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Archive for the ‘Faith’ Category

Turmoil and Peace of Following Jesus

Posted in Christ, Disciples, Discipleship, Faith, tagged , on April 3, 2014| Leave a Comment »

JesusCalsmsStormMatthew 8:23-26

The story is brief, Jesus enters a “ship”, the disciples follow, and the going gets rough.

Storms happened all the time, ships sank all the time; the danger was real and the disciple thought they were going to die; others had died in just such circumstances and Jesus was asleep, letting it all happen.

Frantically they wake Jesus, but his response is to rebuke them for being fearful. Then he rebukes the wind and sea and all becomes calm, inside and out.

Jesus expected his disciples to realize with him there’s no going under but over.

I chose to follow Jesus, like his disciples. The storms of life threaten like they did his disciples. I am fearful like his disciples and, like his disciples, I have Jesus present though sometimes he appears to be sleeping.

Jesus expects me to not be fearful but trust God will see me through, storms are no match for him and me together.

– fritz

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Faith Is Not Enough!

Posted in Christ, Faith, Maturity, tagged on May 11, 2013| 1 Comment »

stream

Simon Peter … to them that have obtained like precious faith with us … Add to your faith … virtue…knowledge …temperance … patience … godliness … brotherly kindness … charity. For if these things be in you … ye shall neither be barren nor unfruitful … but he that lacketh these things is blind…” — 2nd Peter 5:1-10

Faith in Christ, alone, makes us his but it isn’t all he wants to accomplish. God’s intent is not to just take us to heaven, he wants to do something with us here.

There are several additives listed but one that gets easily overlooked is “Brotherly Kindness”. It can’t be done when alone. Being kind to brothers, sisters, neighbors, or anyone can’t be done from the prayer closet.

Isolation is the goal of our culture and time in history — living in our own world the way we want, content to be left alone, perturbed when others try to enter. That’s the flow of the river we swim in and the current carries us along without us realizing…its not spiritual it’s cultural, just going with today’s flow.

We must choose to come out and interact with people, especially people of faith.

If regular church attendance, mingling and interacting with people who are different, is not on the agenda; if letting people we don’t know well in is not our style then it will blind us to God’s purposes and stunt our growth!

Don’t let the stream of our culture prevent the embracing of God’s desires and blessing. Reach out and show brotherly kindness.

— fritz.

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Where’s Waldo?

Posted in Assurance, Christ, Faith, tagged on April 29, 2013| Leave a Comment »

waldo

“…he [the Lord] be not far from every one of us: For in him we live, and move, and have our being;” — Acts 17:27b-28a

There are times God feels distant. But the Bible tells us we live and move in him like a fish lives and moves in water.

John Ortbert in his little book God is Closer Than You Think says God sometimes plays a spiritual version of “Where’s Waldo”. Waldo is on every page but as those books progress he becomes more difficult to find. Why? The author, Martin Handford, never says but when Waldo is found there is joy and a sense of discovery. The experience teaches children to pay attention to detail and to keep seeking because they know his is there somewhere, the author promises that he is!

God never says why he is sometimes hard to feel, either, but I think it is to produce a similar response in his children.

Have you found Waldo on today’s page, yet?

–fritz

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