Are You InTouch with Reality?

Are You InTouch with Reality?  
                                       

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Luke 23:27-37 (KJV)

27  And there followed him a great company of people, and of women,
      which also bewailed andlamented him.28 But Jesus turning unto them said ,      Daughters of Jerusalem, weep not for me, but weep foryourselves, and for your children.29 For, behold , the days are coming , in the which they shall say , Blessed are
     the barren, andthe wombs that never bare , and the paps which never gave suck .30 Then shall they begin to say to the mountains, Fall on us; and to the hills, Cover us.31 For if they do these things in a green tree, what shall be done in the dry?32 And there were also two other, malefactors, led with him to be put to death .33 And when they were come to the place, which is called Calvary,       there they crucified him, and the malefactors, one on the right hand, and the other on the left.34 Then said Jesus, Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do .
     And they parted hisraiment, and cast lots.35 And the people stood beholding . And the rulers also with them derided him, saying ,
     He savedothers; let him save himself, if he be Christ, the chosen of God.36 And the soldiers also mocked him, coming to him, and offering him vinegar,37 And saying , If thou be the king of the Jews, save thyself.

<< Luke 23:26Luke 23:27-37Luke 23:38 >>

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"Some people say that Christian faith is out of touch with reality. But the life and death of Jesus show that this simply cannot be true. 

A real Jesus was pinned with real nails to a real piece of wood and shed real blood for real sins and chains. Therefore Jesus really saves." *

In Jesus being obedient to the Cross, God verified and made Holy everything that Jesus ever said and did by raising Jesus from His death on the Cross.  

It is foolish to deny the Resurrection  (1)- There were too many eyewitnesses to the event for the New Testament to have survived as it was written at the time.  There were just too many people to say no to it, if it did not happen exactly the way the Gospels present His life.  There are over 24,000 manuscripts and pieces of the Gospels dating back to the first 200 years of Christianity that are  "99% textually pure"(*1). Far more than any other document of that time. (2)-  Equally powerful, the Temple leaders, most of whom were Sadducees who did not believe in any resurrection, believed the tomb guards and the other witnesses of the Resurrection.  If there were no resurrection of Jesus, the reports of it would have been very quickly set aside,  people stoned for blasphemy, or simply ignored.  Without the Resurrection, Christ would not even be a footnote in history and His followers would have fallen away in disappointment.  But, the Resurrection DID Happen and the opposite came to be.  God lifted Christ from the dead, people did believe, and Jesus followers quickly multiplied, by the thousands and tens of thousands.  Committed Humble Love conquered death.  Love of Jesus did not simply survive, it thrived.    

The reality of our world is love, committed love, humble committed love.  Human beings ultimately are empty shells of life walking around without humble committed love.  Without it, you may be happy in your circumstances because of money, power, and/or personality and you may get all the "loving" here and there that you want.  But the Reality is people want to love and be loved with the intentional investment of long term daily humble commitments.  It not enough to love today and change tomorrow.  The human condition is we are born to love with commitments.  The reality is we are born that way, desire to be nurtured, and God made us that way.  The reality of God is He wants our humble committed love too.  In Jesus, God has shown He loves us beyond what we can understand and in that we find the truth, A True Love Story Never Ends, a Love Story of Committed Love--- God's Love for Us.  And He just wants humble committed Love from us.

John 3:16 (KJV)

16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son,

       that whosoever believeth in him should not perish , 

              but have everlasting life.

<< John 3:15John 3:16John 3:17 >>

Read John 3:16 in contextRead John 3View in parallelInterlinear viewCompare Translations

Jesus came to show us how to live and love God and love each other.  In showing us how to live according to God's will, He allowed himself to be sacrificed on the Cross.  And in the Real Reality of the Cross, God verified everything Jesus did by the Resurrection.  It was and still is a Theological Earthquake in people's lives ... everyday.  

Our greatest REALITY is found in the

 Christian Faith of a Personal Relationship with God; 

the very REAL problem in this world is 

This World is out of touch with the REALITY of JESUS!   

Kings and all the earthly Kingdoms will pass away, 
    but Jesus, 
        His teachings, and 
             His Love and Salvation will remain forever.

