Got Potential?

“The vision is always a fact. It is the reality that is often a fraud.” (G.K. Chesterton, Orthodoxy)
I’ve been to Israel a half dozen times in the last few years. You’d think it would get old after so many visits … it doesn’t. There’s something about Israel, the Promised Land, that’s different from any [...]

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“In your unfailing love you will lead the people you have redeemed.” (Exodus 15:13)
I once heard a story about two young men who made a goal of riding through the Sahara Desert on motorcycles. There aren’t a lot of street signs in the Sahara and this was long before the days of GPS devices. They [...]

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By Jenny Lou Jones
During my elementary years, I walked home after school.   Well, it was more like I lollygagged and meandered, especially down the big hill that ended at my house.  That last perilous slope was littered with cracks in the sidewalk that I had to avoid to keep my mother’s back intact.  Where did [...]

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“Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You give a tenth of your spices—mint, dill and cummin. But you have neglected the more important matters of the law—justice, mercy and faithfulness. You should have practiced the latter, without neglecting the former. You blind guides! You strain out a gnat but swallow [...]

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Thriving in Tough Times Part 10
“For the sun rises with scorching heat and withers the plant; its blossom falls and its beauty is destroyed. In the same way the rich man will fade away even while he goes about his business.” (James 1:11)
There’s nothing pleasant about tough times. Employment is better than unemployment. Paying [...]

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Tempering Your Faith in World Systems
“What he trusts in is fragile; what he relies on is a spider’s web.” (Job 8:14)
I was eating lunch at a restaurant in Orlando one summer day a few years back when a thunderstorm knocked out the electricity. Power outages from lightning aren’t uncommon in the Southeast in the summer [...]

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“‘Lord, if it’s you,’ Peter replied, ‘Tell me to come to you on the water.’ ‘Come,’ he said.” (Matthew 14:28-29)
You’ve got to admit, walking on water is a pretty neat trick. Only two people in history are reported to have done it and one of them was the Son of God. Peter, [...]

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I don’t always believe God is real.
Kind of shocking, isn’t it? But let me present the evidence.
If I believed God was real, I’d believe in what His Son said. I’d take it to heart. I wouldn’t doubt it. I’d have what we ‘believers’ call ‘faith’.
Not believing God is real is more common than you think. [...]

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“‘Would you discredit my justice?  Would you condemn me to justify yourself.’” (Job 40:8)
I received a sad comment this weekend. It was a response to a Purpose Weekly letter “Has God Forsaken You?” You can read the letter and the comment (feel free to comment yourself) at: http://www.gotpotential.org/gods-purpose/has-god-forsaken-you.
Here’s the comment from John:
Bull____. In one sentence [...]

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“Before the mountains were born or you brought forth the earth and the world, from everlasting to everlasting you are God.” (Psalm 90:2)
I took advantage of the relative quiet over the last two weeks of holiday to finish pre-press edits for the North American edition of Unlocking the Bible by David Pawson. It’s a massive [...]

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“And the Scriptures also say, ‘He is the Stone that some will stumble over and the Rock that will make them fall.’ They will stumble because they will not listen to God’s word, nor obey it, and so this punishment must follow - that they will fall. But you are not like that, for you [...]

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Saturday morning came and Cora Lee’s chickens never entered my mind.  Christmas was just three days away and I had a hundred last minute chores still undone.  Sunday morning Ray asked the congregation to remember Cora Lee in prayer. She had slipped into a coma on Wednesday night.
When Ray mentioned Cora’s name Elaine and I [...]

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“And He looked up and saw the rich putting their gifts into the treasury, and He saw also a certain  poor widow putting in two mites. So He said, ‘Truly I say to you that this poor widow has put in more than all …’” (Luke 21: 1-3)
Terry Creek church is perched on a [...]

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“Show me your ways, O Lord, teach me your paths;” (Psalm 25:4)
One of my favorite movie scenes comes from “Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.” It’s where Indy discovers the cave where the Holy Grail is supposed to be, but he’s separated from the chamber holding the Grail by impassable abyss. His guide book pictures [...]

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“For the foolishness of God is wiser than man’s wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than man’s strength.” (I Corinthians 1:25)
Purpose Weekly is a success newsletter. I know it doesn’t always appear that way. Sometimes it’s kind of preachy - talking about spiritual stuff more than practical success.
Yeah, I know that sometimes it [...]

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“Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see. This is what the ancients were commended for.” (Hebrews 11:1-2)
Last week we learned that faith - believing in God - is a lot more than holding some concept in our minds as true. Faith requires action. If [...]

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“But someone will say, ‘You have faith; I have deeds.’ Show me your faith without deeds, and I’ll show you my faith by what I do.” (James 2:18)
Last week we talked about responding to God. Really that’s all we can do. We can’t act on God first, that He may respond to us. He acted [...]

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“And will not God give justice to his elect, who cry to him day and night? Will he delay long over them?” (Luke 18:7)
I visited a place called International House of Prayer in Kansas City last week. IHOP for short … yeah, like the pancake house, everybody gets the joke.
Here’s the interesting thing about IHOP [...]

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“If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but have not love, I [...]

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“You, then, why do you judge your brother? Or why do you look down on your brother? For we will all stand before God’s judgment seat. It is written: ‘As surely as I live,’ says the Lord, ‘every knee will bow before me; every tongue will confess to God.’ So then, each of us will [...]

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