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Let's Reason Together

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I have never been to Fishers, Indiana, the home of Heartland Church.  But, oh my goodness, they're a church congregation who seem so free ! Their baptismal feelings are popular, in that many congregations feel baptism is public confession that we've been saved in Christ. But that popular feeling forgets the day the Ethiopian man wanted his baptism right in the middle of nowhere, in a roadside lake or pond, where the only witness we know of was the Holy Spirit in the person of Philip. But then, how great the Father's love for us, that Heartland Church has free will in the Spirit, and can make baptism part of public witness. When a Bible study group, a group of church elders, hit a snag in discussion, one elder turned to an old way of resolving questions. The elder said that some things about God are a mystery to us. Indeed, the apostle Paul said, in effect, "Now, we see as through a glass darkly, but, then," in the heavenly realm, we will know more fully. And yet G...
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They Lead Me to Repent and Feel Supported

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  When David wrote the 23rd Psalm, he could not have been a young shepherd. He had to have been up in years, possibly at the time he was running from a son who was trying to kill him. (David, and some of those loyal to him, ran from a son of David, rather than kill the son.) David's psalm is rich with an older man's wisdom in God, especially when he is saying that God's rod and staff pretty much support him. When various Bible translations say, "Your rod and staff, they comfort me," I think something spiritual and well learned is lost in translation. I think it helps to look at some of the root meanings of the translation "comfort," using Bible concordances. Clues in concordances are a little strange, aren't they? Concordances bring forward feelings of sorrow, repentance, but also compassion or support. So as an older man, possibly isolated in a wilderness, David is telling God that His  rod and staff (in the unseen) have helped guide David's lif...
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Christian Freedom Does Not Sin (1 John 3:9)

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In no way, not under any circumstance, has God's sacrifice of His own body meant no more covenant law or no more of the ten commands Heaven gave us through Moses. With His own life in earth, with Jesus, God paid the penalties for people breaking the ten commands. Yet, He still says today, "If you love me, keep my commands." That is a choice: a choice to accept true life, in Jesus, or a choice to live and die in hard ways; a choice to accept that Jesus paid a hard penalty for whoever will accept Him, or a choice to try paying for mankind's sins oneself, to no good end, or to outright perish for lack of faith in Him. He lived God's plan to pay the written penalties for man's sins. That's why His body, the church, suffered beginning on the cross, continued suffering with the stoning of Stephen, and continues to suffer today. But the truth, the consequences, remain. God's commands are a firm anchor: You will not enter a place of residence or a workplace ou...
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God Knows Every Detail

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I will not hop a plane to far away. And, my, has God helped me grow to know He didn't mean for me to marry but to testify for good. I just wish problems would soon end, that ungodly pressure would go away, and that, like most of us probably feel right now, every day could be a peaceful drive to and from home to home, to and from sanctuary.
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We Never Talk about Paradise

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  We never talk about this as Christians, but many churches hold to the Catholic confession that Jesus descended into hell before God raised Him bodily from death. There is no singular  scripture that tells us so, but we know, from Jesus' grief over Lazarus' death, that experiencing death without Jesus was was difficult to bear. We also know that death before Jesus made the way to  Heaven (before He ascended to Heaven), was grievous in more than one way. In some cases, the grave itself was a horror,  with souls like the demon-possessed  man dwelling there, among remains buried in deep caves. Having established all of the above, let's talk about something we never discuss; and that's what Jesus meant by "paradise." Although we know the spirit of a soul who is committed to Jesus today is present in Heaven as soon as the spirit leaves its bodily home, that wasn't so when Jesus himself died in body. Jesus agonized even before He was crucified, knowing not only...
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Not by Bread Alone

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  In the Easter season*, I remember all the more how Jesus compares His body, or His words, to unleaven slabs of bread, the kind of bread we don't see anymore, really anywhere. Modern flatbreads are made with bleached flour, instead of with whole wheat or other brown-colored edible grass seeds. Modern flatbreads also are made a lot smaller than in the ancient Middle East. Modern flatbreads don't really remind us of how Isarael's painful history, and of how God's own words (different from Solomon's words as part of Israel's teaching itself and learning lessons the hard way), began to be written: on leather, on skins of cattle that had been killed. Remembering and still suffering the near constant turmoil of all of the Christmas season, makes it difficult to cherish and look forward to the lament and great joy of Easter this year. For me, it's hard to believe the Lenten passage to Easter is beginning. Monday, I ate the last of chicken I had in store, keeping i...
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Revival, Revival, Revival

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I didn't think I would regain strength of faith after true hell this Christmas season. But this Sunday morning, following Christmas day, I've gotten up again to hear faith. And while I feel unwell, I'm not destroyed. I feel set back, but not lost; unsure, but somewhat prepared for tomorrow. I can do all things within God's will. With God , all things He intends, are possible. This morning, partly before dawn, I was able to listen to three messages. Each message was not perfect, but breathed a kind of revival into my heart. The same goes for New Years Eve morning. In each message, I've also heard bits of what MEN err in feeling, right in the midst of God speaking! So while this day has yielded revival, I want to correct, in gentleness, two errors - while others care enough to correct me. The following are two of three revival messages, joy in the morning sermons I'm thanking the God of Heaven for holding in store as medicine; but also simple corrections, from my ...
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