Morning by Morning] Romans 8:16

Romans 8:16

Dear friends,

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We continue with the great verse from Romans about being filled with the Holy Spirit:

16The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God,

This is a big experience Paul is describing here, so let me list a few of the ways people have reported it.

Thomas Aquinas, the greatest of medieval Christian teachers, had published huge works reasoning from both nature and Scriptures to refute the aggressive Islam of his day and to help sceptical Westerners to believe. And then one day the abstract philosophical writings stopped and he began publishing love songs about God and about the Lord Jesus, lyrics we still sing at communion. When his friends asked him why the big change (it was when he was still at the height of his powers) Thomas said, "I have seen things that have made all my previous writings seem like so much straw."

One day D. L. Moody was preaching and then greeting the people as they left the service. Three elderly women shook his hand and brightly told him they would be praying for him to be filled with the Holy Spirit. He was a talented and committed guy, so this annoyed him for several days. He realized that something was missing however, partly because he got so annoyed. So he went and asked them to keep praying. About a month later he was walking down Wall Street when suddenly the love of God for him became so overwhelming that eventually he had to ask God to stop because he felt he was going to fall flat on the street if God kept loving him so.

As she lay dying, Mrs. Hugh Bryan (we don't know her first name) a person converted by Whitfield, called out, "I see HIm! I see Him! Now I see light!" Then later she called out, "I have seen things that would not be believed if told. Who would die without Christ?"

In fact these testimonies of the visit of the Holy Spirit assuring our own hearts that God loves us as His children fill volumes and keep being shared today. Each visit is a gift and is different. This experience can happen again and again to the same person, but there's no formula for it. Last night I was called to the hospital where a fabulous elderly woman was lying. Her knee had been replaced and wasn't healing well, her dog had died, her cat had died, and she had just broken her arm. She was in such pain she spoke of wanting to go to the Lord. Others had scolded her for wanting to give up and die. I just looked at her and let our eyes gaze easily into each other and said I understood. And then I told her how good it was that she had her hope of being with the Lord. And joy filled us both, and the Holy Spirit assured her that she was the daughter of God and would always be well.

People who experience the visitation of the Holy Spirit don't stay on some high. But they remember the moments when He comes with such tenderness and power. The first time this happened to me I was in a seminary chapel, listening to a sermon I didn't espeically like. My father had died a few years earlier and I had been pondering that a lot with the help of a counsellor. The death had happened when I was 16 and most of the grief had gone unexpressed for about 10 years. The preacher mentioned something about fathers, and suddenly I became just flooded with an awareness of the Father's care and love for me. I've remembered that moment ever since, and I know that it was the reason God called me to the whole seminary experience -- because He had something He wanted to tell me and that is what it took for me to hear Him.

Jesus urges us to ask and seek and knock until God gives us the gift of the Holy Spirit. I think this is why. When the Spirit testifies to us, then our being is warmed by His love, just as the skin on our arm is warmed by the sun coming through the window. He spent His whole life moving with freedom and grace because He was fully opened to Abba Father, and He wants for our hearts to know the same love. So ask and seek and knock, as I still do these thirty five years later.

Love,
Jeff

Copyright ©Jeff Black - www.morningbymorning.org

Scripture taken from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. Copyright ©2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

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--  Jan Dadák    Tel: 	+420 530 334 630 Mobil:	+420 731 576 030  web: 	www.jandadak.com    

Abraham- theme of the Bible study

Abraham

(c. 1813 BCE - c. 1638 BCE)

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According to Jewish tradition, Abraham was born under the name Abram in the city of Ur in Babylonia in the year 1948 from Creation (circa 1800 BCE). He was the son of Terach, an idol merchant, but from his early childhood, he questioned the faith of his father and sought the truth. He came to believe that the entire universe was the work of a single Creator, and he began to teach this belief to others.

Abram tried to convince his father, Terach, of the folly of idol worship. One day, when Abram was left alone to mind the store, he took a hammer and smashed all of the idols except the largest one. He placed the hammer in the hand of the largest idol. When his father returned and asked what happened, Abram said, "The idols got into a fight, and the big one smashed all the other ones." His father said, "Don't be ridiculous. These idols have no life or power. They can't do anything." Abram replied, "Then why do you worship them?"

