Giving All We Have To Glorify God When I read this earlier it rolled over me like water off a ducks back. Last night when I read this it hit with the full force of a semi. The words fired at me as cannon and hit upon my soul with shaking and awakening. Lift it all up to the Lord and leave nothing behind, for He is worthy of all praise, all riches and all our lives. We are honored to give our best to Him. Luke 21 NKJV 1…
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Judging This is another look at judging others. This is at least the second time we have discussed this in the past few weeks. Is it okay to judge if one is willing to accept the same judgement? Should we stand firm in our flexibility of judging another – what I mean is, sometimes we make judgements that are not of character nor of a any aspect of a person but of situations – is this part of the teaching that Paul is discussing? Romans 2 NKJV 1 Therefore you…
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Grace and Apostleship for Obedience We are the called of Jesus Christ and through our obedience receive grace and apostleship? Supernatural in our being, if we get out of the way and allow the Spirit of holiness to overcome our lives? What a powerful greeting. What would happen to our world if more of us read, fully understood and acted upon these very simple, straight-forward and powerful greeting from Paul? Romans 1 NKJV 1 Paul, a bondservant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apostle, separated to the gospel of…
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Following Jesus This has been a difficult part of scripture for me. I have been struggling for close to a year with these few passages and handful of words. I have prayed, I have spoken with my Pastor and I have prayed more and more about what Jesus is saying to me about “following Him”. Does this mean, literally, to drop everything, as Peter and Simon did, and follow Jesus or is this a parable that I have not been able to crack? Luke 18 NKJV 26 And those who…
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Growing In Christ – Increasing Our Faith By saying our prayers audibly we create vibration and we bring the Holy Spirit to us immediately. As is stated below, this is our duty, this is our responsibility in order to get closer to God and walk with Jesus. Luke 17 NKJV 5 And the apostles said to the Lord, “Increase our faith.” 6 So the Lord said, “If you have faith as a mustard seed, you can say to this mulberry tree, ‘Be pulled up by the roots and be planted…
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God and mammon Is “mammon” a person, a thing or simply a word that translates to wealth, currency or possessions? In the NKJV of Luke it is, to me, unclear how this word is used. Words are extremely important which is why I limit my use of Twitter, the self-imposed destroyer of language. Words in context are even more important. I have thought a lot about these few passages and will bring them to my Friday Morning Mens Bible Study to seek guidance from people with 40+ years experience. In…
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Baptized In The Holy Spirit If you have been Baptized then you already know what a release, a joy and renewal it is for the soul. If you haven’t, you should consider talking to your Pastor about the most significant changes a person can experience. Renewed in Christ, forgiven of all sin and a stillness that can not be described is what happened to me on July 8, 2018. My first baptism was on December 6, 2002, the day I got sober, I should say it was more of trial…
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‘Friend, Go Up Higher.’ Humility. Who doesn’t need to work on their humility? This is one of those characteristics that we are slow to learn and quick to forget. The thing is, just as Jesus points out, when we humble ourselves others see this and naturally respond in a positive manner to who we are, even if it’s just in that moment. Luke 14 NKJV 7 So He told a parable to those who were invited, when He noted how they chose the best places, saying to them: 8 “When…
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What Is This Division? Below are Jesus’ words not mine or anyone else. These words are in stark contrast to what Jesus usually teaches, or are they? We can not be good stewards of the gift from God if we ignore our surroundings. If we simply skip down the road living in a unicorn and rainbow filled world how will we ever see the danger that awaits us? I am not a fatalist, I am, however, a realist. The world I live in is beautiful and filled with God’s grace…
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Hypocrisy May Be The Greatest Sin of All I heard it said close to 30 years ago that hypocrisy was the greatest sin. I have never even thought of hypocrisy as a “sin”. It is not one of the 7 sins we have been taught about and heard about all our lives. If you think about hypocrisy and how it works it could certainly be viewed as a sin simply based on the dynamics and how it always involves other people – always. Jesus talks about hypocrisy in what seems…
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