tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-82291928618820886992024-03-13T15:22:34.121-04:00On Being a Follower of JesusWill and Obedience. The perfecting link between God and man. Articulated by the Father and Son. Authenticated by the Spirit. Propagated by Jesus' followers.Jesus Followerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07403205375339466972noreply@blogger.comBlogger253125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8229192861882088699.post-78869003458939093882022-05-29T09:38:00.001-04:002022-05-29T09:38:36.424-04:00The New Kingdom.7<div class="separator"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhSPUQvI81TeuQUKLr39goY3qhytb-uGaL-9uLavaRpT_91nGEs-7M-thiKD9kFiHsmnpw5Rwg85qZ4Jyi_SFAfuqQ-j_LvLzcc0y0_QQq5GT-IJ0P4AhTtOXUCB1nSwmHeltwKu-DkrPCzjrW8O0xuGKBEggYlrm2n_3v12OfUTV6Ae3-g9QQVBZZS8Q/s446/Unpardonable%20Sin.png" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="446" data-original-width="329" height="306" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhSPUQvI81TeuQUKLr39goY3qhytb-uGaL-9uLavaRpT_91nGEs-7M-thiKD9kFiHsmnpw5Rwg85qZ4Jyi_SFAfuqQ-j_LvLzcc0y0_QQq5GT-IJ0P4AhTtOXUCB1nSwmHeltwKu-DkrPCzjrW8O0xuGKBEggYlrm2n_3v12OfUTV6Ae3-g9QQVBZZS8Q/w226-h306/Unpardonable%20Sin.png" width="226"></a></div><p><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;"><b>"Beware of how you treat this message: </b></span></span></p><p><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;"><b>for all of the sins of humankind will be forgiven, along with all of their blasphemies. </b></span></span></p><p><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;"><b>But there is no reconciliation for those who blaspheme the Holy Spirit. </b></span></span></p><p><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;"><b>This transgression is eternal." </b></span></span></p><p style="text-align: right;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;"><b>--Jesus</b></span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: large;"><span><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Years ago, while visiting with some neighborhood </span></span></span><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">friends, </span></span><span style="font-family: verdana; white-space: pre-wrap;">their young daughter s</span><span style="font-family: verdana; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"></span>oberly confessed that she had "committed the unpardonable sin". I don't recall what she thought she'd done that created the genuine fear she expressed. But I do recall thinking, "that's weird...such a young child to think that way. I wonder where she got that notion from?" Wondering, of course, if her parents knew what weighty theological concepts their daughter was wrestling with, and even suspecting that <i>maybe they weren't going to the "right" church</i>.</span></span></p><p></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;">What I failed to appreciate, however, was the child-like sensitivity to God's spirit and her earnest desire to be pleasing to Him!</span></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;">What the human race fails to appreciate, by and large, is how much we need God in our lives! Especially in the lawless age we live, how desperately we need a sense of the holy, sacred, beautiful, good, righteous and divine to cleanse a vile, vulgar, and blasphemous generation.</span></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;">He has surely made us capable of living outside a relationship with Him while still benefiting from His blessings. We can ignore, disregard and even live in open hostility to him.</span></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;">Yet He loves and forgives and loves where He cannot yet forgive. For the only sin God cannot forgive is the sin we will not stop doing!</span></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;">Blasphemy? We live in a world choking itself with blasphemy, for there is nothing sacred that cannot be poked fun at, criticized, or reviled, ala South Park, the Simpsons, and nearly every American so-called "comedy". (Comedy, it has been noted, is the doorway to bypass a person's natural defenses against the immoral, illicit and vile.) Add to that the unlimited pornographic images; the vulgar, unruly behavior presented as "normal" kid stuff; disrespectful and disruptive acts of violence in the classroom and school buses; appalling conversations regarding sex among the youngest of children. Therein is the recipe for a blasphemous generation.</span></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;">There is a terrible price to pay when a blasphemous spirit takes hold of a person and, consequently, like a cancer spreading, takes hold of a society. MacDonald describes the fruit of that spirit:</span></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;"></span></span></p><blockquote><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;">When a blasphemous spirit denies truth, </span></span></p><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: verdana; white-space: pre-wrap;">When </span></span><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-large; white-space: pre-wrap;">a blasphemous spirit</span><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: verdana; white-space: pre-wrap;"> says there is no truth, <br></span><span style="font-family: verdana; white-space: pre-wrap;">When </span></span><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-large; white-space: pre-wrap;">a blasphemous spirit</span><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: verdana; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span><span style="font-family: verdana; white-space: pre-wrap;">says that the truth you see is not true, <br></span><span style="font-family: verdana; white-space: pre-wrap;">When </span></span><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-large; white-space: pre-wrap;">a blasphemous spirit</span><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: verdana; white-space: pre-wrap;"> says that which is good is of Satan, <br></span><span style="font-family: verdana; white-space: pre-wrap;">When </span></span><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-large; white-space: pre-wrap;">a blasphemous spirit</span><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: verdana; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span><span style="font-family: verdana; white-space: pre-wrap;">says that which is bad is of God...</span></span><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-large; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></blockquote><blockquote><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-large; white-space: pre-wrap;">When a blasphemous spirit consciously resists duty, </span></blockquote><blockquote><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: verdana; white-space: pre-wrap;">Then a man </span><span style="font-family: verdana; white-space: pre-wrap;">denies the Spirit of God, </span><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">shuts out the Spirit of God, and </span></span><span style="font-family: verdana; white-space: pre-wrap;">he cannot be forgiven. </span></span><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;">For with out the Spirit <b><i>no forgiveness can enter the man to cast out the blasphemy</i></b>. </span></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;">Without the Spirit to witness with his spirit, no man could know himself either convicted of sin or forgiven of that sin, even if God appeared to him and said so."</span></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">(adapted from "<u>It Shall Not Be Forgiven</u>" by George MacDonald, Unspoken Sermons II)</span></span></p></blockquote><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;"></span></span></p><p style="text-align: left;">In essence, then, the blasphemy of the Spirit is when a man or woman so cuts themselves off from the redemptive work of God's Spirit that they cannot experience repentance, forgiveness and grace. This is, Jesus warned, an eternal, absolute, fixed condition of the relationship between human beings and their Triune Creator.</p><p style="text-align: left;">Clearly my young neighbor friend had nothing to worry about. But sometimes it's hard to see God's smile through the clouds of our own doubt!</p><p style="text-align: left;"><br></p>Jesus Followerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07403205375339466972noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8229192861882088699.post-70010093126896503652021-12-19T09:51:00.013-05:002021-12-19T10:01:10.637-05:00Christmas 2021<span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;">"Tears are falling, hearts are breaking</span><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: large;">How we need to hear from God</span><br /><span style="font-size: large;">You've been promised, we've been waiting</span><br /><span style="font-size: large;">Welcome Holy Child</span><br /><br /><span style="font-size: large;">Hope that You don't mind our manger</span><div class="separator" style="clear: both; font-size: x-large; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhSHZrFEk8_xJ-NotdbpZrfoDAg-4aVrW5YvXevfQvYrpfoFn_CjDokijBKtBEID7em24GbUwab7g9opCyTTgIZam_VJpA2jkkVHLy9uZ7J1AfzXZjsPgZ_v85cZj4F-oqp5KL9Cv0dw2ota2odQ34_0dWrKVNMYeTGIp4n7DM2tzj7s7gop3wb81Z5pA=s2790" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1800" data-original-width="2790" height="143" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhSHZrFEk8_xJ-NotdbpZrfoDAg-4aVrW5YvXevfQvYrpfoFn_CjDokijBKtBEID7em24GbUwab7g9opCyTTgIZam_VJpA2jkkVHLy9uZ7J1AfzXZjsPgZ_v85cZj4F-oqp5KL9Cv0dw2ota2odQ34_0dWrKVNMYeTGIp4n7DM2tzj7s7gop3wb81Z5pA=w223-h143" width="223" /></a></div><span style="font-size: large;">How I wish we could have known</span><br /><span style="font-size: large;">But long-awaited Holy Stranger</span><br /><span style="font-size: large;">Make Yourself at home</span><br /><span style="font-size: large;">Please make Yourself at home</span><br /><br /><span style="font-size: large;">Bring Your peace into our violence</span><br /><span style="font-size: large;">Bid our hungry souls be filled</span><br /><span style="font-size: large;">Word now breaking Heaven's silence</span><br /><span style="font-size: large;">Welcome to our world</span><br /><br /><span style="font-size: large;">Fragile finger sent to heal us</span><br /><span style="font-size: large;">Tender brow prepared for thorn</span><br /><span style="font-size: large;">Tiny heart whose blood will save us</span><br /><span style="font-size: large;">Unto us is born</span><br /><br /><span style="font-size: large;">So wrap our injured flesh around You</span><br /><span style="font-size: large;">Breathe our air and walk our sod</span><br /><span style="font-size: large;">Rob our sins and make us holy</span><br /><span style="font-size: large;">Perfect Son of God </span><br /><br /><span style="font-size: large;">Welcome to our world"</span><br /><br /><div style="text-align: right;"><u style="font-size: large;">Welcome to Our World</u><span style="font-size: large;">, words and music by Chris Rice</span></div><br /><span style="font-size: large;">This has become one of my favorite Christmas season songs! As I was listening to it today one line stood out to me:</span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></span></div><div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-large;"><b>"<i>How I wish that we had known</i>."</b></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-large;">Questions come to mind about how God made it known:</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;">There were <b>Prophecies</b> given, most notably, "<i>a virgin shall be with child</i>."</span></li><ul><li><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;">but how would that be verified?</span></li><li><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;">as far as we know, only one virgin ever, in the history of mankind, in the billions of people conceived and born, claimed no human father had been used in the making of her child (and the only guy who had a vested interest believed her!)</span></li></ul><li><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;">There was <b>The Star</b> pointing to the uniqueness of this particular child's birth. But what if God had waited until neon signs and billboards had been invented? ("SAVIOR'S BIRTHPLACE FIVE MILES AHEAD...LOOK FOR THE GIANT RED ARROW")</span></li><li><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;">There were <b>Angels</b> making the birth announcement. (The ultimate gender reveal party!) Yeah, right! We're not even getting all the government's secret files on UFO's yet, how could we possibly be asked to trust a report about extraterrestrials that hasn't been dissected by experts and CNN? </span></li><li><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;">There were <b>sheep herders</b> claiming they'd heard from Angels. C'mon man. These were not professional journalists with college degrees and access to 24 hour global news networks. Were they even vetted for their credibility? Do we know anything about their childhood traumas? Did anyone look into their social media accounts to see what their political and religious affiliations were? Where are their psychological evaluation reports?</span></li><li><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;">There were <b>wise men</b> bearing gifts. Gold, frankincense and myrrh. Seriously? What if Bill Gates (global information access), Elon Musk (universal technology master), Jeff Bezos (global distribution chain), Mark Zuckerberg (global communities), Goldman Sachs (global financial experts), Rupert Murdoch (global media magnate), George Soros (subverter of governments) and such had shown up? Serious media coverage and doors of opportunity would have been flung open to this fledgling savior. <i>Fame and fortune in an instant of time</i>...oh, wait, that was offered to him eventually, wasn't it?</span></li></ul><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;">"At just the right time..." so observed the Apostle Paul, who'd been blinded by the glory of the resurrected Jesus. Perhaps we should add "at the right place, to the right people, in the right circumstances." God did His part in <b><i>just the right way</i></b>, because it's not hard to imagine how the response to "<i>this day in the city of David, a savior has been born</i>" would have played out in the modern world. It would have made King Herod's attempt to snuff out the competition pale in comparison!</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;">One other line that caught my eye: </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;"><b>"<i>Bring your peace into our violence</i>."</b></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;">No matter how sophisticated and advanced technology becomes, no one but a Savior can change the human heart. The same heart that resides in every human being ever to walk this planet. The heart that has proven over millennia of time its capacity for malice, violence and destruction. All of us.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;">Only Jesus Christ can give us a new heart </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;">and with it a new life!</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;"><div style="text-align: center;"><b>"This means that</b></div><b><div style="text-align: center;"><b>anyone who belongs to Christ</b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b>has become a new person.</b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b>The old life is gone;</b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b>a new life has begun!"</b></div></b></span><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;">2 Corinthians 5:17</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;">That's why we celebrate December 25th, the day that marks the greatest gift ever given: </span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;"><b>a Savior who is Christ the Lord!</b></span></div></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;"><b><br /></b></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;">If you've never received this gift by opening your heart to Him and choosing to follow Him, why not let 2021 be the merriest of Christmases you'll ever know?!</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><iframe frameborder="0" height="360" src="https://youtube.com/embed/TsqoQC0yZsU" width="480"></iframe></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>Jesus Followerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07403205375339466972noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8229192861882088699.post-27465724955923923662021-11-25T08:42:00.002-05:002021-11-25T08:45:58.713-05:00The New Kingdom.6<span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;"><b>"Have you ever heard this reading from the scriptures: <br /><br />“The stone which the builders have rejected has become the honored cornerstone; this is the Lord’s doing, and marvelous in our eyes?” <br /><br />Behold, the kingdom of God will be taken from you who listen and do nothing and be given to a people working to bring forth fruit in their lives." <br /><br /><div style="text-align: right;"><b>--Jesus</b></div></b><br /><b> The Builders </b><br /><br />Who are the "builders" in society? Why would it matter whether they rejected or accepted a thing? The case can be made it is either A: those who insist on maintaining the status quo (like the Pharisees of Jesus' time using legalism to keep people in line.) B: the visionaries who "see" the way society could be shaped through the marketplace or government coercion. <br /><br />Henry Ford, for example, was a visionary who saw<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-bVVQeCY_LU8/YZ-QVcGePLI/AAAAAAABBLE/bSLgd5hPIO4H-CfOjuFP_Jtp0wAdXqusgCLcBGAsYHQ/s408/Ford%2BModel%2BT.webp" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="230" data-original-width="408" height="180" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-bVVQeCY_LU8/YZ-QVcGePLI/AAAAAAABBLE/bSLgd5hPIO4H-CfOjuFP_Jtp0wAdXqusgCLcBGAsYHQ/w320-h180/Ford%2BModel%2BT.webp" width="320" /></a></div>how the automobile could change the way people lived. By devising a way to mass produce them and make them affordable, he allowed the marketplace to drive societal change. <br /><br />The issues surrounding Covid 19 Vaccine is another example of a coercive method to change society <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-ZQvxLozT3-I/YZ-Qsd2ynyI/AAAAAAABBLM/h9Db7w2eriM4B5xkDjFvGSxhyFXMGj8AwCLcBGAsYHQ/image.png" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="450" data-original-width="800" height="180" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-ZQvxLozT3-I/YZ-Qsd2ynyI/AAAAAAABBLM/h9Db7w2eriM4B5xkDjFvGSxhyFXMGj8AwCLcBGAsYHQ/image.png" width="320" /></a></div>driven by the “experts”(a significant arm of today’s “builders”) . The Mrna technology is a complicated science that seems to hold great promise for healing many human diseases. But, like any complicated technology, for example cell phones, rather than patiently educating the public and allowing the marketplace to drive the acceptance of the change in dealing with disease, Governments are using the power of the state to force people into compliance and dramatic changes in society. <br /><br />The builders of any era are usually the wealthy and/or credentialed who, of course, consider themselves superior to the common man and, by their worldview, reject any infringement on their goals. Manipulating public opinion is always an important aspect of the work of the builders. While living in Gratiot County Michigan several years ago, we encountered a technique developed for that purpose. It is called “The Delta Technique.” We discovered that our county had made a great effort to develop what they called “The Gratiot Master Plan.” It contained Eight objectives ranging from recreational activities to downtown business development. In essence, it was a Communist style central planning effort for the communities of Gratiot County. <br /><br />The meeting we attended to introduce the “Master Plan” utilized the Delta Technique to near perfection. A charismatic Moderator introduced The Master Plan to an audience of about 100 citizens. Then the audience was broken down into 8 small groups where a Facilitator armed with a marker, paper sheets and easel guided discussion in the groups. Unbeknownst to the group the facilitator was trained to marginalize ideas that distracted from their objective. The facilitator’s goal was to enthusiastically report to the main audience that their group had freely come up ideas to implement the plan! Ideas the group was unwittingly led to embrace! <br /><br />Questions the builders of Jesus’ day posed to Jesus usually had to do with His authority to teach and act in the way He did, which most often exposed their own spiritual bankruptcy. Questions such as “why do your disciples not follow the traditions of the elders?”, rather than show their spiritual authority demonstrated an arrogant unwillingness to learn from the Lord of Life.<br /><br />George MacDonald accurately describes these types of questions as distractions from the essential work of doing what God asks us to do: <br /><br />“[they] spring from the passion for the fruit of the tree of knowledge, not the fruit of the tree of life. <br /><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;"><b>Men would understand; they do not care to obey</b>;</span></li><li>to understand where it is <b>impossible they should understand except by obeying</b>.</li><li>They would <b>search into the work of the Lord instead of doing their part</b> in it—</li><li>thus <b>making it impossible both for the Lord to go on</b> with His work,</li><li>and for themselves to <b>become capable of seeing and understanding</b> what He does.</li><li>Instead of <b>immediately obeying</b> the Lord of Life, </li><ul><li>the <b>one condition upon which he can help them</b>, </li><li>and in itself<b> the beginning of their deliverance</b>, </li></ul><li>they <b>set themselves to question</b> their unenlightened intellects as to His plans for their deliverance…”</li></ul>It reminds me of a young man on my bus recently who was acting up. I told him to stop what he was doing. He responded with, “Why?” I immediately stopped, got out of my seat and walked to the back of the bus to have a little chat. I reminded him that he will always have people in his life telling him what to do, and for the most part, they want him to make a good go in life. "<i>Rather than question why and deciding for yourself if you’ll do what’s asked, the proper response, and the one that will ensure a lifelong measure of success, is to just do what’s asked and learn to quickly and cheerfully figure the best way to do it!</i>"<br /><br />After all, it's really an attitude of the heart, isn’t it? R</span><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;">a</span><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;">ther</span><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;"> than people who chafe at and question everything he tells them to do, w</span><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;">hy wouldn’t the King of Glory want to populate His kingdom with people of the humble heart, demonstrated by their desire to quickly, cheerfully and completely obey the things that show they trust and love Him! </span><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;"><br /><br /><b>It is the only way to know His heart, understand His purposes and help Him build a society truly worth living in! </b>Let us then, always be mindful that every time we do what the Lord asks us to do, or not do what He tells us not to, we are helping Him build a world worthy of Life and Love!</span>Jesus Followerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07403205375339466972noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8229192861882088699.post-21459570473783468622021-10-10T10:45:00.001-04:002021-10-10T10:45:53.129-04:00The New Kingdom.5<p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;"><b>"<span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">Let your children stand before you as your judges; they can settle this dispute, for if your children cast out devils by the breath of God, then the kingdom is indeed come to dwell among you." --Jesus</span></b></span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><b>Casting Out Devils</b></span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">The ultimate measure of the spiritual health of a culture can be found in the children. If parents have been feckless, indifferent and downright neglectful in protecting the next generation from true Satanic evil in the world, the evidence is in the behavior and attitudes of the children.</span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-large; white-space: pre-wrap;">Measuring Manners </span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">In a recent conversation with my father in law about his Amish neighbors (whom he's never had a particularly high opinion of) I asked him to consider the fact that the Amish community still knows how to raise respectful, kind and hard working kids. I said you could make the case they are raising the kind of kids most Americans were like decades ago. "If you doubt me," I said, "walk through the halls of any public school or ride a school bus. You'd be appalled at the language and conversation of today's American children!"</span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">Targeting youth has always been the aim of those who want to see generational change. Here are just a few quotes from the dark side of history:</span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></span></p><blockquote><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">"<i>Give me just one generation of youth and I'll transform the whole world</i>." Vladimir Lenin</span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">"<i>Give me your four year olds and in a generation I will build a socialist state</i>." Lenin</span></span></p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;">“<i>The whole function of education is to create a Nazi</i>.”<br />Bernhard Rust, Nazi education minister, February 1938<br /><br />“<i>We begin with the child when he is three years old. As soon as he begins to think, he gets a little flag put into his hand. Then he follows the school, the Hitler Youth, the SA and military training. We don’t let him go. And then when adolescence is passed, then comes the Arbeitsfront, which takes him again and does not let him go until he dies, whether he likes it or not.</i>”<br />Robert Ley, Nazi labour chief, 1938<br /><br />“<i>The children of today are the fighters of tomorrow. Their hardening and preparation is a task as important as that of the armaments industry.</i>”<br />Schul-Rundkfunk education journal, January 1940<br /><br />“<i>My teaching is hard. Weakness has to be<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-6LK8x5Duax0/YWL1Z1JQi7I/AAAAAAABAtE/_VQyJmv_gDM8UgAjEVPVpOQkufZ7fcbnQCLcBGAsYHQ/s252/nazi%2Byouth.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="252" data-original-width="200" height="252" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-6LK8x5Duax0/YWL1Z1JQi7I/AAAAAAABAtE/_VQyJmv_gDM8UgAjEVPVpOQkufZ7fcbnQCLcBGAsYHQ/s0/nazi%2Byouth.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>knocked out of them. In my Ordensburgen, a youth will grow up before which the world will shrink back. A violently active, dominating, intrepid youth, that is what I am after. Youth must be all those things. It must be indifferent to pain. There must be no tenderness or weakness in it. I want to see once more in its eyes the gleam of pride and independence of the beast of prey. Strong and handsome will my men be… Then I shall have in front of me the pure and noble natural material. With that, I can create the new order.</i>”<br />Adolf Hitler, quoted by Herman Rauschning, 1940<br /><br />“<i>Nazi schools are no place for weaklings. All children must, of course, finish primary school before they are ten but after that, the schools are proving grounds for the Party. Those who betray any weakness of body or have not the capacities for absolute obedience and submission must be expelled.</i>”<br />Gregor Ziemer, American teacher, 1941<br /><br />“[Hitlerjugend leader] Baldur von Schirach was guilty of far more than war crimes. His was the deadly evil of corrupting the young. He poisoned the minds of an entire German generation. He trained and schooled the SS men, the men of the gas vans, the men of Auschwitz and Majdanek.”<br />New Central European Observer, 1948</span></blockquote><p><br /></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;">The Holy Spirit revealed to Paul 2,000 years ago that the end of the age would usher in an epidemic of demon-inspired disobedient children! <i><b>The current influence of the Tic Toc app is a great example of combining an atmosphere of rebellion with a willing audience to achieve destructive ends.</b></i> My 5th grade granddaughter has reported that the current trend on Tic Toc is to video yourself slapping a teacher! In a conversation with a local high school custodian, I learned that not a week goes by without the police being called in and escorting a student out of the building, often in handcuffs, for doing destructive things,</span><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;"> imitating what they saw on Tic Toc and other social media!</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;">Do these anecdotes prove we are in the period of time Paul described in II Timothy 3:1 as "perilous" characterized by, among many things, "disobedient children"? Or are we just living in a time period when technology magnifies the "outliers" creating another illusion that things are far worse than they actually are?</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;">If God assured Elijah that 7,000 had not bowed the knee to Baal, we can be assured that Jesus' work of Righteous Redemption has born fruit in tens of (if not 100's of) millions of people world wide who choose light over darkness. But since darkness seems to be in charge of much of what is projected through media, Satan's message that "resistance is futile" will cause many to succumb to the relentless assault on righteousness as we approach the last of the last days.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;">As Satan as always done, he continues to target children. It's why, in my opinion, children were such an important focus of Jesus' teachings while on earth. In fact, He went so far as to say that unless you and I become like children we will never see his kingdom!</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;"><b>Settling Disputes</b></span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;">The argument the religious leaders put forward, that essentially deflected away from their own spiritual impotence, was that Jesus' ability to "cast out demons" came from Satan himself. Jesus, of course, exposed the folly of such an argument and demonstrated that it was an emotional attack designed to elicit shock from the public and undermine growing public confidence in Jesus' teachings and power. As He did on many occasions, Jesus used Children to illustrate eternal truth:</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;">-When the disciples got embroiled in a dispute over</span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-X84nJF81NfI/YWL1pjFz9AI/AAAAAAABAtM/QwlBIcuB-EoYMiC_sQfLFbuB-APGYElewCLcBGAsYHQ/s255/jesus%2Band%2Bchildren1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="198" data-original-width="255" height="198" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-X84nJF81NfI/YWL1pjFz9AI/AAAAAAABAtM/QwlBIcuB-EoYMiC_sQfLFbuB-APGYElewCLcBGAsYHQ/s0/jesus%2Band%2Bchildren1.jpg" width="255" /></a></span></div><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;">"kingdom standing", Jesus took a child to settle the dispute about true greatness.</span><p></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;">-When Nicodemus questioned Jesus' authority, Jesus said understanding the work of God's Spirit requires a born again experience, essentially returning to a childlike state of grace and trust.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;">-He became indignant at any attempt to keep children from receiving His blessing and being near Him.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;">-He made it clear that receiving a child is indeed receiving His childlike, obedient nature, the truest picture of the Nature of God himself.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;">-If the childlike character of grace and truth can overcome and "cast out" the lies and deception of Satan, what does it say about the sorry state of religious legalism?</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;"> There is a growing controversy in American culture over what many believe to be Satanically inspired school curriculum and parents who want to protect their own children from wrong influences. The moms and dads showing up at school board meetings to defend truth are the offspring of the baby boomer generation who have failed to protect our culture from the lies and deception of the evil one! May God help these children settle this dispute and restore childlike character to our culture! </span> </p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;"></span><p><span face="Lato, sans-serif" style="background-color: ghostwhite; border: 0px; color: #2b2b2b; font-style: italic; font-weight: 900; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="border: 0px; font-family: trebuchet; font-size: large; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"></span></span></span></span></span></span></p>Jesus Followerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07403205375339466972noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8229192861882088699.post-31836806081431657592021-09-05T07:16:00.005-04:002021-11-29T05:27:32.031-05:00The New Kingdom.4<span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;"><b>"One cannot be liberated from the kingdom of the evil one without first binding his power. If I cast out devils and perform signs and wonders as an ally of the devil, as some of you accuse me, then by what power do your children do the same?"<br /></b><div style="text-align: right;"><b>--Jesus</b></div><br /><b>Klashing Kingdoms</b><br /><br /><br />Kingdom (definition): <br /><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;">sovereignty,</span><div class="separator"><a href="https://www.blogger.com/#" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-0XJtfcBseRY/YO1ltLtcMSI/AAAAAAAA_SI/W3B_JslE0Pc4k8Mx_-6pfS91IphewR7kwCLcBGAsYHQ/w255-h191/DSCF2196.JPG" /></a></div></li><li>dominion,</li><li>royal power;</li><li>the territory or people over whom a king rules;</li><li>the sphere of a King's rule;</li><li>the sphere in which, at any given time, His rule is acknowledged."</li></ul></span><div><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-large;"><blockquote><i>"Jesus is a King because his business is to bear witness to the truth. What truth? All truth; all verity of relation throughout the universe--first of all, that his father is Good, perfectly good; and that the crown and joy of life is to desire and do the will of the eternal source of will, and of all life." -MacDonald</i></blockquote></span></div><div><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-26YJMRHUhp4/YTNkSsI0t4I/AAAAAAABAPU/YJVmsi_6iEoRgABhGYC10wkmfcZjHrm_QCLcBGAsYHQ/s224/devil.jpeg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-26YJMRHUhp4/YTNkSsI0t4I/AAAAAAABAPU/YJVmsi_6iEoRgABhGYC10wkmfcZjHrm_QCLcBGAsYHQ/s0/devil.jpeg" /></a><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;"><br />With a nod to comedian Flip Wilson, </span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;">"<b><i>The Devil made him do it!</i></b>"</span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;">is always an easy way for accusers of the righteous to try to grab the moral high ground against their perceived enemies. The Chosen, a tv series on the life of Christ and the Twelve disciples, does a terrific job of depicting the egregious hostility by the religious overlords of the day toward the Son of God, often accusing him of being in collaboration with the devil!<br /><br />What gets lost in the ensuing debate is that the devil is actually quite capable of enormous destruction in the lives of people. Matthew describes an especially violent encounter with two demoniacs in 8:28:<br /><blockquote><i>"And when he was come to the other side into the country of the Gergesenes, there met him two possessed with devils, coming out of the tombs, <b>exceeding fierce</b>, so that no man might pass by that way.." </i></blockquote>Pastor/author Rick Renner explains that the Greek word used to describe the demoniacs as "exceeding fierce" is <b><i>chalepos</i></b> and means <i><b>danger, risk, hurt, hazard, and potential wounding, like wild, vicious, and uncontrollable animals.</b></i> They were unpredictable and dangerous. In fact, they were potentially treacherous and hurtful to anyone who tried to pass by that way. As a result of their well-known, dangerous behaviors, people found this situation emotionally hard to bear. This is what the word <b><i>chalepos</i></b> conveys: harsh, harmful, cruel, ruthless, cutting and wounding that is unpredictable, dangerous and emotionally difficult.<br /><br />Before Jesus liberated the demoniacs, they'd made a habit of charging out of the caves along the road that ran along the eastern side of the sea of Galilee, terrifying people who tried to pass by on the seaside road near their dwellings in the caves and tombs. These men presented a real danger which caused the people in that region to avoid this area and keep a distance between themselves and those demoniacs, aware that they were walking into a hazardous situation.<br /><br />But, as was His practice, rather than avoid the area, Jesus met the danger head on! The result was liberation and peace not only for the demoniacs but the people of the area and travelers on the sea side road! <br /><br />And yet, the overlords found reason to criticize...<br /><br />What is the greater danger: exceedingly fierce demon possession or spiritual pride-induced blindness? If I recall correctly, it was the spiritually blind who eventually contrived to put Jesus to death. Perhaps the lesson to be learned is this: the demon possessed can be set free through the liberating power of the Holy Spirit; the demon-deceived are the ones who cause the real problems for the righteous!<br /><br />Exceedingly fierce times are coming when all Hell will break loose on the earth! In fact, every measure points to the fact that we are the ones chosen to live in the <i><b>perilous times</b></i> Paul describes in II Timothy 3:1, where he uses the same Greek word, <i><b>chalepos</b></i>, to describe this time period--"<i>when time has sailed to its last port and no more time remains for the journey</i>." Like the demoniacs Jesus liberated, the time will be "exceeding fierce" characterized by harsh, harmful, cruel, ruthless, cutting and wounding that is emotionally difficult to bear.<br /><br /><b>Victors Not Victims</b><br /><br />Jesus is our Example. What terrified others called Him to action. The same should be true of his Followers in today's volatile climate.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;"> </span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;">Others would have turned around, gotten back into their boat, and sailed away to get out of the area. But Jesus was called to that place at that time to bring deliverance to the demoniacs in the country of the Gadarenes. Had He run away from that Divine assignment, He would have missed the opportunity to set an entire region free. As "perilous" and "exceedingly fierce" as those demoniacs were, Jesus pressed forward in the power of the Spirit and with the weapons of God, and He transformed that dire situation with the glory of God!</span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;">Likewise, in these last days, we need to hear God's Spirit beckoning us to step forward with the authority of Jesus Christ to bring deliverance, freedom, and peace to people and places where the devil has tried [and will keep on escalating his attempts] to bring chaos, hazard, and hurt. People need us, and that makes this our greatest hour!</span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;"><span><a name='more'></a></span>-adapted from Rick Renner's <u>Last Days Survival Guide</u><br /><br /><br /></span><br /></div>Jesus Followerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07403205375339466972noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8229192861882088699.post-88305781556068539182021-06-27T07:59:00.000-04:002021-06-27T08:31:06.446-04:00The New Kingdom.3<b><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;">"Every kingdom that is divided against itself is doomed; and every city or house divided against itself will eventually fall. Likewise, if the evil one is fighting evil, he is divided against himself, and his kingdom will not last." -Jesus</span></b><div><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">How to keep your house united in two easy steps:<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">1. Love good<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">2. Hate evil.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;"><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-5uiDPEiqk-M/YNhiulK5mZI/AAAAAAAA_Gc/GoZHUyCHhUc_2MYJTkYZX4uDwCD36rSJQCLcBGAsYHQ/s2048/bonanza.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1438" height="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-5uiDPEiqk-M/YNhiulK5mZI/AAAAAAAA_Gc/GoZHUyCHhUc_2MYJTkYZX4uDwCD36rSJQCLcBGAsYHQ/s320/bonanza.jpg" /></a></div><br />Talking with a friend recently, we reflected on the TV<br />shows we grew up with in the 50's and 60's. Shows like "Donna Reed", "My Three Sons", "Bonanza", "Leave It To Beaver" and others. These dramatizations and the people who produced them reflected a deep cultural commitment to goodness. The focus of the stories was on individual character and the lessons one can glean from life to become a better person: more mature, respectful, a better leader, worker, parent, person. By focusing on the responsibility of the individual to grow and become a better member of society, society itself benefited. </span><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Contrast that with modern sitcoms, music videos and</span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-oOUb7S1zh1M/YNhZfVvtAiI/AAAAAAAA_GU/QEaJnnd_6uwvh-Jvgpt2jzJrTq-jty7GwCLcBGAsYHQ/s267/married%2Bwith%2Bchildren.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="267" data-original-width="189" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-oOUb7S1zh1M/YNhZfVvtAiI/AAAAAAAA_GU/QEaJnnd_6uwvh-Jvgpt2jzJrTq-jty7GwCLcBGAsYHQ/s0/married%2Bwith%2Bchildren.jpg" /></a></span></div><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">storylines, shows like Modern Family, Married...with Children, The Simpsons or All In The Family where the
