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Experiencing God
Contributed by Joseph Smith on Jul 21, 2003 (message contributor)
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1. God Pursues A Love Relationship
Contributed on Jul 21, 2003
Part 2 of a series on Blackaby’s Experiencing God: when God pursues us, we can either keep on running, hoping that He cannot catch up, or we can hide, hoping He will not find us. We need to let His love catch us.
A few weeks ago I was driving down Fifth Street, on my way to a hospital visit. Just this side of the Soldiers’ home grounds, I became aware that some driver was right on my back bumper, weaving back and forth, his engine roaring, his horn blowing. Somebody was in a very big hurry. Well, as we ...read more
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2. God Speaks To Reveal Himself
Contributed on Jul 21, 2003
Part 4 of a series on Blackaby’s Experiencing God: God speaks through the Bible, prayer, circumstances, and the church to reveal Himself, His purposes, and His ways.
The children were gathered for Sunday School, and the teacher knew that she had a particularly hard lesson to teach that day. She was to teach about the Trinity. She was supposed to teach the children that God is one but in three persons, and how do you explain the concept of the Trinity to young ...read more
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3. God's Invitation Leads To A Crisis Of Belief
Contributed on Jul 21, 2003
Part 5 of a series on Blackaby’s Experiencing God: when God invites into some new truth, the first crisis will be one of personal belief; the second is one of tension between old patterns and new options; and the last comes in the temptation to fall back
There’s an old, old story about the time a crowd had gathered to watch a stunt man perform at Niagara Falls. It seems that the fellow had rigged up a wire from shore to shore, right across the falls, and was wowing the crowd by riding a bicycle along that wire. Back and forth he went, several ...read more
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4. Major Adjustments
Contributed on Jul 23, 2003
Part 6 of series on Blackaby’s Experiencing God: All are called to make adjustments to be disciples, regardless of personality. We have to give up old habits, change our time use, redirect our finances, to enter this city and change it.
The old farmer claimed that he could command his mule with nothing more than a few soft words, no whips or prods necessary. She would respond, he claimed, with nothing more than gently spoken commands. So his buddy down at the feed store asked for a demonstration. “Prove to me that your old mule ...read more
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5. Experience, Obedience, Fulfillment
Contributed on Jul 6, 2004
As the conclusion of a series on the "Experiencing God" discipleship course, and for Christ the King Sunday and a stewardship emphasis. The only way one can experience God is to obey Him and wait for the grace of fulfillment.
The time comes when it is no longer good enough to know about something; you want to experience it directly. The moment comes when it just does not satisfy to have only an arm’s length relationship to something. The only thing that will satisfy is a first-hand, up close and personal, immediate ...read more
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6. God Invites You To Become Involved
Contributed on Jul 7, 2004
The story of Philemon and Onesimus, presented as an imaginative story, shows how God called Paul to become involved as a mediator, Philemon to become involved in real church work, and Onesimus to become involved in overcoming his background to become usef
The new day greeted his eyes early. He stretched and shook off the sleep, but then, remembering why he had wanted to get up at the crack of dawn, Philemon jumped out of bed and began his day’s duties. His first task was to open his window and turn his gaze toward the rising sun, offering his ...read more
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7. God Is Always At Work
Contributed on Jul 10, 2004
Part of Experiencing God series: God may not seem to be at work, but He is, according to His own purposes, and using instruments we may not see. Our task is to trust Him and get out of His way!
You’re driving along the road, and you come upon a roadblock. Somebody is holding up a sign which says, "Slow, men at work." What do you see? What do you do? Well, first, I speed up instead of slowing down. Why? Because I have important things to do, I have mv work to do, and I don’t want to ...read more