tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-40724112633337706342024-03-14T02:13:35.788-04:00The Broken Vessel
Pouring Out the love of Christ, Who fills Broken Vessels with Living Waterclint-deliveringhope.blogspot.comhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18015424059753936304noreply@blogger.comBlogger118125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4072411263333770634.post-39890113450684067582022-02-12T17:55:00.005-05:002022-02-12T19:40:45.835-05:00The Time I thought God called me to plant a Church<p> </p><p class="MsoNormal">I thought God had called me to plant a church. I felt
convicted about it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I prayed about it. A
lot.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I had a mission and vision and I
started pursuing it. Under the direction of another church planter, I prayed
God would send me help. You know, cause a plumber/ electrician and hardware guy
can help you hook up a dishwasher but he stinks at starting a church. It’s not
the first time God called me to something I couldn’t do. Thank God some men
from the SC Baptist association and SEND network found me and took me under
their wing.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">I asked God for a vision and a purpose for this church.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">I could see a church, small enough to be personable,
reaching into its community, welcoming anyone and everyone, while focused on
solid biblical teaching and disciple making. I foresaw a church Helping People
Follow Jesus, Until Every Soul Finds Life.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>I remember asking God for a name for this church.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>God gave us the name Purpose to remind us to
find our purpose in living life walking in simple daily obedience to Christ.
Although we have been regularly meeting for eight months, with the help of
people God placed in my path, I discovered somethings along this wild
journey.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Here’s a couple of things God
has shown me.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">First off,<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">less can be more. I know, cliché but it is true.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">No, I am not compensating for having a small congregation. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Still, I realize that the larger the congregation becomes
the less intimate the relationship will become between pastors and
parishioners. Right now I am enjoying the unity that comes with smaller
groups.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I am not enjoying the lack of
many talents that come with larger groups. Still, there’s lessons there too.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Nobody loves worship more than I do. I love praise music be
it contemporary or old hymns. The more instruments the better. I can’t wait for
live music to become part of our
Sundays. But if the lack of it stifles our worship, then we have missed hearing
the music in His word. We failed seeing the works of His hands, all of Creation constantly sings His praises.
There’s a refreshing aspect in worshiping without the experiencing sensory overload
we have come accustomed to. I’m benefiting by connecting to God, with less
distractions, of things I never considered distractions.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Secondly,<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">God didn’t call me to build a church. Jesus said “ …I will
build my church…” Without Him I can do nothing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>While I have known that for some time, I’ve<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>learned<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>God wanted me to lead this church plant, not necessarily plant it. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">People don’t plant churches. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Churches plant churches. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">There’s a case to be made planting churches is a role, a
responsibility of a church. Often, that never becomes a focus for churches.
Truthfully, there’s often a spirit of competition among churches or at least
their leaders. I’ve even battled with thinking competitively. I pray I never
think like that again. No one Church could ever reach everyone but they can
help other churches that help other churches creating a domino effect investing
in the Kingdom. So far, there have been four other churches that have directly
had a role in planting Purpose. I pray for more, but I also pray for new ones
for us to pour into. In a small way, we have already invested in a new church
outside of Purpose.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I hope we always
meet the needs of those inside our doors and encourage the congregation to be faithful to
Christ’s command to go outside those doors with a hunger to serve Him.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Finally ,<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Success cannot be measured by attendance. This sounds like a
no brainier, but the way we get indoctrinated about the world view of success
made this the hardest paradigm shift I have experienced. Jesus commands us to
go tell the world about Him. He discipled twelve men and together they turned
the world upside down. When we create places that become dependent on a great number to operate, we tend to focus inward. So, what if we measured our success
in how many we send out rather than keep? What if we made that idea part of our
churches DNA from the start?</p><p class="MsoNormal"> I remember when I
thought God had called me to simply plant a church. And I remember the moment
when God showed me His call was so much more. God has called me to be a
disciple making church planting pastor who focuses on harvesting rather than
venues.</p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">I pray for new faces. People, who God calls to Purpose church .Some that are looking for a mission. Some who will grow and go
when God calls them to<br />a mission filled with His purpose. I hope it’s you.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiW_3WXMo5cRGhHGj0hjOWhH0wYUjxe5qUx9dlJWMRaZG1CH7uR4AxX-JzaOjsA1pBTeqfz7pm-WzzhDSCzRGCn163pyYwnsS0KaHPZq9Yy7LvcoarKKhCapIyb7-pX_WyjvAWW59VE7j32dMeurPHhMFSbViLntW4_lpgFzL1EYR_MQHdwVjy1IE4fgA=s3280" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2352" data-original-width="3280" height="229" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiW_3WXMo5cRGhHGj0hjOWhH0wYUjxe5qUx9dlJWMRaZG1CH7uR4AxX-JzaOjsA1pBTeqfz7pm-WzzhDSCzRGCn163pyYwnsS0KaHPZq9Yy7LvcoarKKhCapIyb7-pX_WyjvAWW59VE7j32dMeurPHhMFSbViLntW4_lpgFzL1EYR_MQHdwVjy1IE4fgA=s320" width="320" /></a></div><p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>clint-deliveringhope.blogspot.comhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18015424059753936304noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4072411263333770634.post-18938876351521015332020-12-25T21:33:00.002-05:002020-12-25T21:35:14.793-05:00Separated Christmas <p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFeXs3ibTXiRIqX_7IeoJxDhERRELizh1Yh9vO8uudIZ1RzV1UpIrRkp89gUfFE0EiN2Uqq9Ij9PDQLIwQeS3_7JscCIXFczmzDipBDuGFINvnsZ6QjpZD-7sEuQiGySbSYOOGSXi_qJnr/s711/4E58F55A-5AD8-40AD-B127-13605C1CBCE0.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="711" data-original-width="640" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgFeXs3ibTXiRIqX_7IeoJxDhERRELizh1Yh9vO8uudIZ1RzV1UpIrRkp89gUfFE0EiN2Uqq9Ij9PDQLIwQeS3_7JscCIXFczmzDipBDuGFINvnsZ6QjpZD-7sEuQiGySbSYOOGSXi_qJnr/s320/4E58F55A-5AD8-40AD-B127-13605C1CBCE0.jpeg" /></a></div><br /> <p></p><p><br /></p><p><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 19px;">If 2020 had a theme word, it would be Separated. We’ve spent this year social distancing, quarantined, masked in virtual isolation. Now many of us are uttering the old cliche. “ It doesn’t feel like Christmas”.</span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 19px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 22.7px;"><span class="s1"></span><br /></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 19px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1">The great irony of Christmas is that came because of separation. <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>Disconnected from our creator, eternally distanced from Him, mankind found themselves waiting and hoping for light to penetrate the darkness. As the years turned to decades, and centuries morphed into millennia, hope either forged into faith or faded impatiently into loss and disbelief.</span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 19px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1">Then the <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>Light of the World was wrapped in swaddling cloth as God showed up with an answer to His promises. Jesus said he had came “ to set the captives free”. </span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 19px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1">This year, many of us are separated from family friends because of covid. <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>Some us are starting to feel like “captives”.</span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 19px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1">Missing out on those precious special events with those we love, that become Christmas traditions over the years, makes us feel like prisoners . In these times, once again hope wanes in the darkness. Only now, those of us who have Christ, don’t feel alone. We remember these words of Paul.</span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 19px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 22.7px;"><span class="s1"><a href="http://biblehub.com/2_corinthians/4-8.htm"></a></span><br /></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 19px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1"><a href="http://biblehub.com/2_corinthians/4-8.htm">8</a></span><span class="s2" style="font-style: italic;">We are</span><span class="s1"> hard-pressed on every side, yet not crushed; </span><span class="s2" style="font-style: italic;">we are</span><span class="s1"> perplexed, but not in despair; <a href="http://biblehub.com/2_corinthians/4-9.htm">9</a>persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed— 2 Corinthians 4</span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 19px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 22.7px;"><span class="s1"></span><br /></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 19px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1">Because of what started that first Christmas, we are no longer separated from Him.</span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 19px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1">Paul was convinced we couldn’t be.</span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 19px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 22.7px;"><span class="s1"></span><br /></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 19px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1"><a href="http://biblehub.com/romans/8-35.htm">35</a>Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? </span><span class="s2" style="font-style: italic;">Shall</span><span class="s1"> tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? ...</span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 19px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1"><a href="http://biblehub.com/romans/8-37.htm">37</a>Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. <a href="http://biblehub.com/romans/8-38.htm">38</a>For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, <a href="http://biblehub.com/romans/8-39.htm">39</a>nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. </span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 19px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1">Romans 8</span></p><p class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 19px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; min-height: 22.7px;"><span class="s1"></span><br /></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 19px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1">All because the Light of the World was laid in the manger and grew up. And now more than ever we need to be reminded the Light of the World called those that belong to Him “the light of the world” <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>too. It’s time for us to shine.</span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 19px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1"><br /></span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 19px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1">May Love and Joy come to you.</span></p><p class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 19px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;"><span class="s1">Merry Christmas </span></p>clint-deliveringhope.blogspot.comhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18015424059753936304noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4072411263333770634.post-65940291553134475622020-05-23T22:55:00.000-04:002020-05-24T10:56:21.658-04:00In These Uncertain Times <div class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 22px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 3px;">
<span class="s1" style="font-weight: bold;">In These Uncertain Times</span></div>
<div class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 20.3px;">
<span class="s2"></span><br /></div>
<div class="p3" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span class="s2">No words have become cliché faster than "in these uncertain times". We can see and hear them everywhere reminding us just how crazy the world has become in less than half a year. Usually, proceeding the new adage, comforting words of certain assurance in someone or some organization in which we can place our confidence. I get it, we all just want to to get back to “normal” .</span></div>
<div class="p3" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span class="s2">But the truth is, <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>our “normal “ was</span></div>
<div class="p3" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span class="s2">never a time of certainty.</span></div>
<div class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 20.3px;">
<span class="s2"></span><br /></div>
<div class="p3" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span class="s2">Seriously, with wars, diseases, famines, when has there ever been certain times for man?</span></div>
<div class="p3" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span class="s2">From long ago, a seduced mankind forfeited their security in a lust for knowledge. Evidence of this is found in the risk of destroying ourselves has increased directly proportional with our advancement in knowledge. We play God and with every benevolent advancement comes sinister applications. Then <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>declare a God , many can’t believe in, evil for allowing us to play with the universe’s building blocks with a knowledge of evil He warned us not to obtain. So, in losing our trust in God, for our own mistakes, we misplaced our trust into the worst possible place . Ourselves. Now, thousands of years latter, in our diversity, beautiful as it is, we have placed our confidence into everything except the only one who could give it. </span></div>
<div class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 20.3px;">
<span class="s2"></span><br /></div>
<div class="p3" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span class="s2">So, if things ever get back to normal, where we might die from anything from mosquitos bites to lightning strikes, the only “certain” time we all have is our check out time. In our normal, everything, even time itself as</span></div>
<div class="p3" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span class="s2">we understand it, has a designated ending. </span></div>
<div class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 20.3px;">
<span class="s2"></span><br /></div>
<div class="p3" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span class="s2">In the meantime, here’s some comforting thoughts.</span></div>
<div class="p3" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span class="s2">The Bible teaches we were made “for such a time as this”. Even if we are uncertain about the times, God isn’t. He designed us precisely for this time and placed us here for a purpose.</span></div>
<div class="p3" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span class="s2">These uncertain times were part of His plan. Even if we can’t see it yet, these times will bless His people and advance His Kingdom.</span></div>
<div class="p3" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span class="s2">Jesus promises to be with us “always, even to the end of the age”. The end of the age, like when time runs out and can’t be quantified except to call it forever. God never leaves or forsakes His people and is causing all things to work together for the good of His people. </span></div>
<div class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 20.3px;">
<span class="s2"></span><br /></div>
<div class="p3" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span class="s2">Jude </span></div>
<div class="p3" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span class="s2"><a href="https://biblehub.com/jude/1-24.htm">24</a>Now unto him that is able to keep you from falling, and to present </span><span class="s3" style="font-style: italic;">you</span><span class="s2"> faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy, <a href="https://biblehub.com/jude/1-25.htm">25</a>To the only wise God our Saviour, </span><span class="s3" style="font-style: italic;">be</span><span class="s2"> glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and ever. Amen.</span></div>
<div class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 20.3px;">
<span class="s2"></span><br /></div>
<div class="p3" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span class="s2">In this life, the world will never provide us with times of certainty. If we follow Jesus, we can have hope in this life for and endless time of certainty in the next.</span></div>
<div class="p3" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span class="s2">I pray He holds you up, that you find peace and purpose in following Him, in these uncertain times. </span></div>
<div class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 20.3px;">
<span class="s2"></span></div>
<div class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 20.3px;">
<span class="s2"></span></div>
<div class="p2" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 20.3px;">
<span class="s2"></span></div>
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clint-deliveringhope.blogspot.comhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18015424059753936304noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4072411263333770634.post-76170750962668820472020-04-12T13:43:00.001-04:002020-04-13T14:47:47.884-04:00Things I Don't Know About Easter.<div class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span class="s1">When it comes to Biblical study, conjecture is something I do my best to avoid. In the search for truth, being objective is key. Often, the endeavor’s greatest challenge is to remove, as much as possible, the passions and prejudices that make us who we are, without losing our ability to imagine the details of the events.</span></div>
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<span class="s1">Yet, my mind can’t help but wonder about the events on the Saturday between The Cross and The Resurrection. </span></div>
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<span class="s1">Not much is recorded in the Bible about that Saturday. Obviously, being the Sabbath, they would have rested as recorded by Luke Chapter 23. Matthew’s Gospel records that the Pharisees placed a stone and a guards in front of the tomb in a response to Jesus’s predictions of returning from the grave.</span></div>
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<span class="s1">Apparently, the disciples of Jesus had forgotten those predictions.</span></div>
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<span class="s1">Perhaps, the events of Friday had eroded their faith. In any case, Saturday, must have been heartbreaking for those closest to Christ. <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>It’s obvious from scripture they didn’t know Lockridge’s sermon “Sunday’s a Coming”. <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>Jesus had led them on a journey of changing the world. God had already began to use them through their relationship with Jesus to literally save it, but they didn't know that. Jesus had introduced them to hope. They had been sure he was the Christ. All they knew, their friend and leader was dead. Their hopes and dreams were crushed. Their expectations of a messiah had expired. Once again the world seemed lost. They probably wondered if they had been wrong about Jesus. <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>Surely, they must have wondered why hadn’t He done one of his miracles to save himself? Jesus had came and left. <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>The sun had rose and set. He was gone and nothing would ever be the same again.</span></div>
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<span class="s1">If you’ve ever lost someone you love and look up to, you know that first 24 hours are the darkest. It’s like you’re heart and mind are playing ping pong with gigantic boulders. Back and forth it comes close and you slap it away. No one can win and you just want to stop playing. So that maybe the boulder would fall on you. Except you’re afraid if you do, you’ll forget something about that special someone you don’t want to. It’s emotionally exhausting.</span></div>
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<span class="s1">And none of those people we lost were Jesus. Imagine the sorrow the disciples felt, without the belief of a resurrection.</span></div>
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<span class="s1"> The church has the luxury of viewing Friday from victory. </span></div>
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<span class="s1">The thing about luxury is it’s rarely satisfied. Great minds that study the scripture aren’t content with simply knowing about where Jesus’s was Friday and Sunday. </span></div>
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<span class="s1">Great thinkers question where was his spirit and soul on Saturday ? For hundreds of years, brothers and sisters have debated whether Jesus’s soul was in hell or heaven on that Saturday. Men proclaimed two separate mysteries as truth and caused some to question the things we are sure of. </span></div>
