Day: April 1, 2008

Categories
God

Bedtime Stories

Tomorrow night in my Life Group I’ll be leading, and we’ll be studying 1 John 1:1-10 to discover the true meaning of faith and to commit to living in a faith-based relationship with God.

Introduction
1  We proclaim to you the one who existed from the beginning, whom we have heard and seen. We saw Him with our own eyes and touched Him with our own hands. He is the Word of Life.
2  This one who is Life itself was revealed to us, and we have seen Him. And now we testify and proclaim to you that He is the one who is eternal Life. He was with the Father, and then He was revealed to us.
3  We proclaim to you what we ourselves have actually seen and heard so that you may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son, Jesus Christ.
4  We are writing these things so that you may fully share our joy.

Living In The Light
5  This is the message we heard from Jesus and now declare to you: God is light, and there is no darkness in Him at all.
6  So we are lying if we say we have fellowship with God but go on living in spiritual darkness; we are not practicing the truth.
7  But if we are living in the light, as God is in the light, then we have fellowship with each other, and the blood of Jesus, His Son, cleanses us from all sin.
8  If we claim we have no sin, we are only fooling ourselves and not living in the truth.
9  But if we confess our sins to Him, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all wickedness.
10  If we claim we have not sinned, we are calling God a liar and showing that His word has no place in our hearts.

As we discuss these first 10 verses of the First Book of John I’ll be asking these questions:

1.  Do you really want to believe Jesus is who He claims to be ?

2.  What are some things you have seen Jesus do in your Life ?

3.  In what ways are those experiences affecting your willingness to talk about your faith ?

4.  If living what you claim is the test of authentic faith, how authentic is your faith ?

5.  Have you taken Jesus at his word ?

6.  Have you accepted His control of your Life ?

7.  Are you acting in obedience to His instructions ?

It’s going to be a really cool night tomorrow night hanging out with some of my best friends on this fantastic journey talking about Him. I am so looking forward to it. I truly get excited talking to Him, and talking about Him. He is the only one in my Life that I can really brag about !  It’s all about my Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ !  AMEN ! 

Categories
Blogging

Tuesday Night Grab Bag O’ Thoughts

It’s Tuesday night, and all of the loyal fans of this blog are anxiously awaiting the TOP 10 items (in no particular order) that are on my mind right this very minute. I’m not one to let you all down:

1.  I made a special guest appearance late this morning at the Life Pointe Church offices. It was announced beforehand. I have learned that it’s good to do that because if I arrive unannounced then I could find the offices closed, locked, and vacated for the winter. It was fun to hang out and laugh with Anne J. (hard at work on her computer), P.J. (lingering around on his day off from work), Marcela (hanging out with P.J.), and Paul (taking a break from his desk). Travis, Jesse, and Alex were busy computing / blogging / preparing for next Sunday morning.

2.  Last week was my one-year-anniversary as a Life Pointe Church blogger. That’s when I posted my very first comment on Travis’s blog a full two months before I even created my own blog over on MySpace (the predecessor to this blog).

3.  If you’re trying to figure out how the Democrats will mess up the upcoming 2008 Presidential elections for themselves then look no further than the continuing damaging war of words between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama.

4.  Chelsea Clinton recently stated that ‘the world will breathe a sigh of relief when this President (Bush) is gone’. I didn’t know that Chelsea had made herself a spokesperson for the world. I think that the terrorists will breathe a sigh of relief if John McCain isn’t our next President. They are waiting for us to retreat and surrender from Iraq. John McCain won’t let that happen.

5.  I drove to work early this morning in a driving rain storm that began as I approached the Keys Gate area along North Canal Drive and pretty much ended as I pulled in to my parking space at work. It was a nice treat for my car – a free wash.

6.  I’ve become a creature of habit. Now that the east side of Homestead pretty much has everything that I want and need (with much more coming soon) that is pretty much where I hang for days, weeks, and even months at a time. Sometimes it’s even a treat for me to merely venture across U.S. 1 to the west side of town !

7.  If given the choice between a basket of boneless chicken wings and original boned chicken wings I’d go with the wings with the bones still intact. They taste better to me. A large part of the fun of eating wings is eating off of the bone. The fun is taken away with the boneless variety.

8.  I’m not much into April Fools jokes; however, I did re-enlist in the Air Force for my second four-year term on this date back in 1989. My supervisour at the time asked me to pick a date that I’d like to take the oath again, and I – without hesitation – selected April Fools Day 1989. The joke is on everyone from that era a long time ago. My 23-year Air Force career continues at the base in Homestead.

9.  I’m not one to wish bad things on other people, but if you’re going to drive over MASSIVE speedbumps at the same exact speed as you are driving in-between them then you just deserve four flat tires or alignment that’s out-of-whack. I also get a kick out of motorists that take their vehicle off-road into the grass or over a curb just to avoid stopping at a red light before making a right-hand turn.

10.  I need a haircut. It’s windy outside, and I’m starting to look like this dude again:

    Albert Einstein