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Articles about Christianity, Daily Bible Reading, Ministry Issues in America

Is what you believe the truth from the Word or a wives’ tale?

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Glasses.Genesis

But refuse profane and old wives’ fables,

and exercise thyself rather unto godliness. (1 Timothy 4:7 KJV)

Today’s reading in 1 Timothy really made me take a look at what is going on in the world of Christianity.

“Miracles have passed away.” and ” That doesn’t mean physical healing.”  are two of the more common wives’ fables passed down through the ages.

I used to be told as a child that  Thunder was when God was dumping a wheelbarrow full of potatoes after the harvest.  Or God was tapping his foot to the music or “God just said no!” and sent lightening to get our attention.    But now I think it’s the Apostle Paul banging his head against the wall.

Can you imagine being beat, shipwrecked, bit by a snake, imprisoned, etc. to only have people preach the exact “OPPOSITE” of what you spent your entire earthly ministry preaching as long, and as far as you could?

If you believe that God is dead, miracles don’t happen, and the Bible is just a book filled with good moral stories, then you’ve been listening to “wives’ fables.

Don’t worry, at one time Paul was the same way. He believed all the lies of his teachers and was actually arranging for Christians to be killed for their false teachings.   If you remember he was knocked off his high horse and brought to the ground for persecuting Jesus.  It was a few days before what was blinding him was removed by prayer.

If you want to remove your own blinders from knowing the true nature of God then these two prayers are excellent.

That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him: The eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that ye may know what is the hope of his calling, and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints, And what is the exceeding greatness of his power to us-ward who believe, according to the working of his mighty power, Which he wrought in Christ, when he raised him from the dead, and set him at his own right hand in the heavenly places, Far above all principality, and power, and might, and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come: And hath put all things under his feet, and gave him to be the head over all things to the church, Which is his body, the fulness of him that filleth all in all.

(Ephesians 1:17-23 KJV)

For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, Of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named, That he would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man; That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love, May be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height; And to know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God. Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us, Unto him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end. Amen.

(Ephesians 3:14-21 KJV)

Don’t live a life of misery expecting God to “get you” for all you do wrong.   Pray those prayers above over yourself and your loved ones.  Expect God to reveal His true nature to you when you read the Bible.   Don’t just skim over the words and read them so fast you have no idea what you just read.   Take time to think about what you read and ask God for help.

I stumbled onto Bible.is  free in the app store.  It helps make the Bible come alive when you listen to someone else read it and follow along.  Bible.is has quite a few dramatic versions which I prefer. I like hearing different voices act out the scriptures rather than reading in monotone.

Spend time in the Word, in prayer and get to know God so you can refuse profane myths and old wives’ tales you might hear being substituted for the Word of God.

Website for Bible.is (Clicking this link opens new window/tab)

Website for Bible.is (Clicking this link does not open a new window/tab)

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Image Courtesy of Janaka Dharmasena at freedigitalphotos.net

Christianity, Journal activities, Marriage 101

Are you a Liar or a Lover? #TheDailyLoveWalk

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But if we say we love God and don’t love each other, we are liars. We cannot see God. So how can we love God, if we don’t love the people we can see? The commandment that God has given us is: “Love God and love each other!” (1 John 4:20-21 CEV)

The scriptures can be pretty straight forward.  This scripture basically says if you say you Love God but you hate someone. You are a liar.  WOW I know that’s a tough thing to hear.  Sometimes we just need someone to wake us up and get our attention.

So what does that mean in your everyday going to work/school life?  Well, look at it this way.  If you love someone you won’t sleep with their spouse, steal their money, damage their property, steal their livestock, take their lunch money, shove them into a locker or give them a swirly.  Even though they might deserve the swirly if you Love like God Loves you won’t do it.  It also means you won’t gossip about people you love.  You won’t compare yourself to people you love and you won’t put someone you love down.   I know TV says just the opposite.  TV says be witty, sarcastic and slaughter people with your words so your friends will think you are cute.  When in all actuality you are showing the beast inside of you not the Love of God.

