Relational Bridges

 NEW CREATIONS This is all about looking at the truth that we have been given a new nature, a new heart and spirit…that we are not spiritual schizophrenics with two opposing natures battling in us all the time. Colossians 2:11-15 Ephesians 3:20-21 Ephesians 2:18-21 Romans 12:103 Ephesians 1:1 Ephesians 2:4-7 Ephesians 3:17-18 Galatians 5:24-25 Galatians 3:27

IN GOD'S MAGE Genesis 1:26   "Then God said, “Let  us  make adam (the Hebrew is 'adam' meaning mankind) in  our  image, after  our  likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” The use of plural "us & our" should not be discounted. Even in the Shema, the foundational declaration of God's chosen people, "Hear or Israel the Lord (plural) our God (plural), the Lord (plural) is ECHUD (meaning one but not singular). Rabbis say that was to denote the fullness of God. St. Athanasius agreed. Father, Son and Holy Spirit...the fullness of our God in three Persons, blessed Trinity.  Adam, by the way, is the generic word for mankind. It becomes the proper name for the first man created by God. It is important to see that God called their name (male and female) ADAM. Genesis 5:1-2 ...

 PRAYER I pastored a congregation for 13 years. I had regular Wednesday Bible studies geared to discipling the folks in the church. We had over 80 percent of the congregation meeting weekly on Wednesday evening UNTIL I began a series on prayer. That ended the discipleship meetings in three weeks. I had a "leader" tell me that prayer was not "his thing", thus it was clear that leadership among God's people was not to be "his thing" either from then on. People were simply not interested. How can one who claims to follow Jesus Christ as Lord not have a passion for being in His Presence daily, speaking to Him in prayer, intercessions, worship and thanksgiving as we let Him speak to us in His Word, but the Holy Spirit.  A lack of prayer will be manifest in a lack of power and an absence of the Holy Spirit confirming the Word proclaimed with demonstration of the Holy Spirit and power.

  EVERY LITTLE THING Because...the only thing that can fill one's heart, bringing satisfaction and lasting peace that no circumstance can alter is God, Himself. Only when He becomes Life within you are your desires redeemed so that you begin to long for all He gives, out of the infinite grace He has given to us in Christ Jesus...if only we will believe, surrender, turn from "every little thing" and turn once and for all to the only One who can forgive sin and cause the spiritually dead to live once again, to never die again.

MAN IN THE IRON MASK  2 PETER 1:3-9   " By His divine power, God has given us everything we need for living a godly life. We have received all of this by coming to know Him, the One who called us to Himself by means of His marvelous glory and excellence.   And because of His glory and excellence, He has given us great and precious promises. These are the promises that enable you to share His divine nature and escape the world’s corruption caused by corrupted human desires.  In view of all this, make every effort to respond to God’s promises. Supplement your faith with a generous provision of moral excellence, and moral excellence with knowledge,   and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with patient endurance, and patient endurance with godliness,   and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love for everyone.   The more you grow like this, the more productive and useful you will be in your knowledge of our Lord Je...

MEANING AND PURPOSE   JEREMIAH 29:11 " For I know the plans  I have for you,” declares the  Lord , “plans to prosper  you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future." EPHESIANS 2:10 "For we are God’s handiwork,  created  in Christ Jesus to do good works,  which God prepared in advance for us to do." I have been known to say from the pulpit, "God doesn't shoot blanks." He never does anything for no reason. Everything God has ever created, spoken into being, and declared has purpose, or it would not have been done.  ISAIAH 55:11 "So is My Word that goes out from My mouth.  It will not return to Me empty but  will accomplish what I desire   and achieve the purpose for which I sent it." There is meaning and purpose for your life. You are not a mistake or an afterthought. The Cross of Jesus Christ, His sacrificial death, His Resurrection, and His Ascencion all declare that your life has meaning and a purpose. You ...

 GLORY TO GOD Glory to God for His grace by the Holy Spirit empowering us to follow Jesus Christ into the world expecting His ministry to continue to be manifest in and through us to dismantle the works of darkness and bring the revelation of Jesus' resurrection to bear in setting people free from sin and death and filling them with His Life and power!

  PRAYER Jesus Christ NEVER taught on what we call "unanswered prayer." James wrote that a divided loyalty between trusting the Lord God for life and at the same time relying on the world's systems to get what you want will result in you not getting anything from God you may have prayed about. God will never reinforce the unbelief that flows from divided loyalty. THAT is not unanswered prayer. That is God saying, "No." to your request. God saying, "No." to your requests is not unanswered prayer. It is His grace. His "No" is just what I would want if I knew what He knows. The Lord also answers with, "Not now; not yet." because we are not yet prepared to receive what we think we need. God works in us both to will and to do His good pleasure. If I am praying for something God wants to do in me and the Holy Spirit is working in me preparing me to receive what God has in store, His "Not yet." is NOT unanswered prayer. As we see...

  Pentecost Pentecost. God the Father empowered the followers of Jesus Christ, eternal God the Son - the Word made flesh - to live out the New Life Jesus had given them when He breathed on those gathered and regenerated them to be new creations as they received the Holy Spirit. Born of the Spirit they were to be baptized in, indelibly soaked in the Holy Spirit with the same power that anointed Jesus Christ at the Jordan River as He began His ministry as Messiah, the Lamb of God who would bear the sin of all humanity in His body on that Roman cross. The church was empowered to dismantle and displace the works of spiritual darkness in the power of Jesus’ resurrection victory over sin, death, hell, and the grave. The church is empowered to carry on and carry out the ministry and work of deliverance Jesus did is His three-year open ministry. He said as much! Believe and receive!

 James 1:5-8 " If you need wisdom, ask our generous God, and He will give it to you. He will not rebuke you for asking.   But when you ask Him, be sure that your faith is in God alone. Do not waver, for a person with divided loyalty is as unsettled as a wave of the sea that is blown and tossed by the wind.   Such people should not expect to receive anything from the Lord.   Their loyalty is divided between God and the world, and they are unstable in everything they do." We must remember that God is never upset that we don't know or understand how to live out the New Life He has given to us. That Life is now being lived out in us by the Holy Spirit. This Life of the Kingdom is radically different that the life we are accustomed to living in concert with the world. One of the main marks of a true follower of Jesus Christ is that there is change and ongoing change in us by the Holy Spirit. We do not remain as we once were. The Holy Spirit is conforming us to the Image o...