Our Group

“Teacher, we saw someone using your name to force demons out of a person. We told him to stop, because he does not belong to our group.” - Mark 9:38 -

John has a dilemma. He and the other disciples ran into someone who was doing great work. This man was casting out demons (the very act the disciples had trouble doing in Mark 9:20). He was changing lives. And, what’s more, the man was giving the credit to God. He was doing it in the name of Christ.

Everything about him was so right. Right results. Right heart. But there was one problem. He was from the wrong group.

So the disciples did what any able-bodied religious person would do with someone from the wrong group. “We told him to stop, because he does not belong to our group” (v. 38).

John wants to know if they did the right thing. John’s not cocky; he’s confused. So are many people today. What do you do about good things done in another group? What do you do when you like the fruit but not the orchard?

I’ve asked that question. I am deeply appreciative of my heritage. It was through a small, West Texas Church of Christ that I came to know the Nazarene, the cross, and the Word. The congregation wasn’t large, maybe two hundred on a good Sunday. Most of the families were like mine, blue-collar oil-field workers. But it was a loving church. When our family was sick, the members visited us. When we were absent, they called. And when this prodigal returned, they embraced me.

I deeply appreciate my heritage. But through the years, my faith has been supplemented by people of other groups.

A Brazilian Pentecostal taught me about prayer. A British Anglican by the name of C.S. Lewis put muscle in my faith. A Southern Baptist helped me understand grace. One Presbyterian, Steve Brown, taught me about God’s sovereignty while another, Frederick Buechner, taught me about God’s passion. A Catholic, Brennan Manning, convinced me that Jesus is relentlessly tender. I’m a better husband because I read James Dobson and a better preacher because I listened to Chuck Swindoll and Bill Hybels.

And only when I get home will I learn the name of a radio preacher whose message steered me back to Christ. I was a graduate student who’d lost his bearings. Needing some money over Christmas break, I took a job driving an oil-field delivery truck. The radio only picked up one station. A preacher was preaching. On a cold December day in 1978 I heard him describe the cross. I don’t know his name. I don’t know his heritage. He could have been a Quaker or an angel or both for all I know. But something about what he said caused me to pull the pickup onto the side of the road and rededicate my life to Christ.

-Max Lucado-
From In the Grip of Grace

Woman

Woman came out of a man's rib.

Not from his feet to be walked on.

Not from his head to be superior, but from the side to be equal.

Under the arm to be protected, and next to the heart to be loved.

Mighty to Save

Everyone needs compassion

A love that's never failing

Let mercy fall on me

Everyone needs forgiveness

A kindness of a Savior

The hope of nations

Savior He can move the mountains

My God is Mighty to save

He is Mighty to save

Forever, Author of salvation

He rose and conquered the grave

Jesus conquered the grave

So take me as You find me

All my fears and failures

Fill my life again

I give my life to follow

Everything I believe in

Now I surrender

Shine your light and let the whole world see

We're singing for the glory of the risen King...Jesus

-Hillsong Australia-

Mountain or Molehill?

Oh my goodness! I just read this blog from one of my most favorite bloggers. It totally spoke to me today. I HAD to share it with you guys.

Our problems can seem so mountainous, but perhaps it is just because of where we stand. When we are down, and incredibly low, everything appears to be towering over us. It is however, all a matter of perspective. If we go to God, strive to climb, to soar above it all on the wings of our God, we will have a completely different perspective. Looking down on all of the muck from on high puts it all in the proper perspective, the mountains become molehills. We need to get out of our lowly perspectives and know that God's the one with the true, over-and-above-it-all perspective, and from up there, these problems are minuscule, small, and incredibly earthly. Let us soar way up high on the wings of our Lord. ALL perspective will change.

Thank you Mary E. DeMuth for the amazing insight!

Unexpected Weight Loss

Scripture Reading: Matthew 18:21-35

Today’s Treasure: “Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you” (Colossians 3:13).