Couples  you won’t betray your spouse in word or deed.  Meaning you don’t go to your coworkers or church family and tell lies about them so you can play the victim.  If you Love them like God Loves them you will see them as He does and see what He sees in them. And a word to Divorced parents.  Your child did not ask to be born to you and your ex spouse.  It is not their fault that you are no longer together.  However you treat your ex spouse is what your child internalizes about that part of them.

They were created out of a union between two people and half of their being came from that person.   Again even though your ex  may deserve a swirly, if you Love them like God Loves them and you see them as God sees them for your sake and the sake of your child turn away from being ungodly and choose to be a Christ like person.  Jesus died for them just the same as he died for you.   I know…. “you don’t understand what they did to me…”  And I will tell you.  “No you don’t understand how much God Loves you and them.”

So let me make this clear… If you say you Love God but you hate your ex or your current spouse.  You are a liar.

I’m sorry, but if the bridge was out ahead on the road and if I didn’t get your attention you might die.  I have to try to wake you up and get your attention.   Just think of it as if I was screaming  THE BRIDGE IS OUT! THE BRIDGE IS OUT!  You may not like that I screamed at you, but at least you’re not dead because I failed to reach you.

In summary,  #TheDailyLoveWalk  step one.   Love like God Loves.   If you absolutely do not have any Love inside of you for someone that may have hurt you or is still hurting you emotionally, mentally, and spiritually then that’s okay.  Ask God for HIS love for them.  Ask God to take your Love or lack of Love for that person and trade it for His love.   Whether it’s a relationship from the past that went sour or that co-worker that you just can’t stand that always knows which buttons to push to set you off.   It’s actually kind of funny when you love them like God does.  When they try to set you off and can’t…. they kind of wonder off aimlessly like a lost puppy.

Oh my friend, if I could take you by the hand and lead you to a more peaceful life of Love I would.  Love like God Loves and if you don’t know how.. pray and ask Him for His Love.  It will absolutely amaze you when His Love comes through you to the world around you.

Keep a journal of your Daily Love Walk.  Make a note of your success in Loving like God loves and set some goals for dealing with challenging issues and people. How can you Love them like God would?  Ask yourself how does God Love? Pray the prayer in Ephesians 3 over yourself.

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Discovering the God-kind of Love.

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I’m asking God to give you a gift from the wealth of his glory. I pray that he would give you inner strength and power through his Spirit. Then Christ will live in you through faith. I also pray that love may be the ground into which you sink your roots and on which you have your foundation. This way, with all of God’s people you will be able to understand how wide, long, high, and deep his love is. You will know Christ’s love, which goes far beyond any knowledge. I am praying this so that you may be completely filled with God. Glory belongs to God, whose power is at work in us. By this power he can do infinitely more than we can ask or imagine. Glory belongs to God in the church and in Christ Jesus for all time and eternity! Amen.

(Ephesians 3:16-21 GW)

If you haven’t seen  War Room yet. I would encourage you to see it.  It is a movie that probably should be in every Church Library and seen at the beginning of every year by Church groups and congregations.   Why?  Because of the focus on prayer.  If you’re a prayer warrior.  You may think you know what the movie is about.  And it’s probably going to shock you when it turns out to be something much more valuable than you thought it would be.

It seems that there are a few targeted areas right now in ministry.  Prayer, Understanding the Love of God, and Healing Revivals.     We need to pray and we need to understand the Love of God so perfect Love can cast out the fear.

No fear exists where his love is. Rather, perfect love gets rid of fear, because fear involves punishment. The person who lives in fear doesn’t have perfect love. We love because God loved us first. Whoever says, “I love God,” but hates another believer is a liar. People who don’t love other believers, whom they have seen, can’t love God, whom they have not seen. Christ has given us this commandment: The person who loves God must also love other believers. (1 John 4:18-21 GW)

It is so much easier to receive the benefits of all Jesus paid for on the cross when we have no fear.

This is going to be an exciting Journey into discovering the God kind of Love and what does that look like in everyday life.

Christianity, physical fitness

Spirit soul and Body. We need all three.

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I just finished listening to the panel at Healing School at Charis Bible School in Colorado.  It was a wonderful and hilarious panel.  Laughter is good medicine and they definitely delivered.

