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• New Years Resolution: No Harm – Part 4

  In Faithful, SeriousFaith, Teaching / 26 August 2009 / 0 comments

  (Click here to search for all the posts in this series…) Joel 2:12 “Now, therefore,” says the Lord, “Turn to Me with all your heart…” (NKJV) Turning your whole heart toward God. A great New Year’s resolution; an even better daily resolution.We’ve looked at how turning to God with your whole heart involves a true and unfettered tearing up of your heart over the sin in your own life, and what sin does to all of our lives. It is not an external religious act, nor even a particular emotional response but a true response of the heart; an evaluation of what keeps us from God, a completely honest admission of everything in our life that is turned away from God instead of towards Him. [...]

   

• New Years Resolution: Don’t Tear Your Clothes – Part 3

  In Faithful, SeriousFaith, Teaching / 26 August 2009 / 0 comments

  (Click here to search for all the posts in this series…) Joel 2:12 “Now, therefore,” says the Lord, “Turn to Me with all your heart…” (NKJV) Turning your whole heart toward God. A great New Year’s resolution; an even better daily resolution.That’s sounds good doesn’t it? A pretty good rah-rah devotional to start the year out. The only problem is, that rah-rah pep talks and emotional-willpower driven resolutions almost always end up as this year’s first failure and guilt trip. Or, if you’re like me, you’ve started and failed so many times, that the most you can conjure up anymore is a heavy sigh, an “oh well” and return to business as usual. Better luck next year.So let’s forget the pep rallies and cliches and [...]

   

• New Years Resolution: Turning Daily – Part 2

  In Faithful, SeriousFaith, Teaching / 26 August 2009 / 0 comments

  (Click here to search for all the posts in this series…) Joel 2:12 “Now, therefore,” says the Lord, “Turn to Me with all your heart…” (NKJV) Yo-yo dieting. Broken resolve. Backsliding. Besetting sin. Falling away. Here we go again. Every person who gives even fleeting thought to what is important in life experiences the roller coaster of getting off track, and turning back towards what they know is better or right. Each person has a predisposition towards certain sins, specific tendencies and particular weaknesses that bring us to the point of needing to “turn” to some degree over and over throughout our life.For the Christian, this “turning” is obviously a need to turn away from what we’ve messed up or strayed into, and turn towards [...]

   

• New Years Resolution: Turn to God – Part 1

  In Faithful, SeriousFaith, Teaching / 26 August 2009 / 0 comments

  (Click here to search for all the posts in this series…) Joel 2:12 “Now, therefore,” says the Lord, “Turn to Me with all your heart…” (NKJV) Every New Year brings endless resolutions, and a couple weeks later – endless broken resolutions. I think a big reason why is because the resolutions are often about temporal things, and not about what matters eternally. Or, if they are about God, the resolutions are made in haste, without understanding, or without counting the cost. Within a month, or even a week – sometimes by sunrise the next day – it’s back to business as usual.I’ve been thinking all day about what kind of New Year’s resolution would be meaningful and worthy of being kept. What would be a [...]

   

• Handling Life – Elijah – Part 2

  In Faithful, SeriousFaith, Teaching / 26 August 2009 / 0 comments

  (Click here to search for all the posts in this series…) 2 Peter 1:3 …as His divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who called us by glory and virtue… (NKJV) Life is hard sometimes. No doubt as Christians we are faced with the reality of discouragement, depression, despair and worry. What, or who, we choose in response defines us as being different from the world. The world quickly turns to many means of remedy. Christians have a much greater solution available.Elijah was a heroic prophet in the Old Testament. Who can forget his dramatic encounter with the evil prophets of Baal. He prayed that God would send fire from heaven to consume [...]

   

• Set Before You Today – Part 1

  In Contented, Faithful, Happy, SeriousFaith, Teaching / 26 August 2009 / 0 comments

  (Click here to search for all the posts in this series…) Deuteronomy 30:15 See, I have set before you today life and good, death and evil; (NKJV)The great leader, Moses, was nearing the end of his life. God was giving Moses final words and instructions to pass on to the Israelites. The choices they faced are still very much applicable to us today, particularly as individuals. We have a choice between righteousness or sin; obedience or disobedience. Chapter 28 of Deuteronomy specifies blessings and consequences for the nation of Israel that hinged on their actions as a nation.The consequences listed speak of cursing, hardship, confusion, futility, hopelessness, sickness and defeat. Whether nations or individuals, disobedience to God inevitably results in negative consequences. It is interesting [...]