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When you say something that has already been said, you find yourself on level playing ground. The only question is if you truly believe what you have said.
Half-a-world-away is now only an expression
Psalm 65.5 You answer us in amazing ways, God our Savior. People everywhere on the earth and beyond the sea trust you.
I Have seen God undeniably show up to those who have called on him in Truth.
I know I will see it again. He is faithful.
What do you, right now, want most?
If you trust another man’s holiness you will always get far less than you bargain for. Decide for yourself at once.
I keep coming back to some of the same old questions, equally, I am gaining new ones.
taking ground by faith.
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Ready?
Peanut Butter and Nutella on wheat. A 30 year old homeless gentleman named Frankie. CitiGroup shares fall 50% and now considered to big to be allowed to fail. New wiper blades on an unwashed suv. A to do list not yet made. Pages of Truth. @screenname. Friends living in a tent. Trust. Fundamental change inching forward. Flannel and insulation taking the streets. Selfishness paraded as selflessness. Hope. Tension and Tightfistedness all wearing neckties. Righteousness overlooked by all men. Christmas gifts judiciously thought about. Thankfulness to the Prince of Peace. The Future thought about but not depended on. Anxiety stealing the invaluable. Christ Lifted Up. Stacks of books unread. 1 Parable weighing on the heart. Wikipedia.org. Gnocchi From Scratch. Winter facial hair trimmed or unkempt. Price increase at the market. iPhone update.
Human ability to influence is exponentially growing; all bets are off regarding predictability and order. There are no more rules, lets just face it. The Strategy: ONLY CHARACTER CAN TRULY WIN. Where are those who will pay the price to be real? We cry because we wish it would change things, but we cry because we haven’t yet seen God take the stage. We stammer because we find ourselves somewhere on the playing field alone with no more turning to make. We are in the fight. Unwilling to go back, the worn out soles are the farthest from important now. Food is expensive and we are losing faith in this form of nourishment. Christ calms the anxious heart tonight with the gentle touch that only the strongest have. His word speaks and my ear is pressed in a little closer. Uncertainty seems like the only guarantee if you keep the book closed. We must keep reaching out and fight off the turn inward. Discipleship and evangelism until HE comes.
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Isn’t it strange how every situation is an opportunity to become closer with God? Maybe it’s strange because it’s perfect. His work still continues but the verses below have become part of a prayer for the rest of 2008. I want to let every situation finish it’s work and get out of nothing prematurely. People say that change is the hardest thing to get into, the hardest thing to do, yet I find myself begging for change this day.
Praise God for trouble of every kind including distress.
Now I’m glad—not that you were upset, but that you were jarred into turning things around. You let the distress bring you to God, not drive you from him. The result was all gain, no loss. Distress that drives us to God does that. It turns us around. It gets us back in the way of salvation. We never regret that kind of pain. But those who let distress drive them away from God are full of regrets, end up on a deathbed of regrets. And now, isn’t it wonderful all the ways in which this distress has goaded you closer to God? You’re more alive, more concerned, more sensitive, more reverent, more human, more passionate, more responsible. Looked at from any angle, you’ve come out of this with purity of heart. And that is what I was hoping for in the first place when I wrote the letter.
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Here’s to the crazy ones. The misfits. The rebels. The troublemakers. The round pegs in the square hole. The ones who see things differently. They’re not fond of rules. And they have no respect for the status quo. You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them. About the only thing you can’t do is ignore them. Because they change things. They push the human race forward. And while some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius. Because the people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world, are the ones who do.
Little children, you are from God and have overcome them, for he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world. (1 John 4.4 ESV)
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Isn’t it perfectly obvious by now that life is about taking sides.
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GO FORWARD. A quote can’t get you there, another day is not what you need. You don’t even need to think about it. Whatever you do-Wherever you are, do it for the Glory of God and-FOR THE LOVE-Go Forward!
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If you don’t understand time, trust it. It is the only foolproof examination.
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I have just completed moving andrewjump.com from typepad to wordpress and thus return to a regular habit of thinking out loud here.
|This is a whiteboard from my heart and mind to you|
Purity
One a Sabbath day when Jesus went to eat at the home of a leading Pharisee, the people were watching Jesus very closely. Luke 14.1
If you are a leader you will be looked at very, very closely. When put under the microscope of the crowd the only way to pass is PURITY. Jesus was completely pure.
The farther I travel in this life of pursuing Christ I am noticing how he continually magnifies the details of my life. I also notice the danger of solely focusing on these details and losing sight of the whole picture
“It has long been an axiom of mine that the little things are infinitely the most important” – Sherlock Holmes
Anything great is comprised of the most intricate attention to detail. I believe that in this generation attention to detail is seen as an afterthought amidst the precious striving for the next, the future, the big idea. A great work of art done in photoshop may have 1000 layers, but we see just the one. We are quick at discerning quality and what truely is good, slow at paying the price to be real. Being real is attending to each and every detail while mainting the focus and vision of where you are headed. We are quick to applaud the powerful sermon, the “right on” devotion, yet slow to live the change.
Let’s return to 1512 and Michaelangelo painting the sistene chapel. He was literally on his back for four years painting this masterpiece. Every day, for four years he would paint in a 3 foot area and over the course of these years must have moved the scaffolding thousands of times. His work covered 12,000 squarefeet! IMAGINE IT.
It’s a masterpiece because of the detail. It would take years to realize every detail placed in this work. Every detail placed painstakingly with his brush. The genius was being able to focus on the whole painting AT THE SAME TIME as being 1 foot away from the current piece he was working on. Without the context the brilliance is lost. But he succeeded, being wholely dedicated to the final outcome.
You can’t paint a masterpiece with a roller. (You can’t live pure simply taking care of the big stuff)
You can’t paint a masterpiece or live pure without relating this detail to all details and not just deal with the detail on it’s own.
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