Wednesday, April 22, 2009
Responses from Yesterday's CUP KKIM/DDC
Dear KKIM Family,
Our lives are a Christ like fragrance rising up to God. 2 Cor. 2:15 Bonus Reading 2 Cor. 2:14-16
This from Pastor Leonard Navarre..........
Keep in mind not what you are, But whose you are.
Psalm 95:6, 7 “O come, let us worship and bow down: let us kneel before the LORD our maker. For he is our God; and we are the people of his pasture, and the sheep of his hand.”
This from Pastor Don Kimbro........
SEARCHLIGHT
Read Psalm 139:23-24
We shall steer safely through every storm, so long as our heart is right, our intention fervent, our courage steadfast, and our trust fixed on God. If at times we are somewhat stunned by the tempest, never fear. Let us take breath, and go on afresh. - Francis de Sales (St. Francis)
Maranatha!
By the way if you are a Pastor we would like to hear from you! We would love for you to share!!!! We love hearing from everybody!!! PRAISE GOD!!!! We love to gather here at KKIM and the CUP for a CUP of love with you all!!!
Let us check some responses from yesterday's posting...If the Lord moves you, we would love to hear from you.........
Dear Dewey,
In my life I see it as one simple, yet deadly mistake. Not putting God first. The first step to be a Christian is accepting a gift, that very simple. We have to accept God’s salvation. So many of us do that then jump away or slowly drift away into things of this world. if a human had pulled us from the depths of a pit we would shower the person with thanks, gifts, and praise. We would tell all we saw, we would shout it to the news media. We would want everyone to honor this person as we did.
We do not step into Christianity that way.
We go to Church and sing songs of love and thanksgiving and honor and our minds replace God with a new love we have found. We think of someone we feel has wronged us when we sing of unworthiness.
We turn away from those we see as unclean and undesirable. Maybe for fear they will bring that out in us, maybe because that will prove to us that satin is very real. We dare not ask God to fill us with the Holy Spirit because we know we will never be the same. We will lose the self will to the deadly degree we have it. we can only have a surface Christianity and wallow in our dysfunctional misery.
We will have to look inward to find our discomforts and struggles. We will have to accept that life is not a bowl cherries if we believe all the Bible says. We read of the trials and tragedies and keep them separate from the Grace and Blessings. We see our gifts and earthly possessions as works of our own hands and we hoard them until they belong to the devil and they only bring us pain. We can easily accept that God spoke life into existence but insist on placing human limitations on Him from there on out. We are a lazy lot who daily chose fantasy to justify the pain and disobedience we show our Lord. If we admit we wholly and fully believe the Bible we have to admit we did not nor can earn a ticket to heaven. Who gives a gift to another without expecting one in return or to repay or say “thanks” for something? If we strive towards a true grasp that there is one who is immune to human limitations we have to become willing to build a really big boat in the desert.
Yes, the devil is very real and we will never keep him at bay on our own power. Yes, the Holy Spirit is real and if we let Him enter we will spend the rest of our time on earth trying to put and keep God first. Yes, Jesus was without sin, that is the only way there was enough room for the magnitude of sins us humans sent to the cross with Him.
Brenda Y.
Dewey and Friends of the Cup:
Jesus loves us so much that he keeps coaxing us to see that never, never, never is the SOLUTION to the problem "out there," but always "in here."
The problem described in the article you cite and that you ask for feedback about (about the percentages of Christians who believe this and that according to the survey) is not with what "those Christians out there" believe or do not believe, because what other believe is never within our control. The central problem happens whenever we want other Christians to agree with the outlines that we ourselves have... when we would rather be "right" than loving.
It comes down to the question of what is "real". The devil is not a person, because the nature of evil is to "depersonalize" people. So a "person" who would depersonalize others is a self-contradiction. And for that matter, when people --us?-- behave in ways that depersonalize other people --putting them down, ridiculing them for their strengths (as well as their weaknesses), mocking them, and so on... much less torture in all its forms... then we are "doing the devil's work." That is why some people say the devil is "not real." They mean, maybe, that evil in the world always comes through people who are doing the devil's work, and that the devil has no power over us EXCEPT as we give "it" power....