focus is most often on the ills of society and who is to blame for them.
Characters are often rude, sarcastic, loud and vulgar. Men, in particular, are portrayed as belching-sexual pariahs, emasculated and <o:p></o:p></span><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-large;">irrelevant.</span><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;">The advent of graphic media has provided rich opportunity to influence masses of people of which kings and tyrants throughout history could only have dreamed. Bypassing the natural filters of reason and truth, aiming at the emotional center, modern society has been led to accept increasingly more noxious ideas, behaviors and practices.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;">Walk through the halls of today's schools and see if you think the media hasn't had an impact on the attitudes, language, behavior and conversation of our youth. If you grew up on 50’s and 60’s tv ---and have been living under a rock-- prepare to be shocked!<span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br /></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><b style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-large;">Goodness builds. Evil destroys.</b><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-large;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">There are two primary ways of looking at the world, the human race:<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">People who view the world through the lens of the Right
(Right for Righteousness) tend to try to make the world a better place by being
better people, i.e., kind, fair, forgiving, reasonable, generous, God-fearing
and freedom-loving. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;">People of the Modern (i.e., Marxist) Left try to circumvent the natural demand of
ideals by demanding what people ought to believe and how to think and act.
These influencers tend to be impertinent, bossy, unreasoning, unforgiving,
unrealistic, and unholy.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">In that sense, the world has always been divided. But Human
beings are created for Oneness. First, with our Creator. Then with one
another.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<div style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border: none; mso-border-bottom-alt: solid windowtext .75pt; mso-element: para-border-div; padding: 0in 0in 1pt;">
<p class="MsoNormal" style="border: none; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-border-bottom-alt: solid windowtext .75pt; mso-padding-alt: 0in 0in 1.0pt 0in; padding: 0in;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-large; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Here is a profound thought from friend George MacDonald:</span><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: x-large;"> </span></p></div>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"></span></p><blockquote><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;"><b>"There is more love in the world than anything
else...but the best love and the individual in whom love is supreme are the
rarest of all things."</b> </span></blockquote><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;"><o:p></o:p></span><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">As
humans, especially humans living in society together, we make many claims upon
the attitudes and actions of others. These claims show themselves in a variety
of ways including, but not limited to, family relations, community efforts,
commercial advertising, social interaction, and governmental rules.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;">What is the strongest claim we have as humans upon those who invent, innovate, enervate, and usher in the future; whose skill level, job description, election or simple interest position them to best influence society? Is not our claim for them to put forward our highest and best ideals and behavior?</span></p></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">Unfortunately,
the loudest and strongest demands of the present day (and, to be fair, most any
day in human history) are not for the best of what we are capable of but rather
the “common-ness, narrowest, low-levelled satisfaction of the age”. Today’s
mantra: If it feels good it must be right, if its right it must be true,” (or
as the late Charles Colson observed, “People would rather feel good than be
good”) describes the governing philosophy that makes it possible for poor and
ignoble ideas to gain a foothold and flourish.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large; text-indent: -0.25in;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;"><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;">If you were to “grade” humanity (at
least from a higher perspective), it might look like this:</span><br /></span><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;">Grade A - Exceptional: the childlike in faith, righteousness, humility, sincerity, lovingkindness and grace. </span></li><li><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;">Grade B - Acceptable: the reasonably mature, responsible and altruistic </span></li><li><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;">Grade C - Passable: the coarse and careless sprinkled with enough personality to make them harmless and friendly. </span></li><li><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;">Grade D - Deplorable: the immature, brash, arrogant, impertinent, greedy. </span></li><li><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;">Grade E - Incorrigible: malevolent, malicious, criminal </span></li><li><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;">Grade F - Abominable: the beastly vile.</span></li></ul><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;">Thus there is a "natural" division between the becoming righteous and the unrighteous. This division was first revealed at the moment Cain rose up to murder his brother Abel. </span></div><div><div></div></div><blockquote><div><div><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;">"In the course of time Cain brought to the LORD an offering of the fruit of the ground, 4 and Abel also brought of the firstborn of his flock and of their fat portions. And the LORD had regard for Abel and his offering, 5 but for Cain and his offering he had no regard. So Cain was very angry, and his face fell. 6 The LORD said to Cain, "Why are you angry, and why has your face fallen? 7 If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, <b>sin is crouching at the door</b>. Its desire is contrary to you, <b><i>but you must rule over it.</i></b>" 8 Cain spoke to Abel his brother. And when they were in the field, Cain rose up against his brother Abel and killed him." Genesis 4:3-8</span></div></div></blockquote><p> </p><blockquote><div><div><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;">"By faith Abel offered to God a more acceptable sacrifice than Cain, through which he was commended as righteous, God commending him by accepting his gifts. And through his faith, though he died, he still speaks." Hebrews 11:4</span></div></div></blockquote><blockquote><div><div><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;">"We should not be like Cain, who was of the evil one and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because his own deeds were evil and his brother's righteous." 1 John 3:12</span></div></div><div></div></blockquote><div><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;">Dr. Jordan Petersen makes the case on the core motive of Cain's antagonism:</span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large; line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;"><i></i></span><blockquote><i><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;"><span style="line-height: 107%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US;">“The
account of Cain and Abel is remarkable for its unique combination of brevity
and depth. In a few short sentences, it outlines two diametrically opposed
modes of being—both responses to the emergence of self-consciousness and the
knowledge of good and evil detailed in the story of Adam and Eve. </span><span>Cain’s
mode of being – resentful, arrogant and murderous – arises because <b>his
sacrifices are rejected by God</b>. This means that his attempts to give up
something valuable in the present to ensure prosperity in the future are
insufficient. He fails, in consequence, to thrive, as he believes he should,
and becomes bitter, resentful and murderous. </span><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;">Abel’s mode of being is
characterized, by contrast, <b>by proper sacrifice</b> – by the establishment of
balance between present action and future benefit. This ensures his personal and
social success, accruing over time. Unfortunately, it also makes him the target
of Cain’s malevolence.” </span></span></i></blockquote><blockquote style="text-align: right;"><i><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;"><span style="text-indent: -0.25in;">-Jordan Petersen, Genesis lectures."</span></span></i></blockquote><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;">There is a natural antagonism between those who answer the redemptive call to a higher, rarer, truer humanity and those for whom "vulgarity, vile contentment, self-admiration and unbelief" give volume and cover to a more articulate and peremptory attack on the “common good uncommonly developed.”</span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;">The demand of the age is to accept that </span></div><div><ol style="text-align: left;"><li><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;"><b>Some people are superior to others</b>. (It is the "credentialed" vs the "common" man.)</span></li><li><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;"><b>No ideas are Superior to other ideas.</b> (Except what the credentialed deem superior, thus Christianity, for example, is no better or worse as a lifestyle than Islam. But Global Climate Change places a demand on everyone's lifestyle.)</span></li></ol></div><div><br /></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;">Is the gap widening between the Becoming Righteous and the Antagonists of Righteousness? Surely it must. But my theory is that since the days of Noah, when it literally grieved God that he had made man on the earth because "all flesh had corrupted their way on the earth," righteousness has been advancing in the race. From only one man's family found righteousness enough to preserve the race from the physical cleansing of humanity, to "7,000 who have not bowed the knee to Baal", to the sending of His only begotten son to cleanse the world of sin, to millions today who by faith in Jesus are fighting to preserve the ideals of the American experiment in faith and freedom, the human race is proving it is capable of choosing righteousness eternally! </span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;">And as long as the kingdom of the evil one continues to devour itself through infighting and exposure of its lawlessness, we, the "becoming Righteous" can rest in hope for the return of the King and the glorious final chapter in Overcoming!</span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: right;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">(adapted from a portion of George MacDonald's <u>Donal Grant</u>)</span></div><div><br /></div>Jesus Followerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07403205375339466972noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8229192861882088699.post-88604830709434908832021-02-19T07:35:00.001-05:002021-02-19T08:07:22.560-05:00The New Kingdom.2<span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><b>"The kingdom of heaven can be likened to a farmer’s wheat field, planted with good seed. One night, while the farmer slept, his enemy came and sowed darnel weeds among the wheat. When the first blades of wheat finally pushed up through the earth, weeds appeared alongside. </b></span><div><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><b><br /></b></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><b>Seeing this, the servants rushed to the farmer, and with distressed voices wept: “Sir, did not we sow good seed in your field? Why then are there so many darnel weeds?”<br /></b></span><p dir="ltr"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><b>The farmer answered: “An enemy has done this.”</b></span></p><p dir="ltr"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><b>“Shall we try to remove them?” the servants asked.</b></span></p><p dir="ltr"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><b>“No,” the farmer replied. “If you pull up the weeds, you will uproot the wheat as well. Let them both grow together until the harvest time; and at the time of the harvest I will instruct the reapers: ‘Gather first the weeds, and bind them into bundles for burning. Then gather the wheat into my storehouse.’”</b></span></p><p dir="ltr"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><b>Here is the lesson: he that sowed the good seed is the Son of Man. The field is the world. The good seed represents the children of the kingdom, while the seeds represent those deceived by the wicked one. The enemy that planted the weeds is the evil one. The harvest is the end of the world, and the reapers are the angels. Just as the darnel weeds were gathered and burned in the fire, so will it be at the end of this age. The Son of Man will send his angels, and they will gather everything that has caused humankind to stumble, and those who live lawlessly outside of the kingdom, and will exile them to a place of weeping and regret. Then the righteous will shine as bright as the sun in the kingdom of their Father. If you have ears to hear, then hear these words."</b></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="text-align: right;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><b>--Jesus</b></span></p><p dir="ltr"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">I've written in times past about our attempts at gardening. One thing I've learned is that</span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><a href="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-zW1_-lQ_Gnc/YC-tKqwB0qI/AAAAAAAA8ng/0xlaLk3Jd5AhlAwUfstMQ872fQmbQS-9ACLcBGAsYHQ/image.png" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="478" data-original-width="700" height="219" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-zW1_-lQ_Gnc/YC-tKqwB0qI/AAAAAAAA8ng/0xlaLk3Jd5AhlAwUfstMQ872fQmbQS-9ACLcBGAsYHQ/image.png" width="320" /></a></span></div><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">the definition of a "weed" is any plant that is growing where you don't want it to!</span><p></p><p dir="ltr"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">To help with our ongoing efforts to create and enjoy the beauty of growing things, I downloaded a new app this year during the growing season called "Picture This". Take a picture of a plant you're curious about and, Wallah!, instant information about origins, ease of care, susceptibility to disease, and even whether or not it is considered an "invasive species", i.e., any plant that could quickly proliferate and overwhelm your well ordered, beautiful garden! </span><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;"> </span></p><p dir="ltr"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><i></i></span></p><blockquote><i><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">According to Wikipedia, <span face="sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #202122;"><b>Darnel,</b> </span><span face="sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #202122;">Lolium temulentum,<b> </b></span><span face="sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #202122;">usually grows in the same production zones as </span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wheat" style="background: none rgb(255, 255, 255); color: #0b0080; text-decoration-line: none;" title="Wheat">wheat</a><span face="sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #202122;"> and was a serious </span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weed" style="background: none rgb(255, 255, 255); color: #0b0080; text-decoration-line: none;" title="Weed">weed</a><span face="sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #202122;"> of cultivation until modern sorting machinery enabled darnel seeds to be separated efficiently from seed wheat.</span><span face="sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #202122;">The similarity between these two byplants is so great that in some regions, darnel is referred to as "false wheat".</span><span face="sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #202122;">It bears a close resemblance to wheat until the ear appears.</span></span></i></blockquote><i><span face="sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #202122; font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"></span></i><p></p><p dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;">Jesus considered those represented by the "darnel weeds" as "invasive species"; people He obviously did NOT WANT POPULATING HIS KINGDOM!</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">The operative prerogative for Kingdom living is:</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"> <b>Righteousness.</b></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">Perhaps there is nothing that causes people to stumble more than the counterfeits to righteousness.</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">Counterfeits to righteousness are the coin of the realm in the world's moral morass. Even though the basic assumption of righteousness, namely, fair play to your neighbor, is the same goal for the masses of humanity, the way to achieve those ends is often diametrically opposed to God's ways. Here are some examples of counterfeit righteousness:</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;"><b><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">Imposed Righteousness</span></b></p><p dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">Today's mantra (born out of the CCP pandemic): "wear a mask, save a life" resonates with the masses, for who doesn't want to save lives? <b>But it illustrates the fickleness of trying to impose right behavior on people.</b> For if you in anyway oppose the efficacy of mask wearing because </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;"></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">1. the mask wearing rules keep changing, </span></li><li><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">2. you don't believe people who aren't sick should be treated as if they were; </span></li><li><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">3. it seems absurd to guard against spreading a disease through "droplets" when you are handling merchandise and money handled by dozens of people around you; </span></li><li><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">4. you don't believe the lethality of the disease warrants the extreme measures taken to "protect" you,</span></li><li><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">5. You do believe in Nature's God, natural law and self-evident truth, the foundation of freedom and don't want to be part of a giant social science experiment that violates the principles of liberty</span></li></ul><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">then you are branded an insubordinate rebel and reminded you are not an "expert" so your opinion is of little consequence. </span><p></p><p dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">And in case you missed the message: A close friend, refusing to wear a mask in a local grocery store, was escorted out of the store by police! My workplace is threatening write ups and suspensions for improper mask wearing! The consequence of not complying with imposed righteousness is often severe and/or deadly.</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;"><b><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">Inflated Righteousness</span></b></p><p dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">We live in a world where Harvard Law graduate and proven pathological liar, congressman Adam Schiff, rather than being scorned and ridiculed off the national stage, is esteemed and afforded preferential media treatment over his counterpart, Devin Nunes, farmer, congressman and common sense truth teller, when it comes to describing events that expose the deep corruption at the highest levels of government. The "credentialed", those who deem themselves morally, intellectually, financially and spiritually superior to the common man, due to their wealth, titles and status, not only are given preferential media treatment but live impervious to the law itself, rarely ever being held accountable for the outright brazen hypocrisy of their behavior.</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;"><b><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">Imputed Righteousness</span></b></p><p dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">I encountered one such counterfeit in a facebook exchange with friends.</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">Friend 1: <span style="background-color: white;">"<span face="Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif" style="color: #050505;">I would seriously question if someone is truly saved if they are ok with killing a baby."</span></span></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><span face="Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif" style="color: #050505;">Me: "</span><span face="Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif" style="color: #050505;">What we believe about Jesus, or even "doctrines", isn't what makes us a Christian. It's our obedience to Him that makes us his followers. A man's faith is demonstrated in what he does not in what he thinks he believes. Obedience isn't perfection in believing correctly about theology, it's about trying to do what He tells you. If we can't trust him to help us get things right, what kind of faith is that?"</span></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><span face="Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #050505;">Friend 2: "</span><span face="Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #050505;">Just be careful that you don't base your, or someone else's, salvation on works and performance and outward "obedience", because being a Christian truly IS about what we believe, not what we do. </span><span face="Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif" style="color: #050505;"><span style="background-color: white;">It's "calling on the name of the Lord and you will be saved". The thief on the cross had no time to obey nor do good works nor to get all of his doctrine right. He only had time to recognize his own sin, to recognize that Jesus was the perfect Son of God who could save him, to repent and to call upon Jesus to remember him when Jesus comes into His kingdom. And Jesus said "today you will be with me in paradise" because he saw the man's faith and trust in Him as his Savior and heard the confession of faith from his mouth. But of course the RESULT of our repentance and f</span></span><span style="background-color: white;"><span face="Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif" style="color: #050505;">aith in Jesus as our Savior should produce obedience and love and all kinds of good works. We just can't take it to the level of judging others and examining their works and obedience and deciding whether they are Christian or not.</span><span face="Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif" style="color: #050505;">"</span></span></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><span face="Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif" style="color: #050505;">Me: "</span><span style="color: #050505;">thank you, friend. Paul and James wrestled with both sides of this coin. I think it comes to this: Obedience IS faith. <i>"The one great heresy of the church is that it is always substituting anything but obedience as faith in Christ."</i> George MacDonald. The example you used bolsters my point: wasn't "calling on the name of the Lord" by the penitent thief an act of the purest obedience? Do you think he didn't struggle inwardly with his thoughts like any human being caught in the Holy Spirit's convicting power ("they'll think I'm silly", "who am I to think he'd care?", etc) until his will submitted to the living will of his Creator God and burst out in his soulful, obedient heartcry: 'Lord, remember me when you come into your kingdom!'</span></span></p><div class="o9v6fnle cxmmr5t8 oygrvhab hcukyx3x c1et5uql" style="animation-name: none; color: #050505; margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; transition-property: none;"><div dir="auto" style="animation-name: none; transition-property: none;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">So rather than focusing on questions like "what do you believe about (fill in the blank_______ abortion, resurrection, atonement, virgin birth, etc) to try to "judge" whether a person is a "true" "Christian"; shouldn't we rather ask this of us all: "what one thing have I done today because Jesus said "do it", or not done because Jesus said, "don't do it"? That is a far better case for "proving" your allegiance, trust and faith than any doctrinal or theological position!"</span></div></div><p dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">We've got it quite wrong if we think God is not interested in us <b>becoming truly righteous</b> like Jesus. A common interpretation of 2 Corinthians 5:21 "For he hath made him [to be] sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him", is that in confessing Jesus as Lord and praying to "receive Him into our heart", we lose our own individuality and God only sees Jesus' "righteousness" plastered on our being. Or as MacDonald points out: "<i>That is, that, by a sort of legal fiction, Jesus was treated as what he was not, in order that we might be treated as what we are not</i>."</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">That's what Friend 2 considers "believing" in Jesus.</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">The best antidote to the counterfeits of righteousness is:</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;"><b><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">Indelible, Intrinsic Righteousness</span></b></p><p dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">Let's let friend George MacDonald instruct us on the richness of the righteousness that comes to us by faith in Jesus:</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">"Be sure that the thing that God gives, the righteousness that is of God, <b><i>is a real thing</i></b>, and not a contemptible legalism. Pray God I have no righteousness imputed to me. Let me be regarded as the sinner I am; for nothing will serve my need but <b><i>to be made a righteous man,</i></b> one that will no more sin. </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">What, then, is the righteousness which is of God by faith? It is simply the thing that God wants every man to be, <b><i>wrought out in him by constant contact with God himself</i></b>. It is not an attribute either of God or man, but a fact of character in God and in man. It is God's righteousness wrought out in us, so that as he is righteous we too are righteous. It does not consist in obeying this or that law; not even the keeping of every law, so that no hair's-breath did we run counter to none of them, would be righteousness. </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">To be righteous is to be such a heart, soul, mind, and will, as, without regard to law, would recoil with horror from the lightest possible breach of any law. <b><i>It is to be so in love with what is fair and right as to make it impossible for a man to do anything that is less than absolutely righteous.</i></b> It is not the love of righteousness in the abstract that makes anyone righteous, but such a love of fair play toward everyone with whom we come into contact, that anything less than the fulfilling, with a clear joy, of our divine relation to him or her, is impossible. </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">For the righteousness of God goes far beyond mere deeds, and requires of us love and helping mercy as our highest obligation and justice to our fellow men--those of them too who have done nothing for us, those even who have done us wrong. </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">Our relations with others, God first and then our neighbor in order and degree, must one day become, as in true nature they are, the gladness of our being; and nothing then will ever appear good for us, that is not in harmony with those blessed relations."</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">-George MacDonald, <u>Unspoken Sermons III, Righteousness</u>. (emphasis added)</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">That's what I want to be, where I want to live and among those I live with...for eternity! </span></p></div>Jesus Followerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07403205375339466972noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8229192861882088699.post-52222527183267229732021-01-10T11:05:00.005-05:002021-04-19T20:00:20.109-04:00The New Kingdom.1<p><span>"<b style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large; white-space: pre-wrap;">Since the time of John the Baptiser until now, the kingdom of heaven has been forcefully advancing, and great is the number that eagerly, and in desperation, have seized hold of its truth." </b></span></p><p style="text-align: right;"><span><b style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large; white-space: pre-wrap;">--Jesus</b></span></p><p><span><b style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></b></span></p><p><span><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b>Forcefully advancing.</b></span></span></p><p><span><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium; white-space: pre-wrap;">Like a CEO detailing his company's place in the market, Jesus gives his assessment of the <i><b>Kingdom of Heaven Enterprise</b></i> launched at his baptism by John. And as he reflects on the great number of people freed of various diseases, demons exposed and evicted, emotional/spiritual wounds healed and sin eradicated, he sums up their efforts as "forceful advancement." In the clash of light vs darkness, light is winning!</span></span></p><p><span><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium; white-space: pre-wrap;">Each victory over the devil's devices serves a dual purpose: to bring heaven's wholeness to individuals and reveal heaven's purposes to His team.</span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><span><span style="font-family: verdana; white-space: pre-wrap;">If you haven't had the chance to watch the TV series, <u>The Chosen</u>, I highly recommend it. Dallas Jenkins, son of Jerry Jenkins co-author of the Left Behind series, has done a convincing job, within the limitations of a </span></span><span style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">camera lens, of creating the turbulent world of humanity into which the Son of Man entered. Rich characters such as rascally Simon Peter, on the precipice of disaster over tax problems, Matthew tax collector, a germophobe with slightly autistic characteristics, Thomas, ever the fretful doubter, Nicodemus wrestling with the</span></span></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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</span></div><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><div style="text-align: left;">deeper truths of God while trying to maintain his vaunted position as "Israel's teacher of the Law." Roman occupation, political intrigue, demonic possession, family spats, debilitating diseases, theological disputes, racism and all the things humans struggle with daily.
