All posts tagged: religion

Guard the spirit of Marriage within you: Don’t cheat on your Spouse

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Marriage Counseling for the cheating Spouse You fill the place of worship with your whining and sniveling because you don’t get what you want from God. Do you know why? Simple. Because God was there as a witness when you spoke your marriage vows to your young bride, and now you’ve broken those vows, broken the faith-bond with your vowed companion, your covenant wife. God, not you, made marriage. His Spirit inhabits even the smallest details of marriage. And what does he want from marriage? Children of God, that’s what. So guard the spirit of marriage within you. Don’t cheat on your spouse. I hate divorce,” says the God of Israel. God-of-the-Angel-Armies says, “I hate the violent dismembering of the ‘one flesh’ of marriage.” So watch yourselves. Don’t let your guard down. Don’t cheat. Malachi 2:13-16 (The Message Translation)

Conflict Resolution: Three Thing To Avoid

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If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault, between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have gained your brother. Matthew 18:15 1. Do everything in your power to avoid using email, text messages, or Facebook and twitter to either confront or respond to any conflict related issues. Chances are you will be misunderstood. Chances are the problem may take longer to be resolved. Chances are the problem could be blown out of proportion. Meet face to face, resolve the issue, give your apology, affirm your love or appreciation for each other, and recommit to the relationship. If this first step doesn’t work, study Matthew 18, all the while, staying humble, prayerful and sensitive to the Holy Spirit. 2. Always remember #1 3. Never forget # 1 Conclusion: Sometimes a conflict can happen between people living far apart geographically. In this instance a simple apology may suffice. Recognize your fault, humble yourself, give no excuses, give no explanations, just say – I’M Sorry!

Break my heart for what breaks Yours

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Heal my heart and make it clean Open up my eyes to the things unseen Show me how to love like You have loved me Break my heart for what breaks Yours We are living in a day and time where everything we see or hear, potentially, has a deadening effect on us spiritually. The movies, the tv shows, the music and even our culture has this deadening effect on our sensitivity to what is holy and of God. Some of us have already become desensitized to these horrors and filth all around. To become desensitized is to become numb, stupefied or less likely to feel shocked or distressed at scenes of horror, sexual perversion, cruelty, violence and suffering by overexposure to such images. That is why a prayer like “break my heart Lord, for what breaks yours” is so powerful and timely. Would you join me today and for the rest of the week in praying this prayer – “break my heart Lord for what breaks yours?”. Would you join in sounding the alarm …

Battle Hymn of the Republic

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Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the lord, He is trampling out the vintage where the grapes of wrath are stored, He hath loosed his fateful lightning of His terrible swift sword, His truth is marching on Glory! Glory ! Hallelujah! Glory! Glory! Hallelujah Glory! Glory ! Hallelujah! His truth is marching on I have seen Him in the watch fires of a hundred circling camps, They have builded Him an altar in the evening dews and damps, I can read his righteous sentence in the dim and daring lamps, His day is marching on Glory! Glory ! Hallelujah! Glory! Glory! Hallelujah Glory! Glory ! Hallelujah! His truth is marching on I have read a fiery Gospel writ in burnished rows of steel, “As ye deal with My contemners so with you My grace shall deal,” Let the Hero born of woman crush the serpent with His heel, Since God is marching on Glory! Glory ! Hallelujah! Glory! Glory! Hallelujah Glory! Glory ! Hallelujah! His truth is marching on He has …

Come Now, let us reason together

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> There is a fountain filled with blood drawn from Emmanuel’s vein and sinners plunged beneath that flood lose all their guilty stain.Lose all their guilty stain The most important thing one can ever enjoy from a relationship with God is the blessing and hope of being forgiven of past, present and future sins. As long as we stay under the blood, covered and cleansed daily we can rest assured of His continued presence and blessing. We are purchased by the blood of Jesus Pay careful attention to yourselves and to all the flock, in which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to care for the church of God, which he purchased with his own blood. Acts 20:28 We are redeemed by the blood of Jesus “In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace.” Ephesians 1:7 We are cleansed, washed and sanctified “For if the blood of goats and bulls, and the sprinkling of defiled persons with the ashes of a heifer, …

What’s in your Hand?