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<span class="s1">I know the arguments, the scriptures involved, and even lean more one way than the other, but I don’t know. No matter how convincing theories get explained, I don't know that anyone knows. And I don’t want what I don’t know to distract me from what I do know. </span></div>
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<span class="s1">I know I never want to <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>experience my life lived without Jesus. Praise God, I know I don’t have to. I know that some people are. I’ve seen the sad eyes of those who haven’t been set free by God, held captive by the unanswerable mysteries we don’t have to know to belong to Him. Mysteries from the past, or the ones we face now, or the ones we may face before Jesus comes back again, aren’t our salvation. It’s the Truth, He died, conquered the grave, and is coming again for those who belong to Him.</span></div>
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<span class="s1">I know He called me to tell those that are living without Him about that Friday and Sunday. Lord willing, I’ll do that today and tomorrow. And everyday after that. </span></div>
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<span class="s1">Happy Easter. </span></div>
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<span class="s1">He Lives! </span></div>
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<span class="s1">He Reigns! </span></div>
clint-deliveringhope.blogspot.comhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18015424059753936304noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4072411263333770634.post-6978997973232446172019-12-24T07:55:00.000-05:002019-12-24T07:56:40.485-05:00Too Much Christmas?<div class="p1" style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
<span class="s1"> “ Christmas is getting to be too much,” an acquaintance of mine shouted to me as he hurried after his wife and their quickly filling shopping cart. I wonder if that’s true? Can celebration of our Savior’s birth become “too much” ? The short answer is no, but truth is much has been made of Christmas that isn’t Christmas. </span></div>
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<span class="s1">Music has been composed. Songs have been written and sung. </span></div>
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<span class="s1">Characters have been conjured from <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>imaginations. Yarns were spun, fables were told and retold. Wonderous legends where carved into our hearts. When man gazed at sacred truth and perceived something malleable, we fashioned a Christmas spirit. Century after century we pounded on an amplified inflated dramatized versions of facts. Traditions have been held and are kept now as if the survival of the species depended on them. The season marries the talent and effort of those who would help you see what they see or feel what they feel, or at least wish they could, about Christmas. </span></div>
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<span class="s1">Christmas will always be a loftier </span></div>
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<span class="s1">event than our ability to communicate it. </span></div>
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<span class="s1">So, we deflect our attention from celebration to decoration. We made our plans and got busy. Effectively, running back to chains Christ unshackled us from.</span></div>
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<span class="s1">I wonder what plans Mary had just prior to the Gabriel’s visit?</span></div>
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<span class="s1">Maybe a grand wedding. </span></div>
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<span class="s1">What dreams did she lay aside to be obedient? Did the memories of what we call Christmas console her visions the crucifixion must have left her with? It's in her words I find the spirit of Christmas.</span></div>
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<span class="s1">Luke </span></div>
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<span class="s1"><a href="http://biblehub.com/luke/1-38.htm">38</a>Then Mary said, “Behold the maidservant of the Lord! Let it be to me according to your word.”</span></div>
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<span class="s1">Christmas ushered in a new era of man's ability to serve something greater than our primordial pleasures. Jesus became our spiritual food to curve our emotional and sensual appetites so that we could feast rather than starve. As long as what we celebrate truly is the first coming of Christ, we will never be guilty of overdoing Christmas.</span></div>
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<span class="s1"> <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>God's word reminds me we’re to be living sacrifices. Never trade His vision for your Dreams. Never exchange His purpose for you for your passion. For those who cannot break free of those desires, Christmas will always be ”too much”. If through Christ you can declare, ” let it be to me according to your word, Lord” it will be enough. And Christmas will always be as it should be.</span></div>
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<span class="s1">May the season afford you peace in every blessing. May Love and Joy come to you. </span></div>
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<span class="s1">Merry Christmas,</span></div>
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<span class="s1">Clint</span></div>
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clint-deliveringhope.blogspot.comhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18015424059753936304noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4072411263333770634.post-56576869875103631412019-08-20T21:38:00.001-04:002019-08-20T23:02:29.760-04:00When They Walk Away: 4 Reasons People Leave the Faith<br />
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<span class="s1" style="font-family: ".sfuitext"; font-size: 17.41pt;">Does the name Marty Sampson mean anything to you? If your like me, you never heard of him until last week. However, if you attend church, chances are you’ve heard his music. Sampson has been a singer-songwriter and musician for Hillsong United since the group began in 1998. He has written and performed lots of songs. Earlier this month in an Instagram post, Sampson said he was, “ loosing his faith and was ok with it” . Later, after pressure from his audience and colleagues to clarify, Sampson said he wasn’t renouncing Christianity but described his faith as on “shaky ground”.</span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="font-family: ".sfuitext"; font-size: 17.41pt;"> Sampson isn’t by himself. <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>Joshua Harris, the former pastor of Covenant Life Church, a mega church located in Maryland, and the founding church of Sovereign Grace Ministries, “walked away from the faith” following his divorce. Grace Family Fellowship’s pastor, Dave Gass, renounced and condemned the Christian faith after 40 years in the ministry. If you’d like to know more, just look them up on the net.</span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="font-family: ".sfuitext"; font-size: 17.41pt;">These kind of stories break my heart for all those who have been effected by the apparent “falling away” of church goers and teachers. Christians will grieve their absences and question the outcome of having followed their teaching. The collateral damage is potentially crushing to relationships. Marriages and friendships may or may not endure, but the comfortable atmosphere will have eroded. The adhesion will have lost some of it’s grip. Trust will now teeter on mortality where forever had once tied an eternal bond. While there are unlimited scenarios surrounding the circumstances of the individual quandaries people find themselves in, nearly all of these kinds of disaffection for God have similarities. If you investigate the stories you’ll find these common threads:</span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="font-family: ".sfuitext"; font-size: 17.41pt;">A loss of faith in humanity. The realization that mankind is a hopeless case bent on destroying itself. <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>It means coming to the understanding, in the name of survival or self preservation, humans have a tendency to become savage beasts. Knowing </span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="font-family: ".sfuitext"; font-size: 17.41pt;">sometimes the best people, the people you know and love the most, will hurt you deeply. So, to them a perfect God could never be real. Ironically, it is this truth that leads many to search for a God, who can fix this, in the first place.</span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="font-family: ".sfuitext"; font-size: 17.41pt;">A revelation from Scripture. The understanding that the God of scripture is uncontrollable. He isn’t a galactic cuddly version of Aladdin’s genie. When people discover He has done some things they don’t like, they judge Him as evil. Deciding He cannot be Holy, by their standard, they choose to believe at the very least He shouldn’t exist. </span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="font-family: ".sfuitext"; font-size: 17.41pt;">A loss of faith in themselves. Many times, those who walk away are guilty of some moral failure that has come to light. Since God allowed their sin to come to become public, something His Word promises, they conclude a loving God would never allow them to fall. So, He must not be there for them, nor could He be for anyone else, since they are the best.</span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="font-family: ".sfuitext"; font-size: 17.41pt;">A faith in science: When people becomes convinced collectively mankind has obtained enough intellectual knowledge to dismiss the spiritual elements of life and conscience, he will arrogantly determine there is no God. Then he can do as he pleases in the name of advancement. Science, can offer nothing but a satirical faux-hope to mankind. It celebrates individuality, leaves man to law, but gives them no moral code. Science has given the world wonderful advancements in medicine, agriculture, and communications. It also gave us mustard gas, agent orange, and nuclear weapons. While science, as wonderful and benevolent as can be, cannot produce life, it has mastered producing death.</span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="font-family: ".sfuitext"; font-size: 17.41pt;">Christians don’t have a faith in humanity either. We believe what we do in this life has eternal consequences. We believe the God of the Bible is all powerful and cannot be controlled nor are there any reasons He should be. We have lost all faith in ourselves, so Jesus now controls us. We believe in scientific facts, but realize they do not disprove God’s existence. We don’t stand on “shaky ground” we stand on the rock of our salvation. We stand on a solid foundation of hope in someone stronger and more intelligent than ourselves. Someone who created individuality, and a morality to temper the laws. We stand on Him who causes science to work and creates life. We believe Him when he said,”...My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness..." (2 Corinthians 12:9).</span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="font-family: ".sfuitext"; font-size: 17.41pt;">1 John 2:19 <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>says They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us; but they went out that they might be made manifest, that none of them were of us. </span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="font-family: ".sfuitext"; font-size: 17.41pt;">These words are a reminder that not everyone who calls Jesus Lord actually knows Him. (See Matt 7)</span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="font-family: ".sfuitext"; font-size: 17.41pt;">It’s heartbreaking when dynamic influencers walk away from the faith. <span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span>The great work Jesus did for us makes walking away inconceivable if it were even possible. Based on what the Bible says here and various other places, many of us believe they never had a faith to walk away from. Still, some of the faith will interpret this as a change of mind and heart in a once upon a time believer. A problem easily remedied by another decision. Others will say they can never return. Here questioning becomes it's designed purpose, a distraction from the evil one. Debating rather than serving is the great sin of our time. The farther away you are from a tragedy the easier the words flow. The closer you are to a tragedy the easier tears flow. From compassionate concerns to angry condemnation, people will respond any and everywhere in between. Meanwhile there's still the mission God called us to. Making disciples.We have not been called to figure out all the mysteries of the universe. We have not been called to a speculation of individuals’ futuristic relationship status with the Almighty. We’ve been called to tell the story of Jesus. </span></div>
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<span class="s1" style="font-family: ".sfuitext"; font-size: 17.41pt;">Humanity’s only Hope is Jesus. My only Hope is Jesus. Your only Hope is Jesus. Run to Jesus for Hope. Run to Jesus for Life. Run to Jesus and Live.</span></div>
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clint-deliveringhope.blogspot.comhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18015424059753936304noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4072411263333770634.post-38920150116592667312019-06-16T04:04:00.003-04:002019-06-16T04:04:47.705-04:00Less is More<div>
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I don't know if you can have too much of a good thing or not,<span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; display: inline; float: none; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"> but the older I get, the more I believe " less is more".<span style="font-family: "times new roman";"> </span></span>Most of us, who grew up in America, were sold a "bigger is better" philosophy. It's sown into our DNA, the notion success is measured by quantity or sheer mass. We have been told "go big or go home". Christians need to stop buying it.<br />
So many of us think we need to do something "big" for God. Somehow we forget that God does much with little. He created a universe from nothing except His words. Started a nation with one man named Abraham. God used Gideon and 300 men to scare an army to death. In John Chapter 6, He fed 5000 with five loaves and two fish. The very next day, He cut the size of His following down to twelve men, who would change the world. He miraculously saved countless through the sacrifice of one man named Jesus.<br />
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For some reason, we engineer everything we do and measure everything we accomplish by the numbers. Large numbers are rarely associated with quality. Mc Donald's might have sold the most hamburgers, but I don't think many would argue McDonald's <span style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: transparent; color: black; display: inline; float: none; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">hamburgers </span>are the best . They aren't. The best hamburgers are sold in the little hole in the wall restaurants. Ministries now borrows themes and tactics from some the biggest and best marketers. If we have to sacrifice the details to reach the masses, so be it. Somewhere we forgot small things matter to God.<br />
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In Jesus's concern for the "least of these" , He did not suggest a complex solution. He suggested we supply food and drink for those in need, and a visit for lonely isolated souls. No branding, no marketing. No entertainment. Just one simple strategy. He equated the importance of those considered "the least" to Himself. In other words, the source of life itself.<br />
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Jesus taught in Luke 16:10<br />
<span class="reftext" style="background-color: transparent; color: #aa4400; font-family: "roboto" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 11px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 700; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: 15px; margin-left: 1px; margin-right: 2px; text-align: justify; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; vertical-align: text-top; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><a href="https://biblehub.com/luke/16-10.htm" style="color: #0092f2; text-decoration: none;"></a></span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #001320; display: inline; float: none; font-family: "roboto" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: justify; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">He that is faithful in that which is least is faithful also in much..</span><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #001320; display: inline; float: none; font-family: "roboto" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; text-align: justify; text-decoration: none; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;">. </span><br />
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<span style="color: #001005; font-family: "roboto" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">So you could say, following Jesus means you might have to sweat the small stuff.</span><br />
<span style="color: #0b0150; font-family: "roboto" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">We serve a big God, who cares about the little things.</span><br />
<span style="color: #0b0180; font-family: "roboto" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">He even cares about each and every little sparrow. </span><br />
<span style="color: #001001; font-family: "roboto" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">That's Good News for us. He is faithful.</span><br />
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clint-deliveringhope.blogspot.comhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18015424059753936304noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4072411263333770634.post-6974088390237209702018-12-18T21:04:00.000-05:002019-01-01T20:29:45.356-05:00Who Will Find the Nativity<div style="color: #454545; font-family: ".SF UI Text"; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 20.3px;">
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<span style="font-family: ".sfuitext-semibold"; font-size: 17pt; font-weight: bold;">Every year at Christmas, Millions of people, from all walks of life, sing ”O Come, All Ye Faithful.” In unison, they collectively beckon the joyful and triumphant to vicariously visit the God in the manger. During this festive advent, representatives from most political parties and practically every vocation will visit a model of Christ’s Nativity. If you were to ask someone to describe the invitation to the original Nativity, you might hear words such as: glorious, spectacular, wonderous, or beautiful. As mesmerizing as the angels must have been, let’s not forget the selectively few invited to that First Christmas. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: ".sfuitext-semibold"; font-size: 17pt; font-weight: bold;">Excluding Mary and Joseph’s obvious roles, the Christmas caste was an interestingly short list.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: ".sfuitext-semibold"; font-size: 17pt; font-weight: bold;">Unlike the Wise men, who may have been there or may have come later, Shepherds did not decipher signs or scriptures before searching heaven and earth for Jesus. Shepherds received a divine invitation. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: ".sfuitext-semibold"; font-size: 17pt; font-weight: bold;">Shepherds were given a heavenly assignment.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: ".sfuitext-semibold"; font-size: 17pt; font-weight: bold;">Their mission was planned out. God had declared ”you will find”.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: ".sfuitext-semibold"; font-size: 17pt; font-weight: bold;">Not you might, not you can. You will. When they found Him was determined, where they found Him was determined. Most importantly, was the understanding of who it was they'd found. Christ, The Lord. Emmanuel, God with us, the King of Kings and Lord of lords, but He is also the Alpha and Omega. He who is, who was , and who is to come.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: ".sfuitext-semibold"; font-size: 17pt; font-weight: bold;">In His infinite wisdom, planning throughout eternity past, God chose shepherds from one nation of peculiar people as the singular profession invited to birth of His only son.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: ".sfuitext-semibold"; font-size: 17pt; font-weight: bold;"> He didn’t choose doctors to heal or attend to them. Neither did he bring lawyers to help them understand or keep the rules. God didn’t enlist guards to protect them. He didn't get an interior decorator to . He didn't hire performers to entertain or dynamic speakers to preach. He didn't invite cool cowboys, He only invited humble shepherds.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: ".sfuitext-semibold"; font-size: 17pt; font-weight: bold;"> Here in the west, many have confused the metaphorical shepherds of the Bible with metaphorical cowboys. The differences aren't subtle. Shepherds lead the flock, and the sheep follow. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: ".sfuitext-semibold"; font-size: 17pt; font-weight: bold;">Cowboys drive the cattle. They choose a direction for an exciting adventure and head off into the sunset. Occasionally, a stampede happens but a cowboy stays safe in the rear. The chaos leaves a carcass or dozen in the desert, but the drive goes on. At the end of a hard day, Cowboys bed down for the night . </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: ".sfuitext-semibold"; font-size: 17pt; font-weight: bold;"> Shepherds are called, not only to feed the sheep, but to watch their sheep. Though the night brings prowling lions, shepherds guard the flock. Sheep, as it turns out, are easily scattered and lost. Christ says, ”Shepherds will leave the ninety-nine to find a stray one. A Good Shepherd will do it even at the cost of his life.” Then He died on a cross to prove it. Shepherding is a dirty, humiliating job society saw as demeaning.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: ".sfuitext-semibold"; font-size: 17pt; font-weight: bold;"> It isn't an obscured, eternal, celestial viewpoint God chooses from. In the most precious moment of history, when the most gracious, wisest, and powerful King this world has ever known, was born, God was orchestrating more than choirs of angles. He has purpose. He gives purpose. He knows exactly who He calls.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: ".sfuitext-semibold"; font-size: 17pt; font-weight: bold;"> Shepherds did not randomly stumble into the presence of God, on that first Christmas. Neither can we randomly find ourselves there today. God must call us, and we must answer.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: ".sfuitext-semibold"; font-size: 17pt; font-weight: bold;">At the manger, God, as He often does still, brought those society had discarded to come into His presence to worship Him. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: ".sfuitext-semibold"; font-size: 17pt; font-weight: bold;">1st Corinthians 1</span></div>