In the midst of the milieu: </div><div style="text-align: center;"><b><i>miracles, freedom, peace, hope, joy, laughter, friendship, love and light and truth.</i></b></div></span></div><p></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">Who wouldn't clamor for, in eagerness and desperation, seize hold of that truth?</span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><i></i></span></span></p><blockquote><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><i>"The human race groans for deliverance: how much does the race know that its redemption lies in becoming one with the Father, and partaking of His glory?" -George MacDonald</i></span></span></blockquote><p></p><p><span><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium; white-space: pre-wrap;">In today's equally swirling milieu of political intrigue, demonic possession, massive deception, family spats, debilitating diseases, racism and all the things humans continue to struggle with on a daily basis let us remember that we still serve the King who's Kingdom will continue to forcefully advance the things humans still clamor for and in desperation will seize hold of.
As for us, our part in this advancement is fairly simple according to brother Peter:
<b><i>"But in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and respect."</i></b> </span></span></p><p style="text-align: right;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large; white-space: pre-wrap;">--1 Peter 3:15 (ESV)</span></p><p><span><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span></p><p><span><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span></p><p><br /></p>Jesus Followerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07403205375339466972noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8229192861882088699.post-19026955438483678422020-12-09T10:00:00.000-05:002020-12-09T10:00:04.480-05:00The New Doctrine.6 "Build Back Better"<p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><b>"Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father. </b></span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><span><b>You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews.</b></span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><b>No, true believers will worship God in spirit and truth, and God the Father will seek out those who approach him offering the sacrifice of worship and praise.</b></span><span><b>" -</b></span><b>--Jesus</b></span></p><p style="text-align: right;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><b><br /></b></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><span></span></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><span><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-MVQ3Ul1BUrc/X6vGFHdFjhI/AAAAAAAA6g4/WRndqMB47UECDIItNLShfhJ9PBgAvca9wCLcBGAsYHQ/s740/Enola-Holmes-The-Dowager.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="370" data-original-width="740" height="337" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-MVQ3Ul1BUrc/X6vGFHdFjhI/AAAAAAAA6g4/WRndqMB47UECDIItNLShfhJ9PBgAvca9wCLcBGAsYHQ/w673-h337/Enola-Holmes-The-Dowager.jpg" width="673" /></a></span></span></div><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><span>In a scene from the movie, <u>Enola Holmes</u>, Dowager Tewksbury is having a conversation with the title character, Enola, while strolling through a portion of her picturesque woodland property in 1884 England.</span></span><p></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><span><b>Tewksbury:</b> "Beautiful, isn't it? It always felt an honor to me that my family was given this part of England to protect."</span></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><b>Holmes:</b> "To protect?"</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><b>Tewksbury:</b> "That is what it is to be an ancestral landowner. As the world becomes increasingly unstable, it feels important that these ideas of England are preserved, for the safety and security of the future of our country."</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><b>Holmes:</b> "It is lovely here."</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><b>Tewksbury:</b> "But you're probably one of those new thinkers? My son was a new thinker too. Never could focus on what was, it was always what could be. I suspect my grandson is the same. England's true glory...is what is. Do you see?</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><b>Holmes:</b> "I can see much beauty."</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><b>Tewksbury:</b> "Very sensible answer."</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">------------------------------------------</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">Its a good visual illustration of the age old struggle between those who hold a blissful view of the past and those who have, as G.K Chesterton describes: "a special romance with the future." </span></p><p><font face="verdana" size="4"></font></p><blockquote><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><span><font style="font-style: italic;">"The last few decades have been marked by a special cultivation of the </font><b style="font-style: italic;">romance of the future.</b><span><i> We seem to have made up our minds to misunderstand what has happened; and we turn, with a sort of relief, to stating what will happen—which is (apparently) much easier.</i></span></span> </span></blockquote><blockquote style="text-align: right;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>--</i>G.K. Chesterton, <u>What's Wrong With The World</u>.</span></span></blockquote><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"></span><p></p><p></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: medium;">It's easier to imagine playing with our great grandchildren than being judged by our great grandfathers' character and courage.</span></span></li><li><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">It's easier to paint on a blank canvas then to re</span><span style="font-family: verdana;">produce a masterpiece.</span></span></li><li><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">It's easier to trust technology's promises then live by timeless principles.</span></li></ul><p></p><p><font face="verdana" size="4"></font></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><font face="verdana">For decades here in the USA and around the globe, national politicians have been seduced by the idea of a "New World Order" led by technology and economics. The latest iteration of NWO is the United Nation's "Building Back Better" (which presidential candidate Joe Biden, "Build Back Better", adopted as his campaign slogan.</font><span style="font-family: verdana;"> </span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><span><b style="background-color: white; color: #202124;">"Building Back Better</b><span style="background-color: white; color: #202124;"> (BBB) is <b>an approach to post-disaster recovery </b>[including pandemics] that reduces vulnerability to future disasters and builds community resilience to address physical, social, environmental, and economic vulnerabilities and shocks. ... <b>BBB also applies to cross-cutting issues such as environment, gender, and governance."</b></span></span><b style="color: #202124;"> </b><span style="background-color: white; color: #202124;">(emphasis added) </span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #202124;">This was adopted by the United Nations in 2015 and is being promoted by countries and corporations around the world. It is based on 17 goals as listed on the UN's website:</span></span></p><p></p><ol style="text-align: left;"><li><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #202124;">No poverty</span></span></li><li><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #202124;">Zero hunger</span></span></li><li><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #202124;">Vaccinate your family</span></span></li><li><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #202124;">Quality education</span></span></li><li><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #202124;">Gender equality</span></span></li><li><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #202124;">Clean water and sanitation</span></span></li><li><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #202124;">Affordable and clean energy</span></span></li><li><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #202124;">Decent work and economic growth</span></span></li><li><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #202124;">Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure</span></span></li><li><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #202124;">Reduced inequalities</span></span></li><li><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #202124;">Sustainable cities and communities</span></span></li><li><span style="color: #202124; font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><span style="background-color: white;">Responsible consumption and production</span></span></li><li><span style="color: #202124; font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><span style="background-color: white;">Climate action</span></span></li><li><span style="color: #202124; font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><span style="background-color: white;">Life below water</span></span></li><li><span style="color: #202124; font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><span style="background-color: white;">Life on land</span></span></li><li><span style="color: #202124; font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><span style="background-color: white;">Peace, justice and strong institutions</span></span></li><li><span style="color: #202124; font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><span style="background-color: white;">Partnerships</span></span></li></ol><p></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">As "plausible" sounding as these goals seem, it is vital to understand that the key to these goals is defining what is called "sustainable", which, by definition, pits itself against "unsustainable" actions. We, in the USA are already feeling the effect of those in positions of power determining what is "essential" for our own well-being. <b>The obvious problem with this is that it depends on some One or some group of humans determining for other human beings what is "sustainable", "essential" or necessary for each individual's well being</b>.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">The argument always used to persuade people to accept and adopt the view of a small group of "experts" for determining the fate of societies is "<i>oppressors oppress the oppressed</i>". Convincing people that they are "victims" of some thing or another is not that difficult. Why? Because life is hard, whether the result of Natural laws, rejecting Nature's God, our own choice consequences or the impact of other's choices. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"> Chesterton points out:</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"></span></p><blockquote><p><i><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><span>"To all this plausible modern argument for oppression, the only adequate answer is, that there is a </span><b>permanent human ideal</b><span> that must not be either confused or destroyed. </span></span></i></p><p><font face="verdana" size="4"><i>The most important man on earth is the perfect man who is not there. The Christian religion has specially uttered the ultimate sanity of Man, says Scripture, who shall judge the incarnate and human truth. </i></font></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><i><font face="verdana">Our lives and laws are not judged by divine superiority, but simply by human perfection. It is man, says Aristotle, who is the measure. It is the Son of Man, says Scripture, who shall judge the quick </font><span style="font-family: verdana;">and the dead."</span></i></span></p></blockquote><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><i></i></span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"></span></p><blockquote><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><i>If I am to discuss what is wrong, one of the first things that are wrong is this: the deep and silent modern assumption that past things have become impossible. There is one metaphor of which the moderns are very fond; they are always saying, “You can’t put the clock back.” The simple and obvious answer is “You can." A clock, being a piece of human construction, can be restored by the human finger to any figure or hour. In the same way society, being a piece of human construction, can be reconstructed upon any plan that has ever existed." </i>[Note; consider the Amish's ability to maintain a balance between the demands of a modern world for which they depend on income and roads verses the demands of their traditions and principles.] </span></blockquote><blockquote><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><i> The Christian ideal has not been tried and found wanting. It has been found difficult; and left untried."</i></span></blockquote><p></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"></span></p><blockquote><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><i>The only true free–thinker is he whose intellect is as much free from the future as from the past. He cares as little for what will be as for what has been; <b>he cares only for what ought to be.</b></i></span></blockquote><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><b><i></i></b></span><p></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">As Jesus points out to the Samaritan woman he encountered at a watering well, novel ideas of what can make life easier for the human race continually pop up and run their course. At times, as history has shown, the fanaticism with which these ideas are embraced border on worship; and certainly those who reject the current popular fads/ideologies, based especially on Scriptural historical accounts of what has worked and what hasn't worked, are either marginalized, at best, or eradicated, at worst.</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;">If we are to worship and give ourselves to what works for mankind's ultimate salvation (sorry UN its not Building Back Better), let us worship and give ourselves In Spirit, to The Truth; for that is where all True Worshipers of the Father will find themselves, worshiping what we know, at the feet of the Ultimate Man!</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: medium;"> </span></p>Jesus Followerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07403205375339466972noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8229192861882088699.post-54406143782059806862020-09-07T08:04:00.001-04:002020-10-13T13:30:57.587-04:00The Promise Forty Four Years In The Keeping.5<span id="docs-internal-guid-91347da6-7fff-754a-9f4c-f8030a604622"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><font face="verdana" size="5"><b>"My doctrine is not my own, but his who has sent me. If you choose to do my Father's will, you will quickly discover whether or not my teaching comes from God."</b></font></span></span><b style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;"> </span></b><div><div style="text-align: right;"><span><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><font face="verdana" size="5"><b>-Jesus</b></font></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><font face="verdana" size="5"><b><br /></b></font></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><font face="verdana" size="5">To Do God's Will</font></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><font face="verdana" size="5"><br /></font></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">It was a wintry January night sitting together in my car discussing the most important decision of our young lives. I'd been contemplating the future and come to an important place in my life: <i><b>the only thing I really wanted to do in this life was whatever God wanted me to do</b></i>. As I sat with the beautiful woman at my side I explained the promise I'd made to God to do </span><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">whatever </span><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">or</span><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"> go wherever He said. I told her that I really wanted her to go with me but warned her that God's will may take us to unusual and perhaps difficult places.
I didn't tell her that:</span></span></div></div><div style="text-align: left;"><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;">we'd move far away from her family</span></span></li><li><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;">she'd leave her beloved horses on the family farm for fifteen years</span></span></li><li><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">we'd raise eight sons</span></span></li><li><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">our adventures would allow us to meet many wonderful people...and some not so wonderful.</span></span></li><li><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">we'd be challenged financially at times</span></span></li><li><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">we'd home school those boys for many years</span></span></li><li><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">we'd move into and out of many houses over those many years</span></span></li><li><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">we'd be challenged by our parents on decisions we'd make </span></span></li><li><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">there would be heartache and headache in abundance</span></span></li><li><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">and joy</span></span></li></ul><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">Honestly, I think she would have stopped me at the "eight sons" part!
</span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">But, of course, I didn't know all those things as a young man. But I knew the One who did...and, apparently, that was enough for her! </span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">She said yes!</span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;"><div style="text-align: left;">This October we will be celebrating our 44th anniversary of promising to be true and faithful to each other! </div></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-zvHjOjtewCE/X1TzJMTqWwI/AAAAAAAA5yk/Ru_Zo4N0xlYVXP0U9tLr9UMfKxx2BHqfACLcBGAsYHQ/s215/8diamondring.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;"><img border="0" data-original-height="113" data-original-width="215" height="141" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-zvHjOjtewCE/X1TzJMTqWwI/AAAAAAAA5yk/Ru_Zo4N0xlYVXP0U9tLr9UMfKxx2BHqfACLcBGAsYHQ/w269-h141/8diamondring.jpeg" width="269" /></span></a><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;">Early on in our marriage she actually lost her wedding ring. I've never replaced it until now; I recently purchased a ring like the one pictured with eight diamonds representing the "fruit" of our love. </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;">Most wedding ceremonies describe the ring as a "token" of a love that is perfect and eternal.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;"><br />But it isn't a "token" that makes a marriage successful. <b>It is the promise.</b></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;">We, together, promised to love and serve God. </span></li><li><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;">We promised each other our love and respect. </span></li><li><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;">We promised to provide for, protect, direct and discipline the children God gave us. </span></li><li><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;">We promised to be salt and light to a love-starved world. </span></li><li><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;">We promised to go where He led us, serve who needed us, share what we had, teach what we learned, and be His hands, feet, ears, eyes and mouth.</span></li></ul></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><div class="separator" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1024" data-original-width="1024" height="256" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-0Id26apPXtw/X1T-IJq7X-I/AAAAAAAA5y0/zkpR0KWWWs4Cr-Mj38zf5rwhDjqHOoT8ACLcBGAsYHQ/w256-h256/mom%2Bcollage.jpg" width="256" /></span></div><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;">The promise, <i>the commitment of our wills</i>, is what has shaped our lives these 44 years. You cannot think of Denise Lyon (affectionately known to us as the "Fun Grandma") without marveling at the wonder of her energy, the intensity of her work, her devotion to her kids, love of friends and family, horses of course, and her excellent spirit. </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;">All things that her promise opened up and developed in her!<br /><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">For George MacDonald God's will is the essence of eternal life:</span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></span></div><blockquote><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">"For the will is the deepest, the strongest, the divinest thing in man; so, I presume, is it in God, for such we find it in Jesus Christ. ...by the obedience of a son, he receives into himself the very life of the Father. Obedience is the joining of the links of the eternal round. Obedience is but the other side of the creative will. </span> </span></div></blockquote><blockquote><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><b><i>Will is God's will, </i></b></span> </span></div></blockquote><blockquote><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;"><b style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><i>obedience is man's will; </i></b> </span></div></blockquote><blockquote><div style="text-align: left;"><b style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><i><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;">the two make one!</span></i></b></div></blockquote><blockquote><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">If we do the will of God, eternal life is ours...within His reach to fill with the abundant and endless out-goings of His love. Our souls shall be vessels ever growing and ever, as they grow, filled with the more and more life proceeding from the Father and the Son.</span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">What the delight of the being, what the abundance of the life he came that we might have, <b>we can never know until we have it!"</b></span></span></div></blockquote><p><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;">The promises that have shaped us over forty four years are just a taste of the glory waiting to be revealed when our eternal Promise Keeper makes all things new!</span></p><blockquote><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;"> </span></div></blockquote><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: large;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></span></div>Jesus Followerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07403205375339466972noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8229192861882088699.post-6410957982878576382020-08-30T06:41:00.000-04:002020-08-30T06:41:34.678-04:00The Good Shepherd.1<span style="background-color: white; color: #202124; letter-spacing: 0.15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>"Fear not, little flock, it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom." </b></span></span><br>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #202124; letter-spacing: 0.15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>-- Jesus</b></span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #202124; letter-spacing: 0.15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b><br></b></span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #202124; letter-spacing: 0.15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Much has been made lately about immigration. At the heart of the issue, whether immigration in the USA or in Europe or anywhere in the world where any people group is moving away from economic or political or religious </span></span><br>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #202124; letter-spacing: 0.15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-5GY4BRQZowM/XOFGZswpbeI/AAAAAAAAtgo/PsQdGxfNZb4QrZSUnqky3a1RqQrUQKO_ACLcBGAs/s1600/immigration.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="174" data-original-width="290" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-5GY4BRQZowM/XOFGZswpbeI/AAAAAAAAtgo/PsQdGxfNZb4QrZSUnqky3a1RqQrUQKO_ACLcBGAs/s1600/immigration.jpeg"></a></span></span></div>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #202124; letter-spacing: 0.15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">turmoil in their own country and seeking refuge in another, is this: <i><b>are the immigrants willing to change their lifestyles -their language, values and habits- in order to assimilate into their new culture?</b></i></span></span></div>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #202124; letter-spacing: 0.15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br></span></span><span style="color: #202124; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: white; letter-spacing: 0.15px; white-space: pre-wrap;">At the dairy farm where I formerly worked, I often engaged the Mexican workers in conversations about culture. On one occasion I tried to explain why it was important to Americans that people who come here should come through the legal process. The simple answer is because of a fundamental appreciation that <b><i>we trust one another in our country</i></b>. We believe in the ideals and principles of our founding; and that our laws, for the most part, </span></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #202124; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large; letter-spacing: 0.15px; white-space: pre-wrap;">are </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #202124; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large; letter-spacing: 0.15px; white-space: pre-wrap;">fair and that if we all try our best to live by the ideals and follow the rules we can trust each other. But if the very first thing you do in getting into our country is disregard the rules, it makes it very difficult to trust you. <i><b>We don't want to live in a place where you can't trust your neighbor</b></i>.</span><br>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #202124; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large; letter-spacing: 0.15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br></span>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #202124; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large; letter-spacing: 0.15px; white-space: pre-wrap;">For those of us who live in the relative peace and comfort of the USA it is difficult to understand the fear associated with the uncertainty, hardship, instability and danger that so many live with everywhere else in the world today.</span><br>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #202124; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large; letter-spacing: 0.15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span><br>
<span style="color: #202124; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: white; letter-spacing: 0.15px; white-space: pre-wrap;">Fear may elicit compassion from the countrymen of the land you seek to enter, but it doesn't necessarily make you fit to become a productive member of that society. Fear can, however, drive you to desire the qualities that would help you assimilate and contribute to your new homeland.</span></span><br>
<span style="color: #202124; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: white; letter-spacing: 0.15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br></span></span>
<span style="color: #202124; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: white; letter-spacing: 0.15px; white-space: pre-wrap;">The current administration in the USA is proposing new standards for those who want to come live here. They include: </span></span><br>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="color: #202124; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: white; letter-spacing: 0.15px; white-space: pre-wrap;">"...</span></span><span style="color: black; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">a proposal that would grant green cards to immigrants who meet <b>requirements related to education, age and English-speaking ability.</b> The administration has previously proposed regulation that would deny</span><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"> immigrants entry to the U.S. or lawful permanent residence if they are likely to use Medicaid, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (formerly known as food stamps) and other forms of public assistance."</span></blockquote>
<span style="color: #202124; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: white; letter-spacing: 0.15px; white-space: pre-wrap;">This is in fact nothing new, for it has always been the intent of the people of this country that those people who want to come enjoy the fruit of the sacrifice of those who defend and protect this enterprise in freedom should understand and love the ideals upon which this nation exists. They should be willing to do their duty to live out and promote these ideals.</span></span><br>
<span style="color: #202124; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: white; letter-spacing: 0.15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br></span></span>
<span style="color: #202124; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: white; letter-spacing: 0.15px; white-space: pre-wrap;">For </span></span><span style="color: #202124; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large; letter-spacing: 0.15px; white-space: pre-wrap;">T</span><span style="color: #202124; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large; letter-spacing: 0.15px; white-space: pre-wrap;">rust is very much related to Truth and Truth is tied to our behavior more than it is tied to our intentions.</span><br>
<span style="color: #202124; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: white; letter-spacing: 0.15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br></span></span>
<span style="color: #202124; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: white; letter-spacing: 0.15px; white-space: pre-wrap;">We talk much about our "rights" here in the USA, for example, the "rights" every human being has been endowed with from the Creator:</span></span><br>
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">The right of self-government.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">The right to bear arms for self-defense.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">The right to own, develop, and dispose of property.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">The right to make personal choices.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">The right of free conscience.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">The right to choose a profession.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">The right to choose a mate.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">The right to beget one's kind.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">The right to assemble.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">The right to petition.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">The right to free speech.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">The right to enjoy the fruits of one's labors.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">The right to improve one's position through barter and sale.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">The right to contrive and invent.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">The right to explore the natural resources of the earth.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">The right to privacy.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">The right to provide personal security.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">The right to provide nature's necessities: air, food, water, clothing, and shelter.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">The right to a fair trial.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">The right free association.</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">The right to contract.</span></li>
</ul>
<span style="color: #202124; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; letter-spacing: 0.15px; white-space: pre-wrap;">(from </span><u style="color: #202124; font-family: "trebuchet ms", sans-serif; letter-spacing: 0.15px; white-space: pre-wrap;">The 5,000 Year Leap</u><span style="color: #202124; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; letter-spacing: 0.15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"> by Cleon Skousen)</span><br>
<div>
<span style="color: #202124; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br></span></span><span style="color: #202124; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: white; letter-spacing: 0.15px; white-space: pre-wrap;">Clearly these are rights we enjoy (and too often take for granted) as US citizens but we do not spend nearly enough time considering and teaching our "duties" as citizens to keep our Republic viable and attractive. </span></span><br>
<span style="color: #202124; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: white; letter-spacing: 0.15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br></span></span>
<span style="color: #202124; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: white; letter-spacing: 0.15px; white-space: pre-wrap;">"These are some of the more important responsibilities which the Creator has imposed on every human being of normal mental capacity:</span></span><br>
<ol>
<li><span style="color: #202124; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: white; letter-spacing: 0.15px; white-space: pre-wrap;">The Duty to honor the supremacy of the Creator and His laws. </span></span></li>
