Tag Archives: pray

“I take thee…”

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It’s June, so chances are you have been to a wedding or are going to a wedding.  What is your favorite part of a wedding?   Mine is when the bride walks down the aisle, but not because I’m watching the bride.  I’m not.  I am watching the groom.

Most folks miss this, but I love to keep my eye on the groom and wait for that precious moment when he sees his bride for the first time.  Instantly his face beams with incredible joy and love.

And that is how Jesus’ face beams when He sees you coming toward Him.… Continue reading →

Leap of Faith

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The longest jump I ever cared to make was 6 feet into a lake, which is why Felix Baumgartner’s skydive from 24 miles up boggles my mind.  Just looking at the photos from his helium balloon makes my stomach cringe.  Where did Baumgartner get the courage to step out of the capsule and jump?  Was the jump a crazy leap of faith?  Or was it a step of reason?

Continue reading →

Got Your Six!

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“I’ve got your six,” my friend wrote at the end of his email. “My six what ?” I wondered.      A google search told me he meant, “I’ve got your back.”   I still wondered, “Six what? Six vertebrae?”

But I should have known, since my dad had taught me many years ago what the six meant. Continue reading →

Need Light?

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Recently I was happily pushing my shopping cart down the soda aisle when…. uh oh….the place went silent and dark.  DARK.  Totally prepared, I reached in my bag, pulled out my LED mini-flashlight, and turned it on.  I was pleasantly amazed at how much of the aisle was now lit up.  I could easily have led everyone to safety.  But the generators kicked in and we resumed shopping.

Sometimes life goes suddenly dark, doesn’t it?  An unexpected event changes everything and we can’t see a way out.  Unless, of course, we carry a source of light with us. Continue reading →

More

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In Acts 2:4, the disciples were filled with the Holy Spirit in a powerful way.  This chapter of Scripture goes on to explain how the church would be empowered with supernatural abilities, as well as depict how they were empowered to speak for God.  Sometimes we in the church can settle for believing that this happened solely when we put our faith in Jesus Christ, and that once we have it, we have it.  However, this was not the view of the early church.  Continue reading →

Prayer to Release God’s Promises

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Today I encourage you to read 1 Kings 17-18; it presents a very important lesson on prayer.  Elijah is told by God that there would neither be dew or rain over the next several years.  The Lord supernaturally takes care of Elijah, but at the end of this period, the Lord tells Elijah to present himself to King Ahab and that God would send rain on the land.  Elijah does just as the Lord tells him, yet prayer becomes a very important part of the equation in achieving God’s desired result.  Here is what happens. Continue reading →

Riptide!

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This is “Rip Current Awareness Week,” and once again the dangerous nature of a riptide is in the news.   A rip current, often called a riptide,  is a strong channel of water flowing seaward from near the shore.  Riptides can flow at a rate of up to eight feet per second, dragging a swimmer quickly away from shore.  Even an experienced swimmer can exhaust himself trying to fight their strength.

Would you know how to escape if you were suddenly caught in a riptide? Continue reading →

Far Beyond All That We Ask or Think

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I referred to a Scripture passage in last Sunday’s message from Acts 3-4 entitled “Exceeding Expectations.”  The passage is Ephesians 3:20-21: “Now to him who by the power that is working within us is able to do far beyond all that we ask or think, to him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever, Amen.”  Often when we come to God in prayer, we pray according to what we can imagine happening.  Sometimes we even have a hard time praying to that level if we feel like praying has not achieved the result WE WANTED.  I would like to exhort you this week to Continue reading →

Where Thieves Break In

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Last week my friends became the targets of thieves.  One friend heard a noise in her kitchen and found a thief straddling her window.  Another returned home in early afternoon to find her house totally ransacked.  The emotional jarring of these events is intense, and it underlines the uncertainty of life in this world…..like the  afternoon my teen son’s shiny red sports car vanished from the lot at the Garden State Plaza.

When Jesus taught, he was speaking to folks like us who knew a lot about thieves.  His parables contain thieves who come unexpectedly and owners who attempt to hide their treasures from them.  There was even a thief among Jesus’ closest friends (John 12:6.) Continue reading →

The Bible and Small Groups

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Guess what!!  Last month Daniel B. Wallace, Professor of New Testament Studies, Dallas Seminary, made an astonishing announcement.  Most likely your news source failed to inform you of this.  So I’ll tell you.

Wallace stunned his audience when he announced a first-century fragment of Mark’s Gospel may have been found!   Continue reading →