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Posted by Phyllis Johnson on 28-Aug-2023 at 08:31:12 EST
Subject: Help
I am so grateful to your encouragement daily you have kept me faithful and my life is full with hope. Thank you. I will try to get my grandkids to bring them but the parents are to prideful they don't like me bringing them to my functions. They say hand me downs. I want to give them something from me and I want them to see God cares and people are also.Amen
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Posted by Dona on 06-Aug-2023 at 18:08:17 EST
Subject: Music Program
I am seeking a church that sings hymns rather than modern music. Could you tell me about your music.
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Posted by 1 John 4:15 on 10-Jun-2023 at 08:56:04 EST
Subject: Personal programming
I got thinking after I posted my post how it's easy enough because we are not working God's program. The spiritual disciplines have as one of their great advantage they change us. As we study, as we pray, as we worship, etc. We become what we are supposed to be. So, then the work we need to do when we don't do it, we are setting ourselves up to fail at that. People groan under the effects of the fall but don't do their part to overcome them. They start by believing and calling Him Lord but they don't follow the teachings to grow in Christ. I guess this is the how that a lot of people are looking for. Then again, I realize it's a model that education takes. They take the process of it and indoctrinate students to believe and live a certain way. It's what should be in a faith centralized around Christ but society has made it about anything else. I remember talk of why a four year degree was considered important and a part of that was because the person would be more well rounded but I see now what was going on there. Programming of a person is necessary to survive inside or outside Christ. A relationship with God or a relationship with the world-either way a process is necessary.
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Posted by Pastor Daniel Stevenson on 10-Jun-2023 at 08:40:22 EST
Subject: Abiding
1 John 4:15- Whoever means anyone can. This is a qualifier. It shows that Jesus is the door as He said. Believing is one thing. Acting at if you believe, openly admitting you follow Jesus, BEING a believer -is another. It's so easy to just exist in whatever situation we find ourselves in without trying to make that situation include Jesus. Certainly if we won't include Him them we are darling to make Him Lord. "In" is a thing we want. Since we can do nothing outside Him, getting "in" Him is the way to go. Here's how. Confess Him.
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Posted by Daniel Stevenson on 02-Jun-2023 at 11:36:40 EST
Subject: Proverbs 7:1 (Study discipline emphasis)
To treasure something means to recognize value in it-to hold it up above other things. To store up treasures for myself would be to keep them back from the world's effects. I'd be trying to protect them but the thief may be more proficient and fighting natural processes of entropy (such as rust) is a never ending battle. I could be spending so much time protecting them from natural processes that I might not really have my treasures at all. I think that Jesus commanded us to love one another (especially in the family of God. I cherish that command but I feel like I am literally always learning how to do it. Plus, it means abandoning my own benefit at times and that is hard especially when I'm not specifically thinking in these terms. I also know He commanded us to Go therefore and make disciples baptizing them in the name of the father, son, Holy Spirit. I find in myself a passion for this but the enemy (flesh, evil influences, world system) is active in distracting or busying me so that I do not. The list goes on. I feel like I am a work in progress in literally every area I am called to. #reachingnewheightsinjesus
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Posted by P. Dan on 03-May-2023 at 20:14:05 EST
Subject: Judas didn't choose Him back
Often I get to thinking how blessed I am to be chosen by Jesus. Isn't it awesome that He would want us and pay that dear price? The fact is Judas was chosen by Jesus. He just never chose Jesus back. As kingdom of God men we are asked to put God first everyday. Deny yourself today. There's something that you want that isn't good for you, isn't what God wants for you, and you can say no to it. Take up your cross today. You can stand up for what's right at whatever cost. If we are persecuted, it ought not to be reluctantly. What joy to be allowed to suffer for God just as Jesus did! Lastly, choose to follow Jesus today. God has a particularly narrow set of priorities. He wants a right relationship with us. He wants a right relationship with anyone who will hear His call and say yes. In fact, it is for this that we will deny ourselves, take up our crosses, and follow after Him. In doing so, we choose him back. Choose Him back today. #ReachingnewheightsinJesus
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Posted by Pastor Dan on 03-May-2023 at 20:12:36 EST
Subject: Anger
This verse proposes that godly men should lift their holy hands in prayer and that doing so with wrath or dissension is definitely not God's will. Wrath is opposition and so we must not lift our hands to God while we are against our brother. If you've got something against another Christian believer you've got to let it go or go and resolve it. Dissension is about disagreement. If you are disagreeing with a fellow Christian that disagreement should be resolved. Sometimes that resolution is just forgiveness but whatever it takes it is necessary. Even the concept of holy hands means that our hands are different from those of the world. Have you noticed how people of the world proceed on some course of action while being distracted by so many things. They are usually somewhat less than committed even to the things they say they believe in the most We must pray to God with undivided hearts and as an undivided people. Let us, wherever we are , "pray, lifting up holy hands without wrath or dissension." #reachingnewheightsinjesus
