Prayer

Prayer – the Key to Our Spiritual Nourishment

~ Joe ~ Leave a comment

John 4:27-34 says…

27Just then his disciples returned and were surprised to find him talking with a woman. But no one asked, “What do you want?” or “Why are you talking with her?”

28Then, leaving her water jar, the woman went back to the town and said to the people, 29“Come, see a man who told me everything I ever did. Could this be the Christ?” 30They came out of the town and made their way toward him.

31Meanwhile his disciples urged him, “Rabbi, eat something.”

32But he said to them, “I have food to eat that you know nothing about.”

33Then his disciples said to each other, “Could someone have brought him food?”

34“My food,” said Jesus, “is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work.

I love how Jesus used many natural situations as illustrations for teaching spiritual truth, especially to his disciples.

This passage picks up right during the middle of Jesus’ witnessing to the Samaritan woman at the well. The woman just left Jesus to go tell people in her town about him when the disciples walked up to him to make sure he had something to eat. Jesus was keeping a busy schedule preaching the Kingdom of God to the surrounding towns, so the disciples were just looking out for his physical well being. I, personally, think it was a nice gesture. However, look again at Jesus’ reply in verse 32. “I have food to eat that you know nothing about.” Fortunately this is not one of his parables where he leaves us guessing what he meant. Instead, Jesus tells us what this “secret food” is in verse 34, when he says, “My food,” said Jesus, “is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work.”
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Living by Grace through Faith

~ Joe ~ Leave a comment

How does a person become a Christian? I think the majority of existing Christians would say that a person gets saved by accepting Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior or by simply believing in Jesus or by accepting the free gift of grace from God. And any of these would be correct. Paul wrote to the Ephesian church “For it is by grace that you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God” (Ephesians 2:8).

However, when asked how a Christian becomes mature in their faith, most Christians will answer: by reading your Bible, doing daily devotions, praying often, going to every church service, getting connected to a small group, giving to the church and missions, by serving at your church, etc.

Not that doing any of those activities are bad––in fact, they’re all very good things to be involved with––but none the less, they are just activities. They are merely external events that we can choose to do.

Instead, I believe the way for a Christian to become spiritually mature is to live life the same way they received eternal life––by the grace of God through faith in Jesus. Let’s take a look at Galatians to study this a bit further.

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Where does your "energy" come from?

~ Joe ~ 2 Comments

FOXNews.com had an article posted yesterday entitled, “Energy Drinks – Do You Drink Them?” It was an interesting article from the “Whole Food And More” blog.

Although some people may drink energy drinks to keep them active and alert, I’d say the drinks are more about an energetic rush mixed with two parts of flavor and a pinch of social status.

Have any of you had an energy drink lately? There’s several (270+) to choose from.

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