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Showing posts from May, 2014

LIVE BY EXAMPLE

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John 13:1-20 A merchant, who had been a very worldly, godless man, was hopefully converted. On being asked what had been more especially the means of his conversion, he replied, "The example of one of my clerks." He went on to say that this young man was one "whose religion was in his life rather than in his tongue. When I uttered an oath he never reproved me; but I could see it deeply pained him. When I fell into a passion and behaved in a violent manner, though he spoke no word to that effect, I could see how painful the scene was to him. My respect for him led me to restrain myself in his presence, and gradually to break off both these habits. In fact, this man, though he never spoke a word to me on the subject of religion, exercised an influence for good over me, wielded by no other human being. To him, under God, I am indebted more than to any other, for the hope in which I now rejoice of eternal life through our Lord Jesus Christ."  Sometimes

Our Only Hope Is This

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Lam 3:22-23 “God’s consuming wrath!”  This is a sobering thought, especially when read this portion of Jeremiah's letter! It’s ONLY because of His mercy we are not consumed!  “Consumed” by definition is “to eat or drink up; devour, to destroy, as by decomposition or burning.  “Wrath” by definition is “violent anger; passionate or violent fury. When I think of those two words put together in the same sentence I’m reminded of the event between Elijah and the prophets of Baal. The bible tells us about an event in history where God displayed His amazing powers over fallible man and the god they created in their image. The battle to see whose God is better and more powerful! (1 Kings 18:20-39).  The only person you know who has the qualification to consume anything is God himself! Not only does He have the right to consume, but He also has the right to show grace where  He chooses………..He alone is 100% faithful 100% of the time. As Paul reminded Timothy “if we are faithles

The Persecuted Church

THE HEART TO EMBRACE FORGIVENESS

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Book of Philemon There are a lot of people who try to run from their past, with the hope that it will all go away in time and all will be forgotten.  But the sad reality is that never goes away it festers and eats away at your heart and conscience. For some it takes months, even years to realize the unresolved issues [whether it be a disagreement or a sin against one another]. We see this even in the church! Statistically this is one of the main reasons people leave churches and attend another one. This is one of the number one reasons why pastors leave churches. Trials happen and conflicts falls on families, marriages and people tend to flee then to work through the circumstance. See, unresolved issues or unwillingness to resolve issues is really sad, because unforgiveness is like a nasty virus and it will spread throughout the entire church if not dealt with immediately. And as Born Again Christians, sometimes the hardest part of dealing with forgiveness is being reconci