<li><span style="color: #202124; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: white; letter-spacing: 0.15px; white-space: pre-wrap;">The duty not to take the life of another except in self-defense.</span></span></li>
<li><span style="color: #202124; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: white; letter-spacing: 0.15px; white-space: pre-wrap;">The duty not to steal or destroy the property of another.</span></span></li>
<li><span style="color: #202124; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: white; letter-spacing: 0.15px; white-space: pre-wrap;">The duty to be honest in all transactions with others.</span></span></li>
<li><span style="color: #202124; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: white; letter-spacing: 0.15px; white-space: pre-wrap;">The duty of children to honor and obey their parents and elders.</span></span></li>
<li><span style="color: #202124; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: white; letter-spacing: 0.15px; white-space: pre-wrap;">The duty of parents and elders to protect, teach, feed, clothe, and provide shelter for children.</span></span></li>
<li><span style="color: #202124; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: white; letter-spacing: 0.15px; white-space: pre-wrap;">The duty to support law and order and keep the peace.</span></span></li>
<li><span style="color: #202124; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: white; letter-spacing: 0.15px; white-space: pre-wrap;">The duty not to contrive through a covetous heart to despoil another.</span></span></li>
<li><span style="color: #202124; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: white; letter-spacing: 0.15px; white-space: pre-wrap;">The duty to provide insofar as possible for the needs of the helpless -- the sick, the crippled, the injured, the poverty-stricken.</span></span></li>
<li><span style="color: #202124; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: white; letter-spacing: 0.15px; white-space: pre-wrap;">The duty to honor and perform contracts and covenants both with God and man.</span></span></li>
<li><span style="color: #202124; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: white; letter-spacing: 0.15px; white-space: pre-wrap;">The duty to be temperate.</span></span></li>
<li><span style="color: #202124; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: white; letter-spacing: 0.15px; white-space: pre-wrap;">The duty to become economically self-sufficient.</span></span></li>
<li><span style="color: #202124; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: white; letter-spacing: 0.15px; white-space: pre-wrap;">The duty not to trespass on the property or privacy of another.</span></span></li>
<li><span style="color: #202124; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: white; letter-spacing: 0.15px; white-space: pre-wrap;">The duty to maintain the integrity of the family structure.</span></span></li>
<li><span style="color: #202124; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: white; letter-spacing: 0.15px; white-space: pre-wrap;">The duty to perpetuate the race.</span></span></li>
<li><span style="color: #202124; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: white; letter-spacing: 0.15px; white-space: pre-wrap;">The duty not to promote or participate in the vices which destroy personal and community life.</span></span></li>
<li><span style="color: #202124; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: white; letter-spacing: 0.15px; white-space: pre-wrap;">The duty to perform civic responsibilities -- vote, assist public officials, serve in official capacities when called upon, stay informed on public issues, volunteer where needed.</span></span></li>
<li><span style="color: #202124; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: white; letter-spacing: 0.15px; white-space: pre-wrap;">The duty not to aid or abet those involved in criminal or anti-social activities.</span></span></li>
<li><span style="color: #202124; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: white; letter-spacing: 0.15px; white-space: pre-wrap;">The duty to support personal and public standards of common decency.</span></span></li>
<li><span style="color: #202124; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: white; letter-spacing: 0.15px; white-space: pre-wrap;">The duty to follow rules of moral rectitude. </span></span></li>
</ol>
<span style="color: #202124; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.15px; white-space: pre-wrap;">(from <u>The 5,000 Year Leap</u> by Cleon Skousen)</span></span><br>
<span style="color: #202124; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">There is much "fear" on the issue of immigration on both sides of the USA's southern border. </span><br>
<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Political parties, fearing the fallout of voter's embracing the opposition, are waging a raging debate on whether or not there is a "crisis" of mass migration into the US. </span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Landowners along the border states are fearful of trespassers on their property, often armed and dangerous. </span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Taxpayers are fearful that reports of advertisements in central American countries inviting people to the USA for its "free social programs and work" are creating the stampede to our borders further burdening our strained social safety net, bringing low-skilled people and new diseases. </span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Central American citizens, fearing that stricter immigration policies and the "Wall" will make it even more difficult to flee their squalor, rush the border, endangering themselves and their children.</span></li>
</ul>
<span style="color: #202124; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: white; letter-spacing: 0.15px; white-space: pre-wrap;">In the land of the free, the USA, in a shadowy way, illustrates important eternal truths:</span></span><br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
<br>
<ul>
<li><span style="color: #202124; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: white; letter-spacing: 0.15px; white-space: pre-wrap;">It is worth sacrificing all to be free</span></span></li>
<li><span style="color: #202124; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: white; letter-spacing: 0.15px; white-space: pre-wrap;">There is a legitimate requirement to become fit for citizenship</span></span></li>
</ul>
<span style="color: #202124; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: white; letter-spacing: 0.15px; white-space: pre-wrap;">Since none of us have internet access to Google the heavenly landscape, most likely Jesus was addressing the most common fear to man: <i><b>fear of the unknown.</b></i></span></span><br>
<span style="color: #202124; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: white; letter-spacing: 0.15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br></span></span>
<span style="color: #202124; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: white; letter-spacing: 0.15px; white-space: pre-wrap;">Old Testament prophets alluded to it; Jesus said He came from there; John the beloved had visions of the Kingdom's grandeur and Lazurus stayed mum about his brief encounter. So, really, the only first person account we have of God's dwelling place in the heavenlies is from Paul the Apostle and even he couldn't find the words to describe it!</span></span><br>
<span style="color: #202124; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: white; letter-spacing: 0.15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br></span></span>
<span style="color: #202124; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: white; letter-spacing: 0.15px; white-space: pre-wrap;">Just as He has always done from the very beginning, God asks us to trust Him and understand that what makes Heaven Heaven is Him! Fearlessly we can choose and anticipate His divine good pleasure as our eternal home!</span></span><br>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #202124; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large; letter-spacing: 0.15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br></span>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #202124; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large; letter-spacing: 0.15px; white-space: pre-wrap;">Eventually every human being will "migrate" from this war ravaged planet through the doorway of death into our eternal destiny.</span><br>
<div>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #202124; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large; letter-spacing: 0.15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br></span></div>
<span style="color: #202124; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: white; letter-spacing: 0.15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></span><span style="color: #202124; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: white; letter-spacing: 0.15px; white-space: pre-wrap;">Having established that our Creator, albeit at a painful cost, takes pleasure in giving us His kingdom, what is our part in preparing to participate in Kingdom life? </span></span><br>
<span style="color: #202124; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: white; letter-spacing: 0.15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br></span></span>
<span style="color: #202124; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: white; letter-spacing: 0.15px; white-space: pre-wrap;">Is it too difficult an idea that God would want the people he invites to populate</span></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #202124; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large; letter-spacing: 0.15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"> His eternal kingdom to be trustworthy and true? Of course not, but how do we become trustworthy and true?</span><br>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #202124; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large; letter-spacing: 0.15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br></span>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #202124; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large; letter-spacing: 0.15px; white-space: pre-wrap;">Unlike desperate people eagerly entrusting themselves to "coyotes" to lead them into the US, God provided the Good Shepherd who not only leads </span><br>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<span style="background-color: white; color: #202124; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large; letter-spacing: 0.15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-t-Vg7QLgrT8/XOFG1aGL5AI/AAAAAAAAtgw/7S22dcVdlmoMle0Yyk7H5lPRqKGwq4BsQCLcBGAs/s1600/good%2Bshepherd.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="225" data-original-width="225" height="320" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-t-Vg7QLgrT8/XOFG1aGL5AI/AAAAAAAAtgw/7S22dcVdlmoMle0Yyk7H5lPRqKGwq4BsQCLcBGAs/s320/good%2Bshepherd.jpeg" width="320"></a></span></div>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #202124; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large; letter-spacing: 0.15px; white-space: pre-wrap;">us into His Kingdom but prepares and fits us along the journey:</span><br>
<br>
<ul>
<li><span style="background-color: white; color: #202124; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large; letter-spacing: 0.15px; white-space: pre-wrap;">teaching us the language of the Kingdom</span></li>
<li><span style="background-color: white; color: #202124; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large; letter-spacing: 0.15px; white-space: pre-wrap;">improving our perception of His ways</span></li>
<li><span style="color: #202124; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: white; letter-spacing: 0.15px; white-space: pre-wrap;">using the consequences of our feeble attempts at obedience to His words to correct or confirm our character development</span></span></li>
<li><span style="color: #202124; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: white; letter-spacing: 0.15px; white-space: pre-wrap;">delivering us from evil within and without</span></span></li>
<li><span style="color: #202124; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: white; letter-spacing: 0.15px; white-space: pre-wrap;">Perfecting the currency of the Kingdom: Love!</span></span></li>
</ul>
<br>
<span style="color: #202124; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: white; letter-spacing: 0.15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b><i>"Now to Him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you blameless before the presence of His glory with great joy, to the only God, our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion, and authority, before all time and now and forever. Amen." Jude 24, 25</i></b></span></span><br>
<span style="color: #202124; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: white; letter-spacing: 0.15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b><i><br></i></b></span></span>
<span style="color: #202124; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b>Hallelujah! What a Savior!</b></span></span></div>
Jesus Followerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07403205375339466972noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8229192861882088699.post-67765757162771552882020-07-12T08:14:00.001-04:002020-07-12T08:14:30.190-04:00The New Doctrine.4<span id="docs-internal-guid-849adae7-7fff-54de-c199-eff8295139fb"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><font face="trebuchet" size="5"><b>"Let the little children</b></font></span></span><div><span><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><font face="trebuchet" size="5"><b>come to me, </b></font></span></span><div><span><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><font face="trebuchet" size="5"><b>and do not refuse them. </b></font></span></span></div><div><span><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><font face="trebuchet" size="5"><b>For the kingdom of God belongs </b></font></span></span></div><div><span><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><font face="trebuchet" size="5"><b>to hearts so trusting; </b></font></span></span></div><div><span><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><font face="trebuchet" size="5"><b>for without a childlike faith </b></font></span></span></div><div><span><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><font face="trebuchet" size="5"><b>you will never enter the kingdom." </b></font></span></span><div style="text-align: right;"><span><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><font face="trebuchet" size="5"><b>-Jesus</b></font></span></span></div><div style="text-align: right;"><span><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><font face="trebuchet" size="5"><b><br /></b></font></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><font face="trebuchet" size="5"><b>Childlikeness: the essential character quality to living in a good place!</b></font></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><font face="trebuchet" size="5"><br /></font></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><font face="trebuchet" size="5">The difference between childlike and childish is not one of degree but of devotion. The childish are devoted to their own selfish ways and desires. The childlike are devoted to love.</font></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><font face="trebuchet" size="5"><br /></font></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><font face="trebuchet" size="5">The selfish child is miserable to be around. The childlike<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-kvCA2WX9Mng/XwcMzKnMNoI/AAAAAAAA5Cs/eFPkrUHQaG8YOzWhHTYSLM9p_lyqv6R6QCK4BGAsYHg/s2592/childlike2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1944" data-original-width="2592" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-kvCA2WX9Mng/XwcMzKnMNoI/AAAAAAAA5Cs/eFPkrUHQaG8YOzWhHTYSLM9p_lyqv6R6QCK4BGAsYHg/s320/childlike2.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>melt your heart. </font></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><font face="trebuchet" size="5"><br /></font></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><font face="trebuchet" size="5">When my oldest granddaughter was age three I remember laying her down for a nap. She tenderly took my face in her two hands and asked, "Grandpa may I have some milk?" In that moment I would have given her anything!</font></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><font face="trebuchet" size="5"><br /></font></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span><span><font face="trebuchet" size="5"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">A core value of faith as a follower of Jesus (a list compiled by George MacDonald) is to believe that <i><b>He died to make us merry children of our Father in heaven, </b></i></span></font></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><i style="font-family: trebuchet; font-size: x-large; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b>loving what is lovely, </b></i></li><li><i style="font-family: trebuchet; font-size: x-large; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b>delivered from all:</b></i></li><ul><li><i style="font-family: trebuchet; font-size: x-large; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b>meanness, </b></i></li><li><i style="font-family: trebuchet; font-size: x-large; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b>pretense, </b></i></li><li><i style="font-family: trebuchet; font-size: x-large; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b>falseness, </b></i></li><li><i style="font-family: trebuchet; font-size: x-large; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b>unfairness, </b></i></li><li><i style="font-family: trebuchet; font-size: x-large; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b>cowardice, </b></i></li><li><i style="font-family: trebuchet; font-size: x-large; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b>fear, </b></i></li><li><i style="font-family: trebuchet; font-size: x-large; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b>anxiety, </b></i></li><li><i style="font-family: trebuchet; font-size: x-large; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b>self-worship, </b></i></li><li><i style="font-family: trebuchet; font-size: x-large; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b>trust or </b></i><i style="font-family: trebuchet; font-size: x-large; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b>hope in material possessions.</b></i></li></ul></ul></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><font face="trebuchet" size="5"><br /></font></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><font face="trebuchet" size="5"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">Jesus used a variety of ways to express His Father's desire to be surrounded by people with <i>transformed</i> "supernatural" hearts: born again, childlike, perfect, obedient, fearless, following, listening, trusting, </span><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">and loving. </span></font></div></div><div style="text-align: left;"><font face="trebuchet" size="5"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></font></div><div style="text-align: left;"><font face="trebuchet" size="5"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">Contrast that with the "natural" state of the soul demonstrated by today's "protester": childish, foot-stomping, screaming, insolent, arrogant, ignorant, undisciplined, disobedient, lawless and unruly. </span></font></div><div style="text-align: left;"><font face="trebuchet" size="5"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></font></div><div style="text-align: left;"><font face="trebuchet" size="5"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">A question posed by a famous politician years ago sums up nicely our eternal choice: "What kind of country do we want to live in?"</span></font></div><div style="text-align: left;"><font face="trebuchet" size="5"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></font></div><div style="text-align: left;"><font face="trebuchet" size="5"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">While we journey in this world, we certainly don't want to live in a country besieged by screaming foot-stompers and heavy handed governance.</span></font></div><div style="text-align: left;"><font face="trebuchet" size="5"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></font></div><div style="text-align: left;"><font face="trebuchet" size="5"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">Interesting that, according to Isaiah 3, one indication of a nation that God has entered into judgment against in rejecting his influence on the character of the country is that "...<i>I will make boys their princes, and infants shall rule over them. And the people will oppress one another, every one his fellow and every one his neighbor; the youth will be insolent to the elder, and the despised to the honorable</i>."</span></font><span style="font-family: trebuchet; font-size: x-large; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span><span style="font-family: trebuchet; font-size: x-large; white-space: pre-wrap;">Isa 3:4-5</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: trebuchet; font-size: x-large; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: trebuchet; font-size: x-large; white-space: pre-wrap;">Everyone who puts their trust in Jesus to transform their heart, are of the company of those looking for a better country -both now and beyond! While we journey here, the hope in our hearts for "the better place" urges us to improve the place we currently occupy. The self-governing structure of the USA, dependent on people who are committed to goodness and self-improvement, is toward ever improving the conditions under which we all live. To leave the place better than we found it!
The call of the childish to raze the USA to the ground, to fundamentally transform it, is like a person who acquires a home and rather than remodel and improve a solid structure with a sound history, completely destroy it and build something new. (A caveat: If the vision and plans for a new home excite the senses and prove inviting, then by all means rebuild! Think Declaration of Independence, a strong vision of a new country complete with listed grievances, solution for resolution and an appeal to the Supreme Judge for the "rectitude of their intentions".)</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: trebuchet; font-size: x-large; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: trebuchet; font-size: x-large; white-space: pre-wrap;">Except that the people wanting to destroy and rebuild the USA are of such dubious character it makes one wonder who really wants to live there when they are done? Which also makes you realize that history matters, especially the USA's history which has as its focus the <b><i>character</i></b> of the founding fathers and the people who helped instill a vision of a "city on a shining hill." By pledging their "lives, fortunes and sacred honor", the founders of the Republic wove into the fabric of the USA the one essential character quality </span><span style="font-family: trebuchet; font-size: x-large; white-space: pre-wrap;">-<b><i>sacrificial love</i></b>-</span><span style="font-family: trebuchet; font-size: x-large; white-space: pre-wrap;"> that ensured continual commitment to "a more perfect union", i.e., a steady improvement in the conditions for every American citizen.</span></div></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: trebuchet; font-size: x-large; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: trebuchet; font-size: x-large; white-space: pre-wrap;">Which brings us back to the Kingdom of God. The character of its inhabitants is the primary concern of Jesus' work on earth. For no country is worth living in if the people who make it up are self-centered and have no interest in making it a better place by their mutual effort to improve.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: trebuchet; font-size: x-large; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: trebuchet; font-size: x-large; white-space: pre-wrap;">The best manifestation of a childlike heart is the loving, trusting effort to put into practice Jesus' words; to obey everything He says to do or not do. The only true way to improve one's character and one's family, community and country!</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: trebuchet; font-size: x-large; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: trebuchet; font-size: x-large; white-space: pre-wrap;">The hope we have, childlike in its simplicity, is that however far short we are in living Kingdom values here on earth, our efforts to obey and live them will pay off in God's Eternal Kingdom!</span></div>Jesus Followerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07403205375339466972noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8229192861882088699.post-91790793258098233062020-07-05T11:47:00.001-04:002020-07-05T11:47:08.210-04:00The New Doctrine.3<span id="docs-internal-guid-1065aa34-7fff-6ab0-bdb1-b0faf494106f"><span style="font-family: arial; white-space: pre-wrap;"><font size="4"><b>Once there were two men who went into the temple to pray. </b></font></span></span><div><span><span style="font-family: arial; white-space: pre-wrap;"><font size="4"><b><br /></b></font></span></span></div><div><span><span style="font-family: arial; white-space: pre-wrap;"><font size="4"><b>One was a proud, </b></font></span></span></div><div><span><span style="font-family: arial; white-space: pre-wrap;"><font size="4"><b>self-righteous man, </b></font></span></span></div><div><span><span style="font-family: arial; white-space: pre-wrap;"><font size="4"><b>while the other was a miserable tax collector well known for his dishonesty. </b></font></span></span></div><div><span><span style="font-family: arial; white-space: pre-wrap;"><font size="4"><b><br /></b></font></span></span></div><div><span><span style="font-family: arial; white-space: pre-wrap;"><font size="4"><b>The proud man prayed: </b></font></span></span></div><div><div style="text-align: center;"><b style="font-family: arial; font-size: large; white-space: pre-wrap;"><i>"Thank God I am not a sinner like other people, </i></b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b style="font-family: arial; font-size: large; white-space: pre-wrap;"><i>especially that cheating tax collector </i></b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b style="font-family: arial; font-size: large; white-space: pre-wrap;"><i>I see here today. </i></b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b style="font-family: arial; font-size: large; white-space: pre-wrap;"><i>I never cheat, </i></b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b style="font-family: arial; font-size: large; white-space: pre-wrap;"><i>nor do I commit adultery. </i></b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b style="font-family: arial; font-size: large; white-space: pre-wrap;"><i>I fast twice a week, </i></b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b style="font-family: arial; font-size: large; white-space: pre-wrap;"><i>and I give the temple a tenth of all that I earn."</i></b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span><span style="font-family: arial; white-space: pre-wrap;"><font size="4"><b><br /></b></font></span></span></div><div><span><span style="font-family: arial; white-space: pre-wrap;"><font size="4"><b>The tax collector remained in the </b></font></span></span></div><div><span><span style="font-family: arial; white-space: pre-wrap;"><font size="4"><b>back of the temple, </b></font></span></span></div><div><span><span style="font-family: arial; white-space: pre-wrap;"><font size="4"><b>and dared not lift his eyes toward heaven. </b></font></span></span></div><div><span><span style="font-family: arial; white-space: pre-wrap;"><font size="4"><b>He prayed sorrowfully: </b></font></span></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span><span style="font-family: arial; white-space: pre-wrap;"><font size="4"><b><i>"God, please be merciful to me. I am unworthy </i></b></font></span></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span><span style="font-family: arial; white-space: pre-wrap;"><font size="4"><b><i>and have fallen short of what you ask."</i></b></font></span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial; white-space: pre-wrap;"><font size="4"><b><br /></b></font></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial; white-space: pre-wrap;"><font size="4"><b>I tell you now, that the tax collector </b></font></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial; white-space: pre-wrap;"><font size="4"><b>who recognized his need </b></font></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial; white-space: pre-wrap;"><font size="4"><b>for God's mercy, </b></font></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial; white-space: pre-wrap;"><font size="4"><b>returned to his house </b></font></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial; white-space: pre-wrap;"><font size="4"><b>lighthearted, </b></font></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial; white-space: pre-wrap;"><font size="4"><b>free from anxiety, and </b></font></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial; white-space: pre-wrap;"><font size="4"><b>forgiven.</b></font></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial; white-space: pre-wrap;"><font size="4"><b><br /></b></font></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial; white-space: pre-wrap;"><font size="4"><b>Those who, </b></font></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial; white-space: pre-wrap;"><font size="4"><b>in their pride, </b></font></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial; white-space: pre-wrap;"><font size="4"><b>exalt themselves </b></font></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial; white-space: pre-wrap;"><font size="4"><b>will be humbled, </b></font></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial; white-space: pre-wrap;"><font size="4"><b><br /></b></font></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial; white-space: pre-wrap;"><font size="4"><b>while those who humble themselves </b></font></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial; white-space: pre-wrap;"><font size="4"><b>will rise above the cares of this world </b></font></span></div><div><font size="4"><b style="font-family: arial; white-space: pre-wrap;">to a place of blessing and </b><font face="arial"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><b>honor</b></span></font><b style="font-family: arial; white-space: pre-wrap;">." </b></font></div><div><div style="text-align: right;"><b style="font-family: arial; font-size: large; white-space: pre-wrap;">--Jesus</b></div><div style="text-align: right;"><b style="font-family: arial; font-size: large; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: large; white-space: pre-wrap;">As far back as Cain and Abel mankind has been divided into two camps: </span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: large; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b>Those who reject God's judgment</b></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: large; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b>-vs-</b> </span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: large; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b>Those who seek God's approval & blessing </b></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: large; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b> </b></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: large; white-space: pre-wrap;">The Self Righteous get humbled.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: large; white-space: pre-wrap;">The humble find freedom.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: large; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><font face="arial" size="4">Or as Jesus put i</font><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: large;">t:</span><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: large;"> </span><font face="arial" size="4"><i><b>justified</b></i> - the legal and formal acquittal of guilt.</font></div><div style="text-align: left;"><font face="arial" size="4"><br /></font></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Hubris (</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Roboto, arial, sans-serif;">excessive pride or self-confidence</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Roboto, arial, sans-serif;">) </span><span style="font-family: arial;">is <i>never </i>justified.</span></div></div></div><div style="text-align: left;"><font face="arial" size="4"><br /></font></div><div style="text-align: left;"><font face="arial" size="4">The Self Righteous Man can never be justified because he:</font></div><div style="text-align: left;"><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><font face="arial" size="4">can't properly assess his own actions</font></li><li><font face="arial" size="4">sets himself above the moral assessment of others, including God</font></li><li><font face="arial" size="4">takes the place of God in judging and condemning others</font></li><li><font face="arial" size="4">is not merciful </font></li><li><font face="arial" size="4">is inured to the conviction of sin by God's Spirit</font></li><li><font face="arial" size="4">can never be truly reconciled to God or man</font></li></ul></div><div style="text-align: left;"><font face="arial" size="4">The first step in properly aligning ourselves with the <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-BBPJzhk61RI/XwH1H0HdUyI/AAAAAAAA48k/kN-A5_5R6qE1Epklhsx3clB0v8dAGRIJQCK4BGAsYHg/s245/tax%2Bcollector.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="206" data-original-width="245" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-BBPJzhk61RI/XwH1H0HdUyI/AAAAAAAA48k/kN-A5_5R6qE1Epklhsx3clB0v8dAGRIJQCK4BGAsYHg/tax%2Bcollector.jpeg" /></a></div>True Righteousness is to admit how far we fall short in being like our Creator.