Happy Birthday Church & More! ... :) Shangy! >-->HOT Off the 'Shangy' Press: Our friend Del sent us an email that I just had to look up and do a page on. Largest drug cash bust in history! Drug Money - Huge Drug Raid! http://www.ShangralaFamilyFun.com/drugraid.html This next one comes from our friend Becky who sent me an email that inspired me to do up this sweet page: ______ '-._ ```"""---.._ ,-----.:___ `\ ,;;;, '-.._ ```"""--.._ |,%%%%%% _ , '. `\;;;; -\ _ _.'/\ .' `-.__ \ ,;;;;" .__{=====/_)==:_ || ,===/ ```";,,,,,,,;;;;;'`-./.____,'/ / '.\/ '---/ ';;;;;;;;' `--.._.' / ,===/ '-. `\/ '---/ Jesus Laughing Art ,'`. | ; __.-' \ ,' jgs \______,,.....------'''`` `---` http://www.shangralafamilyfun.com/Jesusart.html Special THANKS to both of you! =========================================================== >-->An Inspirational teaching From Truth or Tradition: .-"""-. , (_ _ \ /| ____ _ )= `) ) ,"";, |(| ()___>===(()====( ( (//``;\\ (| ||~\__ `) ( ) ;|| || `==\--`.-; ;|| \\ / |`-._, ;\\ , `---;` / `._`\\ ,/| >~~~~`._ `"` |(| / ' `""---.....___ (| | '. ' _ . ``\ \ '-. '- . _ / \ '. - ._`\ '. '. '-.. _/ jgs '._ - ._ _/ `-..__ .-'` `"'""` >Surprise: Happy Birthday, Church! By John Schoenheit There is no verse of Scripture saying that on the Day of Pentecost God and Jesus were excited and shouting, .-'"'-. / # \ : # : .-'"'-. \ / / # \ \ / : # : jgs `'q'` \ / ( \ / “Surprise! Happy Birthday!” ) `'p'` ( ) ) ( ) “Hope you enjoy your present!” Nevertheless, that must have been how they felt that day. God had in mind the “sacred secret,” the Administration of Grace, for thousand of years, but He was the only one who knew. He had hidden it from men, angels, and demons. Good thing, too, for the “present” God gave the Church was so valuable that had Satan known what God was going to do, he would not have crucified Jesus, as the following verse makes clear: 1 Corinthians 2:7 and 8 (Author’s Translation) (7) But we speak God’s wisdom in a sacred secret, even the wisdom that has been hidden, which God marked out beforehand, before the ages, for our glory, (8) which none of the rulers of this age knew, for had they known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. In the Church Epistles, God’s basic curriculum for the Church, He makes it very plain that the Church was a sacred secret, hidden in God. The fact that He calls the Administration of Grace a “sacred secret” should be enough to convince us it was a secret. But we must understand how suspicious it looked to the Jews (and even to others) when the New Testament writers spoke of new things that were not part of the Old Testament. Speaking in tongues, the interpretation of tongues, and the fact that salvation is permanent for Christians were not even hinted at in the Old Testament, so it was very important that the Epistles say over and over that what God did for the Church was a secret, hidden in God. Go here to Read the rest of this Fantastic Teaching: http://truthortradition.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=823 ======================================================================= >-->From Our Friend John-Paul: >GUILTY AS CHARGED `WE`-- Have been accused of accepting JESUS CHRIST as Our LORD and SAVIOR, -====- .--._ ( __) .--. ( / -( /.-. \( | _/ / /-'\ \) (\ /\ / /-'/`\(_ ) ) /\/ /_/-'/-' \\ '-' / /_/-'/-' | '.__.' And bombarding GOD with Prayers! /_/-'/-'/ | /_/-' | \ / \ _.-' \ (` / jgs '----'`'------' Therefore, we are hereby sentenced to Everlasting Life. No bail, No Appeal. We have been labeled, Blessed, And hereby detained in GOD`S custody forever, We have been destined to make it, and shall surely achieve all OUR Goals. Then may We Always Have Compassion for others: Father GOD------ When we have Food, help us to remember the Hungry. When we have work, help us to remember the Jobless When we have a warm home, help us to remember the Homeless. When we are without Pain, help us to remember those that suffer. For we must shatter our indulgence, and awaken our COMPASSION. Last but not least, May we be concerned enough not only in Words, But in deeds---- To aide those that Cry out