growing
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Holding On To Your Own Pleasurable Imaginings
“Maybe we wonder if God can take all that goes on in our mind and heart. Maybe we simply want to hold on to our own pleasurable imaginings, afraid that in showing them to our Lord, we may have to give them up. Thus, we are constantly tempted to fall back… out of fear or…
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Don’t Over Analyze Yourself
A good reminder for me as I seek to transition healthily into my sabbatical… It’s all about my focus… “Know yourself” is good advice. But to know ourselves doesn’t mean to analyze ourselves. Sometimes we want to know ourselves as if we were machines that could be taken apart and put back together at will.…
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Stay Awake.
Watch, learn, act. Watch for God at work. Do not miss Him as the world does as it dozes with day-dreaming, self-pity, gluttony, boredom, fighting,… Lost is the opportunity to be alert to God at work, alert through renewal, reading, prayer, teaching, service to the needy, justice and peace-making… Keep awake and watch. Learn all…
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True Intimacy Is My Desire : My Sabbatical Longing
This is my heart’s desire, what I long for in my sabbatical and beyond… And for each of my church family… to truly know Jesus intimately. Lyrics below YouTube clip… “True Intimacy” Whatever I hold There’s nothing compares To having You close True intimacy is my desire To catch Your whispers To carry Your fire…
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Paul Went to His Own Funeral? Not Like An Elvis Impersonator
Did Paul say, “I’m determined to imitate Christ?”, or, “I will work at following Him?” No, he said, “I been crucified with Christ. I have been identified with him in His death.” Elvis impersonators are quite happy to look like him and get all the glory and accolades and don’t usually kill themselves as the…
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The Purpose of Lent (An Evangelical Perspective)
Forgiveness and freedom is what Easter is all about. Freedom from being stuck in bondage, freedom from sin …and not merely bad habits that make us swirl into addiction and entrapment. Forgiveness of sin is what Jesus Christ’s death on the cross is all about. The purpose of Lent is awareness; for you and I…
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Taking Time to Rest with God | My Sabbatical Journey
My sabbatical journey – Philip Gunther I just returned to my post as senior pastor at Parliament (MB) Community Church, Regina, after a seven-month sabbatical – my first in 20 years of ministry. As I contemplated taking a sabbatical, I wondered: How should I prepare? What will I experience? What is a sabbatical? Read… Taking…
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When we grieve, there’s something that goes on underneath…
Sometimes you grieve for what you could have had… Tearing away leaves a wound. When we grieve, there’s something that goes on underneath… a grieving for what we longed for. Our hearts were made for so much more… Ecclesiastes 3:11 New Living Translation (NLT) “Yet God has made everything beautiful for its own time. He…
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It’s Just Going To Get Uglier
In my connecting with depression sufferers, I have learned that much depression, including my own in the past, is indeed caused by anger and bitterness caused by hurt done by others. In connecting with one depression sufferer in particular who courageously has chosen to move forward in their healing journey which will require safely addressing…
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Your Home Impacts The World
Your home is the heart of the church… The heart of the church is your home… What you do at home and ‘at church’ is too often on two extremes. Choice of words, entertainment… the things you think about… But when you see that your home is a place of worship – THE primary place…
Following and Trusting : Encountering God Out of the Box 