Category Archives: Uncategorized

A Photo A Week Challenge: Religious Buildings

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This one would seem to be right up my alley (being Pastor Wrinkles and all). But when Nancy asked us to offer just one photo of RELIGIOUS BUILDINGS, I got really stumped. I was stumped not because I couldn’t find any but because HOLY COW I HAVE A LOT OF PICTURES OF CHURCHES!!!!!!

See what churches others have posted at the underlined link above.

Here is the one I chose. It was really hard.

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This is the Youth With A Mission Building (YWAM) in Amsterdam.

For more information on YWAM go to http://www.ywam.org/

The Road Through Romans: The Thing About Spiritual Gifts…

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We are continuing today our discussion through the Book of Romans. We’ll be spending at least another day in Romans 1:11 because there is a bit more I have to say on the subject of spiritual gifts.

Paul wrote,

 I long to see you so that I may impart to you some spiritual gift to make you strong—Romans 1:11 NIV

I suppose most of you don’t know this but I wasn’t always a Christian. I wasn’t raised in a Christian home. My parents were agnostics influenced by the early New Age movement. In my pre-teen and early teen years I was an avowed pagan. I wouldn’t have called myself wiccan, exactly, but I did spend time channeling spirits and talking to “angels”.  I tried astral projection and did have a few out of body experiences.

It was more than a flight of fancy. I experienced real power in my pagan practices. I craved power. I craved strength because, God knows, I wasn’t finding those things in my earthly experience.

My initial decision to attend church was actually at the insistence of one of my spirit guides. I think I was supposed to make some kind of scene in the church and disrupt the service. That didn’t happen. I remember walking in the door and being hit with the presence of the most amazing love I had ever experienced. I was overwhelmed by it actually. It wasn’t the preaching that did it. I could hardly understand the Pastor who was from Trinidad. It wasn’t the music. There really wasn’t any. The piano player only knew “Jesus Loves Me” So she would get up and clap to any song that wasn’t that.  And the I didn’t experience love because the people were wicked friendly or anything. It was New England after all. There was one lady in the congregation who prophesied just about every week. She was so mean when she did it,the Pastor eventually asked her to stop and when she wouldn’t he had to kick her out of the church.

The love came through the people from God as a spiritual gift to me. It was an atmosphere they created more than an action they practiced. It wasn’t what they did that brought the love. It was was Who dwelt in them that caused me to experience it, as I sat in the church service and heard the people worship. It was a gift imparted.

For the first time in my life, love was becoming a force stronger than every other spirit I had ever experienced. In its presence the voices in my head were silenced and I was left powerless in its wake.

BUT

Then I learned that this power, this love, wanted to dwell inside me and strengthen me for life.

One of the reasons I became a Christian was because I became convinced that no other power in the universe could match this God of love I was experiencing. I wanted to align myself with that kind of power. It was not a question of me accepting Christ. I knew He was bigger than me and bigger than all the other spirits I had been entertaining. It was a question of Him accepting me. The question I had to toy with once I acknowledged that God was God and there was no other was, “would He accept me?”

He did! The spiritual gift of salvation was imparted to me the very  day I asked.  I will go on from here to speak about the impartation of the Spirit called the baptism of the Holy Spirit tomorrow, but first…

why don’t you take a bit and tell me about your own experience of meeting God.

If you have missed any of our discussions through Romans they can be found on THE ROAD THROUGH ROMANS PAGE

Jesus Steps Out of the Spotlight…

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A great message from The Life Project.

Don Merritt's avatarLife Project Blog

…and the crowds went with Him!

Matthew 14:13-21

When Jesus heard what had happened, he withdrew by boat privately to a solitary place. Hearing of this, the crowds followed him on foot from the towns. (14:13)

When Jesus heard about the brutal murder of John the Baptist in Herod’s jails, He withdraw from the public spotlight, and Matthew begins a new section in his narrative, a section in which Jesus seeks to spend time working with His disciples so that they might come to understand both His identity and His mission.

