Heart Check (Tuesday)

blueprint

 

A quick history of the three kings:
(from 1 & 2 Samuel, 1 Kings)

 

:

  • Saul hid when it was time to be declared king, usurped the role of priest, was subject to mood swings and obsessed with killing David.
  • David went from shepherd to fugitive to king without losing faith, poured his heart into his Psalms and was called “a man after God’s own heart.”
  • Solomon asked God for wisdom yet foolishly tried to merge his own faith with the foreign beliefs of his many wives.

Whose heart do you have?

    • all about self (Saul)
    • all-in (David)
    • always compromising (Solomon)

bless soul pic

 

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Heart Check

thought

Luke 10:27 (NIV)
Love the Lord your God with all your heart . . .

 

So do you?

 

        • Most of the time (with occasional lapses)
        • “Half-hearted” would be more accurate
        • My heart’s not in it, truth be told

Many years ago, I participated in Walk Through the Bible lessons that described the first kings of Israel this way:

        • Saul – no heart
        • David – whole heart
        • Solomon – half heart

So, which king are you? bless soul pic

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Preach & Reach (Friday)

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Preach & Reach (Thursday)

Architect

 

Back to the Annual Session of the American Baptist Churches of NJ: Ann Borquist, missionary to Brazil, urged us to think GLOCALLY (global+local)–

 

Lord, I pray for the safety of street kids in places like Russia, Brazil and Kenya; and I pray for the safety of the kids that linger on the corners in my own community.

Raise up peacemakers where gangs flourish–in Central America, in American cities and right here in my own town.

Provide for young mothers, Lord, struggling to sustain their families in refugee camps, in war zones and in my own neighborhood.
bless praying

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Preach & Reach (Wednesday)

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“I have preached my very heart out. I could not say any more than I have said. Will not your prayers accomplish that which my preaching fails to do? Is it not likely that the Church has been putting forth its preaching hand but not its praying hand? “
(from Charles Spurgeon, best known for his preaching)

 

Think: Pray, Preach, Pray, Reach, Pray.
bless praying

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Preach & Reach

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.

Mark 16:15 (NIV)
Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation.

 

All the world, all creation. So what is it about “all” that we don’t understand?
bless obedient

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Preach & Reach

thought

 

 

I admire a preacher who can throw out a simple phrase that sticks long after. Some of my personal favorites:

 

        • The past is a guidepost, not a hitching post
        • God doesn’t call us to succeed; He calls us to obey

I just returned from the annual meeting of our American Baptist Churches of New Jersey, where I picked up one more–from Romal Tune (comparing churches and gangs), on our tendency to think, “if I can reach just one person.”

“You want just one? We get to keep the 99!”

Lord God, let’s go for the full hundred!

bless caring

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God Has a Sense of Humor (Friday)

discipline

Smile at cloud ponies that race across the sky and morph into snowmen. Chuckle at the stick that sprouts legs and ambles over fallen leaves. Laugh out loud at a bubble-blowing baby face.

 

 

Humor surrounds us and breaks up the boredom, rearranges our routine. It is a gift from God. He says to his children, “Go out and play. Have fun!”bless amused

 

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God Has a Sense of Humor (Thursday)

expert

 

From Billy Sunday (an orphan who left professional baseball to become an itinerant preacher):

 

 

“God likes a little humor, as is evidence by the fact that he made the monkeys, the parrot — and some of you people.”

I agree with him. I know that God has a sense of humor–he made me, didn’t he?bless soul pic

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God Has a Sense of Humor (Wednesday)

Architect

 

I stand by the fence watching the giraffes nibbling from tree branches. They are awkwardly graceful. Creator God, what were you thinking?

 

I sense Jesus leaning against the fence and laughing, Aren’t they great!bless amused

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