dW 09.06.07

scripture

 

Matthew 9:10-13 Amplified Version

And as Jesus reclined at table in the house, behold, many tax collectors and [especially wicked] sinners came and sat (reclined) with Him and His disciples. And when the Pharisees saw this, they said to His disciples, Why does your Master eat with tax collectors and those [preeminently] sinful? But when Jesus heard it, He replied, Those who are strong and well (healthy) have no need of a physician, but those who are weak and sick.

 

something i was taught in class

 

In Jewish teachings if you walked in the shadow of an unclean person, then it made you unclean for a day and if you touched an unclean person then you were unclean for a week. This was their theology.

 

Paradigm-shift: When Jesus touched the unclean, he not only remained clean, he also made them clean!

 

scripture

 

Luke 7:36-50 New International Version

Now one of the Pharisees [Simon] invited Jesus to have dinner with him, so he went to the Pharisee's house and reclined at the table. When a woman who had lived a sinful life in that town learned that Jesus was eating at the Pharisee's house, she brought an alabaster jar of perfume, and as she stood behind him at his feet weeping, she began to wet his feet with her tears. Then she wiped them with her hair, kissed them and poured perfume on them. When the Pharisee who had invited him saw this, he said to himself, "If this man were a prophet, he would know who is touching him and what kind of woman she is—that she is a sinner."

 

Jesus answered him, "Simon, I have something to tell you." "Tell me, teacher," he said. "Two men owed money to a certain moneylender. One owed him five hundred denarii, and the other fifty. Neither of them had the money to pay him back, so he canceled the debts of both. Now which of them will love him more?" Simon replied, "I suppose the one who had the bigger debt canceled." "You have judged correctly," Jesus said.

 

Then he turned toward the woman and said to Simon, "Do you see this woman? I came into your house. You did not give me any water for my feet, but she wet my feet with her tears and wiped them with her hair. You did not give me a kiss, but this woman, from the time I entered, has not stopped kissing my feet. You did not put oil on my head, but she has poured perfume on my feet. Therefore, I tell you, her many sins have been forgiven—for she loved much. But he who has been forgiven little loves little."

 

Then Jesus said to her, "Your sins are forgiven." The other guests began to say among themselves, "Who is this who even forgives sins?" Jesus said to the woman, "Your faith has saved you; go in peace."

dW 09.05.07

scripture

 

Romans 1:25
They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator—who is forever praised. Amen.

 

quote

 

The probability of life originating by accident is comparable to the probability of the complete dictionary resulting from an explosion in a printing factory.

Edwin Conklin

 

testimony

Click HERE to be directed to the dW site.

 

 

dW 08.31.07

daily Word

 

1 Peter 2:12
Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us.

 

quote

 

Jesus Christ asked us to replace hatred with love.  This is not easy, this commandment seems unattainable, but there is no other way.

Irina Ratushinskaya

 

short bio

 

Irina's was charged with anti-Soviet agitation for "the dissemination of slanderous documentation in poetic form," convicted and sentenced to seven years in a labor camp. However, she spent only four years as a political prisoner.

 

While imprisoned, Irina continued to write poetry. Her previous works usually centered on love, Christian theology, and artistic creation, not on politics or policies as her accusers stated. Her new works that were written in prison, which were written on soap until memorized and then washed away, number some 250. They expressed an appreciation for human rights; liberty, freedom, and the beauty of life.

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irina_Ratushinskaya

dW 08.30.07

scripture

 

1 John 4:1
Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world.

 

thoughts

 

I had an assignment this week to ask 10 people a single question. That question was “who is Jesus?” I found out that “Jesus is the son of God” was a very common response. I had someone tell me that they thought “Jesus taught people about God” but didn’t know if that was right. I had someone else tell me that “Jesus did not exist, in fact Jesus is a myth”. I did a search on the web and found a few quotes I found interesting. The first was an actor who said he used Jesus as a swear word. The other was Martin Luther King Jr who said that Jesus was an extremist for love.