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Posted by Pastor Dan on 03-May-2023 at 20:11:38 EST
Subject: Self care
Self care has come to mean a lot in today's society. Basically, being a man means knowing how to take care of yourself. Sometimes this is the world's way of saying we don't need God. When they say that they would be wrong. We were created with a deep internal need for God and the right relationship with Him. That being said, it's not all together on common to find verses in the Bible that tell us how to do what's best for us. Here is one. If you are merciful toward others you will do yourself good in a wide variety of ways. Be merciful means not delivering on to others the punishment they deserve. This evening includes not speaking or thinking of negatively about them when they have done wrong. If you are cruel, unmerciful, allowing yourself to behave negatively toward others, you will create many problems and instill many aches and pains in every area of your life. We can do better. We must do better. The funny thing is this teaching could benefit even hose who have no relationship with the Lord. However, it occurs that without knowing the mercy of the Lord it is hard to be consistent in Mercy toward others. Inconsistent Mercy IS cruelty. Intermittent cruelty does not just occasionally cause you harm. In light of the sacrifice of Jesus and his Mercy toward us let us choose to be merciful instead of cruel and by this means do ourselves much good. #reachingnewheightsinjesus
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Posted by Jonah 4:10 on 03-Mar-2023 at 16:20:49 EST
Subject: Angry at foolishness
As a man (and I can't speak for women) when I see foolishness I feel the anger rising in me. I want God to put an end to this Injustice. I know he has plenty of power and I'm even willing to be used when and if he has decided to put an end to this Injustice. Then, I am reminded of how the prophet Jonah felt right here in chapter 4 verse 10 of the book that bears his name. God wanted to have compassion on the ignorant ninevites who were a black mark on the land as far as Jonah was concerned. <br><br>History tells us that the ninevites had an army preparing to march on Jerusalem. Jonah was looking forward to their destruction not to God having compassion on them. <br><br>God grew this giant tree weed up overnight as an object lesson so that Jonah could realize that his anger over the tree which he did not plant was an Injustice in itself. The next time I get angry I hope to remember that everything I have I am blessed with because God said so, NOT because I worked hard for it or because I'm smarter than someone else. It All belongs to Him and he is trying to be patient with us that all men might come to repentance. Or anger against people behaving foolishly does not fit in that equation. Instead let us be a people of salt and light and Grace.
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Posted by Pastor Dan on 03-Mar-2023 at 14:37:39 EST
Subject: A narrow road of caring
A narrow road is a road that could be easy to wander off of. Have you ever tried to walk down a long narrow hallway with your eyes shut. The way our eyes adjust our path constantly is a really important piece of how we get from point A to point B. Whenever we start to wander in the slightest we can see the variance almost subconsciously and adjustments are made. <br><br>In Matthew 7:13 Jesus is speaking and this whole thing is during the sermon on the mount and he says. Enter through the narrow gate, for the gate is wide and the way is broad that leads to destruction, and there are many who enter through it. <br><br>This statement follows right on the golden rule about treating others as you would have them treat you. This golden run has a pre-clause and post-clause. The pre-clause is a therefore and I'll talk about that in a second. I'll do it third but in a second. The second clause which is a post-clause is a statement that says that this is the Law and the prophets. In other word, this is what God was teaching us to do. It does not break the law and does not go contrary to God's purposes. That would be enough. <br><br>The pre-clause is a therefore and tells us why we do that. Why does it make perfect sense to treat others the way we want to be treated? It is because we can see that God will give us what is good when we ask Him. This we can see because we, being evil, know how to give good gifts to our own children. <br><br>The road then, which makes perfect sense and fulfills the law and the profits (thanks to Jesus) is to treat others as we would have them treat us AND with that to be VERY intentional and to put in significant effort to get it done. Because you belong to God, your situation is in His hand and because that is so you can walk a narrow road. There is an alternative that is proposed by many who do not trust God and frankly, if I did not trust God I would need to take matters in my own hands (which I would likely screw up quite often). You can work very diligently to treat others as you would like to be treated. You can be loving and kind. Even you can work very hard at it because you are safe. Safe in God's care is a good place to be. #reachingnewheightsinjesus
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