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Jesus said: "Behold I make all Things New!" (Revelations
21:3). In Billy Crystal's movie "City Slickers" Billy
puts his arm around his friend who has fallen on hard times and
says, "Life is a 'Do-Over' ". God the Father is the God
of the Second Chance. My message is just this:
No matter what has happened in your life,
you can start over.
As Shakespeare said, "The past is prologue". You can
go from here. I myself have known His forgiveness and have received
the second chance. So I know---even if you have done the lowest things
your imagination and actions have created, there is ALWAYS a WAY OUT
of the darkness and yes, into a new life of honor and purity---and
self respect, too. Find a good Christian Church- there is one near you.
A church? A real one? Yes! So you've (a) not been in one in a long
time, or (b) maybe you've never been in one. I know some churches
may seem a little funny, but from what I have seen, there are many
very good churches around today and surely one is right for
you. If you don't have a church home, may I suggest you visit the
United Methodist Church in your area? Why? United Methodists have
a church which is about as close to the "middle" of the
Christian spectrum between the extremes as possible, and they are
tolerant of many variations of Christian belief, unlike some other
groups. Their slogan is "Open Minds, Open hearts, Open doors. They
have women as pastors along with men, they have an open
heart for people with different ways of seeing the world, and they
are one of the most racially open groups you will find anywhere--
they simply believe that all of us are One in Christ Jesus.
Galatians 3:28: "There is neither Jew nor Greek, there
is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for
you are all one in Christ Jesus."
I believe you will like it at such a church. Tell the pastor you
are searching for a good church and want to know what her or his
church is like. If you are comfortable with the pastor, let God
and His people give you warm acceptance there in that gathering
of Christians. Wherever you go, please remember: Don't give up
because of what you have been through or are going through, don't
let yourself slip away into the darkness--- Change for you
can happen, changes like you have never even dreamed of,
and warm, sunny Spring days lie ahead for you. I know. It
all happened once like that... for me. Read Jeremiah 29: 11-14:
" For I know the plans I have for you, says the LORD, plans
for good and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope. Then
you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will hear you.
You will seek me and find me; when you seek me with all your heart,
I will be found by you, says the LORD, and I will restore your fortunes
and gather you from all the nations and all the places where I have
driven you, says the LORD, and I will bring you back to the place
from which I sent you into exile."
THIS is God's will...for You!
God bless you!
The World's Best Words About The
Subject Of Love
1 Corinthians, chapter 13
1: If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not
love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 2: And if I have prophetic
powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I
have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I
am nothing. 3: If I give away all I have, and if I deliver my body
to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing. 4: Love is patient
and kind; love is not jealous or boastful; 5: it is not arrogant
or rude. Love does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable
or resentful; 6: it does not rejoice at wrong, but rejoices in the
right. 7: Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all
things, endures all things. 8: Love never ends; as for prophecies,
they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge,
it will pass away. 9: For our knowledge is imperfect and our prophecy
is imperfect; 10: but when the perfect comes, the imperfect will
pass away. 11: When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought
like a child, I reasoned like a child; when I became a man, I gave
up childish ways. 12: For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then
face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall understand fully,
even as I have been fully understood. 13: So faith, hope, love abide,
these three; but the greatest of these is love.
Without this kind of Love, finally nothing
works and there is ultimately nothing.
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