One of the issues was a discussion on aging.  What do we accept and what do we reject?  In a day of constantly being bombarded by medical ads on TV, the internet, and radio.  You really have to fight to not let all that propaganda find a way into your thinking.   And they know it which is why certain times of the day are targeted to reach an older audience.

The Word of God is pretty specific on what we are supposed to think about in Philippians 4:8.   Moses at 120 climbed to the top of a mountain unassisted and his vision was fine.  And he was under the old covenant.  We have  a much better covenant and science today is finally starting to catch up with what the Bible has said all along.

I know this is a little odd to talk about exercising, but after praying for people in a healing line it pays to be strong and able to stand on your feet after preaching a message.  I have found a great thing out there to help us fight to stay strong in body.   It’s called Classical Stretch and Miranda Esmonde-White is amazing.   “Classical Stretch” is typically on PBS stations in your area.  It is a 23 min workout that really works.   She also believes that our bodies do not have to fall prey to the merciless ‘we have to age poorly’ propaganda.   People in their 80’s have seen remarkable improvements in their strength and flexibility.    It’s a great addition to your daily routine and works with the belief of aging well and strong.

Check it out for yourself and see… ClassicalStretch.com

Here are some more educational videos from Miranda Esmonde- White. Educational Videos  Watch the Introduction and look at the aging backwards mini workouts.  She’ll explain how to do the exercises and suggested repetitions.

Put your faith in action and increase your strength and flexibility with these great exercises.  It’s never too early or too late to start moving.  Do what you can and you’ll be amazed at the results of consistently working out with Classical Stretch.  Similar to being amazed at the results of consistently reading the Word and spending time with God.   It takes all of us spirit, soul, and body to reach the lost.

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Christianity in America, Ministry video clips

Great week of Ministry #SFBC2015 & #SWBC2015

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What an amazing week of ministry.   Down in Texas we have the Southwest Believers Convention and up in Colorado we have the Summer Family Bible Conference.

For speaker schedules and more information check out kcm.org for SWBC2015  and awmi.org under the Meetings tab for SFBC 2015.

The Southwest Believers Convention is in the Central time zone and the various speakers sessions are archived on the site right now.   In fact I’m listening to the archive of Creflo Dollar’s evening session for 6/30.

The Summer Family Bible Conference is in Mountain time zone which is an hour later than Central time zone.

There is no distance in the spirit so enjoy the great times of worship, teaching and preaching from various ministers across the nation and be blessed the remainder of the week.

Christianity in America, Music Video

Happy Father’s Day! To all the Dads out there. Love this song…

Sometimes it takes a real Father to be a Daddy.  Thanks to all the men out there not afraid to raise up Godly children.

Wow this song takes me back. My Dad had a belt and he only had to use it once or twice. That was enough for me. How about you? Much easier to follow the words of the Bible than the words of the world and less painful..lol.


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The Gospel Works

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Plain and Simple The Gospel Works…

Jamie Brown's avatarWorthily Magnify

1A worship leader can never go wrong having his congregation proclaim the gospel in song. In our weekly quest to find something that “works”, we quite simply don’t have to look any further than to Jesus, to what he accomplished for us, and to what he has secured for us. Regardless of your church’s setting, demographics, traditions, worship style, successes, failures, attendance numbers, and whatever buzzword is floating around at the moment, singing songs grounded in the gospel of Jesus Christ always – always – “works”.

The gospel works on the slow summer Sundays. It works on Easter. And it works when a snowstorm cuts your attendance by 80%.

The gospel works when your church votes to leave a denomination. It works when your church wins a lawsuit. And it works when your churchlosesa lawsuit.

The gospel works when you welcome a new pastor. It works when you lose a…

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Churchy stuff... you gotta laugh.

The infamous visitor card shuffle. Do you welcome or dance with the visitors?

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WomanCoffeeIn determining what God is doing in our area so we can join Him, we decided to see what is going on.   We’ve been visiting various churches and I’ve noticed there is a peculiar dance going on at the entrance.   I’ll call it the visitor card shuffle.  It’s as if certain greeters get a commission for the number of visitor cards they turn in filled out.

