A man and a woman can produce another physically alive human. But only the Holy Spirit can produce a spiritually alive human, who can hear God’s voice, do God’s will, be God’s instrument in the world, think like God, feel like God, actually having Jesus live His life through their body.

The living God of the Universe has many sons and daughters. But only One who is one with the Father, who has existed with the Father for all of eternity, who is the Word, Light, Life, and can perfectly and completely explain God because He is God and that be Jesus!

So clearly both from Jesus’s practice and from His commands to His disciples as seen above He always had a heart for the Gentiles and expected His church (and Israel) to be His instruments to bring salvation and wholeness to them.

".... God has always purposed – first through Israel – and now through the church and still through Israel – to make Himself known to all the peoples of the earth."

Ultimately to fully discern and to fully fulfill God’s will for our lives, we need to hear and heed every word He has ever spoken whether in Scripture or to us more directly/personally per Jesus’s declaration, “….MAN SHALL NOT LIVE ON BREAD ALONE, BUT ON EVERY WORD THAT PROCEEDS OUT OF THE MOUTH OF GOD.” Matthew 4:4

To be upright is to take the high road; to resist compromise, cutting corners, stretching the envelope.

Sadly when my weak faith in Jesus Christ and His resurrection was challenged in high school and in my 5 quarters at the University of TN,...

The natural reaction or response for all of us is to somehow justify ourselves. But in truth only the Lord can accurately assess the state of our hearts.

So you who are not born again by the Spirit of God and still in darkness can know just how dark your darkness is, how real your slavery to sin and Satan is, and that you will repent and cling to Christ while He still is giving you breath and time.

"...for new believers from non Christian backgrounds or even older believers from non Christian backgrounds - learning to give generously by the leading and empowerment of the Holy Spirit as a lifestyle is often a huge mountain to climb."

Believers have Jesus to learn from on how to overcome them and endure them and become stronger through them.

Every week we take off bite sized portions and try to explore with our children how and why and when Jesus prayed and what the results were etc. Could also be used for Bible studies for youth or adults.

We humans have a great tendency to make light of sin. .....Thank you Jesus for becoming sin that we might become righteous, and for lingering on this fallen earth long enough to show us how to be righteous in the midst of sin.

Truth is more important than ever, but often not readily available in the national discussion about abortion. So this morning I dug up some of the posts on Kingdomstreams that speak to this issue.

Pastors have a strong fleshly tendency to get off on tangents and to lose sight of what we have clearly/biblically been called to do, especially to focus on.

Speaking of work, did you know that we can actually make the doctrines of scripture more palatable to those around us who do not yet know God by the way we work? Did you know that the apostle Paul even instructed Titus as part of his church planting strategy to help the church members become God pleasing workers in their jobs?

Like every other important truth in Scripture, our evil and corrupt world system along with its god (Satan) has sought to corrupt or weaken God's revelation about His holy angels.

"When Jesus calls prophets and apostles to walk with Him and serve Him, He immediately sets out to make them holy as He is holy."

"Holy city" - 6 x's "Holy mountain" - 1x "Holy place" - 9 x's "Holy covenant" - 1x "Holy ground" - 1x "Holy commandment" - 1 x "Holy...

I offer the passages below for those who want to “be holy as He is holy”. This of course requires that we know Him as holy. Thankfully He is constantly working in His church to present us to Himself “holy and blameless”.