleshly father, satan. Yes, we may have earthly parents who have accepted Jesus, but unless we have made that decision for ourselves, we are still children of the flesh, just as the people were then. If we were truly children of the living God, we would not live a lifestyle of sin. We would follow the example Jesus set for us. We should know and understand that when we accept Jesus, our lifestyles will change. When we have been born of the Spirit, we walk in the Spirit and not in the flesh. Yes, we will occasionally sin, but it will not be our lifestyle. Christianity is not a religion, it is a relationship with a living Lord. It is not a negative lifestyle, but it should be the most positive of all lifestyles since we, and we alone, have the hope of eternal life with Jesus. Jesus came to us from the Father to redeem us from sin and show us the way to the Father. If God is truly our Father, we will tell others about our hope in Jesus because we will be overflowing with hope through the power of the Holy Spirit.

13 I pray that God, the source of hope, will fill you completely with joy and peace because you trust in him. Then you will overflow with confident hope through the power of the Holy Spirit.—Romans 15:13 (NLT)

“The Gospel has come to you because it’s on its way to someone else.” -Anonymous

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February 12, 2019

“For His Glory”

11  Revive me, O Lord, for Your name’s sake! For Your righteousness’ sake bring my soul out of trouble. — Psalm 143:11 NKJV

Psalm 143:7-12 NKJV

Post There are times in our lives when everything around us seems to be going in the wrong direction.  There are situations that we have prayed about on a daily basis, we have checked the Scriptures to be sure that our request does not violate them in any way and we have agreed with others in our request.  Yet, we still don’t see any positive results.  It is then that we, as the Psalmist does here, must fall on our faces and ask God to fulfill our request, not for our sake, but for the glory of His name.  The end of our rope is the beginning of our hope.  The surety that God cannot be defeated and that He will not give His glory to anyone else is our hope and our reason for being confident that He will act.  Yes, it will be in His time and in His way, but He will act. So, when satan seems to be winning the battle, we appeal to God to act speedily for His name’s sake.  And He will do it.

10  Behold, I have refined you, but not as silver;  I have tested you in the furnace of affliction.  11  For My own sake, for My own sake, I will do it;  For how should My name be profaned?  And I will not give My glory to another. — Isaiah 48:10, 11 NKJV

“The closer I get to the end of my life, it seems the only question that matters, Is the life I am living pleasing to God?” – Ken Gire In “Sacred”

“The Gospel has come to you because it’s on its way to someone else.” – Anonymous

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March 25, 2018

“Accentuate the Positive”**

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16 Don’t you realize that you become the slave of whatever you choose to obey? You can be a slave to sin, which leads to death, or you can choose to obey God, which leads to righteous living. – Romans 6:16 NLT
 
Romans 6:15-18 NLT


We were all born in sin into a sinful world, We live in a fleshly tent that desires to sin. In our own strength, we will never be free from those desires. The flesh lusts after money, power, and pleasures. When we lived a sinful lifestyle, we were being obedient to the flesh and the flesh was our master. Though we didn’t realize it at the time, we were slaves to sin and we were held in bondage by satan. But Jesus died and rose again that we might be free from that bondage.  Now, we can make a choice to live a life that is obedient to Jesus Christ. We are covered with His righteousness. But our freedom does not give us license to live a sinful lifestyle. We will all still sin occasionally, but our focus should not be on sinning, but on living a Christlike lifestyle. We used to have a carnal mind and followed after carnal things, Now, we have the mind of Christ and follow after Spiritual things.

