First place

When Jesus Christ has first place in a persons life then He has everything in that person.

Pride as theft

Pride is sometimes the taking of credit for something God did, and in such cases it’s theft.

The goodness of God

The goodness of God is highlighted by the fact of His utterly holy, righteous, fierce anger and hatred for sin AND His desire to forgive and reconcile sinners to Himself through His Son – put the two together and you have the goodness of God.

Deceived by our pride

If we are ever deceived it’s that first our own pride has deceived us.

Talking

With the person who continually talks, even God can’t get a word in.

Cross, Good News, Love

Commented on FB: Just to throw one more thought into the ring, Paul mentions “the preaching of the Cross” implying that the message of the Cross is at the center of the Gospel message, now, yes, we could preach the Cross and not mention the words “love” or “Jesus loves you”, yet people would get the idea that Jesus died for them because He loved them:

“But God commends [or demonstrates] his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8).

Two kinds of fellowship

There’s two kinds of Christian “fellowship”, that which builds you up, and that which drags you down, that in which your love for Jesus grows stronger, or that which cools your love for Him.

Relational church?

What’s a “relational church”? It’s like when close friends come to your house to visit, you have “relational” fellowship: what you discuss, and how and when you discuss it, is according to the relationships which exist, and it’s the result of the relationships, and it ends up strengthening the relationships, rather than a “relating” which is disengaged from the reality of the relationships.

What we live is what we believe

There is a sense in which everyone lives what they believe – what we live, that’s what we actually believe.

Two births

In John chapter three Jesus speaks of two births. With the first one we have no say in the matter, no one asked us if we would like to be born or whom we would like as our parents, which color eyes or hair we would like, and so on, but with the second birth we get a choice whether we want to be born again, even if we have no idea, really, what that means, we just know we are dead and we want to live. You do have a choice whether you want a second birth or not.

Does God still love the world?

As humans we love those whom we approve of, so it’s hard for us to conceptualize a God who loves even those He doesn’t approve of, even those with whom He is righteously angry.

Another thing, we are called to love our enemies, those who hate us, who patently hate God, so, if we are commanded to love such people it could only be on the basis that God loves them, it could not be we are commanded to love people whom God does not love.

There’s also the implication of God’s love simply by the fact the Good News is preached to all. Just say the most hardened sinner imaginable is standing there listening to the Good News – it’s possible he could understand from the fact that God sent someone to warn him of hell and tell him of forgiveness, heaven and the glory of being with Jesus, that Jesus really does want him, and that is love, even without mentioning the word “love”.

Heavily influenced

See, if Christ dwells in our heart by faith, by the Spirit, AND our mouth speaks what is in our heart, THEN you would think that most of what we speak would be heavily influenced by Him?

Thanks

Thank the Lord for the people He brings into your life AND for the people He keeps out.

Authority

Today, we can/should speak God’s Word with the emphasis that IT is the authority, not us. But people do tend to get confused between the two when the truth is not the absolute authority in their lives.

In addition,  we can’t separate the Person of Jesus from what He has said (His truth/teaching) and we also can’t separate what He has said (past tense) from what He is saying today.

Outlook

Try not to make big decisions when you’re discouraged, for when the discouragement passes you may have a very different outlook on the matter.

A partaker of the glory

“…a partaker of the glory that will be revealed…”

 

(1 Peter 5:1b)

A great miracle

That a relational church can even exist at all is, in itself, a great miracle.

Nearly infinite series of coincidences

To believe in evolution is to believe in a nearly infinite series of random coincidences all in perfect sequence.

Almost intangible

It’s almost an intangible, but when it’s not the Holy Spirit you get nothing out of it.

Birds of a feather

Ultimately, the birds of a feather DO end up flocking together, on either side of the fence.