What it means to preach Jesus by Mark Copeland

http://executableoutlines.com/text/ac8_35.htm

The encounter with the Ethiopian eunuch...... Gary

To eat or not to eat, that is the question!!!

To eat or not to eat, that is the question.  Is it nobler to refrain from excess or to indulge to your heart's content?  Can excess at times be good for you?  Who determines this and what does it mean?  How do I know if I have begun 2012 on a positive or negative attitude?  Good questions all; only your conscience can answer them.  2011 was a year of transition for both myself and my Linda, as we went from jobs to retirement.  Honestly, we have had much better years, but there was very much that was good about last year.  Read the following passage from Colossians and then ask yourself about the previous year and the one we just started...

WEB: Colossians Chapter 3

[1] If then you were raised together with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated on the right hand of God. [2] Set your mind on the things that are above, not on the things that are on the earth. [3] For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. [4] When Christ, our life, is revealed, then you will also be revealed with him in glory. [5] Put to death therefore your members which are on the earth: sexual immorality, uncleanness, depraved passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry; [6] for which things’ sake the wrath of God comes on the children of disobedience. [7] You also once walked in those, when you lived in them; [8] but now you also put them all away: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and shameful speaking out of your mouth. [9] Don’t lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old man with his doings, [10] and have put on the new man, who is being renewed in knowledge after the image of his Creator, [11] where there can’t be Greek and Jew, circumcision and uncircumcision, barbarian, Scythian, bondservant, freeman; but Christ is all, and in all.

[12] Put on therefore, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, a heart of compassion, kindness, lowliness, humility, and perseverance; [13] bearing with one another, and forgiving each other, if any man has a complaint against any; even as Christ forgave you, so you also do.

[14] Above all these things, walk in love, which is the bond of perfection. [15] And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to which also you were called in one body; and be thankful. [16] Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly; in all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another with psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your heart to the Lord.

[17] Whatever you do, in word or in deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father, through him.

If I were to base my analysis of last year solely on worldly standards; well, it stank.  However, I am please to say that spiritually things were much better for both my wife and myself.  Its nice to be able to say that in 2011 both of us drew closer to God.  I hope this trend continues in 2012 and that this is true for all who read these words.  May your every spiritual wish come true and may you sense the presence of God continually.  Could I have the hamlette in the picture?  For soothe, as long as I remember verse seventeen from Colossians.

God's second law of pardon by Mark Copeland

http://executableoutlines.com/text/ac8_22.htm

From the book of Acts... Gary

Feeling groovey...

Today's post is more about feeling than anything else.  If I had to summarize my day, this would tell it all.  Spent some time with my oldest grand daughter, had a wonderful meal with my sister-in-law and watched some Sy-fi.  Good food, good company and fantasy.  Who could ask for more?  The only way it could be better would be if Jesus came back tonight.  For some reason, I feel very satisfied tonight.  I wonder if Paul felt this way when he penned these words so long ago...

WEB: II Timothy Chapter 4

[7] I have fought the good fight. I have finished the course. I have kept the faith. [8] From now on, there is stored up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will give to me on that day; and not to me only, but also to all those who have loved his appearing.

Okay, I am not Paul, but I am alive and live in this world just like him.  Jesus loves me, as he does everyone who really loves him, so how bad could life be?  Not really sure WHY I feel this way; maybe its closure with 2011 or something else, but when God puts this in your heart... well be happy about it and worry about absolutely nothing.  Being contented is a blessing and makes me feel young again.  Now, guess why I picked this picture.... 

Are there few who are saved by Mark Copeland

http://executableoutlines.com/text/lk13_23.htm

good topic... interesting... Gary

Dimensions of reality

3D is a recent development in television.  If you have seen it, you already know that it simulates 3D and is not truly 3D.  After I watch a 3D show for awhile, my eyes bother me, so it is a rarity for me to do this anymore.  But, it is new and in a way, exciting, so, lately, more and more theater movies show this type.  People like something new and interesting and this has been true since people have been people.  Here is an example from the book of Acts...

WEB: Acts Chapter 17

[16] Now while Paul waited for them at Athens, his spirit was provoked within him as he saw the city full of idols. [17] So he reasoned in the synagogue with the Jews and the devout persons, and in the marketplace every day with those who met him. [18] Some of the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers also were conversing with him. Some said, “What does this babbler want to say?”

Others said, “He seems to be advocating foreign deities,” because he preached Jesus and the resurrection.

[19] They took hold of him, and brought him to the Areopagus, saying, “May we know what this new teaching is, which is spoken by you? [20] For you bring certain strange things to our ears. We want to know therefore what these things mean.” [21] Now all the Athenians and the strangers living there spent their time in nothing else, but either to tell or to hear some new thing.

[22] Paul stood in the middle of the Areopagus, and said, “You men of Athens, I perceive that you are very religious in all things. [23] For as I passed along, and observed the objects of your worship, I found also an altar with this inscription: ‘TO AN UNKNOWN GOD.’ What therefore you worship in ignorance, this I announce to you. [24] The God who made the world and all things in it, he, being Lord of heaven and earth, doesn’t dwell in temples made with hands, [25] neither is he served by men’s hands, as though he needed anything, seeing he himself gives to all life and breath, and all things. [26] He made from one blood every nation of men to dwell on all the surface of the earth, having determined appointed seasons, and the boundaries of their dwellings, [27] that they should seek the Lord, if perhaps they might reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us. [28] ‘For in him we live, and move, and have our being.’ As some of your own poets have said, ‘For we are also his offspring.’ [29] Being then the offspring of God, we ought not to think that the Divine Nature is like gold, or silver, or stone, engraved by art and design of man. [30] The times of ignorance therefore God overlooked. But now he commands that all people everywhere should repent, [31] because he has appointed a day in which he will judge the world in righteousness by the man whom he has ordained; of which he has given assurance to all men, in that he has raised him from the dead.”

[32] Now when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some mocked; but others said, “We want to hear you again concerning this.”

[33] Thus Paul went out from among them. [34] But certain men joined with him, and believed, among whom also was Dionysius the Areopagite, and a woman named Damaris, and others with them.

There was a time when Christianity was new; when the world had untold multitudes of idol worshipers.  Athens was a city full of idolatry and it vexed Paul.  When he went to the Areopagus, some could hardly believe the truth that he told them, but others did.  Life is like that; some people are open to new things and others will not change no matter what.  I was attracted to the picture because it told me the truth; that real life is in 3D.  Christianity is real life; now and forever and while the message is not new anymore, yet its truth prevails.  Life as we know it has another dimension, a spiritual one and with Jesus that life will continue for ever and ever.  Now, if I could only find a way to put that little message on a flag, I would BE DOING SOMETHING REALLY NEW!!!

Cleaning the inside by Mark Copeland

http://executableoutlines.com/text/lk11_37.htm

Some thoughts on sanctification.... Gary