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Showing posts from June, 2012

Be on God's Praise Team

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And I heard a voice from heaven, like the sound of many waters and like the sound of loud thunder, and the voice which I heard was like the sound of harpists playing on their harps. -Revelation 14:2 This is the power of music. Those of you who remember church history well enough to remember the German monk, Martin Luther, who introduced congregational singing and harmony to replace the morose and monotone chanting of the priests. The German Reformation of the sixteenth century would eventually produce a hymnal, and it was said that one of the most powerful missionaries of the biblical doctrines of this Reformation was this hymnal. However, Five hundred years later, we are still thrilled and motivated as we sing, A mighty fortress is our God, A bulwark never failing. There is no doubt as to the significance of music in the life of the church and in the life of the individual believer. In the Old Testament, in the New Testament, in the coming Kingdom, and in the new heaven and e

The Temple of God

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Don’t you realize that all of you together are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God lives in you? -1 Corinthians 3:16 If we realized we are a the temple what decisions would we make differently? The Spirit of God gives us power to do His work and achieve greatness, He can empower us to do what is right for the temple. "And don’t you realize that if a man joins himself to a prostitute, he becomes one body with her? For the Scriptures say, “The two are united into one.” But the person who is joined to the Lord is one spirit with him. Run from sexual sin! No other sin so clearly affects the body as this one does. For sexual immorality is a sin against your own body. Don’t you realize that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, who lives in you and was given to you by God? You do not belong to yourself, for God bought you with a high price. So you must honor God with your body." 1 Corinthians 6:16-20 God gave us our bodies so that He could dwell in us as His

Be God's Star

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"...the star appeared to them, guiding them to Bethlehem. It went ahead of them and stopped over the place where the child was. When they saw the star, they were filled with Joy!" -Matthew 2:9-10 When we read about the star in the Christmas story and compare it to the Christian life we see some truths that can be learned as we shine for Jesus. We are to be like the star the wise men followed because of 4 things: 1. It lead them to Jesus. 2. It pointed them to heaven. When you look at a star you have to look up right? We are looking up into the heavens, and at the creation which is the revelation of Christ; the Creator who is to be worship and praised forever. Amen. 3. It brought hope. Jesus is the hope of glory. He is the solution, the answer to the question. 4. It brought joy! Most importantly, we read that the wise men worshiped Jesus. They saw Him as King who is the true light of the world! People we encounter in our day to day lives are searching for a

The Good Samaritan

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“Now which of these three would you say was a neighbor to the man who was attacked by bandits?” Jesus asked. The man replied, “The one who showed him mercy.” Then Jesus said, “Yes, now go and do the same.” -Luke 10:36-37 The wonderful thing about Jesus' parables is that they nearly always have an element of surprise, of counter-culture, which he uses to force the listener to make a decision about accepting or rejecting the kingdom of God in their heart. The most important thing about parables is that Jesus communicates to us, through them, a divine meaning in human affairs. In them he gives the events of life a new meaning. He gives us a new vision of everyday life. Through the parables, Jesus is trying to illustrate for the people the meaning of his own presence among them, the meaning of his mission and his person and the meaning of the kingdom of God. In other words, what is important about the parables is the religious message they convey about human life, about our lif

Religion or Jesus?

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For the past week now I've had the thought that in our Christian lives are we more religious and caught up in our activities than actually being Christ to those who come in our path. An example is last week as I was leaving work on a Sunday trying to get to church in time for homecoming. I saw one of my co-workers walking home after a long day at work. Should I have stopped and taken her somewhere instead of rushing to church? Many of these such occasions have arisen. The main essence of it all is, are we in to much of a hurry to notice people? Are we too caught up in doing church rather than BEING the church. Are we like the religious leaders back in Jesus' day priding ourselves in church attendance while condemning Jesus for helping a man? How many opportunities have we missed to serve others? Of course it is important to be in church, it is commanded in the Bible that we do not forsake the meeting together of the body. But even so, scripture also says to serve oth