Commended to the Word: Equipping leaders for ministry impact … around the world

Posts Tagged ‘growth’

  • 25th Anniversary Celebration of The Coastlands

    Wednesday, January 6th, 2010

    In December 1984, Daniel and Pamela Brown pioneered The Coastlands, Aptos Foursquare Church. Twenty-five years later, they share their hearts and stories during this anniversary celebration and Daniel tells about the process of how he thinks strategically in building a church and ministry.
    To watch or listen to the final 10 teachings Daniel taught while Senior [...]

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  • Acts of the Early Church, Part 06: The Church Goes Public

    Thursday, November 5th, 2009

    The Book of Acts, named for the activities—details the ministry, behavior, or the carrying out of the acts of the early church. After Jesus was raised from the dead, as the Bible tells us, He was with the disciples for forty days, talking to them about things concerning the kingdom of God. Jesus told His [...]

    Excerpt from “Acts of the Early Church, Part 06: The Church Goes Public”

  • Acts of the Early Church, Part 07: The Church Goes Public (continued)

    Thursday, November 5th, 2009

    Now, most particularly we will examine the very first recorded message of an individual who is now transitioning, as all of us have to transition, out of just being a disciple, to someone who is simply receiving from the Lord and is attempting to make disciples and to teach and share with other people some [...]

    Excerpt from “Acts of the Early Church, Part 07: The Church Goes Public (continued)”

  • Acts of the Early Church, Part 21: Growing Little by Little

    Thursday, November 5th, 2009

    Among the many themes that have been emerging in this book, we have seen how God is interested in using very ordinary people to accomplish extraordinary things. As individual believers are fumbling along, and as they face needs or situations, scripture came to their minds and they learned the wisdom of lining their life up [...]

    Excerpt from “Acts of the Early Church, Part 21: Growing Little by Little”

  • Beatitudes: Changing the Way Life Turns Out

    Wednesday, March 11th, 2009

    by Daniel A. Brown, PhD
    Introduction
    Jesus is the light shining in the darkness—the One who can turn our deep cave into a tunnel. If we walk in the light of His presence, believing that the tunnel will end, and do not walk like unbelievers walk (see Ephesians 4:17-18), we will experience bounty and blessing that seem [...]

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  • Biblical Counseling

    Wednesday, September 30th, 2009

    TOOLS AND SCRIPTURES FOR OFFERING TRUTH
    What makes Biblical counsel biblical?  The question may seem redundant to some, but it actually is at the heart of a major struggle within the church over what kind of help ought to be given to people who are struggling with various needs—situational, emotional, psychological and spiritual.
    Biblical and spiritual counseling [...]

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  • