Faith, the Gift
No one who comes to faith in Jesus Christ ever got there on his own. Yes, we made a choice but inevitably it was God’s grace, His will and His prodding through the Spirit, that enabled us to see in Jesus, that being created in His image is the statement, the final statement about who and what we really are. Do all people have this opportunity? Can all people find their eternal destiny in Jesus? Can we be sure that God is on every person’s side?
No more…
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Added by HKHaugan on May 14, 2011 at 12:53pm —
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John 20:19-23 The Resurrection and Leadership
This passage shows how Jesus taught leadership to the disciples on the day He rose from the dead. Reading this passage in the spiritual perspective He intended follow the outline and see if this isn't the way we should approach every meeting, every committee and prayer group gathering and every worship service.
What is the context and what parallels do we see for us? What is 'evening' 'the first day of the week' 'the locked doors'…
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Added by HKHaugan on May 12, 2011 at 7:07am —
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The Resurrection awakens in us the reality of not only our own humanity but the humanity of others. Jesus awakens us to the true nature of humanity. We are not just globs of flesh continuing to reproduce and be exclamation marks surrounded by a question mark called the universe. There is the individual birth, life and death sequence that has within it a personal existence with meaning, significance, dignity and purpose. Everyone who really is willing to accept His fourfold premise and His…
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Added by HKHaugan on May 9, 2011 at 6:30pm —
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Needs take a personal turn when we are reminded that Jesus was resurrected with a purpose, to meet those needs, needs that are the result of being separated from Him. If we had not chosen to be separated from Him we would have no needs but Adam changed all that and we have inherited His nature, a needs nature. If we really analyze what we call needs we will find that every one of them is relational. So if our relationship with our Creator is restored then as our needs become apparent, we can…
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Added by HKHaugan on May 5, 2011 at 5:06pm —
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Continuing on our needs trip and having seen the need to worship we move on to a companion need and that is filling the half full glass of mind renewal. After Jesus becomes the significant person in our life we discover our lack of knowledge about Him and of Him. So two needs pop up here. The mind’s need to order experience and the heart’s need to fill the interpersonal void that sin has wrought in us. We thirst for knowing Him in our mind and heart just like the Psalmist who…
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Added by HKHaugan on May 2, 2011 at 5:12pm —
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Since we have opened the whole subject of needs what we are going to find is that it is like opening presents at Christmas. There is one box after another to open. When one is opened the excitement grows as each next one that has your name on it appears. The difference between getting gifts in the world sense and having the gifts from God that meet our needs is that the first one is all about me and accumulating things that all center on me. The second is that God’s gifts take the spotlight off…
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Added by HKHaugan on May 1, 2011 at 7:30am —
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What we have said about needs, our deepest needs, is that Jesus meets them completely and proved it by His Cross and Resurrection. We needed a relationship of perfect trust and He offered it. We needed to recognize how imperfect we are, humble our pride, confess it and He embraced us. We needed to look at Him for forgiveness and He gave it. We needed to know how to love others and He demonstrated it. We needed balance of mind, heart and spirit and He became our peace within. In all five He…
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Added by HKHaugan on April 30, 2011 at 2:16pm —
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When Jesus rose from the dead the impact of that event reversed the way human beings assessed themselves. Instead of a fractured self-appraisal, a depressed resignation to surviving the present and facing an uncertain future, there was not only a new hope but a vision of a reality never seen before. What the human heart most needed appeared and was made available to everyone.
What was the change, the reversal, the new hope? First, there was the certainty of life after death, of a way…
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Added by HKHaugan on April 29, 2011 at 9:43am —
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For many people waking up in the morning is greeted by incessant calls from within…You need to look younger, reflects the mirror… You need to have what they have, says my coveting the larger house in the nicer neighborhood I happen to pass by, you need more money, shouts my limited budget… I need to change my eating habit and lose weight, says weak will power …I need to be better at what I’m doing, says that sense of self-dissatisfaction… I need someone to give me a break, says my tendency to…
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Added by HKHaugan on April 27, 2011 at 5:10pm —
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All of Paul’s letters are the result of the effect Jesus had on Him. The Gospels are about Him. Revelation is about Him. Again, the whole Old Testament is about Jesus. The miracles of Jesus are about Him and from Him. The teachings are from His heart and are given to point to Him. He is the centrality of all the stories, the proverbs, the parables, the future, the past, and the present.
