Month: April 2013

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Honoring the Dishonorable (and Everybody Else, too)

I am taking a class in which each month focuses on an important attribute of a life-giving church.  This month the topic is honor, and the lesson is for us to treat everyone with honor.  We have heard many definitions of honor, so let me tell you what I have taken away as my working definition: to see and acknowledge the intrinsic worth and even glory in another human being.  Previous “honor movements” have tended to get the “low” to honor the “high”.  In this movement, everyone honors everyone, and honor begins when the ones at the top start demonstrating how to.

One of the most difficult things for followers of Jesus to do well is to know how to handle people who have failed morally, especially those who are not necessarily repentant.  How can we treat such people with honor?  Furthermore, I have friends who have gifts of being able to see things of the Spirit, and some of these friends can see clearly the secret sins of some people’s lives.  How are those folks supposed to handle what they see?  I am thankful that we have an excellent example of these issues in the Bible, in which Jesus models for us what to do.

This story is familiar to many of us, but most of us have not considered it from the perspective of honoring the dishonorable.  The story is in John 4, and it is the story of Jesus talking to a Samaritan woman in the heat of the day at a well.  Jesus could see prophetically the failings of this woman: she had five husbands already (by implication, she had been divorced five times), and she was living with a man that she wasn’t even married to.

Furthermore, because she was drawing water in the heat of the day, some commentators suggest that she was shunned by the women of her village.  You can probably picture how some followers of Jesus would interact with this woman if they knew: most would probably avoid her entirely, and others who are more likely to confront would simply tell her to repent or she would go to hell.

But Jesus takes a completely different approach: he asks her for a drink of water.  This shocks her!  Not because she thinks he knows about her past (and present) — Jesus hasn’t revealed that yet — but because Jews generally felt morally superior to Samaritans, and men morally superior to women.  So how was it he would give her the time of day?  To show honor, we have to be humble, and Jesus showed us that even the greatest can choose to humble themselves.

Continue reading “Honoring the Dishonorable (and Everybody Else, too)”

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Let God Find You — A Quote by Henri Nouwen in “The Return of the Prodigal Son”

“For most of my life I have struggled to find God, to know God, to love God. I have tried hard to follow the guidelines of the spiritual life — pray always, work for others, read the Scriptures — and to avoid the many temptations to dissipate myself. I have failed many times but always tried again, even when I was close to despair.”

“Now I wonder whether I have sufficiently realized that during all this time God has been trying to find me, to know me, and to love me. The question is not ‘How am I to find God?’ but ‘How am I to let myself be found by him?’ …The question is not ‘How am I to love God?’ but ‘How am I to let myself be loved by God?'”

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Intimacy Follows Soul-Thirst — My Verses for Mon, Apr 15 (Ps 42:1-2)

“As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, my God. My soul Erectile dysfunction is a multi – faceted viagra without prescription usa problem. djpaulkom.tv generic levitra brand This includes diabetes, heart diseases, blood clots, stroke, neurological disorders and multiple sclerosis. To clean your ITE properly, you will need a soft cloth, wax pick or viagra uk cheap loop, a long plastic filament wax tool, and a soft toothbrush. In a survey of some of our repeat customers who purchase viagra without prescription and other products, we asked the following questions: 1. thirsts for God, for the living God. When can I go and meet with God?” Psalms 42:1-2 (NIV)

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B’lieve, Hon: Peace Comes from Believing God’s Words — A Quote by Hannah Whitall Smith in “The God of All Comfort”

“We are all familiar with the passages where He tells us to ‘behold the fowls of the air,’ and to ‘consider the lilies of the field’ and assures us that we are of much more value than they, and that, if He cares for them, He will much more care for us. One would think there was comfort enough here for every care or sorrow all the wide world over. To have God assume our cares and our burdens, and carry them for us; the Almighty God, the Creator of Heaven and earth, who can control everything, and foresee everything, and consequently can manage everything in the very best possible way, to have Him declare that He will undertake for us; what could possibly be a greater comfort? And yet how few people are really comforted by it. Why is this? Simply and only because they do not believe it. They are waiting to have an inward feeling that His words are true, before they will believe them… If we want to be comforted, we must make up our minds to believe every single solitary word of comfort God has ever spoken; and we must refuse utterly to listen to any words of discomfort spoken by our own hearts, or by our circumstances.”

— Hannah Whitall Smith, “The God of All Comfort”
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Goodbye Law… My Heart Belongs to Jesus Now — My Verses for Sun, Apr 14 (Rom 7:1,4)

“The law has authority over someone only as long as that person lives… You… died to the law through the body of Christ, that you might belong to another… in order that we might bear fruit for God.” Romans 7:1,4 (NIV)

Doesn’t this passage clearly say that the Law no longer has authority over me? And doesn’t it also say that I cannot bear fruit for God until the Law has no authority over me AND I belong to Jesus? Why do most Christians seem to live as if the Law has authority over them? Does that explain why there is so little fruit?
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How the Gay Marriage Issue Gives Me Hope for Ending Legalized Abortion

While I have not been a fan of the progress that the legalization of gay marriage has made recently, it is amazing to ponder the speed at which it took place. In 40 years our nation went from seeing gay marriage as unthinkable and gay sex as illegal, to embracing the idea of normalizing gay marriage. A tipping point seems to have been reached, and the rate of acceleration toward that tipping point was phenomenal in the last 5 years. This reflects a radical shift in the views of the population, and it had surprising impact on the legal system.

While I will not discourage those who try to slow or reverse the trend, I think that for now further change and consolidation of the legalization of gay marriage likely will take place.

This rapid change in one arena gives me hope for rapid change in another arena. Why couldn’t the same rapid shift toward a tipping point happen in regard to abortion? Just as for the case of gay marriage, once a large number of people began to embrace it as an issue of basic human rights, the supporting legal structure changed. Why couldn’t a large number of people recognize human rights for the pre-born? Couldn’t that change the entire legal structure in a very short period of time? Certainly, a right to “choose” is trumped by a right to “exist”, isn’t it?

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Practice Thankfulness Especially When We Want More — A Quote by Francis Frangipane in “The Shelter of the Most High”

“When God gives us less than we desire, it is not because He is teaching us poverty; He is teaching us thankfulness. You see, life — real life — is not based on what we amass but on what we enjoy.”

— Francis Frangipane, “The Shelter of the Most High”, p 122
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Success is the Heritage of the Servant of God — My Verse for Sat, Apr 13 (Is 54:17)

“‘No weapon that is fashioned against you shall succeed, and you shall refute every tongue that rises against you in judgment. If a relationship lacks this factor, it may cheap cialis from canada be quite troublesome for both men and women. Also people today know buy generic cialis the power of the Amazon. Ureteroscopy is a commonly used treatment involving the use of an order levitra http://downtownsault.org/thefoundary/ instrument called ureteroscope. This action might trigger issues with being able to maintain secrecy of their purchase, but they can viagra prescription uk get it is through opt-in email. This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord and their vindication from me, declares the Lord.'” Isaiah 54:17 (ESV)

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Quiet and Open: 2 Essentials for Hearing God — A Quote from John Eldredge in “Walking with God”

“To hear the voice of God, we must be in a posture of quiet surrender… To hear that gentle whisper, we have to settle down. Shut out all the drama. Quiet our hearts… Am I willing to hear whatever it is God wants to say? This is absolutely critical… There is no more decisive issue when it comes to hearing the voice of God than the issue of surrender.”

— John Eldredge, “Walking with God”, pp 30-31
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Jesus Lights Your Way if You Follow Him — My Verse for Fri, Apr 12 (Jn 8:12)

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