Jesus, for instance, in John 8, calls several men "sons of the devil", because they fear the future. They are very religious men, going to their church (synagogue) very regularly and trying to obey all the laws of God as best they can. BUT, they do not want to change. They do not want to give up their way (which they have been taught for generations as "God's way") for the New Way that Jesus brings, and that Jesus IS. So religion becomes the main impediment to following Jesus.
And so it is, sad to say, in our times. The future is in God's hands, and to fear the future is to refuse to trust in God. As it was said lately even on TV, in a drama, "The devil cannot give what belongs to God."
So in John 8 and many other places, Jesus calls us NOT to stick to a set of principles and codes, even if they are taken from the pages of Scripture, but to follow the Living Spirit of God --the Holy Spirit, who very much IS real-- the Spirit who asks US to change, or let God change us, over and over, on and on, all through our lives... so that we become better at loving other people... and at letting ourselves be loved by God and other people.
It may well be that we consider So'n'So to be our enemy, even within the church, because they are believing wrongly. OK. So, what does Jesus ask us to do, toward our enemies? Does he say, "Straighten out their crummy doctrine"? Does he exhort us to argue with one another? Rather, does not he tell us to love them, as he loves us, even when we are wrong... maybe ESPECIALLY when we are wrong...?
I know: many people teach in the church that we have a duty to straighten out one another's wrong ideas. But they do not get that from Jesus. That is, if we think "teaching" is more important than loving, then we are not "teaching" about Jesus. As he says in Matthew, 17th chapter, I think, "You are teaching human precepts as if they were the Word of God."
Dewey and friends, let us in these days use all the energy we have to love one another, and to love those outside the church as well. People do not come back to any given church congregation because of the teachings. They come back to those churches where they feel loved. And when in the course of events the leaders of a congregation stop letting love flow around, that church begins to wither and die.
My first pastor back in Odessa, Texas, used to say, "The Spirit is very patient. But if you grieve the Spirit too much, then the Spirit will leave you alone... to your own devices and methods... until you cry out to the Spirit again."
This is the main thing wrong with the church as a whole in our times: that it is becoming outraged and attacking, rather than loving. When we get hit, we want to hit back, I know, but Jesus calls us to let him do something different, through us. That book "The Shack" has good illustrations of this at work in horrible situations.
I am not saying you are doing that "attacking" thing. I am saying, with John (1st epistle): "God is love. And whoever abides in love, abides in God, and God in them."
The situations all around us seem awful. Odd as it may seem, they have been far, far worse in times past. God is not off watching sparrows someplace. God has the world, and us as individuals, in God's hands. We may have blown "Plan A," but there is a "Plan B"... and C... and so on... infinitely. "It is not the will of the Father that even one of these little ones should be lost." The Will of the Father will prevail. "In the end," someone said, "it will be all right. If it is not alright, it is because it is not the end."
And again, "Trust God, trust me (Jesus)." (John 14)
Blessings,
Michael R (near Seattle)
Dear Dewey, Sharon and family,
It is proof that there are people that do indeed go to church, but do not read the Holy Words that there for the reading. Words of Wisdom, written so we will not falter, or believe those that come with enticing words, but full of misguiding.
Hollywood has done a lot of damage. Not just in the false belief that the Devil is not real.
Even though Our God created the Devil also. We can not take him lightly. We must always be on guard. he is always wanting to lead us down the wrong path. as he chose.
Dewey, I also woke up early this morning (with my painful neck) and watched the short film of Ted Haggerd. That he made willingly. My interpretation of it, is, I think he should be told to go to his closet and Pray. And with that Gods will be done. sam
Dear Dewey,
I think that you and Edwin (www.wfrn.com ) are doing many thing very right!
If this same survey were done among your listeners I am sure that the results would be very different and much more positive.
I wonder what it would take to get such a survey done?
Sincerely,
Clyde
Thank you all for your responses
Let us pray..............
Dear Lord,
Keep us, Lord, from erecting artificial barriers to joining your family. In the name of Jesus, AMEN!
