Spend some time reflecting on the power of the cross today. https://youtu.be/g235W2Ef7J0 Pastor Tony
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Today is Good Friday. Listen to this video and reflect on Jesus sacrifice for you. https://youtu.be/GmZJlb0yvB4 Dont turn it off before the end! It's so powerful!
When Pastor Tony asked about doing a devotional on these Scriptures (2 Cor5-6 and Psalm 1), I immediately went back to my Sunday School notes. Check out the slide from class: “there is so much there it ‘blows my mind.’” There are some real jewels in 2 Cor 5 alone: But how do these three chapters fit together? Psalm 1 says this: 1 Blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked or stand in the way of sinners or sit in the seat of mockers. 2 But his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night. 3 He is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither. Whatever he does prospers NIV How do I become that man? · REGENERATION . It begins with regeneration (born again). Look at 2 Cor 5:7, “We live by faith and not by sight!” Heb 11:6 says that without faith...
God’s Word is powerful. It is breathed out by God and truly profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction and for training in righteousness, just as it claims in 2 Timothy 3:16. I would like to share with you how powerful some of the verses in today’s reading proved to be for me at a time when I needed them very badly. When I first graduated from seminary, I began teaching Bible and History at a Christian School in Delaware County. My seminary degree was in Christian Education, not in learning to be a school teacher. I was ill-prepared to embark in classroom education. The only practical teaching advice I received was from the Headmaster of the School in faculty orientation a few days before school started. He told several of us, who were new teachers, that in order to maintain strict classroom discipline, we had to be in charge from the very beginning. We needed to be super strict with the students from day one. We could a...
What a joy it’s been reading through seven books of the New Testament and chapters of Psalms together! Today we’ve begun reading II Corinthians. I was especially drawn to these words that Paul wrote in verse 22 of chapter 1: (God) set his seal of ownership on us… In Paul’s day, a wax stamp was placed on a scroll/letter to show ownership of whatever was contained within. The significance of the seal depended on the importance of the one whose seal it was. In Esther 3:12, King Ahasuerus’s decree to annihilate the Jews and then his later decree to bless them were sealed with his signet ring to indicate their authenticity. When I was a Notary Public, I used an embossing seal to authenticate a person’s signature on a sworn statement. While notaries no longer must use an embossing seal, other legal documents still require some type of seal. If you apply for a REAL ID and expect to use your birth certificate, it must contain a raised seal to prove it’s an auth...
1 Corinthians 16:13 Be watchful, stand firm in the faith, act like men, be strong. One of the final verses in 1 Corinthians is the one above. It is such a good and powerful reminder for us today. Be watchful -What are we to be watchful of? -False teaching -Spiritual complacency -Sin -Laziness Paul reminds his readers to be watchful. That speaks of living with an intentional awareness. Always on the lookout. Stand firm in the faith Colossians 2:6-7 says, 6 Therefore, as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him, 7 rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiv...
I think we can all remember a time when we were attending a wedding and the Pastor began to speak from 1 Corinthians 13. The “love” chapter. Here Paul outlines what love is. Often times, when I have shared this passage, I share how love is a choice. We make the decision everyday whether or not to be patient, kind, boastful. I enjoy reading this passage and putting the words “I choose” before each statement. I choose to be patient, I choose to be kind…You get it! It reminds me that love is a choice. Choose love today! Pastor Tony