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<span style="color: #e4af0a; font-family: ".sfuidisplay-black"; font-size: 21pt; font-weight: bold;"><a href="https://biblehub.com/1_corinthians/1-28.htm">28</a></span><span style="font-family: ".sfuidisplay-black"; font-size: 21pt; font-weight: bold;"> He chose the lowly and despised things of the world, and the things that are not, to nullify the things that are, <a href="https://biblehub.com/1_corinthians/1-29.htm"><span style="color: #e4af0a; font-size: 21pt;">29</span></a> so that no one may boast in His presence.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: ".sfuitext-semibold"; font-size: 17pt; font-weight: bold;">Despised unto humility, who better than shepherds to announce the birth of the Lamb of God? </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: ".sfuitext-semibold"; font-size: 17pt; font-weight: bold;">2000 years later, despised shepherds are called to carry a message. That message echoes from the Nativity, where the virgin wrapped her newborn in swaddling clothes. Free from the inherited stain of man’s sin, Christ, from the manger, doesn't simply initiate the first Christmas. From this miraculous birth, God certifies the work He is to do at the Cross and validates a defeated grave. Here He qualifies the sacrifice that will redeem believers from a deserved firey torment for the eons of eternity. From here begins the consecrated life lived to lead souls to heaven. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: ".sfuitext-semibold"; font-size: 17pt; font-weight: bold;">As the sun sets, the cowboys ride, the herds will leave. When the lights taken down, the Nativity set is boxed away for another year, a new song will be playing in the background. The flock will face the temptation to temporarily stifle the marvelous awe found in the truth of the manger's mission, but there will always be a Shepherd, who will face bears in the night, even the grave itself, to carry the news of what began that night in Bethlehem.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: ".sfuitext-semibold"; font-size: 17pt; font-weight: bold;">May Love and Joy come to you, in knowing The Good News.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: ".sfuitext-semibold"; font-size: 17pt; font-weight: bold;">Merry Christmas,</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: ".sfuitext-semibold"; font-size: 17pt; font-weight: bold;">Clint</span></div>
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clint-deliveringhope.blogspot.comhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18015424059753936304noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4072411263333770634.post-48716140215733203762018-11-11T15:54:00.000-05:002018-12-29T00:31:43.036-05:00Suffering: Hope's Romances<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<span style="font-family: ".sfuitext-semibold"; font-size: 17pt; font-weight: bold;">Pick up a book written by some modern evangelical pastors and we will find the romanticized version of evangelism. Story after story of lost souls coming to faith through their conversations and interactions. Of which some, I’m sure are true and unarguably a treasured source of hopeful reassurance. Most of us cherish those moments of much needed inspiration. What we won’t find between, in, or on the majority of those pages is broken heartedness, frustration, and helpless concern any person of faith feels for those who are lost or strayed from the faith. Especially for, but not limited to, those we are closest to.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: ".sfuitext-semibold"; font-size: 17pt; font-weight: bold;">It’s not the sorta exciting world changing glamour that sells books ...or anything else for that matter. It’s just an emotional reality known, all too well, by those who believe and share the gospel. We just can’t nonchalantly take the “you win some, you lose some “ stance when it’s the eternity of those you know best on the line. No matter where our doctrinal beliefs fall in the theological perspective, it simply just isn’t up to us. Suddenly, this glorious knowledge of the free setting truth make is us realize we are in unshackled chains without the ability to free another soul.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: ".sfuitext-semibold"; font-size: 17pt; font-weight: bold;">We mourn for those we love who are still chained. Though Christ has empowered us through His death and resurrection, when we are close to those who are squandering grace, we can feel spiritually paralyzed. If God planted our Hope within us, then spiritual paralysis is Hope’s great fertilizer. Organic fertilizer. In other words, it feels like crap dumped on us to make us grow.</span></div>
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<span style="color: red; font-family: ".sfuitext-semibold"; font-size: 17pt; font-weight: bold;">Proverbs 13:12 says</span></div>
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<span style="color: red;"><span style="font-family: ".sfuitext-semibold"; font-size: 17pt; font-weight: bold;">Hope deferred maketh the heart sick: but </span><span style="font-family: ".sfuitext-italic"; font-size: 17pt; font-style: italic;">when</span><span style="font-family: ".sfuitext-semibold"; font-size: 17pt; font-weight: bold;"> the desire cometh, </span><span style="font-family: ".sfuitext-italic"; font-size: 17pt; font-style: italic;">it is</span><span style="font-family: ".sfuitext-semibold"; font-size: 17pt; font-weight: bold;"> a tree of life.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: ".sfuitext-semibold"; font-size: 17pt; font-weight: bold;">Understanding who we are and who God is, is the key to hope in this life and for the next one. Nothing of this world can destroy our hope if we don't find it here or keep it here. </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: yellow; color: red; font-size: x-large;">Hebrews 10:<a href="https://biblehub.com/hebrews/10-23.htm">23</a>Let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering; (for he is faithful that promised God keeps His promises.</span></h2>
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<span style="font-family: ".sfuitext-semibold"; font-size: 17pt; font-weight: bold;">Do we know all of those wonderful commitments He has sworn to Himself on behalf for us?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: ".sfuitext-semibold"; font-size: 17pt; font-weight: bold;">To maintain hope requires a connecting focus on God's word. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: yellow; color: red; font-size: x-large;">Psalm 119. 114 Thou art my hiding place and my shield: I hope in thy word</span></h2>
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<span style="font-family: ".sfuitext-semibold"; font-size: 17pt; font-weight: bold;">Most of us Christians avoid disappointment and emotional suffering as if it were the plague, but the Bible teaches us to rejoice in suffering. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: ".sfuitext-semibold"; font-size: 17pt; font-weight: bold;">Romans 5:3 but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; <a href="https://biblehub.com/romans/5-4.htm"><span style="color: #e4af0a; font-size: 17pt;">4</span></a>perseverance, character; and character, hope. <a href="https://biblehub.com/romans/5-5.htm"><span style="color: #e4af0a; font-size: 17pt;">5</span></a>And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out His love into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, whom He has given us.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: ".sfuitext-semibold"; font-size: 17pt;"></span><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiWtG5HQXGifGjfrL0tPbpN6X__a27SDA38nZRJZ8QAGh7Wppswvr0lv4_ARiX2R5NBnPM0x0lYIn8QXHWIk9KAmdhJtvQOfE3HQGXzhjyJHR2oM5Qqa0YXcSdZStJ9QQ4F3imO2NKy0Smw/s1600/F486B1EF-74FF-4B7E-85EC-078EE39FE806.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: transparent; color: #0066cc; font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: 16px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; letter-spacing: normal; margin-left: 16px; margin-right: 16px; orphans: 2; text-align: center; text-decoration: underline; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; word-spacing: 0px;"><img border="0" data-original-height="723" data-original-width="494" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiWtG5HQXGifGjfrL0tPbpN6X__a27SDA38nZRJZ8QAGh7Wppswvr0lv4_ARiX2R5NBnPM0x0lYIn8QXHWIk9KAmdhJtvQOfE3HQGXzhjyJHR2oM5Qqa0YXcSdZStJ9QQ4F3imO2NKy0Smw/s640/F486B1EF-74FF-4B7E-85EC-078EE39FE806.jpeg" style="cursor: move;" width="435" /></a><span style="font-family: ".sfuitext-semibold"; font-size: 17pt; font-weight: bold;">Suffering, is when God frustrates the attacks of the enemy, for His glory, to grow us into something more powerful and beautiful than we were before it attacked.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: ".sfuitext-semibold"; font-size: 17pt; font-weight: bold;">If we are to share the gospel, we must overcome the fear of disappointment. In short, you must have hope.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: ".sfuitext-semibold"; font-size: 17pt; font-weight: bold;">Psalm 42:11</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: ".sfuitext-semibold"; font-size: 17pt; font-weight: bold;">Why art thou cast down, O my soul? and why art thou disquieted within me? hope thou in God: for I shall yet praise him, </span><span style="font-family: ".sfuitext-italic"; font-size: 17pt; font-style: italic;">who is</span><span style="font-family: ".sfuitext-semibold"; font-size: 17pt; font-weight: bold;"> the health of my countenance, and my God.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: ".sfuitext-semibold"; font-size: 17pt; font-weight: bold;"> If I were to define Hope, it would be: practicing the emotional goal setting to intentionally think differently now about circumstances, in order to keep from being blinded to the potentially positive outcome of those circumstances in the future.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: ".sfuitext-semibold"; font-size: 17pt; font-weight: bold;">To hope, you must have more than just a need for it.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: ".sfuitext-semibold"; font-size: 17pt; font-weight: bold;">You must have faith to go with it.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: ".sfuitext-semibold"; font-size: 17pt; font-weight: bold;">The well known biblical definition for faith found in Hebrews 11:1 confirms:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: ".sfuitext-semibold"; font-size: 17pt; font-weight: bold;">...faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: ".sfuitext-semibold"; font-size: 17pt; font-weight: bold;">Sometimes, when we've bared our soul, prayed our hearts out, made our concerns known, hoping is the only thing we can do. When all we can do is hope, it becomes a catalyst for testing our faith. These verses bare, not only a reminder, to not lose hope, they teach us God is the God of Hope.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: ".sfuitext-semibold"; font-size: 17pt; font-weight: bold;">Romans 15:13 Now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that ye may abound in hope, through the power of the Holy Ghost.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: ".sfuitext-semibold"; font-size: 17pt;"><b>When we were not connected to the creator, we were not connected to the source of this life and had no hope for another. But God’s grace gave us Hope. <strike>Sometimes</strike>, most times, the best thing to do for ourselves and those who doubt is Hope. Hope in God. He is a good God. He is merciful. </b><br />
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<span style="font-family: ".sfuitext-semibold"; font-size: 17pt;"><b><span style="font-family: ".sfuitext-semibold"; font-size: large;">If you'd like someone to pray for you or someone you know who needs hope, feel free to contact me.</span></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: ".sfuitext-semibold"; font-size: 17pt; font-weight: bold;">Be of good courage, and he shall strengthen your heart, all ye that hope in the LORD.</span><br />
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clint-deliveringhope.blogspot.comhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18015424059753936304noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4072411263333770634.post-81943961062108846972018-10-12T21:50:00.000-04:002018-10-12T21:57:56.968-04:00Let the Way Wow You.<div style="color: #454545; font-family: ".SF UI Text"; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 20.3px;">
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<span style="font-family: ".sfuitext-semibold"; font-size: 17pt; font-weight: bold;">Some honest people will bluntly tell you a church ( not The Church ) operates as a business. In many aspects, they must. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: ".sfuitext-semibold"; font-size: 17pt; font-weight: bold;">While marketing a venue is inevitable, sermons mirroring varietal sale techniques should cause us to examine more than mere merchandise. You can't buy or sell a relationship with Christ as if it were a weekly special at your favorite store.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: ".sfuitext-semibold"; font-size: 17pt; font-weight: bold;">Jesus is the same yesterday and today, God has no limitations and no room for improvement. Consequently, we can serve Him, but never help Him. Even if we could give Him all of ourselves, we can never add anything to Him. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: ".sfuitext-semibold"; font-size: 17pt; font-weight: bold;">Yet, if you listen closely to the sensationalized sermons, you're bound to hear voices sounding oddly similar to infomercial salespersons declare,</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: ".sfuitext-semibold"; font-size: 17pt; font-weight: bold;">”But wait, there's more!” If you act now, we will throw in a WWJD bracelet absolutely free.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: ".sfuitext-semibold"; font-size: 17pt; font-weight: bold;">Constantly entertained and instantly gratified we like the Gospel with a side of wow!</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: ".sfuitext-semibold"; font-size: 17pt; font-weight: bold;">Palatable conjecture is easier to deliver than hard truths. Thereby, setting the trend for popular pastors to unveil an exciting new perspective every week. It doesn't have to be doctrinally sound. Never mind if it's biblically inaccurate. So long as it makes an audience gasp with surprise or promotes prosperity, happy thoughts, and book sales, we will buy it. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: ".sfuitext-semibold"; font-size: 17pt; font-weight: bold;">There's nothing wrong, per se, with excitement or positive thoughts in sermons. Slogans and catch phrases are not necessarily harmful . Selling books is not intrinsically evil. The volume level or light intensity does not communicate anything other than audience preference. When bold definitive statements are made that unintentionally entice conjecture, unworthy of the All-knowing, All-powerful God we serve, we got problems.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: ".sfuitext-semibold"; font-size: 17pt; font-weight: bold;"> Why isn't the Way Wow enough? </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: ".sfuitext-semibold"; font-size: 17pt; font-weight: bold;">The privilege to Worship God, who created everything, who lived, suffered, and died to save us in spirit and truth, should be more than adequate. Why isn't the clear commandments of His Word enough of a challenge for us? The Sword of the Spirit cannot be dulled by the sharpening of man’s senses. Dynamic platitudes aren't equal to simple truths of His Word.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: ".sfuitext-semibold"; font-size: 17pt; font-weight: bold;">The the inerrancy of God’s Word is as sure as man’s inability to become worthy of opening it. Knowing the impossibility for flawed creatures to handle God’s perfect Word perfectly, means eating the meat and spitting out the bones of most sermons. It is essential to verify the teaching. The wow factor must stand up to the way factor. The teaching must be biblically sound. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: ".sfuitext-semibold"; font-size: 17pt; font-weight: bold;">Learning to ignore the tones and the nuisances of our imperfections is key for “iron to sharpen iron”. The pulpit, rightfully so, is the most scrutinized place on the planet. Sometimes, you feel as if you are underneath a microscope being dissected by the blind. To stand in the pulpit is to invite criticism, both constructive and destructive, to a mysterious, yet necessary task. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: ".sfuitext-semibold"; font-size: 17pt; font-weight: bold;">AW Tozer wrote these words,</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: ".sfuitext-semibold"; font-size: 17pt; font-weight: bold;">”What comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us...For this reason the gravest question before the Church is always God Himself, and the most portentous fact about any man is not what he at a given time may say or do, but what he in his deep heart conceives God to be like.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: ".sfuitext-semibold"; font-size: 17pt; font-weight: bold;">Don't take Tozer’s word for it.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: ".sfuitext-semibold"; font-size: 17pt; font-weight: bold;">What we allow ourselves to be taught matters to God. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: ".sfuitext-semibold"; font-size: 17pt; font-weight: bold;">Colossians 2:8</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: ".sfuitext-semibold"; font-size: 17pt; font-weight: bold;">See to it that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deception, which are based on human tradition and the spiritual forces of the world rather than on Christ.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: ".sfuitext-semibold"; font-size: 17pt; font-weight: bold;">In hopes of catching a glimpse of God's supernatural power, two thousand years ago people used to follow Jesus waiting for a miracle. Two thousand years later, while focusing on dynamic teachers, we often forget salvation and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit is the most supernatural event we can experience. Look out the window or a mirror to see evidence of God's power.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: ".sfuitext-semibold"; font-size: 17pt; font-weight: bold;">When the rivers of living waters pour from the broken vessels the Almighty has called to carry the Gospel, His people should be refreshed, empowered, and ignited.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: ".sfuitext-semibold"; font-size: 17pt; font-weight: bold;">We shouldn't allow the conceptual ideas or energy of our favorite preachers or teachers cause us to focus on the mysteries rather than our thankful obedience to our Redeemer. The Way, The Truth, and the Life does the saving. The truth sets you free to live the life. Let the Way wow you. </span><br />
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clint-deliveringhope.blogspot.comhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18015424059753936304noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4072411263333770634.post-19998759237259243172018-01-12T00:17:00.001-05:002018-01-12T19:43:01.207-05:005 Biblical Responses To Bullying<div style="color: #454545; font-family: ".SF UI Text"; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal; min-height: 20.3px;">
