May we please have the honor of your edifications from the above, first?
END TIMES/PRPHECY/DREAMS/VISIONS PING LIST PING.
Because I believe that such relationship enhancement are going to increasingly be life and death issues, I feel it is important for our list of folks stand up and be counted on such a thread on FR. We, of all people hereon OUGHT to be able to better demonstrate the ONE ANOTHER’s.
Please let me know if you want on or off this ping list.
He did an altar call for those who chose to be saved at this point in time (usually the altar calls are more specific and geared to those already saved who are fighting a particular battle), and we were blessed to see people go forward.
He is a good preacher--clear, witty, animated. He did not wax prophetic, except to say that the spirit of God is on the move among the truly poor, doing great things in Africa.
Thank you for posting this lovely thread.
One can contend for the faith without getting personal with the person they are contending with.
May the God who gives endurance and encouragement give you a spirit of unity among yourselves as you follow Christ Jesus, so that with one heart and mouth you may glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Accept one another, then, just as Christ accepted you, in order to bring praise to God. - Romans <15:1-7
When we slander or insult other Christians it doesn't stop there. We are slandering our own Savior. Our insults fall on Jesus! And what we do for one another we also do for Christ. How we treat the Body is equal to how we treat Jesus.
How did Christ accept us? Did he passively accept what was given Him? Or did he seek us out, call us near, embrace us and die for us? We are commanded to do likewise, "Accept one another, then, just as Christ accepted you."
Greetings, all ... great thread. Sorry for the long post, but this is something the Lord has been working hard on me about for several years.
It only the unprecedented prosperity and liberty of the American church that gives us the luxury of rejecting one another over non-fundamental differences.
If persecution comes, some of those differences are going to seem awfully trivial.
I sometimes think of it like this:
Persecution has arrived in America. You and your family are on the run from the authorities ... with imprisonment and perhaps worse awaiting you.
It is a bitter cold, winter night ... you are driving along, wondering what to do and where to go. The children are cold, hungry, and tired. As the snowfall thickens, you realize that you cannot spend the night on the road.
Up ahead, you see a friendly-looking farmhouse with smoke coming out of the chimney. You decide to chance it. You stop the car, breathe a fervent prayer, walk up to the door, and knock.
The door opens part way, and a suspicious face peers out. You explain, "I'm sorry to disturb you, sir, but I need help. My wife and children are in the car. We're Christians, and we're in trouble, and we ... well, we need a place to stay for the night."
All of a sudden the man's face breaks into a wide smile as he swings the door open. "We're Christians, too. In fact, we're having a church meeting down in the basement right now. Please, come in ... and welcome in the name of the Lord Jesus!"
You return to the car with joyful heart. "It's okay ... they're Christians, too!"
Your new friend leads you and your family into the house and down the stairs into the basement. Kind hands take the children and snuggle them in warm blankets, while others greet you with a hug and a warm cup of coffee. Someone hands you a songbook, and you begin to join in the worship.
As you are sitting there, you look over and observe that the brother next to you is using a different Bible translation than the one you like ... or you notice that the musical style of the worship is different than you are used to ... or you discover that these people are Arminians and you're a Calvinist ... or they're charismatic and you're Baptist ... or they're amillennial and you're premillennial ... or they practice infant baptism and you're convinced of believers' baptism.
The question is, how much will it matter then? Will you turn to your wife and say, "Gather the children, dear, and let's get out of here"? Not likely. You may still disagree with these dear brothers and sisters, but the disagreements will tend to find their proper perspective.
It's an imaginary scenario, of course. But it poses a very real challenge. Because I'm convinced that how much those differences would matter then is how much they ought to matter now.
That is by no means to say that scriptural truth does not matter or that some differences are not important. But the issues that divide us must be kept in perspective ... and weighed against the great commands of the New Testament to love, accept, and care for one another.
I believe it was Paul Billheimer who said ... if love is the greatest commandment, then failure to love is the greatest compromise.
My wife Priscilla grew up in a very religious family. Her father was the pastor of an very conservative independent Baptist church. When she was three years old she fell into a campfire and her legs were badly burned. Even today her legs are covered with large purple scars and are badly misshapen with many large indentations where muscle once was.
Her father's church was one of those where everyone wears the best of the best. She says that it looked like an Easter parade every Sunday. So even though she was terribly embarrassed by her unsightly legs, her parents insisted that she always wear a dress to church. Even wearing hose did not help hide the scars. And she was teased and humiliated unmercifully. This continued all the way up until she left home and she stopped going to church.
I was not church people so when we married she was kinda glad that she would not have to go. When our youngest daughter was about 13 years old she started going to church. She loved church and convinced her mother to go with her. Priscilla went with my daughter every Sunday and Wednesday to church and she was always dressed very nice in her best dress slacks.
After about three months, some women from the church that had befriended Priscilla told her that it was not appropriate to wear slacks to church and that she should start wearing dresses. This brought all of her old memories of humiliation back. She stopped going rather than face all of that again. For weeks on end she would cry every Sunday morning and Wednesday night.
Five years ago my granddaughter brought me to Christ. (That is a whole other story) I knew Priscilla's viewpoint on churches and so knew exactly what she would say when I asked her to go to church together for the first time. She said, "find a church that will let me wear my jeans and I will go." I had already found a Bible based church that had casual dress so I told her come on let's go. We put on our best jeans and left for church.
