HAPPY 4th of JULY!!!!

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Elliot

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Who believes what we’ve heard and seen? Who would have thought God’s saving power would look like this? The servant grew up before God—a scrawny seedling, a scrubby plant in a parched field. There was nothing attractive about him, nothing to cause us to take a second look. He was looked down on and passed over, a man who suffered, who knew pain firsthand. One look at him and people turned away. We looked down on him, thought he was scum. But the fact is, it was our pains he carried— our disfigurements, all the things wrong with us. We thought he brought it on himself, that God was punishing him for his own failures. But it was our sins that did that to him, that ripped and tore and crushed him—our sins! He took the punishment, and that made us whole. Through his bruises we get healed. -Isaiah 53:1-6 The verses above have stuck out in my mind surrounding this Easter Season and in the midst of this plague. Jesus wasn't afraid of disease or death or anything deemed to b
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Hupomone -- A Patient Endurance

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I can remember the first time I heard this Greek word, Hupomone (noun). (pronounced hoop-om-on-ay') It literally means remaining under the Divine Presence while being tested. I was sitting in the church my dad was pastoring at the time, a rural church in North Carolina. It's been well over 10 years ago. I was sitting on a pew with my friend Sarah, kinda toward the front. I don't remember anything about the sermon that day, just the word Hupomone. Sarah and I looked at each other and giggled like girls do, and Sarah blurted out, "What's humopone?!" My dad, the gracious man he is, answered her interruption. For the next few months Sarah and I would run around randomly saying, "Hupomone!" several times in a row. It really is a fun word to say. Looking back on it, what a great thing to do. What if there were people running around yelling Greek words at you to remind you, Endure! Endure! Endure! Endure! Endure! People probably thought we
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That You May Believe

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  We see the word, "believe" a lot in our culture.  We are encouraged by wooden frames, and art to "believe in ourselves."  In all actuality that is idolatry telling you to place your faith in yourself.  I don't know about you, but I have no idea how to direct my life other than to trouble.  Do we really want to lift ourselves higher than God?  That we are worthy within ourselves to reject God and trust ourselves instead?  I guess we have all walked that path at one time or another.  My existence outside of Jesus Christ and His Spirit in me amounts to nothing.  It begins and ends.  I live for myself, doing whatever I please, going wherever.  It may be attractive for a season, but in the end my life it isn't hinged on any meaning. In throwing the word, "believe" around so much it looses it's meaning almost like when we tell people we love them without thinking or feeling.  Believe is a key word to the Bible, especially the book of John.  Belief
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