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Living The Solution – Online Newsletter |
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August 7, 2008 ISSUE |
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Opening Thoughts:
The Olympics are about to get underway
in Beijing. China is using this opportunity to showcase
their country and the many technological and social changes
that have been taking place there. This is true of any
country that hosts the Olympiad. It’s a world stage.
There are concerns about the track record of human rights violations in China.
Also, there has been media coverage about the amount of air pollution in Beijing
and how it might affect the athletes. It will be interesting to watch this event
unfold. Pray for a peaceful gathering. Pray for this opportunity to learn more
about China and for us to better understand our global community.
I pray that God will move in and through the Olympics to help us better appreciate
how we are one family and all children of God and how we can each do our part
to promote peace and understanding. This requires something of each of us. We
cannot be blind to injustice. But we also cannot be a partner in it.
Peace and joy,
Tom Gilbert
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IN THIS ISSUE
Feature Article: God Between-the-Lines
In The Spotlight: African Renewal Leaders
Reconciliation Conference
Daily Thoughts: The Passion of God
Prayer & Sharing Requests
Quotable: Making and Keeping Peace |
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| FEATURED
ARTICLE |
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God
Between-the-Lines
Article by Tom
Gilbert — © April 2004
There should be a warning
issued to everyone when they become a Christian.
WARNING: What you currently
know will radically change. You are going
to learn that many of the things you thought
were most important no longer carry much
weight. Furthermore, those things you placed
little value on will suddenly become very
significant.
I, for one, was not aware of this when I first accepted Christ. Then again, my
awareness of many things was limited.
My problem, the one I believe I share with virtually every human being, is self-centeredness.
We all tend to operate from this perspective. This resulted in a limited vision
of God’s ways. I failed to see God “between-the-lines”. I certainly
believed God was at work in the world, but I kept it pretty much “black
and white”. So, I interpreted my faith walk as a personal responsibility.
If it was to be it was up to me. You were in the same boat. You do your thing,
I’ll do mine (to the best of our limited abilities).
Jesus turns this thinking upside down and inside out. For some time I failed
to perceive this. Real followers of Christ live for God and for others. We must
give up our selfish desires. We are told to die to our self. This is pretty strong
stuff and it is not surprising that so many reject it.
Read the full article here.
More articles here.
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| IN THE SPOTLIGHT |
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African Renewal Leaders
Reconciliation Conference
The African Renewal Leaders Reconciliation
Conference in Eldoret, Kenya, will be held Sept 24-27,
2008.
In the last presidential election in Kenya (2007) pastors and churches tooks
sides primarily along tribal lines. Violence resulted and there is a great need
now for reconciliation. It is sad when there is so much hatred and violence,
but especially between Christians. Pastor Ralph Wilson of Joyful Heart Renewal
Ministries has been invited by a group of local pastors in Eldoret (site of much
of the violence and killing) to help bring about reconciliation.
Find out more and how you can help.
Details
Here
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DAILY THOUGHTS & REFLECTIONS |
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The Passion of God
…love the Lord God with all your passion
and prayer and intelligence and energy.' And here is the second: 'Love
others as well as you love yourself.' There is no other commandment that
ranks with these." (Mark 12:30-31 — The Message)
Passion, just what is passion? We usually
think of it with love of someone who thinks about nothing
else but one subject. Nothing else matters; we say of
them they are passionate about such-and-such. We’ve
all met such people and they are filled with intense feelings
and emotions about a particular person or subject. That
is the kind of love we are to have for God, ourselves
and others. However, our culture and church has driven
the passion for God and life out of us and those that
dare to live passionately are seen as abnormal and unstable,
unable to control their emotions. In our culture the person
who never shows any emotion is revered.
God is a passionate and intense God. He put those feelings of emotions and passion
in us, not for us to suppress, but to use and feel. We are to passionately love
Him, ourselves and others. We should not be afraid of our emotions and passions
because we cannot love God the way He wants us to love and the way He created
us to love if we are.
Don’t suppress your feelings and passion of love for God, yourself and
others any longer. Let the emotion flow; it is how it was meant to be, it is
what God created, and it is how He is.
Live intentionally, purposely, free and with passion,
Pete Reinbold
Get daily inspiration with a Scripture verse and commentary
at
Daily Thought
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PRAYER REQUESTS & RESULTS |
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Prayer works. It really does.Submit your prayer
requests and we will pray for them.
Of course, we keep your information confidential.
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My thoughts are shared regularly on the pages of
our web site, especially on
the Journal pages.
We welcome and appreciate your feedback. If you would
like to submit an article please see our writer's
guidelines.
It is our hope that the content of Living The Solution will
stimulate you to deepen your faith. That is certainly a result for us in both
our writing and reading. If you would like to see articles on a particular topic
or you have comments please let us know.
Send an email
Quotable: Making and Keeping Peace
"One of the most basic principles for making
and keeping peace within and between nations. . . is that in political,
military, moral, and spiritual confrontations, there should be an
honest attempt at the reconciliation of differences before resorting
to combat."
— Jimmy Carter
Copyright 2008 Living the Solution, all rights reserved.
Tom Gilbert
Editor/Web-servant
Living The Solution
www.livingthesolution.com
P O Box 25584
Albuquerque, NM 87125-5584
Toll free 1-800-399-2564 (US only) or 505-247-3232
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