Month: June 2018

cross forgiveness

I Am A Forgiven Child Of God

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In my early 30’s I had gone through over a year of excruciating physical and emotional pain. One day I was standing in the yard looking out over the sea and reflecting on what I was feeling and I realized that I was angry at God. This was not welcome news but I accepted it and started to tell God why I was angry at him. Even though I was afraid to express anger at God I pressed on because I trusted his forgiveness. When I was done there was no sense of rejection from him, on the contrary it was a big release and birthed a deeper relationship with God. It was okay to have my bad and tell him all about it. It’s interesting how a forgiveness mindset changes our view of ourselves and others. Without a forgiveness mindset our natural attitude towards our faults is to minimize Continue Reading →

Weekly words of encouragement

Our Incredible Dignity – Weekly Words Of Encouragement

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“[Jesus] has made us a Kingdom of priests for God his Father” Rev. 1:6 (NLT) Way back in Exodus 19:6 God tells the Jews that they “shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation” (ESV). I Peter 2:9 says believers are “a royal priesthood.” One of the key principles of the Reformation was that all believers were priests, as these Scriptures state. As priests we are all directly serving God in Christ, we have no need of human intermediaries for a direct relationship with God. We are elevated to a high position of dignity, higher than any earthly office, higher than any President or Prime Minister. We are also God’s kingdom, his nation, we belong to him which is a greater honor than belonging to any other nation or group of people. So we are encouraged that we have the highest dignity regardless of our status on Continue Reading →

close friends

Do You Desire Deeper Friendships? – Part Four

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So far in this series we have looked at several ways for developing close spiritual friends. This week we look at accountability and healing. Many of us have a love/hate relationship with accountability. We know that it is good for us but we rarely, if ever, go seeking it out. And if someone tries to hold us accountable without our asking our usual impulse is to resist it. Moreover, the idea of us holding others accountable makes us cringe because we don’t feel qualified or we fear the disturbance in our relationship. But if we want deep spiritual friendships then we will welcome accountability. In the New Testament accountability is mentioned in the form of warning each other. Colossians 3:16 instructs us to be “admonishing one another”. The word for admonish means gently warn or caution. I prefer the word warn because “admonish” is vague to many of us. Warning Continue Reading →

Weekly words of encouragement

Our Future Gives Us Peace – Weekly Words Of Encouragement

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“But according to his promise we are waiting for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells.” II Pet. 3:13 (ESV) We do not have to be distressed about this present age nor doubt that God will judge the good and the bad. Those who have received the Son will have life in the next age, the New Creation. We will dwell on a new earth underneath new heavens and society will be as God originally meant it to be. So our hearts now dwell in the place of constant anticipation of the New Creation. This destiny gives us peace and motivates us to remain united with God now and to do His work on this earth. Whether our efforts produce much visible fruit now or not, what matters is that we abide in His will. For this God will richly reward us in the New Creation. The Continue Reading →

close friends

Do You Desire Deeper Friendships? – Part Three

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So far in this series we have looked at four ways for developing close spiritual friends: bearing burdens, using spiritual gifts, building one another up, and encouragement. Today we look at two more: comfort and intentionality. II Cor. 11:4 teaches us: “[God] comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.” (ESV)  It is interesting that the Greek word for comfort is the same word used to describe that Holy Spirit as a comforter, paraklētos. Thus, believers have the role of doing the work of the Holy Spirit toward each other. All comfort comes from God and we are to be the channels. Paraklētos can also mean exhort or urge and this is how it is used in other passages. Thus, we are to comfort, exhort and urge Continue Reading →