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You are here: Home / 2011 / Archives for August 2011

Archives for August 2011

Guard Your Mouth…

August 31, 2011 by admin 4 Comments

 Unfortunately, mouth sins have somehow been domesticated and entertained by the modern church. Gossip, backbiting, and slander have become viewed as “naughty” little habits that aren’t really so serious. However, when Paul wrote to the church at Rome he sternly contended that gossips, slanderers, and bad-mouthers were in the same league as murderers, sexual perverts, and haters of God. Furthermore, he said such sins are worthy of a death sentence (Rom. 1:28-32).

 Some believers have experienced problems and misfortune, or fail to get answers to their prayers, because of their mouth sins. Using their tongue to ridicule, gossip about, or to slander their brothers and sisters is clearly sin — and as we know, unrepentant sin cuts off the flow of God’s answers to their prayers. “If I regard iniquity in my heart, The Lord will not hear” (Psalm 66:18). Those who have mouth problems are destined to experience much trouble in their life and will not find it easy to obtain God’s help with their problems. Satan takes advantage of those whose mouths are undisciplined and that are used wickedly. “Whoever guards his mouth and tongue Keeps his soul from troubles” (Prov. 21:23).

Filed Under: Balanced Life Ministry, Daily Growth, Leadership Forum Tagged With: God, james, life, mouth

Evil Poison…

August 30, 2011 by admin Leave a Comment

James gave a warning of the evil poison of the tongue. He described some who try to use their tongue as praise and blessing to God, then turn around to use their tongue to speak evil of one another. “With it we bless our God and Father, and with it we curse men, who have been made in the similitude of God. Out of the same mouth proceed blessing and cursing. These things ought not to be so” (James 3:9-10). We cannot use our tongue to curse and bad-mouth others, then continue “business as usual” with our relationship with God. The Bible says that such a tongue behavior is characteristic of hypocrites. “The hypocrite with his mouth destroys his neighbor… “(Prov. 11:9).

Filed Under: Balanced Life Ministry, Church Assistance, Daily Growth, Divorce & Broken Homes, Leadership Forum Tagged With: God, james, life, poison, tongue

A Bridled Tongue…

August 29, 2011 by admin Leave a Comment

 It has been said that the “tongue” is one of the most exercised muscles of our body. It has been estimated that in a typical week, the average person will speak enough words to fill a 500 page book! However, for the Christian, the use of the tongue must be a matter of careful forethought and discipline. The Bible warns that believers who do not bring restraint to their tongue and speech have been deceived — and without such control over their words, their religious acts are worthless and hypocritical. “If anyone among you thinks he is religious, and does not bridle his tongue but deceives his own heart, this one’s religion is useless” (James 1:26). It is a deception for any of us to think that Jesus can be Lord over our life, without also becoming Lord over our tongue…

Filed Under: Balanced Life Ministry, Daily Growth, Divorce & Broken Homes, Leadership Forum, Raising Children Tagged With: heart, james, jesus, life, tongue

How Is Your Vision?

August 26, 2011 by admin Leave a Comment

There are two different types of blindness one being physical and the other being spiritual. Physical blindness is easy to recognize due to the outward signs that are shown but recognizing spiritual blindness requires maturity in the Word of God to recognize what is actually taking place.  There are two different confirmations that take place within spiritual sight one being verbal and the other being in the signs.

Spiritual signs normally start in a small way but over time they can magnify in ways that one can not miss. The object is to recognize the spiritual signs and learn to seek God for the direction in moving forward. For there is nothing that we can do in the physical to hold something together in the spiritual but when we learn to allow God to hold things together in the spiritual is when we will find the unity of love within the physical…

Therefore what God has joined together, let man not separate…Mark 10:9

James A. Harrison

http://balancedlifeministry.org

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Filed Under: Balanced Life Ministry, Church Assistance, Daily Growth, Leadership Forum, Spiritual Growth Tagged With: balanced, blind, God, life, love, spiritual

Listen Within The Whisper…

August 26, 2011 by admin Leave a Comment

What is it like to hear the voice of God? The following story is told of the conversion of St. Augustine. One day, while he was struggling with his inability to overcome his own passions and desires, he went into his garden carrying the Letter of Paul to the Romans. While in agony of mind over his struggle, he suddenly heard a child’s voice from the neighboring garden saying, “Take up and read, take up and read.” He immediately opened Paul’s letter and read from Romans 13: 14, “clothe yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ, and do not think about how to gratify the desires of the sinful nature.” This experience was the moment of his conversion. He became the greatest of the early Church Father because he heard the voice of God speaking as if through the voice of a child.

