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Showing posts from January 8, 2017

1.14-How to do difficult things from a Jesus follower perspective. Pete Caroll and the Seahawks

-Have faith in God.   -Know the general description of what you want moved. -Know where you want the thing moved. -Say exactly what you want to happen.   Don’t waste words. -Ask God in prayer for what you want. -Believe that you have already received it because in a visionary, seeing it way you have received it. -Forgive anything you have against anyone including yourself and your past. Mark 11. 22  “Have faith in God,” Jesus answered. 23  “Truly [ f ] I tell you, if anyone says to this mountain, ‘Go, throw yourself into the sea,’ and does not doubt in their heart but believes that what they say will happen, it will be done for them. 24  Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours. 25  And when you stand praying, if you hold anything against anyone, forgive them, so that your Father in heaven may forgive you your sins.” [26]  [ g ]   ...

1.13-Do not be afraid. The more faith in Jesus the less fear.

Genesis 26. 24  That night the Lord appeared to him and said, “I am the God of your father Abraham. Do not be afraid, for I am with you; I will bless you and will increase the number of your descendants for the sake of my servant Abraham.”  Matthew 8. 23  Then he got into the boat and his disciples followed him. 24  Suddenly a furious storm came up on the lake, so that the waves swept over the boat. But Jesus was sleeping. 25  The disciples went and woke him, saying, “Lord, save us! We’re going to drown!” 26  He replied, “You of little faith, why are you so afraid?” Then he got up and rebuked the winds and the waves, and it was completely calm. 27  The men were amazed and asked, “What kind of man is this? Even the winds and the waves obey him!”

1.11-The story of the Lost Wallet

What makes me really happy is to call the Chic fila where I think I lost my wallet and they say, "Yes, it is here." This morning I went to my Walmart to pay for a few groceries and reached for my wallet and it was gone.  I immediately went to my car to check there.  Quickly I called the Chic fila where I had just left.  I had a high sense of priority of getting my lost wallet. Have you lost a wallet or purse or phone been joyous when you found it.?  Did you go through a time when it was lost and you were frantic and committed to do all you could to get it. God has children who are lost.  Lost in money slavery whether they are rich or poor. Lost in addictions to alcohol or drugs. Sex trade and pornography has trapped broken many.  Gambling has ruined the lives of many.  Habitual hate and anger.  Greed, jealousy and slander have destroyed civility.  God cries over this lostness like we we cry over a lost material possession but much more...

1.10-God's loving children are mixed in with fake and phony imitators. That's normal.

1.10. Matthew 7. 13  “Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. 14  But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it. Quote from Richard Beck's Blog, Experimental Theology Christians are indistinguishable from other men either by nationality, language or customs. They do not inhabit separate cities of their own, or speak a strange dialect, or follow some outlandish way of life. Their teaching is not based upon reveries inspired by the curiosity of men. Unlike some other people, they champion no purely human doctrine. With regard to dress, food and manner of life in general, they follow the customs of whatever city they happen to be living in, whether it is Greek or foreign. And yet there is something extraordinary about their lives. They live in their own countries as though they were only passing through. They play their full role as citiz...

1.12.-Life with the family is messy.

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Guest Post from Richard Beck. Wheat and Tares Posted on 1.10.2017 0 I've been thinking a lot about the Parable of the Wheat and the Tares. From the Gospel of Matthew: Matthew 13.24-30 He put another parable before them, saying, “The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a man who sowed good seed in his field, but while his men were sleeping, his enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat and went away. So when the plants came up and bore grain, then the weeds appeared also. And the servants of the master of the house came and said to him, ‘Master, did you not sow good seed in your field? How then does it have weeds?’ He said to them, ‘An enemy has done this.’ So the servants said to him, ‘Then do you want us to go and gather them?’ But he said, ‘No, lest in gathering the weeds you root up the wheat along with them. Let both grow together until the harvest, and at harvest time I will tell the reapers, Gather the weeds first and bind them in bundles to ...

1.9-Jesus was criticized for His love for sinners and time spent with them.

Matthew 9. 9  As Jesus went on from there, he saw a man named Matthew sitting at the tax collector’s booth. “Follow me,” he told him, and Matthew got up and followed him. 10  While Jesus was having dinner at Matthew’s house, many tax collectors and sinners came and ate with him and his disciples. 11  When the Pharisees saw this, they asked his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?” 12  On hearing this, Jesus said, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. 13  But go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’ [ a ] For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”

1.8-Our work is not to judge people but to love them.

Matthew 7. 7  “Do not judge, or you too will be judged. 2  For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you. 3  “Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? 4  How can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? 5  You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye. 6  “Do not give dogs what is sacred; do not throw your pearls to pigs. If you do, they may trample them under their feet, and turn and tear you to pieces.

1.8-God will never give us a schedule there is not time for Him.

Mark 1. 35  Very early in the morning, while it was still dark, Jesus got up, left the house and went off to a solitary place, where he prayed. 36  Simon and his companions went to look for him, 37  and when they found him, they exclaimed: “Everyone is looking for you!” 38  Jesus replied, “Let us go somewhere else—to the nearby villages—so I can preach there also. That is why I have come.” 39  So he traveled throughout Galilee, preaching in their synagogues and driving out demons.