Eventually, the one true Creator that Abram had worshipped called to him, and made him an offer: if Abram would leave his home and his family, then G-d would make him a great nation and bless him. Abram accepted this offer, and the b'rit (covenant) between G-d and the Jewish people was established. (Gen. 12).

The idea of b'rit is fundamental to traditional Judaism: we have a covenant, a contract, with G-d, which involves rights and obligations on both sides. We have certain obligations to G-d, and G-d has certain obligations to us. The terms of this b'rit became more explicit over time, until the time of the Giving of the Torah. Abram was subjected to ten tests of faith to prove his worthiness for this covenant. Leaving his home is one of these trials.

Abram, raised as a city-dweller, adopted a nomadic lifestyle, traveling through what is now the land of Israel for many years. G-d promised this land to Abram's descendants. Abram is referred to as a Hebrew (Ivri), possibly because he was descended from Eber or possibly because he came from the "other side" (eber) of the Euphrates River.

But Abram was concerned, because he had no children and he was growing old. Abram's beloved wife, Sarai, knew that she was past child-bearing years, so she offered her maidservant, Hagar, as a wife to Abram. This was a common practice in the region at the time. According to tradition, Hagar was a daughter of Pharaoh, given to Abram during his travels in Egypt. She bore Abram a son, Ishmael, who, according to both Muslim and Jewish tradition, is the ancestor of the Arabs. (Gen 16)

When Abram was 100 and Sarai 90, G-d promised Abram a son by Sarai. G-d changed Abram's name to Abraham (father of many), and Sarai's to Sarah (from "my princess" to "princess"). Sarah bore Abraham a son, Isaac (in Hebrew, Yitzchak), a name derived from the word "laughter," expressing Abraham's joy at having a son in his old age. (Gen 17-18). Isaac was the ancestor of the Jewish people.

[Abraham died at the age of 175.]

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Source: Judaism 101.

--  Jan Dadák    Tel:  +420 530 334 630 Mobil: +420 731 576 030  web:  www.jandadak.com    

Today`s quote:

Your idea of God will determine your whole life.

Emmet Fox

Today`s quote:

There is no difficulty that enough love will not conquer; no disease that enough love will not heal; no door that enough love will not open; no gulf that enough love will not bridge; no wall that enough love will not throw down, no sin that enough love will not redeem.

Emmet Fox

--  Jan Dadák    Tel: 	+420 530 334 630 Mobil:	+420 731 576 030  web: 	www.jandadak.com    

GACS Spring Trip to Brno, CZ

Here is a slideshow for you all.
Here will appear pictures from each day as we go throught this week. At the bottom of the slideshow you will find gallery from each day separate.
Hope you enjoy the picture story and leave some positive, encouraging comments.



GACS Monday

If you don`t like a slideshow, here are steady pictures.

by churchofchristinbrno	by churchofchristinbrno
by churchofchristinbrno	by churchofchristinbrno	by churchofchristinbrno

Today's Quote:

We cannot be a source of strength unless we nurture our own strength.

M. Scott Peck

Temple of God

I wondered to which blog I should post this article, and I have decided for the church one. It`s all about church anyway.

Today we had a wonderful preacher who preached about a Temple of God. (I preached).
We read from the old testament, 1. Chronicles 28:1-10,20-22. Its all about David`s desire to build a temple of God for Him. He was told to leave this task for Salomon, his son.
New testament says we are the temple of God (1. Corinthians 3) and so we are to be built in His image, according to His plans. He is building the temple in us. We are to let Him and His Holly Spirit work in us, to it would be made of gold and precious.

That was a core message of today`s lesson. People liked it.
Thank You God for leading the worship today.

Promised pictures

churchofchristinbrno

These are new pictures from yesterday worship in Olomouc, at the Holly Peak (Svaty Kopecek). We went outside to woods and it was awesome.

Today's Quote: To exist is to change, to change is to mature, to mature is to go on creating oneself endless.

To exist is to change, to change is to mature, to mature is to go on creating oneself endless.

