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DON’T CHECK YOUR BRAINS AT THE DOOR

Bible Reading: Romans 1: 16-17 I am not ashamed of this Good News about Christ. It is the power of God at work, saving everyone who believes. Romans 1:16 WALDO STROLLED DOWN the city sidewalk, lost in thought. He was going to church. He had decided he had run from God long enough. I can’t stand it anymore, he thought. The guilt, the conviction, the feeling that my life is missing something. After walking for blocks, he reached a church and walked inside. He stood for a mo­ment to let his eyes adjust to the dark. “Will you be coming in?” The voice startled Waldo. He turned and saw a man standing beside him. “Uh, yes,” Waldo answered. “I want to come in.” “Your brains please, sir,” the man said. “My brains?” “Yes, your brains. You have decided to become a Christian, haven’t you?” the man continued. Waldo nodded. “Well, then, you have to drop off your brains here at the door. You won’t be needing them anymore.” No, there isn’t really a guy named Waldo who was forced to fork over his brai...

WHEN LOVE IS A ONE-WAY STREET

Bible Reading: John 1:10-13 If we are unfaithful, he remains faithful, for he cannot deny himself. 2 Timothy 2:13 HOW DO YOU treat people who trash you? Let me guess. Maybe not quite as kindly as God treats us when we reject him? See, God loves us whether we receive that love or not. You probably know that “God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes …” (John 3:16, NIV). The key word there is  whoever.  When God gave his Son, he knew that some would believe and others would not. John wrote, “Even in his own land and among his own people, he was not accepted” (John 1: 11). God knew that a sizable chunk of humankind would stomp on his gift of salvation and hoof it away from him. Yet he keeps on loving us. If you ever doubt that God’s love persists even when we snub him, consider how Jesus displayed love. He knew Judas would betray him, but he loved Judas and called him to be a disciple anyway. When the crowd cried, “Crucify him!” Jesus respond...

WHAT KIND OF LOVE ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT?

  Bible Reading: 1 Corinthians 13: 1-13 There are three things that will endure-faith, hope, and love-and the greatest of these is love. 1 Corinthians 13:13 TURN ON THE radio or TV at any time. You can’t get way from love. It’s sung about on music stations, dramatized-often melodramatized-in soap operas, humorized in sitcoms, and mocked in trash-talk shows. Here’s what you hear: “Love can’t be wrong if it feels so right.” “If you can’t be with the one you love, love the one you’re with.” “I love what you do for me.” “If you really love me, show me.” If love means making the health, happiness, and growth of another person as important as your own, here are some examples of what that might look like: If it’s reasonable for your sister to babysit your little cousin while you go to a party, love requires that you do the same for her sometime. If you expect your teachers to treat you with respect, love requires that you treat them with respect and not bad-mouth them to other students. I...

LOVE MAKES THE WORLD GO ‘ROUND

 Bi ble Reading: Philippians 2:1-4 Don’t think only about your own affairs, but be interested in others, too, and what they are doing. Philippians 2:4 LOVE-THE WORD slides into conversations almost unnoticed. “You love her. Admit it.” “I saw a great movie. You’ll love it.” “Yeah, I’d love a burger slathered with onions.” “I love the acceleration and handling of this car!” “My kitten is so cute. I just love him.” The word love has a multitude of different meanings. So when we talk about love these days, it’s important to know exactly what kind of love people mean. For exam­ple, if a guy can’t spot the difference between loving his dog, loving his favorite baseball glove, and loving his girlfriend, he’s in deep trouble-with his girlfriend, not the dog. And a girl had better know that her love for her prom dress and for her par­ents are two totally different things. The apostle Paul dedicated a whole chapter to the topic of love. What he wrote in 1 Corinthians 13 describes what love d...

YOU HAVE FRIENDS IN WEIRD PLACES

  Bible Reading: John 15:9-16 Now you are my friends.  …  You didn’t choose me. I chose you.  John 15:15-16 THEY WALK the halls of high schools all over America. Dorks. Gearheads. Skinheads. Jocks. The names change from time to time and place to place, but the idea stays the same. There’s a right group and a wrong group, an in-crowd and an out­ crowd. And everyone says that your job in life is to hang with the right people. First, there are the dorks, dweebs, geeks, or nerds. Tacky, mismatched clothes.  Hiked-up pants. Pocket protectors, too. And they actually  like  math and science. Then there are the skinheads and hard noses-the racist types fascinated by fire­arms. They wear army fatigues and can’t wait for the next war. Another group is the grease monkeys or gearheads. When they say “baby” they’re more likely to be talking about cars than cute girls, as in, “This baby can do zero to sixty in eight seconds.” And there are always the jocks. They hav...

