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Tuesday, December 26, 2023

Fresh Illustrations

Devotional Thoughts and Teaching Illustrations About Fresh




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Proverbs 18:15 (MSG) Wise men and women are always learning, always listening for fresh insights.
Proverbs 16:22 (MSG) True intelligence is a spring of fresh water, while fools sweat it out the hard way.
Acts 3:19 So repent [change your inner self—your old way of thinking, regret past sins] and return [to God—seek His purpose for your life], so that your sins may be wiped away [blotted out, completely erased], so that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord [restoring you like a cool wind on a hot day];
2 Corinthians 5:17 Therefore if anyone is in Christ [that is, grafted in, joined to Him by faith in Him as Savior], he is a new creature [reborn and renewed by the Holy Spirit]; the old things [the previous moral and spiritual condition] have passed away. Behold, new things have come [because spiritual awakening brings a new life].
James 3:11 - Does a spring pour forth from the same opening both fresh and saltwater?
Mark 2:22 - And no one puts new wine into old wineskins. If he does, the wine will burst the skins—and the wine is destroyed, and so are the skins. But new wine is for fresh wineskins.”


DAY ONE-FRESH START

“Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your labor is not in vain in the Lord.” 1 Corinthians 15:58

Life is made up of beginnings, endings and more beginnings. Winter ends and spring begins. Spring ends and summer begins. Summer ends and winter begins. We are ending one decade and starting a new one with the challenges of the past year behind and the challenges of a new year ahead. We end childhood and begin young adulthood. We end being young adults and enter middle age. We end middle age and become senior adults. We are born, we live, we die, and then if we know Jesus, we live again.

I have found that the older I get the harder it is to begin again, the harder it is to move forward and not to stop. For many of us it becomes harder to try something new, the easier it is to do nothing. We sometimes think we have done enough.

How do you begin again, how do you move forward with life, how do you really live as long as you are living? This verse in 1 Corinthians 15:58 gives us some direction as to how to do that. The first instruction that Apostle Paul gives us about how to begin again, how to live is this: “…stand firm. Let nothing move you….” He is saying that we should let nothing in this world deter us, keep us from living the abundant life that Jesus came to give us (John 10:10). We should let no bad thing, no evil thing, not even a good thing keep us from living our lives for the Lord.

For the early Christians, there were some obstacles to living the Christian life. If you were a Christian in Corinth you could count on feeling out of place, out of step with most of the people who lived there (sound familiar). If you were a Christian in Corinth you could count on encountering persecution in one form or another. Paul was telling them don't let that stop you from living like you should “…stand firm. Let nothing move you….”


Thought of the Day  What is it that Paul would say to you today? “…stand firm. Let nothing move you….…stand firm. Let nothing move you….” It’s time to get busy in 2020, we have a lot of work to do.


You Think About It!
Kevin Rayner


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Wednesday, September 06, 2023

Love Illustrations

Devotional Thoughts and Teaching Illustrations About Love


Agape Love = The Greek word agape (love) seems to have been virtually a Christian invention—a new word for a new thing (apart from about twenty occurrences in the Greek version of the Old Testament, it is almost non-existent before the New Testament). Agape draws its meaning directly from the revelation of God in Christ. It is not a form of natural affection, however, intense, but a supernatural fruit of the Spirit (Gal. 5:22). It is a matter of will rather than feeling (for Christians must love even those they dislike—Matt. 5:44-48). It is the basic element in Christlikeness.
Read 1 Corinthians 13 and note what these verses have to say about the primacy (vv. 1-3) and permanence (vv. 8-13) of love; note too the profile of love (vv. 4-7) which they give.
Your Father Loves You by James Packer, Harold Shaw Publishers, 1986, page for March 10


Loving Furiously

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John 15:13 Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.
John 15:17 (MSG) “But remember the root command: Love one another.
2 John 1:3 (MSG) Let grace, mercy, and peace be with us in truth and love from God the Father and from Jesus Christ, Son of the Father!
Galatians 5:22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith,
Romans 8:28 And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.
Titus 3:5 "Twas not for deeds that we had done, but by his steadfast love alone, he saved us through a second birth, renewed us by the Spirit's work,
Romans 5:8 But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.
Galatians 2:20 with Christ I have been crucified, and live no more do I, and Christ doth live in me; and that which I now live in the flesh -- in the faith I live of the Son of God, who did love me and did give himself for me;
John 13:34 A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another.
John 14:15 If ye love me, keep my commandments.
1 John 4:8 But anyone who does not love does not know God, for God is love.
1 Corinthians 13

A caring commitment, in which affection and delight are shown to others, which is grounded in the nature of God himself. In his words and actions, and supremely in the death of Jesus Christ on the cross, God demonstrates the nature of love and defines the direction in which human love in all its forms should develop.

