Tag Archive | God

Love Letters

Mar14

 

“I will read your letters over and over and over and over again.”

Justin Rizzo –  Worship With the Word –

http://www.ihop.org/prayerroom/archives/
(Wednesday February 5, 8:00 am, 19:01 -24:50)

International House of Prayer – Kansas City

These words were enough to make my inquiring mind want to know.

I had a need to know what God’s word says about “letters”.

I recall first, that the Bible is literally a letter to mankind.

It is a letter recalling the times of man from the beginning.

It is a letter journaling the days and times of God’s people, their enemies and the ways, during thick and thin, that God took care of their needs.

It is a letter describing how to live a better life by living wisely.

In total, it is a love letter of insight and provision to the children of a loving father.

Some of its “paragraphs” may be simple to understand while others are difficult and cryptic.

It is in the deciphering that we become engaged in the unfolding relationship with our “Abba” daddy.

It is in that relationship that we learn exactly WHO He is and exactly who WE are in Him.

2 Corinthians 3:2 (NIV1984)  You yourselves are our letter, written on our hearts, known and read by everybody.

If we spend time pouring over His letters, we become like His words, like Him.

2 Corinthians 3:6 (NIV1984) He has made us competent as ministers of a new covenant—not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.

Keeping time with His letters transforms us, and we become able to speak the life of His words to others.

2 Corinthians 10:10  (NIV1984)  For some say, “His letters are weighty and forceful, but in person he is unimpressive and his speaking amounts to nothing.”

We do not speak His words so that people can be impressed with us, but that they may be impressed with Him.

2 Thessalonians 3:14-15 (MSG)  If anyone refuses to obey our clear command written in this letter, don’t let him get by with it.  Point out such a person and refuse to subsidize his freeloading.  Maybe then he’ll think twice.  But don’t treat him as an enemy.  Sit him down and talk about the problem as someone who cares.

People who do not know Him or read His letters are not our enemies.

Romans 2:4 (ESV) Or do you presume on the riches of His kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that God’s kindness is meant to to lead you to repentance?

Our time with His letters gives us the kindness, forbearance and patience required to gently lead them to God.

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Don’t know Him yet?

You can have that Significant Encounter by clicking on the “Rescue” tab at the top of this page.

Not enjoying His letters and His company yet?

The internet is full of free letters (Bibles) for you to begin your relationship with your Father in Heaven.

Won’t you try one?

What do you have to lose but your loneliness?

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Kansas City, Missouri. Front of the Internatio...

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Suggestions On Getting the Most Out Of …………………………

Jan11
King James Version of the Bible

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I went to a new Bible study group today.

Really didn’t think I wanted to go.

But I was invited by someone who thought I should join in.

(Thank you, by the way)

 

It was replete with all of the introductory stuff.

You know.

Who are you?

Why did you come?

What do you hope to learn?

 

It was all good.

I don’t mind answering questions.

I certainly don’t mind hearing other people’s answers.

I never expected that God would get much expansion (http://wp.me/p1Deai-i9) through a list of

“Suggestions to get the most out of this study”.

Expanded I was.

 

Here’s the list;

  • Be prayerful   (Pray)
  • Be biblical   (Reference scriptures)
  • Be confidential   (Shhhh)
  • Be respectful   (Of others views and don’t interrupt)
  • Be discrete   (Don’t tell ALL the details, keep some to yourself. Don’t tell someone else’s story)
  • Be kind   (Don’t be rude)
  • Be mindful   (Be on time.  Be prepared)

There are seven items here.

Two I’m really good at.

Three I’m ok with.

One I work on daily.

One I’m terrible at.

I won’t say which is which,

I’ll keep that detail to myself.

 

Now I am well aware that this list is for this Bible study class,

but I believe that the principles carry over into just about any area of life we choose to apply it to.

 I’ve noted, as I’m quite sure that you have, the lack of these things in the daily world we live in, when I think about it at all.

 

Be prayerful?

Prayer to a lot of us in the general populace is an uncomfortable concept.

Many feel like they are speaking to the air, or just wishful thinking that someone is really out there to listen to them.

A strange, stuffy, legalistic notion that there is a strange, stuffy, legalistic God out there listening for us to speak to Him.

Psalm 6:9  The LORD has heard my cry for mercy; the LORD accepts my prayer.

James 5:13 [The Prayer of Faith ] Is any one of you in trouble? He should pray. Is anyone happy? Let him sing songs of praise.

 

Be biblical? 

Quote a stuffy old book of rules written by men?

Who cares what that old book says anyway?

Proverbs 4:4 he taught me and said, “Lay hold of my words with all your heart; keep my commands and you will live.

1 Thessalonians 4:18 Therefore encourage each other with these words.

 

Be confidential?

Why?  When everything we know, whether we want to or not, is broadcast on social media 24/7.

