GREENE STREET LETTERS: Repentance And The Power Of "NO"

Monday, September 9, 2013

Repentance And The Power Of "NO"

Luke 13:3
I tell you, no; but unless you repent you will all likewise perish.

Repent....
Change of heart...
Change of mind...
Change of attitude...
Change of lifestyle.....
Why now? How can such a change take place, when our past reveals our inability to change?
Such change is only possible under the power and presence of the Holy Spirit.
He is the power to change.
He is the answer to every question that has plagued us over the years of our using.
The Holy Spirit.

The power given to us by God's Holy Spirit empowers us to say "NO" to the roadblocks that we find in front of us. Pointing us to take those side trips away from recovery....away from following God. Pointing us back to old ways and old thoughts. God's Power enables us to say "NO!" to such side trips. "No" empowers us to stay the course and move ahead in this new life and relationship with Christ.
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We are learning more and more about who we are (Vineyard Recovery) as we gather each week.
We have discovered that we are a people of prayer. Not just casual words thrown up into the heavens, hoping that God might hear something and act on it. We are discovering the power of prayer.
Prayer requests continue to come to us each week.
People who need healing--- physically, emotionally.
People who don't have the strength to pray for themselves, have called asking us to help them pray.

If you are on Facebook, you can type in Vineyard Recovery Fellowship and find out page. We try to post prayer requests, as well as the victories we get to see as God heals and moves in the lives of those who are suffering.

We have been praying for a man who is suffering multiple forms of cancer.
After going for some tests, one type of his cancer has begun to shrink, and the other has stopped growing.

Another man has been in the hospital with a brain aneurysm. It has been touch and go, but as we have prayed, he has responded and there is a firm conviction that God will bring him all the way back.

I want to learn how to pray.
I want my prayers to prayers of quality and not just quantity.
I want to pray big prayers, because I serve a big God.
Prayers for salvation.
Prayers of healing...
Prayers of deliverance from demonic spirits.
Prayers....

Vineyard Recovery meets every Saturday night at 7 p.m.
Downtown Gadsden on Broad Street--between 4th and 5th streets.
Hope to see you there.

God on you...
mb

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Looking At The World Through Cracked Lens

As ol' Paul wrote in his Corinthian letters.."We see in part and we know in part." Now what piece of this bit of wisdom do we not get? I wish to not run around acting and trying to be some sort of Biblical G00-Ru (I meant to spell it wrong). Or a sage of sages.

I simply want to be able to communicate some of what God has given to me. Why? Do I think what I get is better than what you may have received from Him? Nope. But I do think encouragement comes when we share our daily story of struggle and victory in an effort to encourage each other.

Thanks for letting me share.

Time to soldier on..

mbb

Our Statement of Faith

We believe that God is the eternal king. He is an infinite, unchangeable Spirit, perfect in holiness, wisdom, goodness, justice, power and love. From all eternity He exists as the One Living and True God in three persons of one substance, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit equal in power and glory. we believe that God created mankind in His image, male and female, for relationship with Himself and to govern the earth. Under the temptation of Satan, our original parents fell from grace, bringing sin, sickness and God's judgment of death to the earth. Through the fall, Satan and his demonic hosts gained access to God's good creation. Creation now experiences the consequences and effects of Adam's original sin. Human beings are born into sin, subject to God's judgment of death and captive to Satan's kingdom of darkness. We believe that Jesus, God's Son, was sent to this world, conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of a virgin, Mary, fully God and fully man in one person. He is humanity as God intended us to be. Jesus was anointed as God's Messiah and empowered by the Holy Spirit, ushering in God's kingdom reign on earth, overpowering the reign of Satan by resisting temptation, preaching the good news of salvation, healing the sick, casting out demons and raising the dead. Jesus' atoning death on the cross took God's judgment for sin which we deserved as law-breakers. Jesus' resurrection and ascent back to heaven opened the door for those who received salvation to begin a relationship with God.

Little Nets Into Deep Waters

Fishing nets were designed for one purpose only. To catch fish. Nets are no good if they stay on the boat. Nets serve no purpose if they are never used. I think maybe God sees us this way. We are all created for a purpose (by the way, the creator gets to define what our purpose is). Any other use besides the one we were created for does us no good. But when the creator places His hands upon us, casting us out into those scary, dark places with deep waters, it is then we can see the reality of our purpose. He knew there would be a catch waiting for us. I think I will be the net God has called me to be.

The Twelve Steps

As a community of people in recovery, we affirm that our higher power is Jesus Christ. He did for us what we could not do for ourselves. Just as God told the children of Israel He was going to give them a promised land, He has revealed to us that He desires to give us a "Promised Life." When Israel got to the promised land, God instructed them to go and in a possess it, fight for it and claim it. In recovery, the 12 Steps are the directions given to us on how to fight, possess and claim this promised life.

Monday, September 9, 2013

Repentance And The Power Of "NO"

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THE REALITY OF THE NAME OF GOD