In the Love of Christ,
Dewey Sharon and family
www.mykkim.com
www.deweysdailycup.com
Our lives are a Christ like fragrance rising up to God. 2 Cor. 2:15 Bonus Reading 2 Cor. 2:14-16
This from Pastor Leonard Navarre..........
Keep in mind not what you are, But whose you are.
Psalm 95:6, 7 “O come, let us worship and bow down: let us kneel before the LORD our maker. For he is our God; and we are the people of his pasture, and the sheep of his hand.”
This from Pastor Don Kimbro........
SEARCHLIGHT
Read Psalm 139:23-24
We shall steer safely through every storm, so long as our heart is right, our intention fervent, our courage steadfast, and our trust fixed on God. If at times we are somewhat stunned by the tempest, never fear. Let us take breath, and go on afresh. - Francis de Sales (St. Francis)
Maranatha!
By the way if you are a Pastor we would like to hear from you! We would love for you to share!!!! We love hearing from everybody!!! PRAISE GOD!!!! We love to gather here at KKIM and the CUP for a CUP of love with you all!!!
Let us check some responses from yesterday's posting...If the Lord moves you, we would love to hear from you.........
Dear Dewey,
In my life I see it as one simple, yet deadly mistake. Not putting God first. The first step to be a Christian is accepting a gift, that very simple. We have to accept God’s salvation. So many of us do that then jump away or slowly drift away into things of this world. if a human had pulled us from the depths of a pit we would shower the person with thanks, gifts, and praise. We would tell all we saw, we would shout it to the news media. We would want everyone to honor this person as we did.
We do not step into Christianity that way.
We go to Church and sing songs of love and thanksgiving and honor and our minds replace God with a new love we have found. We think of someone we feel has wronged us when we sing of unworthiness.
We turn away from those we see as unclean and undesirable. Maybe for fear they will bring that out in us, maybe because that will prove to us that satin is very real. We dare not ask God to fill us with the Holy Spirit because we know we will never be the same. We will lose the self will to the deadly degree we have it. we can only have a surface Christianity and wallow in our dysfunctional misery.
We will have to look inward to find our discomforts and struggles. We will have to accept that life is not a bowl cherries if we believe all the Bible says. We read of the trials and tragedies and keep them separate from the Grace and Blessings. We see our gifts and earthly possessions as works of our own hands and we hoard them until they belong to the devil and they only bring us pain. We can easily accept that God spoke life into existence but insist on placing human limitations on Him from there on out. We are a lazy lot who daily chose fantasy to justify the pain and disobedience we show our Lord. If we admit we wholly and fully believe the Bible we have to admit we did not nor can earn a ticket to heaven. Who gives a gift to another without expecting one in return or to repay or say “thanks” for something? If we strive towards a true grasp that there is one who is immune to human limitations we have to become willing to build a really big boat in the desert.
Yes, the devil is very real and we will never keep him at bay on our own power. Yes, the Holy Spirit is real and if we let Him enter we will spend the rest of our time on earth trying to put and keep God first. Yes, Jesus was without sin, that is the only way there was enough room for the magnitude of sins us humans sent to the cross with Him.
Brenda Y.
Dewey and Friends of the Cup:
Jesus loves us so much that he keeps coaxing us to see that never, never, never is the SOLUTION to the problem "out there," but always "in here."
The problem described in the article you cite and that you ask for feedback about (about the percentages of Christians who believe this and that according to the survey) is not with what "those Christians out there" believe or do not believe, because what other believe is never within our control. The central problem happens whenever we want other Christians to agree with the outlines that we ourselves have... when we would rather be "right" than loving.
It comes down to the question of what is "real". The devil is not a person, because the nature of evil is to "depersonalize" people. So a "person" who would depersonalize others is a self-contradiction. And for that matter, when people --us?-- behave in ways that depersonalize other people --putting them down, ridiculing them for their strengths (as well as their weaknesses), mocking them, and so on... much less torture in all its forms... then we are "doing the devil's work." That is why some people say the devil is "not real." They mean, maybe, that evil in the world always comes through people who are doing the devil's work, and that the devil has no power over us EXCEPT as we give "it" power....
