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The righteous will flourish like a palm tree, they will grow like a cedar of Lebanon; planted in the house of the Lord, they will flourish in the courts of our God. That scripture is found in  Ps 92:12-14.  One of the greatest goals in my life is to encourage people to flourish in life, and this scripture tells us how to do it.  If we are planted in God’s house we will flourish…..hummm, flourish, that sounds a little bit like experiencing heaven on earth! Flourish means to thrive, to prosper and to be in peak condition.  That is my desire for every one of you.  What is very cool is that is God’s desire for you too! In  III John verse 2, John penned these words inspired by the Holy Spirit….I pray that you may enjoy good health and that all will go well with you, even as your soul is prospering.  Soul prosperity is having a mind that is renewed to God’s Word.  It is making choices that lead to abundant life.  God gives us the opportunity to taste heaven on earth – that is flourishing.  We can flourish more and more as we grow deep roots in the church body where God has planted us. The positive consequences of putting our roots down in the House of God, is that our whole life can flourish! We will have a good root system, become a strong tree, with great tasting, lasting fruit. It’s the kind of encouragement we all need to hear!

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This is the day of destiny.  The day that Jesus was born for was the day He would die on a cross.  It’s hard to see the sweet baby Jesus and realize that He was born to die.  In most all of the world, this is a sad day.  As Christians we take this day to remember what Jesus did for us on the cross of Calvary.  It is Good Friday, but it is also destiny Friday.  When we think about having an intimate relationship with Jesus, the reason we can is because Jesus was willing to take on the weight of the world, through the stripes across his back, and through the crucifixion.  The proof of His love for us was the scars that he bore on his body.  They were also proof of the resurrection.  He bore the marks of death, but was dead no longer! Maybe you can use today to think about the hurting people around you.  They have scars and wounds.  God put you in their world to be his mouthpiece.  Tell them about his love, and his healing power.  Usually the very thing you have overcome in your life can be an avenue of blessing in someone else’s.  One of my favorite verses is in II Cor 1:3 where it says that the very areas you have received comfort from the Lord, He will use you to comfort someone else.  You really do become a minister of reconciliation to your world.  That’s the power of the cross.  That’s the power of knowing the love of God.  That’s the power of obedience!

 

If you live in the Magic Valley area, we invite you to join us for Easter services this weekend at Amazing Grace Fellowship.  With Saturday night services  and two Sunday morning services, it is easy to find a time that works for you.  AGF could be a great fit for you and those you love.  So join us at AGF, every weekend at one of our 3 main services.  We are proclaiming the goodness of God!

How can we make what Jesus went through be effective for us?  When we see His struggle in the garden of Gethsemane we see what we might call the flushing out of the flesh .  We all would rather take an easy path.  It is the path of least resistance that we prefer.  Discipline, self control, and patience are all part of walking the path God has for us.   The path Jesus took wasn’t easy.  His flesh wanted another option.  I think we have all been there on a much smaller scale.  We may want to do one thing, when we know that something else is the plan of God for us.  Jesus wanted to redeem the world, He just wanted to make sure that this really was the only way to do it.  When He said, “not my will, but Thine be done,” he was saying, I won’t choose the selfish path.  I choose the path of righteousness.  That can be our response as well, when we are faced with decisions.  Often our decisions to follow God really are just an act of self denial.  To think that Jesus was willing to sacrifice it all demonstrates the kind of love that He had.  “Amazing Love, how can it be, that my king would die for me.”  So our encouragement today is that whatever decisions we need to make to have intimacy with Jesus Christ is well worth the effort.  Take time today to meditate on His Word, to look introspectively, and then to celebrate all that He has done for you so that we can have complete communion with Him.

