Religion: MS

MS

Written by Jacky Hughes

This article is copyright and first appeared in 'Cross Times' in September 2004.

Do you feel accepted?

We only feel really accepted by God as we bring to him all those past hurts that have made us feel rejected and far from him. Feeling accepted is to be able to cry ‘Abba, Father” and really mean it. It is to be able to say in repparttar darkest of places “God has not forgotten me. He will not leave me, fail me or forsake me.” It is to be sure God can be trusted not to let us down and to be able to feel that we can come to Him just as we are and that He will still welcome us and treat us as His children no matter how far we have wandered from Him. It is to know that if we were to become repparttar 126469 prodigal then He would show us repparttar 126470 truth of that story and welcome us with open arms.

Most of us do not feel completely secure in all repparttar 126471 ways described in repparttar 126472 first paragraph. Rejection and lack of self acceptance - all repparttar 126473 difficulties repparttar 126474 distorted relationships we encounter as children and as adults in a fallen world conspire to make us feel that we are not acceptable to God at all. We feel that He cannot possibly want ‘us,’

The trouble is we have until we are born again been adopted by repparttar 126475 wrong spiritual father. His name is Satan and he is a liar. He has done all he can to make sure we are repparttar 126476 products of as much rejection and fractured relationship as he can organise. He has made sure events worked to show us that we cannot possibly be children of repparttar 126477 living God - not really - we are too bad! We may intellectually have thought ourselves part of God’s family but I wonder how many of us deep down have wondered if perhaps God did not make a mistake? Satan has loved to play on that. He is repparttar 126478 master of false belief. He will use every word and action we encounter to convince us we are unacceptable. he started when we were very young. In fact from repparttar 126479 moment he knew we would be born repparttar 126480 devil has been on an out and out campaign to ensure that repparttar 126481 one thing we do not get to know is repparttar 126482 very depth of repparttar 126483 heart of a loving Father God.

When Less is More

Written by Terry L. Dashner

“Less is more”

Terry Dashner…………Faith Fellowship Church of Broken Arrow, OK 74013

I read again God’s words to Gideon. As I read these familiar words they pulsated throughout my afternoon. God told Gideon, “’…and you shall defeat Midian as one man.’” (Judges 6:16) (NASB)

As one person you will subdue repparttar enemy. Has God ever spoken words like these to you? Has He ever reassured you that you would be an army of one against repparttar 126468 forces of evil assaulting you?

Before I go further with this topic, let me make a bold statement. God doesn’t defeat repparttar 126469 enemies of repparttar 126470 Cross by repparttar 126471 masses, but by one. The one is Jesus Christ. We are one in Him. In Him we are greater than all repparttar 126472 world’s armies, navies, air corps, or special-forces. In Christ and through Him—although we two (Jesus and me) are fewer—yet we are mighty in battle over repparttar 126473 hoards and masses of evil. Do you believe this? I believe it is true.

It’s not repparttar 126474 committees of repparttar 126475 world that move repparttar 126476 forces of good. It’s repparttar 126477 lone person appalled at repparttar 126478 sight of evil and injustice. It’s not repparttar 126479 thousands that attend churches every Sunday that carry out ministry and mission statements. It’s a handful of lovers who love God and people more than they love repparttar 126480 luxury of comfort zones. Are you hearing me? Can you agree with this bold proposition?

Gideon had 32,000 soldiers to kick repparttar 126481 Midianites back to Midianite country. He kept losing men up to repparttar 126482 day of battle, but God was pruning Gideon’s army. God told Gideon he had too many troops. God pruned repparttar 126483 ranks until there were only 300 men. This begs repparttar 126484 question, when is less—more?

Less is more when God is in it. As a matter of fact if you try to add more help to God’s help, your additional help will just get in repparttar 126485 way. Lord, all I need is you, plus wealth, housing, career, popularity, and more help—right? Wrong. Jesus said He is all we need. How can this be? If we have Jesus, we have a legal and universal right to everything else we need and even desire for this life. If your building foundation is deep and expansive, you can build out and up, up, up. If you have no foundation or one that is too small, well, you get repparttar 126486 picture…Jesus is repparttar 126487 true foundation, repparttar 126488 Rock, repparttar 126489 Corner Stone, the…

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