GREENE STREET LETTERS: Message For The Day

Monday, October 3, 2011

Message For The Day

I'm suppose to speak tonight at Covenant Christian Church for their recovery meeting. Andrea and all the folks at Covenant have such a heart for people trapped by addiction. They have been wonderful friends to Rapha over the years, providing special events for those who come through our program.
God has used Covenant in a mighty way to impact lives for the Kingdom of God.
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I have been parked in Ephesians chapter 1 over the past few days and feel like God is leading me to use this tonight in my message.

V.18 reads: I pray that your hearts will be flooded with light so that you can understand the wonderful future he has promised to those he called. I want you to realize what a rich and glorious inheritance he has given to his people.

It really is about that moment of truth that must come to every life when God opens up understanding to their current state of existence. The moment when someone sees the extent of destruction their choices have brought about. No escaping the evidence or the truth of what addiction has done. At the same time, there is also the revelation that there is a better way. A way to hope and a future. Anything has to be better than the lifestyle of being an addict. Sometimes a person lives for so long in an addictive lifestyle they cannot, or will not, break free of the thought "I am what I am...I cannot change...I am hopeless." To me this is the worst possible place a person could be found in. Truly with this mindset, it takes the power and love of God to break through such lies as this.

That is why prayer is such an important part of this battle with addiction. If you have friends or family out there still trapped, begin to pray specifically for them. Pray that God would break the hardness of their heart and their inability to hear the truth. Pray that the presence of God would defeat and remove all obstacles placed on them by the enemy to keep them from hearing the truth. Then ask God to speak to their heart so that truth can overcome the damage done by the lies of addiction. It truly is about breaking the conforming personality of the individual so they can be renewed and transformed by God.

It is a battle and we do not need to shrink back in fear. We need to understand that God has given us the spirit of a sound mind and love, not fear and timidity. Ask others to join you in prayer for friends and family. You don't win the battle by praying against the darkness, you win the battle by bringing light into darkness. That is our intention.

God on you.....
mb

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Looking At The World Through Cracked Lens

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

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

Thanks for letting me share.

Time to soldier on..

mbb

Our Statement of Faith

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

Little Nets Into Deep Waters

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

The Twelve Steps

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

Monday, October 3, 2011

Message For The Day

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THE REALITY OF THE NAME OF GOD