The Blind Side

Went to the movies today and saw what I thought was the Best Picture of the Year. It is the movie "Blind Side".

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I am amazed at how many people pass up great wholesome movies either to watch something demonic like "New Moon" or be entertained by the appocolyptic film "2012" which may be a glimpse of what you will see if you miss the rapture.

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But Blind Side is something entirely different, it is the true story of Michael Oher who was homeless on and off from age 7. Through a number of God ordaned incidences, he finds his way into a private Christian Academy. Shortly after his arrival while walking the streets of Memphis looking for shelter on a cold November night the Touhy family take him into their home.

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They discover what I have also just learned, "You can take people out of homelessness, but it is more difficult to take homelessness out of people." But the Touhy's succeed with the help of God, Christians teachers from the school, a tutor, and a lot of love. In just one year of High School football Michael Oher quickly becomes a highly sought after recruit for college football.

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Out of his love and to honor his new family who adopts him as their own, Michael attend Old Miss where both Leigh Anne & Sean Touhy graduated. He goes on to become an all-american offensive lineman and was drafted in the first round this last spring in the NFL draft by the Baltimore Ravens.

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This is an absolutely wonderful story of love and compassion, showing that people, no matter where they come from or what their circumstance, are not trash. The greatest investment anyone can make is into the life of another human being who can in no way pay you back.

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That's what Jesus did! He traded his life from the life of human beings who had no way to repay them and when they succeed and overcome obsticales like drugs, alcohol, hatred, or any of the miriad of things that darken our souls, He rejoices in heaven. We can only overcome those things with His blood and His grace! Go check out a great Christian flick! Two Thumbs Up!

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The Touhy's lived out the words of Jesus; "When you five a luncheon or a dinner, do not invite your friends or your brothers or your relatives or rich neighbors, lest they also invite you in return, and repayment come to you. But when you give a reception, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind, and you will be blessed, since they do not have the means to repay you; for you will be repaid at the resurrection of the righteous" (Luke 14:12-14). The Touhy's even lived out the word prophesied by Isaiah; "Is this not the fast which I choose, to loosen the bonds of wickedness, To undo the bands of the yoke, and to let the oppressed go free, and break every yoke? Is it not to divide your bread with the hungry, and bring the homeless poor into the house; when you see the naked, to cover him; and not to hide yourself from your own flesh? (Isaiah 58:6-7)

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So this holiday season, hear the call of God and love someone who can't love you back! Feed someone who can repay you! Clothe someone who is without! Bring the homeless into your home! Pray and then take risks!

He's returning!

This is just a good word for today! I love how the words of Jesus just transcend space and time. He said:

"Let not your hearts be troubled; you believe in God, believe also in Me. In My Father's house are many mansions if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you. I will come again, and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also. And where I go you know, and the way you know" (John 14:1-4).

I love Thomas because without him one of the most famous verses in the Bible would be missing. So in the next verse he says, "Lord, we do not know where You are going; how can we know the way?" And Jesus replies with one of the most famous verses in scripture which begins, "I am the way..." See the way is a person. If you want to find your way to the very gates of heaven and into His presence, you won't do so by rules or religious acts. The way is a person. The way is Jesus Christ of Nazareth. It is a relationship with this person named, Jesus.

Jesus is returning, Arnold Schwarzenegger was not the first person to say, "I'lll be baaaacch!" General Douglas MacArthur from WWII was not the first person to say, "I shall return!" No Jesus made that promise two thousand years ago. Jesus taught about the rapture before Paul ever wrote about to the church in Thessalonica (1 Thes. 4:16-17) or the church in Corinth (1 Cor. 15:51-53).

Jesus taught; "I tell you in that night there shall be two men in one bed; the one shall be taken, and the other shall be left. Two women shall be grinding together; the one shall be taken, and the other left. Two men shall be in the field; the one shall be taken, and the other left. And they answered and said to him, 'Where Lord'?"

That should be everyones question; "Where Lord?" Then Jesus almost answering in code says, "Wherever the body is, there will the eagles be gathered together" (Luke 17:34-37). After reading His answer some of us are still saying, "Where Lord?"

Let's walk through this, the body in the original Greek, means the whole body. And the church those who are believers in Him are called His body (1 Corinthians 12:27). So where the body of the Christ is, there will the eagles be gathered together. Eagles gather in the air above the peaks of mountain, even above the area controlled by the prince of the power of the air (Ephesians 2:2, 6:12). The body of Christ is going to meet the Lord in the air, that what Paul wrote in 1 Thessalonians 4:16-17, where the eagles are gathered, to be forever with the Lord.

When, well "no man knows the day or the hour" but it will be "In a moment, in a twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet" (1 Corinthians 15:52). It will take place prior to the seven year tribulation, that why Jesus says, "Watch and Pray always that you might be counted worthy to escape all these things that are about to take place and stand before the Son of man" (Luke 21:36).