</font></div><div style="text-align: left;"><font face="arial" size="4"><br /></font></div><div style="text-align: left;"><font face="arial" size="4">The Tax Collector, as Jesus points out, was well known for cheating others.</font></div><div style="text-align: left;"><font face="arial" size="4"><br /></font></div><div style="text-align: left;"><font face="arial" size="4">Worse yet, he had a governmental position that may even have sanctioned this kind of cheat. He may very well have been insulated from the seething hatred of people, his own countrymen, by the fact that most every tax collector skimmed or inflated the tax owed.</font></div><div style="text-align: left;"><font face="arial" size="4"><br /></font></div><div style="text-align: left;"><font face="arial" size="4">I remember meeting a burly business man who owned a cement company. He told me he worked for the IRS for over twenty five years before starting his own company. He said he never understood why people hated him so much until he left the premier tax collecting agency in the world and started his own company!</font></div><div style="text-align: left;"><font face="arial" size="4"><br /></font></div><div style="text-align: left;"><font face="arial" size="4">It was an "Aha" moment when he could see what he'd been blind to for many years! The tax collector in Jesus' parable had that "aha" moment in coming to a point when he realized the terrible wrong -cheating people, and therefore God, out of what rightfully belonged to them- he'd been committing. So profound was his sense of loathing that he couldn't even lift his eyes upward. </font></div><div style="text-align: left;"><font face="arial" size="4"><br /></font></div><div style="text-align: left;"><blockquote><font face="arial" size="4"><i>"When a man acknowledges the right he denied before; when he says to the wrong, 'I abjure, I loathe you; I see now what you are; I could not see it before because I would not; God forgive me; make me clean, or let me die!' then justice, that is God, has conquered--and not till then."</i> George MacDonald, Justice.</font></blockquote></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: large;">By saying the man was "justified" Jesus is pointing out that justice had begun in his heart and would open the door to true atonement -- the righting of the wrongs he'd done to his neighbors. Perhaps Jesus had in mind the tax collector Zacchaeus who upon meeting Jesus while sitting in a tree trying to catch a glimpse of the Man, immediately repented and declared his commitment to making things right with those he'd wronged!</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><font face="arial" size="4"><i><blockquote>The only vengeance worth having on sin is to make the sinner himself its executioner! A man may be saved from sin by learning to loathe it, to hate it, to shrink from it with an eternal avoidance. Punishment is not the thing required of God, but the absolute destruction of sin. -MacDonald, ibid</blockquote></i></font></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: large;">Notice the attempt by the Self Righteous man to guilt shame the tax collector. Hubris does that. In fact, the more it is gotten away with the more widespread the disease becomes.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><font face="arial" size="4"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-T5HZr0LgWV8/XwH1z-udTVI/AAAAAAAA484/ivhFLGmH81c8LcTaqWp13t2ibG6DgFp4wCK4BGAsYHg/s629/tax%2Bcollector2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="629" data-original-width="500" height="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-T5HZr0LgWV8/XwH1z-udTVI/AAAAAAAA484/ivhFLGmH81c8LcTaqWp13t2ibG6DgFp4wCK4BGAsYHg/s320/tax%2Bcollector2.jpg" /></a></div>Consider today's "Cancel Culture" lead, primarily, by the "Credentialed", those with self important pedigrees from highly esteemed institutions or wealthy actors, athletes and business owners as well as governmental authorities and academics. Using the insulation of social media they are able to cast slurs on others who do not share their moral superiority and politically correct views. Or worse, destroy lives and careers by their hypocritical hubris.<br /></font></div><div style="text-align: left;"><font face="arial" size="4"><br /></font></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: large;">Their attempts to do the work of God's spirit will never bring people closer together for there is no appeal to the "divinest" in one another, to the eternal brotherhood under one Father; an appeal based on grace, repentance, humility, a common understanding of our own fallen-ness and desire for true friendship and godly Oneness.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: large;">So follower of Jesus, remember that the great divide in the USA today is not between races or political parties, CNN and FOX, Trump haters and Trump supporters, men and women or urban and rural America, but the real divide is between humility and hubris. </span></div>Jesus Followerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07403205375339466972noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8229192861882088699.post-35821570236267177772020-05-08T14:07:00.001-04:002020-05-12T06:07:30.900-04:00The New Doctrine.2<div style="text-align: center;">
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<span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms", sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>"But whoever hears my life-giving words, </b></span></span></div>
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<span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms", sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>and rejects them, </b></span></span></div>
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<span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms", sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>chooses to build on a foundation of sand. </b></span></span></div>
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<span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms", sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>The rains descend, and the floods rise. </b></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms", sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>Hurricane winds beat against the house, </b></span></span></div>
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<span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms", sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>and the foundation crumbles. </b></span></span></div>
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<span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms", sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>The house collapses, </b></span></span></div>
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<span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms", sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>and great is its fall."</b></span></span></div>
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<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms", sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">-Jesus</span></span></b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms", sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms", sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">After leaving the company of my friend and mentor, Paul Maxim, I took my newly developing carpentry skills*</span></span><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms", sans-serif; font-size: large; white-space: pre-wrap;"> as well as a hearty supply of Maxim's Maxims! --</span><i style="font-family: "trebuchet ms", sans-serif; font-size: x-large; white-space: pre-wrap;">"measure twice, cut once!"</i><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms", sans-serif; font-size: large; white-space: pre-wrap;">-- and used them to make money!</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms", sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><img border="0" data-original-height="130" data-original-width="387" height="132" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-MAqaMkWcYgA/XqBLR6JklNI/AAAAAAAA2cA/rF3aJaIdInQDKJV0me2aOaYuHBFLfefaQCLcBGAsYHQ/w400-h132/building%2Binspection.jpeg" style="text-align: center;" width="400" /></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms", sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">H</span></span><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms", sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">o</span></span><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms", sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">we</span></span><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms", sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">ver, I found out that even though I wasn't "accountable" to my o</span></span><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms", sans-serif; font-size: large; white-space: pre-wrap;">ld boss for </span><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms", sans-serif; font-size: large; white-space: pre-wrap;">m</span><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms", sans-serif; font-size: large; white-space: pre-wrap;">y work now, I was accountable to a new boss: building codes! More specifically, the people who enforce those codes! (I once had an over zealous electrical inspector threaten to "write me up" for unlicensed electrical work because he found me holding a wiring box I'd picked up off the floor and a pair of wire strippers in my tool belt!)</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms", sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms", sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Most of the time Codes represent the processes, protocols and procedures for ensuring a safe, secure and enduring structure. But occasionally they are nothing more than attempts to generate revenue for government or the influence of business interests to protect their industry. Most of the time codes represent good science and good sense. Sometimes, not. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms", sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">I've done enough remodeling work now to really come to appreciate best practices "codes" (and annoyed by questionable regulations.) Believe it or not, people try to do a lot of work on their own homes who really don't know how to properly safeguard their work or understand the potential danger they are "building" into their project.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms", sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">Building codes recognize that there are always <b><i>forces at work</i></b> that have the potential to erode and/or destroy a structure whether instantaneously (like a fire) or over time (like water erosion of soil under a foundation.) They take into account a variety of conditions like </span></span><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms", sans-serif; font-size: large; white-space: pre-wrap;">geography - (structures in Florida are different than in Michigan to account for the possibility of hurricane force winds!); </span><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms", sans-serif; font-size: large; white-space: pre-wrap;">lifestyles - (the frenzied activity in urban areas vs quiet country living); </span><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms", sans-serif; font-size: large; white-space: pre-wrap;">property issues - (renting vs owning). </span><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms", sans-serif; font-size: large; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms", sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">Jesus' words are the "best practices" for ensuring a solid, enduring life in a world filled with dangerous forces working to erode or destroy you! If you want a life in harmony with the Created Order, one free of dubious regulations or capricious influences, who better to know and teach these best practices then the One through Whom Life came into existence?!</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms", sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms", sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms", sans-serif; font-size: large; white-space: normal;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">There are hurricane force winds and flood waters of fear, technology and sexual deviancy that are working to destroy the foundation of our lives as individuals, families and communities today! </span></span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms", sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms", sans-serif; font-size: large; white-space: normal;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms", sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms", sans-serif; font-size: large; white-space: normal;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">The current worldwide panic over the Coronavirus is a perfect example. Without internet technology, government officials would not have the ability to communicate directives for people to "shelter in place" on such a coordinated global scale (as a matter of fact, our governor here in Michigan issued a smartphone emergency alert when she ordered her "stay home, save lives" directive.) </span></span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms", sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms", sans-serif; font-size: large; white-space: normal;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms", sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms", sans-serif; font-size: large; white-space: normal;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">But the truth of the matter is that since the introduction of graphic media in the early 1900's up until the inception of the smartphone at the turn of the century, our senses have been trained to accept emotion based appeal over reason. (Actually you could go back many centuries to document mankind's attempt to disconnect the truth of God revealed in nature from man's attempt to control nature.)</span></span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms", sans-serif; font-size: large; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms", sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms", sans-serif; font-size: large; white-space: normal;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">Case in point, most every state (in order to qualify for Federal Disaster money) took strict measures to "flatten the curve" of the spread of Covid19 to ensure hospitals would not be overwhelmed. These measures included shutting down schools and businesses, ordering <i><b>healthy</b></i> people to quarantine in their own homes to avoid social contact and possibly spread the virus. Some states, including my own Michigan, took what has come to be considered "draconian" steps by determining what is "essential" to any individual's well being, ordering big box stores to cordon off areas like paint and garden supplies to keep the public safe and save lives, encourage neighbors to turn violators in and issue fines for those who disobeyed. Rather than deal with the naturally occurring development and course of a virus (including the fact that a certain percentage of people will die from a viral outbreak), governments turned to technology: computer models, expert opinions and social science theory to determine public policy. Since it has been difficult to get consistent and reliable information which, historically, enables people to make good decisions for themselves, the general economic and cultural uncertainty enhanced by technology (social media is rife with "experts" contradicting one another) is in many ways more destructive to the social fabric than any virus could ever be.</span></span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms", sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms", sans-serif; font-size: large; white-space: normal;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms", sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms", sans-serif; font-size: large; white-space: normal;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">To Jesus' warning. Rejecting the Nature of God's dealings with mankind; rejecting His attempts to bring all people into a love relationship with Him using whatever resources He can; rejecting His words which bring order to the chaos and destruction people are capable of generating; rejecting obedience as the outworking of our love and trust in Him can have catastrophic consequences!
<img border="0" data-original-height="425" data-original-width="750" height="226" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-gyDNjUnouV8/XrWRINAT8zI/AAAAAAAA20o/mAWairpVnAwMxf_ZewTlUpz3DhC01oAdwCK4BGAsYHg/w400-h226/sandcastle.jpg" style="font-family: "trebuchet ms", sans-serif; font-size: large; text-align: center; white-space: pre-wrap;" width="400" />
Think of it this way: Have you ever built a sand castle, then channeled water towards it? If you look closely, it is individual grains of sand that move with the current. Eventually, as enough grains are washed away, the entire structure collapses!</span></span></span></span><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms", sans-serif; font-size: large; white-space: pre-wrap;"> In the same way, individuals are pulled away from faith, trust and obedience to the Lord of Truth and Life in today's world by addictively looking at smartphones hundreds of times a day and allowing, as Rod Dreher points out in The Benedict Option, "</span><i style="font-family: "trebuchet ms", sans-serif; font-size: large; white-space: pre-wrap;">online technology by its very nature to scatter our attention like nothing else, radically compromising our ability to make sense of the world, physiologically rewiring our brains and rendering us increasingly helpless against our impulses</i><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms", sans-serif; font-size: large; white-space: pre-wrap;">." (page 219) Fear is the one great impulse being fostered by this unprecedented use of technology to control people's behavior!</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms", sans-serif; font-size: large; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms", sans-serif; font-size: large; white-space: pre-wrap;">Consider the great irony: as people put more of their trust into technology to provide relief and security from the chaos and uncertainty technology helped create, they will find themselves more isolated and fearful. As more individuals get swept away by fear, the more likely families, communities and nations will crash!</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms", sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms", sans-serif; font-size: large; white-space: normal;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms", sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms", sans-serif; font-size: large; white-space: pre-wrap;">How can putting Jesus' words into practice provide protection and stability during difficult times?</span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms", sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms", sans-serif; font-size: large; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms", sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms", sans-serif; font-size: large; white-space: pre-wrap;">Refuse to let fear dominate your thinking. Try unplugging from technology on a regular basis and just discipline your mind to focus on His commands and words, which are essentially His promises to help you achieve His right action in every situation. Trust in Him with all your heart. Don't lean on your own attempts to understand (believe it or not, you can't Google God's will!) before you put your heart into seeing what He is doing and join Him to be a blessing to a fear fractured world. When evil/fear increases, Jesus warned, the love of many grows cold. What a powerful opportunity to demonstrate the life of Christ by being kind, loving and carefree in world gripped by fear. By staying steadfast and true to the Word of Life you strengthen other's faith and help ensure your family, church, and community stays strong!</span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms", sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms", sans-serif; font-size: large; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms", sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms", sans-serif; font-size: large; white-space: pre-wrap;">That's how you build an enduring life!</span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms", sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><font face="trebuchet ms, sans-serif" size="4"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></font></span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms", sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><b><i>*</i></b></span></span><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms", sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">(see previous post at </span></span><a href="https://8-greatmen.blogspot.com/2020/04/the-new-doctrine1.html">https://8-greatmen.blogspot.com/2020/04/the-new-doctrine1.html</a><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms", sans-serif; font-size: large; white-space: pre-wrap;">)</span><br />
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Jesus Followerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07403205375339466972noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8229192861882088699.post-5939315231249791742020-04-10T10:22:00.000-04:002020-04-10T10:22:29.658-04:00The New Doctrine.1<span id="docs-internal-guid-abf92ff0-7fff-9c67-57b5-db6a5e79ebde"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">"Whoever hears my words, </span></b></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">and acts upon them, </span></b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">is wise, </span></b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">and builds on a foundation made of stone.</span></b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The rains descend, </span></b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">and the floods rise. </span></b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Hurricane winds beat against the house, </span></b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">yet it stands strong: </span></b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">for it is built on solid rock." </span></b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">--Jesus</span></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Oh how I remember my first building project: I was determined to build a bunk bed for my boys.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Sadly, no one ever actually slept in it! Why you may ask? It seems the concept of "level" (essential if you don't want to, you know, slide off the bed) didn't figure into my work!</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Years later I went to work for one of my best friends, Paul Maxim, master carpenter! I quickly learned that there are tools for measuring these concepts: level...and true...and square...</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The best thing I learned is if you want </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-WReLInY--9U/XpB_oIwolUI/AAAAAAAA2Ns/PXTwK_TbRuIsF3zXA3GKkRQi-Ya3oGiqgCLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/housebuild.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="194" data-original-width="259" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-WReLInY--9U/XpB_oIwolUI/AAAAAAAA2Ns/PXTwK_TbRuIsF3zXA3GKkRQi-Ya3oGiqgCLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/housebuild.jpeg" /></a></span></span></div>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">to build something enduring, useful and strong, learn from the best! But the real question is when does learning occur; more specifically, when does understanding take hold? When you grasp it in your head or when you put it into practice?</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">One of the first jobs Paul gave me when I went to work for him was cutting off "rafter tails" on a house he was building. It was a simple enough task: using an electric saw to trim off excess board lengths...until he pointed out that they were on the second story of the house! I would have to stand on the roof, reach over the edge as far as I could while trying not to look down! It was a windy, damp and cold day and I came very close to handing in my tool belt and walking away from carpentry for good!</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">But I did it; I did what he told me to do! It changed me. At least it began the change in me. First I conquered a fear. Second I realized, through the experience, that <i><b>I actually could do it!</b></i> Third, it made the next task a little easier having that extra confidence in myself, confidence that comes from doing what is required and accomplishing it.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">My Master, Paul, sizing up my capabilities (including my lack of experience and skill) gave me a job, challenging enough, he needed done and figured I could do. He did not give me something entirely beyond my abilities. He gave me the basic information and tools I needed to accomplish it. No classes, no detailed explanation of the characteristics of wood, no theories on the variety of ways to cut it. Just simple directions. I got just enough information to do it. The only thing left was will, </span></span><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms", sans-serif; font-size: large; white-space: pre-wrap;">choice, </span><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms", sans-serif; font-size: large; white-space: pre-wrap;">and action. The only hope of understanding ultimately comes in the doing!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms", sans-serif; font-size: large; white-space: pre-wrap;">And yet...think about our relationship to our Master, Jesus. Consider how much emphasis is put on understanding things about Him rather than simply putting His words into practice! How many seminaries and seminars, sermons and series, books and opinions on what others think He meant (and what they mean for us to think) are offered rather than the encouragement to just obey.
As George McDonald says, "<i><b>It is the one great heresy of the church that it is always offering anything other than obedience as faith in Christ!</b></i>" </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms", sans-serif; font-size: large; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms", sans-serif; font-size: large; white-space: pre-wrap;">But what is the faith OF Jesus? The same as He requires of each of his followers: obedience! Obedience to the will of His Father.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms", sans-serif; font-size: large; white-space: pre-wrap;">Start with one of his commands. You could look them up yourself but I'll use a portion of a list compiled by the Institute In Basic Life Principles to help:</span><br />
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<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms", sans-serif; font-size: large; white-space: pre-wrap;">Repent</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms", sans-serif; font-size: large; white-space: pre-wrap;">Follow Me</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms", sans-serif; font-size: large; white-space: pre-wrap;">Rejoice</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms", sans-serif; font-size: large; white-space: pre-wrap;">Let your light shine</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms", sans-serif; font-size: large; white-space: pre-wrap;">Honor God's Law</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms", sans-serif; font-size: large; white-space: pre-wrap;">Be reconciled with others</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms", sans-serif; font-size: large; white-space: pre-wrap;">Do not lust</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms", sans-serif; font-size: large; white-space: pre-wrap;">Keep your word</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms", sans-serif; font-size: large; white-space: pre-wrap;">Go the second mile</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms", sans-serif; font-size: large; white-space: pre-wrap;">Turn your cheek</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms", sans-serif; font-size: large; white-space: pre-wrap;">Give to those that ask</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms", sans-serif; font-size: large; white-space: pre-wrap;">Love God</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms", sans-serif; font-size: large; white-space: pre-wrap;">Love yourself</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms", sans-serif; font-size: large; white-space: pre-wrap;">Love your neighbors</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms", sans-serif; font-size: large; white-space: pre-wrap;">Love your enemies</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms", sans-serif; font-size: large; white-space: pre-wrap;">Be Perfect</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms", sans-serif; font-size: large; white-space: pre-wrap;">Fear Not</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms", sans-serif; font-size: large; white-space: pre-wrap;">Seek first God's Kingdom</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms", sans-serif; font-size: large; white-space: pre-wrap;">Lay up treasures</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms", sans-serif; font-size: large; white-space: pre-wrap;">Judge not</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms", sans-serif; font-size: large; white-space: pre-wrap;">Ask, seek, knock</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms", sans-serif; font-size: large; white-space: pre-wrap;">Do unto others</span></li>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms", sans-serif; font-size: large; white-space: pre-wrap;">Let's say, in light of the world's preoccupation with viruses today, we put into practice this one: </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms", sans-serif; font-size: large; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b>"Fear not."</b> </span></div>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms", sans-serif; font-size: large; white-space: pre-wrap;">(its been said that this is the most frequent command in the Bible...interesting)</span><br />
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-71yqhuTdaYw/XpB9EU0s6cI/AAAAAAAA2Ng/ssttFypkF88QRwcyxt87B64y4mu9Ox6qwCLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/covid19.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="168" data-original-width="300" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-71yqhuTdaYw/XpB9EU0s6cI/AAAAAAAA2Ng/ssttFypkF88QRwcyxt87B64y4mu9Ox6qwCLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/covid19.jpeg" /></a><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms", sans-serif; font-size: large; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><br />
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<ul>
<li><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms", sans-serif; font-size: large; white-space: pre-wrap;">Are you afraid of dying from an unknown disease?</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms", sans-serif; font-size: large; white-space: pre-wrap;">Are you afraid the healthcare system will break down? </span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms", sans-serif; font-size: large; white-space: pre-wrap;">Are you afraid of not having enough toilet paper? (kidding...sort of)</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms", sans-serif; font-size: large; white-space: pre-wrap;">Are you afraid other people won't take the warnings as seriously as they should?</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms", sans-serif; font-size: large; white-space: pre-wrap;">Are you afraid for the elderly and vulnerable?</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms", sans-serif; font-size: large; white-space: pre-wrap;">Are you afraid the government is not doing enough? Doing too much?</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms", sans-serif; font-size: large; white-space: pre-wrap;">Are you afraid society might not recover from the economic sanctions?</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms", sans-serif; font-size: large; white-space: pre-wrap;">Are you afraid for your own financial security?</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms", sans-serif; font-size: large; white-space: pre-wrap;">Are you afraid your neighbors might turn you in for not being afraid?</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms", sans-serif; font-size: large; white-space: pre-wrap;">Are you afraid nothing will ever be the same?</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms", sans-serif; font-size: large; white-space: pre-wrap;">Are you afraid for the future? </span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms", sans-serif; font-size: large; white-space: pre-wrap;">Are you not even sure of what you are afraid?</span></li>
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<span style="font-family: trebuchet ms, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">Those fears are associated with just one current life issue. Add to that the myriad of cares, past-present-future, you and I deal with daily! You can see how just a simple command like this can be difficult to put into practice! So can Jesus, our Master!</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: trebuchet ms, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: trebuchet ms, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">However, like my friend Paul, Jesus sizes up our experience and skill then gives us what we are able to handle to give us the experience and confidence we need, as we try, to keep on trying...and growing...and getting better!
Honestly, it may take a lifetime to learn, really learn to the core of our being to Fear Not; i.e., learn that God is fully capable of shielding, protecting, providing, and proving Himself more than adequate for our trust!