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<span style="font-family: ".sfuitext-semibold"; font-size: 17pt; font-weight: bold;">I don't do subtitle. I hate it when there’s a problem and the preferred solution is to pretend there isn’t one . I’ll sacrifice pleasantries most any time to get to the point.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: ".sfuitext-semibold"; font-size: 17pt; font-weight: bold;"> Bullying is a <span style="background-color: red;">REAL</span> problem. No, it’s not a new problem or a bigger problem. It’s just a different world with new minds with a new problem that complicates the old Bullying problem.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: ".sfuitext-semibold"; font-size: 17pt; font-weight: bold;">I know, cause I’ve been on both sides of this. I am ashamed of been on either side because it means I believed lies and told them. I offer my apologies.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: ".sfuitext-semibold"; font-size: 17pt; font-weight: bold;">On this subject, I’ve read and listened to everyone from teachers to psychologists chiming in. Meanwhile, crickets are chirping louder than those who should teach the righteousness to cry out to the Lord. Pastors should attack this as any other sin.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: magenta; font-family: ".sfuitext-semibold"; font-size: 17pt; font-weight: bold;"><i>(I am committed to teaching a biblical response and practical application of God’s word on this subject for healing, survival, and redemption. While this post is written primarily to a mature audience, It can be modified to impact teens. Contact me, if I can help you or your organization)</i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: ".sfuitext-semibold"; font-size: 17pt; font-weight: bold;">I remember saying, “sticks and stones can break my bones, but words can never hurt me” , before I knew Proverbs 18:21 says that “Death and life </span><span style="font-family: ".sfuitext-semibolditalic"; font-size: 17.00pt; font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">are</span><span style="font-family: ".sfuitext-semibold"; font-size: 17pt; font-weight: bold;"> in the power of the tongue.” We all have misunderstood and misused this power.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: ".sfuitext-semibold"; font-size: 17pt; font-weight: bold;">Words can hurt. Words can kill.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: ".sfuitext-semibold"; font-size: 17pt; font-weight: bold;">At the risk of sounding like the Water Boy or Forest Gump, My mama says, “never point out a problem without offering some sort of a solution.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: ".sfuitext-semibold"; font-size: 17pt; font-weight: bold;">While I cannot, here’s 5 things in God’s word that does.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: ".sfuitext-semibold"; font-size: 17pt; font-weight: bold;">1.<span style="background-color: yellow;"><span style="color: red;">Teach your kids and yourself of the intrinsic worth of all people.</span> </span>Every person we have ever met, including the one in the mirror, was fearfully and wonderfully made in the image of the one who made them. Though we have all corrupted that image, we mustn’t forget who owns everyone. We must not have the audacity to have contempt for His work. SEE</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: ".sfuitext-semibold"; font-size: 17pt; font-weight: bold;"> <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=pSALM+139%3A+13-15&version=ESV">PSALM 139 :13-15</a> <a href="https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Genesis%201%3A27&version=ESV">GENESIS 1:27</a></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: yellow; font-family: ".sfuitext-semibold"; font-size: 17pt; font-weight: bold;">2 Never forget God sees differently than people.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: ".sfuitext-semibold"; font-size: 17pt; font-weight: bold;">1 Samuel 16:7</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: ".sfuitext-semibold"; font-size: 17pt; font-weight: bold;">....For the Lord sees not as man sees: man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart.”</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: ".sfuitext-semibold"; font-size: 17pt; font-weight: bold;">Before us may be a farmer, a poet, a musician, a warrior, or even a king. Perhaps, even all of these rolled up into one. It might be that guy, or it could be you. Only God knows... for now. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: yellow; font-family: ".sfuitext-semibold"; font-size: 17pt; font-weight: bold;">3 Be careful what you think and say.</span><span style="font-family: ".sfuitext-semibold"; font-size: 17pt; font-weight: bold;"> </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: ".sfuitext-semibold"; font-size: 17pt; font-weight: bold;">Jesus said, what comes out of a man defiles him and we will give an account for every word. We can’t make your fire burn hotter by peeing someone else’s coals. Never try to make yourself feel better by tearing down the spirits of another.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: yellow;"><span style="color: red;"><span style="font-family: ".sfuitext-heavy"; font-size: 17pt; font-weight: bold;"><a href="http://biblehub.com/proverbs/15-26.htm">26</a></span><span style="font-family: ".sfuitext-semibold"; font-size: 17pt; font-weight: bold;">The thoughts of the wicked </span><span style="font-family: ".sfuitext-semibolditalic"; font-size: 17.00pt; font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">are</span><span style="font-family: ".sfuitext-semibold"; font-size: 17pt; font-weight: bold;"> an abomination to the LORD: but </span><span style="font-family: ".sfuitext-semibolditalic"; font-size: 17.00pt; font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">the words</span><span style="font-family: ".sfuitext-semibold"; font-size: 17pt; font-weight: bold;"> of the pure </span><span style="font-family: ".sfuitext-semibolditalic"; font-size: 17.00pt; font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">are</span><span style="font-family: ".sfuitext-semibold"; font-size: 17pt; font-weight: bold;"> pleasant words.</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: ".sfuitext-semibold"; font-size: 17pt; font-weight: bold;">4 Be different. Not just different, but make a difference. Change your mind.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: ".sfuitext-semibold"; font-size: 17pt; font-weight: bold;">Romans 12:2</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: ".sfuitext-semibold"; font-size: 17pt; font-weight: bold;">And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what </span><span style="font-family: ".sfuitext-semibolditalic"; font-size: 17.00pt; font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">is</span><span style="font-family: ".sfuitext-semibold"; font-size: 17pt; font-weight: bold;"> that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: ".sfuitext-semibold"; font-size: 17pt; font-weight: bold;"> Its a rare, beautiful thing in this world to reach across the aisle to those who need love. Especially, when it comes from those who you have rejected or those who have rejected you . No matter what part in this mess we’ve played , learn to love like Jesus. Remember Christ called out for to the Father for the forgiveness of those who crucified him. Because He was perfect, He responded perfectly to bullying. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: ".sfuitext-semibold"; font-size: 17pt; font-weight: bold;">5 </span><span style="background-color: yellow; font-family: ".sfuitext-semibold"; font-size: 17pt; font-weight: bold;">Change</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: ".sfuitext-semibold"; font-size: 17pt; font-weight: bold;">Over and over the Bible says change. </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: ".sfuitext-semibold"; font-size: 17pt; font-weight: bold;">Ephesians 4</span></div>
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<span style="color: #e4af0a; font-family: ".sfuitext-heavy"; font-size: 17pt; font-weight: bold;"><a href="http://biblehub.com/ephesians/4-22.htm">22</a></span><span style="font-family: ".sfuitext-semibold"; font-size: 17pt; font-weight: bold;">to </span><span style="background-color: red; font-family: ".sfuitext-semibold"; font-size: 17pt; font-weight: bold;">put off your old self,</span><span style="font-family: ".sfuitext-heavyitalic"; font-size: 17.00pt; font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">f</span><span style="font-family: ".sfuitext-semibold"; font-size: 17pt; font-weight: bold;"> which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, <a href="http://biblehub.com/ephesians/4-23.htm"><span style="color: #e4af0a; font-family: ".sfuitext-heavy"; font-size: 17pt;">23</span></a>and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, <a href="http://biblehub.com/ephesians/4-24.htm"><span style="color: #e4af0a; font-family: ".sfuitext-heavy"; font-size: 17pt;">24</span></a>and to <span style="background-color: lime;">put on the new self, created after the likeness of God</span> in true righteousness and holiness.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: ".sfuitext-semibold"; font-size: 17pt; font-weight: bold;">In general people don’t like change. Most southern people, like myself, ain’t going down that road of change peacefully. Even if it means we lose touch with reality, so long as we don’t make waves, we can live at peace. All we have to do is pretend the world is the same place it used to be.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: ".sfuitext-semibold"; font-size: 17pt; font-weight: bold;">One problem with that philosophy for Christians is following our savior requires us to embrace the truth. And the truth is, this world is radically different from the world that us parents grew up in. It’s not a brave new world. Though it’s a different world, it is the some old lost and dying one. Only this age has a new problem. It doesn’t fear the creator nearly as much as it used to. Therefore, it isn't wise and it doesn't love like it used to.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: ".sfuitext-semibold"; font-size: 17pt; font-weight: bold;">Christ has always instructed us to change, not just ourselves but change the lives for others. Christians should lead in combatting the evils that come with bullying.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: ".sfuitext-semibold"; font-size: 17pt; font-weight: bold;"> Most people might agree on what the problems are, but spend so <msreadoutspan class="msreadout-line-highlight msreadout-inactive-highlight">much time debating solutions, nothing gets done. Let’s change <msreadoutspan class="msreadout-word-highlight">that</msreadoutspan>.</msreadoutspan></span></div>
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clint-deliveringhope.blogspot.comhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18015424059753936304noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4072411263333770634.post-85728410721461191692017-11-20T22:59:00.000-05:002017-11-25T07:28:24.146-05:00Thank God for Sledgehammers<div style="color: #454545; font-family: ".SF UI Text"; font-size: 19px; font-stretch: normal; line-height: normal;">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2l-ncTyqU86DxGjwI-wAp4mvCR4hsnX6JdpYFpKwrp1uj1U05yhAIsNUWFtQuTjCkmgf61GpH5Cay3hG1XYcmPhdNTx3Kvy2U1Ffi-BGt2pn7jwAemEIfMhO5GpKON9FKaUZeQm6-Ute5/s1600/sledgehammer.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="720" data-original-width="1280" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2l-ncTyqU86DxGjwI-wAp4mvCR4hsnX6JdpYFpKwrp1uj1U05yhAIsNUWFtQuTjCkmgf61GpH5Cay3hG1XYcmPhdNTx3Kvy2U1Ffi-BGt2pn7jwAemEIfMhO5GpKON9FKaUZeQm6-Ute5/s640/sledgehammer.png" width="640" /></a></div>
<span style="font-family: ".sfuitext-semibold"; font-size: 19pt; font-weight: bold;">This Thanksgiving,</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: ".sfuitext-semibold"; font-size: 19pt; font-weight: bold;">I’m very thankful for sledgehammers. I’m not just referring the kinds they sale at the hardware store. I’m talking about the metaphorical figurative ones. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: ".sfuitext-semibold"; font-size: 19pt; font-weight: bold;">Back in the day, our youth leaders used hammers for an illustration of proper Christian behavior. Eloquently, they explained hammers have a side for building up and a claw to tear down. “Christians should be in the building up business.” I’ve never forgotten the truths in this lesson.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: ".sfuitext-semibold"; font-size: 19pt; font-weight: bold;">Over the years, I’ve discoveredafew more, harder learned </span><br />
<span style="font-family: ".sfuitext-semibold"; font-size: 19pt; font-weight: bold;">truths. The truth about the Truth is one of those.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: ".sfuitext-semibold"; font-size: 19pt; font-weight: bold;">The world would have us believe every word must be co mmunicated in a fluffy coating of powdered sugary sweetness. Never mind it might be dripping from the tongue of the devil himself. Truth is, you can deliver truth, nice and sweet, only to have, those who don’t want it, claim you sent it laced with poison and delivered it on a wrecking ball.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: ".sfuitext-semibold"; font-size: 19pt; font-weight: bold;">Christians should be good hammers. We should build up people, but building takes time. Construction is often painful sometimes even deadly. It is a labor intensive cooperative affair .</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: ".sfuitext-semibold"; font-size: 19pt; font-weight: bold;">During construction, it’s incredible how much tearing apart, and breaking down, goes into building something. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: ".sfuitext-semibold"; font-size: 19pt; font-weight: bold;">No matter if we remodel or began a new construction, the greater the building, the more tearing down will be involved in the process. The builder will pick up a sledgehammer and separate the useless pieces of the design to carry the project forward. Occasionally, he will break away concrete to correct the problems buried beneath the hard exterior. Eventually, much as the artist breaks stone, he will reveal the finished work. <span style="background-color: yellow;"></span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: yellow; color: red; font-family: ".sfuitext-semibold"; font-size: 19pt; font-weight: bold;">God said to Jeremiah</span><span style="color: red; font-family: ".sfuitext-semibold"; font-size: 19pt; font-weight: bold;"> </span></div>
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<span style="color: red; font-family: ".sfuitext-semibold"; font-size: 19pt; font-weight: bold;">"<span style="background-color: yellow;">Is not My word like fire?" declares the LORD, "and like</span> a </span><span style="background-color: yellow; color: red; font-family: ".sfuitext-semibold"; font-size: 19pt; font-weight: bold;">hammer which shatters a rock? (23:29)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: ".sfuitext-semibold"; font-size: 19pt;"><b>God sometimes uses people as sledgehammers. A great <span style="background-color: white; color: black;">example </span>is Peter’s reaction to Simon the Sorcerer. </b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: ".sfuitext-semibold"; font-size: 19pt; font-weight: bold;">Trust me, Peter was all out of powered sugar that day.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: ".sfuitext-semibold"; font-size: 19pt; font-weight: bold;">He was a sledgehammer.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: ".sfuitext-semibold"; font-size: 19pt; font-weight: bold;">God’s sledgehammers tear down walls.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: ".sfuitext-semibold"; font-size: 19pt; font-weight: bold;">Once torn down, it reveals a separation of the beautiful truth of His Word from the hideous truth of man’s destructive damnable faith in themselves. Once out of the way, the construction can proceed.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: ".sfuitext-semibold"; font-size: 19pt; font-weight: bold;">Christ would be broken, so we might build upon a firm foundation.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: ".sfuitext-semibold"; font-size: 19pt; font-weight: bold;">While the foundation is perfect, as we who are not, work together, let us encourage those laborors,</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: ".sfuitext-semibold"; font-size: 19pt; font-weight: bold;">who focus on the finished product, rather than how dirty the process can be.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: red; font-family: ".sfuitext-semibold"; font-size: 19pt; font-weight: bold;">So the craftsman encourages the smelter, And he who smooths metal with the hammer encourages him who beats the anvil, Saying of the soldering, "It is good"; And he fastens it with nails, So that it will not totter. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: red; font-family: ".sfuitext-semibold"; font-size: 19pt; font-weight: bold;"> Isaiah 41:7</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: ".sfuitext-semibold"; font-size: 19pt; font-weight: bold;">Construction isn’t something most would want to listen to.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: ".sfuitext-semibold"; font-size: 19pt; font-weight: bold;">Sledgehammers breaking things into pieces</span><br />
<span style="font-family: ".sfuitext-semibold"; font-size: 19pt; font-weight: bold;">doesn’t sound anything like Beethoven’s 9th in D minor ( Ode to Joy) Then again, Ludwig wasn’t in the construction business. Construction is the culmination of unpleasant sounds to produce a complicated structures, built to endure the world’s harsh elements.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: ".sfuitext-semibold"; font-size: 19pt; font-weight: bold;">God has shown me to trust His process and His truth, regardless of unique and sometimes unpleasant tone, He created His messengers to deliver it with.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: ".sfuitext-semibold"; font-size: 19pt; font-weight: bold;">I’m indebted to those, Who were bold enough, to chip away the stones with ultimate truth of His Word and continue to do so. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: ".sfuitext-semibold"; font-size: 19pt; font-weight: bold;">A word that reminds me </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: yellow; color: red; font-family: ".sfuitext-semibold"; font-size: 19pt; font-weight: bold;">Faithful are the wounds of a friend; but the </span><span style="background-color: yellow;"><span style="color: red; font-family: ".sfuitext-semibold"; font-size: 19pt; font-weight: bold;">kisses</span><span style="color: red; font-family: ".sfuitext-semibold"; font-size: 19pt; font-weight: bold;"> of an</span></span><span style="color: red; font-family: ".sfuitext-semibold"; font-size: 19pt; font-weight: bold;"> <span style="background-color: yellow;">enemy are deceitful</span>.<span style="background-color: yellow;"></span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: yellow; color: red; font-family: ".sfuitext-semibold"; font-size: 19pt; font-weight: bold;">Proverbs 27:6</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: ".sfuitext-semibold"; font-size: 19pt; font-weight: bold;">With this truth in mind,</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: ".sfuitext-semibold"; font-size: 19pt; font-weight: bold;">Occasionally, reluctantly, I’ve been the sledgehammer.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: ".sfuitext-semibold"; font-size: 19pt; font-weight: bold;">Being an instrument of truth doesn’t offer instant gratification. To be honest, Most truth doesn’t offer any. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: ".sfuitext-semibold"; font-size: 19pt; font-weight: bold;">Often, it’s a source of depression. Just like no one want to use a sledgehammer, no child of God enjoys being one. Occasionally, someone will come and thank you for allowing God to use you in breaking down their walls. You’ll tearfully recollect the pain you underwent doing the unpleasant job you know God called you to do, but rejoice when you see the finished work of the changed lives. You’ll recall a moment, when God punched a hole in your wall, with someone and it came down and changed your life for the better. And then you’ll praise God for His Sledgehammers.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: ".sfuitext-semibold"; font-size: 19pt; font-weight: bold;">Has God ever called you to be a Sledgehammer?</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: ".sfuitext-semibold"; font-size: 19pt; font-weight: bold;">Who has been your Sledgehammer?</span></div>
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clint-deliveringhope.blogspot.comhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18015424059753936304noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4072411263333770634.post-44685703228479720202017-08-16T00:59:00.000-04:002017-08-16T01:14:40.369-04:00Brain Tumors, Hell, and Pecan Trees<br />
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<b><span style="color: #454545; font-family: ".sfuitext-semibold" , serif; font-size: 19pt; margin: 0px;">In September of 2014, I
wrote<span id="goog_884601026"></span><a href="https://www.blogger.com/"></a><span id="goog_884601027"></span> this <a href="http://clint-deliveringhope.blogspot.com/2014/09/pecan-trees-and-brain-tumors.html">blog</a> announcing to the world I had a brain tumor. On the day I
learned I had a brain tumor, I discovered a new pecan tree that had sprouted
from the roots of one I was loosing, despite having pampered it.</span></b><br />
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<b><span style="color: #454545; font-family: ".sfuitext-semibold" , serif; font-size: 19pt; margin: 0px;">The new tree reminded me, </span></b><b><span style="color: #454545; font-family: ".sfuitext-semibold" , serif; font-size: 19pt; margin: 0px;">God brings dead things to life. </span></b></div>
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<b><span style="color: #454545; font-family: ".sfuitext-semibold" , serif; font-size: 19pt; margin: 0px;"> It was a beautiful sight having just returned home with
a stable report from my second annual checkup. The tree has become a symbol of my struggle. Reminding me, God is good.</span></b></div>
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<b><span style="color: #454545; font-family: ".sfuitext-semibold" , serif; font-size: 19pt; margin: 0px;">Lots happened over those
three years. Besides daily pain, I've experienced a misdiagnosis, a cancer diagnosis, brain surgery, temporary
relocation for proton beam radiation treatment, recovery.</span></b><b><span style="color: #454545; font-family: ".sfuitext-semibold" , serif; font-size: 19pt; margin: 0px;"> In three years I witnessed a 100 year blizzard in Boston. A thousand year flood, trumped by the following year with Hurricane Matthew. Visited the Grand Canyon.</span></b><br />
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<b><span style="color: #454545; font-family: ".sfuitext-semibold" , serif; font-size: 19pt; margin: 0px;">A daughter moved out, a
couple of friends (whom I was sure would outlive me) died, a couple of friends finally conceived, an aunt passed
away, and a granddaughter is on the way. </span></b><span style="color: #454545; font-family: ".sf ui text" , serif; margin: 0px;"></span><br />
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<b><span style="color: #454545; font-family: ".sfuitext-semibold" , serif; font-size: 19pt; margin: 0px;">I answered God's call to
the ministry, went fishing for men in Tanzania, got ordained and left a
church I loved to teach at another. </span></b><span style="color: #454545; font-family: ".sf ui text" , serif; margin: 0px;"></span></div>
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<b><span style="color: #454545; font-family: ".sfuitext-semibold" , serif; font-size: 19pt; margin: 0px;">I'm overwhelmed by what
God has done and shown me in three short years. But every day, when I get home, a pecan tree reminds me God is good. </span></b></div>
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<b><span style="color: #454545; font-family: ".sfuitext-semibold" , serif; font-size: 19pt; margin: 0px;">In my meditations, I've learned to</span></b></div>
<b><span style="color: #454545; font-family: ".sfuitext-semibold" , serif; font-size: 19pt; margin: 0px;">beware of the
"ations" when interpreting God's Word.</span></b><span style="color: #454545; font-family: ".sf ui text" , serif; margin: 0px;"></span><br />
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<b><span style="color: #454545; font-family: ".sfuitext-semibold" , serif; font-size: 19pt; margin: 0px;">God's Word isn't for mere
admiration, justification, or gratification. It is for salvation, not just to,
but also from a God of perfect love. God's Word cannot simply be read for His
pacification. It should be practically applied. Practical application of God's
Word, will be nothing more than a speculation, unless there's a dedication, to
the implication of God's word. And confirmation, will become nothing more than
a fascination, if we succumb to the temptation, to use our imaginations to
interpret God's word. Scripture interprets Scripture. Jesus doesn't want mere
infatuation. He wants our total love, in Action.</span></b><span style="color: #454545; font-family: ".sf ui text" , serif; margin: 0px;"></span></div>
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<b><span style="color: #454545; font-family: ".sfuitext-semibold" , serif; font-size: 19pt; margin: 0px;">Intentional efforts to
make Christianity a custom fitted truth for this generation's cult of
personality, has become impossible to ignore. </span></b><span style="color: #454545; font-family: ".sf ui text" , serif; margin: 0px;"></span></div>
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<b><span style="color: #454545; font-family: ".sfuitext-semibold" , serif; font-size: 19pt; margin: 0px;">Much of what God has
said and done, is being ignored, making God appear more approachable.