in need, For what we take for GRANTED. Help us , dear Lord, To Always Remember: Sorrow looks back, Worry looks around, but FAITH looks up!! (pray with me) Dear FATHER GOD, please grant Us Patience, And Endurance, While waiting upon Our Blessing Aman The~Love~Of~Jesus~~~John-Paul ---- ...Wonderful! Thanks John-Paul! ==================================================================== >-->From Our Friend Tony in Australia :) _______ / /_ / -/- / / / / / / /_______/ / jgs ((______| / `"""""""` Psalms 138:2… “I will worship toward thy holy temple, and praise thy name for thy loving kindness and for thy truth: for thou hast magnified thy word above all thy name.” I was sitting here reading through some passages in my Bible…and the POWER that’s in between those pages ..struck me again! Right between the ‘inner ears’! This scripture talks about the ‘power there is to be found between those beloved pages! And not ‘just in a name’.. You see, the ‘name’ of Jesus at the time He walked this earth, was quite common, There is more than ONE Jesus named in the Book for those who haven’t yet noticed…! Paul talks of one named “Jesus” in Coll 4:11,when he says… “And Jesus, which is called ‘Justus’, who are of the circumcision. These only are my fellow workers unto the kingdom of God, which have been a comfort unto me. “ ‘Obviously, Paul thought quite highly of this man ‘Jesus” as being a great help and good worker for the LORD’ Jesus. Did this man ‘Jesus Justus’have some kind of ‘awesome power’? Well, he must have had if he was a follower! Of Christ!... You ever called a ‘plumber’ to your home? Or an electrician maybe? They arrive in ‘pick ups’ as you Americans and Canadians call them..! We ‘Aussies’ call them ‘utes’( short for Utility vehicle), Some have larger vehicles and they need to! To carry ALL the tools of their trade in many boxes and in shelving and bags, all kinds of containers! And all that they may have to do is change a washer in a tap( faucet) or a light bulb! But they carry all this equipment! To do their work…. What’s my point? Well, there must be some ‘power’ in having all this equipment other wise why have it? When the disciples went off to do ‘their’ work, what did they have? What do ‘modern day disciples have these days? Sure, some have cars, not too many ride horse back! But some would! In far off countries where people can only be accessed on rough roads or by helicopter! But those people MUST be reached some way or other… The Disciples traveled light…and so must we! So, can we get by without pickups and utes and boxes of tools? Yes we can.. and yes we can use modern technology and why wouldn’t we? Remember this… GOD! Is the Creator of ALL things that are good. And HE provides all our needs. There’s nothing wrong with a Minister, an Evangelist, a Missionary having a mobile phone! Or a car! But even if he or she had all these things, without the WORD of GOD, they would be useless! There is AWESOME Power…..in the Word of God! More power than if we gathered all the dynamite in the world into one box and compared it with just the NEW Testament! Now THERE ! Friends… IS POWER! Do we measure ‘power’ by the ability to destroy? Hitler destroyed! Sadaam destroyed! Bin Ladin is still doing it! But not for long I think…. Rome destroyed and eventually destroyed itself along with many ‘other vanquishers’…Not to say the least of all, Genghis Khan. But none of these people, even with combined armies could destroy the Word of God! And they tried! Oh yes! They tried…. The ‘POWER’ is not in destruction, but in CREATION! What does ‘dynamite’ create? A big noise and lots of dust…that’s it! The noise dies down and also the dust and leaves only a big hole that we eventually fill up with something else! You take away the Bible! You take away the WORD OF GOD! And there is NOTHING! That can ‘fill the hole’ that would be left! You see the Word of God, made animals, birds, trees plants in fact the Oceans and the Firmaments! Oh what an inconceivable Power !!! !!!! is the WORD of God…. Sure, Dynamite can destroy things with unimaginable power! But can it create?? I doubt it…… God can also cause devastating destruction! Ask Lot!!! Ask His wife….. But Gods truly awesome power is His creations…… The “Word”………..IS God………….!! --- ...Yes Tony - God's Word is in one word - AWESOME! Thanks! ===================================================================== >-->From InspiredBuffalo: >AWE By: Joseph J. Mazzella _ .-. / \ _ ^^ / \ /^./\__ _/ \ _ .--'\/\_ \__/. \ / \ ^^ ___ / \_ _/ ^ \/ __ :' /\/\ /\ __/ \ / \ / .' _/ / \ ^ / \/ \/ .`'\_/\ /\/\ /\/ :' __ ^/ ^/ `--./.' ^ `-.\ _ _:\ _ / \/ \ _/ \-' __/.' ^ _ \_ .'\ _/ \ . __/ \ /\ .- `. \/ \ / -. _/ \ -. `_/ \ / `._/ ^ \ / `-.__ ^ / .-'.--' . / `--./ .-' `-. `-. `. - `. @/ `. / / `-. / .-' / . .' \ \ \ .- \% @(88%@)@%% @)&@&(88&@.-_=_-=_-=_-=_-=_.8@% &@&&8(8%@%8)(8@%8 8%@)% @88:::&(&8&&8::JGS:&`.~-_~~-~~_~-~_~-~~=.'@(&%::::%@8&8)::&#@8:::: `::::::8%@@%:::::@%&8:`.=~~-.~~-.~~=..~'8::::::::&@8:::::&8::::::' `::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::' There is nothing quite like the break of day in the mountains during Summer. I walked out into one this morning surrounded by my four, furry friends. I could feel right away my dogs' excitement and joy too. The air was cool, fresh, and sweet. Its gentle breezes kissed my face the moment I opened the door. The sunshine was still hiding playfully behind the trees, but I could now see its golden light breaking though the leaves. Dew was still on the ground and the scent of wild flowers was tickling my nose. A white tailed rabbit was finishing breakfast in the tall grass near the woods. In the sky birds were soaring into the morning sunrise while hidden in the trees their feathered friends were singing songs of love to Heaven. It was so glorious and so awe-inspiring. My heart felt full to overflowing with God's love and my soul seemed to expand in joy knowing that I too was a part of His wonderful creation. I learned recently that in the original Greek Bible the word "Fear" also translates as "Awe". This made sense to me, because while I have never really felt afraid of God I feel in awe of His glorious, powerful, and unconditional love for us every single day. I feel in awe of this wondrous world He created. I feel in awe of this life He gave me here. I feel in awe that I am here to be His Child, to share His Love, and to do His Will. I find too that with thankfulness in my heart and awe in my soul there is very little room left for any fear in my life. This world we live in is so awe-inspiring. The love that God has for us is so awe-inspiring. Why don't we make the lives we live here awe-inspiring as well? The choice is up to us. Don't live in fear then. Live in love. Don't live in fear of God. Live in love for God. Don't ignore the wonder and awe that is all around you. Become a part of it instead. Be the Child of God you were meant to be: giving love, spreading joy, sharing light, and inspiring awe. -<,,>- .-~~^~~^~~^~~^~~^~~-. (\//\\//\\//\\//\\//\\) \^""^""^""^""^""^""^/ jgs `=================` >"Cheesecake Thank You" By: Vonette Bright "O give thanks to the Lord, for He is good; for His loving kindness is everlasting." (1 Chr. 16:34) A Saturday trip to the supermarket usually involves a few "free sample" tables. On one particular day, the man demonstrating a new line of cheesecakes, never looked up. Head bowed down... he quickly cut the product into small morsels. Immediately they were snatched up! But, something unusual happened. A woman came by, took the sample, and paused to say, "Thank you!" The man was shocked. He looked up with a smile to say, "Around here, we don't get thanked very often." We treat God that way, too. We take from His gracious hands and often forget to pause and say, "Thank you!" If a cheesecake demonstrator appreciates such gratefulness, how much more deserving of praise is our wonderful Lord! Take a moment, right now and thank Him for all He's done in your life. About the Author: Vonette Bright is the co-founder of Campus Crusade for Christ International and host of Women Today with Vonette Bright, a series of national radio spots which can be found at: http://www.womentoday.org. A further profile of