tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20179301911707863112024-03-15T20:12:34.077-05:00GREENE STREET LETTERS"Following In His Steps" Luke 9:23Greene Street Lettershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17247028715761319408noreply@blogger.comBlogger4484125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2017930191170786311.post-10305435818098944672023-08-15T07:36:00.004-05:002023-08-15T07:36:59.688-05:00THE REALITY OF THE NAME OF GOD<p>Listening to Keith Green this morning as he sings "How Majestic Is Your Name". I had to ask myself, "Do I truly unerstnd the Auwseomness and Power found in the name of the Lord?" The conlusion was that I did not fully grasp the fullhess of the name of God, As my health has declined, I have a new found desire to know God in ways I never considered before.</p><p>Asking God to give me a more clearer understanding as to His nature, His character, and His mercy and grace, I guess I don't simply do not want to believe in God,,,,,,,,,,But believe God! This new understanding helps me whan the physical stuff becomes overwhelming and I feel as though I am drowining in despair and self pity. The knowledge that His grace will see me through this day becomes more than a theological concept, It becomes a reality in the midst of the storm I am moving through. Thanks for stopping by today, and may God become an even greater reality in your life today. A reality that will take you through whatever situation you may be faced with.</p><p>God on you</p><p>mbb</p>Greene Street Lettershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17247028715761319408noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2017930191170786311.post-48302387715268265462023-08-10T06:11:00.005-05:002023-08-10T06:11:51.040-05:00NEVER GIVE UP!<p> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgimx0jrdp7pBNWBoZvRmbxIiEiP1ZT5UZY15xWyYVOl9ZHgjfkCAZGjOVBE0y74HxQVO_bBtvPmmd5BObdBsJXhnlAGL_VHMSKxTWk55N_M1-t6blcK5avMh1U1ZAsxOHgF7OI7OW71uLs/s1600/jesus+generation.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="color: #cc6611; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center; text-decoration-line: none;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgimx0jrdp7pBNWBoZvRmbxIiEiP1ZT5UZY15xWyYVOl9ZHgjfkCAZGjOVBE0y74HxQVO_bBtvPmmd5BObdBsJXhnlAGL_VHMSKxTWk55N_M1-t6blcK5avMh1U1ZAsxOHgF7OI7OW71uLs/s1600/jesus+generation.jpg" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border: 1px solid rgb(238, 238, 238); box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.1) 1px 1px 5px; padding: 5px; position: relative;" /></a></p><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #990000; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;"><b>I Peter 2:9-10 (The Message Bible)</b></span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #990000; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;"><b><i>But you are the ones chosen by God, chosen for the high calling of priestly work, chosen to be a holy people, God's instruments to do His work, and speak out for Him to tell others of the night-and-day difference He made for you----From nothing to something, from rejected to accepted.</i></b></span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #990000; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;"><b><i><br /></i></b></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;"></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: 13.2px;">1969....<br />We were the generation that was going to change the world.<br />A revival was sweeping the country and it was unlike any revival that we'd ever seen.<br />From California came a wave of God's Spirit calling out those from the counter culture to be changed. Salvation was everywhere, touching and changing lives that had been counted out by society.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: 13.2px;">Those who were changed by the Holy Spirit began to tell others...<br />The ones who heard this message were changed through God's Salvation....<br />They, in turn, told others, and it became a wave of God's love and freedom that took off across our country. Funny part in all of this..........it began out side the walls of the traditional church. In fact, the very fabric of church began to change to accommodate new music....new language for theology. As I've said over and over...."The message never changes...God's truth does not change. The vehicle the message is delivered in may change, but not the message."<br />And empowered by this message, we knew that we were going to be the generation that changed everything with the Kingdom message of Jesus.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: 13.2px;">We thought this movement would last forever.....</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: 13.2px;"><br /></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;"></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: 13.2px;">It has.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: 13.2px;">It has not lessened or lost power.<br />It has not become static or institutionalized by ritual or rote services.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: 13.2px;">We've grown older....<br />But as for me, I still burn with the fire of God to see people meet my Jesus.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: 13.2px;"><br /></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;"></span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><div class="separator" style="background-color: white; clear: both; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCsYPCMOQCA-dx2nNmYfzhTNRtve0M4E4V4UsKJv3kF36TdNbRtKC7CGYctNy8WpaNk7kh8jutb0zqSMWnTWYdcehueWSzYDNVGr1Efc256SbPYuYg1thD4-K7xeHilX1dWBFsD55-NRSR/s1600/Time+COver+Jesus.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; color: #cc6611; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-decoration-line: none;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCsYPCMOQCA-dx2nNmYfzhTNRtve0M4E4V4UsKJv3kF36TdNbRtKC7CGYctNy8WpaNk7kh8jutb0zqSMWnTWYdcehueWSzYDNVGr1Efc256SbPYuYg1thD4-K7xeHilX1dWBFsD55-NRSR/s320/Time+COver+Jesus.jpg" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border: 1px solid rgb(238, 238, 238); box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.1) 1px 1px 5px; padding: 5px; position: relative;" width="263" /></a></div><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: georgia, "times new roman", serif; font-size: 13.2px;"><br /></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #990000; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">You see, movement in the kingdom......this dynamic of bringing c</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">hange to society through the message of Jesus Christ is not confined to only those who are young.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">No doubt about it....those who are young have passion and fire. When they are touched by the Holy Spirit, something wonderful happens in the midst of all their "young-ness".</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">It's like being in love for the first time in your life. You want to tell everyone how great it is, and how they are missing out if they don't have that special someone in their own life. So you run around telling your story.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">But I've found out something about having a few years under my belt that I could never have known when I was younger. There is this thing called wisdom. Not as the world defines or gives to us, but that which comes from walking with Jesus for a number of years. Wisdom that comes from life experiences. I do not want my wisdom or view of life to distort the beauty and splendor that is Jesus. I don't want to be cynical of new ways or models that come along. I want to see Jesus in every aspect of His church. I don't want to be the old geezer who is always complaining and punctuates his sentences with "Back in my day....."</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">I want to be a torch passer. One who comes along side of this generation and encourages them to strike out and follow Jesus. I want to be like Billy Crystal in the movie "The Princess Bride" telling the hero and his followers...."Have fun storming the castle". I may not physically be able to do as much as when I was in my twenties....but my love for Jesus and the Kingdom message is still as fresh as the day I heard it for the first time.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">I want to worship Him and see Him in new ways.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">I want His word to unfold and reveal to me things I've never seen before.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">I want the presence and power of the Holy Spirit to move and heal people.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">I want to be the conduit through which the Holy Spirit flows and brings new babes into the Kingdom family.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">I want Jesus.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">Lastly, I do not want to define this upcoming generation. I want them to let Jesus define them and what they are called to do.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">Think on these things today...</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">God on you...</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">mbb</span>Greene Street Lettershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17247028715761319408noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2017930191170786311.post-89480916374154333842023-08-04T07:37:00.001-05:002023-08-04T07:37:06.210-05:00DARE WE BELIEVE?<p> </p><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0VUR4enSlvgRllZ7TX6PWzPnR5Ef7aEUo7OPSR516A_c36xKHjFx-tP6CtUy16eQkLS-_JqxpUVU9XbjPM-g0iz4k0eM3ShEVdevh6Fr665pi9MHBdOoKwXLHUrYwAWTrQsdlfr4QEYFZ/s1600-h/WhyRevivalStillTarries.jpg" style="background-color: white; color: #cc6611; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px; text-decoration-line: none;"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5228913438412662674" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0VUR4enSlvgRllZ7TX6PWzPnR5Ef7aEUo7OPSR516A_c36xKHjFx-tP6CtUy16eQkLS-_JqxpUVU9XbjPM-g0iz4k0eM3ShEVdevh6Fr665pi9MHBdOoKwXLHUrYwAWTrQsdlfr4QEYFZ/s320/WhyRevivalStillTarries.jpg" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border: 1px solid rgb(238, 238, 238); box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.1) 1px 1px 5px; display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; padding: 5px; position: relative; text-align: center;" /></a><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">It is amazing to me what one can find if you look. When ever I go to a bookstore, I always search out to see if they have a discount table or a cut rate book bin. Over the years, these are the places that I have found some hidden jewels that seem to escape the over-the-top merchandising that goes on by Christian publishers.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">I was at a local bookstore, in fact I wasn't even in the store. They had a roll around cart on the sidewalk loaded with different selections that had been marked down. I saw it. </span><strong style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;"><em>Why Revival Still Tarries. </em></strong><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">An updated answer to Leonard Ravenhill's </span><strong style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;"><em>Why Revival Tarries.</em></strong><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;"> Struck by the thought that someone would update a classic, I purchased the book.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">Written by Chad Taylor, </span><strong style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;"><em>Why Revival Still Tarries </em></strong><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">hits home to the Christian. This is not a book for the lost. It is not a book for the casual Christian (if there is such a definition). It is for the believer who is looking around at church and the business of the church and finds themselves a bit queasy over what they see.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">Taylor writes, "</span><strong style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;"><em>Why does revival still tarry? Because God's people still tarry. We have not left the catacombs of complacency and entered the battlefield of humanity. We linger in the conference lines and meeting halls hoping the Lord will "touch us" one more time. It's not a touch of casualness that God longs to give us, but a taste of His fire (pg.9)</em></strong><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><p style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">Such language strikes at the very heart of the church today.<br />A church who has traded the eternal things of God in order to get the lost inside their walls. Once there, the church has nothing to offer except entertainment, coffee and a danish.</p><p style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">Why does revival still tarry? Because our hearts are yet to be broken. We walk around with our pride and dignity still intact. Until we truly listen to the message of the Cross and the gospel of Jesus, we will not understand what God expects of us as His children.</p><p style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">God on you......</p><p style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">mb</p>Greene Street Lettershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17247028715761319408noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2017930191170786311.post-71509020996614164872023-07-28T08:52:00.002-05:002023-07-28T08:52:34.847-05:00JOY!<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDcG2ukoKxkoMc0O8BkHghMyOM3yWMUi_S5K-8JnHdO_RcXHQu6LLUAFpp00DQRrgHC94ns-SsOKKnO_jlGaypLJ0DX3qcYWBAY6ZAEnaS35D8c3sD6LjoG-yNlK3464e5tr0ExycReQYn2tfkm5jP66-xqFm6SsO-QPUb9m11uqCYo0ytgms4YSHkZDq4/s637/MB%20@%20Wafflehouse.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="437" data-original-width="637" height="220" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDcG2ukoKxkoMc0O8BkHghMyOM3yWMUi_S5K-8JnHdO_RcXHQu6LLUAFpp00DQRrgHC94ns-SsOKKnO_jlGaypLJ0DX3qcYWBAY6ZAEnaS35D8c3sD6LjoG-yNlK3464e5tr0ExycReQYn2tfkm5jP66-xqFm6SsO-QPUb9m11uqCYo0ytgms4YSHkZDq4/s320/MB%20@%20Wafflehouse.png" width="320" /></a></div><br /> <span style="font-family: verdana;">Many thanks to everyone who came out for the meeting last night, especially Debbie H. for filling in and teaching for me. I had the fluid drained yesterday and after such a procedure I am usually wiped out and good for nothing. Hopefully I will be back next Thursday.</span><p></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">I've mentioned on several occasions that because of my health, I've developed a new found love and view of scripture. One verse that has spoken to me is found in Hebrews 12:2 - "For the joy set before Him he endured the cross....." I think the reason this particular verse has stuck with me is the word "Joy." I've tried to rationalize the word "joy"and what it means, but I think the power of the word coupled with what Jesus was facing (the cross) is something that none of us can truly understand until we weigh the glory of heaven and being the the presence of Christ with the struggles and dark things of this world. The comparison of the two words (joy and glory) is where our real struggle lies. But Praise God we have a Savior who truly understands us an desires us to look beyond our 'Today" problems so we can see the hope and promise of Christ that has been afforded to every believer. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">Today I will embrace my "here problems" as I look to the eternal things that await me. I trust you will find comfort in these words, and that you also may lay hold of the person and presence of Christ.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">God on you....