free from your burdens!
Ask fifty people to finish the statement "Live As If" and you are likely to get fifty different answers. For Christians it will mean something different than for non-Christians. Incorporated into the top graphic are the answers given by friends of mine. It is our desire that your answer will be different each time you visit.
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Imagine A Government Operated Facebook
'Inspiration For You' from Randy Mitchell
With one click of a computer’s mouse, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg became one of the richest people in the world, if not in history when the company he founded became public last week. And as most know, Facebook was created among the confines of a Harvard dorm room utilizing nothing more but an ingenious idea, entrepreneurial drive to succeed, and discovery of a golden niche revealing the thirsty desire people have to connect and share their lives with others. The young Grandfather of social media is definitely the wonder boy of new-age business, probably carrying both
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Bible and Quote - September 4-8
'Bible verse and quote' from Jan Couns
The Mighty One (El), God (Elohiym), the Lord (Yehovah), has spoken, And summoned the earth from the rising of the sun to its setting. Psalm 50:1 God does not live in isolation—not in the solitude of a single person, but three persons in one essence. Louis Evely, 1910-85, Belgium writer, priest
Out of Zion, the perfection of beauty, God has shone forth. Psalm 50:2 God hides nothing. His very work from the beginning is revelation—a casting aside of veil after veil, a showing unto men of truth after truth. On and on from fact divine he advances, until at length
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Christ's Love Compels Us
'God's Words For US' from Cecelia Lester
For the love of Christ compels us, because we judge thus:
that if one died for
all, then all died, that those who live should no longer live for themselves,
but for Him who died for them and rose again.
2 Corinthians 5:14-15 (NKJV)
Words of Paul
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RESURRECTION CELEBRATION
'Point of Reference' from Fred Price
What kind of images do you associate with spring? Baby chicks and bunnies, decorated eggs, new clothes? What about green grass, budding trees and flowers emerging from the ground? Some anticipate an egg hunt, toys and candy. Others participate in a Sunrise Service and contemplate Jesus crucified yet risen. Hopefully
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Old School Fishing in a Modern Lake
'Chip Shots from the Ruff of Life' from Tom Kelley
I play a sport that a lot of people give up due to the frustration of playing it. That would be golf; a sport that has been known to leave strong men muttering to themselves under their breath and women talking like men. However, the sport that leaves me the most frustrated is the one that I stopped "enjoying" when I decided to take up golf. That would be fishing; of the "jerk on one end waiting for the jerk on the other end." I have basically been the jerk on one end.
I don't know what it is that frustrates me so about it now. I guess the memories of the times that my
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The Word of God
''Winging It' from Stan Smith
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. (John 1:1-2)
Have you ever wondered what it means when it says that Jesus "was the Word"? In what sense is He "the Word"?
Some will tell you that the Bible isn't the "Word of God"; Jesus is. Others say that it's just that He spoke what God said to speak. Most won't argue that He couldn't be both "the Word of God" and "God" because, well, it specifies that He was both, but more than a few try to conflate "Jesus"
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Awiya the Hunter
'The Way' from Kevin Pauley
“…Go, sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.” - Matthew 19:21
Awiya was renowned as a great hunter. People far and wide talked of his exploits and craftiness. Being part pygmy, he stood barely five feet tall, but he did not rely on his strength or speed to catch his prey. He knew his quarry well and caught them by using their weaknesses.
One day, he went into the jungle to catch a monkey. He went to a coconut tree and found a nut. Drilling two holes into the nut (one larger than the other)
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Mercy and not Sacrifice (Sept. 24, 2010)
'Today's Little Lift' from Jim Bullington
God determined the principle: “I desire mercy and not sacrifice.” (Matthew 9.13). This principle is as true today in the Christian Dispensation as it was in the two previous dispensations, the Patriarchal and Mosaical. God’s passionate desire to win man’s heart has never abated since the first sin of our forefathers and will remain just as fervent until the last tick of the clock shall have been heard. God, our beneficent Father, wants all men to experience repentance (2 Peter 3.9), a genuine change of our heart’s allegiance that places God in the
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How Great Is Your Need Today?
'Word from Scotland' from Sandy Shaw
Jesus and his men are on their way to Jerusalem. Jesus has decided and Jesus has decided that this is the hour.
Luke 18 verse 35 – They make their way to Jericho, and a blind man – a beggar calls out – “Jesus, Son of David - have mercy on me.” Those who were leading
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The Servant Leader
'Refreshment in Refuge' from Gina Burgess
Servant Leader
Last week we talked about Jesus as the servant washing Peter’s feet in an act of servantship as well as cleansing and forgiveness. What of the servant as leader?
In the 1990s Robert K. Greenleaf “discovered” the truth that “a leader is best experienced first as a servant” (Spears, 2004, p. 9). Jesus exhibited this axiom better than any other leader before or since He rose from the dead. While Spears does not bring out this biblical truth, he does point out ten of Greenleaf’s ideas about the characteristics of a good servant-leader,
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Perilous Times
''Christ in You...'' from Dale Krebbs
There is a growing uneasiness in our world today. Even the Secretary General of the United Nations has said that "the world is falling apart". Satan is increasing conflicts in almost every arena of life; personal, public, worldwide. There has always been spurts, highs and lows, stair step levels of uneasiness - in our personal lives, in the church, in governments of the world. On a personal level, there is a kind of foreboding; a deep down feeling that somehow things are different, something is wrong, which cannot be identified or defined. Our world is changing so fast,
I remember a lot of my years playing Little League baseball in my home town. I remember the kids and even some of the coaches. I remember Don Morrow telling us to count the hops on ground balls. Not so we could actually know how many times the ball hopped, but so we would be concentrating on the ball enough to field it without missing it.I remember one particular practice where Mr. Morrow was hitting ground balls to us infielders.
Daily Refractions
Words to Ponder
Pastoring is about running from one pile of poop to another. - Waymon Mitchell
'Daily Reading Plan'
from StudyLight.org
Bible-in-a-Year NAS
Numbers 25-27; Song of Solomon 6:4-8:4; Matthew 24:1-31:
For they invited the people to the sacrifices of their gods, and the people ate and bowed down to their gods. So Israel became followers of Baal of Peor, and the LORD was angry with Israel. And the LORD said to Moses, "Take all the leaders of the people and execute them in broad daylight before the LORD, so that the fierce anger of the LORD may turn away from Israel." So Moses said to the judges of Israel, "Each of you kill his men