Vonette: http://www.secretsofsuccess.com/bios/vonette.html -<,,>- To Subscribe send a blank email to: the-inspired-buffalo-subscribe@yahoogroups.com ===================================================================== >-->As Long As Possible Do you like birthdays? I love my birthday. So much so that I don't even mind what the double digits are registering. Holidays are for everyone. But your birthday is YOUR day! There is only one of you. That is something to celebrate! And I like to do it as long as possible. If I can stretch it out for a few days, that is good. The whole month is even better. My friends know how much I love my birthday, so each year they start booking dates, to get together and celebrate it, weeks before it gets here. Actually I have two birthdays. First, the day my mother gave birth to me physically. Second, the day I was born spiritually. A conversation Nicodemus had with Jesus when he sneaked over in the cloak of darkness, went like this: Jesus declared, "I tell you the truth, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again."How can a man be born when he is old?" Nicodemus asked. "Surely he cannot enter a second time into his mother's womb to be born!" Jesus answered, "I tell you the truth, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless he is born of water and the Spirit. Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit. You should not be surprised at my saying, 'You must be born again.' The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit." (John 3:3-8) .'` `'. / \ _ ; __.'` `'. | .'` `'. \ ; / HAPPY \ ; \; 6th ; | | BIRTHDAY | ; _ ; PETER! ;-./-_-` '-. /\ /_(;'/ `\() '. ; '.__ .'\|| ' | '. | ),\| \\ \() (\ ; \ \|/ __/ () \ __ \ \||\.~'_ `'.;-.___.~'` _'~. '.__ _/|/|/{ (_`.' '.`_) } `)/`\\\\ \ .' _ 0_._0 _ '. / .,_ \|| } -.' (_) '.- { _{ `\ \|{_ / '.___|___.' \ } //`._ | /` \ | | } }:'-. ()``'"--..==, { ,} \-"-/ .' } {,`-'. (//>`\> {` _./|\._. '-' ._ .~` /` ;'.() //> |> { {///( `-.-.-` ) _.' / '. ||> /> \ \|\);--`( )`--`(` } `\\>_.'> ; _/`/(__.'/`-'.,__/`, .` `"""` .-'` ;-.( \_(; \ .' .--, (`-._ ./ ` '. `-._..~` /o\\ jgs `'-;/``. `;-"`: |oo|| .--._ _.' . \ o ; . | /| /.-. ` . '._ _.' ' \_// ||oo\ `. `'-----` _.~`--..__,..' |\o | .~`'--......--' \'._/ _.~` `.__.-' LOVE, GOD Here's the good news: every one of us can have two birthdays. If we believe in our hearts [that God raised Jesus from the dead], and confess with our mouths, [out loud] that Jesus is Lord, we will be born again, born a second time. We can celebrate every single day of the year! Isn't that great? We can have continual birthday parties as we get together with other believers. And how about this: we can celebrate as long as we live, then even longer! As long as possible, with God, is eternity, forever and ever and ever and ever. Contributed by Sally I. Kennedy (boca7565@bellsouth.net) Author of "52 Little Parables from Ireland" (Creation House Press) From Daily Wisdom To subscribe, mailto: dw-subscribe@lists.gospelcom.net ========================================================================= >-->From Our Friend Tony in Australia: ,@@@@@@@, ,,,. ,@@@@@@/@@, .oo8888o. ,&%%&%&&%,@@@@@/@@@@@@,8888\88/8o ,%&\%&&%&&%,@@@\@@@/@@@88\88888/88' %&&%&%&/%&&%@@\@@/ /@@@88888\88888' %&&%/ %&%%&&@@\ V /@@' `88\8 `/88' `&%\ ` /%&' |.| \ '|8' |o| | | | | |.| | | | | jgs \\/ ._\//_/__/ ,\_//__\\/. \_//__/_ >Learning to Seek the Lord Part 1 In most of my writings folks, I base what I write on about mainly my own experiences. Not all have been good, some have been profitable in a spiritual sense, others haven’t. But in all my life experiences, I have learned something or other, and again ,not all good. One of the most important things I have learned, is that without ‘discipline’ we can’t survive and if we do, then it’s probably by a miracle! And I believe I have experienced one or two of those myself ! Praise the Lord! When my kids were little, they had this habit…and it annoyed the daylights out of me! They would’ misplace something, and instead of asking for help to find the ‘said’ missing article, they both would say “ But I DID look and I cant find it!” They fooled my wife and I many times! And we would drop whatever it was, to go ‘look’ with the kids and invariably, WE would find the lost book, trinket or whatever it was in only a minute or two. Anyone else experiences that? I am sure they have!... we did it as kids ourselves probably! Because we hadn’t yet learned that the discipline of learning how to find things needed a certain ‘skill’…we had to ‘open our eyes and LOOK!’ Isn’t this example a little like what we need to do when we are out there, seeking Jesus? We have to ‘look’ in the most likely places! And guess what? Often we find Him in the most ‘unlikely places!” But we should expect that…He came Himself to ‘seek’ and then to save… and those who need to be saved aren’t always in Church! Although ‘some’ are! People, ‘seeking’ or should I say the ‘need’ to seek is in our hearts at birth! GOD! Put it there! And He must have had His reasons uh? One of the classic things I have found when some have tried to read the Bible is they say “ Its all too hard! Its written in some ‘hidden language’ with ‘hidden’ meanings! And Folks, this is why God implanted that ‘need’ fro you to seek! It was HIS choice to give us this ‘urge’ to seek and He must have had reason. Maybe it was because initially, we had to ‘seek’ out food in order to survive, it didn’t just come walking up as a willing sacrifice! We had to ‘seek it out’ or ‘hunt it out if you like, but whatever you choose, it had to be done in order to survive ‘materially’. Well, maybe, just maybe that’s why God in His word, didn’t leave lots of things just ‘laying’ around…we have to ‘look’ for them! Amen? He tells us many times to ‘seek’ and ye shall find. But often, its not just our eyes that need to do the seeking, sometimes we have to out our faith into action! We will find that there is major difference between ‘faith’ and believing, and ‘seeing’ is believing! So today, I want to write about ‘experiential faith” and a faith we can call ‘theoretical’. Everyday we ‘experience’ things that can help us to be more and more convinced of Gods presence in our lives. Sometimes quite ‘marvelous’ things, and sometimes quite ‘ordinary’ things. Lots of people just let the day go by with no thought as to ‘why’ things happen. The only thought they give to God is when something ‘bad’ has happened! “ Wheres God now?” is the more than frequent cry. Each day, we see the things that God does around us and we ‘know’in our ‘knowers’ that God is still at work as always and we can count on that, and we have faith in that! ‘Physical’ faith is what I am talking about. We can ‘see’ Gods work although her don’t physically see God , but we KNOW He is there! And we ‘respond’. Because we also know we can depend on God because we read that so many times in His Word!. But if we didn’t ‘know God and Who he is, they would just be words we are reading, not different to the words in other books other than the Bible. Now I am not setting out to do anymore than tell you of my experiences and things I have learned in my lifetime and have learned that until I began seeking for God, I had little chance of finding Him! I know! God isn’t lost! Its WE that are lost, well, for a time at least! My experiences may be nothing like yours, but ‘experience’ is by far the best teacher! Books and TV shows don’t make a Christian out of you! The Word of GOD read to yourself is what God uses, to reveal Himself to YOU personally!.... “For the Lord gives Wisdom: from His mouth come knowledge and understanding!” `::` / ` `;:` .;:; / ::; ` _ ';:;;' >'. || _ `> \||.'