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JUNE 24 “WE AGREE TO DISAGREE”

 I remember many years ago Pastoring in a Church where there was some minor issues, that were quickly escalating to major issues. My options were to ignore it or confront it. I looked at the parties involved and what I saw was a group of men that were strongly opinionated, but also mature and strong in their faith. So based on that, I chose the option of confronting, head on. We all met at every Christian’s church outside of church, ie; Starbucks and just brought out all the gossip and rumblings. The situation was fragile and could have easily escalated out of my control, but it didn't! I believe that when you are dealing with two or more mature Christians, solid in their faith, you should be able to bring up any issue, discuss any matter and still be able to have a civil conversation or even a civil argument; and not all leave hating each other and wanting to leave the church and/or ministry. If ever you have one of these meetings and things do not go well, it is because you were ...
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JUNE 23 “TWO ARE BETTER THAN ONE”

 The Word of God declares, “two are better than one”. There are many reasons why two are better than one and here in our story, we have a perfect illustration of how that works. What happens is this woman’s son from Shunem dies. We are not sure what happened, let’s say it’s a tumor or brain aneurysm, he screams out, "my head is hurting" next thing you know the child is dead. We have a wife and husband in this story. The husband accepts, perhaps, to simply “accept the loss”, as I’m sure this hurt. The wife resolves something completely different. While the husband accepts the death, the wife will not. She has resolved to contend for this miracle (the boy) that God gave her. When she is saddling up to head out, the husband thinks she is going to see the man of God for some religious ceremony. Little does she know she is going to fight for the life of her son. This is why two are better than one in a home, in raising children and even when there are no children. It brings a grea...
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JUNE 22 “A GOOD RETURN ON YOUR INVESTMENT”

 I can't tell you how many times this principle has been applied in my life & circumstances. The good that I did for others, as God moved upon my heart, has ALWAYS come back to do me better good than I did in helping others. All this woman has done is use the wealth God has given her to build a room for Elisha to stay in and has taken the time to feed him when passing through town. And we do give credit where credit is do, she could have easily made excuses for not doing so, but she didn't. However, look what she gets in return! Never in her wildest dreams did she ever imagine, that by simply doing good to this obvious servant and man of God, that she would reap a son in return. And not only does she reap a son, but when her son dies years later, that same man, Elisha, restores her son to life. That same man, Elisha, years later, is the cause of this woman having her property restored to her. The dividends, the retribution that is recompensed this woman far exceeds what she...
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JUNE 21 “UNASHAMEDLY UNAPOLOGETIC”

 You probably would never quote a New Testament Christian saying, "I have nothing but hatred for them; I count them my enemies." and then shortly thereafter also asking God to.... “Search me, God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me..," This is almost comical to a new testament Christian, that someone would come out and speak about his hatred for another and then in the following sentence ask God, "to search him to see if there is any offensive way in him....HELLO! We would say..."are you stupid?" Hatred....this is what we try to conceal from God, is our hatred for others. Why would we openly admit it to God and then ask God to search us, as if we were as pure as the driven snow. Are Christians today confused about who they are and what they should feel? Are we trying "to be Christian" or is it more that we "simply are"....Christian. David never tried to be Godly. David never ...
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JUNE 20 “DECEPTION, DECEPTION, DECEPTION…”

I think we can safely say, there is a theme running, in today’s reading. Whether you are in the old or New Testament.  In the Old Testament we see Ahab, who purposely surrounds himself by advisors, prophets, who only tell him what he wants to hear. Then we have “the lying spirit that comes to entice him to go into war which will lead to his eventual death.  A good quote I read on that lying spirit, “God did not deceive a truth seeking King. God gave a “truth rejecting” King, over to the deception he preferred.”        Then in the New Testament, Paul is explaining to these people, that they did (crucified Jesus) exactly what the scriptures (that they read every week and some every day) foretold they would do.  How can we read The Word of God everyday and yet do the very things it warns we are capable of doing; if we don’t guard our hearts?  And the answer is simple…deception!      God will give us over not to what we piously espouse,...
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JUNE 19 “FULFILL YOUR MINISTRY “

   "And Barnabas and Saul returned from  Jerusalem , when they had fulfilled their ministry, and took with them John, whose surname was Mark." We talk and write a lot about the genuine vs. the disingenuous Christian, but where our metal is really tested is in "Ministry". So many Christians avoid ministry and I have heard every excuse there is, as to why "I'm not going to get involved in ministry". And there's always a grain of truth in some of the reasons I hear, but at the heart of it, is a reluctance to be put through the refiners fire. Nothing refines a Christian like ministry. You want to see what a man or woman of God is really made up of, put them in ministry  with other people . That will test any man, any woman's worth. How do we know Barnabas and Saul (Paul) are spiritual? Ans:  They fulfilled their ministry !!! Not enough can be said for that. It was hard, it was more work than they thought, it was full of people problems, demonically...
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JUNE 18 “LORD I’VE HAD ENOUGH “

        Elijah finally lets it slip that he is human after all. He has been on quite an impressive run of Faith. He closes the heavens from rain for 3 years, he is fed by the ravens, then goes to Zarephath and challenges the widow to feed him with her last morsel of food and proclaims to her that she will not run out; then he, by himself, stands on Mt. Carmel and boldly challenges the prophets of Baal to a dual, soaks the altar with water and believes God to consume it with Fire and consume his sacrifice, which God does. My faith probably would have failed when I arrived in Zarephath, only to find that the person God told me would provide for me is worse off than I. However, Elijah is not me.  Elijah is a serious man of faith, seems almost super human, but finally we see that his spiritual armor, like yours and mine, is penetrable after all.  When Elijah hears that Jezebel has put a hit on his life, this sends him into a downward spiritu...
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