Sunday, November 12, 2017

Renewing The Mind

If you've gotten anything at all out of following Christ, if his love has made any difference in your life, if being in a community of the Spirit means anything to you, if you have a heart, if you care —then do me a favor: Agree with each other, love each other, be deep-spirited friends. Don't push your way to the front; don't sweet-talk your way to the top. Put yourself aside, and help others get ahead. Don't be obsessed with getting your own advantage. Forget yourselves long enough to lend a helping hand.
Philippians 2:1‭-‬4 MSG

The focus of salvation is our eternal soul. A future hope and a present hope. Life here can change. We can live differently. That's a universal desire. 188 crowd is looking for freedom and relationships that work. 

Standing out with Christ. Have the same mind as Jesus. Every day we have the opportunity to confess Jesus. We are critical of people who don't live the talk. Integrity means to carry the intention of being like Jesus. Every day you can live to look more like Jesus. 
Start when you get up before breakfast. Start when you show up for work. Live like Jesus when you meet the begger. Every day you have the opportunity. 

The attitude you should have is the one that Christ Jesus had:
Philippians 2:5 GNT

Know your limits. Make real change. Not just intention. 

Why do we not do this with our spiritual life with life changing intentions. 

You have been raised to life with Christ, so set your hearts on the things that are in heaven, where Christ sits on his throne at the right side of God. Your real life is Christ and when he appears, then you too will appear with him and share his glory!
Colossians 3:1‭, ‬4 GNT
Your intention to follow Jesus and believing he wants to transform you will change you. 

Jesus tells the story of 10,000 talents. More than the servant could ever repay.  
He had just begun to do so when one of them was brought in who owed him millions of dollars. The servant did not have enough to pay his debt, so the king ordered him to be sold as a slave, with his wife and his children and all that he had, in order to pay the debt.
Matthew 18:24‭-‬25 GNT

God offers enormous forgiveness. He gives grace beyond measure. New lease on life. 

"Then the man went out and met one of his fellow servants who owed him a few dollars. He grabbed him and started choking him. 'Pay back what you owe me!' he said. His fellow servant fell down and begged him, 'Be patient with me, and I will pay you back!' But he refused; instead, he had him thrown into jail until he should pay the debt.
Matthew 18:28‭-‬30 GNT

The man had no intention to change his ways. 

You should have had mercy on your fellow servant, just as I had mercy on you.'
Matthew 18:28‭, ‬33 GNT

God frees us to be different. Reflect Jesus every day. Dare to be different. 

Saturday, November 11, 2017

Uncle Edward Friesen age 97


Kelly Friesen Loved his grandpa.
He was charismatic. Loved Jesus. Sang a lot. Witnessed. 
Loved to play with grandkids. Hugs. Had a big tractor sized garden. Had lots of potatoes. 
Great grandpa lived with them. He made spinners.
Harold Berg was so tall he did not fit in the bed. Worked at NDL. Imperial Metal provided lots of buildings up north. 
He put the sheets on the 8/12 roof by himself when he was 80.
We went to old dumps to scrounge for treasures. 
Built Bethal Bible Camp. 
He butchered his own meat. 
He loved snowmobiling in SandiLands
I am very much like grandpa. Sing for Jesus anytime.
I made a clamp for him to help him make coat hangers. 

This is Hard
Ruth's daughters from Alberta. 
Grandpa was unorthodox.
He built stuff stuff and wired without turning the power off. Sparks were flying.
His driving was legendary. He had childlike traffic tickets. 
He was 97. Always liked to test food and poison. Paint ball tasting. 

Ralph Unger
Passing the torch. God has no grandchildren. In his last weeks he could not communicate. Pray for God to take him home. 
He talked about Jesus all the time. 
How is faith transferred? Timothy got it from his mother's side. 2 Tim 
4 points
1. Bless the child. Grace mercy and peace to you. Grandma did not hold bad stuff against the grandkids
2. Praying for the child. Thank God remember them in prayer. Tearful partings. We want to see him again. 
3. Encourage the child. Fan the flame. Power comes from God. Your dad was committed to God.
He was a good husband for 77 years and a good father.

The Torch has been passed. Let's run with it. 

Sing How Great Thou Art

Sunday, November 05, 2017

What is true freedom?

Mark Hughes pastor  www.ChurchOfTheRock.ca
Most North Americans have 4 Bibles gathering dust. 
So Jesus said to those Jews who believed in him, "If you live by what I say, you are truly my disciples. You will know the truth, and the truth will set you free." They replied to Jesus, "We are Abraham's descendants, and we've never been anyone's slaves. So how can you say that we will be set free?" Jesus answered them, "I can guarantee this truth: Whoever lives a sinful life is a slave to sin. A slave doesn't live in the home forever, but a son does. So if the Son sets you free, you will be absolutely free.
John 8:31‭-‬36 GW

What is true freedom? If you sin you are a slave to sin.
When you do something stupid you say it's a free country. 
Czech Republic claims to be very free. A young woman rode the bus naked every day. Lots of men wanted to be on that bus. 
Satan uses the enticement of pleasure. 
Adam and Eve disobeyed. The fruit was good. 
Not everything that the world offers—physical gratification, greed, and extravagant lifestyles—comes from the Father. It comes from the world, and the world and its evil desires are passing away. But the person who does what God wants lives forever.
1 John 2:16‭-‬17 GW
Sin is something good overdone. Too much of a good thing makes you sick. Sin. 
Sex. God created it. It's good. It's beautiful. 
God blessed them and said, "Be fertile, increase in number, fill the sea, and let there be many birds on the earth." So God created humans in his image. In the image of God he created them. He created them male and female. God blessed them and said, "Be fertile, increase in number, fill the earth, and be its master. Rule the fish in the sea, the birds in the sky, and all the animals that crawl on the earth."
Genesis 1:22‭, ‬27‭-‬28 GW
The original intent was sex between a married man and woman. 

We live in a sex crazed world. Can't tell right from wrong. 
All sin has consequences. Samson was the Judge of Israel. 
The Spirit of God gave him strength. 
Samson went to Gaza. There he saw a prostitute and slept with her. After ⌊leaving Gaza⌋, he fell in love with a woman in the Sorek Valley. Her name was Delilah. The Philistine rulers came to her and said, "Trick him, and find out what makes him so strong. Find out how we can overpower him. We want to tie him up in order to torture him. Each of us will give you 1,100 pieces of silver."
Judges 16:1‭, ‬4‭-‬5 GW
He spent the night with a prostitute but God didn't leave him. 
God is faithful and reliable. If we confess our sins, he forgives them and cleanses us from everything we've done wrong.
1 John 1:9 GW
Delilah worked him. Fool me once 4x before they got him. He was addicted to her. 
He thought there were no consequences. Eventually he got caught. 
1984 book Orwell
Brave New World said the rulers would enslave the world with pleasure. Huxley was Orwell's teacher. 
SOMA was a drug to keep people happy. Why do governments fall over each other approving dope? Marihuana. Marijuana. Pot.
4.5b prescriptions last year in NA. Have we taken it too far? 

 Mark was losing his voice and went to an ENT ear nose throat specialist.  He prescribed a Proton Pump Inhibitor drug. Acid reflux.  Daughter told him to Stop the talking. Stopped talking and never took one pill. Make lifestyle choices.
Look at the word of God. The Truth shall set you free.