Receiving a Blessing or Being a Blessing

Psalm 81.10 I am the Lord your God, who brought you up from the land of Egypt. Open your mouth wide, and I will fill it.

We all want God to bless us. God wants to bless us. What is the blessing of God? The truest blessing, the greatest blessing is the blessing of God Himself. A relationship with God that is personal, near, real, intimate, that is our greatest blessing. Is this the kind of blessing we really want? (more…)

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Different is Better

2 Corinthians 12.21 laments, I will be grieved because many of you have not given up your old sins. imageYou have not repented of your impurity, sexual immorality, and eagerness for lustful pleasure.

Seeing is believing and those who believe should be causing others to see a difference in their life as a result of Jesus entering into it as Lord and Savior. (more…)

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Living Our Best Life Now

Deuteronomy 11.26-28 offers, I am setting before you today a blessing and a curse: the blessing if you take to heart the commandments of the LORD your God that I am giving you today, and the curse if you pay no attention to his commandments and turn from the way I am setting before you today to pursueimage other gods you have not known.

God gets blamed for most of the bad things that happen in the world but if we thought about it very long we would recognize that most of the evil occurs because one human chooses to harm another human. (more…)

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Restoring Hope to the World

Isaiah 26.18 describes, we, too, writhe in agony, but nothing comes of our suffering. We have not givenimage salvation to the earth, nor brought life into the world.

This observation recorded more than 3000 years ago is a perfect description of the Church in the Western Hemisphere and possibly beyond. (more…)

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What Are We to Think About Evil?

1 Peter 3.12 promises, the eyes of the LORD watch over those who do right, and his ears are open to imagetheir prayers. But the LORD turns his face against those who do evil.

This promise is what we would expect from a God Who is good. It makes sense to us that a good God would watch over those who do good and hear their prayers. It also makes sense to us that God would oppose those who do evil in the world.

There is a disconnect however from this logic and some of our experiences. Evil in the world is a problem for people. (more…)

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What Faith Really Is.

Isaiah 7.9 warns, unless your faith is firm, I cannot make you stand firm.images

When God says He cant, He means He wont. God cant do something because it violates either His character or His commands.

Without faith God warns, it is impossible to please Him therefore those who come to Him must believe He exists and that He rewards those who earnestly seek Him.  Our faith is integral to God’s work and presence in and through our lives. (more…)

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The Blessing of Children

Exodus 1.21 explains, because the midwives feared God, He gave them families of their own.image

What was God’s response to some pro-lifers who defied their king? Bless them with children. What was God’s response to His people who were suffering immense hardship in slavery? Bless them with children.

God’s greatest blessings are children. (more…)

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Receiving What We Want in Prayer

Matthew 21.22 promises, you can pray for anything, and if you have faith, you will receive it. image

This verse makes many Christians nervous because on the surface it appears God is promising us anything we ask for in prayer. This is what we want His words to mean for there are many things we wish we had but don’t have but if having them was only a matter of asking for them then that would be awesome.

Our experience however tells us this is not what He meant for we have all asked God for things in prayer and did not receive them. So what does this verse mean? (more…)

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Maintaining Integrity with God

image1 Chronicles 10:13-14 explains, Saul died because he was unfaithful to the Lord; he did not keep the word of the Lord and even consulted a medium for guidance, and did not inquire of the Lord. So the Lord put him to death and turned the kingdom over to David son of Jesse.

Imagine being hand chosen by God to be the first king over His people. Pretty high honor. You would also think the vetting process would have been the best. Yet, like the first man created, Adam, this first king was a failure. (more…)

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Lessons to be learned from the ‘Greatest Generation’

2 Kings 17.41 observes even while these people were worshiping the Lord, they were serving their idols. To this day their children and grandchildren continue to do as their ancestors did.image

The so called, ‘greatest generation’ were the parents of the children who attended high school in the late 1940’s and 1950’s. These people became the parents of those who attended high school in the 1960’s to 1970’s.

The ‘greatest generation’ was considered such because of the selflessness by which they lived their life. They suffered much and paid much to make the life of their children better. (more…)

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