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The Impossible Love List – Love is Patient
patience – μακροθυμέω mak-roth-oo-meh’-o; to be long-spirited JKV = suffereth long Be patient? Ugh. Some people try my patience more than others. What does that mean? Right here at the top of the list the Apostle Paul generated for me, is a trait that exposes my heart for the temperamental, selfish thing it is. To offer patience is to practice Agape, which I am commanded by Jesus to give. I am to respond to…
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The Prize Package
O God, you are my God; earnestly I seek you; my soul thirsts for you; my flesh faints for you. ~ Because your steadfast love is better than life, my lips will praise you. ~ My soul clings to you; your right hand upholds me. ~ As a deer pants for flowing streams, so pants my soul for you, O God. Part of my summer reading has been a book written by CS…
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A Path to Imprisonment – Part Four
Ingratitude ~ Idolatry ~ Immorality ~ ~Imprisonment~ ____________________ We know that our old self was crucified with him in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. For one who has died has been set free from sin. ~Romans 6:6-7~ Imprisonment: captivity through habitual immorality. When God gives a person over to their sin, they are in a most desperate, dangerous place.…
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A Path to Imprisonment – Part Three
Ingratitude ~ Idolatry ~ ~Immorality~ ~ Imprisonment ____________________ Can a man carry fire next to his chest and his clothes not be burned? Or can one walk on hot coals and his feet not be scorched? ~Proverbs 6:27-28~ Immorality: non-conformity to Gods moral code. Once I have embraced ingratitude and placed myself and my desires on the throne of my heart, it’s only a matter of time before immoral behavior…
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A Path to Imprisonment – Part Two
Ingratitude ~ ~Idolatry~ ~ Immorality ~ Imprisonment Idolatry: excessive or blind adoration, reverence, or devotion I’m not sure the transition from ingratitude to idolatry needs too much fleshing out. What happens to me when I become consumed by what I don’t have, to the degree that I’m no longer grateful for what God has placed in my life? It’s really not complicated. I find that before long, determined to look…
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A Path to Imprisonment – Part One
~Ingratitude~ ~ Idolatry ~ Immorality ~ Imprisonment Recently I heard a pastor talking about the way the words listed above relate to each other. He posed what for me was a very compelling progression of thought that I want to try to dig into for myself. The premise is this: a person who embraces ingratitude can potentially move through the above sequence until they find themselves imprisoned; shackled because of their own unchecked…
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Love Of
Life is about God, …about love of God Life is about people, …about love of people ~Mark 12:30-31~ As I sit with the description of love found in 1 Corinthians 13, I see a beautiful list of……….. ……..impossibilities. It strikes me that each bit implies I will face moments that would illicit a response other than one that would express love of God and people. Why is God eager for me to…
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Driven to Readiness
Rise up, you women who are at ease…. Why am I driven, at this particular stage of my life, to understand aspects of behavior and how that plays out in an average day, (Launch Points, Respond or React)? I feel certain that I live very near the end of this present age, an age that will culminate with Jesus return to earth and eternal reign. Having said that, you could…
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Respond or React
A man’s steps are of the Lord; how then can a man understand his own way? ~ Proverbs 20:24 ~ RESPOND: to do something in reply. REACT: to do something in reply, emotionally. If you read Launch Points, you’ve thought a bit about whether you launch predominantly from your heart or your head. This delves a bit deeper. What most characterizes you as you encounter people and circumstances? measured, balanced, careful, thoughtful, pragmatic,…
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Launch Points
When wisdom enters your heart, & knowledge is pleasant to your soul, discretion will preserve you…. ~Proverbs 2:10-11~ I’m always looking for bits about how people take in information. It’s very interesting to me to learn why a person sees life the way they do, & even more, how they respond based on what they see. Largely, I believe we take in information from either our hearts (emotionally), or our…
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Regaining Objectivity
Folly is joy to him who is destitute of discernment, But a man of understanding walks uprightly. ~Proverbs 15:21~ Loss of awareness follows the loss of objectivity. Both are dangerous. Both keep you from being present and capable in your life story. The one who’s lost her objectivity and subsequently, her awareness, can no longer bring her full faculties to bear. She becomes relatively ineffective in her own story, and…
