iChristian

1. You can try to squash us, but you will never succeed, because even the gates of Hell will not prevail against us.
2. You can hurt us, embarrass us, and bring out the worst in us, but you can never take our lives, because they are hid with Christ in God.
3. You can try to discredit us with academics or human reasoning, but we’ll believe the God who created the brain.
4. You can accuse us of hypocrisy or the most grievous of sins, but you cannot shame us into hell, because we were never trusting in our own righteousness to keep us out of it.
5. You can hang around us, and sing with us, be loved by us, and pray with us, but only accepting Jesus as the sacrifice for your sins and the Lord of your life, makes you one of us.
6. You can despise us and reject us, but…

“I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. The hired hand, who is not the shepherd and does not own the sheep, sees the wolf coming and leaves the sheep and runs away–and the wolf snatches them and scatters them. The hired hand runs away because a hired hand does not care for the sheep. I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me. (John 10:11-14 NRSV)

“I am the good shepherd.”

It’s an interesting concept and one which is ripe for misunderstanding when viewed through modern Western eyes.

In many places today sheep are herded by being driven from behind, often with the help of sheep dogs and farm vehicles. It’s a benign practice but it conjures up completely the wrong image of Jesus as the good shepherd.

Instead, picture the shepherd as the one who spends…

A musical history lesson from the fabulous Pentatonix

Yesterday, a small group of women from my church started the bible study, “Unglued” by Lysa TerKeurst.  For those of you who either know me really well or even just through this blog, you are aware of my ability to sometimes spew my emotions onto my family.  My hopes are that through this study, I will learn to stop letting my feelings get the best of me in life’s tricky situations and use God’s word to combat my raw emotions before I allow them to sabotage my most valuable relationships.

Before we’d even left the church yesterday, I knew there was something from the guide that I would be sharing with you all today!  Lysa gave us a list of “animals,” asking which described us best when faced with an unglued kind of situation:

Wounded bear:  I am hurt & unpredictable, so watch out!

Agitated skunk:  I may or may not create…

Really hoping some more of you can help me. I recently lost my aunt to cancer and i’m running this years 13.1 miles of the Great Birmingham Run for Cancer Research UK

Please please please sponsor me http://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/AndrewVokes

Even if its just £1, if everyone on my friends list sponsored me £1 i’d smash my target!

If you haven’t got £1, at the very least put the word out for me!

Paul continues to tell the people about the kinds of behavior they need to rid themselves of and closes off the passage with ways they should behave instead.

Ephesians 4:28-32

²⁸ Anyone who has been stealing must steal no longer, but must work,doing something useful with their own hands, that they may have something to share with those in need.

²⁹ Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen. ³⁰ And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. ³¹ Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice. ³² Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.

As Paul closes out this fourth chapter of Ephesians…

Some time ago when my parents returned from their business trip, they bought me some perfumes from various brands. I really love perfume. Every day I always use it and I think every woman likes and use perfume too so that always smelled fragrant wherever she is. When I tried one perfume, don’t know why suddenly I remembered a bible story about a woman who poured a most expensive perfume to Jesus’ head.

Mark 14:3: “While He was in Bethany, reclining at the table in the home of Simon the Leper, a woman came with an alabaster jar of very expensive perfume, made of pure nard. She broke the jar and poured the perfume on His head.”

This is a beautiful act of love towards Jesus. This woman took her best; she gave a most expensive perfume to Jesus as an expression her love to Jesus. What prompted…

Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

(1 Corinthians 13:4-7 NRSV)

“Love” is one of those words which can have a range of meanings in English. We make the one word serve a multiplicity of circumstances. For example, “I love my wife and I love my children” use the term in a different sense from “I love football” or “I just loved that holiday in Malta. There are many more instances we could use, and we understand the meaning of the word “love” by the way it is used.

But what do we mean when we apply the word to Jesus? The Bible…

I’m resting,
I’m waiting on the Lord
some people say . . .
I look a little bored.

But, I’m trusting,
see how I am still
it’s because I know
it’s all about His will.

Yep, that me,
looking sweet as a lamb
Only because I know . . .
He sees me as I am.

Waiting, anticipating,
nothing to worry about
I have faith in my Lord
what is there to doubt?

God’s timing is perfect,
so I am just hanging
He’s teaching me to be still
and I’m not even panting!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Psalm 46:10

“Be still, and know that I am God:”

King James Version
Public Domain

Copyright 2013
Deborah Ann Belka

Where the land meets the sea
Is a beautiful place to be
Where the water covers the land
And the stones get turned to sand

Where your life meets the King
Is the most amazing thing
Where his Power opens your mind
And your thoughts become refined