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CF has always been a site that welcomes people from different backgrounds and beliefs to participate in discussion and even debate. That is the nature of its ministry. In view of recent events emotions are running very high. We need to remind people of some basic principles in debating on this site. We need to be civil when we express differences in opinion. No personal attacks. Avoid you, your statements. Don't characterize an entire political party with comparisons to Fascism or Communism or other extreme movements that committed atrocities. CF is not the place for broad brush or blanket statements about groups and political parties. Put the broad brushes and blankets away when you come to CF, better yet, put them in the incinerator. Debate had no place for them. We need to remember that people that commit acts of violence represent themselves or a small extreme faction.
Devotion
- Thread starter ~InHisHands~
- Start date
Adore: to regard with the utmost esteem, love, and respect; honor.
Yours, O Lord, is the greatness, the power, the glory, the victory, and the majesty. Everything in the heavens and on earth is yours, O Lord, and this is your kingdom. We adore you as the one who is over all things.
1 Chronicles 29:11 {NLT}
The man bowed himself down, and adored the Lord.
Genesis 24:26 {DRA}
He that adoreth God with joy, shall be accepted, and his prayer shall approach even to the clouds.
Sirach 35:20 {DRA}
Only certain translations seem to have the word adore in them when referring to Christ. Upon a bit more study I'm thinking the word worship was used instead.
Worship: adoring reverence or regard.
Do you adore the Lord? I do. I adore every single loving and merciful quality in the Father who adopted me. I am thankful that he was willing to take me in from the storm of life...sin and all and make me new. Now that I'm a child of God, I can't imagine not adoring him. For those that do not, this is thy fate:
But if any man shall not fall down and adore, he shall the same hour be cast into a furnace of burning fire.
Daniel 3:6 {DRA}
Jesus gave his life for us. How can we not adore someone who gave his blood so that we could have eternal life?
God is a spirit; and they that adore him, must adore him in spirit and in truth.
John 4:24 {DRA}
In John it talks about adoring God in the spirit which means we as christians have to believe in something we can't use our five senses on. We have to adore him on faith alone. As children many of us lived in a world of make believe. We would pretend this and pretend that...we would pretend to have tea with imaginary friends. Sometimes we believed our imaginary friends were actually there. In some ways...faith in Christ is similar in this child-like nature. It's an innocent and
trusting relationship with the Lord that only a child or one who is child-like can possess. We often see many who are smart when it comes to the intellectual things but, often upon speaking to these types I've noticed they lack that child-likeness that is necessary to experience intimacy with Christ. You can see it in their nature. You can hear it when you speak with them. For someone who has this nature it is difficult to explain to someone who doesn't how to obtain it. How to look
at Christ with that simplicity and innocent trust of a child. I personally feel that it is impossible to fully worship/adore our Father without this child-like nature. To fully experience the Lord in his spiritual form.
This child-like form of trust in the spirit can best be defined through a song that is one of my favorites from Willy Wonka's Chocolate Factory movie...enjoy. ~Smiles~
http://www.niehs.nih.gov/kids/lyrics/pureimag.htm
Yours, O Lord, is the greatness, the power, the glory, the victory, and the majesty. Everything in the heavens and on earth is yours, O Lord, and this is your kingdom. We adore you as the one who is over all things.
1 Chronicles 29:11 {NLT}
The man bowed himself down, and adored the Lord.
Genesis 24:26 {DRA}
He that adoreth God with joy, shall be accepted, and his prayer shall approach even to the clouds.
Sirach 35:20 {DRA}
Only certain translations seem to have the word adore in them when referring to Christ. Upon a bit more study I'm thinking the word worship was used instead.
Worship: adoring reverence or regard.
Do you adore the Lord? I do. I adore every single loving and merciful quality in the Father who adopted me. I am thankful that he was willing to take me in from the storm of life...sin and all and make me new. Now that I'm a child of God, I can't imagine not adoring him. For those that do not, this is thy fate:
But if any man shall not fall down and adore, he shall the same hour be cast into a furnace of burning fire.
Daniel 3:6 {DRA}
Jesus gave his life for us. How can we not adore someone who gave his blood so that we could have eternal life?
God is a spirit; and they that adore him, must adore him in spirit and in truth.
John 4:24 {DRA}
In John it talks about adoring God in the spirit which means we as christians have to believe in something we can't use our five senses on. We have to adore him on faith alone. As children many of us lived in a world of make believe. We would pretend this and pretend that...we would pretend to have tea with imaginary friends. Sometimes we believed our imaginary friends were actually there. In some ways...faith in Christ is similar in this child-like nature. It's an innocent and
trusting relationship with the Lord that only a child or one who is child-like can possess. We often see many who are smart when it comes to the intellectual things but, often upon speaking to these types I've noticed they lack that child-likeness that is necessary to experience intimacy with Christ. You can see it in their nature. You can hear it when you speak with them. For someone who has this nature it is difficult to explain to someone who doesn't how to obtain it. How to look
at Christ with that simplicity and innocent trust of a child. I personally feel that it is impossible to fully worship/adore our Father without this child-like nature. To fully experience the Lord in his spiritual form.