Obscuring part of who He is.</span></b><span style="color: #454545; font-family: ".sf ui text" , serif; margin: 0px;"></span></div>
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<b><span style="color: #454545; font-family: ".sfuitext-semibold" , serif; font-size: 19pt; margin: 0px;">So, in an effort to
highlight God's gr</span></b><b><span style="color: #454545; font-family: ".sfuitext-heavy" , serif; font-size: 19pt; margin: 0px;">ace </span></b><b><span style="color: #454545; font-family: ".sfuitext-semibold" , serif; font-size: 19pt; margin: 0px;">, we sacrificed the truth. Hell
disappeared and famous pastor author, <a href="https://carm.org/love-wins-by-rob-bell">Rob Bell</a>, declared "Love" the
winner.</span></b><span style="color: #454545; font-family: ".sf ui text" , serif; margin: 0px;"></span></div>
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<b><span style="color: #454545; font-family: ".sfuitext-semibold" , serif; font-size: 19pt; margin: 0px;">We've taught we should
hate the sin while loving sinners. I believe that's true. It only makes sense,
after all, none of us are perfect. Still, let's not forget or pretend the harsh reality is unbelievers, not sin, suffers
in Hell. They suffer, not for having never obtained perfection, but from having
never embraced perfection. Pretending that isn't the truth, isn't loving.</span></b><span style="color: #454545; font-family: ".sf ui text" , serif; margin: 0px;"></span></div>
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<b><span style="color: #454545; font-family: ".sfuitext-heavy" , serif; font-size: 19pt; margin: 0px;">1 Corinthians 13:6 teaches
that love rejoices in the truth. The truth is God is good even when the report
is bad. In every moment, in every circumstance, which we we are unable to
change, but wish we could, God is good.</span></b><span style="color: #454545; font-family: ".sf ui text" , serif; margin: 0px;"></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-large;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"> When He destroyed Sodom, He is good. In the flood, when He wiped from the Earth, every living thing except
those He saved, God is good. Even in the moment He created Hell, He is good, justified, and righteous. He is holy and worthy of glory, honor, and praise.</span></span></h2>
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<b><span style="color: #454545; font-family: ".sfuitext-semibold" , serif; font-size: 19pt; margin: 0px;">God is perfect. Every
attribute of His divine nature, every aspect of His eternal power, is a
transcendence beyond our comprehension. He created and defines love. He hates
sin. Therefore, He loves perfectly And He hates perfectly.</span></b><br />
<b><span style="background-color: yellow; color: #454545; font-family: ".sfuidisplay-heavy" , serif; font-size: 23pt; margin: 0px;">Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be
saved from wrath through him.</span></b><span style="color: #454545; font-family: ".sf ui display" , serif; font-size: 17.5pt; margin: 0px;"></span><br />
<b><span style="background-color: yellow; color: #454545; font-family: ".sfuidisplay-heavy" , serif; font-size: 23pt; margin: 0px;">Romans 5:9</span></b><span style="color: #454545; font-family: ".sf ui display" , serif; font-size: 17.5pt; margin: 0px;"></span><br />
<b><span style="color: #454545; font-family: ".sfuitext-semibold" , serif; font-size: 19pt; margin: 0px;">Our salvation comes not
simply from what poured out of Christ, but also from what God poured onto His
son.</span></b><br />
<b><span style="background-color: yellow; color: #454545; font-family: ".sfuidisplay-heavy" , serif; font-size: 23pt; margin: 0px;">For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in
him we might become the righteousness of God. 2 Corinthians 5:2</span></b><br />
<b><span style="color: #454545; font-family: ".sfuitext-semibold" , serif; font-size: 19pt; margin: 0px;">The greatest act of love
the world has ever known, simultaneously wrought in wrath against all that God
hates.</span></b><span style="color: #454545; font-family: ".sf ui text" , serif; margin: 0px;"></span><br />
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<b><span style="color: #454545; font-family: ".sfuitext-semibold" , serif; font-size: 19pt; margin: 0px;">The pecan tree has really
grown. In many ways its more lovely now than the first tree I had lost. Here's
the thing,</span></b><span style="color: #454545; font-family: ".sf ui text" , serif; margin: 0px;"></span></div>
<b><span style="color: #454545; font-family: ".sfuitext-semibold" , serif; font-size: 19pt; margin: 0px;">It's not the same
tree. </span></b><br />
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<b><span style="color: #454545; font-family: ".sfuitext-semibold" , serif; font-size: 19pt; margin: 0px;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZ7my7H0YBS90l8vWKLa1HFsWt9DHCUF4NmcCP5plEyniovStc46lSCC9_8vjoKPMQOCgXIgaBoEqkGkYu7nmDN2PsIilg9wnagxJhsB9FIHJrZNNx8SrBmUMsyDqxMD4qLSRwat1iNphp/s1600/pecan+tree+2.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="612" data-original-width="640" height="306" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjZ7my7H0YBS90l8vWKLa1HFsWt9DHCUF4NmcCP5plEyniovStc46lSCC9_8vjoKPMQOCgXIgaBoEqkGkYu7nmDN2PsIilg9wnagxJhsB9FIHJrZNNx8SrBmUMsyDqxMD4qLSRwat1iNphp/s320/pecan+tree+2.PNG" width="320" /></a></span></b></div>
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<b><span style="color: #454545; font-family: ".sfuitext-semibold" , serif; font-size: 19pt; margin: 0px;">As I have grown, I'm not
the same person. The more Christ reveals Himself to me, through His word, the
more I hope to one day become completely unrecognizable to myself. He must
increase and I must decrease.</span></b><span style="color: #454545; font-family: ".sf ui text" , serif; margin: 0px;"></span><br />
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<b><span style="color: #454545; font-family: ".sfuitext-semibold" , serif; font-size: 19pt; margin: 0px;">I'm overwhelmed by the
love shown by the inventor of Love.</span></b><span style="color: #454545; font-family: ".sf ui text" , serif; margin: 0px;"></span></div>
<b><span style="color: #454545; font-family: ".sfuitext-semibold" , serif; font-size: 19pt; margin: 0px;">Who has, by His Word,
shown me God is Love, but love isn't God. God can be our everything, but
everything can not be our God. </span></b><br />
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<span style="color: #b01400;"><b><span style="color: #454545; font-family: ".sfuitext-semibold" , serif; font-size: 19pt; margin: 0px;">Every time I see the new tree, I am reminded God is good. He saved me for a relationship with Him. </span></b></span><br />
<span style="color: #b01400;"><b><span style="color: #454545; font-family: ".sfuitext-semibold" , serif; font-size: 19pt; margin: 0px;">He's done miraculous things in my life. He saved me from cancer. He shown me marvelous and beautiful wonders.</span></b></span><br />
<span style="color: #b01400;"><b><span style="color: #454545; font-family: ".sfuitext-semibold" , serif; font-size: 19pt; margin: 0px;"><br /></span></b>
<b><span style="color: #454545; font-family: ".sfuitext-semibold" , serif; font-size: 19pt; margin: 0px;">I cut the old dead pecan tree down. It was stealing life from the new tree and rejecting everything I did. So, I burned what I planted, and watched my time and resources go up in smoke, knowing whatever beauty or love we see in this life comes from a good God. </span></b><b><span style="color: #454545; font-family: ".sfuitext-semibold" , serif; font-size: 19pt; margin: 0px;">And knowing, God's never looked more loving, or more beautiful to me, than when He saved me from the Hell I deserved. </span></b></span><br />
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<b></b><i></i><u></u><sub></sub><sup></sup><strike></strike>clint-deliveringhope.blogspot.comhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18015424059753936304noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4072411263333770634.post-90030802304143275462017-06-01T01:03:00.010-04:002017-06-01T23:00:27.109-04:00The Greatest Hinderance to Church Growth : Gray Elephants <div style="color: rgb(69 , 69 , 69); font-family: ".sf ui text"; font-size: 19px; line-height: normal; margin: 0px;">
<span style="font-family: ".sfuitext-semibold"; font-size: 19pt; font-weight: bold;">Ask practically anyone in ministry and they will tell you what they see as the greatest threat to the church. Of course, they'll usually offer the greatest solution... their </span>
<span style="font-family: ".sfuitext-semibold"; font-size: 19pt; font-weight: bold;">style of worship.</span>
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<span style="font-family: ".sfuitext-semibold"; font-size: 19pt; font-weight: bold;"></span><span style="font-family: ".sfuitext-semibold"; font-size: 19pt; font-weight: bold;">Theories on what most threatens the church can range from Isis to a dogmatic orthodoxy. </span>
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<span style="font-family: ".sfuitext-semibold"; font-size: 19pt; font-weight: bold;">Let's not forget Jesus said, the "gates of hell will not prevail against " His church. While I find hope in those empowering words, I'll not pretend the church is without her adversaries.</span>
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<span style="font-family: ".sfuitext-semibold"; font-size: 19pt; font-weight: bold;">It's not Islam, or Isis that scare me. Neither the darkest, vilest, shameful acts pose a threat to those Paul calls " more than conquerors". No particular style of worship, or denomination offers a solution to what I call, the Gray Elephants.</span>
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<span style="font-family: ".sfuitext-semibold"; font-size: 19pt; font-weight: bold;">Gray Elephants, the things the Bible neither labeled as black or white. The amounts it never quantifies. The permissions it never grants or denies. The things that inspire the questions, " how much of something can I do or have? Is this a sin? Maybe there's no right answer, but for sure those are the wrong questions. How can we draw near to Christ, while focusing on how much of the world we can still cling to? </span> </div>
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<span style="font-family: ".sfuitext-semibold"; font-size: 19pt; font-weight: bold;"></span> </div>
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<span style="font-family: ".sfuitext-semibold"; font-size: 19pt; font-weight: bold;">Don't feed the Gray Elephants.</span>
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<span style="font-family: ".sfuitext-semibold"; font-size: 19pt; font-weight: bold;">1 </span><span style="color: red; font-family: ".sfuitext-semibold"; font-size: 19pt; font-weight: bold;">Corinthians 10 </span><span style="color: red;">
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<span style="color: red; font-family: ".sfuitext-heavy"; font-size: 19pt; font-weight: bold;"><a href="http://biblehub.com/1_corinthians/10-12.htm">12</a></span><span style="color: red; font-family: ".sfuitext-semibold"; font-size: 19pt; font-weight: bold;">Wherefore let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall.</span><span style="font-family: ".sfuitext-semibold"; font-size: 19pt; font-weight: bold;"> </span>
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<span style="font-family: ".sfuitext-semibold"; font-size: 19pt; font-weight: bold;">Unchecked strengths are our weaknesses waiting to exploit us. By thinking we can handle things in moderation, gives us the illusion of being immunized from the effects of sin, rather than just being saved from it. Once we let pride remove our borders, we use our strength to move away from God. In the wake, families break up, pastors fall, churches close.</span>
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<span style="font-family: ".sfuitext-semibold"; font-size: 19pt; font-weight: bold;">Do we want </span>
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<span style="font-family: ".sfuitext-semibold"; font-size: 19pt; font-weight: bold;">to live simply delivered or live completely devoted?</span>
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<span style="font-family: ".sfuitext-semibold"; font-size: 19pt; font-weight: bold;">Are we only liberated, or wholly dedicated?</span>
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<span style="font-family: ".sfuitext-semibold"; font-size: 19pt; font-weight: bold;">Let's Look at 1 Corinthians 10</span>
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<span style="color: red;"><span style="background-color: yellow; font-family: ".sfuitext-heavy"; font-size: 19pt; font-weight: bold;"><a href="http://biblehub.com/1_corinthians/10-31.htm">31</a></span><span style="font-family: ".sfuitext-semibold"; font-size: 19pt; font-weight: bold;"><span style="background-color: yellow;">Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God. </span><a href="http://biblehub.com/1_corinthians/10-32.htm"><span style="background-color: yellow; font-family: ".sfuitext-heavy"; font-size: 19pt;">32</span><span style="background-color: yellow;">
</span></a><span style="background-color: yellow;">Give none offence, neither to the Jews, nor to the Gentiles, nor to the church of God</span></span><span style="background-color: yellow;">
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<span style="color: red;"><span style="font-family: ".sfuitext-semibold"; font-size: 19pt; font-weight: bold;"><span style="background-color: yellow;">: </span><a href="http://biblehub.com/1_corinthians/10-33.htm"><span style="background-color: yellow; font-family: ".sfuitext-heavy"; font-size: 19pt;">33</span><span style="background-color: yellow;">
</span></a><span style="background-color: yellow;">Even as I please all</span></span><span style="background-color: yellow; font-family: ".sfuitext-semibolditalic"; font-size: 19pt; font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">men</span><span style="background-color: yellow; font-family: ".sfuitext-semibold"; font-size: 19pt; font-weight: bold;"> in all </span>
<span style="background-color: yellow; font-family: ".sfuitext-semibolditalic"; font-size: 19pt; font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">things</span><span style="background-color: yellow; font-family: ".sfuitext-semibold"; font-size: 19pt; font-weight: bold;">, not seeking mine own profit, but the </span>
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</span><span style="background-color: yellow; font-family: ".sfuitext-semibold"; font-size: 19pt; font-weight: bold;">of many, that they may be saved.</span></span>
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<span style="font-family: ".sfuitext-semibold"; font-size: 19pt; font-weight: bold;">It's that dedication, our love for God and fellow man, causing our light to shine through the denying ourselves. Likewise, it's the lack of such causing us to stumble or causing others to. There is no greater threat to our walk or our ministry.</span>
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<span style="font-family: ".sfuitext-semibold"; font-size: 19pt; font-weight: bold;">Elephants, just like our compromises and liberties, begin small, yet have a tendency to grow into massive uncontrollable beasts.</span><span style="font-family: ".sfuitext-semibold"; font-size: 19pt; font-weight: bold;"></span>
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<span style="font-family: ".sfuitext-semibold"; font-size: 19pt; font-weight: bold;">Eat the Word.</span>
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<span style="font-family: ".sfuitext-semibold"; font-size: 19pt; font-weight: bold;">Starve the Gray Elephants.</span>
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clint-deliveringhope.blogspot.comhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18015424059753936304noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4072411263333770634.post-14477141541512760482017-04-16T23:16:00.003-04:002017-04-16T23:26:12.314-04:00Gazing into an Empty Tomb<p style="margin: 0px; font-size: 19px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: rgb(69, 69, 69);"><span style="font-family: '.SFUIText-Semibold'; font-weight: bold; font-size: 19pt;">Today, Christians all over the world celebrated the resurrection of Jesus Christ. No doubt, defeating death is a cause to celebrate. Christ endured death. We had invented death in a collaboration with Satan, and together perfected it with the cross . On it, Jesus took our punishment, so man might once again be joined to God. </span>
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<p style="margin: 0px; font-size: 19px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: rgb(69, 69, 69);"><span style="font-family: '.SFUIText-Semibold'; font-weight: bold; font-size: 19pt;">Easter sounds so simple 2017 years later. Here in America, we will all go to a egg hunts, eat a lot of ham, and blow up social media with our family photos. I enjoy it every year.</span>
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<p style="margin: 0px; font-size: 19px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: rgb(69, 69, 69);"><span style="font-family: '.SFUIText-Semibold'; font-weight: bold; font-size: 19pt;">Sermons tend to be better at Easter. After all, today many people will come who rarely attend. Over the years, I've heard all sorts of metaphors come from the Easter celebration. Can anything offer more hope than an empty tomb? </span>
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<p style="margin: 0px; font-size: 19px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: rgb(69, 69, 69); min-height: 22.7px;"><span style="font-family: '.SFUIText-Semibold'; font-weight: bold; font-size: 19pt;"></span>
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<p style="margin: 0px; font-size: 19px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: rgb(69, 69, 69);"><span style="font-family: '.SFUIText-Semibold'; font-weight: bold; font-size: 19pt;">Every year, like the early followers of Christ, we come to gaze into an empty tomb. It's where you go from here that matters. Before the resurrection, most of those followers scattered in front of the cross. After meeting the resurrected Christ, those followers embraced the cross.</span>
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<p style="margin: 0px; font-size: 19px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: rgb(69, 69, 69);"><span style="font-family: '.SFUIText-Semibold'; font-weight: bold; font-size: 19pt;">Christ life is an example we must live by. His life, His example includes His death. Jesus said " It is Finished"</span>
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<p style="margin: 0px; font-size: 19px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: rgb(69, 69, 69);"><span style="font-family: '.SFUIText-Semibold'; font-weight: bold; font-size: 19pt;">For he hath made him </span><span style="font-family: '.SFUIText-SemiboldItalic'; font-weight: bold; font-style: italic; font-size: 19.00pt">to be</span><span style="font-family: '.SFUIText-Semibold'; font-weight: bold; font-size: 19pt;"> sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.</span>
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<p style="margin: 0px; font-size: 19px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: rgb(69, 69, 69);"><span style="font-family: '.SFUIText-Semibold'; font-weight: bold; font-size: 19pt;">"It is finished", are the words on which eternity pivots. Spoken on the cross, Christ calls us to death and life. We cannot have one without the other. Death to this world must come to have life in Christ. We cannot hope in our resurrection without embracing the cross. "It is finished" echoes through the ages, not as the ending of life, but death to hopelessness.</span>
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<p style="margin: 0px; font-size: 19px; line-height: normal; font-family: '.SF UI Text'; color: rgb(69, 69, 69);"><span style="font-family: '.SFUIText-Semibold'; font-weight: bold; font-size: 19pt;">Rarely is it taught at Easter, but tucked away in the resurrection story is the great commission. Jesus returns from the dead to give us one task. Preach the Gospel. Tell the world about Him. What He has done for us is finished. What we do for Him cannot be. Once we meet the resurrected Christ, serving Him who saved us must become more than annually gazing into an empty tomb. He came that we might have a full life. May we look outside the tomb, embrace His cross for us, and follow Him. </span>
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</p>clint-deliveringhope.blogspot.comhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18015424059753936304noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4072411263333770634.post-4907307992313965852017-03-26T21:40:00.011-04:002017-03-27T10:24:35.729-04:00Aynor's Churches: The Good,The Bad, & the Ugly. <span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">I grew up, in what I considered to be the buckle of the Bible Belt. It was a stigma I could live with. Honestly, I was proud of it. I went to high school in the little golden town of Aynor,
S.C. Aynor, is a two stop light town, surrounded by family farms and rural area residents, who boastfully self proclaim the place to be, " God's Country".</span><br />
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<span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">I remember pledging allegiance to the Bible, the Christian Flag, and the American Flag, during vacation Bible school. Promises, I intend to keep.</span>
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<span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">The South offers a culture and tradition enriched in hospitality, and honor. Church is a big part of that culture. The South affords a comfortable setting to become a "Christian". Then again, when did Christianity become comfortable? Honor and hospitality are cheif among social graces, but they offer no redemption for society. They introduce no grace for individuals. I fear, a false sense of spiritual security has infected our community. As biblical illiteracy increases in our congregations, our churches have become places of social interactions, rather than, places where souls are rescued. Acceptance now trumps repentance. It's not a style of worship that scares me. What's lacking is the of depth of teaching God's word. American worship now often requires an entertaining factor. We blur the line between the sensational and the spiritual. Not because of our style, because of the lack of devotion to the word of God. The South might be the Bible Belt, perhaps the increasingly unopened, definitely the unapplied, Bible Belt. Of all the ministry, I've been involved with, nothing has been met with more spiritual opposition than the effort to take God's word to our schools. I praise God for that. Mainly because His word tells us to. Not only for that, but because, I know this will cause growth.</span>
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<span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">For the last week, I have had more tgan a taste of reality. I've had a helping helping. Here are some of the things I learned by helping bring a release time bible class to Aynor.</span>
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<span style="background-color: rgba(255 , 255 , 255 , 0); font-weight: bold;">There's lots of God's people in Aynor still committed to sharing the gospel by teaching the word of God. Call me old fashioned, but I'm pretty sure I can make a biblical case for that being the only way. Of course, I'd have to use the Bible to do that.</span>
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<span style="background-color: rgba(255 , 255 , 255 , 0); font-weight: bold;">Lots of people gave sacrificially and independently from church. A couple, who recently relocated from West Virginia, gave $1000.00. As far as I know, they have no family here.</span>
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<span style="background-color: rgba(255 , 255 , 255 , 0); font-weight: bold;">Even one, unchurched, high school friend, sponsored a student for an entire year. In the thirty years we have known each other, nothing had caused us to hug or cry together. This did.</span>
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<span style="background-color: rgba(255 , 255 , 255 , 0); font-weight: bold;">Of the few churches that gave, all gave overwhelmingly generous gifts, considering the size and dynamics of their congregations. It was refreshing to find people, who not only value God's word, but have faith in the promises found inside it. We now have enough money to fund the high school ministry. Prayers have been answered.</span>
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<span style="background-color: rgba(255 , 255 , 255 , 0); font-weight: bold;">There are churches who would have liked to give in our area that could not. It's simple mathematics. In terms Bible Belt people will understand " you can't get blood out of a turnip ." Low attendance is low offerings. I remember these places as once thriving. Now they have the discouraging choices of advancing the kingdom through local missions or keeping the lights on. I fear, they have a harsh reality ahead of them. If you are a child of God worshipping at these facilities, you should not just leave. However, you should not just stay either. This world is not our home. Make sure what is keeping you there is more than the temporary sentimental mortar of what once was. Do not allow the bricks your grandfathers laid become an anchor in complacency. Do not allow temporary walls to prevent pooling together your eternal family's resources. Make your foundation on the Rock of your salvation that calls you to rescue your brothers and sisters, who are still lost. The church, the true church, will sow seeds beyond the soil of it's southern traditions. They will plant beyond the graveyards of dying church campuses. We haven't even started funding our middle school. I pray for a vision and clarity for the church.</span>
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<span style="background-color: rgba(255 , 255 , 255 , 0); font-weight: bold;">The Ugly.</span>
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<span style="background-color: rgba(255 , 255 , 255 , 0); font-weight: bold;">There was an incredible lack of interest from some pastors and church leaders. To be fair, there were some legitimate concerns from some pastors who were being cautious. I get that,... well sorta. In my mind, all legitimate concerns were overly cautious at best, or lame excuses at worst. Any problem could have been worked out, provided they got involved with a passion to let the Word of God speak for itself. </span>
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<span style="background-color: rgba(255 , 255 , 255 , 0); font-weight: bold;">While I will not betray a confidence in those candid conversations to protect the congregations, I will tell you my thoughts on what I encountered. </span>
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<span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Some of it was a lack of interest. There were pastors who never even returned a phone call. Some of it was plain old pride. They couldn't lead and wouldn't follow. Some of it was laziness. They had means but lacked vision to press forward. One pastor friend said," I'm not going to support it, it's personal." Seriously? Over and over, I heard, "we are already helping the Fellowship of Christian Athletes". I didn't know whether to ask them, "if they understood the difference or did that mean the kids who aren't in sports can go to hell?" There was plenty of ugly apathy to go around, but the most alarming fact is some pastors weren't simply unsupportive. Some rather seemingly opposed this effort. </span>
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<span style="background-color: rgba(255 , 255 , 255 , 0); font-weight: bold;">The ugliest person I've found in all of this has been myself. Constantly, I've questioned my conscious , asking God to prevent me from having a judging self righteous spirit. </span>
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<span style="background-color: rgba(255 , 255 , 255 , 0); font-weight: bold;">I keep telling myself, I don't know hearts or where people are in their walks. I can only judge fruits not hearts. I can and must stand on God's promises while falling on God's graces. Yet, I still found myself, for the first time in my life, feeling like a liar. I have been blatantly dishonest to my friends. I pretended to be understanding while I'm totally oblivious as to why they won't help. I can't understand the lack of passion or urgency in the heart of people, who say they belong to God, for evangelizing the youth of its own community outside its doors. If it were any other mission, I might could understand. These young people belong to us. These are our responsibility. We are supposed to be brothers and sisters devoted to God, His word, and His people. If we can set aside our differences to cheer and support the same school athletes, but cannot collectively minister and deliver the word of God to all our youth, then heaven help us. What are we worshipping? What are we teaching? </span>
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<span style="background-color: lime; font-weight: bold;">by taking heed thereto according to thy word. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0); font-weight: bold;">If this is God's Country, His people will sow His seed and reap His harvest here. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: rgba(255 , 255 , 255 , 0); font-weight: bold;">Please continue to pray for this effort. </span>
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clint-deliveringhope.blogspot.comhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18015424059753936304noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4072411263333770634.post-63712896835898647192017-01-01T19:25:00.015-05:002017-01-02T14:48:43.698-05:00This Year, I Resolve to Lose my Life.Every New Years admirable goals get set, big dreams get dreamt. Lofty ideas are entertained in the hopes of a better year. No doubt, today, from many pulpits flowed positive messages of how we to change our lives this year. I'm sure sound advice
on how to keep promises to ourselves were learned today. It's to be expected, after all, the Bible teaches us to set goals. Many verses teach us to be proactive in our lives. Like this one.