But what better way to learn than knowing we have a Master Builder in our life to watch over us, applaud our progress and lead us where we need to be and eventually realize there is no other place we'd want to be!</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: trebuchet ms, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: trebuchet ms, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">If you, as an individual, learn to not fear for yourself by trusting in the God of all Goodness to use the current situation to craft your character, it is surely the beginning of salvation for your family, community, country and the world!</span></span></div>
Jesus Followerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07403205375339466972noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8229192861882088699.post-79909174644037450782020-01-18T09:15:00.001-05:002020-01-18T09:15:52.195-05:00The Good Shepherd.8<span style="background-color: white; color: #202124;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b style="letter-spacing: 0.15px; white-space: pre-wrap;">"I am the door to the sheepfold. </b></span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #202124;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b style="letter-spacing: 0.15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></b></span></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #202124;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b style="letter-spacing: 0.15px; white-space: pre-wrap;">Those who attempt to enter this fold by any other way are thieves and robbers. </b></span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #202124;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b style="letter-spacing: 0.15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></b></span></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #202124;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b style="letter-spacing: 0.15px; white-space: pre-wrap;">Many </b><span style="letter-spacing: 0.15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b>impostors</b></span><b style="letter-spacing: 0.15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"> have come before me, but the sheep did not recognize or follow them. </b></span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #202124;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b style="letter-spacing: 0.15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></b></span></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #202124;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b style="letter-spacing: 0.15px; white-space: pre-wrap;">I am the door. </b></span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #202124;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b style="letter-spacing: 0.15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></b></span></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #202124;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b style="letter-spacing: 0.15px; white-space: pre-wrap;">Enter by this door and you will be safe, free to go in and out, and find food."</b></span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #202124; letter-spacing: 0.15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>--Jesus</b></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #202124; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: white; font-variant-ligatures: none; letter-spacing: 0.15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #202124; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: white; font-variant-ligatures: none; letter-spacing: 0.15px; white-space: pre-wrap;">There is a recent radio commercial based on the "Let's Make a Deal" door choosing game. However, in this version the contestant only has one door to choose from! When she points out that there is always more than one door to choose from, the announcer flatly states <i>there is only one door</i> and exuberantly proclaims "You've won a year's supply of dog food!" To which the contestant sullenly replies, "But I don't even own a dog!"</span></span><br />
<span style="color: #202124; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: white; font-variant-ligatures: none; letter-spacing: 0.15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="color: #202124; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: white; font-variant-ligatures: none; letter-spacing: 0.15px; white-space: pre-wrap;">Admittedly, especially here in America, we are used to, and even expect, a menu of choices when deciding what we want.</span></span><br />
<span style="color: #202124; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: white; font-variant-ligatures: none; letter-spacing: 0.15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="color: #202124; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: white; font-variant-ligatures: none; letter-spacing: 0.15px; white-space: pre-wrap;">But when it comes to deciding on the best possible outcome for life, maybe many</span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #202124; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: white; font-variant-ligatures: none; letter-spacing: 0.15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-BHVnDorU928/XhCDM1IA4jI/AAAAAAAAzgc/-vlh59h2jLUO4WK5wc4rTb8P4HvDNAXMgCLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/doors.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="398" data-original-width="1000" height="127" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-BHVnDorU928/XhCDM1IA4jI/AAAAAAAAzgc/-vlh59h2jLUO4WK5wc4rTb8P4HvDNAXMgCLcBGAsYHQ/s320/doors.png" width="320" /></a></span></span></div>
<span style="color: #202124; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: white; font-variant-ligatures: none; letter-spacing: 0.15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"> doors to choose from isn't such a great thing. Maybe limiting our options to simply trusting, obeying and loving Jesus is the greatest gift God gives us in focusing our wayward eyes and hearts back to Him.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #202124; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: white; font-variant-ligatures: none; letter-spacing: 0.15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #202124; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: white; font-variant-ligatures: none; letter-spacing: 0.15px; white-space: pre-wrap;">Many impostors have come <i><b>after</b></i> Jesus and are constantly perpetrating a false Christ on the unsuspecting!</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #202124; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: white; font-variant-ligatures: none; letter-spacing: 0.15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #202124; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: white; font-variant-ligatures: none; letter-spacing: 0.15px; white-space: pre-wrap;">"How have we learned Christ?", asks George MacDonald. </span></span><br />
<span style="color: #202124; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: white; font-variant-ligatures: none; letter-spacing: 0.15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b><i><br /></i></b></span></span><span style="color: #202124; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: white; font-variant-ligatures: none; letter-spacing: 0.15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b><i>"It ought to be a startling thought, that we may have learned Him wrong!</i></b> </span></span><br />
<span style="color: #202124; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: white; font-variant-ligatures: none; letter-spacing: 0.15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span><span style="color: #202124; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: white; font-variant-ligatures: none; letter-spacing: 0.15px; white-space: pre-wrap;">That must be far worse than not to have learned Him at all: His place is occupied by a false Christ, hard to exorcise! </span></span><br />
<span style="color: #202124; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: white; font-variant-ligatures: none; letter-spacing: 0.15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span><span style="color: #202124; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: white; font-variant-ligatures: none; letter-spacing: 0.15px; white-space: pre-wrap;">The point we must contend with is whether we have learned Christ as He taught Himself, or as men have taught Him who thought they understood, but did not understand Him....</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #202124; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: white; font-variant-ligatures: none; letter-spacing: 0.15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #202124; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: white; font-variant-ligatures: none; letter-spacing: 0.15px; white-space: pre-wrap;">True Christ or False Christ, the real issue is this: is <b><i>only our brain full</i></b> of <b><u>things</u></b> concerning Him, or does He Himself <b><i>dwell in our hearts</i></b>, a learnt, and ever being learnt lesson, the power of our life?" </span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #202124; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: medium;"><span style="background-color: white; font-variant-ligatures: none; letter-spacing: 0.15px; white-space: pre-wrap;">--George MacDonald, The Truth in Jesus, Unspoken Sermons II (emphasis and edits added)</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #202124; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: white; font-variant-ligatures: none; letter-spacing: 0.15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #202124; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: white; font-variant-ligatures: none; letter-spacing: 0.15px; white-space: pre-wrap;">Why is it so seductive to hold onto doctrines, systematic theology, statements of beliefs, or plans of salvation as the measure of faith in Christ and the hope of eternal life, rather than holding onto the Author of Life Himself?</span></span><br />
<span style="color: #202124; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: white; font-variant-ligatures: none; letter-spacing: 0.15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="color: #202124; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: white; font-variant-ligatures: none; letter-spacing: 0.15px; white-space: pre-wrap;">The baptism of Jesus is a great example of that seduction: Matthew sets up the scene by including an impassioned sermon by John the Baptist on how the Messiah, whose shoes John "believes" he isn't even worthy to carry, will come in flaming glory, winnowing the unworthy and burning the unrepentant!</span></span><br />
<span style="color: #202124; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: white; font-variant-ligatures: none; letter-spacing: 0.15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="color: #202124; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: white; font-variant-ligatures: none; letter-spacing: 0.15px; white-space: pre-wrap;">Then Jesus shows up, rather quietly, and requests a baptism by John. "<i>Wait, What?! This isn't how its supposed to work, I'm the lowly one, You're the exalted one. We need to send the right message here Messiah</i>!"</span></span><br />
<span style="color: #202124; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: white; font-variant-ligatures: none; letter-spacing: 0.15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="color: #202124; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: white; font-variant-ligatures: none; letter-spacing: 0.15px; white-space: pre-wrap;">The first words Matthew records Jesus making on this planet (Luke records a moment in His youth that is yet similar in it's focus) is this: "<i>The fitting path to righteousness is obedience to God's way, whether we understand it or it doesn't conform with our pre-determined concepts</i>."</span></span><br />
<span style="color: #202124; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: white; font-variant-ligatures: none; letter-spacing: 0.15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="color: #202124; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: white; font-variant-ligatures: none; letter-spacing: 0.15px; white-space: pre-wrap;">Netflix introduced a new tv series titled "Messiah" produced by Roma (Touched By An Angel) and Mark (Survivor) Barnett. I highly recommend it even though there is frequent uses of the "F-word" and a sex scene. But unlike most "Christian" films that tend to be sanitized, this depicts the gritty struggles of a corrupt world filled with sinful people invaded by a mystery man making challenging invitations to faith in God. The main characters include a country pastor whose family and ministry is falling apart, an American CIA agent and an Israeli intelligent officer bent on uncovering the truth of the "Messiah's" hidden political agenda (but end up having their own problematic pasts uncovered in the process); a variety of religious and political figures attempting to understand this mysterious phenomenon through the lens of their own preconceptions. </span></span><br />
<span style="color: #202124; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: white; font-variant-ligatures: none; letter-spacing: 0.15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="color: #202124; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: white; font-variant-ligatures: none; letter-spacing: 0.15px; white-space: pre-wrap;">As an exercise in wrestling with issues of faith it is an interesting challenge to try to figure out how you and I might respond to a similar person making claims of speaking for God, demonstrating miraculous control over nature and shaking up the sensibilities of people the world over. The producers use a variety of scenes to keep you guessing whether they are trying to depict a false Christ or the real deal. Riots break out, religious fervor is enflamed, people leave homes and family to follow this man. A desperate mother, unbeknownst to her husband, takes her cancer stricken daughter to the "Messiah" seeking healing. The daughter seemingly doesn't get healed and the husband files for divorce!</span></span><br />
<span style="color: #202124; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: white; font-variant-ligatures: none; letter-spacing: 0.15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="color: #202124; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: white; font-variant-ligatures: none; letter-spacing: 0.15px; white-space: pre-wrap;">The point, I suppose, is to realize how difficult it was even for people of Jesus time on earth to come to grips with His amazing claims and measure them against their own "beliefs"! But the real struggle for every human being is choosing whether to do what God says and trust Him for the outcome or choose our own way.</span></span><br />
<span style="color: #202124; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: white; font-variant-ligatures: none; letter-spacing: 0.15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span><span style="color: #202124; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: white; font-variant-ligatures: none; letter-spacing: 0.15px; white-space: pre-wrap;">Who of us thinks that we'll get a pop quiz at the Pearly Gates confirming our suitability for Heaven? And if you're relying on a "statement of faith" (would it be an an 'open book' test?) which organization or religious affiliation to you go with? Or which <i>version</i> of your organization's SOF do you depend on for the "right" answers (they often get edited and updated)?</span></span><br />
<span style="color: #202124; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: white; font-variant-ligatures: none; letter-spacing: 0.15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="color: #202124; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: white; font-variant-ligatures: none; letter-spacing: 0.15px; white-space: pre-wrap;">But what if the Mormon's got some theology right? How about the Jehovah Witnesses? Is there any element of truth in Islam, or any other major religion? What if someone from the Westboro Baptist church found out that a gay person actually did make it into heaven...would they decline the invitation?</span></span><br />
<span style="color: #202124; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: white; font-variant-ligatures: none; letter-spacing: 0.15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="color: #202124; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: white; font-variant-ligatures: none; letter-spacing: 0.15px; white-space: pre-wrap;">A guy can spend a lot of his life wrestling with words! It seems to me a better use of one's life to focus on doing what Jesus' said and learning to listen as He corrects misunderstandings and teaches what He means by those words.</span></span><br />
<span style="color: #202124; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: white; font-variant-ligatures: none; letter-spacing: 0.15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="color: #202124; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: white; font-variant-ligatures: none; letter-spacing: 0.15px; white-space: pre-wrap;">It is what is "fitting" to fulfill His righteousness and know with certainty He is the Door!</span></span><br />
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Jesus Followerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07403205375339466972noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8229192861882088699.post-11521165526816920692019-10-01T12:24:00.002-04:002019-10-01T12:42:25.759-04:00The Good Shepherd.7<span style="background-color: white; color: #202124; letter-spacing: 0.15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>"I am the good shepherd who gives my life for the sheep. </b></span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #202124; letter-spacing: 0.15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b><br /></b></span></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #202124; letter-spacing: 0.15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>The hired hand is no substitute. </b></span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #202124; letter-spacing: 0.15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b><br /></b></span></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #202124; letter-spacing: 0.15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>He does not care for the sheep as if they were his own; </b></span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #202124; letter-spacing: 0.15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b><br /></b></span></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #202124; letter-spacing: 0.15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>and when the wolf comes he runs away, </b></span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #202124; letter-spacing: 0.15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b> leaving the sheep unguarded. </b></span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #202124; letter-spacing: 0.15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b><br /></b></span></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #202124; letter-spacing: 0.15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>The wolf catches them, and they are scattered." </b></span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #202124; letter-spacing: 0.15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>--Jesus</b></span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #202124; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large; letter-spacing: 0.15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b>Are the Wolves at the door?</b></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.15px;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">David French, senior editor at the National Review, observes:</span></span> </blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: medium;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #202124; font-size: medium; letter-spacing: 0.15px; white-space: pre-wrap;">"</span><span style="color: #2d2d2d; font-size: large;">In my travels around the country, one thing has become crystal clear to me. <i><b>Christians are not prepared for the social consequences of the profound cultural shifts</b></i> — especially in more secular parts of the nation. <b>They’re afraid</b> to say what they believe, not because they face the kind of persecution that Christians face overseas but because <b><i>they’re simply not prepared for any meaningful adverse consequences in their careers or with their peers.</i></b>" (emphasis added)</span></span></blockquote>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Author Rod Dreher has dedicated an entire book, <u>The Benedict Option</u>, to describing the challenges facing Christ followers in a post Christian world and offering insights from how the church has responded to similar challenges in times past.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">"I have written <u>The Benedict Option</u> to wake up the church and to encourage it to act to strengthen itself, while there is still time. If we want to survive, we have to return to the roots of our faith, both in thought and in practice. We are going to have to learn habits of the heart forgotten by believers in the West. We are going to have change our lives, and our approach to life, in radical ways. In short, we are going to have to be the church, without compromise, no matter what it costs....</span> </blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">In the first part of this book, I will define the challenge of post-Christian America as I see it. I will explore the philosophical and theological roots of our society's fragmentation...I will consider the critical importance of believers thinking and acting radically in the face of the two most powerful phenomena directing contemporary life and pulverizing the church's foundations: sex and technology."</span></blockquote>
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">As an example of the kind of forces at work that Christ Followers are facing: the company I now work for recently held its annual in service day to address the issues affecting us in the coming school year. One of the presenters was a lawyer discussing changes in the federal statute known as "Title IX", a law implemented in the 1990's attempting to force equal sharing of resources for boy's and girl's sports. This "law" has metastasized to include many identity groups under its legally protected umbrella. Most recently "Trans-genders" are now included as a "protected class" under Title IX!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">I was aghast! Now federal law is used to protect an entirely made up idea of social behavior! </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">With that experience in the background, we recently took some of our grand-kids camping. For a devotional I read Psalm 19</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><i>1 "The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament sheweth his handiwork. </i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><i>2 Day unto day uttereth speech, and night unto night sheweth knowledge. </i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><i>3 There is no speech nor language, where their voice is not heard."</i> </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">I explained that the foundational structure of our society and our governance is based on the Laws of Nature and Nature's God. It is good to immerse ourselves in God's Biblical revelation and in His Natural revelation so that we have a <b><i>firm foundation on which we can depend to know what is real and true</i></b>. I talked to them about this very dangerous concept emerging in our culture called "transgenderism": the idea that a person can choose whether to be the opposite gender they were born as, and can "transition" into another sex through drugs, surgeries or government mandates. I pointed out that there is nothing in nature that is "transitioning" into another species or gender. It is an entirely made up idea being recklessly advanced in our society and is destructive to the highest possible good for which we are created. We ought to resist it on the basis of God's word and His work in creation. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Later that night at the campfire, a friend of our three teenage grand-kids brought out her IPhone and started taking pictures of the adults using a feature of the popular app, Snapchat, that can convert a person's image into the opposite gender. We all shared a good laugh about it (some of the guys actually made attractive females!) But it was <b>a chilling reminder of what the next generation has to deal with in combating the powerful impact of "virtual reality", i.e., the fantasy world of one's choosing, verses the Natural Order of God's creation.</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Dreher sights numerous examples of companies, under pressure from LGBQT groups, to ally themselves and their employees with the LGBQT political agenda or risk negative social media retaliation. And, shockingly, many are going along to get along!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">I can cite examples from my own family and friends who are dealing directly with the impact of a crumbling culture where companies are opening "Inclusivity Departments" to ensure that no "hate crimes", i.e., having contrary and/or biblical opinions to the company line, are committed on the company clock; or a friend's grief that his step daughter abandoned her sixteen year marriage and three children to take up with a "transgender" male purporting to become a female; or the inability for even state governments to protect the religious convictions of business owners against the wolves of moral morass.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Clearly Jesus' warnings are chillingly relevant today: when evil becomes so suffocatingly difficult to avoid then relationships falter, hearts grow cold, and people betray one another.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">What will you or your children do when, in order to keep your job, are required to sign a pledge supporting unbiblical and unnatural behaviors? Lose your job or "go along to get along?" What if your spouse or family don't support your biblical/natural views and pressure you to keep the paychecks coming? Cities across the country are criminalizing "offensive" speech; are you willing to go to jail for speaking God's self-evident truth? Lawlessness is becoming the new normal...</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">The Benedict Option is a reference to St. Benedict, who as a young man, saw the demoralizing of a culture when the Barbarians seized control. For a while he hid himself away living the life of a hermit. But God called him to form communities that adhered to a strict lifestyle aimed at preserving faith in God, practicing His commands and being a light to a dark world.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Forming similar communities to combat the darkness, pass on Godly values to the next generation and supporting each other in these trying times, is what Dreher believes is the proper/historial response to this social upheaval.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Our "hired hands" -politicians who are either running away from the mess they've helped create or are being exposed as wolves themselves- are not the answer for our preservation. It is in forming tightly knit, loving communities that rely on the Chief Shepherd's protection and grace to see us through.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">"<i>If the foundations be destroyed, what can the righteous do?</i>" Psalm 11:3</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: x-large;"><b>Now you know!</b></span><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"> </span></div>
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Jesus Followerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07403205375339466972noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8229192861882088699.post-23973850778154607472019-07-27T08:12:00.000-04:002019-07-27T15:15:27.591-04:00The Good Shepherd.6<span style="background-color: white; color: #202124; letter-spacing: 0.15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">"He calls them each by name, and leads them out to green pastures.</span></b></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #202124; letter-spacing: 0.15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></b></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #202124; letter-spacing: 0.15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">When he leads the sheep out to graze, he goes before them. </span></b></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #202124; letter-spacing: 0.15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></b></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #202124; letter-spacing: 0.15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">They follow him, comforted by the words that he speaks. </span></b></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #202124; letter-spacing: 0.15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></b></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #202124; letter-spacing: 0.15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">They will not follow a stranger; instead, they run from the sound of an unfamiliar voice." </span></b></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #202124; letter-spacing: 0.15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">--Jesus</span></b></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #202124; letter-spacing: 0.15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Jesus goes before us.</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #202124; letter-spacing: 0.15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">But where is He leading us? In a very real sense it doesn't matter. To be with Jesus wherever He goes, to be content to munch away on the pasture He gives us at any moment is Life. To Trust Him is the essence of our relationship with Him.</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #202124; letter-spacing: 0.15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Speaking of trust...</span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #202124; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: white; letter-spacing: 0.15px; white-space: pre-wrap;">Our friend Kate is an avid trail horse rider and has had many adventures </span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #202124; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-k_ODPIF2erc/XTw-TjNfoeI/AAAAAAAAvSU/Kj77sjCICMoiGO7cPwticCA7JoKHKPp7ACLcBGAs/s1600/kate.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1200" height="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-k_ODPIF2erc/XTw-TjNfoeI/AAAAAAAAvSU/Kj77sjCICMoiGO7cPwticCA7JoKHKPp7ACLcBGAs/s320/kate.JPG" width="240" /></a></span></div>
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<span style="color: #202124; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">while on horseback. One of her stories is about a young gelding she took across the state of Michigan on the famed "Shore to Shore" trail ride. During the course of the two week ride there had been considerable rain which made the trail muddy and often nearly impassable. She and her young ride came to a place where the water had formed a pond deep enough to reach his belly. She stopped for a moment to consider a rider in front of her's difficulty in getting up out of the water and looking </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #202124; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large; letter-spacing: 0.15px; white-space: pre-wrap;">for a better place to take her steed. Suddenly, a duck and her ducklings came swimming nearby her horse! The four-year old panicked and began flailing to try to run away! After finally getting him settled, he decided that he was NOT GOING TO MOVE! For fifteen minutes she coaxed and coaxed...to no avail. </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #202124; letter-spacing: 0.15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Finally she had to</span></span></div>
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<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-T4ufW8ViuV8/XTwyBbRYS8I/AAAAAAAAvSA/i59ljxLHQwU_sxtNGcWh2INVh7pUv184wCLcBGAs/s1600/horse1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><img border="0" data-original-height="334" data-original-width="500" height="213" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-T4ufW8ViuV8/XTwyBbRYS8I/AAAAAAAAvSA/i59ljxLHQwU_sxtNGcWh2INVh7pUv184wCLcBGAs/s320/horse1.jpg" width="320" /></span></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"> dismount and lead the wild-eyed, panic-stricken horse through chest deep muck onto dry land! Fortunately, Kate survived this ordeal to be able to tell the story that night at the campfire. She concluded by saying "<b><i>He just wouldn't trust me!</i></b> I can take my older horses anywhere at anytime, but he is not there yet!"</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #202124; letter-spacing: 0.15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">The truth is, often times the only way</span></b></span></div>
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<b><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-FNJyhaRc4nI/XTwyBRbvauI/AAAAAAAAvR8/lFZuSeH2jXs-4syfN8DxGtHgI4-CDqf5QCEwYBhgL/s1600/horse2.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><img border="0" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="1200" height="213" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-FNJyhaRc4nI/XTwyBRbvauI/AAAAAAAAvR8/lFZuSeH2jXs-4syfN8DxGtHgI4-CDqf5QCEwYBhgL/s320/horse2.jpeg" width="320" /></span></a></b></div>
<b><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"> to build that trust is to go through the swamps together!</span></b><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #202124; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large; letter-spacing: 0.15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="background-color: transparent;">If there is a better way of describing our relationship with our Good Shepherd I don't know of one. He goes before us. In fact you could say that in giving up His part in the Godhead and clothing himself in the frailty of humanity he also learned the difficulties we experience in trusting our Master in those fearful places.</span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #202124; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large; letter-spacing: 0.15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="background-color: transparent;">Like having your hands and feet nailed to a wooden post <i>after </i>being humiliated and beaten to a bloody pulp. Makes shrinking from a duck seem, well, silly...</span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #202124; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large; letter-spacing: 0.15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="background-color: transparent;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #202124; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large; letter-spacing: 0.15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="background-color: transparent;">Yet, how many ducks swimming nearby in our own swampy, scary places will it take to get us to remain calm and trusting until he can lead us to a better place: our own cross - the place of ultimate trust and devotion to the Father's Perfect Will - wherein we learn to die to our self-will and immerse ourselves in God's Goodness and New Life!</span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #202124; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: x-large; letter-spacing: 0.15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="background-color: transparent;">Quack, quack! See you on the other shore!</span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #202124; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large; letter-spacing: 0.15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="background-color: transparent;"><br /></span></span>Jesus Followerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07403205375339466972noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8229192861882088699.post-58899022340008269832019-07-14T07:33:00.001-04:002019-07-14T07:46:11.983-04:00The Good Shepherd.5<span style="background-color: white; color: #202124; font-family: "roboto" , "arial" , sans-serif; letter-spacing: 0.15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b><span style="font-size: large;">"He that enters in </span></b></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #202124; font-family: "roboto" , "arial" , sans-serif; letter-spacing: 0.15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b><span style="font-size: large;">by the front door of the fold </span></b></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #202124; font-family: "roboto" , "arial" , sans-serif; letter-spacing: 0.15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b><span style="font-size: large;">is the shepherd of the sheep.</span></b></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #202124; font-family: "roboto" , "arial" , sans-serif; letter-spacing: 0.15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></b></span>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #202124; font-family: "roboto" , "arial" , sans-serif; letter-spacing: 0.15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b><span style="font-size: large;">To him the doorkeeper </span></b></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #202124; font-family: "roboto" , "arial" , sans-serif; letter-spacing: 0.15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b><span style="font-size: large;">opens the door, </span></b></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #202124; font-family: "roboto" , "arial" , sans-serif; letter-spacing: 0.15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b><span style="font-size: large;">and the sheep thrill at </span></b></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #202124; font-family: "roboto" , "arial" , sans-serif; letter-spacing: 0.15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b><span style="font-size: large;">the sound of his voice." </span></b></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #202124; font-family: "roboto" , "arial" , sans-serif; letter-spacing: 0.15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b><span style="font-size: large;">--Jesus</span></b></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #202124; font-family: "roboto" , "arial" , sans-serif; letter-spacing: 0.15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b><span style="font-size: large;">Thrill at The Sound of His Voice:</span></b></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #202124; font-family: "roboto" , "arial" , sans-serif; letter-spacing: 0.15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b><span style="font-size: large;">The Adoration of God</span></b></span></div>