This child-like form of trust in the spirit can best be defined through a song that is one of my favorites from Willy Wonka's Chocolate Factory movie...enjoy. ~Smiles~
http://www.niehs.nih.gov/kids/lyrics/pureimag.htm
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“My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit's power, so that your faith might not rest on men's wisdom, but on God's power.”
1 Corinthians 2:4
Some of you may remember a time when doctors made house calls. I personally only remember one time when the doctor came to our house. Many of us remember when milk was delivered to our houses. I remember as a little girl the milk man coming to our house. I remember the milk man, too. ~LOL~ There used to be a time when you could call a place of business and talk to a live person. But, our world has slowly become a place of automation and personal service is pretty much a thing of the past. Take for example the stores where we can ring up our own items and pay for them with a machine. ~Blinks~ I tried that once at a supermarket. I didn't care for it. Although, given the way people act these days...the folks at the registers are about as warm and personal as the machines are. Will we let how we live in today's world be the way that we bring the gospel to people? With no warmth or personal service? Perhaps this is why churches are losing members every day. They've lost that warmth and personal service and they've become a place of music and sermons. That's pretty much it. It's lost that personal feel and touch.
In 1 Corinthians, Paul understood that it was his words that got to the hearts of others. It was the power of God manifested through him resulting in Christ-like behavior. Has there ever been a time in your life when someone has seen something happen through your life that couldn't be explained other than it being something that came from God? I've even noticed this in my own life. If I see it, I'm sure others see it, too. This morning's devotional states that when we start to see this happening, we are modeling ministry as Jesus modeled it. We are often encouraged to bring others to church but, Jesus got the most response to the gospel outside of the church. When Christ is manifested in us...we are bringing the church to the people, not the people to the church. We are being used as a vessel to touch the hearts and lives of the lost. Even the ones who may be stumbling in their walk. Just because the church seats are full doesn't mean that Christ is being manifested there. Church seems to have become just a vessel of God's words but, not a vessel of God's love.
Be a vessel for Christ today. Allow his love to manifest inside of you and touch others with it today.
1 Corinthians 2:4
Some of you may remember a time when doctors made house calls. I personally only remember one time when the doctor came to our house. Many of us remember when milk was delivered to our houses. I remember as a little girl the milk man coming to our house. I remember the milk man, too. ~LOL~ There used to be a time when you could call a place of business and talk to a live person. But, our world has slowly become a place of automation and personal service is pretty much a thing of the past. Take for example the stores where we can ring up our own items and pay for them with a machine. ~Blinks~ I tried that once at a supermarket. I didn't care for it. Although, given the way people act these days...the folks at the registers are about as warm and personal as the machines are. Will we let how we live in today's world be the way that we bring the gospel to people? With no warmth or personal service? Perhaps this is why churches are losing members every day. They've lost that warmth and personal service and they've become a place of music and sermons. That's pretty much it. It's lost that personal feel and touch.
In 1 Corinthians, Paul understood that it was his words that got to the hearts of others. It was the power of God manifested through him resulting in Christ-like behavior. Has there ever been a time in your life when someone has seen something happen through your life that couldn't be explained other than it being something that came from God? I've even noticed this in my own life. If I see it, I'm sure others see it, too. This morning's devotional states that when we start to see this happening, we are modeling ministry as Jesus modeled it. We are often encouraged to bring others to church but, Jesus got the most response to the gospel outside of the church. When Christ is manifested in us...we are bringing the church to the people, not the people to the church. We are being used as a vessel to touch the hearts and lives of the lost. Even the ones who may be stumbling in their walk. Just because the church seats are full doesn't mean that Christ is being manifested there. Church seems to have become just a vessel of God's words but, not a vessel of God's love.
Be a vessel for Christ today. Allow his love to manifest inside of you and touch others with it today.
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"That I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death ... Not that I have already attained, or am already perfected; but I press on, that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me ... forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. Therefore let us, as many as are mature, have this mind; and if in anything you think otherwise, God will reveal even this to you. However, in what we have already attained, let us walk by the same rule, let us be of the same mind. Brethren, join in following my example, and observe those who walk according to the pattern you have in us."
(Philippians 3:10-20)
(Philippians 3:10-20)
At the moment I'm discussing the way of life of the bond servant with a friend of mine. These verses are very appropriate.