< `>|/ <` `||/` ^jgs^^^^^^^^^^^ >Part 2 Learning to seek the Lord Am I the only one here who goes to Church, hears a message and within a couple of hours have no recollection of what it was all about? I think NOT! Come now! Be honest! Not every meeting do we hear ‘life changing’ messages but we are being ‘fed’ even when we don’t realize it! Not everything in a Christians life is exciting! But remember when you got baptized? Remember when the Holy Ghost came and took up residence in your heart? Well, as I said, not everyday is like that and I am glad! Because I think as humans, we get very ‘nonchalant’ about what God does, day in day out for us and often we don’t even say ‘thank you’. Well, I cant change you no more than you can change me, but I can tell you about how I ‘changed’ and it wasn’t anybody I knew that changed me. I realized that my ‘go it alone’ attitude wasn’t getting me anywhere but what to do?Where to go and who? To talk to?.. There really wasn’t anyone, well, no one I felt I could trust. I had tried talking to a pal, his attitude was ‘live with it dude, this worlds not good enough for us! And he laughed me off… Some pal! I needed to ‘understand’ why life was so tough at times and I needed to understand why people I knew, not ‘very nice’ people seemed to get all they wanted and more, yet we struggled! Well, I also realized that even if got to ‘understand why things seemed to be the way they were, I couldn’t change it by whining! I had to ‘do’ something, so I took the advice of a guy I knew who always seemd to be happy, yet he ‘had’ very little by way of material things, but he certainly had something that I didn’t know about, and whatever it was, I wanted it! Well, my friend came to talk to me at our home and he left me a Bible. Now I had had little to do with the Bible for years. Once upon a time it was with me always, but that was another life, a life a young and impressionable youth who grew up too quickly. I started reading a chapter each day, that lasted for a couple of weeks and it didn’t seem any different then as it had years before when I had the Bible rammed at me day after day. I listened back then, but I didn’t really ‘hear’. But them I got to ‘Proverbs’ and I saw that some of the situations described in there, weren’t all that different to my own situation! And the more I read…the more I seemed to be ‘grasping’ a little more each day. For the LORD gives wisdom! From HIS mouth come knowledge! And understanding! Wow! He had been telling me that all along I just didn’t hear it! My reading became more important than anything and my two kids have reminded me of that on more than one occasion! But remember! We have to work out our OWN salvation! With Fear! And trembling! You can’t work out MY salvation and sure as eggs my kids cant’t! so now? They have stopped trying….They gave up and I almost gave up on the Bible! But yiu se, God KNEW that! And it was HE who changed me! Not myself! And not my friend, although it was my friend who took the time to remind me that I was always a teacher! And Teachers should know a little about ‘learning’…and this is what I mean when I say that God reveals Himself through His word! Hebrews 5:12-14 Paul knew what was what! And he says here that even teachers! Need to be taught! Well to be honest, I don’t think that’s any real revelation! Its common sense!But what we don’t fist realize is simple…. GOD! Reveals much more than what we ask for! And he allows us to use our own pace to gain that which we ‘seek’!Its NOT ;physical at all! Its……you guessed it! Its SPIRITUAL! God wants us to be ‘spiritually’ mature! Because without spiritual maturity,we can have NO idea about God! Paul told the Church back in HIS day, that they needed to get back to ‘basics’! and re-learn that we have to apply spiritual principles to our ‘every day’ life! Otherwise we will remain ‘toothless’ in the jungle! _ .-"`.-'-. .-'.-.%_.- , ) (_. )%( .'% ,) (.-, %)'. _.) '-.%\%/-' %% %% jgs .,%%%._ >Part three of Learning to Seek the Lord I guess most of us would have had problems ‘understanding’ what the Bible was teaching us when we first started to read and study it. Much of it is written in ‘olde English’ in the KJV and as difficult at times, it seems to be, I will stick with my trusty old KJV. I am not saying throw away the version you have, but I am saying make sure it’s as accurate as it needs to be. I guess it’s a little like a Doctors prescription! We all know Doctors have a ‘written language of their own’ and often we cant read whats been written on our script, so we put our trust in the Pharmacist! And hope like crazy they can translate what medication the Doc wants is