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<span style="color: #202124; font-family: "roboto" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: white; letter-spacing: 0.15px; white-space: pre-wrap;">Is there a more beautiful and poignant description in Jesus' words -to all mankind- of the kind of relationship our Creator longs to have with each of us?</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #202124; font-family: "roboto" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: white; letter-spacing: 0.15px; white-space: pre-wrap;">George MacDonald has rightly said: </span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #202124; font-family: "roboto" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: white; letter-spacing: 0.15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><i><b>"The reason every human is born is to become a disciple of Jesus Christ!"</b></i> </span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #202124; font-family: "roboto" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: white; letter-spacing: 0.15px; white-space: pre-wrap;">Oh that we could change the hearts of those <i>ambivalent</i> </span></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #202124; font-family: "roboto" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: large; letter-spacing: 0.15px; white-space: pre-wrap;">toward abortion:</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #202124; font-family: "roboto" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: large; letter-spacing: 0.15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #202124; font-family: "roboto" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: large; letter-spacing: 0.15px; white-space: pre-wrap;">every child IS wanted </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #202124; font-family: "roboto" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: large; letter-spacing: 0.15px; white-space: pre-wrap;">by the Creator </span></div>
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<b style="color: #202124; font-family: roboto, arial, sans-serif; font-size: x-large; letter-spacing: 0.15px; white-space: pre-wrap;">to know the love </b></div>
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<b style="color: #202124; font-family: roboto, arial, sans-serif; font-size: x-large; letter-spacing: 0.15px; white-space: pre-wrap;">and adoration </b></div>
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<b style="color: #202124; font-family: roboto, arial, sans-serif; font-size: x-large; letter-spacing: 0.15px; white-space: pre-wrap;">and presence of God!</b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">[tragically, monsters of death will always be among us until the establishment of the Righteous Kingdom]</span><br />
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<span style="color: #202124; font-family: "roboto" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: white; letter-spacing: 0.15px; white-space: pre-wrap;">In the timeless book <u>The Practice of The Presence of God,</u> Brother Lawrence, </span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #202124; font-family: "roboto" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">a 17th century French monk, offers insights into developing intimacy with our Creator. In describing the impact of Brother Lawrence's life a friend wrote: "<i>God desired to keep saints for Himself until the end of the world. These saints would pay Him a respect worthy of His grandeur and majesty and would be models of virtue because of the holy example they set...such a man was Brother Lawrence.</i>"</span><br />
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<span style="color: #202124; font-family: "roboto" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: white; letter-spacing: 0.15px; white-space: pre-wrap;">Here are excerpts from his insights on developing intimacy with God:</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #202124; font-family: "roboto" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: white; letter-spacing: 0.15px; white-space: pre-wrap;">"All things are possible to him who believes; still more to him who hopes; still more to him who loves; and most of all to him who practices all three. All of us who believe and are baptized have taken the first step toward perfection [the perfecting Love of God].</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #202124; font-family: "roboto" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: white; letter-spacing: 0.15px; white-space: pre-wrap;">First of all, we need to be considerate of God in everything we do and say. Our goal should be to become perfect in our adoration of Him throughout this earthly life in preparation for all eternity. We must make a firm resolution to overcome, with God's grace, all the difficulties encountered in a spiritual life. </span></span></div>
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<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-r06aCURYj9M/XSsSZJU2yqI/AAAAAAAAu-E/i5Li6WE3XSsLTUrZ7_DD-rAiGzbPqvPcwCLcBGAs/s1600/presence%2Bof%2BGod2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="900" height="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-r06aCURYj9M/XSsSZJU2yqI/AAAAAAAAu-E/i5Li6WE3XSsLTUrZ7_DD-rAiGzbPqvPcwCLcBGAs/s320/presence%2Bof%2BGod2.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<span style="color: #202124; font-family: "roboto" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: white; letter-spacing: 0.15px; white-space: pre-wrap;">From the outset of our Christian walk,</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #202124; font-family: "roboto" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: white; letter-spacing: 0.15px; white-space: pre-wrap;">we should remember who we are and that we are unworthy of the name of Christian, except for what Christ has done for us. In cleansing us from all our impurities, God desires to humble us and often allows us to go through a number of trials or difficulties to that end.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #202124; font-family: "roboto" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.15px; white-space: pre-wrap;">We must believe with certainty that it is both pleasing to God and good for us to sacrifice ourselves for Him. Without this complete submission of our hearts and minds to His will, He cannot work in us to make us perfect [in love].</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #202124; font-family: "roboto" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #202124; font-family: "roboto" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.15px; white-space: pre-wrap;">The more we desire to be perfect [in love], the more dependent we are on the grace of God. We begin to need His help with every little thing and at every moment, because without it we can do nothing. The world, the flesh, and the devil wage a fierce and continuous war on our souls. If we weren't capable of humbly depending on God for assistance, our souls would be dragged down. Although this total dependence may sometimes go against our human nature, God takes great pleasure in it. Learning to do so will bring us rest.</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #202124; font-family: "roboto" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #202124; font-family: "roboto" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.15px; white-space: pre-wrap;">The most holy and necessary practice in our spiritual life is the presence of God. That means finding constant pleasure </span></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #202124; font-family: "roboto" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-CKbl0r2d_Mc/XSsSu3q1DoI/AAAAAAAAu-M/A2clu278t2sBHXgMdl0hOwIXbSrZRW6xACLcBGAs/s1600/shepherd%2Band%2Bsheep.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="360" data-original-width="480" height="240" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-CKbl0r2d_Mc/XSsSu3q1DoI/AAAAAAAAu-M/A2clu278t2sBHXgMdl0hOwIXbSrZRW6xACLcBGAs/s320/shepherd%2Band%2Bsheep.jpg" width="320" /></a></span></div>
<span style="color: #202124; font-family: "roboto" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">in His divine company, speaking, humbly and lovingly with Him in all seasons, at every moment, without limiting the conversation in any way. This is especially important in times of temptation, sorrow, separation from God, and even in times of unfaithfulness and sin.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #202124; font-family: "roboto" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.15px; white-space: pre-wrap;">Take a moment to enjoy a </span></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #202124; font-family: "roboto" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.15px; white-space: pre-wrap;">Musical Interlude: Tobymac "Everything"</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #202124; font-family: "roboto" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: white; letter-spacing: 0.15px; white-space: pre-wrap;">"We must try to converse with God in little ways while we do our work; not in memorized prayer, not trying to recite previously formed thoughts. Rather, we should purely and simply reveal our hearts as the words come to us.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #202124; font-family: "roboto" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: white; letter-spacing: 0.15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #202124; font-family: "roboto" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: white; letter-spacing: 0.15px; white-space: pre-wrap;">We must do everything with great care, avoiding impetuous actions, which are evidence of a disordered spirit. God wants us to work gently, calmly, and lovingly with Him, asking Him to accept our work. By this continual attention to God, we will resist the devil and cause him to flee (James 4:7).</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #202124; font-family: "roboto" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: white; letter-spacing: 0.15px; white-space: pre-wrap;">Whatever we do, even if we are reading</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #202124; font-family: "roboto" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: white; letter-spacing: 0.15px; white-space: pre-wrap;">the Word or praying, we should stop for a few minutes--as often as possible--to praise God from the depths of our hearts, to enjoy Him there in secret. <i><b>Since we believe that God is always with us, no matter what we may be doing, why shouldn't we stop for awhile to adore Him, to praise Him, to petition Him, to offer Him our hearts, and to thank Him?</b></i></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #202124; font-family: "roboto" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: white; letter-spacing: 0.15px; white-space: pre-wrap;">What could please God more than for us to leave the cares of the world temporarily in order to worship Him in </span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #202124; font-family: "roboto" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Z7zY-gbS0kA/XSsS5tUhQ7I/AAAAAAAAu-Q/L90ct5E67_grsnYSxd5nqThjqJ9oEVSfACLcBGAs/s1600/presence%2Bof%2BGod3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="360" data-original-width="480" height="240" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Z7zY-gbS0kA/XSsS5tUhQ7I/AAAAAAAAu-Q/L90ct5E67_grsnYSxd5nqThjqJ9oEVSfACLcBGAs/s320/presence%2Bof%2BGod3.jpg" width="320" /></a></span></div>
<span style="color: #202124; font-family: "roboto" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">our spirits? These momentary retreats serve to free us from our selfishness which can only exist in the world. In short, we cannot show our loyalty to God more than by renouncing our worldly selves as much as a thousand times a day to enjoy even a single moment with Him.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #202124; font-family: "roboto" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: white; letter-spacing: 0.15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #202124; font-family: "roboto" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: white; letter-spacing: 0.15px; white-space: pre-wrap;">I do believe that it is a common mistake of Spirit-filled people not to leave the cares of the world periodically to praise God in their spirits and to rest in the peace of His divine presence for a few moments."</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #202124; font-family: "roboto" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: white; letter-spacing: 0.15px; white-space: pre-wrap;">What can you do this day to Practice His Presence and thrill at the sound of His voice! Let us be those Spirit-filled people who leave the cares of this world on a regular, daily basis to communion with the Shepherd of our souls!</span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #202124; font-family: "roboto" , "arial" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: white; letter-spacing: 0.15px; white-space: pre-wrap;">[emphasis added to excerpts]</span></span></div>
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Jesus Followerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07403205375339466972noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8229192861882088699.post-63708255550417048722019-07-05T07:09:00.000-04:002019-07-05T07:13:35.869-04:00The Good Shepherd.4<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>"Still, there are many sheep that are lost outside the fold: </b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>I must gather them as well. <br />They too, <br />will rejoice <br />at the sound <br />of my voice, <br />and will become members <br />of one great fold, <br />with one shepherd <br />to care for them <br />night and day."</b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>--Jesus</b></span></div>
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<br /><i>"Casting all your care upon him; for he cares for you."</i> 1 Peter 5:7 <br /><br />I've been thinking about how our "cares" usually aren't a simple, focused problem but rather layers of complexity with which we struggle. An incident with our second born son perfectly illustrates this. <br /><br />Last fall, friends found Jesse in his home lying in a pool of his own blood! Their timely discovery and the care of the ICU unit of ProMedica hospital in Toledo saved his life!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Certainly our primary care was saving his life; there was an emotional roller coaster of attempts to locate and stop the internal bleeding. He went through 35 units of blood (our bodies hold 8-12 units at any one time.)<br /><br />But then there were</span><br />
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<li><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">financial cares,</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">and taking time off work to stay by his side cares, </span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">and Jesse's job related cares </span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">and dog care cares </span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">and what-is-the-purpose-of-this cares.</span></li>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">So casting our cares on Him is more than hoping Jesus takes notice of our problems or feels empathy at our struggles. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br />It is trusting that He takes the complexity of our cares and orchestrates them to lead us to His higher ways! </span></div>
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<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-NF7q2zkuNxc/XR8sf9yTo9I/AAAAAAAAuvw/EzrM9LiU6NwLMQ_5FgGeSpHLd8L-eohFQCEwYBhgL/s1600/shepherd%2Band%2Bsheep2.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="200" data-original-width="252" height="253" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-NF7q2zkuNxc/XR8sf9yTo9I/AAAAAAAAuvw/EzrM9LiU6NwLMQ_5FgGeSpHLd8L-eohFQCEwYBhgL/s320/shepherd%2Band%2Bsheep2.jpeg" width="320" /></a><i><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">"Is it enough that God thinks about you?</span><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">To be something to God--is that not praise enough?</span><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">To be a thing God cares for and would have complete for Himself--because it is worth caring for--is not that life enough?"</span></i></blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">-George MacDonald</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br />We rejoice that Our Shepherd cared to keep our son alive. We rejoice to be privileged to hear and see His voice in the tender care of the people who saved Jesse's life. We hope to be the kind of followers that the Shepherd can use to attract others to the flock.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">What a Shepherd, what a Savior!</span></div>
Jesus Followerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07403205375339466972noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8229192861882088699.post-5235979326734482262019-06-16T07:49:00.000-04:002019-06-19T06:26:55.157-04:00The Good Shepherd.3<span style="background-color: white; color: #202124; letter-spacing: 0.15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>"I give them eternal life. </b></span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #202124; letter-spacing: 0.15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>They will never be destroyed, nor can anyone tear them out of my hand. </b></span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #202124; letter-spacing: 0.15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>My Father, who gave them to me, is greater than any kingdom or power; and no force is able to pluck even the weakest from his mighty hand.</b></span></span><b style="background-color: white; color: #202124; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif; font-size: x-large; font-variant-ligatures: none; letter-spacing: 0.15px; white-space: pre-wrap;">" </b><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #202124; letter-spacing: 0.15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>--Jesus</b></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">In my role as pastor I had the privilege of officiating many wedding ceremonies. In those precious moments</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"> watching two human beings make the most important promise of their lives - to live together as One - I don't recall one couple ever vowing together to make each other miserable!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">And yet it doesn't take Americans very long to make each other miserable in </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">their marriages...about 7 years is the average before the end of a life together, once filled with hopes and dreams, comes to a crashing halt!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">So perhaps that is why we, generally speaking, have a difficult time understanding words that promise an experience that can withstand the onslaught of doubt, fear, temptation, anger, resentment, accusation, deception and disappointment that we contend with in trying to safeguard promises from one human to another!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>"I give them eternal life."</b> What human being really knows what that means? Especially when we struggle so much with the life we do know about? But Jesus isn't calling us to a place, He's calling us to a Person - the Universal Promise Maker and Ultimate Promise Keeper! </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">The closest we can get as humans to understanding this idea is, in fact, marriage! When we make those vows to another human being we have no idea what the future holds! We can imagine the future we'd like but it surely isn't one we're guaranteed. I once viewed a college student's research project about the "secret" of marriages that had lasted over 50 years. Everyone of these couples had survived tragic events that had served to make them stronger as individuals in faith and temperament thus ensuring a stalwart, enduring friendship. Events like the loss of a child, economic downturns, financial struggles, natural disasters, and even infidelity!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">But I've also witnessed the destruction of those who stop believing in one another and begin to "hedge their bets" against infidelity, </span><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">tragedy and a general feeling of </span><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">unhappiness. Isn't the ultimate "hedging" some sort of "pre-nuptial" agreement that deliberately</span><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"> broadcasts that we're so convinced of the unreliability of long term human commitment we're just going to flat out ensure marital failure? How does that ensure failure? Because rather then stating at the outset of the journey that I promise to "give what I can as long as I can", we say "I'll get what I can as long as I can", we send a clear message that I'm in this for me not you.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">But the Designer of Marriage viewed it as a covenant <i>not a contract</i>. In a contract, built on distrust, the terms try as best they can to define the minimum obligations and responsibility by the participants. In other words, contracts are a 50/50 agreement: I'll do this <b>if</b> you do that. If circumstances change, I'm no longer obligated.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">A Covenant is built on mutual trust and responsibility. It is a 100-0 proposition which says: <i style="font-weight: bold;">I am all in, I'll do my part even if you don't do yours! </i>Even if circumstances change, I will do what I said I would do!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">In this context, the struggle we have to understand Promises Made/Promises Kept, a conversation with a divorced co-worker takes on more meaning. After five years she still struggles with the bitterness of broken promises. Her attempts to establish a relationship with others is often co-opted by her conscious and unconscious fear of failure and has the potential to destroy the work she's put into building a good family.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Her good friend, a pastor's wife, has tried to help her with her struggles but has been rebuffed in her sage advice time after time after time.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">However, the pastor's wife, consciously or unconsciously, describes her own insecurity when she confessed she doesn't know with certainty whether she is going to heaven or not!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b style="font-style: italic;">"No One Is Able To Snatch Them Out Of My Hand!"</b> And, just in case we didn't get it the first time, Jesus bolstered the message: <i>"</i></span><b style="background-color: white; color: #202124; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif; font-size: x-large; font-variant-ligatures: none; letter-spacing: 0.15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><i>My Father, who gave them to me, is greater than any kingdom or power; and no force is able to pluck even the weakest from his mighty hand."</i></b></div>
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<b style="background-color: white; color: #202124; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif; font-size: x-large; font-variant-ligatures: none; letter-spacing: 0.15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><i><br /></i></b></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #202124; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large; letter-spacing: 0.15px; white-space: pre-wrap;">What part of "can't snatch" do we not understand??!!!</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #202124; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large; letter-spacing: 0.15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="color: #202124; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: white; font-variant-ligatures: none; letter-spacing: 0.15px; white-space: pre-wrap;">Let us confess: we are the weakest when our faith eyes grow dim due to the churning waters of heartache and disappointment which snatch our attention away from Him. We sink and wallow in the despair of our pain forgetting that the Man of Sorrow completely understands and cares for us and does not allow us to endure more than that which helps us grow stronger. </span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #202124; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: white; font-variant-ligatures: none; letter-spacing: 0.15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #202124; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: white; font-variant-ligatures: none; letter-spacing: 0.15px; white-space: pre-wrap;">His death on the cross sealed His 100% covenant commitment. His resurrection ensures our 100% security. In Him, author and perfector of Faith, our covenant relationship begins, like marriage, the moment we say "I will" to His invitation to follow. </span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #202124; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: white; font-variant-ligatures: none; letter-spacing: 0.15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #202124; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: white; font-variant-ligatures: none; letter-spacing: 0.15px; white-space: pre-wrap;">What is our part in the Covenant? Like sheep, we are called to Follow, i.e., do wholeheartedly what and where He tells us. As MacDonald points out: "<i>If you can think of not one thing this day you have done because the Master said "Do this" or not done because He said, "Don't do this," you have good reason to believe you are not His disciple!</i> Obedience is not perfection, it is trying. And trusting that the Good Shepherd will help us in our trying to get better and better! He always has in view the Perfecting of Love in and through us and knows precisely what and when it will take to get us there!</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #202124; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: white; font-variant-ligatures: none; letter-spacing: 0.15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #202124; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: white; font-variant-ligatures: none; letter-spacing: 0.15px; white-space: pre-wrap;">That, my friend, is Eternal Life! It is something we begin to understand in the here and now, not by becoming sheep herders, but by understanding the truth of the marriage covenant.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #202124; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: white; font-variant-ligatures: none; letter-spacing: 0.15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #202124; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: white; font-variant-ligatures: none; letter-spacing: 0.15px; white-space: pre-wrap;">The husband, as representative of Jesus, the Head, creates an atmosphere of love and trust through sacrifice and service, that allows His wife to achieve Radiant Beauty. The wife, representing those of us on our way to glory, overcomes her natural inclination to fearfulness and self-will, opens her heart more and more to her husband's direction, discipline, protection and provision for her, allowing God to use that safe environment to help her become all she is meant to be.</span></span></div>
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<li><span style="color: #202124; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: white; font-variant-ligatures: none; letter-spacing: 0.15px; white-space: pre-wrap;">When a husband is secure in his wife's respect for his God-endowed<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-eSBhv7x8_dM/XQYjXX9QP0I/AAAAAAAAuHA/6XrqxHfKgFcF9dsm6rowa3g5JcKCeWr4gCEwYBhgL/s1600/CandD%2Bwedding.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="902" height="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-eSBhv7x8_dM/XQYjXX9QP0I/AAAAAAAAuHA/6XrqxHfKgFcF9dsm6rowa3g5JcKCeWr4gCEwYBhgL/s320/CandD%2Bwedding.jpg" width="180" /></a></div>
role;</span></span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">When a wife is secure in her husband's Godly love for her;</span></li>
<li><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">When a marriage is living out it's God-centered purpose: creating the ideal laboratory for God's Perfecting love, </span></li>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">a hostile thought of breakup or divorce has a snowball's chance in hell of surviving! </span><br />
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<span style="color: #202124; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: white; font-variant-ligatures: none; letter-spacing: 0.15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #202124; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: white; font-variant-ligatures: none; letter-spacing: 0.15px; white-space: pre-wrap;">It surely is a mystery, but one that leads us to a greater understanding of what it means to be <b><i>unsnatchable</i></b> in the Father's hand!</span></span></div>
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Jesus Followerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07403205375339466972noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8229192861882088699.post-58114094440691621552019-06-09T08:10:00.000-04:002019-06-09T08:10:25.079-04:00The Good Shepherd.2<span style="font-family: Trebuchet MS, sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>"I am the good shepherd. <br /><br />I know my flock and they know me, even as the Father knows me and I know the Father. <br /><br />I am willing to give my life for the sake of the sheep. <br /><br />My sheep recognize my voice. <br /><br />I know them each by name, and they follow me. "</b></span><div style="text-align: right;">
<b style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif; font-size: x-large;">--Jesus</b></div>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">It's been said that in Europe a hundred miles is a long ways while in America a hundred years is a long time! And for most humans thirteen billion light years is an incomprehensibly long time and long way!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">With a tip of the hat to young earth creationists for their sincerity and passion, more and more researchers in the geometric sciences agree that thirteen billion light years is, more or less, the breadth and age of the universe.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">This same Jesus, the architect of Creation, produced the just right conditions in a vast universe for His crowning achievement: <b><i>Beings fashioned in the Image of God!</i></b> He chose to visit this planet and redeem people from their waywardness and self destruction and lead them to His crowning endeavor: <b><i>Beings fashioned into the Nature of God</i></b>.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">I imagine the time He and the Father spent (who knows, perhaps many millennia) contemplating the things <i><b>that must be said</b></i> to humans to help them <b>understand the Purposes of the Perfect Will</b>.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">When He came here, He described Himself and His work among humans in terms the simplest would be able to connect with from head to heart.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>Good Shepherd</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">In preparation for this visit, the Creator made sure to fashion a "sentient" (what Hugh Ross would call "soulish") animal -sheep- that would point people to the tenderness of a loving caregiver. By observing a human shepherd's interaction with his flock we can understand Jesus' words describing His relationship with us!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>Knowing the Flock</b></span><br />
<a href="about:invalid#zClosurez" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img alt="Image result for shepherd and sheep" border="0" height="251" src="data:image/jpeg;base64,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" width="320" /></a><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">The Creator instilled in these soulish </span><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms", sans-serif; font-size: large;">animals a sense of community and belonging; qualities that would help people understand the special relationship each one has to the Shepherd and other sheep.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>Give My Life</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">The Nature of Love is sacrifice. Jesus showed us what the Father is always doing: <b><i>giving himself eternally for the good of people</i></b>. The motivating force in the universe is Love and is the end to which All Creation is moving. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">One of the deadly consequences of Self-Consciousness and Self-Will is Self-Loathing - a genuine disbelief that someone could love me for what I am.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">By dying for the very creatures who rejected their Creator He demonstrated beyond a shadow of a doubt what true love is and the eternal value He ascribes to every individual on this planet!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>Voice Recognition</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">"Alexa, play my music!" "Siri, find this location." Artificial Intelligence has changed the way we live our lives! But they are soulless servants designed to only do our bidding without anything resembling </span><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms", sans-serif; font-size: large;">(except a soft sounding female voice) </span><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>freely offered loyalty and affection</b>. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">The Creator's most challenging act of creating was developing a Being like Him capable of communication, </span><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">communion,</span><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"> and choice. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Perhaps more challenging was that these creatures would be able to distinguish His voice in the midst of a din of noise these creatures would be capable of producing! </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Hope resides in His heart as He waits for people to answer His alluring call to Life!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>Follow The Leader</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Like sheep, humans can get lost rather easily. We need guidance to get to the right destination...most often not even sure what the right destination is. But the destination we are created for is to be at the Heart of the Father, to know our purpose and meaning and to be merry children around His throne!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>He Knows Us By Name</b></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">"Take a number." Whether at the DMV or a fast food restaurant, we resign ourselves to waiting for our number to be called. As fickle as humanity is - some want to be noticed, some want to blend - the wonder of friendship with Jesus is that he cares about all that happens in our lives. Every event is an opportunity that, as our eternal Shepherd, He coordinates with to shape and refine us into His nature. Our names reveal something about the purpose for which we were created!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">The Shepherd has a right to expect the sheep to submit to his guidance, protection and provision. In a word, He has authority to care for the sheep. And the sheep have a duty to pay attention and follow where He leads and what He does to help them prosper. You could call it a Win-Win proposition! As this flock grows He gets the ever expanding Love for which He fashioned the universe, we get the home for which we long!</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">In the end, it wasn't so much what He said but what He did that demonstrated the Father's Perfect Love. His actions give the Ultimate Meaning to the things He said. May we, like sheep, live just like Him!</span><br />