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"The Scriptures exhort Christians to live "as obedient children, not conforming yourselves to the former lusts, as in your ignorance; but as He who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, because it is written, ‘Be holy, for I am holy’" (1 Peter 1:14-16). In the first two centuries of the church, the normal Christian life was one of holiness and separation from the world. Yet, today, for a Christian to live a holy life means not only having to go against the world—but also to go against the tide of most professing Christians. Yet, it can be done when a Christian is empowered by the Holy Spirit."
David Bercot
To view the entire article you may do so here:
http://www.deerparkwashingtondisciples.net/believers/daily_holiness_foreword.html
I find it interesting that the author would say this: "also to go against the tide of most professing christians." I've experienced this many times. There are things of this world that I will not abide by or follow along with yet, there are many christians who view these same things as being tolerable. It's that "it's ok, everyone else does it" mentality. Well, for me, it's not ok and I'm not doing it. Even if it means that I will be sitting alone somewhere because I have no other like-minded christians to spend my time with. If I have to take up the cross of lonliness in order to stay in the will of God then that is what I will do. Why? Because I'm a child of God and I believe it is my lot in life to be his bond servant. It's not about me and it's not about everyone else. It's not about things. It's about Jesus. Somewhere along the way...we seem to have forgotten about him. As he opens my eyes each day and teaches and nurtures me...I see these things all around me. But, I choose not to be a part of it. I spent too many years wasting my spiritual time being a part of it. No more. And if that makes me less than popular or even undesirable company...then so be it. I will stand my ground for the Father whom I love that loves me.
David Bercot
To view the entire article you may do so here:
http://www.deerparkwashingtondisciples.net/believers/daily_holiness_foreword.html
I find it interesting that the author would say this: "also to go against the tide of most professing christians." I've experienced this many times. There are things of this world that I will not abide by or follow along with yet, there are many christians who view these same things as being tolerable. It's that "it's ok, everyone else does it" mentality. Well, for me, it's not ok and I'm not doing it. Even if it means that I will be sitting alone somewhere because I have no other like-minded christians to spend my time with. If I have to take up the cross of lonliness in order to stay in the will of God then that is what I will do. Why? Because I'm a child of God and I believe it is my lot in life to be his bond servant. It's not about me and it's not about everyone else. It's not about things. It's about Jesus. Somewhere along the way...we seem to have forgotten about him. As he opens my eyes each day and teaches and nurtures me...I see these things all around me. But, I choose not to be a part of it. I spent too many years wasting my spiritual time being a part of it. No more. And if that makes me less than popular or even undesirable company...then so be it. I will stand my ground for the Father whom I love that loves me.
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Not really Mel. ~Smiles~
Matthew 11
Rest for the Weary
25 At that time Jesus said, "I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and learned, and revealed them to little children.
26 Yes, Father, for this was your good pleasure.
27 "All things have been committed to me by my Father. No one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.
28 "Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.
29 Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.
30 For my yoke is easy and my burden is light."
Matthew 11
Rest for the Weary
25 At that time Jesus said, "I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and learned, and revealed them to little children.
26 Yes, Father, for this was your good pleasure.
27 "All things have been committed to me by my Father. No one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.
28 "Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.
29 Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.
30 For my yoke is easy and my burden is light."
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From what I can gather from Matthew 11 and from my own personal experiences...the only time God's yoke becomes a heavy burden is when we are not living in his will. ~Hugs her warmly & gently~
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*sigh....It isn't God's yoke that is heavy at the moment. It is the chaos of not knowing what we are to do in regards to church etc.
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~Offers Mel a cup of chocolate coffee~ I'm going to have one before I go. I have to cover a couple of hours at work this evening.
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OH Chocolate coffee...HEAVEN! Thanks.
yes, we have asked the Lord and got no clear answer. So I guess we still wait.
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Sorry about that. I got a mysterious PM.
You know...sometimes he's giving me the answers but, I'm not hearing him. Do you ever do just a simple quiet time with God?
You know...sometimes he's giving me the answers but, I'm not hearing him. Do you ever do just a simple quiet time with God?
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yes. I do. I wonder if part of the 'problem' is me feeling guilty leaving the other church... I love the pastor but the vision he has...and there is something wrong in the 'atmosphere' there...well..just feeling bad about it.
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I understand. I went through the same thing. I had thought about leaving my church because something was lacking and I felt guilty about changing churches. Oddly enough...the Pastor suddenly decided to leave. I have no idea if the church has a new Pastor or if it's even still open. Mel hon, God has a funny way of handling things for us sometimes. Just be patient.
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Maybe he's protecting you and yours from something or perhaps you're on your way to another trial that is going to help the both of you grow. 
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