As great and as proud of my mom I can be, I dont think she may ever be able to understand my priorities. To her, her priorities have brought her through life. That the priorities that she has engrained in me made me who I am. But no, it was the love of God primarily which made me who I am. And in order to let that love be seen, to let more lives be touched by this love, I will forgo all other things to see it being done. Even if the things may seem minute, I believe that god uses these to touch lives in little ways.
So im sorry if I say no. Im sorry if I cannot accept these things. Im sorry when I say I will do things my way. The desire to see the love of God touch lives compels me. I will give my all to that cause and just rust that He will make a way, for I know that He honours those who honour Him. As for me on my part, I will not offer burnt sacrifices to the Lord that cost me nothing.
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A way to vent all that excess emotion, everyone has a way to relieve stress, this works for me. I dont have the time to devote myself to this now, but I will in the future because through it I feel alive and free.
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Standing up to authority, I really have the tendency to do that dont I. Unashamed to come down hard on those who are placed above me because I perceive that as authority figures they ought to know better. Still, if not done right, it can be disastrous. Well thank God that in those quiet moments he speaks to me and prompts me to the right path. Everyone makes mistakes, everyone has their own reasons and limitations for what they do. I am truly thankful that everything turned out to be alright.
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And dude, I mean it with all my heart when I say I really have alot of respect for you in that. You dont know how much it means to me to hear the sounds of roaring laughter before I even walk through the doors.
In the end, God is in control. Through that, and other things later as well, I am convinced that everything is working according to His perfect will. It may not be the idea I dream of, but in the end it works out even better. Indeed I come to understand even more deeply what it means to always place our primary focus on the moving of His Spirit rather than our own action plans.
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I really like pastor raymond's expository teachings. They are often full of insight and digs deep into our understanding of Christianity. Today he started with a brief overview of false teachings and summarised in ten minutes:
Statistic manipulation - Chances are, someone in the congregation has a knee problem and you dont need to know that by the spirit.
Secular leadership techniques - Packing and selling ideas in a way that appeals to people, sounds like a salesman hmm.
Prosperity gospel - Health and wealth are what God wants to give to you and thats all that matters.
Saviour and not Lord - Say the sinner's prayer and you get to heaven, there isnt a need to change your lifestyle, just come to church and tithe regularly.
Influence of secular philosophy - Think positive, its called faith.
Influence of culture and superstitions - Avoid pictures of dragons and serpents on your shirts, they invite the devil.
Quantum control - God made the world through quantum, prayer manipulates quantum energy.
Doctrine of hell - Four doctrines.
I think what he says is very true. The big theological differences everyone knows and shys away from them. Its these smaller ones that go unnoticed but their effects can be quite large. He didnt touch on evolution and creationism today and that would be another example of how the false teachings of a small segment of scripture can make a huge difference.
And there were others I cant remember. I think its really quite refreshing to hear theology from the pulpit and sound one at that. Otherwise, most preachings dont dig that deep. Understandably you cant always have deeper stuff since people may not understand but its good to hear it now and then. Well today's one was one Philippians 3.
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You know, it is possible to consider all things as rotten smelly dung if you have truly been swept away by the love of Christ. Nothing else matters. The things of Earth will grow strangely dim, in the light of His glory and grace.
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