Now there are two tracks, two paths, two roads always open to us. One is God’s and the other is…
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Added by HKHaugan on April 26, 2011 at 7:31am —
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In this time when we have just celebrated the Resurrection of Jesus we really need to get down to the business of communicating our faith. Why is the Resurrection so important? What does it mean for the world? What does it mean for me? It’s a lot more personal than we think and a lot less to do with religion. It’s got everything to do with who we are, why we are here and what living is all about.
In order to really answer the ‘why’ and ‘what’ questions we have to look at our…
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Added by HKHaugan on April 25, 2011 at 7:39pm —
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When Jesus declared on the Cross -‘It is finished (Jn.19:30)’- He was declaring that everything He came to do was completed, done, accomplished. The Resurrection is the proof. Everything from His birth, all through His life and into His death had been fulfilled. Every thought behind every action, every motivation in every next moment, had pleased His Father. He lived to do His Father’s will and died for Him. “My food is to do the will of Him who sent me and to finish His work…
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Added by HKHaugan on April 23, 2011 at 9:15am —
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Here's the teaching outline from Tuesday morning Bible Study as requested.
The Lord’s Supper
Matt. 26:17-30 Mark 14:12-26 Luke 22:7-23 John 13:1-30 1Cor.11:20-26
The Context of the Lord’s Supper
The Passover Exodus 12
Ex.24:8 Lev.17:11 Heb.10:1-14
The Centrality of the Lord’s Supper
1Cor.11 Paul sees it as the central act when believers come together.
Jesus’ teaching is done in the context of Passover in John.
The…
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Added by HKHaugan on April 19, 2011 at 3:00pm —
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“Then Jesus came to them. He said, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. So you must go and make disciples of all nations. Baptize them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Teach them to obey everything I have commanded you. And you can be sure that I am always with you, to the very end (Matthew 28:18-20)."
In all recorded history no person, personality or persona real or fictional has had more of an effect on human civilization and…
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Added by HKHaugan on April 18, 2011 at 5:08pm —
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Have you ever felt the need to atone for something you’ve done? What atone means is to make up for something that shouldn’t have been done, something that has brought with it a sense of guilt. We want to atone, make up, for past mistakes. This mistake prone nature we have is due to sin and its inevitable consequence, guilt, which we inherited from the initial act of disobedience Adam and Eve committed. It is not unusual to hear someone say they feel guilty even though they don’t know why. It’s…
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Added by HKHaugan on April 17, 2011 at 7:28am —
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Here are the spiritual gifts lists to start the knowing part of your spiritual gifts endowment. The Lord’s gifts’ statement is the prompt, “Which of you, if your son asks for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him! (Matt.7:9-11).”
Romans 12:6-8
We have different gifts,…
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Added by HKHaugan on April 14, 2011 at 7:49am —
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“Don’t ask me to lead or to speak. They make me uncomfortable. But if you have something you would like to get done I will be glad to help.” That particular attitude can be the result of a lack of confidence, a lack of faith or it may be a true reflection of a gift that is necessary to get a job done. The gift of helps (1Cor.12:28) emerges when someone in the Body is anxious to serve the Lord and just appears whenever a project starts. They don’t want to be noticed, praised or…
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Added by HKHaugan on April 12, 2011 at 5:30pm —
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7But to each one of us grace has been given as Christ apportioned it…11 some to be evangelists…(Eph.4).”
“I don’t do street corners or push my ideas on others. Religion is a private thing. I know I’m not an evangelist. I leave all ‘that’ to the ‘Billy Graham’ types.” I bet you’ve heard ‘that’ too or maybe even felt that way when asked to be part of a team visiting newcomers or being in the midst of others who are talking about what it means to be a Christian. Did you ever consider…
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Added by HKHaugan on April 11, 2011 at 3:41pm —
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“Sounds like gibberish to me” “What kind of noise is that?” “That’s weird” And you’ve heard those before I’m sure. So just what is ‘speaking in tongues?’ This opens the door to one of the most sensitive spiritual issues among Christians today. It has been the source of division in many denominations. In fact several denominations have been founded on the need for acceptance of this gift as a central tenet of faith. ‘Pentecostal’ and ‘charismatic’ are terms usually used to describe the…
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Added by HKHaugan on April 7, 2011 at 11:00am —
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‘Everything has to go her way’ ‘He has a controlling spirit’ ‘Something’s wrong here. I can feel it in my bones’ ‘The hair rose up on my neck’ “That was the eeriest thing I’ve ever seen.’ These and many other expressions indicate something real is happening, you just can’t see it. There is a discernment of some dominating force motivating an action, a reaction or a simple observation. Paul nails it when he says, “For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against…
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Added by HKHaugan on April 4, 2011 at 7:18am —
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