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Jesus Followerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07403205375339466972noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8229192861882088699.post-9039361169833851192019-04-15T06:46:00.000-04:002019-04-16T19:29:07.037-04:00The Father.9<span style="background-color: white; color: #202124; letter-spacing: 0.15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>"When at last you lift up the Son of Man (on the cross), you will know who I am, realizing that I did nothing according to my own plan or authority, but delivered to you the words which my Father instructed me to proclaim." </b></span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #202124; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large; letter-spacing: 0.15px; white-space: pre-wrap;">Many of us contemplate the purpose and meaning of our life on earth. Just the other day a co-worker, a lady in her 40's, told me she is still trying to figure that out about her own life. It is the primary quality that separates humans from all other sentient or "soulish" creatures: <i>we want to know the why of our existence</i>.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #202124; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large; letter-spacing: 0.15px; white-space: pre-wrap;">And as we lose our grip on this world, through weariness and decay, the method and time of our departure comes more into focus.</span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Proudly displaying her block M...for Mavis!</td></tr>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #202124; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large; letter-spacing: 0.15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #202124; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large; letter-spacing: 0.15px; white-space: pre-wrap;">My sister Mazie's health has been declining rapidly over the past few months, so death has come more into focus for us lately. In addition to wrestling with "quality of life" questions posed by her caregivers, I've pondered the meaning and purpose of her life. Before her decline, she was a very intelligent and capable Downs Syndrome person. My favorite story about her was an exchange she had with our mom years ago. After watching a TV commercial featuring the "Mentally Retarded" (this was pre-politically correct programming) she turned to mom and asked, "Am I retarded?" My mom returned, "Do you think you are?" "No", was the simple answer from an unencumbered spirit. "Neither do I", replied Sacrificial Love (the woman who refused to put her "retarded" baby in an institution, a common practice of the day).</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #202124; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large; letter-spacing: 0.15px; white-space: pre-wrap;">Sacrificial Love is probably the best way to describe the truth of Mazie's life on earth, the meaning and purpose of why God put her here. At her graduation ceremony many years ago the school displayed a slide show of the two graduate's accomplishments. The first featured a young man's hand crafts. But the focus of Mazie's "accomplishments" were pictures of an arm around a friend, cleaning up after lunch, helping with projects, serving without fanfare. As I watched, I sobbed deeply at the wonder of a life devoted to caring for others so effortlessly.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #202124; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large; letter-spacing: 0.15px; white-space: pre-wrap;">At a recent visit with Mazie at her care facility, my teenage granddaughter shared with the nursing staff her impressions of Mazie. "Whenever she came to our house she would always look for things to help with like doing the dishes or folding clothes or making beds. She just loved to serve us."</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #202124; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large; letter-spacing: 0.15px; white-space: pre-wrap;">I never recall her grumbling or complaining (except when we limited her intake of Diet Pepsi...) about any task. Just her presence and zeal for serving others could be quite convicting, believe me!</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #202124; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large; letter-spacing: 0.15px; white-space: pre-wrap;">She, of course, learned sacrificial love from my mom who learned it from her Savior, Jesus, when she opened up her heart to Him after the devastating loss of her husband, our dad, when he was only 31 years old.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #202124; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large; letter-spacing: 0.15px; white-space: pre-wrap;">Jesus, as perfectly obedient son of the Creator God, contemplated the time and method of his parting this planet. Crucifixion, undoubtedly the most grisly and public form of capital punishment devised by mankind, was a well established industry </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #202124; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large; letter-spacing: 0.15px; white-space: pre-wrap;">after centuries of practice.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #202124; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large; letter-spacing: 0.15px; white-space: pre-wrap;">But as was <i>his</i> practice, he never focused on himself but rather on the meaning and purpose of his life: <i><b>to deliver the words his Father God had instructed him.</b></i> This Word, this Logos brought order to the chaos of the world. Centuries later Jesus Christ still impacts the world, because simply by believing in the Name of Jesus order comes into the chaos of every individual who trusts in him! He is the Truth of God revealing the Perfect, Sacrificial, Love of the Father for the world!</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #202124; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large; letter-spacing: 0.15px; white-space: pre-wrap;">I have benefited greatly from that Truth: order from the chaos of losing my dad, the sacrificial love of a mom who refused to cave into fear, and the convicting spirit of my servant sister! The Truth of our existence, like Jesus, Mazie, mom and all who follow Him is what we reveal about our Creator to a world desperately in need of saving...or clean dishes and made up beds!</span><br />
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Jesus Followerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07403205375339466972noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8229192861882088699.post-91308030799636415872019-03-24T07:33:00.001-04:002019-03-24T07:33:28.485-04:00The Father.8<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>"<span style="background-color: white; color: #202124; letter-spacing: 0.15px; white-space: pre-wrap;">I have said this from the beginning: there is much in your lives that I could condemn, </span></b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b><span style="background-color: white; color: #202124; letter-spacing: 0.15px; white-space: pre-wrap;">but I have come with another message, </span></b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b><span style="background-color: white; color: #202124; letter-spacing: 0.15px; white-space: pre-wrap;">given to me by the One who is the truth. </span></b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b><span style="background-color: white; color: #202124; letter-spacing: 0.15px; white-space: pre-wrap;">This is the message that I speak to the world." </span></b></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><i>"If our Lord God in this life—in das Sheisshaus *—has given us such noble gifts, what will happen in that eternal life, where everything will be perfect and delightful?"</i></span> </blockquote>
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<a href="https://queenmobs.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/es11-970x777.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; display: inline !important; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="Related image" border="0" height="254" src="https://queenmobs.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/es11-970x777.jpg" width="320" /></a><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">For those, like me, not entirely familiar with the specifics of the Reformation, Eric Metaxas, in his book <u>Martin Luther</u>, recounts that the moment that changed the world is not without amusing irony. While sitting on a toilet meditating on Romans 1:17 "</span><span style="text-align: right;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><i>For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith: as it is written, The just shall live by faith,</i>" Luther suddenly realized that he'd been angry at God for demanding a righteousness he desperately wanted but fell woefully short of in his self-abasing efforts to achieve. More so, he realized he was part of an organized deception to convince people they could purchase that righteousness through a system that had usurped Jesus alone as mediator between God and man.</span></span></div>
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<span style="text-align: right;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">The moment was not lost on Luther nor the place where the revelation occurred. That place, to be precise, was a "Sheisshaus" - German vernacular for "shithouse, lavatory, sewer." If God would meet Luther while attending to the unsavory business of defecating, was it not a simple and profound reminder that God Himself had entered this "Sheisshaus" to redeem and resurrect its inhabitants? Compared to the glories of heaven, this life is a "Sheisshaus" filled with sin, misery, death and "shit". "<i>For God to come into this foulest world is for Him already to come most of the way into Hell. This world is the antechamber to hell and eternal death, and unless we allow the God of life to come here, we do not allow Him to redeem us. He cannot redeem and resurrect what is not foul and dead, but we are both</i>." </span></span></div>
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<span style="text-align: right;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">All mankind's monuments hailing human attempts to be "good without God, to impress God and be like Him without His help" are "far worse than excrement could ever be, for they pretend to be good and beautiful and true and holy, but in reality" hide the devil's sinister and diabolical counterfeit to the glory of God.</span></span></div>
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<span style="text-align: right;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Metaxas expands: "</span></span><span style="text-align: right;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">The specific point here is that the infinite and omniscient and omnipotent creator God of heaven did not descend to earth on a golden cloud. He came to us through screaming pain, through the bloody agony of a maiden’s vagina, in a cattle stall filthy with and stinking of dung. This is how humans enter the world, and if God would enter the world as a human </span></span><span style="text-align: right;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">being, he must enter it that way. It was the only way to reach us where we are and as we are, and because of his love for us he did not shrink from this approach, vile and difficult as it must be. Luther saw in this the very essence of Christian theology. God reached down not halfway to meet us in our vileness but all the way down, to the foul dregs of our broken humanity. And this holy and loving God dared to touch our lifeless and rotting essence and <b><i>in doing so underscored that this is the truth about us. In fact, we are not sick and in need of healing. We are dead and in need of resurrecting. We are not dusty and in need of a good dusting; we are fatally befouled with death and fatally toxic filth </i></b></span></span><span style="text-align: right;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b><i>and require total redemption.</i></b> If we do not recognize that we need eternal life from the hand of God, we remain in </span></span><span style="text-align: right;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">our sins and are eternally dead. So because God respects us, he can reach us only if we are honest about our condition." Ibid, page 123 (emphasis added)</span></span></div>
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<span style="text-align: right;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">This is the message Jesus still speaks to the world! Meditate on that today, toilet or no toilet!</span></span></div>
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Jesus Followerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07403205375339466972noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8229192861882088699.post-3325046572643127172019-02-23T07:51:00.000-05:002019-02-23T07:51:49.183-05:00The Father.7<span style="background-color: white; color: #202124; letter-spacing: 0.15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>"And yet, I can do nothing on my own; I judge only as God guides me; </b></span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #202124; letter-spacing: 0.15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>My ways are perfect, because I seek not my own will, but the will of the Father who has sent me. </b></span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #202124; letter-spacing: 0.15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>As the Father has the power to give life, so the Son has the gift of life, and has been given the authority to execute judgment, because he is the Messiah, the Son of Man." </b></span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #202124; letter-spacing: 0.15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b>--Jesus</b></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #202124; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><i><span style="background-color: white; font-variant-ligatures: none; letter-spacing: 0.15px; white-space: pre-wrap;">"God</span><span style="font-variant-ligatures: none; letter-spacing: 0.15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"> has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by him all things </span></i></span><br />
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<span style="color: #202124; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><i><span style="font-variant-ligatures: none; letter-spacing: 0.15px; white-space: pre-wrap;">were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities--all things were created through him and for him. And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together." Letter to the Colossian Church</span></i></span></blockquote>
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<span style="color: #202124; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="font-variant-ligatures: none; letter-spacing: 0.15px; white-space: pre-wrap;">Jesus never disclosed any of what Paul claims of Him. At least not as recorded by his closest companions. Where then did Paul get the information and what qualifies him to make this astounding claim about Jesus Christ's involvement in the creation of all things?</span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #202124; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="font-variant-ligatures: none; letter-spacing: 0.15px; white-space: pre-wrap;">Jesus was indeed unequivocal in his claim that he existed before ancient Abraham and that he and the Father/Creator are One. The apostle John, Jesus' closest earthly companion, opened his gospel by echoing the book of Genesis' mystical window into Creation: </span></span><br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<span style="color: #202124; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="font-variant-ligatures: none; letter-spacing: 0.15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b><i>In The Beginning</i>...</b> </span></span></div>
<span style="color: #202124; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="font-variant-ligatures: none; letter-spacing: 0.15px; white-space: pre-wrap;">But John turns his focus from physical creation to the Idea behind creation: The Word Made Flesh, Incarnate God. He reports that the things Jesus taught and did, even in His temporary visit to this planet, would fill more than the world could hold! Surely Jesus disclosed secret things to his closest companions that he knew one day would be proclaimed from the housetops. Things that these unsophisticated youngsters would have to ponder for many years in order to grip the magnitude of His claims! </span></span><br />
<span style="color: #202124; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="font-variant-ligatures: none; letter-spacing: 0.15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="color: #202124; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: white; font-variant-ligatures: none; letter-spacing: 0.15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b>The Battle for Creation Theory Supremacy</b></span></span><br />
<span style="color: #202124; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: white; font-variant-ligatures: none; letter-spacing: 0.15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b><br /></b></span></span>
<span style="color: #202124; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: white; font-variant-ligatures: none; letter-spacing: 0.15px; white-space: pre-wrap;">A friend related how his pastor started a teaching series on his five year long study of the "flat earth" theory. The underlying inference, of course, is that "science" has set out to dupe people into mistrusting the Bible record. And as usually happens in these situations, essentially guaranteed discord in the body. One family left the fellowship.</span></span><br />
<span style="color: #202124; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: white; font-variant-ligatures: none; letter-spacing: 0.15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="color: #202124; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: white; font-variant-ligatures: none; letter-spacing: 0.15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b>Young Earth/Old Earth/Creation/Evolution?</b></span></span><br />
<span style="color: #202124; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: white; font-variant-ligatures: none; letter-spacing: 0.15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b><br /></b></span></span>
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<span style="font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">A recent headline reported that a Minnesota congressman said the earth is only 9,000 years old (https://blogs.scientificamerican.com/observations/house-science-member-says-earth-is-9000-years-old/). This illustrates that the debate and accusations between evolutionists and creationists going back decades is alive and well today. Hugh Ross, Christian apologist, astrophysicist, author and scientist, attempts to put the animosity in perspective: <i>"To sum up, many young-earth creationist leaders consider anyone who disagrees with their particular doctrine as a dangerous enemy that must be strenuously opposed until their credibility is destroyed. On the other end of the creation/evolution spectrum, British biologist Richard Dawkins in his book The God Delusion asserts that faith is fundamentally evil. He describes belief in God as a mental virus. The back cover of his book claims that “faith is not just irrational but potentially deadly.</i>” <u>More Than A Theory</u>, Ross, Hugh.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #202124; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: white; font-variant-ligatures: none; letter-spacing: 0.15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b>What Would Jesus Explain (WWJE)</b></span></span><br />
<b style="background-color: white; color: #202124; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif; font-size: x-large; font-variant-ligatures: none; letter-spacing: 0.15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></b>
<span style="color: #202124; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: white; letter-spacing: 0.15px; white-space: pre-wrap;">Since Jesus is the Ultimate Life Giver and the Perfect Revelation of God to man what has he given mankind that can help solve this conflict? More importantly, is it even possible to find harmony between scripture and science, faith and facts? </span></span><br />
<span style="color: #202124; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: white; letter-spacing: 0.15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="color: #202124; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: white; letter-spacing: 0.15px; white-space: pre-wrap;">First of all He created us to know. Self-consciousness, reason and will sets us apart from all the created order. We are at history's apex of man's ability to know through revelation and discovery. But knowledge alone doesn't always lead to understanding.</span></span><br />
<span style="color: #202124; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: white; letter-spacing: 0.15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="color: #202124; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.15px; white-space: pre-wrap;">Hugh Ross believes that modern science is more interested in the what and how rather than the why of how the universe came to be. In that he echoes George MacDonald's view that science can never explain God because it never focuses on the why or the truth of a thing. Botanist, for example, can tell you the parts of a flower and all its attributes but they can never explain what in the nature of a flower explains some aspect of God's character, meaning or purpose.</span></span></span><br />
<span style="color: #202124; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span></span>
<span style="color: #202124; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.15px; white-space: pre-wrap;">Ross explains why the Bible offers the best model to paint the creation picture: </span></span></span><br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="color: #202124; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><i>"Constructing a good model to explain the origin and history of the universe and life also requires a well-built structure that can withstand attacks. Over fifty years ago British cosmologist Sir Fred Hoyle, though much opposed to the Christian faith, conceded that the Bible offered a worthy cosmological foundation. He wrote, “There is a good deal of cosmology in the Bible. . . . It is a remarkable conception.”1 </i></span></span> </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="color: #202124; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><i>While the Bible is not a scientific textbook, it contains a great quantity of information about the origin, structure, and history of the universe and life—more than any other religious text (see table 5.2, p. 61). These descriptions also uniquely predict scientific discoveries thousands of years ahead of time. Furthermore, the Bible frequently exhorts readers to discover the Creator’s handiwork in nature, referring to it as a second and complementary revelation from him. This surpassingly abundant commentary on the natural realm makes the Bible the best possible choice on which to erect a theistic model—one that is scientifically testable." </i><u>More Than A Theory</u>, Ross, Hugh, pg 71 (emphasis added)</span></span></blockquote>
<b style="background-color: white; color: #202124; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif; font-size: x-large; font-variant-ligatures: none; letter-spacing: 0.15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></b><b style="background-color: white; color: #202124; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif; font-size: x-large; font-variant-ligatures: none; letter-spacing: 0.15px; white-space: pre-wrap;">Earth: A Unique Observation Deck </b><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-variant-ligatures: none; letter-spacing: 0.15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: #202124; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="background-color: white; font-variant-ligatures: none; letter-spacing: 0.15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: #202124; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Psalm 19:1–3 describes one of God’s key purposes for creating the heavens: <b><i>to make his existence and attributes visible to every human being.</i></b> Once again, the Bible foretold what science discovered. </span></span><br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="background-color: white; font-variant-ligatures: none; letter-spacing: 0.15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: #202124; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><i>The heavens </i></span></span><i style="background-color: white; color: #202124; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif; font-size: x-large; font-variant-ligatures: none; letter-spacing: 0.15px; white-space: pre-wrap;">declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands. Day after day they pour forth speech; night after night they display knowledge. There is no speech or language where their voice is not heard.</i></blockquote>
<span style="background-color: white; font-variant-ligatures: none; letter-spacing: 0.15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: #202124; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">According to Ross and his team of scientists, the Creator placed mankind at the just right place and time period to observe, know and understand His awesome Creation! He explains why:</span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-variant-ligatures: none; letter-spacing: 0.15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: #202124; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></span>
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="background-color: white; font-variant-ligatures: none; letter-spacing: 0.15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: #202124; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">"Throughout the history of the universe, the speed of light has exceeded the speed of cosmic expansion. <b>Thus the proportion of history visible to Earth-bound spectators has increased over time.</b> Eventually the entire history of the cosmos became visible. But it won’t be for long. As the cosmos ages, dark energy causes the universe’s expansion to speed up. It has already accelerated so much that objects formed immediately after the creation event are moving away from human observers at nearly the velocity of light. Someday dark energy will cause the expansion to accelerate beyond light’s velocity. Then distant objects will no longer be visible from Earth’s vantage point. As the universe expands at progressively faster rates under the influence of dark energy, researchers will see increasingly less of cosmic history. <b>Humanity lives at the only moment in cosmic history when the first stars, galaxies, and even cosmic background radiation can be observed.</b> According to the Bible and RTB’s creation model, <b><i>the Creator perfectly timed humanity’s arrival in cosmic history to facilitate discovery of his </i></b></span></span><span style="color: #202124; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="font-variant-ligatures: none; letter-spacing: 0.15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b><i>existence and attributes through observation and consideration of the heavens</i></b> (see Ps. 19:1–4; 50:6; 97:6; Rom. 1:18–20)." Ibid.</span></span></blockquote>
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<span style="color: #202124; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="font-variant-ligatures: none; letter-spacing: 0.15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="color: #202124; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="font-variant-ligatures: none; letter-spacing: 0.15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b>Perfect place.</b> </span></span><br />
<span style="color: #202124; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="font-variant-ligatures: none; letter-spacing: 0.15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span><span style="color: #202124; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="font-variant-ligatures: none; letter-spacing: 0.15px; white-space: pre-wrap;">Ross explains the uniqueness of mankind's observation point:</span></span><br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="color: #202124; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="font-variant-ligatures: none; letter-spacing: 0.15px; white-space: pre-wrap;">"At any other location in the Milky</span></span><br />
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<span style="color: #202124; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="font-variant-ligatures: none; letter-spacing: 0.15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-fWhxqqXzwD4/XGnWhBBADdI/AAAAAAAAsIo/SSBnKqK5stgMWiBqmYZc92qTziGUU9IQwCLcBGAs/s1600/Whirlpool%2Bgalaxy.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="360" data-original-width="640" height="361" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-fWhxqqXzwD4/XGnWhBBADdI/AAAAAAAAsIo/SSBnKqK5stgMWiBqmYZc92qTziGUU9IQwCLcBGAs/s640/Whirlpool%2Bgalaxy.png" width="640" /></a></span></span></div>
<span style="color: #202124; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="font-variant-ligatures: none; letter-spacing: 0.15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"> Way Galaxy, a spectator’s view would be blocked by gas, dust, nebulae, nearby stars, star clusters, and/or galactic arms. In almost every other medium-large spiral galaxy (the size required for life), nearby galaxies and/or galaxy clusters would obscure the view of a distant universe. In every other location, knowledge of the deep history and structure of the universe remains hidden. <b><i>Only from Earth can humanity see the magnificence of all cosmic creation.</i></b>" Ibid.</span></span></blockquote>
<b style="color: #202124; font-family: "trebuchet ms", sans-serif; font-size: x-large; letter-spacing: 0.15px; white-space: pre-wrap;">Anthropic Inequality</b><br />
<span style="color: #202124; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: white; font-variant-ligatures: none; letter-spacing: 0.15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b><br /></b></span></span>
<span style="color: #202124; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: white; font-variant-ligatures: none; letter-spacing: 0.15px; white-space: pre-wrap;">Here's an interesting idea that really puts in perspective God's love affair with Life:</span></span><br />
<span style="color: #202124; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: white; font-variant-ligatures: none; letter-spacing: 0.15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<span style="background-color: white; font-variant-ligatures: none; letter-spacing: 0.15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: #202124; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">"Brandon Carter, the British mathematician who first used the term “anthropic principle” in the scientific literature, observed a stunning temporal imbalance: the universe took billions of years to prepare for a species with the potential to survive no longer than a few million years. Carter called this imbalance between the minimum possible time required for the emergence of human life and the maximum time span for humanity’s survival, the “anthropic principle inequality.”</span></span><span style="background-color: white; font-variant-ligatures: none; letter-spacing: 0.15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: #202124; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><b><br /></b></span></span><span style="background-color: white; font-variant-ligatures: none; letter-spacing: 0.15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: #202124; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Physicists John Barrow and Frank Tipler later showed that this inequality is far more extreme than originally thought. They calculated that human civilization with the benefits of some technology and organized social structure can last no longer than 41,000 years. Furthermore, Barrow and Tipler demonstrated that the inequality exists for any conceivable intelligent physical species under any realistically possible life-support conditions. These conclusions were developed, in part, because it takes at least 9 billion years to form a stable planetary system with the right chemical and physical conditions for life. It takes at least another 4.5 billion years for a planet in that system to accumulate adequate biomass and biodiversity to support an advanced civilization’s activities. The convergence of “just-right” conditions for an advanced species to thrive and civilize in as brief a time as 13.73 billion years reflects extraordinary, even miraculous, efficiency." Ibid.</span></span></blockquote>
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<span style="background-color: white; font-variant-ligatures: none; letter-spacing: 0.15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: #202124; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">And you thought culture's preoccupation with "gender inequality" was news...</span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-variant-ligatures: none; letter-spacing: 0.15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: #202124; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="background-color: white; font-variant-ligatures: none; letter-spacing: 0.15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: #202124; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Just like the Minnesota Congressman, there are many in the Christian community who will chaff (actually get extraordinarily angry) at the idea that the earth and the universe are billions of years old believing it to be an attack on the Bible. This then becomes another litmus test for true discipleship.</span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-variant-ligatures: none; letter-spacing: 0.15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: #202124; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="background-color: white; font-variant-ligatures: none; letter-spacing: 0.15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: #202124; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">A culture that surely has embedded within it Judeo/Christian influences, has certainly seen those influences challenged. But that isn't necessarily a bad thing. Jesus asked whether he'd find faith on earth when He returned. More importantly, what kind of faith will he find? One, most assuredly, tested and refined.</span></span><br />
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<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-CsrfmrI5s3k/XGnb--NdXYI/AAAAAAAAsI8/ij-QJOuXubQc78d9mB72ba5Crj-h7lJ0ACLcBGAs/s1600/Jesus%2Bcommands%2Bsea.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="186" data-original-width="271" height="436" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-CsrfmrI5s3k/XGnb--NdXYI/AAAAAAAAsI8/ij-QJOuXubQc78d9mB72ba5Crj-h7lJ0ACLcBGAs/s640/Jesus%2Bcommands%2Bsea.jpeg" width="640" /></a></div>
<span style="background-color: white; font-variant-ligatures: none; letter-spacing: 0.15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: #202124; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Court battles attempting to force the states and federal governments to give equal treatment to teaching the creationist view of origins in public schools have been defeated time and again. Ross notes: "In the four most important creation-evolution court battles of the past fifty years, <b>the creation side lost every time. </b>Why? <b><i>Because its defendants could not prove that young-earth creationism had scientific legitimacy.</i></b> The Supreme Court justices made their decisions crystal clear. If young-earth creation science were valid as science, its right to be included in the public school curriculum would be assured no matter what its connection to one form of religion or another.</span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; font-variant-ligatures: none; letter-spacing: 0.15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: #202124; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></span>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #202124; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large; letter-spacing: 0.15px; white-space: pre-wrap;">In all four court judgments, <b><i>scientific merit set the primary standard</i></b>. The courts acknowledged that this merit does not mean scientific perfection. If it did, no scientific model or interpretation could be taught. However, <b><i>creation proponents must demonstrate at least some level of scientific value.</i></b> Without it, access to the public education science curriculum cannot be justified." Ibid.</span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #202124; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large; letter-spacing: 0.15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #202124; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large; letter-spacing: 0.15px; white-space: pre-wrap;">The problem, of course, is that not all Christ followers believe in the young earth creationist position. Trying to find consensus on any number of issues, from origins to baptism to atonement to sanctification, can be difficult in the Christian community. That often makes it difficult to make a compelling case for faith in God to a world trying desperately to explain the universe without Him and cares little for His redemptive work in drawing all mankind to Himself.</span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #202124; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large; letter-spacing: 0.15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #202124; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large; letter-spacing: 0.15px; white-space: pre-wrap;">Hugh Ross makes the case that scientific methodology; i.e., the ability to observe, reason, theorize, test and understand the way things are, has its roots in the Biblical record of God's work in creating the universe and is a gift from God for knowing Him. That the world has successfully excluded the Creator from His creation using the very tools He's given may in fact be part of God's strategy for refining faith!</span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #202124; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large; letter-spacing: 0.15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #202124; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large; letter-spacing: 0.15px; white-space: pre-wrap;">For which is a more compelling case to an unbelieving world? That the observable universe with consistent application of the laws of physics is a less reliable source of revelation than our ability to interpret and agree on ancient Hebrew and Greek texts? Is our faith really measured in whether we believe that God created the universe in six 24 hour time periods or took eons of time to produce the just right conditions for his crowning achievement: a being independent of Him with the ability to think, reason, and most importantly, love.</span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #202124; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large; letter-spacing: 0.15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #202124; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large; letter-spacing: 0.15px; white-space: pre-wrap;">Western civilization, built on the foundation of faith in the moral and spiritual bedrock of Scripture's record of God's intervention in all of the created order, is experiencing great turmoil. Science, one of God's great tools for knowing and understanding Him, is being used as a political billy club for all kinds of evil from infanticide to incapacitating economies through fear of global climate catastrophe.</span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #202124; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large; letter-spacing: 0.15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #202124; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large; letter-spacing: 0.15px; white-space: pre-wrap;">But as the data from the </span></span><i style="background-color: white; color: #202124; font-family: "trebuchet ms", sans-serif; font-size: x-large; letter-spacing: 0.15px; white-space: pre-wrap;">the skies proclaiming the work of his hands, daily pouring forth speech; night after night displaying knowledge, and where this speech and language is being heard and understood, </i><span style="background-color: white; color: #202124; font-family: "trebuchet ms", sans-serif; font-size: large; letter-spacing: 0.15px; white-space: pre-wrap;">the very science once hijacked to justify evil behavior is being turned on its head. For now we can see inside the womb to follow the development of new life. We can understand the sub-microscopic universe of quantum physics and their constancy of application throughout the observed universe. We can understand the fine-tuning of the universe to prepare a special planet that can literally see the Glory of God from "the beginning..."</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #202124; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large; letter-spacing: 0.15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #202124; font-family: "trebuchet ms" , sans-serif; font-size: large; letter-spacing: 0.15px; white-space: pre-wrap;">Apostle Peter urged Christ followers to always have a "reason for why you believe." A good defense is a great offense. By embracing the harmony of scripture and science we have a special place as Christ followers to get a grip on the Greatness of the One through Whom everything came into existence!</span></span></div>
Jesus Followerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07403205375339466972noreply@blogger.com0