Jesus, for instance, in John 8, calls several men "sons of the devil", because they fear the future. They are very religious men, going to their church (synagogue) very regularly and trying to obey all the laws of God as best they can. BUT, they do not want to change. They do not want to give up their way (which they have been taught for generations as "God's way") for the New Way that Jesus brings, and that Jesus IS. So religion becomes the main impediment to following Jesus.
And so it is, sad to say, in our times. The future is in God's hands, and to fear the future is to refuse to trust in God. As it was said lately even on TV, in a drama, "The devil cannot give what belongs to God."
So in John 8 and many other places, Jesus calls us NOT to stick to a set of principles and codes, even if they are taken from the pages of Scripture, but to follow the Living Spirit of God --the Holy Spirit, who very much IS real-- the Spirit who asks US to change, or let God change us, over and over, on and on, all through our lives... so that we become better at loving other people... and at letting ourselves be loved by God and other people.
It may well be that we consider So'n'So to be our enemy, even within the church, because they are believing wrongly. OK. So, what does Jesus ask us to do, toward our enemies? Does he say, "Straighten out their crummy doctrine"? Does he exhort us to argue with one another? Rather, does not he tell us to love them, as he loves us, even when we are wrong... maybe ESPECIALLY when we are wrong...?
I know: many people teach in the church that we have a duty to straighten out one another's wrong ideas. But they do not get that from Jesus. That is, if we think "teaching" is more important than loving, then we are not "teaching" about Jesus. As he says in Matthew, 17th chapter, I think, "You are teaching human precepts as if they were the Word of God."
Dewey and friends, let us in these days use all the energy we have to love one another, and to love those outside the church as well. People do not come back to any given church congregation because of the teachings. They come back to those churches where they feel loved. And when in the course of events the leaders of a congregation stop letting love flow around, that church begins to wither and die.
My first pastor back in Odessa, Texas, used to say, "The Spirit is very patient. But if you grieve the Spirit too much, then the Spirit will leave you alone... to your own devices and methods... until you cry out to the Spirit again."
This is the main thing wrong with the church as a whole in our times: that it is becoming outraged and attacking, rather than loving. When we get hit, we want to hit back, I know, but Jesus calls us to let him do something different, through us. That book "The Shack" has good illustrations of this at work in horrible situations.
I am not saying you are doing that "attacking" thing. I am saying, with John (1st epistle): "God is love. And whoever abides in love, abides in God, and God in them."
The situations all around us seem awful. Odd as it may seem, they have been far, far worse in times past. God is not off watching sparrows someplace. God has the world, and us as individuals, in God's hands. We may have blown "Plan A," but there is a "Plan B"... and C... and so on... infinitely. "It is not the will of the Father that even one of these little ones should be lost." The Will of the Father will prevail. "In the end," someone said, "it will be all right. If it is not alright, it is because it is not the end."
And again, "Trust God, trust me (Jesus)." (John 14)
Blessings,
Michael R (near Seattle)
Dear Dewey, Sharon and family,
It is proof that there are people that do indeed go to church, but do not read the Holy Words that there for the reading. Words of Wisdom, written so we will not falter, or believe those that come with enticing words, but full of misguiding.
Hollywood has done a lot of damage. Not just in the false belief that the Devil is not real.
Even though Our God created the Devil also. We can not take him lightly. We must always be on guard. he is always wanting to lead us down the wrong path. as he chose.
Dewey, I also woke up early this morning (with my painful neck) and watched the short film of Ted Haggerd. That he made willingly. My interpretation of it, is, I think he should be told to go to his closet and Pray. And with that Gods will be done. sam
Dear Dewey,
I think that you and Edwin (www.wfrn.com ) are doing many thing very right!
If this same survey were done among your listeners I am sure that the results would be very different and much more positive.
I wonder what it would take to get such a survey done?
Sincerely,
Clyde
Thank you all for your responses
Let us pray..............
Dear Lord,
Keep us, Lord, from erecting artificial barriers to joining your family. In the name of Jesus, AMEN!
In the Love of Christ,
Dewey Sharon and family
www.mykkim.com
www.deweysdailycup.com
# posted by Dewey @ 8:49 AM 
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