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Frankincense
Frankincense was used for incense in the Hebrew sacrificial and offering ceremonies, and it has a sweet smell.
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Don’t Be Anxious?
Living our best life––or at least a life characterized by peace, joy, and healthy rhythm––has never been more difficult for many working women. Myself included. Are we doing something wrong? How do we experience peace in anxiety-riddled days...
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Should Christians Burn Sage?
Smudging, the burning of bundled sage, is an indigenous practice that has been around for centuries. Various people groups throughout history have used this for medicinal and ceremonial purposes. The indigenous beauty blogger, Bianca Millar, says she and her husband burn sage along with other herbs to “thank the Creator for the new day and send up our prayers.” Burning sage is also used by herbalists or alternative healers. Claretha Yeager, an Acupuncturist and reiki master based in Chicago says she frequently uses smudging—or burning sage—to help rid her patients of negative emotions. She claims that sage smoke unburdens people of their negative energy to feel better. Burning sage has …
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Theology of Self-Care
Once again, I’m thankful to have Victoria Monet guest blogging for me. Victoria is from Georgetown, Texas. She loves her husband, son, dog, and impacting others’ everyday theology through creative writing and teaching. She writes poetry and topical articles on her blog “Theology Reflected.” *** Is self-care selfish or unspiritual? Some churches and Christian circles say “yes.” And while today’s popular self-care strategies may have a bent toward self-serving interests, a biblical perspective of self-care is holistic, worshipful, and others-centered. Self-Care Involves All Aspects of Ourselves God designed us as complex, whole persons (Ps. 139:13–16). We do not—like a computer or machine—consist of parts, but encompass spiritual, physical, mental, emotional,…
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The final victory
Title: The final victory Aim: To be prepared for the Savior’s return. Scripture: Revelation 19:1–21 The song of triumph, Revelation 19:1–10 Revelation 18 narrates the diabolical nature of Babylon and the future demise of the sinister world system that Babylon represents. First-century A.D. readers would have associated this entity with Rome. Imagine how joyous believers would be at the end of the age when the Lord destroys the demonic system of evil that has corrupted humanity since antiquity. Babylon’s demise would be so complete that no person would inhabit her again. Instead, only demonic spirits and unclean birds would make the place their hideout. The above…
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Worship While You Wait
Waiting is the hardest thing I am ever asked to do. If I am waiting for something good, then it is difficult because I am so excited and can hardly wait for the party or the present or the event to happen. If I am waiting for something bad it seems even harder. I don’t want it. Yet, I know it is coming so I just want it to happen already. How good are you at waiting? When it comes to children and waiting…well, if you are a parent, you know how draining that can be on everyone. In my last blog I talked about the importance of waiting…
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The Son, worthy to redeem the lost
Title:The Son, worthy to redeem the lost Aim: To turn to the Savior for help, especially in our times of struggle. Scripture: Revelation 5:1–14 The worthiness of the Messiah, Revelation 5:1–5 The major literary segments of Revelation have an introductory throne room scene, which lays the foundation for the verses that follow. For instance, the vision of the exalted Messiah recorded in 1:9-20 is a preface to the messages to the seven churches found in chapters 2 and 3. Likewise, the throne room scene recorded in chapters 4 and 5 is a prelude to the seal judgments. The first six of these are recorded in chapter 6, followed by…
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The Father, worthy of unending praise
Title: The Father, worthy of unending praise Aim: To encourage praising God as our Creator and Sustainer. Scripture: Revelation 4:1–11 The throne of God, Revelation 4:1–6a The first three chapters of Revelation brought to light the temptations and persecutions that Christians faced in John’s day. Some broke under pressure and compromised their faith, while others refused to waver in their commitment to the Lord. Throughout the Savior’s messages to the seven churches in Asia Minor, He declared that He would vindicate the upright and one day bring them to a place of eternal rest. This leads us to chapters 4 and 5 of the Apocalypse, which together form a literary…
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UNEXPECTED
A week ago Friday our good friends were in a terrible accident – totally unexpected. Their wrecked car is pictured here. Driving home from another town anticipating to get home, unload their car and make plans for the evening they unexpectedly found themselves shockingly being pulled from their vehicle and taken by ambulance to our county hospital. Miraculously, according to the police officer on the scene and subsequent tests in the ER, they escaped death with no broken bones or punctured organs. In spite of the body trauma, abrasions, bruises plus ongoing pain they are alive and improving each day. They are praising God for His supernatural protection and grateful…
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I Spy
Remember the childhood game of “I Spy”? Someone chooses an object in the room and tells just the color: “I spy something red.” Then everyone else tries to guess the item by its color only. The remarkable thing is that as soon as the color red is mentioned, all the red things in the room start grabbing your eye. You may have been in the room many times over multiple years and never noticed a single red object, but now dozens are so obvious. The point is, now you are looking for red where before you weren’t. We see what we look for This same principle…