 

This assignment made me wonder what responses I would get if I asked 100 people or more. How many people would say that Jesus did exist or that he did not, that he was a good teacher or that he was the savior, that he is a way to God or the way to God? Then I wondered what sort of definition a “churched” person would give? How much do we know? Does what we “think” we know match what the Bible says about Jesus or is our Jesus someone we internally constructed?

 

Moreover, I wondered why people get uncomfortable talking about religion. Here in the work place the advice can be given that to have a healthy environment one must not bring up religion. Why does religion get the boot? It comes down to political correctness and being PC means that we must divide the secular from the spiritual. During biblical times and even in some modern day cultures there is no such thing as secular. The spiritual is so interwoven with life that they are inseparable. Where would America be if we actually thought of spiritual things as being inseparable from our lives in all aspects thereof? A little more pointed, how might we as the church live differently?

BROTHELS TO BROTHERHOOD

Article from The evangelistic newspaper of the modern Jesus Army 2006
Visit modern Jesus Army

Fabio’s stepdad tried to convince him that taking smutty porn pics to advertise a brothel was “just another job”. But it sucked Fabio into addiction.

Selling sexy undies to Spanish prostitutes was just the beginning of Fabio da Cunha’s stepdad’s business plan. Next he had the idea of setting up a porn website to advertise their brothel with pictures of the working girls.

Fabio, 23 at the time, now 26, was the “photographer” he took along to the brothel with him. That way they’d get twice the cash as Fabio claimed his own separate “expenses”.

Sex sells. The money rolled in – but Fabio found himself becoming obsessed.

“I was addicted to porn,” he says. “I couldn’t get off it.” Desperation set in as he realised he was losing control.

“I got totally depressed, crying a lot,” recalls Fabio. “I felt stuck in the website. Eventually I said I wasn’t going to take any more photos. But I still designed the website, sometimes working on it all night. I felt trapped even though I knew it was not my stuff.”

Fabio’s childhood was a far cry from the seedy Spanish sex underworld he’d got tangled in. He grew up in Brazil living with his mum and grandparents. His grandmother was a godly Roman Catholic. (“I remember her collecting clothes for the poor at the age of 76”).

Fabio found her religion “boring”. But when an aunt took him to another church to hear a famous preacher, Fabio had a powerful experience of God, falling to the floor when the preacher prayed for him.

After that he travelled for an hour and a half to get to church each week. But Fabio found that, after he moved to Spain a few years later, some so-called Christians he knew looked down on him because he was poor. He began to get disillusioned and his faith unravelled. Then his stepdad suggested the website job and Fabio’s slide into chaos began.

Desperate for a new start, Fabio moved to the UK in 2004. The night before he left Spain he prayed to God, “I just want got a job in a chicken factory and moved into a company house with nine other men and lots of drugs and alcohol. Not exactly the new start he’d been hoping for.

“I was in a mess” Fabio admits. But then something happened that would change everything. “One of the guys in the house went to London and came back with a load of papers and dumped them in the lounge. One of them was a Jesus Army Streetpaper. On the cover it said ‘TEXT US’ – so I did.”

A few days and several texts later, Fabio met up with his new Christian friends.

“They accepted me as a brother,” says Fabio, “even though I was just a poor bloke working in a chicken factory! Over the next few months I found brotherhood really freeing. My faith came alive again.

“One time, in a Jesus Army meeting, I suddenly started to cry,” remembers Fabio. “Some brothers prayed for me and I felt freed from all the darkness from the porn and other things.

“Jesus has renewed me,” says Fabio, “and brotherhood has freed me. I just want to say to everyone who struggles with porn, like I did, that there is a way out. You’re trying to fill the gaps inside you – but only God’s love and Jesus brotherhood can truly fill that gap.”

dW 08.27.07

scripture

 

Ephesians 6:11 & 12 (10-18)

Put on God's whole armor, that you may be able successfully to stand up against the strategies and the deceits of the devil. For we are not wrestling with flesh and blood, but against the despotisms, against the powers, against [the world rulers of this present darkness, against the spirit forces of wickedness in the heavenly sphere.