<img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjmcTF0etkFi_W2WOgAgTDig7FQmXBKmwMavEUZ1X-lJJuENot9mspQLf9JFvMo4ajHI2ENXnEl2wOvIlHJ94WOhLna6uU5gQRMNujPivgXba96P0_L5tiTkCONaVhnRaP5pALOkFM2pQGZ/" alt="BloggerImage">
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<p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 5px 0px 20px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1.625;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">The plans of the diligent lead surely to abundance.</span><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">~ Proverbs 21:5</strong>
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<p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 5px 0px 20px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1.625;"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">We should set goals. </strong><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Hard work is </strong>
<strong style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">the path of success, is a truth. I'd never suggest otherwise. I'd never deny most of us have untapped potential. Certainly, loosing weight, breaking addictions, and getting control of your finances, are worthy goals. I hope and pray
this year brings the betterment of us all. I certainly make plans and have goals.</strong>
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<p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 5px 0px 20px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1.625;"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Realistically, the majority of today's words and strategies will soon be forgotten. Many of 2017's resolutions will quickly fall by the wayside. So much emphasis will be placed on our plans for our lives. Oh, the things we will attempt to make our lives better</strong>
<strong style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">. Yet, I'm reminded Jesus said in Luke 9: 24 -25</strong>
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<p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 5px 0px 20px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1.625;"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"></strong><span class="red" style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0); text-indent: 25px;">For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will save it.</span>
<span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0); text-indent: 25px;"> </span><span class="red" style="text-indent: 25px;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">What good is it for someone </span><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">to gain the whole world, and yet lose or forfeit their very lives</span></span>
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<p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 5px 0px 20px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1.625;"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">What if this year</strong><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">, we resolved to give up the futile attempt at being in charge of our own destinies? What if instead of focusing on our own successes , the goals we set were for bettering the lives of others? In other words, loving our neighbor as much as ourselves. How much better would our lives become if we strived to give our dedication to God as liberally as God has given us His grace? If what we desire is an abundant life, we must diligently plan to live in as much obedience, as a fallen creature can, to word of God. What if, rather than creating the best version of ourselves, we lost our lives, finding ourselves in Christ? I plan on following Jesus every day for the rest of my life. You coming?</strong>
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<p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 5px 0px 20px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1.625;"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">3 John 1:2 Beloved, I wish above all things that thou mayest prosper and be in health, even as thy soul prospereth.<br /></strong>
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<p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 5px 0px 20px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1.625;"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">May the goals we set for today, lead us into a soul satisfying, productive, participation of God's plan, of loosing our lives, proclaiming the way, the truth, and the life, in Him.</strong>
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<p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 5px 0px 20px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; line-height: 1.625;"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Happy New Year.</strong>
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</div>clint-deliveringhope.blogspot.comhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18015424059753936304noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4072411263333770634.post-84943199748966668272016-12-14T00:12:00.006-05:002016-12-14T06:42:13.166-05:00What the Manger Holds<div>
Decades of Christmas memories travel in and out of my heart and soul this time of year. It's no wonder either. With all the sights, sounds, and smells there's bound to be sensory overload. It' funny how such a small and seemingly insignificant encounter,
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Maybe it was all the lights that reminded me, but I remember how I used to love decorating at Grandmas. No matter how cold it was, I was going to get strawberries, pound cake, and ice cream when we finished. She would play Christmas records as the
tree went up. Looking back, it probably was to keep me from hearing the frustrated words of my grandfather as he fixed the lights. Oh, and I can still smell the distinct aroma of her attic lingering on the ornaments since that was their home eleven
months of the year. She had a ceramic nativity scene. If I was a good little boy, I could place baby Jesus in the stable. After Christmas, we would wrap it up in tissue paper and put it away to keep it from breaking. It's one of my favorite childhood
and holiday memories.</div>
<div>
<br />
</div>
<div>
You know, some Christians don't celebrate Christmas. History tells us it was a pagan ritual that church officials changed so newly converted people could celebrate Christ birth rather than the winter solstice. Knowing the history doesn't create a problem
for me since the Bible says this:</div>
<div>
<span style="color: red; font-size: large;">Colossians 2:16 Let no man therefore judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect of an holyday, or of the new moon, or of the sabbath days:</span>
</div>
<div>
Ironically, Christians celebrate the work done on the most pagan of all alters. An alter made for mankind's own system of death. Man brought death and murder into the world and created a device to accomplish death in its totality. The cross denied all
dignity to it's victims while automatically increasing their torture. The cross was built by men of the world for the oppression and enslavement of those who challenged a world system. It was an instrument of fear, death, and torture before
God touched it and changed it.</div>
<div>
God changed it so drastically, that the</div>
<div>once ultimate symbol of death and oppression, is now the greatest symbol of hope and eternal life.</div>
<div>
That is happens, when God touches things, He changes them.</div>
<div>
<br />
</div>
<div>
At Christmas, I can't help but think of how He has changed the manger. It's become a symbol as well. Before Christ touched it, it was nothing more than a wooden feed sack. I wonder how many miss who it is in the manger. </div>
<div>
<br />
</div>
<div>
Around 700 years before Christ was in a manger, the prophet </div>
<div>
Isaiah, wrote these words we say every Christmas. </div>
<div>
<br />
</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b><span style="font-size: x-large;">For to us a child is born,</span></b>
</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b><span style="font-size: x-large;">to us a son is given;</span></b>
</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b><span style="font-size: x-large;">and the government shall be upon his shoulder,</span></b>
</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b><span style="font-size: x-large;">and his name shall be called</span></b>
</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b><span style="font-size: x-large;">Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, </span></b>
</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b><span style="font-size: x-large;">Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.</span></b>
</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<b><span style="font-size: x-large;">9:6-8</span></b>
</div>
<div style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></b>
</div>
<div>
Yet, somehow we miss who it is is in the manger. </div>
<div>
The Wonderful Counselor, the prince of peace, we are ok with that, but everlasting Father and mighty God? In a manger?</div>
<div>
It's no mere mortal in the manger. God is who he is. You ask how is that possible? He was God's son. How does that work? I could tell you, God is not subject to the laws He creates.He is all powerful. I could tell you, He is outside of time and space.
I could suggest, He has the ability to separate himself. Honestly, I just don't know. Just like, I don't know how any of God's miracles happen. Just like, Mary didn't know how a virgin could conceive. The only thing I can tell you is what
Gabriel told her. "Nothing is impossible with God." Jesus is God according to lots of scripture in both Old and New Testament. So He's God and He's God son, cause He says so. And that is something only an all powerful God could pull off. </div>
<div>
<br />
</div>
<div>
<br />
</div>
<div>
In the manger, there are parts of Jesus story you can't hear for the ooos and the awes in the background. There's angels singing, and nicely dressed, freshly bathed shepherds, worshipping a Wonderful Counselor. It's serene and tranquil, the
way we tell it. There's more to the Gospel message than peace on Earth. More than Christmas candles burn inside the hearts of men, where the Gospel ignited more than an emotion of joy. </div>
<div>
The manger story is beautiful, but it's not the beginning, the end, the middle, or even the climax of story of Christ. It was the things He said and did that made this story worth celebrating. It is who Christ is making this story holy. So many still
miss who He is and miss what Christmas is. </div>
<div>
Christmas was the execution of an ongoing rescue mission, planned from the foundation on the world, to glorify the Father, by setting the captives free. The Christ of the entire story, many turn away from. </div>
<div>
So many that aren't saved love Christmas. Don't they?</div>
<div>
For many people, the manger is all of the story of Jesus they have. Truthfully, the only part many want. Like Paul Harvey would say, "you need the rest of the story." They need to know the manger is as empty now as the tomb is. And it is the full life,
between an empty manger, and an empty tomb, that we must focus on.</div>
<div>
<br />
</div>
<div>
Remember Ricky Bobby's prayer from Taledega nights? "Dear sweet, baby, Jesus lying in a manger..." nobody turns away from baby Jesus do they?. Because if we are honest, what we really want, is a god we can wrap and unwrap when it is convenient. A god
we can take in and out, when we want, and place in a setting of our own choosing. In short, a God we control instead of a God we obey. The problem is, we end up with an idol we decorate the mantel of our minds with, rather than,
a God who decorates our lives.</div>
<div>
See, in the manger, Jesus doesn't require anything of us. </div>
<div>
There He doesn't teach: turn the other cheek, love your enemies, love God with all that you are, or love your neighbor as yourself. He doesn't command us to: carry our own cross or the gospel. In the manger, all the scars Jesus took to save us are covered
by swaddling clothes. We never allow our imaginations to visualize the manger in the shadow of the cross. Gruesome imagery of an infant child tattered and torn, mutilated, nailed to a cross, is just too much for our feeble psyches to take in. Yet,
it is only in knowing nothing was less holy on the cross, than was in that manger, nothing was more sacred, or more innocent, more precious, more pure, in that manger, than was nailed that cross, that we can have the gift of knowing what the manger
holds for Christmas. </div>
<div>
Oh, the manger is part of a beautiful story. A beautiful celebration of our savior coming from heaven, dying to save us and he will return again. If there is anything to learn from the manger it is the transformation, the difference Christ's touch
makes.The manger was nothing more than a wooden feed sack until Christ touched it, until Christ was in it. If all you know about Jesus is the manger story, then you missed He is The Way, The Truth, and The Life.
<img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhYIqcPRO-QoItCY2iUuA7sxWKHZtz9nGdsDUuxqsZ8NNig8WUN60g3KwA2GXIerelYme_ZkyApF3hoE7YhC3MVtX6Wyva3T1iXay0iCvlJ1gcyB8XHOd3PUxAaQcIp6qqVSVXXglgaPXwo/" alt="BloggerImage">
</div>
<div>
<br />
</div>
<div>
He shows us the way through the cross, He shows us the truth by His resurrection, and gave us His life, as an example to live by, so that we might live with Him. The only reason we even know about the manger is because there was a resurrection!. He who
hung on the cross touched it and it changed, like everything He touches changes.This is story of a beautiful gift, the living word of the living God, sent to a lost world.</div>
<div>
But the most beautiful part, there's no end to this story. And here's the big question, what part are you gonna play in the story?</div>
<div>
Are you going to to spread the love of Jesus anywhere and everywhere? </div>
<div>Are you touched by the manger, or </div>
<div>
Has he who touched the manger touched you? </div>
<div>
<br />
</div>
<div>May the the season continually remind you of Him,</div>
<div>Merry Christmas.</div>
clint-deliveringhope.blogspot.comhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18015424059753936304noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4072411263333770634.post-55725661975209109822016-11-13T23:42:00.005-05:002016-11-14T16:31:51.973-05:00The Truth About Pins.Safety pins. I'd don't think they were intended for political purposes. Neither is this post. I think there's merit and corruption in both parties. What I don't see, is honestly about lawlessness, inequality, racism, or greed in our
citizenship. So, I'm not picking on a party or anyone. It's the behavior I'm calling out. We shouldn't ignore it if it's unproductive. We shouldn't reward it if it's bad. We should stop it if it's wrong. All of it should be analyzed. You
have to admit, there's irony in college students wanting to draw an imaginary ring on a campus for a "safe place" while condemning those who want a wall around the country. Education has never been a replacement for
common sense or intelligence.
<div>
<br />
<div>Who knew, safetypins would become a national political symbol? Why not firing pins or hitch pins or hair pins? How about we make our symbol, bowling pins? That way, they could roll over us and knock us down. They'd like
that, except ,we'd always stand up again. </div>
<div>
<br />
</div>
<div>Symbols are overrated. They go to or over our heads. Before you start using one, you might want to research it .Apparently, some people are now wearing a safety pin as an indication they are a safe person to talk to following a tight presidential
election having no idea the symbol has been hijacked. Research it. It has multiple meanings. Most of the rest of us had no idea talking in America was so dangerous. As long as you don't mess with our stuff, most of us
are safe to talk to. If we are honest, we are kinda thinking, maybe it's pointless to talk to those wearing safety pins. Don't tell anyone, but up until last Tuesday, America was unified and everyone, not wearing
safety pins, agreed on everything and were safe to talk to. If reality was a hotel, it would be in a ghost town. You can't have this much diversity without some division. Here's the truth, when two people are in perfect agreement,
the opinion of one of those persons is no longer warranted. You can learn lots from people you don't agree with, but you'll have to leave behind your sensitivity.
<div>
<br />
</div>
<div>The Bible teaches </div>
<div>
<br />
</div>
<div>
<div>Faithful are the wounds of a friend;</div>
<div>profuse are the kisses of an enemy. Proverbs 27:6</div>
<div>
<br />
</div>
<div>Everyone, who tells you exactly what you want to hear, isn't your friend. Often, those who love you the most will do the complete opposite. If you don't recognize this experience, you are either oblivious or sheltered. Society can't
wait for you have the pleasure of removing a knife from your own back and the revelation it was left there by an enemy you thought was your friend.</div>
<div>
<br />
</div>
<div>We live in a country where, at least for the moment, you have rights.</div>
<div>Under the First Amendment, freedom of expression affords you have the right to act like an emotional train wreck, who can't take defeat. You have the right to exude weakness or coddle it. You have the right to exaggerate the truth, or
ignore the truth. As long as you're not under oath, you have the right to lie. You have a right to believe a lie. My personal favorite is there's more than one truth. It's the most popular. The rest of us have the right to call
it like we see it. In other words, we have the right to speak something that is offensive. It's quite easily done, just slip up and praise Jesus or say something remotely patriotic.
<br />
</div>
<div>
<br />
</div>
<div><b><br /></b>
</div>
<div>I have the right to love anyone I choose. We can love someone we disagree with. Ask any parent parenting. Love doesn't, ignore, sugar coat, or exaggerate truth in life lessons. Oh, it might in the niceties of trivial questions
like " How do I look?" But, it doesn't lie in matters essential to survival. So I'm saying this in love, but some are likely not going to like it .</div>
<div>
<br />
</div>
<div>The truth is so brutally honest, many times, it's dangerous. It's pointed. It pricks you in the heart. Everything a safety pin doesn't do. But a safety pin, it's cute and relatively safe. Like the blue pill from the Matrix.