Remember when Montgomery Wards used to have those tables with the credit applications.  If you filled one out you received jewelry or some kind of gift.  Now those people were on commission for each application they turned in.  The visitor card shuffle reminds me of this.  People would move to the other side of the entrance to hopefully avoid those pushing the applications.

The same thing happens in our churches.  Why does a person who will probably never come back after doing the visitor card shuffle with insistent card pushers want to leave their name and address? So they can be reminded of the awkward event by another person who isn’t listening?

I do understand the business practice of retention calling.  It just seems odd for a church to do that.  It makes the person being called think that the church person cares about them.  Not that they are just a name on a list that is someone’s assignment. I would think we would want people to be lead by God to attend a church.   Believe me if they are not led by the Spirit to your church and to join your fellowship you really don’t want to mislead them into thinking that your church cares about them.  When they find out You’ll be damaging them and your church.

Now I realize that there are some genuine old fashioned churches who really do care about people and are serious about staying connected.  But, they do this completely different.   They get to know the people rather than do a mini interview at the door.  Sometimes I have felt like I should just have handed the greeter my resume’.   Churches today should not be looking for what the Visitor can do for them but what they can offer a visitor.

If you want visitors to come back, feed them some rich scriptures, be hospitable and nice.  Welcome them to the place that has changed your life and tell them why you go there.

Keep the dancing for worship and instead welcome new people with open arms and a grateful heart.

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Current United States Ministries

It’s all about the Grace.

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 I really enjoy Spring.  Warmer weather and trees start to bloom.

This week is quite a stormy week in our area and it’s always good to have some kind of plan for when something unexpected might happen.   We don’t wait until the siren goes off to get prepared.   When the electricity is out things change rapidly.   Gas pumps and ATM machines do not work.  The internet doesn’t work and it’s only a matter of time before the cell phone battery loses it charge.

We are kind of the same way.  If we don’t charge our spiritual batteries by reading the word we can lose our charge too.

Things do not work as well when our “electricity” is out.  We need to stay plugged in to God through his word, good faith filled teaching on the Word, and fellowshipping with other people who are plugged into the Word rather than the world.

One of my favorite teachers on grace is on the Believer’s Voice of Victory this week.  Many years ago when I just started to hear of the word “Grace” I was getting frustrated because nobody seemed to know what it meant.   It had to be more than something we say before we eat and the “‘oh well…his grace is sufficient.”  Kind of  cop out for not having any faith.

I love how God works.   A friend of mine and I were at the Rhema Campmeeting that year and the minister was Keith Butler.   I was not too familiar with Rhema or any of the students, teachers etc.   Come to find out that was quite a campmeeting.    Mark Hankins was also teaching sessions, and then there was a special guest that showed up during one of the evening meetings that Kenneth E. Hagin preached.   Let’s just say the “special guest” stole the meeting.  It was an amazing meeting.

Besides the “special guest” showing up one evening,  I laughed like I have never laughed in church listening to Mark Hankins teach.  Then there was the icing on the cake.   Keith Butler spoke on Grace.  This was my first time to hear an entire session devoted to grace and what it was.  No disrespect to any of the other teachers but God knew I wanted to learn about Grace so for me.  Those sessions about Grace and the “special guest” were like God reaching down from Heaven and saying.  “Hey, you’ll love this.”   This is the guy who can teach you about Grace.

I wish I could tell you more about the “special guest” but it was just something you literally had to be there and see or “not see” for yourself.

If you get a chance to watch Believers Voice of Victory please do so and download the new study guides so you won’t miss anything while Bishop Keith A Butler is on the show.    Check out the new study guides on the KCM website at Media downloads

Thanks so much to Believers Voice of Victory and Kenneth Copeland ministries.  They have had an amazing line up this year for guest teachers and getting the word out about the different ministries out there to help everyone live a better Christian life.

For more information about Bishop Keith A Butler and Video on Demand visit their website at Keith Butler Ministries (clicking on link will open new window)    And subscribe to their podcast “Live your Faith” on ITunes.

Plug into God’s grace and just watch how your life will change.  The difference is like turning a light switch on in a dark room.

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