Coming to the Still Waters

  By Patisserie - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=25849465 Nobody loves confrontation but can we back it off to conflict resolution?  Conflict resolution within a body of believers is so important to have in place.  Jesus gives His disciples the guideline of how to proceed forward in Matthew 18:15-20.  Jesus gives us the steps but He doesn't give us the time frame between each of the steps.  I am going to gather that it is longer because of grace than our instant culture demands at times. In the context of the passage Jesus is presenting a flip flopping of thinking to His disciples about their view of who is the greatest among other things that have taken the religious world in the wrong direction.  Jesus also stresses the seriousness of sin and being in " search " mode rather than " stab " mode.  As the shepherd searching for his lost sheep there is an " if " to actually retrieving the lost one.  In regards...

  The passage covered this Sunday had another tough saying by Jesus.  Matthew 15:11 (LSB) says, "It is not what enters into the mouth that defiles the man,  but what proceeds out of the mouth, this defiles the man." --Jesus-- This verse should be for myself a gauge or indicator of when I am not in alignment with God's words for me.  It makes me evaluate what has been coming out of my mouth lately that indicates the condition of my heart because later in verse 18 (LSB) it says, "But the things that proceed out of the mouth come from the heart,  and those defile the man." --Jesus-- Another verse that I relate to this one is 1 John 4:20 (LSB) which says, If someone says, "I love God," and hates his brother, he is a liar; for the one who does not love his brother whom he has seen, cannot love God whom he has not seen. Taking this verse apart from the beginning, If someone says, "I love God," ... but notice I am the one saying this.  It is not o...

  This image is from GotQuestions.org and here is an article and video from them that expound on the topic of authentic worship.  https://www.gotquestions.org/worship-spirit-truth.html We have finished our month of looking at the Jesus' discipleship practice of authentic worship.  This narrative of Jesus and the Samaritan woman at the well bring worship front and center.  The conversation goes the route we tend to think of worship as something that happens at a " where ."  The church becomes the building and worship becomes our singing.  We know it is more than that but our vocabulary many times limits worship to a place and a specific activity.  1 Corinthians 3:16-17 (LSB) challenges this practice. Do you not know that you are a sanctuary of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you? If any man destroys the sanctuary of God, God will destroy him, for the sanctuary of God is holy, and that is what you are. As I shared on Sunday, when the people of G...