(Funny the symbolic colors and nature of those red and blue pills. Walking in a comfortable alternative reality, you take the blue pill. Walking in truth, you take a red pill.... hmmm. But I digress) Anyway, the problem
is the truth ain't, so much. Pretty, that is. Often, it's ugly enough people turn away from it. </div>
<div>
<br />
</div>
<div>It happens to the best of us. Literally. It happened to Christ. I'm reminded of these words from John chapter 6.</div>
<div>
<br />
</div>
<div>"After this many of his disciples turned back and no longer walked with him"</div>
<div>It wasn't the Pharisees that left. It was the disciples. </div>
<div>
<br />
</div>
<div>Why? Go read chapter 6. Because He told the truth. He called people out in their motives. They took offense. In verse 61, He calls them on their offense and gives them more truth. The all knowing God of scripture, knew
they would be offended at the truth, knew they would leave, ahead of time, and he said the truth anyway! The inventor of love, did not coddle their emotions, change his approach, his tone, the message,
the word, or anything to make them stay. He didn't backtrack,
<img src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzbZkKQS2sxe48vhofobIYCjeaOUWoS9uX2Zce7bhsACt227x5kkPWwARdhMLBHVTQGyOZdmLklTH87duMhOZwdh00J-T9XqLy3XOPG0GVITi5LV19phdW5BOAUeCVeCu38XvRtwXKr98_/" alt="BloggerImage">he moved forward without those uncommitted. He did not intentionally offend, but it was the truth. It needed to be said. And love doesn't lie. He is the way, truth, and the life.</div>
<div>
<br />
</div>
<div>You can sacrifice the Truth. Though, it will take something bigger than safety pins. You'll need hammers and nails. We've done that already, and God hijacked their symbol of death, turning the cross into
a symbol of life. There's only one way to know the difference between the real thing and a knock off. Inspection.Symbols have never been more than those displaying them. That goes for name brand goods, safety pins, or the crosses adorning necks
or on towering steeple of a church. Maybe, it's time to respond to the Truth differently. Maybe, it's time to do like twelve men did with the truth . Walk with it and change the world. It wasn't safe for them. It won't
be safe for us. Do you love enough, to be offensive as Christ?</div>
<div>
<br />
</div>
<div>
<br />
</div>
<div>
<br />
</div>
<div>
<br />
</div>
<div>
<br />
</div>
<div>
<br />
</div>
<div>
<br />
</div>
<div>
<br />
</div>
<div>.</div>
</div>
</div>
</div>clint-deliveringhope.blogspot.comhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18015424059753936304noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4072411263333770634.post-37776105873965219292016-08-15T17:22:00.001-04:002016-08-19T14:34:08.948-04:00How to Think Like a ChristianJames Allen wrote<blockquote class="quoteBody" style="text-indent: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding-left: 25px;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"> "A man is literally what he thinks, his character being the complete sum of all his thoughts."</span></blockquote><blockquote class="quoteBody" style="text-indent: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding-left: 25px;"><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;"><br></span></blockquote><blockquote class="quoteBody" style="text-indent: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding-left: 25px;"><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">It's a loose translation of Proverbs 23:7. Look it up.</span></blockquote><blockquote class="quoteBody" style="text-indent: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding-left: 25px;"><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;"><br></span></blockquote><blockquote class="quoteBody" style="text-indent: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding-left: 25px;"><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;"> According to scientists, there are lots of things that cause us to think the way we do. Individually and collectively, all sorts of factors condition our way of thinking. From culture to geographical conditions, everything about the world, in which we live, effects our thinking. Our survival seems to be the primary motivator, followed by our desires. Still, these scientific facts offer little in the way of an explanation for having the delinquent thoughts we entertain.</span><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;"> </span></blockquote><div><font face="Helvetica Neue Light, HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif"><br></font><div><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;"> The way we think determines what we allow ourselves to believe, effectively controlling us. To put it bluntly, our thoughts create </span><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">our actions. Since the dawn of creation, man has been a slave to the incentives of that which sustained or aroused him. Here we are in the 21st century, man can barely recognize the difference between the two. The line between want and need has all but been erased. </span><div><div><br><div>Imagine the simplicity. Every human action, kindness or the dereliction of morality, begins with a thought. </div><div><br><div>No one is baffled why people do benevolent acts<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">. It's the heinous deeds, man inflicts against man, perplexing everyone. Logic falls short of offering reason for our evil agenda since much of it serves no purpose. Why do we have such terrible thoughts? While science would endeavor to answer the question of how we think, the bible would answer why.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;"><br></span></div><div><span class="exdous" style="color: rgb(69, 69, 69); font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 19px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: auto; display: block;"><a href="http://bible.knowing-jesus.com/Mark/7/21" style="text-decoration: none; transition: color 0.2s ease-in-out; -webkit-transition: color 0.2s ease-in-out; font-weight: bold; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0); opacity: 0.8 !important;"><font color="#454545">Mark 7:21-22</font></a></span><div style="color: rgb(69, 69, 69); font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 19px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"></div><p style="margin: 0px 0px 10px; padding: 5px 0px 10px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: none; line-height: 21px; width: auto; -webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased;"><span style="color: rgb(69, 69, 69); font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 19px; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">"For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed the evil thoughts, fornications, thefts, murders, adulteries, deeds of coveting and wickedness, as well as deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride and foolishness.</span></p></div><div><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">Satan's first words to </span><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">Eve, are still echoing in the ears of humanity, as it introduces the idea of </span><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">evil, to those whom only have the capacity to handle the knowledge of good.</span></div></div></div><div><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;"><br></span></div><div><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-0I5a2aLrjsXDAtcolkxKKAeaDqPViy6QC30AggYzfM67S8WW_R0VD77Ebgeoq045d3KTUkroOJMkzxpOrob6SQJ1RsAgYAxhDcJlxvUqNOMTdBPYYMk87Zd1o-fRGjqT_NnYqPvEZVIG/s640/blogger-image-2021670848.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-0I5a2aLrjsXDAtcolkxKKAeaDqPViy6QC30AggYzfM67S8WW_R0VD77Ebgeoq045d3KTUkroOJMkzxpOrob6SQJ1RsAgYAxhDcJlxvUqNOMTdBPYYMk87Zd1o-fRGjqT_NnYqPvEZVIG/s640/blogger-image-2021670848.jpg"></a></div><br></span></div><div><br></div><div><font face="Helvetica Neue Light, HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif">More important than understanding the reason we think the way we do is understanding how to change. To think like a Christian, one must first know the hopelessness of his condition. Faced with the knowledge we are separated by our evil thoughts from a God that only wanted good for us, we will cry out for His forgiveness. It's in this revelation we find ourselves in need of a savior. When God gives us His Holy Spirit, He gives us a peace. A peace, that guards our minds.</font></div><div><font face="Helvetica Neue Light, HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif"><br></font></div><div><font face="Helvetica Neue Light, HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif">Philippians 4:7</font></div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.</span><div><font face="Helvetica Neue Light, HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif"><br></font></div><div><span class="exdous" style="color: rgb(69, 69, 69); font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 19px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: auto; display: block;"><font color="#454545" style="text-decoration: none; transition: color 0.2s ease-in-out; -webkit-transition: color 0.2s ease-in-out; font-weight: bold; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><a href="http://bible.knowing-jesus.com/Romans/12/2" style="text-decoration: none; -webkit-transition: color 0.2s ease-in-out; transition: color 0.2s ease-in-out; font-weight: bold; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Romans 12:2</a></font></span><p style="color: rgb(69, 69, 69); font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 19px; margin: 0px 0px 10px; padding: 5px 0px 10px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: none; line-height: 21px; width: auto; -webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect</span></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 10px; padding: 5px 0px 10px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: none; line-height: 21px; width: auto; -webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;">We cannot allow the media, politics, or circumstances to control our thinking. We must renew our minds continually by being in God's word. For, it is only there, we can discover the solution and prevention for evil. Jeremiah 33:3 says "</span><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><span class="versenum" style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: 22px; position: relative; vertical-align: top; top: 0px; font-weight: bold;"> </span>‘Call to Me, and I will answer you, and show you great and mighty things, which you do not know.’</span></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 10px; padding: 5px 0px 10px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: none; line-height: 21px; width: auto; -webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased;"><b style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0); font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">Philippians 4:8 Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.</b></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 10px; padding: 5px 0px 10px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: none; line-height: 21px; width: auto; -webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased;"><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><b>God is good, God is Great. God is love. Think about it. Never stop thinking about it.</b></span></p><p style="color: rgb(69, 69, 69); font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 19px; margin: 0px 0px 10px; padding: 5px 0px 10px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: none; line-height: 21px; width: auto; -webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased;"><br></p><p style="color: rgb(69, 69, 69); font-family: UICTFontTextStyleBody; font-size: 19px; margin: 0px 0px 10px; padding: 5px 0px 10px; border: 0px; outline: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; background-image: none; line-height: 21px; width: auto; -webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased;"><br></p></div><div><br></div></div></div></div>clint-deliveringhope.blogspot.comhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18015424059753936304noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4072411263333770634.post-29154096435812893412016-07-12T01:54:00.001-04:002016-07-13T17:20:40.448-04:00When God Says Go.<div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><br></div>For eight years, I've volunteered at church that taught: Love God. Love People. Do something about it. I served both God and people as best I could and grew in my faith. It wasn't love at first sight. They weren't perfect, but they never pretended to be. They just didn't mind telling you Jesus is perfect. Truth is, there's things I don't like about it, things I would changed if I could. It's the same sort of feeling I get looking in the mirror. <span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">We might have made a mistake or two sharing the gospel. If we could have, we'd worked harder , but that only means we would have made more mistakes.</span> I could have stayed and been forever satisfied with just the things they get right and the things I'd never ever change. I've never seen a congregation work harder at doing the impossible, trying to get church right. Whatever we've gotten wrong, I've never seen more people collectively try to advance the kngdom of God. I fell in love with the mission and the people. Including all the pastors. I'm still I<span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif;">n love, but God has called me something new. </span><div><font face="Helvetica Neue Light, HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif"><br></font><div>Somethings are easier to say than to do. Every church I've ever been around creates the most aesthetically pleasing and comfortable place it can to teach the message " get out of your comfort zone". If we are honest, all of us look for comfort in all things. Which includes, our service and worshipping of the creator. There's a wide range in styles of churches. Whether we want an old time religion, a social club, a stand up comedy routine, or a fashion show church, you'll find one spreading the gospel, or at least claiming to. You can find Pastor Noah Grace, or Reverend Prophet Bishop Pastor Grace Yasser. Right or wrong, whatever we like is available.</div><div><br></div><div> It doesn't have to feel good to be wrong. It's not the styles that breed a false sense of security. Don't kid yourself, some people find comfort of being miserable inside the walls of any type of church. They institute themselves there, in a flawed sense of righteousness, through a self inflicted suffering, and in a pretense of servitude. Those people's hearts offer a counterfeit worship, no matter, if an organ, or an electric guitar, plays Amazing Grace. Oh no, it's not the venue, the preaching style, or the genre of music we subscribe to that produces comfort. It's the sense of belonging to someplace more than in the service of God. I hope, wherever you worship, it's in spirit and truth. </div><div><br></div><div>From the first time truth connects with you spiritually, it can be uncomfortable. It shows you what you need to change. When obedience calls you to live up to two thirds of God's name and GO, it's more than comfort you sacrifice. It's home. I wish I didn't have to leave to be obedient.</div><div><br><div>A relationship with Christ is the most valuable and fulfilling experience anyone can have this side of heaven, but it isn't without adversity. The bible teaches following Jesus means we must deny ourselves, rejoice in suffering, and put others before ourselves. Unintentionally, a misconception, of always loving what God has called us to, is being communicated by God's people. To be blunt, more often than not, serving God, AKA doing something about it, ain't always fun. Hard work usually isn't, but it's rewarding. Still, the path God puts us on is never one we'd choose for ourselves. No, our choices would lead to hell. We don't even know to how great a place He is leading us.</div><div><br></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">And I will lead the blind in a way that they do not know, in paths that they have not known I will guide them. I will turn the darkness before them into light, the rough places into level ground. These are the things I do, and I do not forsake them. Isaiah 42:16</span></div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div> Everything God has ever asked me to do, every sacrifice, those I did or didn't, like, or understand, has ended up changing myself and others for the better. Come to think of it, Jesus didn't particularly want the cross, either. </div></div><div><br></div></div><br><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgF3hmatj99IizcmeRmfv2adG_GC4Ym0P-WtV-8Tu7ua_nCHLXAICpIkNnrB8cQhhSLhW11rpYrLy7SR9eV4Hv5Pdy7biUC6BVwdaJWjKKxTk_4gG4sOCuLKSkjy0wWtanDQqfXI_jkXhn8/s640/blogger-image-1062869394.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgF3hmatj99IizcmeRmfv2adG_GC4Ym0P-WtV-8Tu7ua_nCHLXAICpIkNnrB8cQhhSLhW11rpYrLy7SR9eV4Hv5Pdy7biUC6BVwdaJWjKKxTk_4gG4sOCuLKSkjy0wWtanDQqfXI_jkXhn8/s640/blogger-image-1062869394.jpg"></a></div>clint-deliveringhope.blogspot.comhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18015424059753936304noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4072411263333770634.post-61230394517166678072016-05-13T22:43:00.003-04:002016-05-13T22:45:54.772-04:00Who is God?Who is God?<br>
Everytime I hear that question, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sChJUaU5W9I">I hope someone clicks this link for an answer.</a><br>Who is God?<br>
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It's an age old question re-asked by Nat Geo's host, Morgan Freeman, in one of the recent episodes of the currect documentary "The Story of God". It's not the question that bothers me. It's, arguably, the most important question that can be asked. It begs another. If God is a "who", wouldn't there be some individuality to His personality? Tozer penned these words in his book, "The Knowledge of the Holy": "Only after an ordeal of painful self-probing are we likely to discover what we actually believe about God". There is no such thing as just a question. There is always a motive. <span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">No question should be answered without considering who is doing the asking. If there is a God, then nothing is more important than what we believe about Him. Freeman's ideas are dangerous, not only to himself, but to anyone who adopts them. </span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjn-2Ipdl4UmQsannHSaji7CAeBqSBFhwxp1RWax5bN0UVKWkINar6lHWVb0Mve9F2zR2smu-ZzYCBrqzobWFVvRubIkLozeWi5o5Kutr5X4FAc52bfomNapkQBkiMtUPTJIjf_J99zy6-y/s640/blogger-image--424446440.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjn-2Ipdl4UmQsannHSaji7CAeBqSBFhwxp1RWax5bN0UVKWkINar6lHWVb0Mve9F2zR2smu-ZzYCBrqzobWFVvRubIkLozeWi5o5Kutr5X4FAc52bfomNapkQBkiMtUPTJIjf_J99zy6-y/s640/blogger-image--424446440.jpg"></a>I grew up watching Freeman preform as, Easy Reader, one of his many reacurring roles on PBS's "The Electric Company." I've always been a fan. Over the years, I've been a fan of many people whom I did not agree with. Celebrities and locals alike. I find it so funny, the authoritative validity we graciously afford celebrities. In 1986, at the ripe old age of fourteen, Peter Bergman's words, " I'm not a doctor , but I play one on TV", opened my eyes to this insanity. I don't think it's an accident, Freeman, who played God, is asking this question. On matters, as simple as, which cough syrup to purchase, or serious matters of religion and politics, we listen to celebrities. No wonder, pastors, these days, try so hard to become one. No doubt, crazy as it is, Freeman's former role will give credibility to the answers he provides to his question. He has played the role of President, as well. It doesn't mean Freeman's endorsement of a canidate will guide my choice come this November. </div>
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Freeman takes a broad approach toward finding this god. He even Involves scientists, who have proven, believers meditating on God activates the brain in a way atheists are incapable of. Freeman correctly states: "<span style="color: #454545; font-family: "uictfonttextstylebody"; font-size: 19px;">Experiencing the divine actually changes the brain, changes </span></div>
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<span style="color: #454545; font-family: "uictfonttextstylebody"; font-size: 19px;">the way we see the world." </span> He goes on to examine a wide variety of cultures and many major religions, such as Islam, Judaism, and Christianity. Insistant upon being all inclusive, Freeman chose mega church pastor, Joel Osteen, to answer questions about God from a "Christian" perspective . I guess it was a "practical" choice. Osteen is "practically" another celebrity who admittedly stated to Freeman," I don't go a lot of doctrine, and you know, I go practical." I can almost see Paul shaking his head while quoting 2 Timothy 4:3, adding an " I told you so". Osteen goes on to state, "God can be involved in as much as a part of your life as you want him to be." Which is "practically" believing, you can control an all powerful God. When Freeman asked Osteen "who is God?", Osteen's responded with " Our Father, the creator, somebody that gives us purpose and destiny... It's what you choose to believe through faith." Osteen neglected pointing out, you can choose to have faith in the wrong things and certainly believe in the wrong God. No wonder he doesn't do doctrine. Freeman's comment after "worshipping" at Lakewood saddens me. His soberrng words, " that was quite a show", should make the modern church cringe. Repentance just isn't good entertainment.</div>
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Freeman's universal approach, to the creator of the universe, alarms me less than his thoughts toward himself. As he exits the building, seemingly empowered, Freeman declares, "<span style="color: #454545; font-family: "uictfonttextstylebody"; font-size: 19px;">clearly having faith in the God in you, your inspiration, your power. Faith in the God in you...if you ask me who God is I'd would say a bit of the divine in all of us. There's God in you, there's God in me. The God in me is who I really am at my core. The God in me is the best version on me. The God in me is who I strive to be. Who I was meant to be."</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue light" , , "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif;">Depending how deep you want to go, there's a plethora of unbiblical thelogy being stated here. You need only scratch the surface biblically to know who we are at our core, in our hearts, isn't pretty. Jesus did not come to save who we are at our core, but to change who we are at our core. Jeremiah 17:9 describes our core. "</span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue light" , , "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif;">The heart is deceitful above all things, </span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue light" , , "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif;">and desperately sick;</span></div>
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who can understand it?" </div>
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Who we are at our core, since the fall, has always been idolators. Tozer wrote, "The essence of idolatry is the entertainment of thoughts about God that are unworthy of Him." Fashioning a god of our choosing, within our minds, from the materials of our imagination, will always produce a god reflective of self. If you study Freeman's response above, you'll hear it. Think this is an exaggeration? Consider Freeman's statement in his 2012 interview with TheWrap. </div>
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<span style="color: #454545; font-family: "uictfonttextstylebody"; font-size: 19px;">Freeman was asked if he considered himself <a class="mw-redirect" href="https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atheist" style="background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; border-right: 0px; border-top: 0px; margin: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" title="Atheist">atheist</a> or <a class="mw-redirect" href="https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agnostic" style="background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; border-right: 0px; border-top: 0px; margin: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" title="Agnostic">agnostic</a>. He replied, "It's a hard question because as I said at the start, I think we invented <a href="https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/God" style="background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; border-right: 0px; border-top: 0px; margin: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" title="God">God</a>. So if I believe in God, and I do, it's because I think I'm God."<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-35" style="background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; border-right: 0px; border-top: 0px; line-height: 1; margin: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><a href="https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morgan_Freeman#cite_note-35" style="background-image: none; border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; border-right: 0px; border-top: 0px; margin: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">[</a></sup></span><span style="color: #454545; font-family: "uictfonttextstylebody"; font-size: 19px;"> </span></div>