</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">mbb</span></p>Greene Street Lettershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17247028715761319408noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2017930191170786311.post-16719044521685604272023-07-27T06:14:00.005-05:002023-07-27T06:14:53.987-05:00I HAVE MET THE ENEMY....AND HE IS ME<p> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-cDnoZdBAp2I2rjodKHyaWAgmvIFuHmNq62aQqgNEmxolXsFv9LFx1ZSxhQO2fMzfiBILpynJZFhPZHdDh0XclBDR-QvR_EAYPUVvXKV18pXzIQmvAwhiedK1a1NBLzUzkngwfZaYx9me/s1600/1-corinthians-15-33_design.png" imageanchor="1" style="color: #cc6611; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center; text-decoration-line: none;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-cDnoZdBAp2I2rjodKHyaWAgmvIFuHmNq62aQqgNEmxolXsFv9LFx1ZSxhQO2fMzfiBILpynJZFhPZHdDh0XclBDR-QvR_EAYPUVvXKV18pXzIQmvAwhiedK1a1NBLzUzkngwfZaYx9me/s400/1-corinthians-15-33_design.png" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border: 1px solid rgb(238, 238, 238); box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.1) 1px 1px 5px; padding: 5px; position: relative;" width="400" /></a></p><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">Recovery Basics:101 - You are who you hang out with.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">Everyone who comes into treatment or begins a program to deal with their addiction knows this. But what most people don't realize, is that they themselves are the number # 1 person they don't need to hang out with.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">In other words, isolation is the killer to any recovery.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;"><br />When I'm left alone with my thoughts, I will lean toward going to that dark place where using or drinking is probably going to happen.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">When I'm alone at home, I will more than likely give in to the emotional thoughts that come up in my mind. We will perceive the pressure we are feeling from life is greater than it actually is. We will feel that the slights and hurts from others is like a open wound with salt in it. All of these will be compounded by the isolation and the very simple thought of "I can get away with using. No one is around and no one will know." Truth is, God is there with you. He is not silent and if you listen for Him, you will hear Him bringing encouragement and help. </span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;"><br /></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;"></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">We can come up with a million reasons why we don't need to be around others, but none of them are valid. We need community. We need people around us who are like-minded. Who can encourage us to keep on this journey with Jesus and our sobriety. There is strength in numbers....there is safety in the group....there is encouragement from each other. Sounds like church doesn't it? </span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;"><br /></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;"></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">The very first word of Step # 1 of the Twelve Steps is "WE".</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">Not "I" or "me".......but We.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">We have the collective experience that can be drawn from to aid us in this new way of living.<br />We can point each other to the Christ who IS the only Higher Power.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">After all....<br />We really don't have an alcohol or drug problem....<br />We've got a living problem.<br />Somewhere along the way, we have allowed our hearts and character to be deceived. Just like the woman in Genesis 3, we have bought the lies of the devil.<br />We have tasted the fruit and it was sweet, and it was good.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">But the consequences that followed our choice have brought utter destruction into our lives.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;"><br /></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;"></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">This is why God lead me to start Vineyard Recovery.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">A place where we can gain strength and courage for the journey.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">A place where we can grow in our understanding of who this Jesus really is.<br />A place where we can experience that change of character we all need to walk out this new life and relationship with Jesus.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">A place where we can connect and realize what an incredible family God is providing us with.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" />Greene Street Lettershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17247028715761319408noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2017930191170786311.post-23266391822417269572023-07-19T05:55:00.001-05:002023-07-19T05:55:17.085-05:00STAND<p> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjRuep2Xxj0qyff0L9RIH0T2FfmveimwTvrG0zU59ce9dt2ShCN4ranC6v66NaiS0jjVYx7dydMtwJjjlG_U0_3EWr9d1tqk9awoPAba5Oew4xigSdNx6HH9Pf4V3b2lDXO9Q5olXNiqRe-/s1600/What-and-How.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="color: #cc6611; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center; text-decoration-line: none;"><img border="0" data-original-height="901" data-original-width="1352" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjRuep2Xxj0qyff0L9RIH0T2FfmveimwTvrG0zU59ce9dt2ShCN4ranC6v66NaiS0jjVYx7dydMtwJjjlG_U0_3EWr9d1tqk9awoPAba5Oew4xigSdNx6HH9Pf4V3b2lDXO9Q5olXNiqRe-/s400/What-and-How.jpg" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border: 1px solid rgb(238, 238, 238); box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.1) 1px 1px 5px; padding: 5px; position: relative;" width="400" /></a></p><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "trebuchet ms", sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;">Adversity......</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "trebuchet ms", sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;">Trials...........<br />Problems......</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "trebuchet ms", sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;">Situations.....</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "trebuchet ms", sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;">Circumstances.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "trebuchet ms", sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;">All a part of life. But in the life of someone coming our of addiction, such are usually self-inflicted. The dark thoughts and negative emotions cloud and color the choices that are made. What this means is that sometimes a bad choice turns into a terrible choice, as one choice piles up on another in an effort to deal with life.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "trebuchet ms", sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;"><br /></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: arial, tahoma, helvetica, freesans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;"></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "trebuchet ms", sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;">I have been in the middle of these type situations for a long time. Watching someone make a bad choice because it seemed like the easier, softer way, rather than the right way.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "trebuchet ms", sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;">Someone chooses to drink, knowing full well what is going to happen.<br />They drink anyway.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "trebuchet ms", sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;">One drink leads to twelve, all the while putting the addiction stamp of approval on the decision to start. At the same time, the truth eats away at every decision. "You know better than this! Don't do this." But with every drink that voice is replaced with an accusing, sarcastic voice that demeans the individual with guilt and shame. These two wonderful emotions only fuel the cycle to drink so that you don't feel. Funny part is that the more you drink (or use drugs) so that you don't feel....the more you feel all the negative garbage that is being heaped on you.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "trebuchet ms", sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;"><br /></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: arial, tahoma, helvetica, freesans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;"></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "trebuchet ms", sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;">God's plan to deal with such emotional baggage is pretty amazing.<br />Once a person is saved, they have deposited in them God's Holy Spirit.<br />I know this term doesn't fit Him well, but think of the Holy Spirit as a type of "SUPER" conscience. Yet more than simply sound the alarms and whistles when we are headed toward making a bad choice, the Holy Spirit will direct us in our choices. All the while, He begins the process of changing our character so we don't live the old life style.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "trebuchet ms", sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;"><br /></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: arial, tahoma, helvetica, freesans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;"></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "trebuchet ms", sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;">I love James 1:2-4 in the Message Bible.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #990000; font-family: "trebuchet ms", sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;"><b><i>Consider it a sheer gift, friends, when tests and challenges come at you from all sides. You know that under pressure, your faith life is forced into the open and shows its true colors. So don't try to get out of anything prematurely. Let it (the situation/ circumstance) do its work so you become mature and well developed, not deficient in any way.</i></b></span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #990000; font-family: "trebuchet ms", sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;"><b><i><br /></i></b></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: arial, tahoma, helvetica, freesans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;"></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "trebuchet ms", sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;">Instead of cutting and running back to the darkness, we take hold of Jesus' hand a little tighter. "I will not run! I will stand!" As we declare our intention, God's Spirit will strengthen us. It will be a storm to weather, but as with any terrible weather pattern, there is always a break and the sun comes shining through. Same with this new life we are trying to lay hold of. The storms of life will come and buffet us, but the SON, Jesus, will come shining through. That is a promise.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "trebuchet ms", sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;"><br /></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: arial, tahoma, helvetica, freesans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;"></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "trebuchet ms", sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;">During the darkest time of world war II, when England stood alone against the German War machine, Prime minister Winston Churchill told the people that when history looks back at their struggle, it would declare "This was their finest hour."<br />Such will be recorded for everyone who lays hold of Jesus, and does not let go but pushes forward to face the day.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "trebuchet ms", sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;"><br /></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: arial, tahoma, helvetica, freesans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;"></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "trebuchet ms", sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;">God on you...</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "trebuchet ms", sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;">mbb</span>Greene Street Lettershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17247028715761319408noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2017930191170786311.post-25756805004245445602023-07-10T04:55:00.003-05:002023-07-10T04:55:35.533-05:00STEVEN<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiS20ebYbaux6fua1YkTHclwYVist4L5NB5DbSMuNP-35Us0Q8w013BiNYG_UVO9QFR0Sql__8OPR048tbWkNhIVGq7tofKbbr9zXvbzg0U-DPNb6YDToT_G0FQxVf8TYu716LYv508GKlQKn6CIoKIV1hbIYq1GOTRlXagGuJUO4gIuquYbxXm2iI4G0jK/s225/Good%20bye.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="225" data-original-width="225" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiS20ebYbaux6fua1YkTHclwYVist4L5NB5DbSMuNP-35Us0Q8w013BiNYG_UVO9QFR0Sql__8OPR048tbWkNhIVGq7tofKbbr9zXvbzg0U-DPNb6YDToT_G0FQxVf8TYu716LYv508GKlQKn6CIoKIV1hbIYq1GOTRlXagGuJUO4gIuquYbxXm2iI4G0jK/s1600/Good%20bye.png" width="225" /></a></div><br /><p></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">He was a regular to our Saturday "breakfast give-away." He loved the social aspect to coming and being with a group of people. He would stay to the very end before we took him home. Health issues limited his mobility and there were days when I would give him a ride to the meal where I knew he didn't really feel like being there.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">He was always telling me that he wished he could do more to help with the meal, and I always assured him that his just being there, sitting and talking to the others was a big help.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">He came to the meal this past Saturday and in fact told me that he felt pretty good that morning. He seemed to be getting around a lot better and didn't appear to be in any pain. He ate breakfast, talked with the ones seated near him, and just seemed to be his old self.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">As we were finishing up and getting ready to go, several of our group came by and prayed for him, hugged him and let him know how much we loved him. He was one of those rare individuals that God puts in our path that teaches us more than we taught him. That was the last I saw of Steven Redman.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">Received a call from Barry Hooks yesterday morning. Barry told me that Steven had died the night before. I sat there with a couple of thousand questions running through my brain. "But we just saw Steven less than 24 hours earlier!" Now he was gone. I could ponder that greater questions about life, what does it mean, why are we here?" But I chose to pray and than God for bringing Steven into our life. <br /><br />I do know that Steven clearly knows the truth that you and I claim to believe. All of his questions have been answered and he sees Jesus in way that we haven't. If you would please pray for Steven's family, that the Holy Spirit would bring peace and comfort them during this time. Also pray that if there be any among his family who doesn't have a relationship/salvation with Christ, they come to a saving knowledge of their need to give themselves to Christ.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">Steven...........I will miss you my old friend.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">God on you...</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">mbb</span></p>Greene Street Lettershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17247028715761319408noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2017930191170786311.post-22642091923214346372023-07-07T06:30:00.003-05:002023-07-07T06:30:57.944-05:00REVISITING THE PATH TO RECOVERY<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHvn3lhxpALUggR7Fxq34A3fHyRUvK1im_R-99V8BBYwYwPpIwmoi1715YIM8SIsfH8hGdchNSxoWbeL8M9RlapMel1c1hqYSovS94ss9wfl7zeRM-jL1MShzjmvuQEec_Wz2F3PYRhxd54MyIgSspVkpugbovKtFS1SyNNkP7BsuCYqCnJKglqoJYYmGr/s227/Dark%20MBB.