The rapture is basically an invitation to a party that is out of this world (Revelation 19:7). Jesus gave a half dozen parable that make mention of a wedding feast or a great banquet or dinning at the table with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Don't miss this party, you need to RSVP. You know the way!

Jesus conquoring the world one heart at a time!

One of the great military leaders of the 19th century was exiled on the rock of St. Helena. There Napoleon Bonaparte reflected on his life and accomplishments. He then called Count Montholon to his side and asked him, "Can you tell me who Jesus Christ was?" The count could not, so Napoleon said:

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"Well then, I will tell you. Alexander, Caesar, Charlemagne and I myself have founded great empires; but upon what did these creations of our genius depend? Upon force. Jesus alone founded His empire upon love, and to this very day millions will die for Him... I think I understand something of human nature; and I tell you, all these were men, and I am a man: none else is like Him; Jesus Christ was more than man...have inspired multitudes with such an enthusiastic devotion that they would have died for me... but to do this it was necessary that I should be visibly present with the electric influence of my looks, my words, of my voice. When I saw men and spoke to them, I lighted up the flame of self-devotion in their hearts... Christ alone has succeeded in so raising the mind of man toward the unseen, that it becomes insensible to the barries of time and space. Across a chasm of eighteen hundred years, Jesus Christ makes a demand which is beyond all other difficult to satisfy; He asks for that which a philpsopher may often seek in vain at the hands of his friends, or a father of his children, or a bride of her spouse, or a man of his brother. He asks for the human heart; He will have it entirely to Himself. He demands it unconditionally; and forthwith His demand is granted. Wonderful! In defiance of time and space, the soul of man, with all its powers and faculties, becomes an annexation to the empire of Christ. All who sincerely believe in Him, experience that remarkable, supernatural love toward Him. This phenomenon is unaccountable; it is altogether beyond the scope of man's creative powers. Time, the great destroyer, is powerless to extinguish this sacred flame; time can neither exhaust its strength nor put a limit to its range. This is it, which strikes me most; I have often thougt of it. This it is which proves to me quite convincingly the Divinity of Jesus Christ.

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What a testimony of Jesus Christ! John the Revelator wrote; "The testimony of Jesus Christ is the Spirit of prophecy" (Revelation 19:10). Truly all who sincerely believe in Jesus do experience that remarkable supernatural love toward Him! He does demand completely and unconditionally that your heart is His.

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Jesus looked into the hearts of those who desired to follow Him and called out the things in their lives that would be an obstical to a relationship with God. For each person it is different, for some it is their money, others it is prestige, others it is family and other worldly obligations. Christ has to be above all things of the world, if not that obstical must be removed.

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On man came running to him desirering to be a follower, but Christ saw that money was more important in his love, so Jesus said, "Sell all you have and give it to the poor."

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Another wanted to follow Jesus, but first wanted to collect the inheritance of his dead father, to him Jesus said, "Let the dead bury the dead."

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Another man also wanted to become a follower, but Jesus looked into his soul and saw that his home was more important, and to him Jesus said, "Foxes have holes, birds of the air have nests, but the Son of man has nowhere to lay His head."

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To others who own families where the center of their life, Jesus said, "Whoever, does not hate his father and his mother and his wife and his children, even his own life, cannot be my disciple."

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Jesus demands to be the center of our lives, to be number one in our life. Nothing short will do. To this I say:

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Yes, My God, it is You that elevates my soul and inspires me with hope. You, Jesus, are the God of my heart. When I am good it is You that makes me so. My Lord, it is You who animates my soul and my soul animates my body. You, O Lord, gave me my "self" therefore you require that I love You more than it!

God has been declaring "the end" from the beginning!

This one question is on the mind of everyone, "Is this the end?" NASA is doing public service announcements regarding it. Today opening across America, "2012". I even heard that teenagers are committing suicide rather than be killed on December 21, 2012.

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So this is no joke. And it is the question on everyones minds. What's going to happen in 2012? Is this the end?

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The prophet Isaiah wrote:

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"I am the LORD, that is My name;

I will not give My glory to another,

Nor My praise to graven images.

Behold, the former things have come to pass,

Now I declare new things;

Before they spring forth I proclaim them to you."

- Isaiah 42:8-9

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"Who among them can declare this

And proclaim to us the former things?

It is I who have declared and saved and proclaimed"

- Isaiah 43:9, 12

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"And who is like Me?

Let him proclaim and declare it;

Yes, let him recount it to Me in order,

From the time that I established the ancient nation.

And let them declare to them the things that are coming

And the events that are going to take place.

Do not tremble and do not be afraid;

Have I not long since announced it to you and declared it?

And you are My witnesses.