Phil. 2:1-5 NLT


“The Gospel has come to you because it’s on its way to someone else.” – Anonymous

**Lyrics by Johnny Mercer

 

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August 27, 2016

What Is Not Said

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19 I have not spoken in secret,
In a dark place of the earth;
I did not say to the seed of Jacob,
‘Seek Me in vain’;
I, the Lord, speak righteousness,
I declare things that are right. — Psalm 45:19 NKJV
Isaiah 45:18-22 NKJV
Have you ever had one of those conversations or listened to a speech or a sermon and felt like something was missing?  You know, the ones where we trust the person speaking and believe that what he/she said is the truth but it still felt like we were missing something.  Sometimes the things that are not said can be as important and truthful as the things that are said.  In this verse when we put it in context we see that God is reassuring the Jews that if they seek Him, it will not be in vain.  He is using the negative to confirm that the times they found Him was when they sought Him with all of their hearts.  Before and after this, He used the positive.  Over and over, we are told of the blessings of seeking God with all of our hearts both in the Old Testament and the New Testament.  We can be assured that if we seek Him diligently, believing that we will find Him, there are blessings and rewards for doing so.
 
 6 But without faith it is impossible to please Him,for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him. —
Hebrews 11:9 NKJV
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April 15, 2016

It’s All Around You

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20 One day the Pharisees asked Jesus, “When will the Kingdom of God come?”

Jesus replied, “The Kingdom of God can’t be detected by visible signs. 21 You won’t be able to say, ‘Here it is!’ or ‘It’s over there!’ For the Kingdom of God is already among you — Luke 17:20, 21 NLT

 Luke 17:20-37

The coming of the end of time and the return of Jesus are discussions that take up a lot of time and energy.  They are used positively in the fact that the hope of Christians is that this is factual and will happen.  They are used negatively by those that are non-belivers because they hear the same story over and over and it hasn’t happened in over two centuries.  There is much discussion among believers because we can’t agree on the meaning of what is written in the Book of The Revelation.  Jesus tells us that only the Father knows the day and the hour when Jesus will return. Mark 13:32-37   Knowing that we can’t really know the time when Jesus will return, let us be concerned about the things we can and do know.  Jesus tell us here that “the Kingdom of God is already among you” and in Hebrews, we are told that we have come to Mount Zion and are receiving an unshakable Kingdom. Both of these verbs are present and future.   Hebrews 12:18-28 

We have the Kingdom of God dwelling in us because the Holy Spirit abides within us.  And one day, we will receive the fullness of that Kingdom when we arrive in heaven.  Our concern needs to be on obedience to God so that we make it to heaven and to bring as many others with us as we can.  Our purpose on earth is to glorify God by witnessing for Him now.  He will take care of the “later”.
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September 30, 2014

We Must Show God’s Love by Loving Others

God is waiting to show you the Way.

God is waiting to show you the Way.

11 This is the message you have heard from the beginning: We should love one another.12 We must not be like Cain, who belonged to the evil one and killed his brother. And why did he kill him? Because Cain had been doing what was evil, and his brother had been doing what was righteous. 13 So don’t be surprised, dear brothers and sisters, if the world hates you. 14 If we love our brothers and sisters who are believers, it proves that we have passed from death to life. But a person who has no love is still dead. 15 Anyone who hates another brother or sister is really a murderer at heart. And you know that murderers don’t have eternal life within them. 16 We know what real love is because Jesus gave up his life for us. So we also ought to give up our lives for our brothers and sisters. 17 If someone has enough money to live well and sees a brother or sister​ ​i​n need but shows no compassion—how can God’s love be in that person?—1 John 3:11-17 (NLT)
​As Christians, most of us, at sometime or other, have met other people and we sensed immediately that they were Christians. There was a kindred Spirit that we could easily identify. This Spirit is God’s Holy Spirit indwelling us and we can feel the love of the other person almost immediately. We must never feel hatred for those around us, whether they be Christian brothers and sisters or not. We must always reflect the love of Jesus by loving others. First, to our own household, then our church, and then those around us. We should never have the attitude of the expert in religious law that Jesus encountered in Luke 10. He asked Jesus, “who is my neighbor”? This was an effort on his part to get Jesus to identify specific people that he should help. This would limit his responsibilities to others. We are to help all those that Jesus puts in our path. It is not God’s will that any should perish. Therefore, it becomes our responsibility to lead as many as possible to Christ by showing them the love of Christ. Our lifestyles should show others that Christianity is not a bunch of “don’ts” and negativism, but that it is a positive relationship with a living Lord.
Post 09-30-14