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="170" data-original-width="227" height="170" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHvn3lhxpALUggR7Fxq34A3fHyRUvK1im_R-99V8BBYwYwPpIwmoi1715YIM8SIsfH8hGdchNSxoWbeL8M9RlapMel1c1hqYSovS94ss9wfl7zeRM-jL1MShzjmvuQEec_Wz2F3PYRhxd54MyIgSspVkpugbovKtFS1SyNNkP7BsuCYqCnJKglqoJYYmGr/s1600/Dark%20MBB.jpg" width="227" /></a></div><br /> <b style="color: #222222; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;"><u>Addiction:</u><i> </i></b><p></p><span style="background-color: white; color: #990000; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;"><b><u>Proverbs 14:12</u><i> - There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death.</i></b></span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #990000; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;"><b><i><br /></i></b></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;"></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #990000; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;"><b><u>Romans 7:15</u><i> - For that which I am doing, I do not understand; for I am not practicing what I would like to do, but I am doing the very thing I hate.</i></b></span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #990000; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;"><b><i><br /></i></b></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;"></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">These two verses show the power and lie that an addiction has over an individual who has started down that slippery slope of using. You can blame the substance all you want, but at the heart of it all is a broken relationship with Christ. A heart that is not connected to the very one who gave it life. A heart that is driven, ruled, and influenced by a nature....a behavior that society refuses to admit to. We call it a sin nature. I don't sit here this morning posting this entry with the idea that I am above such nature. I'm not. I came into this world with the bent in my character...my heart...and my thinking that affected my life. Every human ever born comes equipped with such a nature. You see, it isn't the deeds we do because of this nature that we refer to as sin. Sin is the heart (the center of will, emotion and intellect) of who we are. We carry this death sentence around with us. Some folks are good at not allowing this nature to run rampant (such as drugging and drinking)...other aren't. No matter what the evidence is in your life of that nature....we are all still in need of having that animal destroyed so we could live life on Jesus' terms. So in one sense, recovery is more than simply "not using" or giving into that old desire that captured us in the first place, recovery is establishing a real relationship with Jesus, our Creator.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;"><br /></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;"></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #990000; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;"><b><u>Recovery</u><i> - The entire process of healing from the painful effects of dysfunctional behavior. </i></b></span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">Healing....real healing that affects every area of our life comes through a relationship that we come to with Jesus Christ. God created us with a glorious purpose in mind. Sin has warped and twisted that purpose. Recovery is the process of restoring what sin has taken away.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;"><br /></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;"></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">So, bottom line is that the goal of recovery is to live a life of joyful obedience in this relationship we have been given through our salvation with Christ. To maintain abstinence because we want to, not because we have to. Recovery is the process of developing a Christ-honoring lifestyle that meets the needs we tried to satisfy with drugs and/ or alcohol.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;"><br /></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;"></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">All recovery (no matter what the focus of your problem is...drinking...gambling....drugs...sex) begins at the same place..at the same point...with the same confession.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">We call it Step # 1!</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;"><br /></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;"></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #990000; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;"><b><i>We admitted that by ourselves, we are powerless over our compulsive behavior (no matter how it may manifest in our life)---that our lives have become unmanageable.</i></b></span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #990000; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;"><b><i><br /></i></b></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;"></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">We have looked inside ourselves for the answer to our problem, and we cannot, nor did we, find it. With this reality, we begin the search for the answer to our problem. Until I can admit my need and that I am not the answer to my problem, I can never break free of this beast that controls my life.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">Today, know that there is an answer.<br />There is a Power that can free you.<br />The Power has a name.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">That name is JESUS.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;"><br /></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;"></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">God on you...</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">mbb</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;"><br /></span>Greene Street Lettershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17247028715761319408noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2017930191170786311.post-89271769663324772792023-07-04T05:41:00.003-05:002023-07-04T05:41:46.741-05:00THE REAL DEAL<p> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0EB9_yjVQSeM6IKdQfqfpChMUOsKO2m599YQnu9r5Xl3DXHlTv4o-BYxynqFovgYgsajPvO-T6fJd6zO-f-SAraBc9J_E2g20MppUWlWgdwlbD5a4A_pkjOw5IDiqQ9r5l31hcRGx3pVf/s1600/vine1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="color: #cc6611; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center; text-decoration-line: none;"><img border="0" height="320" hw="true" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0EB9_yjVQSeM6IKdQfqfpChMUOsKO2m599YQnu9r5Xl3DXHlTv4o-BYxynqFovgYgsajPvO-T6fJd6zO-f-SAraBc9J_E2g20MppUWlWgdwlbD5a4A_pkjOw5IDiqQ9r5l31hcRGx3pVf/s320/vine1.jpg" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border: 1px solid rgb(238, 238, 238); box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.1) 1px 1px 5px; padding: 5px; position: relative;" width="240" /></a></p><div class="separator" style="background-color: white; clear: both; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div align="left" class="separator" style="background-color: white; clear: both; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px; text-align: center;"><strong>John 15:1 -- <em> "I AM the true vine, and my Father is the husbandman."</em></strong></div><div align="left" class="separator" style="background-color: white; clear: both; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div align="left" class="separator" style="background-color: white; clear: both; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px; text-align: center;">Words of Jesus.</div><div align="left" class="separator" style="background-color: white; clear: both; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px; text-align: center;">Jesus identifies himself along with his relationship with his Father.</div><div align="left" class="separator" style="background-color: white; clear: both; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px; text-align: center;">He understands the exact nature of his position in the Godhead.<br />He is the Son and is submissive to the Father.<br />What the Father asks....</div><div align="left" class="separator" style="background-color: white; clear: both; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px; text-align: center;">The Son does.</div><div align="left" class="separator" style="background-color: white; clear: both; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px; text-align: center;">Oh that I could learn and understand my position in Christ.</div><div align="left" class="separator" style="background-color: white; clear: both; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px; text-align: center;">I fit into this wonderful hierarchy of heaven, based solely on my salvation.<br />I am a son.<br />I am an heir.</div><div align="left" class="separator" style="background-color: white; clear: both; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px; text-align: center;">I am a friend.<br />I am a servant.</div><div align="left" class="separator" style="background-color: white; clear: both; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div align="left" class="separator" style="background-color: white; clear: both; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px; text-align: center;">Jesus, in the opening words of John 15, makes an interesting statement.</div><div align="left" class="separator" style="background-color: white; clear: both; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px; text-align: center;">He says, "I AM the true vine."</div><div align="left" class="separator" style="background-color: white; clear: both; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px; text-align: center;">Why would he have to say this?<br />Why would He say this?<br />Why identify himself?</div><div align="left" class="separator" style="background-color: white; clear: both; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div align="left" class="separator" style="background-color: white; clear: both; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px; text-align: center;">Because Jesus knew that there were false vines out there.<br />He could distinguish them, but he knew that we lacked discernment and would fall prey to these "false" vines.</div><div align="left" class="separator" style="background-color: white; clear: both; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px; text-align: center;">It is written in Romans 10:17 that<strong><em> faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God.</em></strong></div><div align="left" class="separator" style="background-color: white; clear: both; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px; text-align: center;">Do you realize how many voices are out there today all claiming the same thing?</div><div align="left" class="separator" style="background-color: white; clear: both; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px; text-align: center;">Do you realize how easily people are swayed by the mannerisms and image of those who belong to the false vine?</div><div align="left" class="separator" style="background-color: white; clear: both; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px; text-align: center;">Jesus simply and clearly states....."Hey guys...I'm the one you're listening for."</div><div align="left" class="separator" style="background-color: white; clear: both; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px; text-align: center;">"I am the true vine."</div><div align="left" class="separator" style="background-color: white; clear: both; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px; text-align: center;">Jesus is the complete that my can fill my soul.</div><div align="left" class="separator" style="background-color: white; clear: both; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px; text-align: center;">Jesus is the complete that can satisfy a hunger that will not go away.</div><div align="left" class="separator" style="background-color: white; clear: both; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px; text-align: center;">Jesus is the complete that can bring rest to my wandering eyes and feet.</div><div align="left" class="separator" style="background-color: white; clear: both; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px; text-align: center;">He makes me lie down in green pastures to rest and be restored.</div><div align="left" class="separator" style="background-color: white; clear: both; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px; text-align: center;">He is the true vine that keeps every promise the Father has spoken.</div><div align="left" class="separator" style="background-color: white; clear: both; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div align="left" class="separator" style="background-color: white; clear: both; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px; text-align: center;">This is why King David could write, "<strong>The Lord is my shepherd...I shall not want."</strong></div><div align="left" class="separator" style="background-color: white; clear: both; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px; text-align: center;">Do you really understand the words that David wrote?<br />DO I really understand the words that David wrote?<br />Read again the words of Ps. 23...</div><div align="left" class="separator" style="background-color: white; clear: both; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px; text-align: center;"><strong><em>The Lord is my shepherd.....I.....SHALL......NOT......Want.</em></strong></div><div align="left" class="separator" style="background-color: white; clear: both; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px; text-align: center;">There is a satisfaction that we do not realize when we come to Jesus.</div><div align="left" class="separator" style="background-color: white; clear: both; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px; text-align: center;">There is a wholeness that comes to our spirit, soul and body when we come to Jesus.</div><div align="left" class="separator" style="background-color: white; clear: both; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px; text-align: center;">I....shall....not....want.</div><div align="left" class="separator" style="background-color: white; clear: both; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px; text-align: center;">Wow!<br />Father God...<br />Help me this day to truly realize that I shall not want in this relationship with you.<br />Lord, I know that it speaks not of material things that would only stir my flesh, but of the eternal things that you have promised to those whose hearts are totally committed to you.</div><div align="left" class="separator" style="background-color: white; clear: both; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px; text-align: center;">Lord, plant us deep in your vine today and receive the nourishment only you can give.</div><div align="left" class="separator" style="background-color: white; clear: both; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px; text-align: center;">Thank you...<br />In Jesus name..</div><div align="left" class="separator" style="background-color: white; clear: both; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px; text-align: center;">amen!</div><div align="left" class="separator" style="background-color: white; clear: both; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div align="left" class="separator" style="background-color: white; clear: both; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px; text-align: center;">God on you...</div><div align="left" class="separator" style="background-color: white; clear: both; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px; text-align: center;">mb</div>Greene Street Lettershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17247028715761319408noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2017930191170786311.post-84719901867277053112023-06-29T05:57:00.003-05:002023-06-29T05:57:36.638-05:00DARE WE CHANGE OUR VIEW AND LIFE TODAY?