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1 Corinthians 8:6 But we know that there is only one God, the Father, who created everything, and we live for him. And there is only one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom God made everything and through whom we have been given life.

loving

so many people to love, so little time...

I wish there was a way I could get people to reach out & love the people around them.

There are SO many people all around us who have never felt loved. (And sometimes it's the people you least expect!)

There are SO many people who need someone to simply show them how to live.

There are SO many people all around each of us who simply don't have the simple life skills necessary to function in the world today.

I wish there was a way I could start actively encouraging people to start really loving people like I have over the last few years.

(I know that sounds arrogant.)

But I do wish I could reproduce myself, at least that facet of me.

Pastor John encourages us to reproduce who we are. What would be some practical ways I could do that? Any suggestions?

It's just that recently I'm overwhelmed with the vast numbers of people who simply have no love connections in their lives, don't know what it feels like, don't have anyone caring for them, & as a result, simply don't know how to do this thing called life. It's not like I think I'm an expert at functioning in this world, but when SO MANY people have never had anyone show them how to live, it can get more than a little daunting.

Any suggestions?

I'm confused

1 Corinthians 6:18 Run from sexual sin! No other sin so clearly affects the body as this one does. For sexual immorality is a sin against your own body. 19 Don't you realize that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, who lives in you and was given to you by God? You do not belong to yourself, 20 for God bought you with a high price. So you must honor God with your body.

Why does seem that I'm finding more & more couples who say they are Christ followers are also having intercourse before marriage?

favor

1 Chronicles 14:2 And David realized that the Lord had made him king over Israel & had made his kingdom very great for the sake of His people Israel.

Here' what my Life Application Bible says in the footnote...

"God gave David honor & success, but not simply for David's personal gain. David realized that God had prospered him for a special reason - for the sake of God's people!

"Often we are tempted to use our position or possessions only for our own good. Instead, we must remember that God has placed us where we are & given us all we have so that we may encourage others & give to those in need."

For the past 2 or 3 months God has been telling me through different verses in different areas of the Bible this simple truth - I am who I am, I am where I am, & I am having the influence, favor, & results because He, God, chooses to favor me with it.

I don't know why He does. One thing I'm slowly seeing is that all this stuff I'm involved with isn't about me. (This is stuff like the dear & cherished people who fill my life, working at Christ Chapel, all the daughters & sons, House of Grace, downtown, etc.) It's about God's overarching dream & plans for humankind. I'm just someone He chooses to use right now to implement part of those dreams & plans.

If I receive a blessing from it while I'm at it, well, that's just great. But the bottom line is that God is choosing to be doing stuff through me.

Maybe He keeps reminding me of this to keep me from getting more arrogant & prideful? Maybe there's some lean times comin'? Maybe there's some even more stupendous times coming?

I don't know. Like I say to people these days, I've quit trying to explain my life. Living it takes most of my energy. Plus, God's about all kinds of things in it & I can't see what it all about & what it's all for, sometimes. I'm just proceeding in the direction I'm going & seeing the why's of it all when they present themselves when the rest of you see it, too.

who's responsible for this, anyway?

1 Corinthians 4:7 What makes you better than anyone else? What do you have that God hasn't given you? And if all you have is from God, why boast as though you have accomplished something on your own?

God's favor

1 Corinthians 3:1 Dear brothers and sisters, when I was with you I couldn't talk to you as I would to spiritual people. I had to talk as though you belonged to this world or as though you were infants in the Christian life. 2 I had to feed you with milk, not with solid food, because you weren't ready for anything stronger. And you still aren't ready, 3 for you are still controlled by your sinful nature. You are jealous of one another and quarrel with each other. Doesn't that prove you are controlled by your sinful nature? Aren't you living like people of the world? 4 When one of you says, "I am a follower of Paul," and another says, "I follow Apollos," aren't you acting just like people of the world?
5 After all, who is Apollos? Who is Paul? We are only God's servants through whom you believed the Good News. Each of us did the work the Lord gave us. 6 I planted the seed in your hearts, and Apollos watered it, but it was God who made it grow. 7 It's not important who does the planting, or who does the watering. What's important is that God makes the seed grow. 8 The one who plants and the one who waters work together with the same purpose. And both will be rewarded for their own hard work. 9 For we are both God's workers. And you are God's field. You are God's building.
10 Because of God's grace to me, I have laid the foundation like an expert builder. Now others are building on it.

I hope I've finally begun to learn & live the principle that God is the one who makes things come to fruit what we do.

I keep holding on to the truth that what's happening in House of Grace & what's beginning to happen with the Sunday Morning Gathering, & the direction things seem to be going w/ Christ Chapel Downtown & The Warehouse are all because of His favor & His workings, not mine.

And I hope that I'll understand that one day God will send someone to "build on the foundation I've laid" - iow, God will intentionally send someone to step in to take these various facets of ministry downtown to the next level. I hope I can be as fine with that season with these ministries as I'm trying to be with this present season.

our minds

1 Corinthians 2: 9b
"No eye has seen, no ear has heard,
and no mind has imagined
what God has prepared
for those who love him."

10 But it was to us that God revealed these things by his Spirit. For his Spirit searches out everything and shows us God's deep secrets.11 No one can know a person's thoughts except that person's own spirit, and no one can know God's thoughts except God's own Spirit.12 And we have received God's Spirit (not the world's spirit), so we can know the wonderful things God has freely given us.
13 When we tell you these things, we do not use words that come from human wisdom. Instead, we speak words given to us by the Spirit, using the Spirit's words to explain spiritual truths.*14 But people who aren't spiritual can't receive these truths from God's Spirit. It all sounds foolish to them and they can't understand it, for only those who are spiritual can understand what the Spirit means.15 Those who are spiritual can evaluate all things, but they themselves cannot be evaluated by others.16 For,

"Who can know the LORD's thoughts?
Who knows enough to teach him?"

But we understand these things, for we have the mind of Christ.