Some things should just be private.

 Jeremiah 37:17 Then King Zedekiah sent for him and had him brought to the palace, where he asked him privately, “Is there any word from the LORD?” “Yes,” Jeremiah replied, “you will be handed over to the king of Babylon.”

Luke 9:18 [Peter’s Confession of Christ] Once when Jesus was praying in private and his disciples were with him, he asked them, “Who do the crowds say I am?”

 

Be respectful?

We get everyone’s opinion it seems, whether we want to know it or not.

We talk and talk and let no one else get a word in edge wyes.    We don’t even take a breath.

1 Thessalonians 5:12 [Final Instructions ] Now we ask you, brothers, to respect those who work hard among you, who are over you in the Lord and who admonish you.

1 Peter 2:17 Show proper respect to everyone: Love the brotherhood of believers, fear God, honor the king.

 

Be discreet?

The dirtier, the better. 

Inquiring minds want to know.

    Details of private lives are broadcast during primetime.  Our Grandmothers would have fainted dead away if

they heard some of these scandalous things.       

    There seems to be no more “Behind closed doors”.

 Proverbs 12:13 An evil man is trapped by his sinful talk, but a righteous man escapes trouble.

Proverbs 20:19 A gossip betrays a confidence; so avoid a man who talks too much.

 

Be kind?

Have you been to shopping lately?

Have you seen how people treat their children?  Their spouses?  Their parents?

Ephesians 4:32   Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.

 

Be mindful?

Employees unprepared, come in late, leave early.

They grumble because they are passed over for a raise.

In our churches, we do the same thing.

Then we grumble because the outcome isn’t to our liking, our lives are no different for our efforts.

2 Timothy 2:15 Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved,

a workman who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly handles the word of truth.

 

My personal prayer is that I will begin to honor God more in not just some of these ways, but all of them.

I also pray that you will consider these principles with me.

We can’t do anything about the entire world,

but we can do something about ourselves and our immediate surroundings.

Expand with me!

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Buzz Words and Real People

Jan9
English: Look deeper in to your friends person...

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All around the internet I’ve heard people asking one question;

“What is your word for the year?”

I tried to ignore the tug of that question, but it simply would not go away.

My original answer was another “Buzz word”.

It was the word “Relationship”.

But God’s point was that He wanted to expand my heart.

I know what touches my heart, and I am certain it touches His as well.

Truth is, I can escape that expansion here on the net if I choose to.   

If I choose not to be around pain, I don’t have to be.

But that’s not real is it?  Real people really hurt.

You’re a real person, with real pain, with real problems, real questions.

So what is the word? 

What is the one word that I could spend a year on?

The word is “EXPANSION”.

The English Thesaurus that lives on my Word program says these words are synonyms of expansion;

growth, development, increase, extension, spreading out, opening out.

 

When I read God’s word, my understanding of Him is expanded.

When I study on the internet, my world is expanded.

When I spend time doing the things that God has gifted me to do, my talent is expanded.

When I go out of my way to talk to those I do not know, my understanding of human nature is expanded.

When I share my story, your heart is expanded.

When I hear your story, my heart is expanded.

Through our stories, we are knit together in a unique way,

which only God our creator knows how to do.

Through our stories,

we are expanded together in the knowledge of God’s purpose for our lives.

Every problem, with its provision, gives an expanded view of what God thinks of us.

So I’m asking you to join me.

Don’t be afraid any more.

Don’t just read.

Activate your expansion.

Leave a comment.

Share your story, in part or in full.

Let your Significant Encounter begin here.  http://wp.me/P1Deai-s

 

Did you know that there is a Significant Encounter Page on Facebook?

You can even message me there if you’d like to keep it more private.

Blessings on your expansion.

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Psalm 139 (NIV)

1 You have searched me, LORD, and you know me. 2 You know when I sit and when I rise; you perceive my thoughts from afar. 3 You discern my going out and my lying down; you are familiar with all my ways. 4 Before a word is on my tongue you, LORD, know it completely. 5 You hem me in behind and before, and you lay your hand upon me. 6 Such knowledge is too wonderful for me, too lofty for me to attain. 7 Where can I go from your Spirit? Where can I flee from your presence? 8 If I go up to the heavens, you are there; if I make my bed in the depths, you are there. 9 If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea, 10 even there your hand will guide me, your right hand will hold me fast. 11 If I say, “Surely the darkness will hide me and the light become night around me,” 12 even the darkness will not be dark to you; the night will shine like the day, for darkness is as light to you. 13 For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. 14 I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well. 15 My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place, when I was woven together in the depths of the earth. 16 Your eyes saw my unformed body; all the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be. 17 How precious to me are your thoughts,[a] God! How vast is the sum of them! 18 Were I to count them, they would outnumber the grains of sand— when I awake, I am still with you. 23 Search me, God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. 24 See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.

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