<p> </p><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJnWCeFpVVgIF8Qm4JyodWEVWgHnM4Xj2c_yYdX4hCqqxjo23LhQhhtmCHiB7Dtly_bNj_42B1u4suST6oCfRY-Ww4jRPwftRIZotW_48ImIlPAHQsGpVfsyoZfnrjs-JnYZlpmv-_cDjC/s1600-h/AAA1.bmp" style="background-color: white; color: #cc6611; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px; text-decoration-line: none;"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5362006403707158434" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJnWCeFpVVgIF8Qm4JyodWEVWgHnM4Xj2c_yYdX4hCqqxjo23LhQhhtmCHiB7Dtly_bNj_42B1u4suST6oCfRY-Ww4jRPwftRIZotW_48ImIlPAHQsGpVfsyoZfnrjs-JnYZlpmv-_cDjC/s400/AAA1.bmp" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border: 1px solid rgb(238, 238, 238); box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.1) 1px 1px 5px; display: block; height: 347px; margin: 0px auto 10px; padding: 5px; position: relative; text-align: center; width: 400px;" /></a><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">The beginning of any recovery begins with recognizing how powerless we are because of our dependency on outside influence, be it alcohol or drugs or whatever, to manage the day to day affairs of our live. Living this way really puts the skids on what you and I would refer to as good judgment. The inability to control and make good decisions is only complicated by the fact that in our own minds we don't want to admit to this behavior. We are doing fine. We are just having some set backs. Set backs? We haven't seen these kind of set backs since Uncle Harry refused to get on Cousin Noah's ark. There is a verse associated with this first step and it is found in Proverbs 14:12....</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><em style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death.</em><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">Do you see this? Did you catch that verse? There is a way.........a behavior........an attitude that seems right....its seems socially acceptable..........it appears to make all the sense in the world........but the end result of this way, this decision is headed to only one place.......death, both physically and spiritually. Let's move on!</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">If we had stopped here at this first step, that would be a pretty hopeless place to pitch our tent. I am grateful that this first step is only the beginning. Each step builds on the other which takes us out of and above our dependencies. So now that I've admitted I am powerless and that my life is unmanageable, what next?</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">There must be someone or something that can aid me and help me with what seems like these insurmountable living problems I have created. Ahhh! There is help. The Calvary has arrived.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><strong style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">Step#2</strong><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><strong style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">We came to believe that a power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.</strong><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><p style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">At the same place we admitted our inability, it is there we began the search (whether we were aware of it or not) to find an answer to our problems. Many of you may be reading this and think that it all sounds like mumbo jumbo or some kind of formula for self help. Nothing could be farther from the truth. If I have a problem and that problem is found within me, why would I think that the answer would also be inside me? You may be reading this and wonder what in the world am I talking about. Let me put it this way. You don't really have an alcohol/drug/dependency problem, you've got a living problem. You have a broken relationship with the one person who possesses the power to help you rise above all the destruction and pain created by your bad choices. That person is Jesus Christ. He is the power that can restore you to sanity. If I am in need of being restored to sanity, what does that say about my current state? It says that I am living a life of insanity. Insanity is the lack of ability to make sound decisions.</p><p style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">The answer to (this sounds so flippant but trust me, it isn't) all our problems is found in Jesus. Not the church, not some pastor (even though I am such an animal) but in Jesus. The church is where I go to hang out with people who are like me, kind of tore up from the floor up and looking to Jesus for the answers to my problems. Let's take a look at what we have so far.<br /><strong><em>We admitted, by that I mean we are brutally truthful to ourselves and those around us that we are powerless and not able to manage our own lives.</em></strong></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;"><strong><em>This powerlessness and inability to manage our own life has turned our focus from our self to looking for a power greater than us who can restore us to being able to make sound decisions.</em></strong></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">Here are some verses that may help as you take this journey to a new beginning.</p><p style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;"><strong><em>Philippians 2:13 - For it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure</em></strong></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;"><strong><em>John 3:17 - For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world should be saved through Him.</em></strong></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;"><strong><em>Luke 9:56 - For the Son of Man did not come to destroy men's lives, but to save them.</em></strong></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;"><strong><em>Mark 9:23 - And Jesus said to him, "If you can! All things are possible to him who believes.</em></strong></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">May God richly bless you and lead you into truth...</p><p style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">Mbb</p>Greene Street Lettershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17247028715761319408noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2017930191170786311.post-73308828662089095832023-06-28T05:38:00.003-05:002023-06-28T05:38:14.887-05:00WHERE ARE THE VOICES<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9nvgVk1HlgosV5O9AjQ0sYk5t9GLWFhgh_LNlsh9bn4_JnBqR4EWxgaVEHU4CmmOVgW3gzdmsmNiXWHl7x-G2EvgjpL6gN8zBhHwulcWt8ncq5kQfxCmiYYX7YdEb3LRjDNcbg3PeGTgTelRHSsxpIg0O65uR-cEnSHM7cb1FdhjYwFnz_ptbKpi8QVbe/s1280/Holiness.webp" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="853" data-original-width="1280" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9nvgVk1HlgosV5O9AjQ0sYk5t9GLWFhgh_LNlsh9bn4_JnBqR4EWxgaVEHU4CmmOVgW3gzdmsmNiXWHl7x-G2EvgjpL6gN8zBhHwulcWt8ncq5kQfxCmiYYX7YdEb3LRjDNcbg3PeGTgTelRHSsxpIg0O65uR-cEnSHM7cb1FdhjYwFnz_ptbKpi8QVbe/s320/Holiness.webp" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p></p><p><strong style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;"><em>Ezekiel 44:23</em></strong><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><strong style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;"><em>They will teach my people the difference between what is holy and what is common, what is ceremonially clean and what is unclean.</em></strong><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><strong style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;"><em></em></strong><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">Seems to me today that there aren't any voices (or at least I am not aware of any) that are speaking about what is holy in our society and what isn't. We seem to have adopted a "don't ask, don't tell" attitude about what is and isn't acceptable for those who are believers. You won't hear a lot of messages about purity and holiness. Why? Because it infringes upon our liberty. The one statement that I hold to is one that I heard years ago. Liberty and freedom does not give you the right to do what you want to do.......if affords you the opportunity to do what you ought to do.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">We somehow have the idea that because we have the Holy Spirit living inside of us we can take the attitudes and behaviors of the world and turn then into things that are Holy before God. I don't believe that is the way it works.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" />Besides, it is easier to rail against the sin of the world, our society, and our culture than it is to turn that light back upon the church.</p><p>I don't think God has called us to holiness as a suggestion. I think He truly is jealous for a people who have , like the Apostle Paul wrote, "Been crucified to the world and the world crucified to the His church. Does this mean we neglect teaching against any behavior that rejects God? I think not. But maybe we need to get our own house in order. <span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">Think on this today-----Are there things in your life that are displeasing to God? Do you try and justify your actions under the guise of God's grace?</span></p><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">Seek that which is holy and cut off that which isn't.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">God on you...........</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">mb</span></p>Greene Street Lettershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17247028715761319408noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2017930191170786311.post-64791194538593565962023-06-25T05:09:00.003-05:002023-06-25T05:09:51.768-05:00MAKING THE MOST OF 24<p> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-YOWnwUUZDa6Fr6QtX4GdqkHzKpEzs5Tx6YVq2SuIoADRJtKmleFV4txDfC_bf2xa0w12TO0QXuB8iqWw9bexFowBd2kxvEGjGnlCWp_ekjHXS7bWfOhwoqp72FPHYZw2CmqZy3Q3lZoB/s1600/one-day-at-a-time.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="color: #cc6611; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center; text-decoration-line: none;"><img border="0" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-YOWnwUUZDa6Fr6QtX4GdqkHzKpEzs5Tx6YVq2SuIoADRJtKmleFV4txDfC_bf2xa0w12TO0QXuB8iqWw9bexFowBd2kxvEGjGnlCWp_ekjHXS7bWfOhwoqp72FPHYZw2CmqZy3Q3lZoB/s400/one-day-at-a-time.jpg" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border: 1px solid rgb(238, 238, 238); box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.1) 1px 1px 5px; padding: 5px; position: relative;" width="400" /></a></p><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #990000; font-family: verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;"><b>Matthew 6:25</b></span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #990000; font-family: verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;"><b><i>That is why I tell you not to worry about everyday life........</i></b></span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #990000; font-family: verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;"><b><br /></b></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;"></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #990000; font-family: verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;"><b>Matthew 6:32</b></span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #990000; font-family: verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;"><b><i>These things dominate the thoughts of unbelievers, but your heavenly Father already knows all your needs.</i></b></span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #990000; font-family: verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;"><b><i><br /></i></b></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;"></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">I've said it myself when talking with someone about their recovery.<br />You know what I'm talking about.<br />"You just need to focus on one day at a time."<br />We see it on bumper stickers....<br />Wall plaques........</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">Throws and pillows....<br />Notebooks and lapel pins....<br />"ONE DAY AT A TIME".</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">But you know what?<br />I can't think of any thing that is better at describing the way we all should approach life, not just someone in addiction.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;"><br /></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;"></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">A few years back I went with a friend of mine to do a "Twelve Step" call.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">A mutual acquaintance had relapsed and was going off the tracks.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">One bad decision led to two bad decisions, and you know the rest of the story.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">Anyway, here we were, the three of us, standing outside talking over the situation.<br />Our relapsed buddy was all remorse and guilty, yet at the same time, he was spinning way out into the future of what all he needed to do. Never mind there was a mess to clean up today....let's get all wrapped around the axle about this weekend, as well as next week.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">We quickly reminded him that his only concern was to take care of today.<br />Do what needed to be done to get back on the right road to recovery.<br />I told him that if he didn't take care of today, there would not be any "tomorrow" to worry about.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;"><br /></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;"></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">The focus should be on "What do I need to do today?"</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">Go to meeting? Probably...wouldn't hurt.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">Place myself in a setting where I can be accountable? Well, duh? I would say that was a good start.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">Do you catch what is going on here.....<br />All of us....</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">Sober or drunk, no matter what state you are in, need to focus on today.<br />"Did I spend time with God?" (Reading His word, listening for His voice). If not, why? Why did I neglect this valuable asset that would aid me in the journey He wants me to follow?</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;"><br /></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;"></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">We discount today because of our problems, thinking that if I can simply get through this 24 hours, I'll be able to catch my breath. Well, sometimes that works. But more often than not, those things we have ignored hang around out there in the darkness waiting for tomorrow to get here so they can rise up and bite with an even more vicious bite. Take the time to take care of your business today.....</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;"><br /></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;"></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">Part of our daily "business-taking-care-of" includes watching over our heart and mind. Making sure we haven't allowed any bitterness, resentment or unforgiveness to take root. If we don't removes such character-defect-roots, we will harvest trouble at some point down the road. We do a daily inventory to make sure our lives are free from such. In fact, in Hebrews, we are admonished to not let our hearts go cold and hard to the leading of God.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #990000; font-family: verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;"><b>Hebrews 3:15</b></span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #990000; font-family: verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;"><b><i>Remember what it says (Psalm 95:7-8) "Today when you hear His voice, don't harden your hearts" as Israel did whey they rebelled.</i></b></span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">Get it?<br />Today....</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">One day at a time....</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">Stay focused and always be listening for God to speak to you.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">You'll know it's Him because He will always instruct you to do the things you don't really want to do.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">Remember....<br />All you have to do is take care of today.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;"><br />God on you....