A FLOOD IS COMING

He sends forth [rains], and they overwhelm the land or transform it. – Job 12:15, AMP. Sometimes on the news, the weather person will announce that we’re under a Flash Flood Warning. That means conditions are ripe for possible flooding. Water could get out of its normal boundaries. It could overflow and increase in such a way that drainage and bayous are overwhelmed. Just like that weather person, I’m here to announce to you today that you’re under a Flash Flood Warning. Conditions are just right. You’ve honored God. You’ve been faithful. You’ve passed the test. Now God is saying, “There’s about to be a flood, but not with water. You’re going to see a flood of My goodness, a flood of opportunity, a flood of healing, a flood of good breaks to where you are overwhelmed with God’s favor. It’s beyond your expectations. It puts you into overflow.” Today, get ready! Get your expectancy up. Be on the lookout for His goodness because a flood of favor is coming your way! PRAYER: Father, thank Y...

THE NEW BIRTH

 As we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly Man.-1 Corinthians 15:49 Jesus spoke to Nicodemus and told him that this new birth is not flesh and blood; it is the life of God. It is a spiritual life, as real as God, as true as God. We are formed in God's very image. He has quickened us and made us to be like Him with an in[1]ward, spiritual life. Just as we have our humanity, so the new nature, the new power, is continually forming a new man in us after the order of Him. The first Adam was formed, and we are in the vision of him; the last Adam, the new creation, is going to have a vision and expression like Him. I was once exactly where Nicodemus was; I said, "How can these things be?" (John 3:9). Then there came by faith a regenerating power that made me know I was born of God. It came like the wind. I could not see it, but I felt it. It had a tremendous effect upon my human nature, and I found that I was a new creation. I f...

THE NITTY-GRITTY SAVIOR

  Bible Reading: Mark 6:1-6 A prophet is honored everywhere except in his own hometown and among his relatives and his own family. Mark 6:4 “LISTEN,” DANIEL SAID as he shook a wrench in my face, “you can’t tell me that some guy who lived two thousand years ago and walked around in a white robe telling stories is going to make a difference to me today.” He swept his arm around him to indicate the garage and the cars on blocks. “I don’t have time,” he continued. “I mean, this Jesus stuff is okay for some people like women and kids who like the stories and might even get something out of them. But for me? I don’t think so. Jesus has nothing to do with a guy who has a timing chain to set on one car and a cracked block to replace on another.” Daniel echoes the way lots of people feel about Jesus. They see him like a plastic statue on a car dashboard-smiling, robed, a halo suspended above his head. “Jesus is fine,” they say, “for people with their heads in the clouds. But he really doesn...

JOHN G. LAKE'S SERMON ON A TOPIC; "REALITY"

Date: Feb. 11, 1917 When I read this chapter there is a thrill that goes down through my soul, and I would to God that the real spiritual truths of it could forever be established in the minds of men. I once listened to an eminent divine preaching from the text, "What is man?" and when he got through I had a feeling that man was a kind of whipped cur with his tail between his legs, sneaking out to throw himself into the lake saying, "Here goes nothing." I said, "He has never caught the fire of the thing Jesus is endeavoring to teach through the apostle - that man was the crowning creation of God. That God endowed him with a nature and qualities that by the grace of God can express more of God than any other of God's creations. That God purposed by the Holy Spirit to make the salvation of Jesus Christ so real in the nature of man that 'He that sanctifieth (Jesus Christ) and they that are sanctified' through His grace are both of one nature, of one su...

CALL YOURSELF A RESCUE RANGER

 "I try to find common ground with everyone so that I might bring them to Christ." 1 Corinthians 9:22 “ISN’T IT a bit much,” Kalie argued, “that Jesus tells us to reach the world? I mean, there are five hundred kids just in my grade at school. How can I even make a dent in that much less do something good for the rest of the world? Where am I supposed to start?” (I expected you to ask such a great question) Think about your best friends. Are any of them non-Christians? Think about the people you spend the bulk of your time with each day at school, office or your trading ground, Are any of them non-Christians? Think about your neighbors. Are any of them non-Christians? If you nodded yes to any of those questions, you’re in the perfect spot to join God in his rescue mission. But there are some crucial things to remember as you re­spond to God’s invitation to share Christ with others: BE SENSITIVE TO GOD’S SPIRIT LEADING YOU THINK ABOUT IT:  God has already put people all around...

NOW THAT I UNDERSTAND THE NATURE OF WISDOM

Basically, according to the definition of Wisdom from the Oxford dictionary; wisdom is the quality of having experience, knowledge, and good judgement. It is the quality of being wise. Wisdom is the body of knowledge and experience that develops within a specified society or period. It is the state of being wise. According the the scriptures, the word WISDOM simple means; "the wisdom of God." It is the supernatural impartation of facts, guidance, and solutions.  The result is always beyond human intelligence because it is purely by a supernatural download from above. THERE ARE THREE TYPES OF WISDOM. a. Human Wisdom - Ecclesiastes 1:9, 3:19-20, 7:16-17. The Wisdom of this age is the wisdom we acquire through books, experience and observations. This type of Wisdom can be acquired by anybody whether they have the Holy Spirit or not. This is a kind of wisdom you acquire from the Universities or any learning environment, it is natural. Anyone can attend medical school and become a...