to have to make us well! And so it is with our Bibles, there are so many different versions out there now, some are bound to have ‘strayed’ even minimum ally from what the original writings had to say. But, whatever version you read, if God is speaking to you through that book and you are listening, HE will get through to you! he has used stranger things than books to speak to us! Verse 19 in Matt Chap 13 says this….. ‘When anyone hears the word of the kingdom, and does not understand it, then the wicked one comes and snatches away what was sown in his heart’. I believe and teach that this particular parable that Jesus taught, was by way of telling us to make sure that ‘the seed’ is truly the right one, and that the ‘sower’ KNOWS this and thatHe/she is sowing in the right ground. Even the disciples didn’t understand why Jesus taught by using parables but He explained to them. "Because it has been given to you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been given. “ What Jesus is saying that every church casts out its ‘seed’ but not all of it falls on ‘good soil’, We need to take time to help those who struggle with the Word, to understand what is being taught. Jesus did that by teaching in parables and if that’s what He did, then surely its an example of we should do if need be! If we ‘push’ too hard then we will push people away from Gods Word , this is why in another part of the Bible He talks about feeding ‘babies’ milk lest they choke on meat!. We have to just ‘sow the seed’ at times and then walk away. Not too far! That we cant be reached…We need to ‘sow’ the seed then pray that the Holy Spirit becomes involved to help the ‘recipient’ understand what they are being taught. Treat every person you have the opportunity to speak with as ‘good ground’, sow the seed and let someone else do the watering if need be. Always leave then ‘time’ to let the word ‘sink in’ that way they will prayerfully find ‘roots’ begin to develop and they will ‘grow’ with the knowledge and become ‘sowers’ themselves. We ourselves need to continually go to the word for our own ‘spiritual’ growth. Too many Christians think they know ‘enough’ to get by, possibly they do! But..where’s the harm in knowing more? The idea of planting a seed is so that it becomes a “TREE” and then spreads seed of its own! Realise also, its not ‘enough’ to know the scriptures! We must strive to ‘understand them’ also. Some ‘seeds’ are very subtle and they are the ones that once we study them, whole worlds of understanding begin to open up for us! Its like coming out of the dark into a brightly lit room! We MUST though, pray for the Holy Spirit to enlighten us!As I said, its one thing to ‘know’ another thing to ‘understand’. We have to get into the ‘spiritual’ mood and state of mind and we do that by prayers and concentrating or ‘focusing’ on the things of the Lord rather than the things of the ‘natural’. The Bible says it better in 1 Cor 2:14 But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. So when we look at this scripture, we can see that we need to have the Holy Spirit ‘within’ us otherwise we cannot ‘spiritually’ prosper! How does this come about? Read Acts 2:38…..there’s your answer, plain and simple. --- ...Yeppers - Thanks Tony! Acts 2:38: Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. AMAN! ======================================================================= >This Day by ~ Elizabeth Parillo | \ ' / __ __ .-. _\ \/ /_ __ -=== ( ) ===- /__oOoo__\/ /__ '-' /_/\__\oOo__/ / . \ || /_/\__\ | || || ~^~~||~^~||^~^^~^~^=^=^~=~=~^=^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^~^ ~^ ~|| ~~|| ~^~ ~^= =~^=~^~^= ~^~^~ ~^~^ ~^~ ^~ || ^ ||~^ ~^~ ~^==~^==~^~ = ~^=~ ~^ ~^~ .'. ||.'.||.' ..'..''.'.'. '.'..'.' .'''..''