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“The Real You” Series – Week 3: You Are Chosen!

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Ever been rejected? Ever been the last one to be picked by the captain of the team? Feels just like you’ve been punched in the gut, right? Well, I’ve got good news for you. As a Believer in Jesus, you are chosen! You’re in! You’re not waiting to get in or needing to earn your […]

Am I a Bigot?

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Holding Worn Bible Sunlight Reverence - 900

The guy in the t-shirt promoting abortion, the sexual revolution, social victimization, and open borders said that I was a misogynist, legalist, and racial bigot because I did not agree with his t-shirt. Am I?

Honestly, I felt the arrow. Maybe I harbor hidden bias. Perhaps I don't love the world as Jesus does. Then I remembered some verses from the apostle John that give perspective.

Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth. By this we shall know that we are of the truth and reassure our heart before him; for whenever our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart, and he knows everything. -- 1 John 3:18-19 (ESV)

Our own hearts are not infallible in evaluating our standing in righteousness. God is greater than our hearts. He knows everything. His verdict is the one that matters. (Now, there is a t-shirt for Christians: God's verdict matters.)

What Does Love Look Like?

What does it mean to love the world? Well, we know God does. What does his love look like?

First, he didn't allow the world to define love or what was needed. He looked beyond the deceptive thoughts of people bound in sin, and blind to true beauty, and gave the only gift that would free us and restore the glory of humans. He gave to meet the needs we had misidentified, so we could enjoy a greater liberty than we could imagine.

In order to prove my love, do I have to agree with everyone? It would be anything but authentic love to promote what I believe is destructive.

Second, he gave himself at great cost. It wasn't just a theory he was promoting. He didn't give a new ideology or fresh idea on how to structure society. He came into our dilemma and accepted the eternal consequences of our condition so that we could enter his condition as righteous before God.

Third, he loved us as people. Each of us has a unique story of need, though we share a common alienation from God because of sin. Jesus doesn't deal with us as a subset of society classified by our ethnicity, sex, or social standing. He loves persons!

Authentic Love

Someone asked me if my biblical worldview prevented my loving the LGBTQ community. Instead, it compels me to love the people who may identify or be classified by those letters.

I know and love many people who have been classified in this subset -- and I am eager and willing to love many more. I am just not sure what loving a subset of society means. In order to prove my love, do I have to agree with the particular agenda of that subset? It would be anything but authentic love to promote what I believe is destructive. If Jesus had loved like that, he would have abandoned us to our own wishes, consigning us to the misery of self-delusion forever. I can respect their right to believe without affirming their belief to be right.

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Jesus' love was expressed in that while we were yet bound in deception and ignorant of our desperate condition, he did what was necessary to set us free. (See Romans 5:8.) Love is costly, and it expresses itself in actions. It cares more for the condition of another than for our own comfort and ease. (See 1 Corinthians 13.)

If I listen to the angry voices telling me who I am, I will either shrink from being real, or I will strike back and lose my sense of peace. Either way, I will be weak and cowardly. Confidence comes from knowing God's verdict and accepting it as final. That frees me to see any person as created in the image of God, valuable and worth loving. It also releases me to hear God, my Father when he lovingly tells me that I have hidden bias he wants to eliminate. I like being loved like that, and I want that for everyone.

668. What Can Separate You from God?

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As a believer in Jesus Christ, it’s possible you’ve heard a list of things that can separate you from God. At the very least, you’ve been told that fellowship with God can be broken, hindered or put on hold based upon certain behavior malfunctions on your part. In some corners of Christianity, it becomes a rather long list of things you should work at avoiding, along with another list you should put effort into doing. If you have “fallen out of fellowship” with God, religion might have you reaching for a rededication prayer while seeking a renewed forgiveness from God, as if Jesus had just returned to perform another sacrifice.

