I taught you to love your enemies. I actually taught you to love everyone, but loving your enemies may be the most severe test of this general principle. If you can love your enemies you can love anyone, but this is indeed difficult. How can you go about it? You can’t love from a distance by well-wishing, so you need to approach and engage those with whom you disagree.
Revival is among us! See this article posted on the CBN website: https://www2.cbn.com/news/us/another-mega-baptism-church-dunks-1600-new-...
Are you prepared to sacrifice for me? What do you think would please me? Your money, your time? I will not reject these, but what I want most from you is a broken spirit and a contrite heart. This is also one of the most expensive gifts you can give, but it is not for me alone. Isn’t this also one of the best gifts you can give other people? Haven’t you already seen this in the people you encounter? What quality is more desirable than an unselfconscious sense of grace?
Do you like to win? Some of life’s activities are competitive by nature, but people go beyond that to structure competitive events and are eager to take part in them. Everyone likes to win. Jacob wrestled with me in the night and I told him to let go but he wouldn’t and he ended up with his hip out of joint and walked with a limp ever after. So who won the wrestling match? When you wrestle with me the concepts of a winner and a loser are not as clear cut as they are in structured human competition. So would you be eager to wrestle with me under these circumstances? Would you expect to win?
You will be blessed by this hour-long conversation with Pauline Burthwick, a lady I met 19 years ago at a conference here in the States. Pauline did not think God could use a woman to teach pastors around the world, but once she began journaling, God comissioned her to do just that.
Are you familiar with the Bible passages about storing up treasure in heaven? Does this make perfect sense to you? What about the story of the unjust steward? He was fired for dishonest performance, and his last acts were to gain favor with his master’s customers so he would not have to work afterwards. This may have been shrewd, but was it admirable? Do you see a connection between these stories? Do you live your life in such a way as to have strong connections with others and favor with them so they will remember you when you are in need? Could you think of this as treasure in heaven?
Jesus healed some people with instantaneous miracles, but most of the time it does not say that the healing was manifest "at that very moment.”
Have you ever seen anyone wear a cross as an item of jewelry, such as a necklace? This would not have occurred in my lifetime, for the cross was an instrument of torture and death, not adornment. What has happened since? The cross has become the universal symbol of the Christian faith. There are two ways to consider this. One is that the cross has become so commonplace that it has lost its original meaning and impact.
LaWanda – O Jesus, precious Lord, Holy One, how you continue to reveal yourself to me! O Thank you, Jesus. Your word to me is so full of life, Lord. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
Have you ever taken a math test? Would you be suspicious if every problem had the same answer? Wouldn’t you expect a different answer for every problem? Yet have you met people who offer the same answer for every problem? You should be just as suspicious of this as you would for the math test, for the real world you live in is complex and does not lend itself to the same answer for every question. This reflects thinking that is ideological, narrow, and shallow. Do you take pleasure in people who are so easily predictable? Don’t be one yourself.