God Loves Us.  "O Yes, He does. God bless to all of us !!"*

It is by faith we are saved-

Ephesians 2:7-10 (KJV) 

7That in the ages to come he might shew the exceeding riches of his grace     in his kindness towardus through Christ Jesus.8For by grace are ye saved through faith;
     and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:9Not of works, lest any man should boast .10For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works,        which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.

<< Ephesians 2:6Ephesians 2:7-10Ephesians 2:11 >>

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In our Trusting God we become strong in the
      Reality of our faith, the
          Reality of His Love for us, 
             in our Love for God, and
                 in our love for each other.

Don't be foolish.

Thanks Be To God

* This post inspired by Shekhar Samuel

© lonnie coggins

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REFERENCES
(*1)  http://carm.org/manuscript-evidence
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© Lonnie Coggins
ldcoggins@gmail.com

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lonnie

Publication  0205


intro
MANY PEOPLE, including Rich people THINK THEY KNOW REALITY.  Click the link for a message on the one source of Reality in our lives.  PLEASE SHARE the message on your Fb page as you like, and if you like, click the FB 'Follow' button to have notifications of these publications.  For other messages like this, visit my FB page, or on FB visit-"A Daily Thought Group".
http://lonnieadailythought.blogspot.com/2014/01/are-you-intouch-with-reality.html

A Thought on Hurt, Anger, & Forgiveness

A Thought on Hurt, Anger, & Forgiveness
                                       

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Matthew 6: 12-15

12 And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.13 And do not bring us to the time of trial, but rescue us from the evil one.14  For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you;15  but if you do not forgive others, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.

<< Matthew 6:11Matthew 6:12-15Matthew 6:16 >>

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Mark 11: 24-25

24  So I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.25  "Whenever you stand praying, forgive, if you have anything against anyone; so that your Father in heaven may also forgive you your trespasses."

Being hurt over someone's behavior toward you is a Godly response, because, in being truly just hurt with your feeling you do not have anything against the person.

Being angry is a worldly response that only creates barriers. 

In our Godly response to people, we come to forgiveness. In our anger, we build barriers not only to the person causing the anger, but it makes it difficult if not impossible to have a Righteous relationship with God. 

We are commanded by Jesus to forgive. Like all of His commands, the reality is- it is the best response to our hurt. 

With forgiveness, we can get on with our lives and have proper relationships with people around us and a closer relationship with God.

Thanks Be to God.

© lonnie coggins

Please Join 'A Daily Thought Group' on Facebook.  
It is designed to be an uncluttered library of only ‘A Daily Thought’ postings.  

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© Lonnie Coggins
ldcoggins@gmail.com

If you desire to use any of these messages in a For-Profit manner you must contact me (email) for permission.  Typically, I will most likely give permission.

Please email me if you find any broken links in this message.

lonnie

Publication  0192

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There is a huge difference between being hurt and angry.  It is all about the ability to forgive.  Click the link for more and  PLEASE SHARE the message on your Fb page as you like, and if you like, click the FB 'Follow' button to have notifications of these publications.  For other messages like this, visit my FB page, or on FB visit-"A Daily Thought Group".
http://lonnieadailythought.blogspot.com/2013/12/a-thought-on-hurt-anger-forgiveness.html

Forgiving Others

Forgiving Others

                                       

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Sin is a part of our lives from the very beginning.  We may think we are pretty good.  The fact is, we maybe pretty, but 'good', only God is good. 

I once struggled with what we are taught in Psalm 51:5, see below.  Since God made us, how is it we are made sinful?  But, I do believe this is the inspired word of God, just as all of the Bible.  So, I have to seek to understand or at least think about its purpose.

There are other ways to look at the source of our sin, but one helpful way is to understand a purpose of our sinfulness we are born with.  It certainly seems we are born with a survival instinct and programmed with the desire, perhaps a selfish desire for self preservation, and according to Psalm 51:5, this begins at the time of conception.  Certainly, when we come into this world, we are crying, demanding, and maybe screaming with great desire for our needs to be met.  You might not want to consider this sin, but at some point very soon in our lives, our crying and demanding become selfish sinfulness if we are not taught differently.  The net result is the same- we are selfish sinful people, and we have to accept it, get over it, and seek to become the patient people God intends us to be.