Unparalleled joy and victory come from allowing Christ to do “the hard thing” with us. Perhaps nothing is harder than forgiveness. Let’s face it. Each of us has been confronted by some pretty overwhelming challenges to forgive. Some seem…well, unforgivable. We argue with God that all inflicted hurts are not created equally. For instance, sometimes the person who hurt us isn’t sorry. Or won’t take responsibility. Or is in the grave. Or the person might be sorry but refuses to recompense. Perhaps the person simply doesn’t deserve our forgiveness. After all, forgiveness would make everything OK, and we want the record to show: we’re not OK! Then, if we let it, truth begins to eclipse our mound of excuses: we won’t be OK until we forgive. If only we could understand that God’s unrelenting insistence on our forgiveness is for our own sakes, not the sake of the one who hurt us. God is faithful. He will plead our case and take up our cause… but only when we make a deliberate decision to cease representing ourselves in the matter.

Innumerable strongholds are connected to an unwillingness to forgive. Left untreated, unforgiveness becomes spiritual cancer. Bitterness takes root, and since the root feeds the rest of the tree, every branch of our lives and every fruit on each limb ultimately become poisoned. Beloved sister or brother, the bottom line is…unforgiveness makes us sick. Always spiritually. Often emotionally. And, surprisingly often, physically.

Please keep in mind that forgiveness is not defined by a feeling, although it will ultimately change our feelings. The Greek word most often translated “forgiveness” in the New Testament Scripture is aphiemi, meaning “to send forth or away, let go from oneself. To let go from one’s power, possession. To let go from one’s further…attendance, occupancy.” Forgiveness is our determined and deliberate effort to let something go. To release it from our possession. To be willing and ready for it to no longer occupy us. God is not asking us to let “it” go haphazardly into the black hole of non-existence. Forgiveness means letting it go to God. Letting it go from our power to His. Forgiveness is the ongoing act by which we agree with God over the matter, practice the mercy He’s extended to us, and surrender the situation, the repercussions, and the hurtful person to Him.

Don’t expect Satan to let you off the hook of unforgiveness easily. Be prepared to recommit to forgiveness every single day until you’re free. Second Corinthians 2:11 warns us to forgive “in order that Satan might not outwit us. For we are not unaware of his schemes.” The King James Version says me must forgive “lest Satan should get an advantage of us.” The Word of God clearly teaches that Satan takes tremendous advantage of any unforgiveness in our lives. Unforgiveness qualifies as one of the most powerfully effective forms of bondage in any believer’s life. We cannot tolerate it. Yes, this stronghold demands serious demolition, but the liberty you will feel when you finally let it go is inexpressible! Forgiveness is the ultimate “weight loss”!

Lord, in the parable of the unmerciful servant, the only person in the end who was imprisoned and tortured was the one who would not forgive. Help me to see the monumental price of unforgiveness. It is so enslaving and torturous. According to Matthew 18:35, You may allow me to suffer the same kind of repercussions if I refuse to forgive from my heart someone who has sinned against me. Please help me release the offense to You and be freed from the weight I’ve been carrying. In the name of Jesus, who has forgiven my own sins, Amen.

Adapted from Praying God’s Word, by Beth Moore, pages 220-223. Nashville: Broadman & Holman, 2000, 2003.

Do What's Hard...

Great post from a blog I love to read. I thought I'd share it with you. Here it is.

JesUs

Before U were thought of or time had begun, God stuck U in the name of His Son.

And each time U pray, you'll see it's true, You can't spell out JesUs and not include U.

You're a pretty big part of His wonderful name, For U, He was born; that's why He came.

And His great love for U is the reason He died. It even takes U to spell crUcified.

Isn't it thrilling and splendidly grand He rose from the dead, with U in His plan?

The stones split away, the gold trUmpet blew, and this word resUrrection is spelled with a U.

When JesUs left earth at His upward ascension, He felt there was one thing He just had to mention:

"Go into the world and tell them it's true That I love them all - Just like I love U."

So many great people are spelled with a U, Don't they have a right to know JesUs too?

It all depends now on what U will do, He'd like them to know, But it all starts with U.