</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">mbb</span>Greene Street Lettershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17247028715761319408noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2017930191170786311.post-45242990237547702172023-06-23T04:55:00.005-05:002023-06-23T04:55:59.475-05:00THE ARE OF HEAVENLY CONTENTMENT<p> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEioBkrkjm7GWyeopAVUuJzoJmKEaPQES1o0CEodwIyHWm4PVWZdlwP7lybFgLfdKm33ioCbvPV7zg4gk94MRpfC0MeFFj-6CPdruj2ebEMdbR9L4EaiEbBE2V52yn4R331Gc7ehch61Dd2O/s1600/thinking-cap-header.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="color: #cc6611; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center; text-decoration-line: none;"><img border="0" height="112" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEioBkrkjm7GWyeopAVUuJzoJmKEaPQES1o0CEodwIyHWm4PVWZdlwP7lybFgLfdKm33ioCbvPV7zg4gk94MRpfC0MeFFj-6CPdruj2ebEMdbR9L4EaiEbBE2V52yn4R331Gc7ehch61Dd2O/s400/thinking-cap-header.jpg" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border: 1px solid rgb(238, 238, 238); box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.1) 1px 1px 5px; padding: 5px; position: relative;" width="400" /></a></p><b><u>RE-POST FROM 2015</u></b><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #990000; font-family: "trebuchet ms", sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;"><b><br /></b></span><div><span style="background-color: white; color: #990000; font-family: "trebuchet ms", sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;"><b><br /></b></span></div><div><span style="background-color: white; color: #990000; font-family: "trebuchet ms", sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;"><b>Philippians 4 (The Message Bible)</b></span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #990000; font-family: "trebuchet ms", sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;"><b><i>Actually, I don't have a sense of needing anything personally. I've learned by now to be quiet content whatever my circumstances. I'm just happy with little as with much, with much as with little. I've found the recipe for being happy whether full or hungry, hands full or hands empty. Whatever I have, wherever I am, I can make it through anything in the ONE who makes me who I am. </i></b></span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #990000; font-family: "trebuchet ms", sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;"><b><i><br /></i></b></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;"></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "trebuchet ms", sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">Stopping for a moment to ruminate on life.<br />Not looking for answers, or pontificating on the meaning of our existence. I'll leave that to minds that are more intelligent that my noodle.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "trebuchet ms", sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">Just looking back over my journey of years.<br />Wishing I could do somethings different, but fully realizing that had I been able to, it would have probably changed who I am today. So, I don't think I am going to paddle down that creek.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "trebuchet ms", sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;"><br /></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;"></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "trebuchet ms", sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">Very grateful for people I've met along the way....<br />Got a call from one of them today. He got a bad report after having an exam by his family doctor. Lung cancer. Seems as though the cancer didn't originate in the lungs, but has spread at this time. As he told me the news, his voice was lite and filled with hope. He didn't like hearing that his body had been invaded but, at the same time, he wasn't going to pack up and move to the land of depression and gloom. His take was that he would face it one day at a time. Celebrate the good days...and hang on to make it through the bad. I want to be like my friend. Have a total understanding that life happens on this side of heaven. Good people get cancer. Bad people seem to skate through every bad thing that happens. Good people get their drivers license and go to the store for their mother. Bad people get drunk and hit said good person head on killing them. Bad people go away without a scratch. I want what Paul wrote about in the Philippians passage. The ability to rest in Jesus, and by doing so find a heavenly contentment that doesn't make sense to an earthly mind.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "trebuchet ms", sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;"><br /></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;"></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "trebuchet ms", sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">A contentment that has a foundation that cannot be shaken by earthly situations or circumstances. One that allows our steps to be sure and steady even though the path we're on seems to be experiencing mega-quakes bent on unsettling us, and knocking us off our journey with Jesus. I want that kind of contentment.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "trebuchet ms", sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;"><br /></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;"></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "trebuchet ms", sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">Sometimes, I wish God had written or spoke out about having a spiritual "Backbone".</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "trebuchet ms", sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">I'm not so sure such backbone isn't a part of the giftings of the Holy Spirit. A kind of grit and mindset (not to mention heart set) that speaks to us saying, "Dig your heels in and stand firm in the strength of the Lord....this thing your facing won't last forever." All part of being content. Oh yeah....by the way, contentment doesn't mean you are happy or joyful about your current state of life....it just means that your o.k., knowing that it is a temporary thing you are facing. Face, everything is temporary when it comes to following an eternal God. Hmmmm. Maybe that is part of what contentment is all about. </span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "trebuchet ms", sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;"><br /></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;"></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "trebuchet ms", sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">God on you....</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "trebuchet ms", sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">mbb</span></div>Greene Street Lettershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17247028715761319408noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2017930191170786311.post-52366860494652225442023-06-19T04:31:00.001-05:002023-06-19T04:31:21.659-05:00<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEigbCyyw7crP4VN4KjzLaY8q4kbIDqy2OufF-Fy902b_8vM8nmrc0wkYk-pjE3emc1WXQYQ3m0Yd0a9V6kwkNnnt0321KVXvraZa0A8rxARhXA1Bln42QqAny05QSxDDdwfFONlFHaYFf6omd7qtPkui6IOCSxLuXTFWeyXWMVyHID7WuAHq1Mnqu55w8j6/s1600/GVC.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1067" data-original-width="1600" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEigbCyyw7crP4VN4KjzLaY8q4kbIDqy2OufF-Fy902b_8vM8nmrc0wkYk-pjE3emc1WXQYQ3m0Yd0a9V6kwkNnnt0321KVXvraZa0A8rxARhXA1Bln42QqAny05QSxDDdwfFONlFHaYFf6omd7qtPkui6IOCSxLuXTFWeyXWMVyHID7WuAHq1Mnqu55w8j6/s320/GVC.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p></p><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">There seems to be two camps among the faithful.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">One is about a pain-free God.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">The other is about a pain-filled God.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">I think maybe the real truth of the matter is found somewhere in the middle.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">That there is a God who leads His children through what we have come to know as "Life".</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">Life happens.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">It's messy.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">It's fun.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">It's happy and sad (sometimes at the same time).</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">It's hard and you want to run away.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">It's satisfying and you want to live forever.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">It's call life.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">And in the middle of it is this voice. The voice of the Lord bidding (calling) those who would, come. Simply come to Him.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">As Dietrich Bonhoffer wrote......</span><em style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">Christ bids us to come and die. Nothing more. For in the dying we find true life.</em><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">Upon the shoulders of this one we call CHRIST....resides the Spirit of the Lord. He was chosen and sent here to this world to preach the gospel to the poor. Poor in material possession. He was sent and equipped to heal the brokenhearted. Those who had lost hope and wandered aimlessly at the mercy of the master of this world.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">Jesus was sent to proclaim with a loud voice and with deeds and signs that let it be known beyond any doubt that God had, in fact, invaded time and space and declared war on the kingdom of darkness.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">Jesus came to take back sight and give it to the blind..........both those who had lost their actual ability to see and those who were taken into spiritual darkness.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">He had the ability to set free those who were oppressed. They may be held down by the system of this world, but nothing..........no government, no group, no ruler can ever bind and stop the spirit of God inside of a believer.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">Jesus proclaimed that this was the acceptable and favorable year of the Lord.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">Thank you Lord for life and I pray that I seek you out at every turn today so that I can follow your direction and live life in the manner you desire me to.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">Blessed be your name,</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">and may you bless everyone who has stopped by Greene Street today.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">In Jesus name....</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">Amen.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">God on you..........</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">mb</span></p>Greene Street Lettershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17247028715761319408noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2017930191170786311.post-80401338367773212162023-06-15T04:28:00.004-05:002023-06-15T04:29:47.424-05:00TOTE THAT BARGE---LIFT THAT BALE---BLAME SOMEONE ELSE<p> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_QDaFg0ILzRHIPBtLW68B68IrcTGOWJ5wSbjXO5E6HrPTgN7X5bGLlwJDtuFzve2-IVGJtde3cYZj5fCWzArDppRvcYSgunrxBj9BLKChk5dPXV394pOOAR_xZACu_sHrjAaColYBQeRD/s1600/blameshift.jpg" style="color: #cc6611; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center; text-decoration-line: none;"><img border="0" data-original-height="360" data-original-width="480" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_QDaFg0ILzRHIPBtLW68B68IrcTGOWJ5wSbjXO5E6HrPTgN7X5bGLlwJDtuFzve2-IVGJtde3cYZj5fCWzArDppRvcYSgunrxBj9BLKChk5dPXV394pOOAR_xZACu_sHrjAaColYBQeRD/s400/blameshift.jpg" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border: 1px solid rgb(238, 238, 238); box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.1) 1px 1px 5px; padding: 5px; position: relative;" width="400" /></a></p><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><span face="Verdana, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #990000; font-size: 13.2px;"><b>Genesis 3:12</b></span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><span face="Verdana, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #990000; font-size: 13.2px;"><b><i>The man said, "The woman whom You gave to be with me, she gave me from the tree, and I ate.</i></b></span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><span face="Verdana, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #990000; font-size: 13.2px;"><b><i><br /></i></b></span><span face="Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 13.2px;"></span><span face="Verdana, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 13.2px;">Blame shifting found its origin and birth when sin was brought into the garden by the actions of Adam and Eve. Actually, it was the man who tried to shift God's attention from his mess up to her mess up. "Hey, God!!! Looky here at what this here woman has done. I told her she better not eat that fruit. Would she listen to me? Noooooo! She did it anyway." Basically what Adam was saying is that Eve disobeyed first, so she should be the focal point of any discipline that God doles out. Funny how love for each other (such as these two fine upstanding individuals that occupied God's garden) seems to go out the window when they were uncovered.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><span face="Verdana, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 13.2px;"><br /></span><span face="Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 13.2px;"></span><span face="Verdana, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 13.2px;">This habit of shifting the blame is alive and will today, especially in the world of addiction. I spent 18+ years at Rapha Treatment Center and if I heard "Me being an addict really isn't my fault once, I heard it a million times. Maybe not so much in those words, but fault for the addiction rarely settled at the feet of the one who was addicted. Such is the nature of the beast of sin/addiction.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><span face="Verdana, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 13.2px;"><br /></span><span face="Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 13.2px;"></span><span face="Verdana, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 13.2px;">This is why real recovery requires rigorous honest and transparency on the part of the person seeking help. It requires an admission that they are responsible for the mess they've made...for the destruction that has been brought about because of their using. If a person cannot be honest about themselves and what they have done then they will always seek to cover up, hide, and shift the blame from themselves to others. Sometimes blaming even those who are closest to them, such as family. The very family that is trying to get them help becomes the target of their blame shifting. Kind of sick isn't it? Well, that is the power of sin when it has a place to hide and function within an individual. </span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><span face="Verdana, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 13.2px;"><br />God's answer, like I said previously, is honesty and transparency. Living in this manner can only come when will and life has been turned over to the care of God. In other words, when conviction leads to confession and repentance, then and only then is the individual empowered to live in this new dimension of honesty.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><span face="Verdana, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 13.2px;"><br /></span><span face="Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 13.2px;"></span><span face="Verdana, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 13.2px;">King David wrote about such a lifestyle (being honest) in Psalm 51. We read in Verse 6: <span style="color: #990000;"><b><i>Behold, You (God) desire truth in the innermost being, and in the hidden part You will make me know wisdom.