Henri L. Bergson

Maggie in Brno

 

Maggie in Brno, at the church. Darina is interpreting.

Maggie is happy to be in Brno, eventough just for three weeks.
She is learning czech language, getting used to Brno transport system. She is fine.
She would like to come to Brno as a missionary after she is done with her studies. Which is in two years. How serious is she you can see from her effort to learn to drive car with manuall gearing. Which is usuall in Europe. 

Advent candles

Advent means expectation of Christ the child to come into our lives.

Here are pictures of advent candles.

Christmas 2006

Morning by morning

[Morning By Morning - he wakens my ear to listen as those who are taught]

Romans 8: 2

Dear friends,


Good morning! Hey, we missed something back there, Paul; what did you say?

2For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death

What's this "law of the Spirit of life"?

I know what he means by the "law of sin and death." He means religion as this grinding slog where we try to get to heaven by following the ten commandments and their various elaborations. Paul took us aside for all of chapters 6 and 7 to deal with the mess sin makes of God's holy law, showing us that being determined to obey it all out of our own strength is just hopeless. But what is the law of the Spirit of life?

Earlier when we were listening to chapter 5, we heard him speak of the reign of grace, and this is much the same thing. Struggling to improve ourselves enough that we no longer covet and we discard every idol and we speak with pure speech and we revel in the rest of the sabbath and so on makes us look like this:
Careful! You're tilting!

Something has happened to Paul, something he shared with thousands of people through his teaching and witnessing and now has shared with more than a billion of us through his writing. He has welcomed Jesus as savior and Lord, and what that has produced is a whole new relationship with God and God's will. That produces a whole different kind of lifting. Like this:


At first I thought that "the law of Spirit and life" was just a bit of bad writing. Ok, so sometimes I'm not too bright. Now I'm seeing that Paul wants us to understand that life in the Spirit has its own order, its own law. Grace isn't chaotic; neither is grace self-indulgent. Life in the Spirit includes and even rejoices in moral strength and decent order. Those are huge gifts. How the Holy Spirit comes and helps us to live in His order, free from condemnation, is the great subject to which Paul now turns in this immensely conceived chapter.

Love,
Jeff

Copyright ©Jeff Black - www.morningbymorning.org

Scripture taken from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. Copyright ©2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.




--
Jan Dadák

Tel: +420 530 334 630
Mobil: +420 731 576 030
e-mail: JanDadak@seznam.cz

web: www.jandadak.com

New gallery

by coffeelover11

Well, we had a party. It was Halušky party. And it was nice. You missed a lot if you weren`t here.

Affirmations for living in the present:

I focus on what is before me to do.

I use my time wisely.

I have enough time to accomplish all I need with ease and efficiency.

I am willing to be happy now, right where I am.

Now I face the present and the future wise, secure, and unafraid.

Greetings from Brno

 
Greetings to you all from Brno. Here is a picture of the congregation in Brno.
And Here is a gallery of each individual in the church.

Hope you`ll like it. 

Affirmations for divine order:

There is infinite power within me which guides and protects me.

Divine order directs all my experiences.

I see value of every aspect of my being.

I freely release old thought patterns. I am free to accept change.

I live in the world which fits me perfectly, and the world into which I fit perfectly.

brand new picture of Delta

 
Here is a picture of Delta. You have asked for it, so here she is. Much larger, little bit older, weighting about 30 pounds (15 kilos).

I also have a a video, but it is large at this moment as of 30 MB. If you are interested to see it, e-mail me and I`ll send it to you. 

Art

 

This is Horsi`s flower that she brought to the church one day. It is a piece of art to me. I place it here so all people can enjoy it. 

Affirmations for new possibilities:

I see my world as a place of glorious possibilities.

I embrace each new beginning, putting aside any thoughts of fear or doubt.

I move forward toward the future with confidence.

My way is straight, and my steps are sure.

I great each day with an eager anticipation of new possibilities.

Affirmations for life mission:

I joyfully embrace my mission in life as it is expressed through my work.

I search for ways to serve the world and people around me.

I courageously move toward the fulfillment of my mission.

In everything I do, I am empowered by the Spirit God.

I am well prepared for my right work.