Tag: faith
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Live it Out
Paul said, “Be imitators of me, just as I also am of Christ.” 1 Corinthians 11:1 Quite a statement! It is just 11 words, but it speaks of Paul’s desire to see those around him become like Jesus. It speaks of a type of discipleship that was more modeling than teaching. It also speaks of a…
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Is Following Complicated?
Sometimes we make things difficult that are actually straight forward. Have you ever put together a tent? I have seen people spend what seemed like hours in a jumbled up mess. Then, suddenly, they looked at the directions in a different way and poof their tent was up in ten minutes. (no, I won’t admit…
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Faith in the Trenches
Are you ever amazed when God works when you pray? Why be amazed? If we believe God, don’t we expect Him to work? If we believe God, then shouldn’t His acting in our life be something that we look for just like the water that comes out of our faucets?
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Faith that is Self Evident
James, the brother of our Lord, has some hard words for those who do not live out their “faith”. He calls it dead. He asks if such faith can save anyone. He declares that such faith is useless. These are hard words. It gets even harder when he says that a person is justified by…
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Preparing for Christmas – A Struggle of Faith
But Mary treasured all these things, pondering them in her heart. Luke 2:19 Sometimes we forget how much of struggle Christmas was for the first people who experienced it. I think of the struggle of Mary and Joseph as they made their way to Bethlehem. I think of the struggles of everyone who was visited…
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The Unexpected Power of Thankfulness
There are things which are deceptively powerful. Those tiny air fresheners for cars are not for everyone. For most of my family, they are just too powerful for us to enjoy the scent. Yet, you can’t deny their affect! In the Christian life we have such a deceptively powerful ally to our walk of faith.…
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Tell Me Your Story
Making simple things difficult is alarmingly easy to do. Now, if we all loved hard things it wouldn’t be a big deal. However, too often hard things intimidate us. What is sad is when we make something difficult that isn’t really difficult. Talking to people about Jesus is one of those things. When it comes…
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Being Welcomed by Jesus
Last Sunday I visited a friend’s church. He was preaching through two of the post-resurrection passages where Jesus appeared to His disciples. His opening thoughts got me to thinking. He posed this question: as the disciples wrestled with the reality of the resurrected Jesus, did they wonder how He fit into their lives now that…
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How Can I Have Courage?
Fear does crazy things to us. It changes how we look at the world around us. It’s like we develop tunnel vision. We only see two things: the thing we fear and a means of escape. We lose sight of our strengths. We forget if we have a reason to not be afraid. It’s time…
Pastor John D Jakes 