Hey bloggers...Great weekend at CITN! Holy Spirit is making all things new...
I'm going to try to get some writing done today...hopefully get the rest of MkITN XIII finished and posted...in the meantime, I wanted let you know that BLOGINTHENOW is feeding into Facebook...only what I post is going there, not your comments...but people on Facebook are able to post on it there, too, and some days there are more comments there on a post than there are here, but those comments don't appear here...but it's all good...
For those of you who will be reading this on Facebook, I want to let you know that you can follow me on Twitter (@BLOGINTHENOW), and you can also follow CITN (@CHURCHINTHENOW)...
If you didn't get to read my devotional on Streaming Faith yesterday, you can still find it there...www.streamingfaith.com...
Until I post something later, I'd love to hear some feedback on the word from yesterday (Romans 7 and 8; the Christ, a many-membered person; being connected, harmony, the manifestation of the sons of God; "the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed IN US")...
And thanks for the confirmation on the announcement I made yesterday...
Have a very blessed Monday...
7 comments:
The manifestation of the sons of God?
Is that when the extended family of mankind shows up in giant spaceships?
Just kidding. No I'm being serious. No, just kidding. OK, I'm being serious.
I have never heard Bishop ever utter the letters UFO. I'm just speculating with an open mind.
The word today was "killer".
When adversities arise this week, just stop, close your eyes, breath in the air, and let your Spirit be quenched; remembering that you live in the Son, and the Son lives in the Father, and we all live, and breathe, and move together as One in Christ!
The Spirit of God is having a party just for you! Your the most honored guest. He's baking a cake just for you.
"Where you been darling, we've been holding this moment for you?
We told you your dreams would come true. Hang around baby, we’ll be baking a cake just for you"
Don't fight the darkness. Bring the light and the darkness will disappear!
Consider the Triangle: it is both a collection of points and a shape.
The Triangle is also a concept map between three points. But it is not merely a concept.
Believe all things, hope all things, endure many things, and hope to be able to endure all things. If there is anything principled or pleasing, seek it.
-YACHT
Amazing grace for Marty:
http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/living/2009/08/09/katu.90.years.blind.man.katu
Bish, thanks for the word!
Will be reading Rom 7&8 soon to have more comment, but for now;
"If We Are The Body" lyrics;
It's crowded in worship today
As she slips in
Trying to fade into the faces
The girls' teasing laughter is carrying farther than they know
Farther than they know
CHORUS
But if we are the Body
Why aren't His arms reaching
Why aren't His hands healing
Why aren't His words teaching
And if we are the Body
Why aren't His feet going
Why is His love not showing them there is a way
There is a way
A traveler is far away from home
He sheds his coat
And quietly sinks into the back row
The weight of their judgmental glances tells him that his chances
Are better out on the road
CHORUS
But if we are the Body
Why aren't His arms reaching
Why aren't His hands healing
Why aren't His words teaching
And if we are the Body
Why aren't His feet going
Why is His love not showing them there is a way
Jesus paid much too high a price
For us to pick and choose who should come
And we are the Body of Christ
Chorus (2x)
If we are the body
Why aren't His arms reaching
Why aren't His hands healing
Why aren't His words teaching
And if we are the body
Why aren't His feet going
Why is His love not showing them there is a way
Jesus is the way
(lyrics/song by Casting Crowns)
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Christ in us means LOVE dwells in us, and LOVE is a MANY-splendored thing.
Every member in the body shares blood and water to nourish each other, and we are connected through the blood and living water of Jesus to strengthen and do the same.
ALL TOGETHER NOW
I wrote the following just before getting confirmation and the words above that say ALL TOGETHER NOW;
We are one
I need you, you need me
The body together for Christ to be seen
Deep calls to deep,
A connection inside you and me
Where we are weak, we can each be made strong
Here in this body is where we belong.