 

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Chosen, accepted, established. What a wonderful place to be in Christ. We become chosen, accepted and established, not by our works, but by His work in us.  It is time to just receive the love that God has for us.  When we are in His Presence, we benefit  the most when we take time to just receive the love of God.  Love was manifested in a manger.  Love was crucified on a cross.  Love was raised from the dead to bring resurrection life to us.   Jesus is love personified.  Through Him we are accepted, forgiven, and received into the family of Go d. His love is placed in our heart, and that heart to heart connection is what breathes life into us.  We get to experience intimacy with God all because of Jesus’ willingness to pay the price for our sin.  Once we are where God wants us to be, we can begin to love like Jesus.  The people in our lives get to experience the love of God manifested through us.  We get to let them know they are chosen, accepted and totally loved.   We then get to see the power of God at work in the lives of those who we come in contact with.  Let’s be aware, and have our spiritual senses fully awake and alert.  Someone you know needs to know they are loved and accepted.  Jesus made the way for them, and He wants to use you to be his hands to them on earth!

 

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If you remain in me and my words remain in you, you will bear much fruit.  Apart from me you can do nothing. Jesus spoke these words in John 15:5. Have you ever noticed that a tree or vine that has no life in it, bearing fruit? If there is no life, there is no fruit.  If we want to be fruitful, life must be flowing from the vine into the branches.  As Christ’s followers we have been grafted into the vine.  Our life flow as a “branch” is now connected to the source. Our source of life came because of Calvary. Because of what was accomplished on the cross, we can spend time in the presence of God.  We develop that heart to heart connection when we are joined together, intimately connected through fellowship on a daily basis.  His life is indwelling in us! We are a branch firmly fastened to the vine.  It is a heart to heart connection.   Just like with the flow of blood in our veins, life continues.  With the vital connection to the vine, life flows through us to produce godliness with power!  (2 Tim 3:5!)

 

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This week is the completion of a 40 day journey which ends on Easter, and it is a good time to think about our personal relationship with Jesus.  This week we celebrate His resurrection! Before Jesus’ victory over the grave, the garden of Gethsemane, the hill of Golgotha, and the cross of Calvary stood before Him.  This week was the final battle for Him.  Before He could come out of the grave, some sobering things took place to our Lord.  Let’s not only remember, let’s value what He did for us! Because of the cross we can have intimacy with God.  What a privilege! Thank you Jesus for your love for us.  Here is your encouraging word for today

This moment was what Jesus’ life was meant for. He came to fulfill purpose and that is exactly what He did. There would no longer be anything that came between God and us. This week in history had eternal ramifications. The veil in the temple would be torn, and separation between God and man was gone, and the bridge was opened. Jesus paid the penalty for our sin so that we could be totally forgiven and accepted. God made a way for family, for connectedness and togetherness. Now mankind could not only be just God’s creation, now we were God’s family, one of God’s own children with all the benefits and privileges of being family. The bloodied body of Christ, His sacrificial death, and triumphant resurrection made provision for the body of Christ to be beautiful. We, as Christ’s body on the earth, are His representatives, and we display His beauty as we fulfill our primary purpose on the earth to go and make disciples of all people. As we love God whole heartedly, and love people fervently, the beauty of Christ’s body is revealed. How beautiful is the body of Christ. Jesus’ eyes were set on the prize, you and me.  Let’s be committed to the purpose Jesus gave His life for.  It was for people who were, and who are, worth the cost. It was a purpose worth dying for.

E-Word 4-02-12

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I was trying to think of an illustration that might help clarify how the fruit of the Spirit works.  Maybe this will help. The mitten or glove without the hand is very unfruitful….duh!!!! We could try to make the glove scrape the ice off the window, or carry something outside, or even give someone a pat on the back. But the glove by itself can’t do any of those things.The glove is missing something very important.  It is the hand. J We can try all day to do things on our own strength, and it is like trying to make a glove move without a hand in it.  We are like the glove, and the Holy Spirit is like the hand. We are filled with Him, and everything is different.  We can accomplish things! We can be productive.  We can show love through a warm pat or a hug.  We can carry important things, and do anything that is necessary.  Without the hand, the glove is useless.  Without the Holy Spirit in our lives, everything we try will be unfruitful.  With Him, it is a whole different story. J Fruitful living is the result of letting our glove be filled with the Hand (The Holy Spirit).  The fruit of the Spirit is most evident in our lives (gloves), when the hand of the Holy Spirit is in us!

