Holy Spirit
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How Do You “Hear” God…For Your Spouse?
My dear friends, I hope the journaling exercise to "pay attention" to how you hear God has been a blessing and encouragement to you. Your comments have encouraged me greatly! I love how God speaks to us in many ways and specifically to our need and relationship with Him. Let’s review that verse again: “So…
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How do you “hear God? (part 3)
My friends, in light of some of the questions generated by my post yesterday, Lynn and I swapped days so I can address some of those today, specifically the mention of fortune cookies. First, I want you to know that my heart is for every one of you to walk in deep intimacy with God…
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How do you “hear” God?
Over the last several weeks I’ve been following along with the Lenten reading on Margaret Feinberg’s site that Ian shared with us. I feel like I’m taking a walk with Luke through his testimony of his time with Jesus and what happened after the cross. It's a fascinating way to follow the progression of events.…
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The Light of Truth
My friends, I want to share a recent revelation with you. It was one of those moments that the truth of something I already knew finally hit all the way home. Have you had one of those moments-a suddenly moment-where something you thought you understood suddenly becomes clearer and more powerful? For me is it…
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Conference At Merriman in Garden City, MI
Perhaps for a moment in time, just perhaps, we stood upon holy ground. Matthew 16:19 I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.” I bet many of you know…
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The Promise of His Covenant
SUMites, I pray this week of fasting has brought you encouragement and strength this week. I wish I could have fasted more, but my pain medication only allowed me to fast a couple mornings. I am encouraged however that even in the midst of this recovery, which has made focusing on God very challenging, I…
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Praying for Figs
My friends, I’ve been praying for our community and seeking God’s heart for us these last two weeks. Reading your comments and hearing your heart has so encouraged me. I love seeing God work in your lives! SUM family, I believe God has given me a powerful word for our community. When I first heard…
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The Promise of Christmas
One of my favorite traditions of Christmas is the advent wreath. I first observed this at our international church while living in Switzerland and fell in love with the candles and their meaning. Every year I’ve used or remade our wreath, searching for just the right candles each year. But this year wound up a…
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The Power and Blessing of Giving Comfort
My friends, today I want to talk to you about an interesting phenomenon I've observed in my own life and in others. It's a very curious thing and is quite the opposite of our "normal" tendency. And I believe it is one of the weapons of spiritual warfare that Paul talks about in 2 Corinthians:…
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Can We Hear God?
My friends, I love our Lord so much. I sat in my quiet time yesterday morning and asked the Holy Spirit what our SUM family needed right now. What did He want me to write about next? I followed His leading and listened and He showed me that after the Abundant Life series, He wants…
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How Do We Love?
My friends, I’d planned to talk briefly about love and then move into thankfulness, but the Holy Spirit impressed our Father’s heart on this subject upon me and I want to give that ample space. So today we will talk about love, the second key in this Abundant Life series. I want to tell you…
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Your Mismatched Marriage Isn’t a “But” (part 1)
My friends, I want to touch on an area that I feel the Holy Spirit has placed on my heart. I sense there are some of you out there who are reading this spiritual warfare series and seeing your marriages (regardless of how you got there) as blocks to all that God has for you.…
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Under the Umbrella of Our Amor and Identity
My friends, forgive me if my last post confused you but I promise that as I wrap this up it will all make sense. As the Holy Spirit has revealed more and more of the importance and power God’s Word plays in our lives, I am undone by it. And my prayer is that by…
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We are Righteous, Shielded and Unlimited!
My friends, I heard a speaker once explain that the belt was a crucial part of a Roman soldier’s armor, because it held the rest in place. I find that so symbolic in that it is the first piece of armor that Paul speaks of and because all that we are and do as believers…
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Lies, Fear and Armor. Oh my!
Over my next couple posts (possibly more) I want to talk to you about our identity and our armor. I’ve felt the need the last few weeks to pray on my armor every day and as I’ve done so the Holy Spirit has shown me a stunning truth. Our identity in Christ and the Armor…
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For Such a Time as Now
For I am about to do something new. See, I have already begun! Do you not see it? I will make a pathway through the wilderness. I will create rivers in the dry wasteland. - Isaiah 43:19 The Lord replied, ”Look around at the nations; look and be amazed! For I am doing something in your own day, something you wouldn’t believe even…
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Seek Him Like Never Before!
…so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes. Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom…
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He’s Getting Us Ready for Our Promise Land
My friends, through the end of 2013 up to early August of this year I've heard Abba speak of preparation over and over again. I believe we have been in this time of preparation up until now. The Holy Spirit has impressed upon me that we, the SUMites specifically, are now being shifted into a…
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This Challenging Culture
Hello, SUMite family! Lynn and I decided we should wrap our study up this week, because we have other things we want to move onto next week. Thus we will conclude our Equipping Our Kids in a Contrary Culture on Friday with Lynn’s post about Legacy Kids. I’m sure it will be amazing too! My…
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My Daughter Taught Me to be Generous
My friends, I’ve heard it said a few times in the last few years that the Holy Spirit doesn’t come child-sized. That’s an amazing thought when you think about it, that just as God’s Spirit dwells in us in “size” and strength, He dwells in our children too when they have made that all important…
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Don’t Over-Schedule Your Kids
My friends, what are your thoughts about this study so far? Is it helping you? Are there areas you want to talk about that we haven’t addressed yet? Let us know if you have more specific issues that we can address through this study. Today I want to talk about helping our kids choose between…