C H O F Ministry

Tag: Luke 14:23

  • “Fitting In”

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    Our spiritual topic this morning is entitled: “Fitting In”,and this morning’s verse is Isaiah 44:2. This morning’s verse is coming out of the New Living Translation Bible and it reads this way: The Lord who made you and helps you says: “Do not be afraid . . . my chosen one.”

     
    I’d been out late the night before, just as I was every Saturday night hanging out with my Transformer buddies. I was Just twenty something years old, and I was running from God as fast as I could. But suddenly, strangely, I felt compelled to attend the church my grandfather once pastored and the church my family has attended for many decades. I put on a pair of casual slacks, a shirt and tie, and some very worn dressed shoes and drove across town.

    I don’t recall the sermon the pastor preached that day, but I can’t forget how delighted my mother was to see me. With her arm under my arm, she introduced me to everyone she saw, many of them I already knew, after all I grew up in the neighborhood. “This is my oldest son!!!” She proudly declared. Her joy became a picture of God’s love that has stuck with me all these decades.
     
    Beloved, the imagery of God as a loving Father occurs throughout the Bible. In Isaiah 44, the prophet interrupts a series of warnings to proclaim God’s message of family love. “Dear Israel, my chosen one,” he says in verses 2-3: “I will pour out my Spirit on your descendants, and my blessing on your children,” Isaiah noted how the response of those descendants would demonstrate family pride. Verse 5 says: “Some will proudly claim, ‘I belong to the Lord,’” he wrote. “Some will write the Lord’s name on their hands.”
     
    Disobedient Israel belonged to God, just as I belonged to my mother. Nothing I could do would ever make her lose her love for me. That Sunday I was given a glimpse of our heavenly Father’s love for us.
     
    Prayer:
    Dear Heavenly Father, we all come from families that are broken in one way or another. Thank You for loving us in that brokenness and for showing us what real love looks like.
     
    Beloved, God’s love for us offers us the sense of fitting in and an identity we all crave.
     
    CHOF Ministry is here to help you feed your spiritual cravings.
    Have a Blessed Sunday Everyone. 😀

  • “Our Special Zone”

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    Our spiritual topic this morning is entitled: “Our Special Zone”, and this morning’s verse is Hebrews 4:15.

    This morning’s verse coming out of the Amplified Bible reads this way:
    (15) For we do not have a High Priest who is unable to sympathize and understand our weaknesses and temptations, but One who has been tempted [knowing exactly how it feels to be human] in every respect as we are, yet without [committing any] sin.

    Beloved, we don’t have a high priest who’s unable to sympathize (identify) with our weaknesses.
    There was an industrial design graduate from a Singapore university who was challenged to come up with an innovative solution to a common problem using only ordinary objects. She created a vest to protect one’s personal space from being invaded while traveling on crowded public trains and buses. The vest was lime green and covered with long, flexible plastic spikes normally used to keep birds and cats away from plants.

    Jesus knew what it was like to lose His personal space in the disorder of crowds desperate to see and touch Him. In Luke 8:43-44 was a woman who had suffered from constant bleeding for 12 years and could find no cure but after touching the fringe of Jesus’ robe immediately, her bleeding stopped.

    In verse 45 Jesus asked: “Who touched me?” This isn’t as strange as it sounds. Verse 46 tells us Jesus felt power come out of Him. Beloved, that touch was different from those who simply pass by and brush him or accidentally touch Him.

    While we must admit that we do sometimes wish to keep our special zone and privacy, the only way we help a world of hurting people is to let them get close enough to be touched by the encouragement, comfort, and grace of Christ in us.

    Prayer:
    Dear Heavenly Father, I want to be near You and know You so that when I’m in contact with others they can see You through me. In Jesus’ mighty name I pray, Amen and Amen.

    * After each CHOF Bible Fellowship Sunday Morning teaching I present to you “CHOF Ministry’s Sunday Morning Reflection.” I will give you my brief observation of the CHOF Bible Fellowship Sunday Morning teaching.

    CHOF Ministry is here to help you feed your spiritual cravings.

    Have a Blessed Sunday Everyone.