GREENE STREET LETTERS: End Of The Old Week--- Now We Have A New Start

Saturday, July 3, 2010

End Of The Old Week--- Now We Have A New Start

Mark 1:1 (NLT)
Here begins the Good News About Jesus the Messiah, the Son of God.

Each Saturday night as we meet here at Rapha, my prayer is that someone has a "beginning" with Jesus.
That no matter how steeped they are in religion...
No matter what their background....
They may be awakened to Jesus.
Every Saturday night is a time for us to come together corporately and seek Jesus.
To worship Him.
To praise Him.
To turn loose of "us" and grab hold of Him.
Now this may sound like an effort on our part, but trust me all we truly do is respond to the Holy Spirit. If we are not invited into the presence of Jesus, then all we have accomplished is to have a meeting.

Each Saturday night we get to take stock of the past week and see how we have done.
Have grown spiritually?
Has our character changed for the better?
Do we struggle with the same things over and over?
We have an opportunity to pray (as a group) --receive prayer for what we are dealing with,and hopefully move onward and upward in our relationship with Jesus.

Each week is different and we truly do not know what to expect, other than God showing up.
We merely want to respond to what He wants.
Sometimes our lessons are thrown out the window and we follow where the Spirit says go.
Someone may have a verse or maybe a prayer.
We want to remain open to where God is taking us.
We bring a structure and a plan to what we think we need to do on Saturday nights, but we hold it loosely and allow God to move should He desire to.

Psalm 32:1-2
Oh, what joy for those whose rebellion is forgiven, whose sin is put out of sight.
Yes, what joy for those whose record the LORD has cleared of sin.
Whose lives are lived in complete honesty.

God on you.....
mb

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Looking At The World Through Cracked Lens

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

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

Thanks for letting me share.

Time to soldier on..

mbb

Our Statement of Faith

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

Little Nets Into Deep Waters

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

The Twelve Steps

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

Saturday, July 3, 2010

End Of The Old Week--- Now We Have A New Start

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THE REALITY OF THE NAME OF GOD