But the people were loathe to let Him step into the background, and when they heard that He had departed from Nazareth and was headed to the far side of the Sea of Galilee, the word spread quickly, and by the time Jesus and the Twelve arrived, there was a very large crowd waiting for them. Notice in the…

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The Road Through Romans: Constantly

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100_5431We have been working our way through the first Chapter of Paul’s letter to the Romans. If you have missed any of our discussions thus far you can find them on THE ROAD THROUGH ROMANS PAGE.

The verses we will be dealing with today are Romans 1:9,10

God, whom I serve in my spirit in preaching the gospel of his Son, is my witness how constantly I remember you 10 in my prayers at all times; and I pray that now at last by God’s will the way may be opened for me to come to you.

I want to spend a bit of time talking about Paul’s prayer life today.

Paul tells the Romans that he constantly remembers them in prayer. The word constantly is the word adialeiptōs which means Paul is praying for the Roman church incessantly.

The idea of incessant prayer is a familiar one in Paul’s life. Paul was a mighty apostle of the church. He was a prolific writer, an effective communicator, an able administrator and a wonderful pastor; But above all Paul was an outstanding PRAY-ER.

Listen to these words from some of his other letters:

“We always thank God for all of you and continually mention you in our prayers. 3 We remember before our God and Father your work produced by faith, your labor prompted by love, and your endurance inspired by hope in our Lord Jesus Christ.” 1Thess. 1:2,3

Therefore, we never stop thanking God that when you received his message from us, you didn’t think of our words as mere human ideas. You accepted what we said as the very word of God—which, of course, it is. And this word continues to work in you who believe 1:Thess. 2:13

We always pray for you, and we give thanks to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.  Col. 1:3

For this reason, ever since I heard about your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all God’s people, 16 I have not stopped giving thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers. 17 I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit[f] of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better.  Eph. 1:15-17

Paul’s desire, though, was not just to be a powerful prayer warrior in his own right. He expected that every Christian would be like him. His command  to the churches was that, like him they should, 17 Pray without ceasing. 1 Thess. 5:17

If Paul in his day needed to be a man who prayed without ceasing, how much more do we the Christians upon whom the end of the age has come need to be men and women of unceasing prayer?

What must you eliminate from your life so that you can spend more time in prayer?

The Road Through Romans: From the Inside Out

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We have been discussing the Book of Romans over the last several weeks and we have made it to verse 9 of chapter 1.

God, whom I serve in my spirit in preaching the gospel of his Son, is my witness how constantly I remember you.

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Paul makes a statement. He says he lives for God in his Spirit and out of that flows the work of preaching the gospel of God’s Son. Paul’s Christian work flows from the passion of his heart for God.

Somewhere along the line many of us have lost the truth that Christianity starts on the inside and works its way out.

We blame so much of our behavior on others. “If my sister didn’t do this then I wouldn’t do that.”

“If my father was nicer I wouldn’t be like this.”

” If my husband weren’t such a jerk I’d…”

But Jesus said, “A good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart, and an evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in his heart. For the mouth speaks what the heart is full of.” Luke 6:45

It is what is in our own hearts that makes us good or evil not what is going on outside of them. We may not be able to control the world or the people in it but with Christ’s help we can control our responses.

What do you need to let God change on the inside so that you can live more for Christ on the outside?

If you have missed any of our discussions through Romans they can be found on THE ROAD THROUGH ROMANS PAGE.

 

 

The Road Through Romans: The Noise We Make

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First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for all of you, because your faith is being reported all over the world Romans 1:8

Being a Christian should be a noisy business. It is not a life to be hidden under or bushel. Our love and good works should be seen by all, not for our glory but for His.

Does anything hold you back from making some noise with your faith?

 

If you have  missed any of our discussion through Romans, they can be found on: THE ROAD THROUGH ROMANS PAGE.