HKHaugan's Blog (1,443)

The Parable of the Sower

The Parable of the Sower (Mt.13:3-9, 18-23))

 The first thing we want to remember is that the parables are meant to touch the heart. What the heart is willing to receive and trust is what will motivate the spirit to put it into action. This is why the first parable of note in Matthew is the Parable of the Sower. It is a parable about the Word of God. It contains the seeds, its…

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Added by HKHaugan on February 1, 2018 at 10:30am — No Comments

Context and Settings for the Parables

Context and Setting of Parables

 The parables of Jesus are as important as any of the rest of Scripture because they not only reveal the thinking mind of God, but they reveal His heart and Spirit as well. When Jesus tells a parable, it is to bring us into the thinking and attitude of God. It is the Holy Spirit who conveys both and stands ready to give us that inner…

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Added by HKHaugan on January 30, 2018 at 8:00am — No Comments

The Beauty of Being Ordinary

The Beauty of Being Ordinary

 The ordinary man---he is an individual, unknown, not a public figure, average, no one gives him a second look, rarely memorable. However, this is the kind of person the Lord picks to do His work. Acts 3 recalls the Apostles Peter and John (common fishermen) healing a crippled man and then preaching about Jesus. The rulers in Jerusalem heard about…

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Added by HKHaugan on January 27, 2018 at 12:00pm — No Comments

Being a Disciple of Jesus

Being a Disciple of Jesus

 Being a true disciple is not about evangelism, church, mission, ethics, behavior, religion or theology. It is about Jesus. It is about letting Him be our focus. It is about Him being our priority. It is about Jesus being here right now and being His disciple. He is to be our focus and our priority. Peter says it so well when he tells a crippled man to…

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Added by HKHaugan on January 25, 2018 at 3:12pm — No Comments

Psalm 18:1-3 Reassurance

Psalm 18:1-3 Reassurance

 We all need reassurance, encouragement, consolation and support. There is no better place than the Psalms to feel the intensity of those words. If you take the first verses of this Davidic masterpiece, they will be a great start to any day, a comfort in any circumstance and the means to move into every next moment.

 …

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Added by HKHaugan on January 22, 2018 at 7:07am — No Comments

Christmas and the Way, the Truth and the Life

Christmas and the Way, the Truth and the Life

 There are lots of philosophical systems to think with, lots of emotional avenues for the heart to stroll down and lots of things that promise a good life, but none are the combined balance of personal belief, heart trust and spirit action like Jesus exhibited and besides, remember this, remember that He rose from the dead and lives in our hearts.…

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Added by HKHaugan on January 6, 2018 at 11:14am — No Comments

Christmas and the One Track Mind

Christmas and the One-Track Mind

 The Lord Jesus had one attitude which He described in these words, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength and your neighbor as yourself (Mt.22, Lk.10).” As we said in the last blog, He was a one attitude person while we, on the other hand, tend to be multi-attitudinal. That is, we develop attitudes as we…

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Added by HKHaugan on January 5, 2018 at 7:00am — No Comments

Christmas and Perception

Christmas and Perception

 Perception is spiritual reality at work. But what shapes our perception? If we really look at it, the heart is the source and the attitude it dresses in is the deciding factor. If I do not believe in God, my attitude is emotionally conditioned and intellectually justified based on what makes me comfortable. If I believe in God, my attitude is in the…

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Added by HKHaugan on January 1, 2018 at 11:00am — 1 Comment

Christmas and Freedom

Christmas and Freedom

 Freedom is a multi-defined word in the secular world. It usually means you can think and do anything you want. But no one is perfect intellectually or emotionally which means there is no guarantee they will be right. If you are a disciple of Jesus, freedom is spiritual and means choosing between what God wants and what we want.…

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Added by HKHaugan on December 30, 2017 at 9:15am — No Comments

Christmas and Spiritual Rebirth

Christmas and Spiritual Rebirth

 That Jesus was born of a virgin, counters everything a world-conditioned mind thought when He was born. It still counters the same mindset today. It is simply impossible for a physical conception to take place without the implantation of a physical seed in a physical womb. After all, how did you and I get here? It is this very reality that…

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Added by HKHaugan on December 26, 2017 at 2:28pm — No Comments

Christmas in the Biblical Context

Christmas in the Biblical Context 

The event of Christmas, the Nativity, the birth of our Lord, signifies something that is cataclysmic to say the least. It marks the end of an era and the beginning of an era. It is end of the beginning and the beginning of the end. It is the start and finish of a program God had in mind before Creation. How we understand it all is beyond us but…