</i></b></span></span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><span face="Verdana, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 13.2px;">This connection between me and God is linked by His Holy Spirit living and at work in me. His desire is for me to know the deep-down-inside-pass-my-brain kind of truth. I asked a group one time, "What is the greatest truth we can know and understand, outside of who God is?" I got several different answers ranging from "knowing His will for our lives"....to "Understanding the book of Revelation". To me the greatest truth we can know born in the deep place inside of us, is who we truly are in God's eyes. In other words, letting God show us how He sees us, and what we need to surrender to Him. This is where real, honest change begins to form. </span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><span face="Verdana, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 13.2px;"><br /></span><span face="Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 13.2px;"></span><span face="Verdana, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 13.2px;">Think on this today...<br />God on you...</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><span face="Verdana, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: 13.2px;">mbb</span>Greene Street Lettershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17247028715761319408noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2017930191170786311.post-38499615404584438602023-06-13T16:44:00.000-05:002023-06-14T04:43:37.716-05:00NEW THOUGHTS IN AN OLD BRAIN<p> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhE0v1MJ8MkNQlUIkD1hejuQAYtIwp2twyNTXgID2k4PPXcfZkT0jWT3Ef83-Jx_23iMjNQ9KQYrMGqZVbhExA9VqdRnjYLwCG4k1p8SIzrS6JintLn2AA0SKxMILpYhDf3nGINEAjq6bjp/s1600/Thinking+Cap.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="color: #cc6611; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center; text-decoration-line: none;"><img border="0" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhE0v1MJ8MkNQlUIkD1hejuQAYtIwp2twyNTXgID2k4PPXcfZkT0jWT3Ef83-Jx_23iMjNQ9KQYrMGqZVbhExA9VqdRnjYLwCG4k1p8SIzrS6JintLn2AA0SKxMILpYhDf3nGINEAjq6bjp/s400/Thinking+Cap.jpg" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border: 1px solid rgb(238, 238, 238); box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.1) 1px 1px 5px; padding: 5px; position: relative;" width="400" /></a></p><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #990000; font-family: "helvetica neue", arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;"><b>Isaiah 55:8</b></span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #990000; font-family: "helvetica neue", arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;"><b><i>(God speaking) --- "My thoughts are nothing like your thoughts," says the Lord.</i></b></span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #990000; font-family: "helvetica neue", arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;"><b><i>And my ways are far beyond anything you could imagine.</i></b></span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #990000; font-family: "helvetica neue", arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;"><b><i><br /></i></b></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;"></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "helvetica neue", arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">My thoughts....<br />Don't know how much room is in my brain for new thoughts and new ideas. I know for them to squeeze into my gray matter there is a battle. You see, I've collected almost 72 years of of memories....information.....and knowledge.<br />Some good..</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "helvetica neue", arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">Some useful....<br />Some just taking up space and is useless as a screen door on a submarine.<br />My wife use to tell me that I was trivia machine. I would not disagree.<br />By the way did you know that R. Buckminster Fuller created the first geodesic dome?</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "helvetica neue", arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">See what I mean? Good to know if you're playing board games, or happen to be on Jeopardy.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "helvetica neue", arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;"><br /></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;"></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "helvetica neue", arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">Any way, even when it comes to learning and understanding God in ways I never dreamed of, those thoughts have to muddle through all that "thought" baggage.<br />Such things as being able to make an "F" chord on a guitar in multiple ways.....<br />Not to mention all the memories that are floating around in my brain....<br />Sputnik.....<br />Alan Shepherd.....<br />Apollo 1 and the three men who died....</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "helvetica neue", arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">First time hearing the Beatles....<br />Weekly Reader we got every Friday in school....</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "helvetica neue", arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">The moment of my salvation and baptism....</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "helvetica neue", arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">The memories and knowledge all crowd out new things that want to lodge and take their rightful place. To be honest with you, I want them there, especially when it comes to knowing and experiencing God.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "helvetica neue", arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;"><br />I don't ever want to be one of those people who proudly proclaim (in their relationship with God)...."We ain't never done it that way before". Which is tantamount to saying "We ain't going to change." Well, I want to change if God is leading. I don't want to drive my tent pegs down on what I know, thinking that I have the complete 22 volume set of "I KNOW GO" books. </span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "helvetica neue", arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;"><br /></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;"></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "helvetica neue", arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">I want to be amazed daily...<br />I want to say "WOW!! I didn't know that."<br />I want to have that child like faith when it comes to following Jesus.<br />I think maybe this is the heart that God desires of all of us.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "helvetica neue", arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">How could I, His creation, ever be apathetic and complacent when it comes to walking with Jesus daily? </span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "helvetica neue", arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;"><br /></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;"></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "helvetica neue", arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">To me the picture above of Three Stooges Curly is what's wrong with religion. The idea that we, humanity, can capture God and dissect Him to study. Why you may as well try and catch the ocean to hold it in your hand. Not going to happen.<br />We create new ways of how we think God rules....and how we can slip in back of the curtain (like in the Wizard Of Oz) to see how the Wizard does his work. Well, there's no curtain, but there is a cross. And the cross is what you must embrace. The cross is the exclamation point on what real relationship is all about. God reveals to us what God wants to reveal. We can't force His hand or coerce Him into shelling out what we believe are His mysteries and secrets. I want to close with a scripture that pretty much sums up how I view my part in my relationship with God.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "helvetica neue", arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;"><br /></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;"></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #990000; font-family: "helvetica neue", arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;"><b>I Corinthians 13:12</b></span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #990000; font-family: "helvetica neue", arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;"><b><i>.........All that I know now is partial and incomplete, but then I will know everything completely. (When I stand face to face with Jesus) just as God now knows me completely.</i></b></span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #990000; font-family: "helvetica neue", arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;"><b><i><br /></i></b></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;"></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "helvetica neue", arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">God on you....</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "helvetica neue", arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">mbb</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" />Greene Street Lettershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17247028715761319408noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2017930191170786311.post-38638608289704612742023-06-12T05:07:00.006-05:002023-06-12T05:07:40.742-05:00'TIS A BLOODY GOSPEL<p> <b style="color: #222222; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">Hebrews 9:22</b></p><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;"><b>.......And without the shedding of blood there is neither release from sin and its guilt nor the remission of the due and merited punishment for sins.</b></span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;"><b><br /></b></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;"></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #990000; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;"><b><i>What can wash away my sin, nothing but the blood of Jesus.</i></b></span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">Not the blood of animals taken to a temple to pay my debt. But the pure, sinless blood of Almighty God Himself, walking on this planet as one of us. People don't want to believe this. People want the easier, softer way to live this life and the next. But the truth stands above every human wish and desire to change the power and healing capabilities of the blood of Christ.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;"><br /></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;"></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #990000; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;"><b><i>What can make me whole again, nothing but the blood of Jesus.</i></b></span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">Complete, put together, functioning in the way I was created to. That is the power of the blood of Christ. Psychology can't bring wholeness to me. Medicine can put me back together. Religion can't lift me into the presence of God. Nothing but the blood of Jesus.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;"><br /></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;"></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #990000; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;"><b><i>Oh precious is that flow, that makes me white as snow.</i></b></span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">We have got to return to the place where we recognize the value of the blood of Jesus. Freely poured out on a hill outside the walls of the city of Jerusalem.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">A hillside that had known rivers of blood. Many man had walked through the gates of that town, cross strapped to their backs. Many a man had felt the whip of Rome and had taken that journey to Calvary. But only one man carried within Himself the healing for the world. What can stand to challenge the death and resurrection of this man? Nothing and no one. </span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;"><br /></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;"></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #990000; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;"><b><i>No other fount I know, nothing but the blood of Jesus.</i></b></span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">There isn't any other source of life. All others pale in comparison. They boast of their capabilities, but their words are empty promises. Trash and litter blown by the wind around the feet of the masses. But the blood and word of Christ delivers every time. </span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;"><br /></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;"></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">It is not in vogue to speak of the blood of Christ. It offends people, so we shouldn't make them uncomfortable. Such is the mindset of some who claim to be a part of His body...His church. We need to be offended. We don't need the soft words of a bloodless Christianity. It only feeds our flesh and whisks us away on flowery ideology all the way to hell. I go back to the line from the hymn, "Oh precious is that flow".....the unsurpassed worth and value of that which was shed on my behalf so that I would not be separated from God. Such things as this are beyond my comprehension, but I find a thankfulness that cannot be put into words, for what God has done for humanity.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;"><br /></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;"></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">Thanks for letting me ramble this morning....</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">Been on my mind...<br />Been in my heart....</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;"><br /></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;"></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">God on you....</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">mb</span>Greene Street Lettershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17247028715761319408noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2017930191170786311.post-36238352256821794162023-06-10T04:50:00.004-05:002023-06-10T04:50:43.477-05:00SITTING IN THE BALCONY<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhl3Hf7awf99T0duhj0tQW2IynAPd8snSfwmnSrRyabqnkVFyXFZPMfu5kGBifstox3gaNpT1JV18Hq69nm9yRclN1lRmbMLx_LGLvATw-KMa2Y7SpOsxbdZKjbz-mR8ThylPsRlcKiN4RGCqvXZ0C6UN20f4pueB-rM3zBqvXAdDvl4eHTVCUqhe5Btw/s700/Humble.webp" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="525" data-original-width="700" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhl3Hf7awf99T0duhj0tQW2IynAPd8snSfwmnSrRyabqnkVFyXFZPMfu5kGBifstox3gaNpT1JV18Hq69nm9yRclN1lRmbMLx_LGLvATw-KMa2Y7SpOsxbdZKjbz-mR8ThylPsRlcKiN4RGCqvXZ0C6UN20f4pueB-rM3zBqvXAdDvl4eHTVCUqhe5Btw/s320/Humble.webp" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p></p><p><strong style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">Philippians 2:8</strong><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><strong style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;"><em>And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross.</em></strong><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">Looking upon Jesus, you would think Him one of the lowly few who's lot in life always seem to run contrary to what society deemed is successful.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">Scripture says that there was nothing physically attractive about Him that would cause you to think of Him as a great leader or a statesman.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">The form that Jesus took when He entered out time and space is a reflection of the heart of God.