Saturday, July 27, 2013

Paul Email(s) -25July2013- Mark 11

How you doin? The kids and I are sick. Congestion, sore throat, and coughing. Stacey has an immune system of steel. I fell a weird painful, but pleasant, desire to follow Jesus. It's wild how I desire closeness with Jesus. To hear His voice and see His face. We read Mark 11 this morning. 

22 “Have faith in God,” Jesus answered. 23 “Truly I tell you, if anyone says to this mountain, ‘Go, throw yourself into the sea,’ and does not doubt in their heart but believes that what they say will happen, it will be done for them. 24 Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours. 25 And when you stand praying, if you hold anything against anyone, forgive them, so that your Father in heaven may forgive you your sins.”   (Mark 11:22-25)
I love the depth of this scripture. Jesus speaks of faith, belief, authority, inheritance, and forgiveness all in these 3 verses. I love Jesus so much and continue to look for new/more ways of receiving my inheritance in Him. Faith is Heavens currency. Belief is huge. Believing every word in the Bible is essential. Believing that I can receive my inheritance here on earth as it is in Heaven, is crucial. Forgiveness restores God's standard. God promises us that our past sins are forgotten. As God frees us of our sin, we can walk forward in His righteousness. Verses 24 & 25 are crazy AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!! The cleansing power of Jesus' blood enables us to believe that we can receive the fullness of Jesus. So my age old question, "do I omit sin or admit God?", is easy to answer if in the correct order. Admitting the Holy Ghost... omits sin. COME ON!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! There's no place for sin in following Jesus. Forgiveness is so we can keep our past sins in the past. Jesus hung out with sinners. The sinners became non-sinners in His Presence. I love being free and want some of that in a ridiculous way. Forgive, so to restore God's standard today. Receive the fullness of Jesus and follow Him. COME ON!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 

How you doin? I read this in my Ravi Zacharias daily devotional. Jill Carattini the author.

"God needs you to receive the things God places in front of you.”

“O Jerusalem, O Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often would I have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you would not have it.” (Matt. & Luke)

There are certainly many ways of receiving God, though we might find in the end that in our receiving we were more realistically trying to avoid something else. The word “receive” in the dictionary lists more than a dozen definitions ranging from “to hear or see,” and “to greet or welcome,” to more weighty definitions such as “to acknowledge formally and authoritatively” or “to bear the weight of.” Examples from human behavior are equally diverse.

At the time of my mentor’s words, I had thoroughly committed myself to the Christian worldview. The Christian God, I believed, provided the only coherent answers for the difficult questions of life. I had thoroughly accepted Christ and considered myself a part of the story of Christianity. Yet I was constantly struggling in my mind to know God personally and often doubting my own identity as a child of God. I know now that my friend was saying that there is an intensely personal side to receiving God that I was missing. There is a point when we must be still and recognize just who we are receiving, just who has been reaching out to gather us all along.

In the Gospel of Mark, Jesus proclaims, “I tell you the truth, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it” (10:15). The Greek word for “receive,” literally means to take with the hand, to take hold of, and to embrace. Much has been said in scholarship of this reference to coming to God as a little child. Jesus’s use of the word “receive” is equally picturesque. The image painted in the text is certainly worth many words, two figures meriting an impression on both mind and memory. To believe that the God of the Scriptures exists is to believe that you as a person now stand in the presence of God as a Person. To receive God is to reach out to the very arms that have been longing to gather you near all along.
The entire devotion is incredible, just too long to copy the whole thing. We just read Mark 10 yesterday. This devotion is from is from yesterday. The bold type are the parts got me the most. I think Jill is AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I love her articles. I love Jesus most!

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