Is there any God besides Me.

Or is there any other Rock?

I know of none."

- Isaiah 44:7-8

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"Who has announced this of old?

Who has long since declared it?

Is it not I, the LORD?

And there is no other God besides Me,

A righteous God and a Savior;

There is none except Me.

Turn to Me, and be saved, all the ends of the earth;

For I am God, and there is no other.

I have sworn by Myself,

The word has gone forth from My mouth in righteousness

And will not turn back,

That to Me every knee will bow,

every tongue will swear allegiance."

-Isaiah 45:21-23

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"Remember the former things long past,

For I am God, and there is no other;

I am God, and there is no one like Me,

Declaring the end from the beginning

And from ancient times things which have not been done,

Saying, My purpose will be established,

And I will accomplish all My good pleasure;

Calling a bird of prey from the east,

The man of My purpose from a far country.

Truly I have spoken; truly I will bring it to pass.

I have planned it, surely I will do it."

- Isaiah 46:9-11

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"I declared the former things long ago

And they went forth from My mouth, and I proclaimed them.

Suddenly I acted, and they came to pass.

Therefore I declare them to you,

Before they took place I proclaimed them to you,

Lest you should say, My idol has done them,

And my graven image and my molten image have commaned them."

- Isaiah 48:3, 5

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"Come near to Me, listen to this:

From the first I have not spoken in secret,

From the time it took place, I was there.

And now the Lord GOD has sent Me, and His Spirit."

- Isaiah 48:16

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Grace and Peace, Today! May God grant you eyes to see and ears to hear!

He awakens My ear to listen as a disciple

The eyes may be the window of our soul, but our ears are the windows to the Spirit realm and the voice of God.

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I am in love with this passage;

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"The Lord GOD has given Me the tongue of disciples,

That I may know how to sustain the weary one with a word.

He awakens Me morning by morning,

He awakens My ear to listen as a disciple.

The Lord GOD has opened My ear;

And I was not disobedient,

Nor did I turn back."

-Isaiah 50:4-5

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Each of the seven letters to the seven churches of the book of Revelation ends with these words; "He that has an ear let him hear what the Spirit says!" (Revelation 2 & 3).

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How many times did Jesus say, "He who has ears let him hear"? Five!

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He also said, "If anyone has an ear let him hear!" another four times!

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Why all this focus on ears and hearing God, because, "Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God" (Romans 10:17).

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Even the book of Revelation opens with "Blessed is he who reads and those who hear the words of the prophecy, and heed the things which are written in it; for the time is near" (Revelation 1:3).

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God is a speaking God, incline your ear toward heaven and hear what the Sovereign Lord says. The Lord commands, "do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind" (Romans 12:2). How are your transformed, by the renewing of your mind, by hearing His Word.

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Here are just a few more passages to meditate on:

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"Apply your heart to discipline, And your ears to words of knowledge" (Proverbs 23:12).

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"My ears Thou hast opened" (Psalm 40:6).

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"O God, we have heard with our ears" (Psalm 44:1).

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"Hear this, all peoples; Give ear, all inhabitants of the world" (Psalm 49:1).

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"Listen, O my people, to my instruction; Incline your ears to the words of my mouth. I will open my mouth in a parable" (Psalm 78:1-2).

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"Incline your ear and come to Me. Listen, that you may live" (Isaiah 55:3).

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Shut your eyes and open your ears to the Lord. Meditate on His voice and Hear what He is saying, take a break and remember, "Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every Word that proceeds out of the mouth of God" (Matthew 4:4, Deuteronomy 8:3).

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Grace and Peace today, shut your eyes to the things of this world, open your ear to the things of the world to come!

Your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God

How are we made back into the image and likeness of God? To answer that question I must first examine; how did the devil become our father? And how did we fall from being in the image and likeness of God?

We fell with our eyes!

The devil said, "For God knows that in the day you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil" (Genesis 3:5).

So Eve turns from God and to believing the lie of the devil and the bible records; "When the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was desirable to make one wise, she took from its fruit and ate; and gave also to her husband with her, and he ate" (Genesis 3:6).

She saw, then it was a delight to the eyes and it was desirable. Then what happened; "Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked" (Genesis 3:7). It was with the eyes that man fell away from God and began chasing after the things of this world.

Look throughout history, "Lot lifted up his eyes and saw all the valley of the Jordan" (Genesis 13:10). Lot ended up in Sodom because his eyes led him there. David ended up in bed with Bathsheba because, "he saw a woman bathing; and the woman was very beautiful in appearance" (2 Samuel 11:2). During the time of the judges; "there was no king in Israel, every man did what was right in his own eyes" (Judges 17:6 & 21:25).