For those with a spiritual separation anxiety, we have edited the list of things that can cause some type of a separation between you and God (see below):

  1. Nothing.




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How Grace Changed My Pastors’ Lives

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Here’s how God’s grace changed my pastors’ parenting, marriage and ministry! This will encourage you! Note: Be sure to click on the settings gear and change the video quality to HD after clicking on play. If you have not yet made Jesus your Savior and received the wonderful joy that His finished work on the […]

663. Reigning in Life

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When the focus of our belief in God is merely built upon good and evil—trying to avoid evil and working at doing good—it will not set us free, nor will it help us to do what is good and right. Instead our mindset should be on the person of Jesus Christ and God’s love and grace. Once we begin to understand that we died and were raised with Jesus Christ—and have received His life in us—we can begin to experience the gift of righteousness that will allow us to be more aware and conscious of what He accomplished on our behalf. A deeper revelation of the gospel and the finished work of Christ will help us to escape whatever bondage empty religion will try to burden us with.



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Before It’s Too Late

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We take so many things for granted, don’t we?  We take people for granted as well.  We assume that people know that we love them, that we couldn’t imagine life without them.  We don’t think that someone may not always be with us. We get so bogged down with life’s activities that we simply don’t

Where Love Is Shown

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Love doesn’t highlight mistakes,

it redeemed them.

Love doesn’t point fingers at brokenness,

it embraced the broken.

Love doesn’t avoid the hurting,

It entered into it.

For God so loved the WORLD.

Not just our best and brightest

But our dirty and broken,

Our hidden and covered,

Our embarrassed, our shy

Our exposed and ashamed.

And leads us out into the wide open spaces of love and grace.

Where our eyes are opened

Where life is known

Where the lights comes on

Love is shown.

Believing is Seeing

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Formed in love

Created with breath

Believed into life

Redeemed out of death

Chosen and righteous

Whether I feel it or not

In my ups and downs

Your love hits the spot

I’m confident, strong and eternally blessed

Living by grace

In the midst of the mess

In weakness is strength

In sadness is peace

Enraptured by heaven

Your life is released

Flowing like rivers

Out of my being

Your life is mine

Believing is seeing

Wynema I Clark – 6-24-2018

651. Subscribing to Sin Management Inc.

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When many Christians consider repentance, it is usually viewed from the perspective of turning from sin. In essence, what they are really saying is to focus on reducing your sin count. This is not how repentance is defined. Less sinning is always going to be a positive thing for you and those around you. It’s simply not a part of the new righteous and holy nature that abides in you. However, falling into the trap of “sin management” will potentially cause us to chase after the flesh, develop a mindset of self-righteousness, and lead to boasting in ourselves while judging others who fall just as short as we have. Other than Jesus, nobody has ever been able to equal the requirement of perfect behavior as it was reflected through the law. Not one … before the cross or after. There is a better place to abide than working at managing your sin count, and that is with the power of grace found inside of a new and better covenant—where the Holy Spirit will remind us of God’s unconditional love, and that we have been gifted with His righteousness as a new creation in Christ.



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Becoming Fearless

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Driving over bridges had never been one of my favorite things to do, but four years ago while taking a road trip vacation with my family to beautiful Prince Edward Island, Canada we had to drive over a very long bridge – 8 miles long to be exact (pictured above). Special note: There are many […]

The post Becoming Fearless appeared first on Sandra McCollom.

Instincts

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I just heard the most awful sound. The high pitched squeal of a squirrel caught in the mouth of my sweet, but all too quick Bandit. I was mortified I was petrified, while he was basking in the adrenaline that comes from instincts fulfilled.

Between my sweet neighbor and I, we managed to free the little critter from his clutches. I had to call the vet because the sound of that squirrel goes against my nature. It was awful! But it’s completely within the realms of Bandit’s instincts. What he did was natural and to him it was a victory.

Here is the lesson! My instinct, my God given spiritual responses are to love, to speak peace, to do the next right thing. In an environment that tells us that our flesh rules and our emotions tell the truth, my spirit cries out LOVE. When that instinct is fulfilled I’m like Bandit, playful, I have that adrenaline rush and I know I’m walking in the life of my creator! Even when this world is saying NO and when lies are knocking at the door I will follow my God given instinct and LOVE and then run in the yard like a banshee!

How about that! ♥♥🤗

Shake Off The Pain & Be Set Free

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The question is – when you’ve been hurt, how can this be done? Let’s let the Holy Spirit help us here through what He gave the Apostle Paul to record: 31 Get rid of all bitterness, rage, anger, harsh words, and slander, as well as all types of evil behavior. 32 Instead, be kind to […]

The post Shake Off The Pain & Be Set Free appeared first on Sandra McCollom.

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