E-Word 4-01-12

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Eword for KIDz

We’ve been talking about being fruitful for the last several weeks, and the thing I love about kidz is that they do fruitful things without much fanfare.  If an adult does something fruitful, we like attention, we want a pat on the back, we want some applause, or we want affirmation that someone was watching.  What I’ve noticed with kids is that they do things most often from the genuine place of being kind and good.  I know there are times that you like applause too…..my kids would rather have cash! (I know you like it too$$$$$)  But really kids have this genuineness about them that we adults could learn from.  When we give something away….that should be enough reward. Telling someone else so that they will think we are sooooo generous is our natural instinct.  The Bible says that is all the reward we’ll get.  We should want to genuinely give out of the love of our heart. The right seed has been planted in you and you get to let the fruit show.  So keep on giving, and loving and sharing…..there won’t be any trumpet blasts, or cymbals crashing, or fanfare on the earth, but you can know that you have the applause of heaven because you are living fruitfully for the right reasons.  All the elements are in place to have a fruitful harvest in your life.  When that shows, your friends will want to know why, and then you can tell them about Jesus and how He has changed you.  What awesome fruit will result….your friends can get saved and come to know Jesus, because you are living fruitfully.

E-Word 3-31-12

In Matthew 10:7-8, Jesus is speaking and He tells us to “go preach everywhere,  saying the kingdom of heaven is at hand.  Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out devils.  Freely you have received, freely give.”   The key that makes living fruitfully natural is that by receiving fully, we can give fully.  We have received so much, that living out the fruit of the spirit is the overflow of what we have received. We have opened our hands to receive, and naturally we open our hands to give.  We are connected to the power source and through Him and in Him we have an abundant supply.  As vessels He can flow through, we receive it first, and then we give it away. It’s easy to love fully, when we know we are fully loved!  Because there are so many factors in our life that pull on us, we can feel like we are giving way more than we receive.  That’s where that drained feeling comes from.  But when we understand and realize that it isn’t by our power, or our own strength that we operate in, we can yield to the Holy Spirit and let Him breathe fresh life into us to freely receive again, so we can freely give again.  To keep all the candles in our lives lit, we need a constant supply of oil. That’s where the Spirit of God comes in!

 

When the oil of the Spirit of God reaches our core,

Our light will shine brighter than ever before.

As we have received, let us freely give

The fruitful life we were destined to live

The gifts and the fruit, are for others to taste

They are heaven’s extension reaching the right place

To meet a need or desire, to bring healing or cure

His power flows through you bringing blessings so pure

The seed has been sown, the plant grows up tall

When we abound fruitfully, we won’t ever fall (II Peter 1:10)

 

I’m encouraging you today to live full and give freely.

E-Word 3-30-12

Have you ever had a friend in your life who was reliable, loyal and steadfast?  Were they devoted to you, trustworthy, and unwavering in their love for you?  That would be an awesome, faithful friend! (Those really are all attributes of God, and He certainly is the best friend you’ll ever find!) Someone said once that if at the end of your life you have had 5 faithful friends you would have been blessed.  People like that can be hard to come by. But that is the kind of friend God wants you to be!  God’s seed of faithfulness is already in you. Remember 1 Peter 1:23? You have the power within you to become not only a faithful friend, but also have all of the other fruit of the spirit growing in your life.  Amazing! Just think, little ole’ you are going to grow up to be an awesome oak tree.  You may feel like an itty-bitty baby acorn now, but just wait!  The seed has been planted, the roots are going down deep and you are becoming the man/or woman of God that He wants you to be.  It definitely is a process, but it is worth the effort and certainly the taste of the fruit will be incredible. You want to have deep roots so you can have lasting fruit! So maybe you know someone who needs a friend.  Why not sow a seed of faithful friendship in their life.  Maybe you’ll be blessed to be one of their top five! So today I’m encouraging you – to be reliable, loyal, steadfast, trustworthy and totally faithful!

E-Word 3-29-12