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Added by HKHaugan on December 24, 2017 at 9:30am — No Comments

Spiritual Recovery and Christmas

Spiritual Recovery and Christmas

 Christmas is the beginning of recapturing, reshaping and reorienting the mind, heart and spirit as a lifetime project. The appearance of Jesus on the world scene is the unfolding of God’s plan of recovery. In Him we see this project unfold. Jesus was conceived and born by the Holy Spirit, lived and acted by the Spirit and, when He died, was…

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Added by HKHaugan on December 23, 2017 at 9:00am — No Comments

Christmas, Recovering the Spirit

Christmas, Recovering the Spirit

 Of course, I’m talking about our spirits, the reshaping of the soul within us, allowing God to fill us with His Holy Spirit and restoring us to the full image of Him He intended in Creation. Jesus came to restore our wandering anxious spirit. With the mind centered in Scripture, the heart trusting in the presence of the Lord Jesus, the Lord…

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Added by HKHaugan on December 22, 2017 at 8:00am — No Comments

Christmas and Recovering the Heart

Christmas and Recovering the Heart

To recover the heart, we have to recognize it starts with the mind. As Paul said, “…be transformed by the renewal of your mind.” The mind is where we believe, where we analyze on the basis of what we believe. What we believe determines how we arrange our thoughts about life, God, people and existence. The mind is a reservoir of ideas, concepts and principles we choose to…

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Added by HKHaugan on December 21, 2017 at 1:30pm — No Comments

Christmas and Recovering the Mind

Christmas and Recovering the Mind

 

“Are you out of your mind? - Where is your mind? - Keep your mind on what you’re doing. - My mind can’t handle it. - He’s playing mind games. - They’re trying to get into my head. - I can’t get my mind around that. - He’s got a screw loose somewhere. - He’s not playing with a full deck. - His elevator doesn’t go to the top…

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Added by HKHaugan on December 20, 2017 at 7:53pm — No Comments

Christmas Begins the Process

Christmas Begins the Process 

If forgiveness is the starting point of salvation then what we do is accept the One who forgives, the Lord Jesus, and see what we do after that. When Peter preached to the crowd in Jerusalem about why Jesus was crucified they asked what they should do in response. Peter replied, "Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit…

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Added by HKHaugan on December 19, 2017 at 4:30pm — No Comments

The Importance of Mary

The Importance of Mary 

When we approach Scripture, it is important that we view it from its intended spiritual context. What is it saying to us spiritually? Then, how is to be applied to where we are as individuals physically and emotionally? So, when we look at the passages involving Mary the mother of Jesus for instance, what is the spiritual meaning of her life and her words?

 There is an obviously deep spiritual impact when Elizabeth, pregnant with John, hears Mary…

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Added by HKHaugan on December 18, 2017 at 5:07pm — No Comments

How Christmas Continues

How Christmas Continues 

Jesus came “…to give his people the knowledge of salvation through the forgiveness of their sins…(Lk.1:77)”

 We’ve already stated that salvation was being personally restored to God by God through the One who restores us and that is Jesus, the Son of God. People had to know that this salvation was available; that they had access to it and that there was someone who would provide it. That was the task of John the Baptist, announce it, make it…

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Added by HKHaugan on December 16, 2017 at 9:27am — No Comments

Christmas Day is Just the Beginning

Christmas Day is Just the Beginning

 Christmas is not a season that begins with commercials at the end of summer and builds toward Dec.25 only to end on Christmas Day. Christmas morning with presents and the afternoon with its heavy meal are not climactic events. The Christmas season begins on Christmas Eve with worship. The older European experience of the Christmas celebration starts on Christmas Eve with worship and gift giving, then continues for two weeks until Epiphany,…

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Added by HKHaugan on December 14, 2017 at 11:11am — No Comments

The Real Christmas Question 2017AD

The Real Christmas Question 2017 AD 

Consider this: all the medical advancments, economic achievements, educational progress, political development, spiritual involvement, amazing technologies, the building of hospitals and social services, missions to the poor and disabled, advancments of theater, fine arts, architecture and the vast discoveries and inventions having occurred in these last centuries; what initiated them? You might quote that ‘necessity is the mother of…

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Added by HKHaugan on December 12, 2017 at 1:11pm — 1 Comment

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