Transformed Mind

Luke 4:21-30 New International Version (NIV) 21  He began by saying to them, “Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.” 22  All spoke well of him and were amazed at the gracious words that came from his lips. “Isn’t this Joseph’s son?” they asked. 23  Jesus said to them, “Surely you will quote this proverb to me: ‘Physician, heal yourself!’ And you will tell me, ‘Do here in your hometown what we have heard that you did in Capernaum.’” 24  “Truly I tell you,” he continued, “no prophet is accepted in his hometown. 25  I assure you that there were many widows in Israel in Elijah’s time, when the sky was shut for three and a half years and there was a severe famine throughout the land. 26  Yet Elijah was not sent to any of them, but to a widow in Zarephath in the region of Sidon. 27  And there were many in Israel with leprosy [ a ] in the time of Elisha the prophet, yet not one of them was cleansed—only Naaman the Syrian.” 28...

“Everywhere things are troubling and uneasy - wars and rumours of war: perhaps not the final hour but certainly times most evil. Nevertheless, the Apostle again and again bids us "Rejoice." Nature herself bids us to do so, the very face of the earth being now renewed, after its own manner, at the start of Spring. I believe the men of this age think too much about the state of nations and the situation of the world…We are not kings, we are not senators. Let us beware lest, while we torture ourselves in vain about the state of Europe, we neglect either Verona or Oxford. In the poor man who knocks at my door, in my ailing mother, in the young man who seeks my advice, the Lord Himself is present: therefore let us wash His feet." This was a quote from famed author of The Screwtape Letters, The Great Divorce, Mere Christianity, and of course the Chronicles of Narnia, C.S. Lewis. Though in this quote he was reflecting about the state of the world in 1947, Lewis had also fough...

When I was younger growing up in MN, during winter after a large snowfall had settled and after the plow went through the cul-de-sac, which left a huge mound of snow, all the neighborhood kids would get together and play king-of-the-hill, the purpose of the game? The purpose was to get to the top of the giant snow mound and well, stay there. This means there was a lot of pushing, shoving, snow balls, and rolling around, quite fun I must say. The problem with being on top was that everyone else was trying to dethrone you, so in the end, no one could really stay on top for long. In The Pursuit of God A.W. Tozer tells us that the same game, though far greater in importance and consequence, occurs in each of our hearts. He states, “Within the human heart “things” have taken over. Men have now by nature no peace within their hearts, for God is crowned there no longer, but there in the moral dusk stubborn and aggressive usurpers fight among themselves for first place on the throne.” ...

Welcome To Our World, Chris Rice 11th Century Byzantine art from the Daphni Monestary, Greece Tears are falling, hearts are breaking   How we need to hear from God   You've been promised, we've been waiting Welcome Holy Child Welcome Holy Child Hope that you don't mind our manger   How I wish we would have known   But long-awaited Holy Stranger Make Yourself at home Please make Yourself at home Bring Your peace into our violence Bid our hungry souls be filled Word now breaking Heaven's silence Welcome to our world Welcome to our world Fragile finger sent to heal us Tender brow prepared for thorn Tiny heart whose blood will save us Unto us is born Unto us is born So wrap our injured flesh around You Breathe our air and walk our sod Rob our sin and make us holy Perfect Son of God Perfect Son of God Welcome to our world   Listen to the song -----------------------------------------------------...