Promises & Blessings
God’s Promise:
“They have no struggles; their bodies are healthy and strong.”
– Psalm 73:4
The month of April includes several National Health Observances including; Autism Awareness, IBS Awareness, Donate Life, Minority Health and Women’s Eye Health month, World Health Day and many more…
By Pastor Jeff Renner
As a pastor I am asked from time to time to officiate the ceremony of two people who wish to join their lives together in marriage. And while I’d love to say everyone I’ve married have stayed together and are living their own version of a happily ever after story, that’s just not true. I’d also like to say, well, if we only looked at couples in the church, surely then those couples would be happier and living life together. Again. Not so much.
Beloved,
I am writing this before dawn in Delmas, Haiti. The crowded streets of the Port-Au-Prince metro area are beginning to wake. Roosters are crowing, and my boy is snoring in a dream like bliss. A few moments ago I finished preparing my sermon notes for the translator. And while doing this I asked myself, how is it possible that I have traveled to Haiti, my family’s home, to tell a suffering people that their suffering can bring glory to Christ and hope into their hearts as well as others. How could I dare tell this to a people who have suffered so much? How could I deliver this message to a man, a brother in Christ, who lost his only son in the earthquake? How could I express this message to a people who are scratching out a living, who go day to day searching for work? Why can’t I join the growing chorus who shout out about prosperity, provision, and blessings?
By Ruth Cunning
Spring follows Winter. In between each seasonal change there is a time of TRANSFORMATION and PREPARATION. We are entering that time of transformation and preparation before we will enter the beauty of Spring.
A long time ago, the Lord spoke this word to me:
“The way you PREPARE today will determine your tomorrows.”
So how do we PREPARE for a beautiful Spring….filled with new growth and new life?
Every week millions of Americans get up on Sunday mornings to go to their favorite churches and hear their favorite preachers. People come from all over just to engage in the services, the music, hear testimonies and gather with family and friends. They feel comfortable around everybody and everybody around them. Every thing is great and most people are happy.
In America today most churches depict everybody being somewhat on the same page whether the same race, economic class, social circles or professional status. Church is the one place where people go to be comfortable, but is this always the right approach or did Jesus try to send another type of message? Dr. Martin Luther King once stated “Sunday was the most segregated day in America.” Why is it that the body of Christ can shop at the same stores, eat at the same restaurants, buy the same cars and work at the same job with people of different backgrounds, cultures, ideas and religions, but will not gather together across the board for Christ’s name sake?
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Last month I started a multi-month writing called “Baggage Check.” In that article I discussed learning to let go of the unwanted baggage that we have in our lives. I mentioned the first step is acknowledging we have a problem in that area of our lives. The fact is we cannot deal with what we refuse to acknowledge in our lives.
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Beloved,
The people of Joseph said:
Joshua 17:16 – “ …Yet all the Canaanites who dwell in the plain have chariots of iron, both those in Beth Shean (Bet’ She’ an) and its villages and those in the Valley of Jezreel.”
Joshua 17:17-18 – “Then Joshua said to the House of Joseph, to Ephraim and Mannasseh, You are a numerous people and have great power. You not have one allotment only, but the hill country shall be yours, for though it is a forest, you shall clear it and possess it to its farthest borders. For you shall drive out the Canaanites, though they have chariots of iron, and though they are strong.”
Ephesians 6:14 instructs us to “Put on the BELT of TRUTH.”
Roman soldiers, when they were off-duty, dressed very casually. It was their custom to wear long, loose-fitting tunics. However, when they would dress for battle, it was necessary for them to draw up the loose-ends of their long garment, tuck it under the belt, and tightly fasten it around their waist so they wouldn’t slip, trip, or fall when fighting their adversary.
Without the BELT of TRUTH to hold things together, the enemy (satan) could easily injure them, defeat them, or slay them. So it was extremely important that the 1st thing they would PUT ON was the BELT of TRUTH. They fully realized that if they failed to put it on, they’d have to pay the consequences!
Hebrews 5:1 “For every high priest taken from among men is ordained for men in things pertaining to God, that he may offer both gifts and sacrifices for sins: 2 Who can have compassion on the ignorant, and on them that are out of the way; for that he himself also is compassed with infirmity.”
In Hebrews 5:1-2, we see that one of the criteria of the Jews choosing an earthly high priest was that he had to be taken from among men. God wanted to emphasize that He chose him from among men so he would be able to identify (understand) with sinners. His ability to identify with sinners enables the high priest to have compassion on them. He also was compassed about with infirmities. We see the connection between identifying with someone (putting ourselves in their place) and having compassion on them.
Last month we looked at 4 reasons why we lose the compassion that comes from identifying with people. By way of review, we observed that…
