Tag: faith
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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…
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Count the Cost of the Life You are Living
We have been talking a lot about the freedom we have in Christ. Sometimes I think that we start believing that living in this freedom has no cost to us. So, we are surprised when God asks something of us. It is true that Jesus has paid our way to God. But, living in His…
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Valuing Freedom on Memorial Day
There are those who don’t understand what the big deal is. They think that the freedom we have in Christ is important, don’t get me wrong, but they act as if the freedom of living by the Spirit instead of living by the law is a great blessing of salvation and not an essential of…
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The Protection of Living by Grace
As we have been studying Galatians in worship at church, I have been really wrestling with the question of living by grace. As a Christian I am very familiar with being saved by grace. The question I often have, though, is, “Do I live by grace?” Paul says, “By grace you have been…
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Why Do I Believe?
This is a repost of some thoughts that I had last year around this time. I really do think that it does us good to be reminded why we first believed in Jesus, or if you don’t believe in Jesus as the Savior of the world why you don’t. We don’t believe or reject Jesus…
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Growing… Patiently
I have a struggle in my life that I think is common to many. I struggle with impatience. When my children were younger, I was always wanting them to learn things or do things faster. I had to fight the urge to just do it for them! I learned that being impatient didn’t help them…
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Won’t Get What I Want
Have you ever thought about what you want from God? I know that I have. I know that I have little right to tell God to do things for me, but I also know that God’s Word tells me that He loves me and wants to work in me. I want Him to work in…
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Faith, Love, and God
There’s as song from the 20th century that asks this question: “What’s love got to do with it?” When we think about the things we believe and put our faith in, we usually think about its truth. However, over and over in the Word of God we are told that our faith is placed in…
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Fear & Hope
Fear is all around us. We watch scary movies. We are afraid because of terrorists, diseases, and natural disasters. We are afraid for our children, our parents, ourselves. So when we read in the Scriptures to not be afraid, it can appear to be a pipe dream. What is this power that God seems to…