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God knows our hearts are hard, that’s why Jesus went to the cross. Above all, He is a loving God. His forgiveness stems from that love. We cannot be perfect, but we can be repentant when we are not perfect. The Pharisees come to Jesus to test Him as
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Through the repentance and forgiveness that comes through God’s judgment, we can be at peace with one another. Nobody is perfect. We will all make mistakes. We will all rub one another the wrong way. Through God’s Word, through conversations with others, through our prayer life with God
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With great power comes great responsibility. Great people will lead others; the question is whether their example leads others to God or into worldly pursuits? Elsewhere, Jesus says people of the world are like sheep looking for a shepherd. The people of this world want to be led somewhere. In
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The world will know we are His disciples because of our love. It’s a wonderful thought. The ideal state of the church is an expression of God’s love so strong people are drawn to it. The cold reality of our world is that it can always use more
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Servant leadership implies costly intimacy. Following God’s will involves effort. Developing relationship with people creates intimacy. The more we help, the more effort it takes. The more relationship develops, the more intimate it becomes. When we combine the two – developing relationship with those we serve, it becomes costly intimacy.
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If we want to be godly people, proximity to God is a necessity. I love this thought in connection with the idea of praying without ceasing. The more we are consciously aware of the presence of God and thus are in relationship to Him, the greater our chance to be
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God is amazing in His love and understanding of our nature. He knows our strengths and our weakness. He knows we won’t always get it right and He continues to call us back to Him. He is the greatest constant source of love we will ever experience. Jesus teaches
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Everyone can benefit by drawing closer to the Father’s presence. He is love; we certainly could use as much of that as possible. God is peace; the world needs more of that. God is merciful; everyone needs forgiveness in addition to learning how to be forgiving to others. There
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Profoundly deep faith takes a lifetime of work. Like all skills worth having, deep faith takes effort. It starts small and is easily overcome. As faith is exercised, it grows and strengthens and becomes more resilient. Soon what used to challenge faith can be taken in stride. A deep faith,
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Community is a pull between opposite dynamics. It is a double-edged sword. There is joy in togetherness, but also clashes between differences. There is celebration in community, but also loss. There is joy in growth, but also frustration in failure. One of the hardest parts of community is holding
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Our strength is always rooted in God. He is the source of everything that is good and glorious. He is the reason we have life, much less find any success at what we are doing. In our moments of struggle or weakness, we should turn to Him and He will
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We must be especially vigilant until the Lord’s return. It is easy to fall into sin when we think nobody is watching. It is easy to fall into bad habits when we are given time to relax (like summer vacation for students across the country). In those moments when