Tag: God
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Getting Back to Love
I challenged my church this week to think long about how God has loved them. The goal? That we might respond the way the Bible writers respond when they are thinking about the love of God. I thought that it might help to illustrate those examples to help our thinking… Think of King David… 5…
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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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What are you waiting for?
Have you decided to do something and after you did it asked, “Why did I wait so long?” It’s a common experience. It happens when we’ve delayed something out of convenience or fear. When we finally force ourselves to do that ‘thing’ we find that we shouldn’t have delayed it. Do we ever do that…
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Where Do I Go?
I fell the other day while skiing with my family. I just clobbered my shoulder. I might need rotator cuff surgery to repair what I injured. During the first week I had quite a bit of pain. How I responded to that pain reminded me of what I have seen other people do with their…
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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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Fear, Good or Bad?
Let’s think today about something we probably try to avoid thinking about: fear. We try to avoid thinking about it because of the other words we associate with it: scared, frightened, trembling, cowardly, etc. These words to be sure are emotional ones. They invoke feelings that we try to avoid. However, there is another important…
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The Myth of Security (Part 1)
Storms. Here in central Iowa we have had plenty of them lately. It doesn’t matter if it is wind, rain, hail, or flood waters, they all surprise us with their power. It doesn’t even really matter how often it happens, we are consistently taken aback by how powerful nature can be. It reminds me that…
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The Secret of Humility
I hate just listing a group of verses, but I think that this time it’s necessary. Why? I believe I need to list them because we struggle with actually believing what God has said. Sure, we nod our head and say, “Amen!” However, when it comes to doing this… I just don’t think we really understand…
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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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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…
Pastor John D Jakes 