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Posts Tagged ‘Simple’

Simplicity of Heart

November 17th, 2014 Comments off

 

Mexican FlowerDaily also continuing with one accord in the temple, breaking also at every house bread, they were partaking of food in gladness and simplicity of heart,

Acts 2:26 YLY

Of all the hindrances to the spiritual live, complexity of heart ranks among them.  Its used to be, when a church offered a fellowship card, the options were married, single, and, sometimes, divorced.  Today, answers can range from single-parent, blended family, or, as it comes, “it’s complicated”.

The simple heart, or, as the King James reads, singleness of heart.

Jesus said, the eye is the lamp of the body.  When the eye is single, the whole body is full of light (Luke 11:34). That word “single” means “without folds”, without layers, and, by extension, without complexity.

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The Spiritual Man #6 – Man and Judgement

March 9th, 2012 Comments off

Man was created to rule.  He was made a judge.

Yet, he was also made as a servant, to serve and to worship and adore.

Man has been created in a unique position in all of creation. Surely, the psalmist spoke well when he said, What is man that thou are mindful of Him? (Psalm 8:4).

This creation, this creature, was fashioned from clay, yet is destined to judge the world.

This figure, as the scripture says, is placed a little lower than Elohim, often translated as “angels” but also used of God Himself,  and yet, man, who will judge the angels, will be judged by God Himself.  Some to everlasting salvation, and some to everlasting contempt.

This man, who was created to do something, was given a place and purpose to fulfill and way to serve in the Earth, yet he was eternally designed for connection with another.

In the Old Testament, we see men and women judging on the Earth, not through kingship, but by God’s providing.  We see that God desired to govern His nation through a judge, and not a human king.  We see that when Israel needed something, He raised up what they cried out for, and delivered them.  Yet, He was always their head.

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Simplicity

September 3rd, 2011 Comments off

He who thinks he knows something does not yet know as he ought.

1 Corinthians 8:2 (paraphrase)

The most interesting thing about the gospel is that, you could have all the words right, you could say all the right things, have all the right demeanor and mannerism, you could know when to shout and how to dance, but you could be just as much of a devil as Judas was.  That’s right.  It’s what’s on the inside that counts.

You don’t have what it takes.  You never have, and you never will.  If you can do it, it isn’t God, and it needs to die.

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Evil vs Truth

September 1st, 2011 Comments off

This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but men loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that his deeds will be exposed. But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what he has done has been done through God.

John 3:19-21

This is the verdict.  Light has come.  Men didn’t want it.  They wanted something different.

The difference here is important.  Jesus contrasts the two walks.  One is those who do evil.  The other is those who do Truth.

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