From that moment of crying, we begin an education of leaning to be patient and forgiving if our whims, needs, and wants are not met in accordance with our time table or desire.  The problem is some people do not get a very good education and their cries, demands, and screams become not for just their needs but more so for their wants.  We all have to learn to fight the temptation to impatiently demand our wants and be patient in receiving our needs.  Herein lies much of our sin against others and God.  Self-centered demand of our wants inhibits our ability to form and maintain relationships;  in that, it affects our happiness and joy in life.

Learning to forgive others is perhaps, one of the hardest behaviors we do.  For most people, loving God is far easier than loving others, but, it is the command of Jesus that we do both- forgive and love.  But, best of all, Jesus is right and He showed us the way.  In His death on the cross He showed us love, in His life He demonstrated love, and in His resurrection, God verified the Truth of Jesus' love and His words.

Jesus' command to love others survives the "acid test" of living life.  In the western world, we live in a throw away society that goes by one acid test: 
               'IF something works, we keep it and use it; 
                if it does not work, we simply throw it away."

Loving others works for us and is truly good for us!

Loving others begins by forgiving them of their sins against us.  What others do against God is not so much our business,  
      our business is dealing with what others do against us.

In your everyday life, you would not pick up a 25 pound bag (say 10 kilos) of sand and carry it around on your back because it felt good and heavy, and then add to it.  Well, not forgiving others is worse.

Oh, sometimes we like to harbor our dislike for what others have done to us.  We even cultivate it by throwing it in their face from time to time dumping on them,  "Remember when you ..."  every time we can.  It supposedly makes us feel better to make them feel bad.

Very often, we are the most harmed by this behavior and become our own worst enemy.  This behavior of unforgiveness is like that bag of sand.  In many ways, it gets heavier and heavier and we eventually collapse under its weight.  And, then we do not understand why we feel depressed.  

The irony of that baggage is that many people might not remember events the way we think we remember them.  They just put the conflict behind them, or maybe they apologized and we were just too unforgiving to remember or accept the apology.  In these instances, the other person has put the whole incident behind them, and rightly or wrongly no longer considers the issue.  So, in our unforgiveness, we are the only ones who suffer, and can suffer greatly in our own self-inflicted depression.

Forgiving the sins of others-

     it works.  

Forgiving others works in that 

     it lightens the baggage of our burdens, 

     it removes our barriers to friendships and 
  best of all,

     it builds our relationship with God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit.

Jesus tells us to love and forgive others.

He really did know what was and is good for us and our eternity.

But, there is one more thing to consider:

     We have to learn to forgive ourselves and 
      that can be the hardest lesson of all.  

Ask God, He will forgive you,
      so move on from your sin by forgiving yourself.

Life is much more full of Joy 
       when there are no barriers 
           between you and your relationship with God.

Mark 11:25 NIV

• "And when you stand praying, if you hold anything against anyone, forgive him, so that your Father in heaven may forgive you your sins. "
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  John 20:23 NIV

  "If you forgive anyone his sins, they are forgiven; if you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven."

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Thanks Be to God

© lonnie 

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© Lonnie Coggins
ldcoggins@gmail.com

If you desire to use any of these messages in a For-Profit manner you must contact me (email) for permission.  Typically, I will most likely give permission.

lonnie coggins

author, editor

"A Daily Thought"

Psalm 51

1Have mercy on me, O God, according to your unfailing love; according to your great compassionblot out my transgressions.2Wash away all my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin.3For I know my transgressions, and my sin is always before me.4Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight, so that you are proved right when you speak and justified when you judge.5Surely I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me.6Surely you desire truth in the inner parts; you teach me wisdom in the inmost place.7Cleanse me with hyssop, and I will be clean; wash me, and I will be whiter than snow.8Let me hear joy and gladness; let the bones you have crushed rejoice.9Hide your face from my sins and blot out all my iniquity.10Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me.11Do not cast me from your presence or take your Holy Spirit from me.12Restore to me the joy of your salvation and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me.13Then I will teach transgressors your ways, and sinners will turn back to you.14Save me from bloodguilt, O God, the God who saves me, and my tongue will sing of your righteousness.15O Lord, open my lips, and my mouth will declare your praise.16You do not delight in sacrifice, or I would bring it; you do not take pleasure in burnt offerings.17The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.18In your good pleasure make Zion prosper; build up the walls of Jerusalem.19Then there will be righteous sacrifices, whole burnt offerings to delight you; then bulls will be offered on your altar.

<< Psalms 50Psalm 51Psalms 52 >>

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Publication 167