When we arrived at our church, we noticed first thing what the dress code seemed to be. Business casual for men and dresses for the women, some in pantsuits. The only ones wearing jeans were all under 21. But the way we dressed seemed not to concern anyone and they seemed very accepting of us.
Three months later Priscilla and I were to be baptized. The whole church gathered at a park on the lake for the occasion. Before the baptism everyone being baptized was asked to say something about how they came to Christ and how they came to our church. Priscilla told them that she had always been with Christ and related the entire story, scarred legs, blue jeans, how only her family has ever seen her legs since then and that was why we had chose this church. Many were moved by her story.
We moved down by the lake to be baptized. While everyone who was getting dunked that day was wearing a bathing suite and a tee shirt, Priscilla was wearing a swimsuit and blue jeans and I knew she intended to be baptized in those jeans.
When it was her turn, Priscilla started to go into the water but hesitated and took off her jeans. My jaw dropped. For the first time in 23 years she was letting someone, everyone see her legs. That day my wife's purple scarred misshapen legs became the most beautiful things any of us had ever seen. There wasn't a dry eye in the house.
The next Sunday when we walked into the church Priscilla started crying and sobbing so hard she couldn't talk. I finally got her to calm down enough to tell me what was going on. She told me to look at everyone. I did but still did not understand. She said, "look they are wearing jeans." Sure enough I looked around and almost every person there was dressed in jeans. Priscilla had found acceptance among God's people.
Therefore, accept one another, just as Christ also accepted us to the glory of God.
To this day we are referred to lovingly by other church members as "the blue jean couple."
James 4:11 Speak not evil one of another, brethren. He that speaketh evil of his brother, and judgeth his brother, speaketh evil of the law, and judgeth the law: but if thou judge the law, thou art not a doer of the law, but a judge.
THANK YOU, LORD, TO THE MAX:
1. That our Names are in The Lamb's Book of Life;
2. That You blotted our our transgressions in Your Priceless Blood;
. . .
3. That You separated us from our evil doings as far as the East is from the West;
4. That You threw them in the Sea of Forgetfulness--an awesome thing for an All Knowing God;
. . .
5. That You set us up on YOUR ROCK, CHRIST JESUS;
6. That You're constructing an eternal abode for us WITH YOU!
. . .
7. That You cherish us, Love us and Long for us to be more ever present, more fully present with You than we can imagine or understand.
Thank, You, Lord, that more than 2,000 years ago, you went into hell to set captives FREE and that IN YOU, we are FREE INDEED!
Thank you that Your Resurrection demonstrated that you have the keys to hell, death and the grave and that they have no hold on you, nor us IN you.
May You, Lord, this Good Friday, enliven us even more in the richness of Your Spirit; Your Eternal Resurrection Life; Your purposes and your goals for us in Your Kingdom and in our present earthly doings.
May we on this Good Friday willingly take our lesser preferences, waywardnesses, cussednesses, willfulnesses, gritches, grouches, gracelessness, lies to ourselves and others; arrogance, stubbornness, . . . all that exalts itself in us against Your Best, Oh, Lord--take it all to Your Cross and vigorously nail all such there by Your Grace, Spirit, Blood and help.
May we reckon ourselves dead and buried IN YOU, IN YOUR BLOOD, to rise again in Newness of Your Life.
May we take up today's cross for us and bear it in thankfulness that Your yoke is easy and Your burden light as we learn to nestle IN YOU vs wrestle against Your purposes for us.
May we persistently confess from our hearts that we forgive ALL against ALL because we want that level and depth and breadth of forgiveness from You and from DADDY. Let us not just mouth the words of Your prayer but pause at that point and contract eternal business on the FORGIVENESS score.
Then let us follow through with the phone call, the note, the visit, the confession to ANOTHER--ALL ANOTHERS fitting that we do forgive them utterly because Your forgive us utterly and require no less of us.
Let us leave our gifts at the altar and make it right first with ANOTHER as You have commanded.
Then, Lord, let us walk and skip and dance with You in Your newness of Life Everlasting; in Your strengthening Joy; in Your Peace, wholeness, provision, safe arms--IN YOU.
In Your Precious, Priceless Name, Oh, Lord. Amen.
Colossians 3:13 Amplified Bible (AMP)
Copyright © 1954, 1958, 1962, 1964, 1965, 1987 by The Lockman Foundation
Colossians 3:13 The Message (MSG)
Copyright © 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002 by Eugene H. Peterson
BLESSED BE THE NAME OF THE LORD.
LORD, Please quicken Your Word above at the moment of deciding to act in a given situation; at the moment of old reflexes rising up to be expressed. Give us Your courage; Your Grace; Your will to act as You would in each situation. --In Your Precious Name, Lord, Jesus. Amen.
THANK YOU LORD, for such a fitting exhortation.
This !RISEN! DAY is a good day to determine to encourage ONE ANOTHER.
Lord, it is so easy for all of us to get our eyes off you and on our circumstances. There are so few brothers and sisters who see fit to bother to strengthen one another's hands in you. Let us be different from this day forth, Lord.
Provoke us unto Love and Good works--and encouraging.
Bless us with your heart for one another that we sow encouragement at every opportunity. We sure like to reap it, Lord. Let us sow it liberally. Enable us with your Joy. Encourage us with Your Loving presence.
Help us to sing unto you; dance unto you; rejoice in and with you this day. And hand in hand with ONE ANOTHER Love as you love by Your Grace and Spirit, this day. In Jesus' Name, Amen.
Well said Quix. Thank you for the reminder, and God bless you.