 

quote

 

I want you to realize that we are commanded to put on the whole armor of God for protection before we enter into warfare on our knees in prayer. For we place ourselves on the frontline of the battle between God and Satan the moment we get on our knees. We must enter into warfare, beloved. We dare not sit back any longer. As the church of Jesus Christ, in hopelessness and unbelief and allow the devil to destroy this land. We have weapons. And the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds. There are no strongholds that the Devil has that we cannot pull done through prayer. – Sermon, unknown speaker

 

dW - My Jesus

daily Word

Has anyone else heard this song? Read these lyrics. Tell me what you think.

-Kyle

My Jesus

Todd Agnew - My Jesus
From the album Reflection Of Something

Which Jesus do you follow?
Which Jesus do you serve?
If Ephesians says to imitate Christ,
Why do you look so much like the world?

Chorus:
Cause my Jesus bled and died
He spent His time with thieves and liars
He loved the poor and accosted the arrogant
So which one do you want to be?

Blessed are the poor in spirit, do we pray to be blessed with the
Wealth of this land
Blessed are they that hunger and thirst for righteousness
Do we ache for another taste of this world of shifting sand

Chorus:

And who is this that you follow
This picture of the American dream
If Jesus was here would you walk right by on the other side
Or fall down and worship at His holy feet

Pretty blue eyes, curly brown hair and a clear complexion
Is how you see Him as He dies for Your sins
But the Word says He was battered and scarred
Or did you miss that part
Sometimes I doubt we’d recognize Him

Chorus:

Cause my Jesus would never be accepted in my church
The blood and dirt on His feet might stain the carpet
But He reached for the hurting and despises the proud
I think He’d prefer Beal St. to the stained glass crowd
But I know that He can hear me if I cry out loud

I want to be like my Jesus
Can I be like You
I want to be like my Jesus

-----

QUESTIONS:
Do you speak, look, and act like Christ or like the world?
Do you spend more time speaking with the clean shaven man in line at the grocery store or do you take time to speak with the dirty matted haired woman on the sidewalk?
Are you poor in spirit (humble) or do you ask for and seek more earthly wealth?
Do you deny the image of God in the homeless, the poor, the haughty?
Do you seek to please men or God?
Do you read the Bible for yourselves or do you rely on what you once heard in Sunday school or from your grandmother and what the preacher said on Sunday?

"Cause my Jesus would never be accepted in my church, the blood and dirt on His feet might stain the carpet" – Is He allowed in your church? Is He allowed in your home? Is He allowed in your life?

May this song by Todd Agnew shake us all up and awaken us from our slumber in this dying world.

dW 08.24.07

scripture

 

Jude 17-21

But, dear friends, remember what the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ foretold. They said to you, "In the last times there will be scoffers who will follow their own ungodly desires." These are the men who divide you, who follow mere natural instincts (their sin nature) and do not have the Spirit. But you, dear friends, build yourselves up in your most holy faith and pray in the Holy Spirit. Keep yourselves in God's love as you wait for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to bring you to eternal life.

 

quote

 

Calvary shows how far men will go in sin, and how far God will go for man's salvation.

H. C. Trumbull

dW 08.23.07

scripture

 

Proverbs 2:7-8   

He holds victory in store for the upright, he is a shield to those whose walk is blameless, for he guards the course of the just and protects the way of his faithful ones.  

 

quote

 

If you were not strangers here the dogs of the world would not bark at you. 

Samuel Rutherford

dW 08.22.07

scripture

 

Exodus 3:4-5
When the LORD saw that he had gone over to look, God called to him from within the bush, "Moses! Moses!" And Moses said, "Here I am." "Do not come any closer," God said. "Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy ground."

 

quote

 

(Paraphrase) Did God ask Moses to remove his shoes because the ground had all the sudden become holy or was it that it was holy the whole time and Moses had not known? Are we walking past burning bushes on our left and on our right everyday?

- Rob Bell, dvd 014 Breath, Nooma Series

 

thought

 

Am I moving so fast that I miss chances to experience God? Am I so focused on what I feel, think, believe is important that I miss out on what God feels, thinks, believes is important? What would happen if I slowed down so that I could see things in real time instead of this blur that I tend to think is life?