love, nature of
Scripture offers an understanding of the source, character and value of love, based on the nature and actions of God.
God is the source of love
His very character is love 1Jn 4:7-8 See also 1Th 3:12; 2Ti 1:7; 1Jn 4:16,19
The love of God is revealed in the cross of Jesus Christ 1Jn 3:16; 4:10 See also Jn 15:13; Eph 5:2,25
Love is part of the Holy Spirit’s fruit Gal 5:22 See also Ro 5:5; 15:30; Col 1:8
The loving-kindness of God referred to in the OT
Jer 31:3 See also Ex 15:13; 34:6; 2Ch 6:42; Ps 6:4; 32:10; 51:1; 107:43; Isa 54:10; 63:7; La 3:22; Hos 2:19
The love of God in the NT
To describe God’s love for humanity Jn 3:16 See also Jn 5:42; 15:10; Ro 8:39; 2Co 13:14; Eph 2:4; Heb 12:6; 1Jn 3:1
To describe love for God Lk 10:27; Jn 14:21; 21:15; Ro 8:28; 1Th 1:3; Jas 1:12; 1Pe 1:8; 1Jn 5:3
To describe brotherly love Jn 13:35; Ro 13:8; 1Co 16:24; 2Co 8:8; Gal 5:13; Eph 4:2; Php 1:9; Col 2:2; Phm 5
To describe love expressed by eating together 2Pe 2:13 fn; Jude 12
To describe love in a negative sense Lk 11:43; Jn 3:19; 12:43; 2Ti 4:10; 2Pe 2:15; 1Jn 2:15
Characteristics of love
1Co 13:4-8 See also Ro 12:9; 1Ti 1:5; 1Pe 1:22; 1Jn 4:18
Love is shown by deeds
1Jn 3:17-18 See also Jn 14:15,23; Ro 5:8; 14:15; Gal 2:20; 1Jn 4:9; 5:2-3; 2Jn 6; 3Jn 5-6
The pre-eminence of love
1Co 13:13 See also Mt 22:37-39 pp Mk 12:29-31; Ro 13:9-10; 1Co 12:31-13:3; Gal 5:6; Eph 3:17-19; Col 3:14; 2Pe 1:7; 1Jn 2:10

Manser, M. H. (2009). Dictionary of Bible Themes: The Accessible and Comprehensive Tool for Topical Studies. Martin Manser.

You Think About It!
Kevin Rayner


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Monday, December 12, 2022

Treasure Illustrations

Devotional Thoughts and Teaching Illustrations About Treasure

From trash to treasures
BY JAY HART

True story. I moved recently, and if you’ve moved recently you know this: it ain’t cheap. So when the mover offered a discount if I paid in cash, I made a beeline to the ATM. Took three days because of withdrawal limits. Rather than keep a bunch of cash in my wallet, I stashed it in a box where I thought it would be safe. That is, until someone threw the box out.
Panicked, because I’d just put the trash bins by the curb, I ran outside only to see the garbage truck a few doors down. I opened the bin, found the box and … phew … got the cash about two minutes before it ended up in the dump.
So what does this story have to do with this newsletter? Well, it wasn’t so long ago the Carolina Panthers, Detroit Lions and Jacksonville Jaguars were all thrown into the trash. Now, in the middle of December, all three teams have picked themselves out of their respective Dumpsters, washed off the grease and grime, and planted themselves smack dab in the thick of the playoff hunt.
It wasn’t two months ago the Panthers, having already fired their head coach, were sellers, jettisoning Christian McCaffrey in a white-flag-waving move the likes of which is rarely seen in the NFL. They’re still not great, but they have won two straight, which, in the NFC South, puts you just a game back of the division lead.
In Detroit, the Lions have won five of six, the lone loss coming on a last-second field goal against the mighty Bills. Their offense is humming as loud as anyone’s right now, with Jared Goff looking like the fantasy comeback player of the year. They’ve scored more points than every team in the NFL this season save the Eagles, Cowboys, Chiefs and Bills. In short, no one wants to play the Lions right now — first time those words have been written in a while — and the four games remaining on their schedule — Jets, Panthers, Bears, Packers — are all winnable.
Meanwhile in Jacksonville, the question is … can the Jags catch the Titans? Well, if Trevor Lawrence plays like he did Sunday, most definitely. That the question is even being asked is a minor victory, but right now Jacksonville has its sights set on the bigger picture, which could come down to a Week 18 matchup against Tennessee at home.
And therein lies the key: Week 18. The additional one game for sure serves as a revenue driver for the league, but it also allows for some rallying. It gives a team trending in the right direction a little more time to catch up, while at the same time pushes the finish line a little further out for a team limping toward the end (see: Tom Brady and the Bucs).
Put another way, it’s the extra two minutes teams might need to save themselves after ending up in the trash bin prematurely.

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You Think About it!
Kevin Rayner




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