What would it be like today if God would speak to his people? How would we experience his voice coming from heaven to speak to us? Would it be a voice of thunder causing fear and dread? Or would it come to us, as with the baptism of Jesus, in a gentle voice of comfort and reassurance? Would we recognize it as the voice of God? Would anyone listen to him? Or are we too busy in our work and our play to have time to listen to God? Are we even too busy in our worship to actually take the time to listen for the voice of God to speak to us? Or do we not even really expect him to speak to us anymore?

If we are to be able to listen when God speaks to us, we will need spiritual ears. We want to learn to listen, and to develop ears that have the spiritual sensitivity to hear what God may be saying to us today. We may learn how we may have such spiritually sensitive hearing from the story of Elijah that we read from the Scriptures today.

In learning to hear God’s voice and to receive God’s message, Elijah had to learn to see things in accordance with God’s way. And that is not the way of punishment and judgement, but the way of grace and salvation. And today, too, if we truly want to hear the voice of God to guide our lives, we must begin by looking to Jesus Christ and to his example of love and service. Through his acts of apparent weakness, he showed us the real power of God. Are we listening for his voice and direction today?

Today, God may speak to us through some mighty miracle, through thunder and storm, through turbulent times and political events that shake the world. Or he may speak to us in quiet words and works of brotherly love. Such words arise when we have personally heard the voice of God speaking his salvation into our hearts and minds. Such works reflect the example of loving sacrifice shown to us by our Lord.

Sometimes we are so busy with our own concerns that we cannot hear God’s voice: the noise of our problems and our works block him out! No doubt our concerns, like Elijah’s are good ones. After all, we are concerned for the well being of God’s Church. Yet, we must learn to lay aside our own concerns, and our own expectations and to quiet our souls so that we may hear the ‘gentle whisper’ of God as he speaks to us today. We must learn to hear God in the quiet and gentle works of Christian love and mercy. We must learn to listen to the Spirit of God at work in us and around us in the quiet deeds of sacrificial love.

We have God’s promise that he will bring judgment upon those who deserve it in his own way and his own time, and not according to our demands. And we have his promise that he will preserve a faithful remnant in every time and place. Those who will not serve the gods of this world. Those who will tune their hearts and their ears to hear the gentle whispers of the Holy Spirit urging us onward in our faithful service to God in our daily work.

May God find us all eager to hear his words and commands, eager to obey and to serve him in big ways or small ways. May we all truly learn to listen to the gentle whisper of our God as it comes to us today. Amen

 

 

 

Filed Under: Balanced Life Ministry, Church Assistance, Leadership Forum, Spiritual Growth, The Church Voice Tagged With: balanced, christian, God, life, listen, love, whisper

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Moving Forward At The Outpost…

August 14, 2012 By admin Leave a Comment

The Lord recently led me from my daily writings at BLM, to living it out in faith, at a little place on the edge of the TN River called The Outpost located in Pickwick, TN.

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Beth Hamilton ‘Soul Surfer’

April 24, 2011 By admin Leave a Comment

Marriage is like riding a wave. Some individuals become anxious and fail to wait on the right one.

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Spiritual Revelations

Don’t be like Eli in 1st Samuel and miss something that has been given by God. If you recall with Eli he did not listen because the Word of God was rare in those days and he did not recognize what was taking place until he saw the persistence of Samuel…

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Be Inspired!

  • America’s Prayer…
  • Letter to America
  • Original or Reproduction???
  • Discipleship & Spiritual Recognition…
  • Moving Forward At The Outpost…

Voice Your Opinion!

  • Jeff on Are You In A Spiritual Prison
  • Pamela on Are You In A Spiritual Prison
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  • Joshua Tilghman@Biblical interpretation on Dwelling In The Presence Of God…

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