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">In II Samuel 16, we read where God has sent Samuel the priest to the house of Jesse. There Samuel is to anoint the new king of Israel. Jesse has many sons and they parade through one by one so Samuel can see them. At one point, Eliab comes in and Samuel remarks, "Surely the Lord's anointed is before Him?" I mean this guy, Eliab, he had "king" written all over him. Tall, good looking, great hair, unblemished complexion, cut and ripped in his physique. In verse 7, God replies to Samuel's remark. </span><em style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">But the Lord said to Samuel, "Do not look at his appearance or at his physical stature, because I have refused him. For the LORD does not see as man sees. For man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart."</em><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">This flies in the face of what our society today thinks is most important about a person. God looks to the heart. The character and nature of a man. Is he teachable? Is he humble so that he can receive from God? Is he selfish or will he totally give of himself for the service of others?</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">Jesus came to model for us the dynamics of a man after Father's God's heart. To reveal to us that we are servants and as such, spend ourselves on the Kingdom of God and on others.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">Do what God tells us to do. (then that would involve "listening")</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">Go where God tells us to go (that would involve obedient)</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">Be the person God created us to be (that would involve surrender of our will)</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">But the benefits of living a life like this is beyond comparison to anything this world has to offer.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">Humbling ourselves is a choice we have to make. IT puts us in a place where we can receive from God.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">To be humble means that we are teachable.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">It means that I am agreeing with God simply who God says I am.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">It enables me to be in a crowd and by this attitude, be in a crowd. That means that I don't have to stick out or be center of attention. If God desires to lift me up or exalt me, that is His business. I am not in the business of self-promotion.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">Read all of Philippians 2 today. See what God would reveal to your heart.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">Until tomorrow....</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">God on you...</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">mb</span></p>Greene Street Lettershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17247028715761319408noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2017930191170786311.post-86029806166992674722023-06-09T05:44:00.001-05:002023-06-09T05:44:18.948-05:00RADICAL AMPUTATION (PT.1)<p> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgppAbFWu07jp0i0hLUhGwB95GgoCY4Elxon-QuirJKGYRs-9RiDZ9BRor7ZR1gzIJuK2s-alXjEdvW_fAsXDvpKIgdjzJ8zDLAKpr2DBKN0cOs_lD7W3I-0td86zW29e74KrrsxRR1RpKI/s1600/purposepic.png" imageanchor="1" style="color: #cc6611; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center; text-decoration-line: none;"><img border="0" height="207" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgppAbFWu07jp0i0hLUhGwB95GgoCY4Elxon-QuirJKGYRs-9RiDZ9BRor7ZR1gzIJuK2s-alXjEdvW_fAsXDvpKIgdjzJ8zDLAKpr2DBKN0cOs_lD7W3I-0td86zW29e74KrrsxRR1RpKI/s400/purposepic.png" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border: 1px solid rgb(238, 238, 238); box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.1) 1px 1px 5px; padding: 5px; position: relative;" width="400" /></a></p><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><b><i><u>(Reprint From 2015)</u></i></b><div><b><i><u><br style="background-color: white;" /></u></i></b><span style="background-color: white; color: #990000; font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace; font-size: 13.2px;"><b>II Corinthians 6:17-18</b></span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #990000; font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace; font-size: 13.2px;"><b><i>"Come out from among them and and be separate", says the Lord.</i></b></span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #990000; font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace; font-size: 13.2px;"><b><i>"Do not touch what is unclean, and I will receive you. I will be a Father to you and you shall be my sons and daughters." Says the Lord Almighty.</i></b></span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #990000; font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace; font-size: 13.2px;"><b><i><br /></i></b></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;"></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #990000; font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace; font-size: 13.2px;"><b>II Corinthians 7:1</b></span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #990000; font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace; font-size: 13.2px;"><b><i>Therefore, having these promises, beloved, let us cleans ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God.</i></b></span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #990000; font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace; font-size: 13.2px;"><b><i><br /></i></b></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;"></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace; font-size: 13.2px;">New life conflicting with old ways.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace; font-size: 13.2px;">We want the best of both worlds.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace; font-size: 13.2px;">We want to embrace this new journey we are on with Jesus yet, at the same time, we want to be the one in charge. Instead of following Jesus...we want Jesus to tag along behind us in case we get into trouble. In case we need His help. He becomes nothing more than a "Get-out-of-jail" card in some cosmic game of monopoly.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace; font-size: 13.2px;"><br /></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;"></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace; font-size: 13.2px;">We have a call to change "people / places / and things. This isn't a suggestion...it isn't a hint....it is at the core of this new life. The old ways..the old haunts..the old people have influence over us. They bring out the old desires. The warp and change our memories. The memories we have of the old times move from seeing them as they truly were, into a kind of romanticized </span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace; font-size: 13.2px;">lie that only feeds the old nature we have struggled so hard to get away from.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace; font-size: 13.2px;"><br /></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;"></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace; font-size: 13.2px;">There is a phrase that I've found that kind of describes what is needed if you are beginning in this journey of recovery.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace; font-size: 13.2px;">The phrase?</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #990000; font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace; font-size: 13.2px;"><b><i>RADICAL AMPUTATION!</i></b></span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #990000; font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace; font-size: 13.2px;"><b><i><br /></i></b></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;"></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace; font-size: 13.2px;">Just as an arm or leg that has been infected with gangrene is a threat to a person's life, so are the old ways and lifestyle for someone who is in recovery. The limb must be amputated in order for that person to survive. The longer the delay in performing the amputation, the closer to death the individual is faced with.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace; font-size: 13.2px;"><br />Radical amputation is needed for survival in your recover, if you are to move on with your life. Easy? No. I understand the kind of misplaced affection for old ways...old places and people. And one of the things that makes this entire amputation process so hard, is the unknown of what life will be like if we do make the decision to remove ourselves.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace; font-size: 13.2px;"><br /></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;"></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace; font-size: 13.2px;">But did you notice the promise that God gave in the verses from II Corinthians? That He would truly become OUR God and we would truly become His Sons and Daughters. A spiritual relationship and bond is created when we are saved and separate ourselves from the old lifestyle. We don't have to know the unknown..it doesn't have to be a fearful presence in our lives, because we are connected with someone who sees all and knows all. I know...I know...it sounds like some kind of science fiction stuff, but it isn't. It's truth...and at the heart of recovery is the embracing of real truth. God's truth. Not the empty promises that our drug of choice made to us. Not the lies and arguments that came through the relationships we tried to have with others who were just as sick as we were. </span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace; font-size: 13.2px;"><br /></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;"></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace; font-size: 13.2px;">Let today be the day you "amputate" yourself from your old ways.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace; font-size: 13.2px;">Step over into life...</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace; font-size: 13.2px;">More than simply existing, you will find that you can thrive in this new life.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace; font-size: 13.2px;">Think on these things.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace; font-size: 13.2px;"><br />God on you..</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "Courier New", Courier, monospace; font-size: 13.2px;">mb</span></div>Greene Street Lettershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17247028715761319408noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2017930191170786311.post-89583486292844659612023-06-08T05:33:00.003-05:002023-06-08T05:33:33.336-05:00WILL HE REALLY?<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhlO4WNW6dGWaWsAFwEZkt8xjAQNcdAHxDJo7Q8Zl9nKZ-5QPu6Y1WCQ_mze0BZnqh7U3CHtlPpQ0tYheWG-u7yuiNV7OdCsj_BYH8fV3U49njwI3lvUS0l8wxwj_pi3Ed7GSqazAg2dFutV8hSMVLmdEBjj4hE7WEesA_MMqtxUg_mxdqH6jGDiSXkrw/s480/Stained%20Glass.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="320" data-original-width="480" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhlO4WNW6dGWaWsAFwEZkt8xjAQNcdAHxDJo7Q8Zl9nKZ-5QPu6Y1WCQ_mze0BZnqh7U3CHtlPpQ0tYheWG-u7yuiNV7OdCsj_BYH8fV3U49njwI3lvUS0l8wxwj_pi3Ed7GSqazAg2dFutV8hSMVLmdEBjj4hE7WEesA_MMqtxUg_mxdqH6jGDiSXkrw/s320/Stained%20Glass.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">We read the words.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">We ponder them in our minds.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">We long for it in our hearts.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">But do we truly understand what is being said?</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">What you may ask?</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">Revelation 22:20</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">He who testifies to these things says, "Surely, I am coming quickly."</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">This is not some random statement that is intended to make us feel good or give us goose bumps. It is true. Not only are the words true, but the intent of the message is true.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">Jesus will return.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">I do not say these things to elicit a response or a nod of your head, no...I say them so that you may ponder them and hide them in your heart.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">Jesus' mother, Mary, is said to have treasured all the things the angel spoke of concerning Jesus' birth, in her heart. She held on to them not to give herself worth, but to give herself hope. She was an outcast due to her pregnancy. She needed hope.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">Notice the verse in Revelation 22:</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">A.) Surely.........</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">This is certain. It will happen. His return is not contingent on anyone or anything. God the Father holds the key and at the appointed time, he will turn to the Son and say, "Go and get your bride."</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">B.) I am......</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">We have heard that name before. I AM.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">But here it isn't a name but the declaration of an event.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">I am.....</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">C.) Coming......</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">To us.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">From Heaven.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">He will come and if you think now is a strange time, wait until this takes place. Nothing will ever be the same, and I'm alright with that.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">D.) Quickly.......</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">N0t based on earthly time.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">According to the Father. He has appointed everything in its own time.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">Are you ready?</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><br style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;">mb</span><p></p>Greene Street Lettershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17247028715761319408noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2017930191170786311.post-55123621442935144562023-06-06T05:34:00.004-05:002023-06-06T05:34:49.230-05:00I SAW A WALKING DEAD MAN<p> </p><h3 class="post-title entry-title" itemprop="name" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 22px; font-stretch: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0.75em 0px 0px; position: relative;"><br /></h3><div class="post-header" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 10.8px; line-height: 1.6; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em;"><div class="post-header-line-1"></div></div><div class="post-body entry-content" id="post-body-1924758341728595375" itemprop="description articleBody" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px; line-height: 1.4; position: relative; width: 570px;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiSlRmltDxSpZ-4RzIayMMYAYz6sq_eJbqW0Dum9a6ZmEss3_UhOIThCPXX8EwH7z2VTGCBax-oVJBOtvFCZxW1I1L73b1iJG2Decf93czEGjxd4q3k4hMMsLHgkoXafl4X6j6RubZGGa3E/s1600/giving-up.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="color: #cc6611; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-decoration-line: none;"><img border="0" height="263" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiSlRmltDxSpZ-4RzIayMMYAYz6sq_eJbqW0Dum9a6ZmEss3_UhOIThCPXX8EwH7z2VTGCBax-oVJBOtvFCZxW1I1L73b1iJG2Decf93czEGjxd4q3k4hMMsLHgkoXafl4X6j6RubZGGa3E/s1600/giving-up.jpg" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border: 1px solid rgb(238, 238, 238); box-shadow: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0.1) 1px 1px 5px; padding: 5px; position: relative;" width="400" /></a></div><span style="color: #990000;"><b>Habakkuk 2:5</b></span><br /><span style="color: #990000;"><b>Indeed, because he transgresses by wine, He is a proud man, and he does not stay at home.<br />Because he enlarges his desire as hell, and He is like death and cannot be satisfied.</b></span><br /><span style="color: #990000;"><b><br /></b></span>Trapped....