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Take the little you have and make it his – He will supply your every need! For the widow with a huge debt on her head and the creditors harassing her daily,  it was just a few drops of oil that she had. But after believing God’s word through the man of God – she gathered a few bottles, closed the doors of her house, and began pouring the oil. The oil never stopped flowing until she ran out of bottles. For Moses it was a leadership possession and a mission impossible for a guy with stammering lips and a rod in his hand. But God used him to lead His people into the promised land, worked 10 miraculous signs and parted the red sea by the stick of a nomad. For Gideon, the least of his brothers, it was this sense of low self esteem and a disturbed vision or assessment of who He was. When he looked at himself all he saw was weakness, failure, incompetence. But when God saw him – He …

What good is the local Church?

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The Church is universal, the Church is local. The Church is the joyful assembly of the redeemed of all ages. The Church is the body of Christ extended through time and space. The holy church has two lives: one in time and the other in eternity. – Gregory the Great The Church is the bride of Christ, even though it sometimes acts like a wayward bride The local church is where believers are discipled, commissioned to be light of the world. The local church is where the broken is mended, the sick healed, and where friends become friends forever. The local church cares for the poor and fights for justice in our world. The local church is the body of Christ, the hands and feet of the master. The local church is where spiritual gifts are used for the common good, where believers learn to use their talents to serve others. The local church is where the gospel is preached, sinners are saved, prayers are offered, ministers ordained, the sacraments celebrated, and a cup of …

Spare the Rod Spoil the Child: What the Bible really says about Discipline

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Three days ago police in Fayetteville County, GA arrested the senior pastor of World Changers Internation Church on simple battery charges. Video In a Sunday morning speech to his congregation, Pastor Dollar said that the accusations about him choking punching and kicking his 15 year old daughter are completely false, and anything else is “exaggeration and sensationalization.” The pastor than went on to talk about the challenges of parenting. So today I would like for us to explore with Chip Ingrram what the bible says about this challenge. What the Bible Says About Discipline Parents can learn how to best discipline their children by taking note of how the Bible says God disciplines us. by Chip Ingram Next Article in Series: Previous Article Next Article Overview What the Bible Says About Discipline Five Characteristics of Biblical Discipline Discipline Is Worth the Effort Punishment Versus Discipline Discipline With Action and Words The Biblical Approach to Spanking Next Steps / Related Information The second case study I want us to look at doesn’t come from sociological research but from …

Oh how I hate small groups!

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A few years ago I preached a message at a thriving church where I served on staff. It was at the time small groups were gaining momentum. Every church around the world and especially here in the USA was all about getting people of the same interest, same profession connected in the same group. Unfortunately, I began to notice that all the cool people were joining groups with  other cool people – you know, like some did in high school. And the not so cool people we being left out. So I preached on a passage from Romans 12:16: Live in harmony with one another. Do not be haughty, but associate with the lowly. Never be wise in your own sight. After my message I was sent into the office of the big man on campus (senior pastor) where I was grilled for a few minutes. Don’t get me wrong, there is nothing wrong with wanting to hang with like-minded folks, but if we really want to live in authentic community, we need to understand what community really …

Kerfuffle among brothers

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Webster-Merriam People’s Favorite Words and how the Bible might have something to say about it. Part 3 Kerfuffle – disturbance, fuss! To create a scene and attract lots of attention. A social brouhaha. alteration of carfuffle, from Scots car- (probably from Scottish Gaelic cearr wrong, awkward) + fuffleto become disheveled First Known Use: 1946 I entreat Euodia and I entreat Syntyche to agree in the Lord. Philippians 4:2 Euodia and . . . Syntyche: probably deaconesses in the church here in Philippi. These two women were the source of some sort of quarrel in the church. Instead of taking sides or trying to “solve” their problem, Paul simply tells them to be of the same mind in the Lord. Whatever the dispute was about, Euodia and Syntyche had forgotten what their common ground was in Jesus Christ. They forgot that everything else was less important than that common ground. They had a falling out or disagreement over some point of doctrine or practice, and the animosity between them had become a problem in the whole church. Paul simply tells them – hey ladies, …