Matthew 22:37-(nasb) And He said to him, "You shall love the Lord your God with all you heart, and with all your soul and with all your mind.

Have you ever just thought deeply about this verse.  What it truly implies to those of us who proclaim Christ as Lord.  I challenge you to meditate on it, each part of it, and then if you feel compelled to share, please do.  I do think for some there is a lack of understanding due to the fact they have never truly given any thought past the point of saying words of acceptance of Christ as Lord.  Makes me think they never really made Him Lord......So think, ponder, meditate, pray and let God, the creator of the universe reveal himself to you......

My thought for the day...

I know it has been awhile since I have added a topic, life gets busy at times.  I do however want to ask this question, I am curious of the response I wll get.

PROVIDENTIAL WILL OF GOD  MORAL WILL OF GOD      PERSONAL WILL OF GOD

Do you believe that God has these three wills?

Matthew 11:13- For all the prophets and the Law prophesied until John.

Any thoughts? Did prophecy in the manner of OT prophets end with N/T prophet John the Baptist?(other than Christ himself and His disciples)   In other words does it continue in this manner still today? 

Paul says there "Prophets" and this is classified as a gift, what does he mean. (1 Cor, 12:28-29)

How would you defien the word PROPHET?

Acts 17:30- Therefore having overlooked the times of ignorance, God is now declaring to men that all people everywhere should repent.

I have been studying Paul's sermon on Mars Hill.  I have read through many times taking it apart an looking at each verse one at a time, as I was reading this morning this verse really jumped off the page and made me think.  So here are my questions;

1) What does Paul mean " God overlooked"

2) What is Paul referring to as the " times of ignorance".

I would encourage you to read the entire section of Mars Hill.....It will open your eyes in how to reach people with the Gospel message...Paul uses many, shall I say "techniques" in getting the message across.

Had a discussion with a couple of people the other night and wanted to get your thoughts on the topic of discussion.

Question (1)

Why did God put the "two trees" in the garden?  (Genesis 2:9)

Question (2)

Is there a difference between right and wrong and good and evil?

Please state which question you are addressing in order for those blogging to know which question you are addressing.

Thanks

In review of the areas I have underlined, would you say that there was true conversion and then they turned away or was the conversion just an outward show?


Please take into account your own conversion, would you turn away from what you have experienced being in the presence of the Holy Spirit.....


Hebrews 6:4-8 ⁴For in the case of those who have once been enlightened and have tasted of  the heavenly gift and have been made partakers of the Holy Spirit,  ⁵and have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the age to come,  ⁶and then have fallen away, it is impossible to renew them again to repentance, since they again crucify to themselves the Son of God and put Him to open shame.  ⁷For ground that drinks the rain which often falls on it and brings forth vegetation useful to those for whose sake it is also tilled, receives a blessing from God;  ⁸but if it yields thorns and thistles, it is worthless and close to being cursed, and it ends up being burned.

^{Eph. 4:13}until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.


Paul tells us we need to reach this unity in the faith........  Any thoughts to what he means?

Ephesians 4:26  "In your anger do not sin": Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry.

Any thoughts of how this can be accomplished?

Ok.....Lets see what we get here.

How would you prove why you believe what you believe?  
This is posed when you are face to face with someone who is not a believer and you are asked this question.

My daughter asked me an interesting question and I answered it, but I thought I would present it to you to respond

She said it like this  "Dad the word tells us to love our enemies and the devil is our enemy, are we to love him?"


Well?

I sure everyone has heard the saying, "Turn the other cheek." Though I know the answer, I would like to know where this saying comes from and what does it mean? How far should we take it? What happens when someone's life is on the line; a family member, spouse, child?

I have a new series I am starting Sunday called, you guessed it  "Strange Breed".  So myself and my camera man went to the streets asking a few questions to those who would answer,  Plus we were told to leave the mall parking lot.     Here are those questions for you to discuss if you would like.

1) Should a person who claims to be a "Christian" look different than those who do not?  (not in the physical sense) Why or Why not?

2) When you hear the name "Jesus" what comes to mind?

3) Should Christians be doing more than those who are not?


You would be surprised at the answers....well maybe not......the video will be viewable soon or you can come and visit Sunday and see it first hand. 

Heb 10:24-25

²⁴ Let us think of ways to motivate one another to acts of love and good works. ²⁵ And let us not neglect our meeting together, as some people do, but encourage one another, especially now that the day of his return is drawing near.

A couple of questions here:

1. How do we motivate each other to acts of love and good works?
2. Is it the church leaders' sole responsibility to motivate people?
3. Some people say that they have a good relationship with God and don't need to go to church like weaker Christians; what do you say to this?
4. Do you think the reason most people refuse to go to church is because they are not motivated like in verse 24?

I read an interesting article written by the Pastor of a church in the South. He wrote about, yes..Revival...Several interesting points made in this article, but one thing jumped out at me and I wanted to see what you thought.

If the church wants true revival, how does that begin?

Read this and then respond to the questions.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090523/ap_on_re_as/as_china_suicide_help

We face these types of people many times on our way through life; literally or figuratively (in a spiritual sense).
However, the main question is, who do we represent most of the time; the pusher or the airbag?
What do you do when you meet someone at the end of their spiritual rope?
Should we approach every person in this state the same way or is each case unique?
Pardon the pun, but what would Jesus do?

Proverbs 13:16 - Wise people think before they act; fools don’t—and even brag about their foolishness.

Anyone care to expound?

Is God's love unconditional?

These scripture has been often broken down and used separately. Paul was discussing with Timothy the position of eldership in the church. Often eldership is established based on necessity rather than scripture. How does this affect the body? Does faithfulness alone make a person worthy of leadership or eldership? What does the body do when qualifications are not met, yet there is a need for leadership to be established?

1 Timothy 3:1-5 ¹This is a trustworthy saying: “If someone aspires to be an elder,^* he desires an honorable position.” ² So an elder must be a man whose life is above reproach. He must be faithful to his wife.^* He must exercise self-control, live wisely, and have a good reputation. He must enjoy having guests in his home, and he must be able to teach. ³ He must not be a heavy drinker^* or be violent. He must be gentle, not quarrelsome, and not love money. ⁴ He must manage his own family well, having children who respect and obey him. ⁵ For if a man cannot manage his own household, how can he take care of God’s church? (NLT)

Elders:

• Above reproach
• Faithful to wife
• Self-control
• Wise living
• Good reputation
• Generous host
• Teacher
• Not a drunk
• Not violent
• Gentle
• Non-argumentative
• Not greedy
• Family manager
• Respected and Obeyed by children

Feel free to expound on each of these qualifications and shed some light on them.

Proverbs 25:28 - A person without self-control is like a city with broken-down walls. (NLT)

What is your take on this scripture?

Jeff here. Just a brief warning about something that is taking place.

There are several spammers trying to post on our blog. Jon is the main one.
His posts usually contain a copy of something that someone else has already commented.
The only difference is that one of the words is turned into a link.
We are doing our best to blacklist this guy. For an example, see below.

Example of something Jon would do:
There are several spammers trying to post on our blog. Jon is the main one.
His posts usually contain a copy of something that someone else has done.
The only difference is that one of the words is turned into a link.
We are doing our best to blacklist this guy. For an example, see below.

Notice that the word below is now a link. If you see this or any of Jon's posts, ignore it and do not click on the link.
We are usually catching his stuff in about a couple of minutes and removing it from the blog.

Just FYI.