<br />Oh, you can move about. Hold down a job (if you can). Travel and visit other towns. But you can never escape the prison that is inside. The place where your thoughts, your emotions, and your feelings are locked away and not allowed to be free. A prison where you constantly are belittled and beat down. A prison where every time you look into a mirror you see only a person who has no value to anyone. On top of all of this, your will has been taken away and you suffer from a a raging case of wrong desires and an appetite for things that will only add to your pain and suffering.<br />Trapped.<br />Welcome to the wonderful world of addiction.<br /><br />A few weeks back I was sitting in a local fast food restaurant trying to put the finishing touches on a teaching I was to give. People were coming and going, and I was oblivious to what was happening around me, when suddenly I hear, "Bro. Mike!" I looked up and there he was. I haven't seen him in a number of years, and his appearance caught me off guard. There had been rumors that he'd return to the old life. Sobriety had been to hard for him. Marriage gone wrong. Bad friends. Not going to any meetings had started him down the slippery slope to where he is today. He probably didn't weigh 120 pounds. Eyes sunken and dark. Skin looked waxy, and a smile revealed that he'd lost some teeth. He tried to put on a good show, telling me how he was doing well, and that it was good to see me. But the eyes don't lie. They were dead....lifeless. There in that moment, I felt such sadness coming from him. It was if he was crying out saying, "Please help me..do something!" All offers I made to him were rejected. I don't believe it was him that rejected it, I do believe it was the addiction talking through this man."I can't go to rehab...I've got to much to do. Maybe when I get caught up, I can take the time off and get myself straight." Tomorrow is a wonderful day to someone in addiction. There is nothing that cannot be accomplished.........tomorrow.<br /><br />I reminded him that it was never too late to get help or to turn this whole mess around. He agreed, but his words were hollow and empty. I did not want to lay any more guilt or shame on him than he was carrying around. Such will only drive someone deeper into their addiction. I got a chance to pray for him. He hugged my neck and asked that I don't quit praying. I assured him that I would never stop praying for him. I guess part of the reason I'm posting this today is that I'm asking you to join with me in praying for this man. Let's call him "BOB". That isn't his real name and I have my reasons why I'm not giving it. Please pray that God would remind Bob of all the things He has done for him in the past. Ask God to break off the hardness of the heart and blindness from the eyes, so that Bob can't hear and receive the truth. Ask God to put His people in Bob's path so that he will be lead to a place where he wants to give up and get help. Ask God to cover Bob with His protection, and not allow the enemy to kill him. Thanks....you guys are the greatest.<br /><br />God on you....<br />mb</div>Greene Street Lettershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17247028715761319408noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2017930191170786311.post-54231881664780143292023-06-05T04:47:00.004-05:002023-06-05T04:47:53.013-05:00"I THINK"-----"I FEEL"<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqrmvYt2TiGJ1ZkeT2_3WxtBBkkfFFiThVy94-ODqq59BA1uRlMQ-8oWzgOCYb6jqSAts0VNE5QDlkCfgF4euBWd_DZ4WOQx6DYDJsDenE26tY4l1nlUHi7HyggOhqoKCs8seM3cxRNdKjQpotCYiGEXjwCl74Y8AZjvHmcxN3FlNFlroru1emefh7lg/s1200/mountain-984083_1920.webp" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="1200" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqrmvYt2TiGJ1ZkeT2_3WxtBBkkfFFiThVy94-ODqq59BA1uRlMQ-8oWzgOCYb6jqSAts0VNE5QDlkCfgF4euBWd_DZ4WOQx6DYDJsDenE26tY4l1nlUHi7HyggOhqoKCs8seM3cxRNdKjQpotCYiGEXjwCl74Y8AZjvHmcxN3FlNFlroru1emefh7lg/s320/mountain-984083_1920.webp" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p></p><p><span style="color: #cc0000; font-family: verdana;"><b><u>Hebrews 13:14</u><i> - For this world is not our permanent home; we are looking forward to a home yet to come.</i></b></span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">One of the blessings that God has given to me is that I am surrounded by godly people. People who are locked down to the mandates and dictates of this world. By that I mean that they don't embrace what culture or society deems as being right. Oh they don't runaround looking to tear down the establishment, they do to work each day.......they go out to dinner with other friends. But behind the movements we see in their every day lives is a struggle. A fight to stay true to God and reject the wants and desires of their own flesh. Seeking God's rule and reign in their personal lives, yet at the same time giving away what has been freely given to them by God.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">Two phrases that sum out our society today are (#1) "I feel"...and (#2) "I think". Feelings are deceptive. Feelings can tell me that this life struggle is too hard and I need to go back to using my drug of choice. What's even worse is the phrase "I think".......Which means I am the judge and jury over my own choices. This kind of life style or way of dealing with life is best summed up in Proverbs 14:12 - <i style="font-weight: bold;">"There is a way that seems right to man but it ends in death." </i>In other words, I can justify my choices and actions because I deemed them to be right.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">The very heart of recovery is turning will and life over to the care of God. In other words, I give up my right to choose in order to gain the power that only God can give to lift me out of this addiction. This way of seeing life usually runs contrary to what we want. Here in is the battle. Am I going to push what I want ahead of what God wants? When I do this, I am moving into that slippery slope of relapse. Don't try and run your own life. Seek out God's will today. Study His Word. If you don't know where to begin, I would suggest the book of Proverbs in the Old Testament or the book of John in the New Testament. Before you start reading pray and ask God to open your eyes and mind to see His truth in ways that you never have before. What's more important is that you talk to God daily. Added to this is a need to sit and listen to what God may say. His voice may come in the form of faint thoughts that will float through your mind. Maybe a verse you are reading will stand out from all the others. Pay attention to these things. Let's be about the business of living and not simply marking time till our days are over here on this side of heaven.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">God on you...</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">michael b.</span></p>Greene Street Lettershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17247028715761319408noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2017930191170786311.post-28615898350809002012023-06-01T06:54:00.004-05:002023-06-01T06:54:52.019-05:00Long Black Train by Josh Turner<iframe frameborder="0" height="360" src="https://youtube.com/embed/SZtwxc423jg" style="background-image: url(https://i.ytimg.com/vi/SZtwxc423jg/hqdefault.jpg);" width="480"></iframe><div><br /></div><div>This was a "get-em" song that the guys at Rapha loved. Our cook played guitar and lead everyone in singing. Oh the voices weren't that great, but the hearts were all in one accord. You could look around the room and see that everyone there had been tempted to give in and take a ride on that LONG BLACK TRAIN. Praise God, His saving grace and the blood that spilled at Calvary had the power to overcome any train that came down life's tracks.</div><div>Thank you Tommy for leading us in this song.</div><div>So many memories.</div>Greene Street Lettershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17247028715761319408noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2017930191170786311.post-2972141938423586332023-06-01T04:30:00.002-05:002023-06-01T04:30:20.421-05:00WHEN (NOT IF) THE STORMS COME<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjkW09sG-PNWGPqZoQRIE2Zss5gDy0BfSL6UT6UuEjKKFHT2J3YvnMrSsyBhQlUtytXs3SWCd3dH8f0DUWbw52DLQkxa3vkI46zPLq9UpVStWZidBm5_tbBaXIlA5gyYFvU7uLLJo62piqcFjwGbdIbGqmi-fCMb_G1kQ-ia42F4Qi_kelMLiwUyYuoUg/s1200/Stormy%20weather.webp" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="1200" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjkW09sG-PNWGPqZoQRIE2Zss5gDy0BfSL6UT6UuEjKKFHT2J3YvnMrSsyBhQlUtytXs3SWCd3dH8f0DUWbw52DLQkxa3vkI46zPLq9UpVStWZidBm5_tbBaXIlA5gyYFvU7uLLJo62piqcFjwGbdIbGqmi-fCMb_G1kQ-ia42F4Qi_kelMLiwUyYuoUg/s320/Stormy%20weather.webp" width="320" /></a></div><br /> <p></p><p><span style="color: #990000; font-family: verdana;"><b><u>Job 38:1</u><i> / Then the Lord spoke to Job out of the storm.....</i></b></span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">You and I both know that life is about "storms". Those things that come to that seem to have the power to derail any progress we've made in walking out our relationship with Christ. Your rocking along, singing your favorite worship song or hymn, when suddenly you are blindsided by an event or circumstance.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">Maybe you got news that your doctor discovered you had a disease of condition that you didn't realize. Maybe the storm comes through the death of a loved one. The list could go on and on and on, but the bottom line is that as long as we draw breath on this side of heaven, the storms will come. For my part, it seems like they get more frequent as I have gotten older.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">The real problem occurs when we take our eyes, thoughts and prayers off of Jesus and turn them toward the storms. When Jesus fades to the rear of our attention and all we can focus on is our condition or what it is we are going through at that moment.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">I take great comfort in the verse from Job 38. The simple plain truth that God speaks "out of the storm". He is there. He is at the center of what is trying to draw us away from Him. I do want you to know that this mornings posting is as much for me as anyone else who may read it.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">God is there! He does one of two things. #1 - He takes us out of the storm....or #2 - He takes us through the storm. What I have come to realize is that we He takes us through a storm there is something He is trying to show us. To let us know that His word is true and we can rely on Him even when the storm is at its peak and haven't any answers as how to navigate through it. By faith I lay hold of His hand a little tighter during these times. By faith I place my trust in Him that He knows best whatever the outcome may be.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">Father....May we grow in you this day. May we listen all the more closely when the winds of our storm are raging, whispering dark enticements to turn away from You. Keep us as we lay ourselves on Your will this day. In Jesus name, Amen.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">God on you....</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">michael b.</span></p>Greene Street Lettershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17247028715761319408noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2017930191170786311.post-54681694060489427362023-05-30T06:34:00.003-05:002023-05-30T06:34:37.880-05:00WALKING THE PATH UNCOVERS THE HEART<p> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJt_-CslqDWmEGzk3rFS23FjvoWwy7_4_Yp-eUE5GGA21Y3eomNXU1m9pUZ_bljeC_-HbE24QJIYigmEk2KBbEspMjF_m-X5o_jt9_G0w-lpe4qWh9Ewj1OSnwEG3OcxiT3j83eEhsoH4q/s1600/Path%2527s+of+The+Lord.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="color: #992211; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center; text-decoration-line: none;"><img border="0" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJt_-CslqDWmEGzk3rFS23FjvoWwy7_4_Yp-eUE5GGA21Y3eomNXU1m9pUZ_bljeC_-HbE24QJIYigmEk2KBbEspMjF_m-X5o_jt9_G0w-lpe4qWh9Ewj1OSnwEG3OcxiT3j83eEhsoH4q/s400/Path%2527s+of+The+Lord.jpg" style="border: none; position: relative;" width="400" /></a></p><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #990000; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;"><b>Hosea 14:9-10</b></span><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #990000; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;"><b><i>Let those who are wise understand these things. Let those with discernment listen carefully. The paths of the LORD are true and right,and righteous people live by walking in them. But in those paths sinners stumble and fall.</i></b></span><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #990000; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;"><b><i><br /></i></b></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;"></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;">The paths of the Lord...<br />The instruction of the Lord...</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;">The discipline of the Lord we Are called to incorporate in our lives.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;">All boil down to one simple thing.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;">We are to look to Him in everything we undertake.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;">I know all to well what happens when I turn from His instruction to embrace my own.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;">It ain't good!</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;"><br /></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;"></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;">I know what it's like to pretend so others will think you religious and good.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;">Playing the church game where you know the lingo and can sing all the songs, yet on the inside you are dying. But never let'em see this! Keep it hidden and put that big old fake smile on. There is one certainty for everyone who tries to walk the path of the Lord playing this game.....He will uncover you.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;"><br />I guess it is true that my greatest enemy is myself.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;">No wonder Jesus calls us to "deny ourselves and take up our cross daily".</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;">If you think about it....<br />I mean really stop and think about it, on the surface this doesn't sound like something I really want to do. But maybe that's the problem. It's ME that is deciding instead of simply turning my stinking will over to His care so I can embrace His will.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;">As Bob Dylan use to sing..."You Gotta Serve Somebody".</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;">It might be the devil....<br />Or it might be the Lord...<br />But you're gonna have to serve somebody.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;">Isn't it amazing that the greatest truth is always the simplest?</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;">I think maybe I want to complicate it so I can have an excuse of why I didn't embrace the truth.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;"><br /></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;"></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;">So the path you choose will ultimately uncover your heart (which isn't a bad thing).<br />Once uncovered, you have a choice to either follow Jesus, or join up with the devil and see how much damage you can do before it's all over.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;">I think maybe I'll choose Jesus.</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;"><br /></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;"></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;">God on you....</span><br style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;" /><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", sans-serif; font-size: 14.85px;">mbb</span>Greene Street Lettershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17247028715761319408noreply@blogger.com0