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Posts tagged heart and mind
Religion?
Feb 28th
Someone once bought me a lottery ticket and I started thinking of all the ways I could help people. For example, it would be great to see the face of someone who was struggling to pay the mortgage when they opened a letter and found a cheque that paid off their mortgage. It would be great to see the face of someone who’d had years of trouble with an old banger of a car, as they opened a letter and found keys to a brand new car parked outside their home. It would be great to help out Christian organisations that were struggling, or to see the face of a friend when you gave them the holiday of a lifetime. Yet, in all this thinking about the help and freedom that people could find, there was this deep down feeling that all this would not really bring about true freedom of heart and mind. This is because the Bible says, only God can really do that. He wants us to find freedom in the life He offers us. And this, rather strangely to some, brings us to the word ‘religion.’
James 5 13-18
Feb 19th
In James 5:15 we read that the elders of the church/Christian community can pray over a person and anoint them with oil in the name of the Lord, and that “the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well; the Lord will raise him up.” Although this promise is very clear there are many that have suffered and died, despite having been anointed with oil. So what is going on? Is the lack of results due to lack of faith, or maybe failure because the correct procedures were not followed?
The Lord’s Prayer
Feb 17th
Jesus had been speaking of the true nature and character of the believer and pointing out that life is lived in the heart and mind before all else. Actions that are merely external in order to look good are of no value whatsoever to God.
Jesus then began to talk about praying.
Praying was not to be done in a hypocritical fashion like those who stood in the synagogues or on the street corners to be heard and seen by men. These people were hypocrites. The Greek word for hypocrite is where our word actor comes from. A hypocrite is one who acted a part, who presented to others, and the communities in which he or she lived, an image of self that was false.