(Karl Cobos, August 10, 2009)
Right after I wrote this I went to the mailbox and as I flipped open my son's Highlight magazine the words "ALL TOGETHER NOW" were written, big and bold!
The article mentioned "synchrony... united, rhythmic timing."
It reminded me of the synchrony of the heartbeat that you mentioned when a lot of people join hands for a time.
In regards to THE BODY, in order for me to just move to the counter and pick up an apple, all these messages are being sent out at the same time to MOVE me there...my legs, full arm movements , leaning, and grasping the apple.
...now think of the movement of the body of Christ(us) to accomplish something...the messages of the Spirit that flow to get us all there.
Ezek 37:1-3 (NIV) The hand of the Lord was upon me, and he brought me out by the Spirit of the Lord and set me in the middle of a valley; it was full of bones. 2 He led me back and forth among them, and I saw a great many bones on the floor of the valley, bones that were very dry. 3 He asked me, "Son of man, can these bones live?" I said, "O Sovereign Lord, you alone know."
How can it be that the body of Christ is sometimes just like that song? What a message in that song so often the Body has wounded itself, tortured itself, amputated itself. It is crazy, the body of Christ should be doing what Christ did when he was here, reaching out, caring, helping, serving. So why is His body sometimes so clickish, sometimes so negative and faithless, often time so hurtful and destructive?
In a way God’s church today is like the valley of dry bones. A useless dead army, when we should be the best equipped, best organized, most elite army ever. To look at the condition of the Body of Christ today, and know where we should be can be depressing. We may say, the Christian Church is dead and hopeless. But I love the conversation Ezekiel had here with God. God showed Ezekiel this valley full of dry bones and said, can these bones live? Ezekiel was skeptical, he did not say, they could or couldn’t live again. So then God made Ezekiel prophesy in verses 5-6, “I will make breath enter you, and you will come to life. 6 I will attach tendons to you and make flesh come upon you and cover you with skin; I will put breath in you, and you will come to life.” Clearly, God is saying that He can take His Church, acting like a dry dead body, and make it alive again.
So then the question is why would God let his Body get in such awful condition, dead, and nothing but a pile of dry bones before He promised to bring us back to life again? Wouldn’t it have been easier if He had healed His church when we began to show signs of getting sick? Then we would have been so much more productive over all these years. But Like Martha when she told Jesus, after Lazarus died, "if you had been here, my brother would not have died. John 11:21 (NIV) The story is told that Jesus intentionally did not come and heal Lazarus when he got sick. After He had heard that Lazarus was sick and near death he stayed where he was for two more days. When He finally arrived at Lazarus’ home Lazarus had been dead and in the grave for four days. Why did Jesus come so late? According to what God told Ezekiel, the reason He brought life to the dead bones was the same reason He let Lazarus die. In order for all to know that the LORD has done it.
When the church is restored and all the body of Christ is filled with strength and power no one person can say “Look what I have done.” Everyone will be forced to say that this great thing must be from the LORD.
-Dan Storie(posted by Karl Cobos)
Why does the hand tell the foot “I don’t need you”?
Well, it might be because the foot just stomped all over those fragile fingers. It’s been said that Christians are the only people who shoot their own wounded – and there is a lot of truth to that statement.
Inherent in any relationship is the possibility of being hurt. But for some reason it seems so much more painful when it comes from a fellow believer. Like Moses, we expect our brethren to understand and when they don’t, we often withdraw into the wilderness of isolation and turn Christianity into a solo pursuit.
The church has become a group of turtles – separate, solitary, slow-moving and well-armoured. Some of us are snapping turtles, ready to bite at anything, and some of us are box turtles, sealing ourselves up tight whenever we feel the least bit threatened.
Colin G. Kruse wrote “there is no real fellowship with God which is not expressed in fellowship with other believers.” God never intended his church to be a collection of solitary turtles. Rather it is His will that His children shed their shells and come together to worship, to pray, to break bread, and to encourage and help one another.
-by Sharilyn(posted by Karl Cobos)
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