.' jgs || || ''. O ~O/ '' '' || /|\/| ' . ' . ' . ' . /| |\ . . ' . / | / | . . ' ' ` ` ` ` ' ' They say take a chance Live life on the edge Never look back Look forward instead Don't worry, be happy To thine own self be true Live life to the fullest Do what you must do Live in the present Let go of the past Give it all you've got Make the good times last Stop and smell the roses Give each person a smile 'Tis the first day of your life So make it worthwhile Yet, some of us hear this And still wake up everyday Wanting more out of life But not paving the way Until at last we are rattled What if what they say should be true? Today's just a present That's been given to you It can be gone in an instant It could be taken away So, take good care not to miss out On what you could do with this day. ============================================================ >-->COMPUTERIZED CHRISTIANITY ___________ |.---------.| @)___||_ ||_______ {8*8888*888{______}spunk ||_______> @) ||_________|| `----)-(----` ____[=== o]___ |::::::::::::::|\ jgs `-============-`() by Max Lucado What I don't like about computers is that they do what I say and not what I mean. Example: I mean to hit the "control" button but hit the "CAPS LOCK" BUTTON AND ALL OF A SUDDEN GIANT LETTERS DOMINATE THE SCREEN. I LOOK AT THE SCREEN AND SAY, "THAT'S NOT WHAT I MEANT!" AND I correct my mistake. Now I know I shouldn't be so hard on the MACHINE (OOPS, DID IT AGAIN). After all, it's just a tool. It can't read my mind (though considering what it cost, it should at least keep me from making the same mistake over and over). A computer computes. It doesn't think. It doesn't _______ |.-----.| ||x . x|| ||_.-._|| `--)-(--` ...get sick or __[=== o]___ |:::::::::::|\ jgs `-=========-`() question. It doesn't smile, shake its monitor, and say, "Max, Max, I know what you are trying to do. You don't intend to be hitting the delete button, removing the very letters you want to keep. If you'd look at your screen you would see that. But since you won't and since you and I are good friends and you leave me plugged in, I'm going to give you what you need and not what you request." Computers don't do that. Computers are legalists, impersonal pragmatists. Push a button and get a response. Learn the system and get the printout. Blow the system and get ready for a long night. Computers are heartless creatures. Don't expect any compassion from your laptop. They don't call it a hard disk for nothing. (Even the shell is hard.) Some folks have a computer theology when it comes to understanding God. God is the ultimate desktop. The Bible is the maintenance manual, the Holy Spirit is the floppy disk, and Jesus is the 1-800 service number. _ _ _ /|| . . ||\ _ ( } \||D ' ' ' C||/ { % | /\__,=_[_] ' . . ' [_]_=,__/\ | |_\_ |----| |----| _/_| | |/ | | | | \| | jgs | /_ | | | | _\ | Call it computerized Christianity. Push the right buttons, enter the right code, insert the correct data, and bingo, print out your own salvation. It's professional religion. You do your part and the Divine Computer does his. No need to pray (after all, you control the keyboard). No emotional attachment necessary (who wants to hug circuits?). And worship? Well, worship is a lab exercise insert the rituals and see the results. Computerized religion. No kneeling. No weeping. No gratitude. No emotion. It's great—unless you make a mistake. Unless you err. Unless you enter the wrong data or forget to save the manuscript. Unless you’re caught on the wrong side of a power surge. And then - tough luck, buddy, you're on your own. Religion by computer. That's what happens when you replace the living God with a cold system; you replace the ultimate sacrifice of Christ with the puny achievements of man. When you view God as a computer and the Christian as a number-crunching, cursor-commanding, button-pusher that is religion by the computer. God hates it. It crushes his people. It contaminates his leaders. It corrupts his children. __________________________ from And the Angels were Silent Copyright 1992 Max Lucado http://maxlucado.com/store/angels The UpWords Weekly Email Devotional MaxLucado.com/newslettter/ To subscribe, unsubscribe or re-subscribe, visit http://maxlucado.com/newsletter Copyright © 2003 UpWords, Inc. All rights reserved. ========================================================================= >From Our Friend Steve :) "Abundance is not something we acquire. 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