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  It has been a part of my personal testimony regarding how I first came to Jesus, which I have always delighted in sharing with anyone who was curious to hear, because it demonstrates the manner in how the Holy Spirit begins to lovingly deal with us after we have committed to yield our hearts/lives to the Lord. I was barely twenty years old living out in Arizona trying to make sense of a very confusing world at that time in my life, desperately in need of direction...but unsure where to find it. ‘Trusting my gut’ seemed like a risky dice roll when it came to mapping out my life and I was needing something a little more reassuring. Hence, my being ‘ripe and ready’ to consider drawing close to God and seeking His guidance. I remember thinking to myself at the time, having been ‘raised in church’ yet void of a serious relationship with God other than having a generic ‘belief’ in Him...that if I could not trust Jesus with my life...then who could I trust? So it was in the early spr...
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  The Israelites had no problem when it came to hearing God’s voice or knowing His will. It was the following through in ‘doing it’ that always tripped them up. You might want to go back and read that one more time, nice and slow, even aloud perhaps. If you don’t think that reference to the Israelites back in the OT of our Bibles has any relevance to us NT ‘believers’ today, you might want to go revisit 1 Cor. 10:1-12 and Hebrews 3-4. Paul takes a bit of time there reminding the church at Corinth how God dealt with their forefathers back when they came out of Egypt and were led into the wilderness. We are told that “God was not well pleased with them for their bodies were scattered in the wilderness.” (5) As you read on there, you’ll notice that Paul lists several specific examples as to why God was not pleased with them and the ensuing consequences these people experienced. Interestingly, those events are sandwiched in between vs. 6 and 11 which reminds us that these are ‘examp...
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  Followers of Jesus don’t center their walks around following a list of rules, commandments or ‘do and don’t do’ lists. Children of God are ‘led by His Spirit’ (Romans 8:14), which infers they not only ‘hear His voice’...but they ‘follow Him’ as well (John 10:27). Peter refers to them as ‘obedient children’ (1 Pet. 1:14-17) If you are uncertain as to whether you even know or recognize His voice...well, that might be part of the problem that would explain why your walk may have been a struggle for some time now. And I don’t say that with any hint of condescension or condemnation either. You are probably not alone given how many of us were taught to trust and rely on ‘doctrines’ and ‘clichés’ and ‘comforting sayings’ that don’t always line up with God’s word. It happens. (Mark 7:8-9,13). Did you catch my post on ‘spatial disorientation’ from the other day? Lots of folks are wired in such a way that they desperately need and ask for a ‘list’, a set of ‘rules’ that they can follow...
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  “Oh wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?” (Rom. 7:24) That’s the lament the apostle Paul expresses in that well-read, but often misunderstood passage we all like to point to in order to justify why we continue to live as ‘sinners saved by grace’. Yep...better read yesterday’s message first if you missed it. To hear the plethora of modern day ‘gospels’ explain it...Jesus came to earth some 2000 years ago to ‘make a payment...for all past, present and future sins’, then He hands everyone who ‘accepts Him as personal Savior’ a ‘get out of jail for free’ card so they can go to heaven after they die. Oh...it would help some if you join a local church and read your Bible on a regular basis; but this idea of being set free to ‘go and sin no more’? - Sorry...He was just kidding and got caught up in the moment and didn’t really mean that. And the amount of people today who have basically been presented with such a ‘gospel’ is staggering. No wonder Jesus w...
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  What if we have all been wrong when it comes to our understanding on this false premise that the apostle Paul continued... to live as a struggling ‘sinner’, or as in his words...as the ‘worst’ or ‘chief’ of sinners? Just hear me out on this as I circle back once again and address this grossly misleading notion that the one who wrote nearly two thirds of the New Testament...continued to struggle with overcoming sin. There are two specific passages that we’ve always been taught and reminded of when it comes to Paul’s writings and his ‘apparent admission’, and they are found in Romans 7:13-25 and 1 Timothy 1:15. And let’s be honest here - if this notorious converted Pharisee who was once imprisoning and overseeing the execution of new Christians back in the early days of the church’s inception...continued to live as a ‘sinner saved by grace’, who are we to think we could fare any better and actually ‘go and sin no more’? I mean, this talk about ‘those who abide in Jesus no longer si...
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  Being deceived, (or in deep confusion) and ‘in the dark’, not knowing in which direction you are headed...can be a horrific place of torment to find yourself in; trust me...I’ve been in such places on more than one occasion. Years ago, I read an article about something that pilots have been known to experience called ‘spatial disorientation’. This phenomenon occurs when they are flying ‘blind’, maybe in heavy fog or cloud cover, and their body misperceives its position and motion relative to the earth, conflicting with their instrument panel on the plane. The lack of visual references messes with their sensory inputs, like the inner ear, and gives false sensations often leading to fatal accidents. In other words, when they couldn’t see clearly, they ‘trusted their gut’ despite what the facts on their instrument panel were telling them...and they crashed into the side of a mountain or the ground, ending their life in a burst of flames. Many deceived people today...are heading fo...
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  “Oh...God wouldn’t let that happen to me, be deceived like that; He loves me and promised to never forsake me.” (Yes, but that doesn’t mean you can’t leave and forsake Him- John 6:66.) If you don’t think you can’t be deceived...well...you are deceived already. (Might want to catch up and read yesterday’s message first in case you missed it) We humans are pretty good when it comes to trying to convince ourselves of something, whether it is ‘true’ or not; go figure. There was good reason why God likens us to ‘sheep’, and it’s not because they are soft and cuddly. I actually began a lesson here on Saturday using Romans 8:13 as a ‘springboard’ to what it means to truly follow God’s Spirit, and what God is most interested in doing in us, especially in those early days after we have repented and began to follow Him. His primary focus is centered around ‘putting to death the deeds of this flesh nature’. I also realized how easy it is for us to gloss over various passages in our Bibl...
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