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The Sun - What or Who?

7/29/2017

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As with everything God does, the closer you look at it, the more amazing it is--exactly the opposite is true of any man-made object.
This is a NASA picture of flares and a coronal mass ejection on the sun--whatever that is!
Two very different questions come to the human mind when it thinks about the morning ball of fire that marks each day of life.
WHAT makes it happen so precisely, so systematically, so beautifully.
Or WHO...
Which question I end up trying to answer will become a determining factor in my eternal destiny.
Genesis 1:16

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The Choice

7/14/2017

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Each of us today will make a decision between two ways to live.
BY SIGHT. We can live by sight, thinking and reasoning exclusively on the basis of the circumstances we see around us - family problems, church issues, financial challenges, health matters, etc... If we live only on this level we will always be bouncing back and forth, banged around by events that hit us from all sides, and life will be mostly sour.
BY FAITH. Or we can live by faith, understanding that reality is not only about what we see. In fact, what we see is the lesser factor. There is an invisible God who with infinite wisdom governs every detail of our life and of everyone else on the planet. Living with this perspective will bring peace and joy and hope.
THE CHOICE IS OURS
2 Corinthians 5:7
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Jeremiah had no backup

7/12/2017

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It was a cold, December night, and King Jehoiakim was sitting comfortably in front of the fireplace at his winter home. All of his ministers were there, watching him toy with a unique manuscript. It was a scroll, an original, just recently snatched from the prophet Jeremiah and his friend Baruch.

Sometime later Jeremiah was told that the king had read through it, had systematically cut it into pieces, and then fed those into the fire.
The horrible thing was… there were no copies.
That meant days and days of work…
Gone.

But the Lord’s work went on without even a hiccup. And in this dramatic way, God would again teach His children of all ages an important lesson: NO HUMAN MISTAKE OR ACCIDENT OR EVIL CAN EVER DERAIL HIS PLAN.
Two weeks ago today I came back to my office from some errands, like any other day of the year. I tapped on the keyboard to wake up my main laptop and it started, then froze...
I am still waiting--the computer store has not been able to get a replacement hard drive from the distributor and the data recovery company in Madrid has not yet told me if they will be able to get anything off of the drive.
It could have been avoided--I made a huge mistake by not backing up current projects. Oh, I have my excuses: the computer worked flawlessly, the technician said, “one in a million of these hard drives fail”, many of the jobs were currently being worked on, etc...
However, in the end all I can say is that for some reason God allowed it to happen--in other words, all is good. Somehow, none of those pics, recordings, videos, projects, or writing, is essential to my life!
Have you ever lost anything to a fire, a robbery, an accident, a stupid mistake? Then you know the stunned feeling that constantly swells up and threatens to take over. It’s that mixture of frustration, helplessness, questions, anger… maybe Jeremiah had to fight them too?
It is no fun, of course. But for a believer this kind of hit can have great value. It can jolt us into thinking afresh about eternity, about what things really matter, about where we have our focus, about Who is really in charge.
And God knows how we often need that reminder. AB
(Jeremiah 36)
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Surprises

7/7/2017

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God loves to surprise;
We are often broadsided with events we could never have imagined.
But He himself is never surprised.
Jer 33:3/Isa 44:6
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Worry... or don't.

7/4/2017

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Worry is much about our focus.
Our world is quite obviously a big mess; but maybe so is our family, our church, our city, or our nation.
Nothing has changed in a very long time. The nation Isaiah prophesied to 2600 years ago was fretting as well. Inside and outside their borders there was nothing but disaster and hopelessness.
So God sent a message: Isaiah 40:22-23
You can focus on all the grasshoppers jumping around, thinking they are the ultimate thing; or you can fix your eyes on the One sitting on the eternal throne, the One who supervises and governs everything from a tadpole to a galaxy.
As Christians we have a choice...
Or maybe we don't.

(It is he that sitteth upon the circle of the earth, and the inhabitants thereof are as grasshoppers; that stretcheth out the heavens as a curtain, and spreadeth them out as a tent to dwell in: That bringeth the princes to nothing;)

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