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Most of us would never be so bold as to make the claims Freeman made in TheWrap. You know why we can't judge him? Regardless of whether or not we'll admit it, we have done the same thing. Everytime we have disobeyed God's word, or His spirit, we have placed the more managable god, ourselves, on the thrones of our hearts. One we could control, or use to our advantage. There's a reason the first commandment is to "have no other gods before me." Remember what Jesus said was the greatest commandment? Recall what two all the other commandments hinge on? To follow the teaching of Christ, you must deny yourself.</div>
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Idolatry is the essence of sin, and is why all sin is equal in the eyes of God. For in the moment Adam attempted to rise above God, by ignoring His commands, sin was born in idolatry. There are no levels of being disobedience to perfection. It's why eating fruit we were told not to, equated to mass murdering the entire human race. Part of understanding who God is, is remembering who we are.</div>
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Who is God? Ravi Zacharias explains God this way:<span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"> - God "is the only entity in existence the reason for who’s existence is in Himself. All other entities or quantities have the reason of their existence outside of themselves. So in that sense, God is uncaused, non-contingent, implicitly perfect, His very existence is not dependent on anyone else." We will never know who God is until we narrow our search for Him. For, the only way to Him is through Christ. No one finds that narrow road without repentance. No one finds this God lusting for more power. Rather, the revelation of this God comes from to those who know they are powerless.</span><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0); font-family: "helvetica neue light" , , "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif;"> The God in me, saved me from who I truly was. The God in me, created a new version of me. The God in me, is who I truly am meant to serve. I did not make Him, He is making me. He's the master of the universe, the creator of all things. God could have been anything He wanted to be. He chose to be my Father, my savior, and my friend. I so hope you get to meet Him this side of eternity.</span></div>
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clint-deliveringhope.blogspot.comhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18015424059753936304noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4072411263333770634.post-1890411638240019222016-05-08T17:42:00.001-04:002016-05-08T17:45:01.929-04:005 Things Mom Taught Me & Never KnewWhen I was a kid, my mom was a stay at home mom. My siblings and myself missed out on so many things because of that. Most of which, I'm thankful. America's culture has been transformed because of her lust for entertainment and "toys". <span style="font-family: "helvetica neue light" , , "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif;">We have abandoned our values, sacrificed our families, and created an entitlement generation in the quest for the comfort of things. My mom never fell into this trap designed by Satan. </span><br>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue light" , , "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif;">Somewhere, we lost the perspective taught in <b><i>Titus 2:4 </i></b></span><br>
<span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><i style="font-weight: bold;">"so train the young women to love their husbands and children, to be self-controlled, pure, working at home, kind, and submissive to their own husbands, that the word of God may not be reviled." </i></span><br>
<span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">We watered down the importance of mothers in the home. Consequently, just as the scripture implied would be the result, our generation no longer cherishes the word of God, let alone obeys it. Additionally, the boundary lines, God created, that separated male from from female, with the beauty of His wisdom, have been blurred. So much so, we no longer cherish the uniqueness of our roles, and consequently no longer value our sexuality.</span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue light" , , "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif;"> Even though my mom was somewhat of a tomboy, she never sacrificed her femininity.<a href="http://clint-deliveringhope.blogspot.com/2015/05/the-tomboy-i-call-moma.html"> For More about my Mom, click here.</a> If you know her, you know, she's quite outspoken for the equality of women without compromising her interpretation of scripture. One great lesson, I learned from her. You can become whatever you want to be, as long as, it is the person God created you to be. She waited, until we were all out of high school, before she began a career in telecommunications. While we were kids, she had an upholstery shop in our back yard. It allowed her to make money while remaining a stay home mom. Originally, the building had been a smoke house for curing meat. So, as you might imagine, the place with no windows was extremely hot. It was a blessing when my kid brother accidentally drove into the building, making the perfect place for a window air conditioner. </span><br>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue light" , , "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif;">My mom taught a lot of lessons in the upholstery shop. I'm not talking about skills of the trade. I'm referring to life lessons. Some she might not be aware of.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue light" , , "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif;">1. To be unselfish. She put the value of raising us ahead of her worldly desires. She could have made lots more somewhere else. She put our souls ahead of worldly wealth. Her relationships, built with this one principle, make her the richest person I know.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue light" , , "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif;">2. How to treat people and how to handle hard- to deal- with people. According to her, the best option is to make friends with as many people as possible. Still, in this life, you will make enemies. I'm not getting into the details, but a stay home mom in the seventies, working for herself, at home, put her in compromising and vulnerable positions. She taught me in those situations, why to, how to, when to, when not, and for what, to fight. Sometimes, it doesn't matter if you can win a fight. What matters is what you stand to lose by not fighting. It just has to be worth fighting for. We dealt with friends, enemies, and everything in between. It has been a most invaluable asset.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue light" , , "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif;">3. Put family first. The upholstery shop often had my grandfather, grandmother, and great-great aunt working together right beside the kids. The collective wisdom and memories gathered there are priceless.</span><br>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue light" , , "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif;">4.The value of hard work. It wasn't an easy job. It didn't pay great, but there's a satisfaction that comes from working with your hands. It taught me pride in the accomplishment is worth more than the monetary reward for the task.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue light" , , "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif;">5.Use the talents God gave you. Mom was a killer seamstress. It's as much as art form as skills. She tapped into that talent and created substance. God gave us all talents and there are no limits to His resources.</span></div>
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In upholstery, you take something old and worn and make it new again. You make it valuable again. You turn it into something worthy for a place in someone's home. You begin by ripping off the outer covering to reveal the frame. It is only then, the frame might be repaired. Some parts might even be replaced before it is recovered. In the end, you have a brand new product. <span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Upholstery work is a great analogy for the work that God does in the lives of those He saves. He gets down, beneath our skins, into the very framework of our souls. There, He repairs, and covers us in the blood of His son. In doing so, He transforms us into a new creation suitable for His home in Heaven.</span></div>
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<span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">I'm so grateful for what my Mom and God taught me in the upholstery shop. Happy Mother's Day. </span></div>
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clint-deliveringhope.blogspot.comhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18015424059753936304noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4072411263333770634.post-60668217083182045162016-04-14T22:47:00.000-04:002016-04-14T22:47:21.363-04:00Allysa's Story: Suffering from ImperfectionWe met in the elevator. She was wheeled into the same waiting room as myself by her grandmother, Elaine. Not much of her hair was left and not much was left for her to smile about either. Her skin was so pale and thin, you could see the viens in her forehead. Hidden behind thick lenses, where the dimmed eyes of a child. No doubt darkened and I suspect, damaged by her treatment. She was feeling sicker than usual and neither Elaine, or her granddaughter, could force a smile. It was the kind of scene you would turn away from if you could. A special kind of horror, a terror every parent hopes never to face, is a child battling cancer. Some unbelievers would use this situation to find an excuse to hate God. Nothing can convince some He isn`t evil. Even if, they are sure He isn`t real. In fairness to them, we offer little in the form of an explanation. If we are really honest, these kind of struggles are the hardest for believers to make sense of.<br />
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Humanity, as audacious as it can be , shyly turns away from suffering every chance it gets. It`s a constant reminder of the fragile reality of our imperfection. It`s easier to ignore heartache when people remain nameless. We justify ourselves by whispering little nameless thank yous to God for sparing us from the "curses" like caring for a sick child. Or we just pretend there is no order to the universe and that a loving God couldn't exist amid the tragedies. I couldn`t turn away from this sweet little eight year old. This day, heartache had a name. Heartache`s name was Allysa. For the first few moments, all I could think about was her parents and what they must be going through. Then, briefly I pondered what my parents maybe feeling as I fight my personal battle with this disease. I found grace in not finding the answers to those questions. Yet, I still asked God to help me understand. What was and still is inescapable was the vision of my own daughters, sitting in her place. In my mind, I could see them in the wheelchair. I don't even want to suffer the thought.<br />
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She was exhausted from treatment, pain, and nausea. Kneeling down, I introduced myself and offered her a spearmint. "It helps with the nausea," I said. She refused the mint, but replied weakly with her name. She didn`t seem too interested in talking, until I asked "what is your favorite song ?."<br />
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"It`s inappropriate," she said as she whispered the title in my ear. Determined to get a smile out of her, <b><i>because the bible says in Proverbs 17:22" a merry heart does good like a medicine"</i></b>, Sir Cletus can`t mix a lot did his very best at <i>Baby Got Back</i>. God only knows, if I'll ever find a more useful moment for this goofball personality He created me with .<br />
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Transformed from the laughter, her sad cold eyes eventually warmed up to a glow. It was a most beautiful transition, like winter turning to spring. She reached for the spearmint I had offered earlier. Placing it in her fragile little fingers, I asked her grandmother if could I pray for her. After we prayed together, I really got to know Allysa and Elaine. I tried to bring as much laughter their way as I could, while fighting back the flood of tears that would freely flow the moment I was alone. Overwhelmed by a sense of loss, coupled with the separtion from my daughters during my treatment, I found myself being thankful this wasn't my child. An idea that left me confronting the truth about my own selfishness. In my pityful gratitude, laced with my own personal, convenient, and comfortable desires, I had momentarily forgotten every child is a gift from God. Allysa's parents are lucky to have her. I was very fortunate to have met her.<br />
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I found out, she can`t make up her mind on a favorite color since "they are all so pretty". She thinks Batman is cooler than any other super hero. She is wicked smart. When it came to her treatment and medicines, she had to help her grandmother keep track of important information. I witnessed her, respectfully but correctly, arguing over the details about her treatment. Showing me Allysa`s cheerleading photo, Elaine told me how this little dancer had preformed with the big girls at some of the Celtics` games. How differently she looks now. A shell is all that now remains of the body that houses the same beautiful soul of this princess, a daughter of the one true King. Since she was diagnosed with a brain tumor in October, she`s lost 20% of her body weight. During the conversation, I found out Allysa had been abandoned by her mother and father. If that was all someone knew about Allysa, they might convince themselves God doesn`t care. I`m betting every thing, even my whole life, that He does. Before you make up your mind about God, you need the rest of the story. The truth is, we don`t have it and we never will, this side of heaven. Still, at least, there`s more to this particular story.<br />
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Allysa, was abandoned by an unfit mother. After spending time in a foster home, her mother decided she wanted Allysa back. Later, the courts would return her to her mother only to remove her again. Eventually, she and her brother, were adopted by her foster family. It`s highly unlikely she would have ever been diagnosed in time or received the proper treatment had she not been abandoned. Despite looking like hell, (the origin of this disease) Allysa's hair will return. It`s likely she`ll make a full recovery. Upon finding out my cancer doesn't respond to chemo, she rolled her eyes and informed me how lucky I am . "I only have four treatments left and the prognosis is good ", she told me sophisticatedly. As surely as, I know this is God`s grace in action, I know someone would ask, what about those who don`t recover? Wouldn`t it be better if they had never been born? Why doesn`t God just make things perfect to begin with?<br />
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I`d tell you, "He did" if I thought my theology would satisfy intellect or logic. I`d offer a doctrine if it afforded anything that would sooth the emotions of nonbelievers who really care, or believers who really don`t understand anything more than God can`t be understood. In fact, I`d hope you`d never allow anything I say or write draw you into a belief of what <b><i>you perceive </i></b>as Christ. Yet, I would still be unable to hide my relationship with and would point you to the one who gives a peace beyond all understanding. Knowing full well, only His spirit can overcome the hate and contempt we have for a creator we do not and cannot fully understand.<br />
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Atheist turned theologian, C.S. Lewis, wrote "<i>Try to exclude the possibility of suffering and you find that you excluded life itself.</i>" Nothing says more about the human condition than suffering. Contrastingly, Buddha teaches "<i>the root of suffering is attachment". </i>Perhaps that's why so many children are abandoned. If detachment from people is the cure, I'm destined to suffer only the teachings of Christ. Suffering brings out the worst and best in all of us. It will draw us to, or push us away from God. Jesus is the only God, who shared and endured our suffering and continues to do so. Rejoicing in suffering is a biblical concept. While everyone is running away from suffering, we are taught to run towards it. It's there, in the sufferings of our Lord, we find the cure for what ails mankind.<span style="font-family: "helvetica neue light" , , "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif;"> It`s not as crazy as it sounds. In the last four months, I have experienced things and met people that would have never been possible without this cancer and I`m so thankful for it. Life begins in suffering, so you could even say, suffering is natural and perhaps needed. Think of it this way. If the temperature was always perfect, we`d never know the satisfaction of warming by a fire on a bitterly cold night. A refreshing cool dip in the pool would yet to be discovered. In a perfect world, there`d be no underdogs to root for. There would be no winners, because, of course, there could be no losers. No obstacles equates to no challengers and absolutely nothing to aspire to. No heroes. Without the human need to be comforted, there would be no Allysas to turn away from. Meaning we`d never know what it means to show compassion or feel empathy. In a perfect world, void of human needs, there would be no desire to meet her or anyone else. If God had prevented suffering to enter into man`s fallen world, would we even be able to define our humanity? Beauty can only come from ashes if something gets burned in the process. Void of the human experience, what would we become? It`s scary to consider, considering how short we fall with them. Sparing this world from suffering would have prevented sacrifice and denied the birth of Hope. For Hope is born from suffering. Suffering isn't desirable but men rarely desire what is best for themselves. Doesn't a world without suffering sound a lot like a perfectly bland existence with no chance to taste heaven? Suffering brings the hope for heaven. I wouldn`t miss that for the world. Would you ?</span><br />
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clint-deliveringhope.blogspot.comhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18015424059753936304noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4072411263333770634.post-8241331380300089302016-03-26T20:59:00.001-04:002016-03-28T00:09:33.860-04:00Between the Cross & the Resurrection<div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgK-VTwBrrk2BKWK2ZkWNcza8ldEllWihpZTSk8CC-saUX34eiGFAk0-lQ4cZfonRUz3s3BSlESFb3zSgMgn9IEbwy_6t-W74-wIEO1GCG9QtZOzb5XBPbElNJftr2IPMruPSdmwlysst8h/s640/blogger-image-1336530906.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgK-VTwBrrk2BKWK2ZkWNcza8ldEllWihpZTSk8CC-saUX34eiGFAk0-lQ4cZfonRUz3s3BSlESFb3zSgMgn9IEbwy_6t-W74-wIEO1GCG9QtZOzb5XBPbElNJftr2IPMruPSdmwlysst8h/s640/blogger-image-1336530906.jpg"></a></div>Tomorrow is the celebrated anniversary of God's <span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">magnum opus, The Resurrection. The day God, in human form, triumphed over death to save us. Just yesterday was the celebrated anniversary of greatest paradox in history. The crucifixion of Christ. Ironically, the crucifixion is simultaneously man's greatest injustice and only hope for redemption. Here were are, stuck in between these two monumental events. </span><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;">I'm guessing, the disciples must have felt Satan might be winning on the day before that first Easter.</span><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"> Sometimes, I feel like Satan is running amuck in between the moments God shows off in my life. As if , I'm in between two great seasons. One that already happened and one that is coming. It's those days, when I'm forced to "wait upon The Lord ", I meditate the most. Unlike the disciples, we have the luxury of knowing Sunday is coming and grace will abound. I've learned one simple truth that gets me through those moments between God showing off. The truth is </span><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">God is always showing off. It just takes a little more effort to miss it sometimes. I'm somewhat addicted to excitement. There's nothing I enjoy more than being in a moment when we are reaping a harvest for His kingdom or witnessing some other a supernatural event where God pours out His providential grace in provision. Even when life seems mundane and boring, I remind myself God is always awesome . His plan is perfect, and will work together for our good. Those moments, when it's the hardest to see, I focus on the mysterious things about God. Today, the day before Easter, above all days, I reflect on the mystery of God's grace.</span><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><br></span><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;">Grace is given at the expense of Jesus and is the costliest gift we can receive. By it's very definition, it is unattainable based upon merit or ability. </span><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Grace, so intricate in detail, God laid it out from the foundation of the world. So expensive, it cost the life of the creator of the universe. So perfect, its application determines the eternal destination of the soul.</span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"> It's almost laughable reading the futile attempts of learned men describe how to receive it. Philosophical debates have been waged on how, when, and who can get it. Churches, have split over whether or not you can keep it, or loose it, in an endeavor to comprehend what is written about it. A man could loose his sanity trying to figure out grace.</span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><br></span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;">I don't know which is a worse tragedy, to over complicate salvation to the extent it appears impossible to receive, or to reduce and simplify it to a mere one time, once said, fix all, prayer. Both distort grace. It really comes down to one question. Can we be true believers in Christ, unless we are Christ followers? Truth be told, grace is a paradoxical as the cross. Can someone truely believe in Christ and not follow Him?</span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;"><br></span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;">Jesus tells us,</span></div><div><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto;">"</span><span style="font-family: 'Helvetica Neue Light', HelveticaNeue-Light, helvetica, arial, sans-serif; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><i>For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it." Luke 9: 24</i></span></div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">I'm convinced many people know about grace but just do not want it. It's simple really, they know you can't have grace and be left unchanged. Seduced by this life, and the illusion of feeling in control, I've been there. It's overrated. If sanctity of life applies to this life, how much more to our spiritual life since we must loose one to save the other? The more I let go of this life, the more alive I feel. Every moment takes me closer to heaven and seeing Jesus. </span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br></span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">People, afraid of grace, feel they are captain of their own ships enjoying smooth sailing. They are destined to sink, unless, they abandon ship. Destined to drown, unless, Christ pulls them from a would be watery grave.</span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br></span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">Grace tends to navigate her ship to rougher waters. She does not sail, for her captives, now slaves of Christ, man the oars. Christ followers cannot self navigate, for Christ is the way. Christ steers the ship, and we should row aimlessly comforted knowing, not only the ship, but the passengers, and even the sea, belong to Jesus. I don't know exactly how I got chained to this oar in the galley of this ship. I'm just glad to be here and hope I get to see you.</span></div></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);"><br></span></div><div><span style="-webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0);">It is my prayer you would become a committed follower of Christ. Happy Easter.</span></div><div><br></div><div><br></div>clint-deliveringhope.blogspot.comhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18015424059753936304noreply@blogger.com0