Our eyes seem to search out evil, but the eyes of God are much different. Habakkuk wrote; "Thine eyes are too pure to approve evil, and Thou canst not look on wickedness with favor" (Habakkuk 1:13). The eyes of God approve righteousness and not evil. "The eyes of the LORD move to and fro throughout the earth that He may support those whose heart is completely His" (2 Chronicles 16:9).

Jesus taught us; "If you eye causes you to sin, pluck it out, and throw it from you. It is better for you to enter life with one eye, than having two eyes to be cast into the fiery hell" (Matthew 18:9). Jesus taught us that the eye is the window of our soul. He said, "The lamp of the body is the eye; if therefore your eye is clear, your whole body will be full of light. But if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in you is darkness, how great is the darkness! No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will hold to one and dispise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon" (Matthew 6:22-24).

When your whole body is full of darkness, it is deep darkness. Peter wrote that some were "having eyes full of adultery and that never cease from sin" (2 Peter 2:14). John wrote; "Do not love the world, nor the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life, is not from the Father, but is from the world" (1 John 2:15-16).

Our eyes betray us. They lead us to the place of sin. Jesus even told the lukewarm church of Laodicea with "eye salve, anoint your eyes, that you may see" (Revelation 3:18).

I love how the writer of Hebrews put it; "Wherefore, seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith" (Hebrews 12:1-2).

The eyes did betray God in the garden but God provided us with a window back into His presence, next time I will talk about this important organ.

Grace and Peace, from God our Father and from our Lord Jesus Christ!

Sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh

Yesterday, I began a new series of blogs about the image and likeness of God. Asking questions like, "Are we born today into the image and likeness of God, as Adam was created in that image?"

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The answer is a sad, no! We are all born into the likeness of sinful flesh. What is even more amazing is that Jesus did not come to the earth in the image and likeness of God. I know this sounds almost heretical but listen to the words of Paul:

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"For what the Law could not do, weak as it was through the flesh, God did: sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh" (Romans 8:3).

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To the church in Philippi, Paul wrote about Jesus, "But emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men" (Philippians 2:7).

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The writer of Hebrews also wrote about Jesus coming in the likeness of sinful man. He wrote, "Therefore, He had to be made like His brethren in all things, that He might become a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make propitiation for the sins fo the people" (Hebrews 2:17).

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Jesus was made into the likeness of man. The world did not recognize Him. He likeness was like that of sinful man. "And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross" (Philippians 2:9). And although Jesus came and was found in the likeness of man, "He existed in the form of God" (Philippians 2:6).

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Jesus was both the likeness of man and the image of God. The Bible says Jesus is in the image of the Father, saying "He is the radiance of His glory and the exact representation of His nature" (Hebrews 1:3). I love the way the writer of Colossians puts it, he wrote about Jesus, and said, "And He is the image of the invisible God" (Colossians 1:15).

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Here's what Paul wrote in his second letter to the Corinthians, "And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing, in whose case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelieving, that they might not see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God" (2 Corinthians 4:3-4).

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There is hope to be remade into the image of God. Believers have this hope. It says in the first letter to the Corinthians, "And just as we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly" (1 Corinthians 15:49). We won't fully bear the image of the heavenly until we are changed, "In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet; for the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed. For this perishable must put on the imperishable, and this mortal must put on immortality" (1 Corinthians 15:52-53).

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This will happen at the rapture of the church. John wrote; "We know that, when He appears [at the rapture], we shall be like Him, because we shall see Him just as He is" (1 John 3:2). But I love the following verses:

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"And everyone who has this hope fixed on Him purifies himself, just as He is pure. Everyone who practices sin also practices lawlessness; and sin is lawlessness. And you know that He appeared [the first coming] in order to take away sins; and in Him there is no sin. No one who abides in Him sins; no one who sins has seen Him or knows Him. Little children, let no one deceive you; the one who practices righteousness is righteous, just as He is righteous; the one who practices sin is of the devil; for the devil has sinned from the beginning. The Son of God appeared [the first time] for this purpose, that He might destroy the works of the devil. No one who is born of God practices sin, because His seed abides in him; and he cannot sin, because he is born of God. By this the children of God and the children of the devil are obvious: anyone who does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor the one who does not love his brother. For this is the message which you have heard from the beginning, that we should love one another; not as Cain, who was of the evil one, and slew his brother. And for what reason did he slay him? Because his deeds were evil, and his brother's were righteous. Do not marvel, brethren, if the world hates you. We know that we have passed out of death into life, because we love the brethren. He who does not love abides in death. Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer; and you know that no murderere has eternal life abiding in him. We know love by this, that He laid down His life for us; and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. But whoever has the world's goods, and beholds his brother in need and closes his heart against him, how does the love of God abide in him? Little children, let us not love with word or with tongue, but in deed and truth" (1 John 3:3-18).

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Amen and Be Blessed, today and everyday, in Christ Jesus our Lord!