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Showing posts from August, 2018

THE NUMBER ONE GOAL

THE NUMBER ONE GOAL                                 What is the number one most important goal of the Christian life? Is it the rapture? Belonging to the right church? Having the right set of doctrines? Preaching the Gospel? No! Romans 8:29: “For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the first-born among many brethren.”                 Galatians 4:19 “My little children with whom I am again in labor until Christ is formed in you.                 Ephesians 4:11—13 “And He gave some as apostles and some as prophets , and some as evangelists and some as pastors and teachers, to the building up of the body of Christ…...

STAYING FRESH

STAYING FRESH                 “Therefore we do not lose heart, but though our outer man is decaying, yet our inner man is being renewed day by day.” 2Cor. 4:16                 Being born again is not just a one- time event. Oh yes, there was that first time, that encounter with Jesus when you accepted Him into your heart and received Him as your Savior and Lord, but if we are still talking about how we came to the Lord in 1972 it is time for an update.                 Our spirit can be renewed every morning. Every day we can start out with a clean slate and a restored reservoir of vitality and spiritual power.                 Many Christians go to church to get their dead batt...

MEETING HIM AT THE THRESHING FLOOR

MEETING HIM AT THE THRESHING FLOOR                 “Then Naomi her mother-in-law said to her, “My daughter shall I not seek security for you, that it may be well with you? And now is not Boaz our kinsman, with whose maids you were? Behold, he winnows barley at the threshing floor tonight.” Ruth 3:1, 2                 The Bible is oh so very pregnant with depth and meaning and because we know so little about the feasts of Israel, we tend to miss the significance of things that are said. Ruth 2:23 tells us that Ruth stayed close by the maids of Boaz in order to glean until the end of the barley harvest and the wheat harvest…” Ruth 2:23a                 First of all this is at the early harvest of the Barley, corresponding to Passover. But here we also hav...

FLESH AND BLOOD

FLESH AND BLOOD                 “Jesus therefore said to them, “Truly, truly I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the son of Man and drink His blood you have no life in yourselves. He who eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life; and I will raise him up on the last day. For My flesh is true food and My blood is true drink. He who eats My flesh and drinks MY blood abides in Me and I in him. As the Father sent Me and I live because of the Father, so he who eats Me, he also shall live because of Me. This is the bread which came down out of heaven; not as the fathers ate and died, he who eats this bread shall live forever.” John 6:53-58                 “As a result of this many of His disciples withdrew and were not walking with Him anymore.”   John 6:66. (Isn’t it interesting that this text that talks about those...

WHAT ARE YOU SAYING RICK?

WHAT ARE YOU SAYING RICK?                 My last article may be tough for some people… in fact you may be asking yourself II have jumped ship. But no, I have not jumped ship… and yet even as I say this, I am becoming keenly aware that the Lord is leading us into a new season.                 When we move from Law to grace, this doesn’t mean that we suddenly start disobeying the Law, On the contrary we enter into the supernatural realm of love that we can’t possibly live without the supernatural power of the Holy Spirit. Love deals not only with what we do, but with our motives for doing what we do. Are we motivated by deep and compelling love of Christ in our lives or are we still just play acting?                 Moving from servanthood to sonship, do...

DAYS OF OUR LIVES

THE DAYS OF OUR LIVES                 “Thine eyes have seen my unformed substance’ and in Thy book they were all written, the days that were ordained for me, when as yet there was not one of them. Ps. 139:                 When we call God infinite, and He is infinite in every way, it gives us pause. He is infinite in terms of space. He is infinite in terms of time and He is infinite in terms of knowledge and wisdom. He is also infinite in terms of holiness and righteousness and in terms of grace and longsuffering.                 In fact when we look at the fruit of the Spirit, we usually think of these fruits as attributes of the Holy Spirit that He has downloaded into us and that our lives are made up of learning how to live out this fruit so that our...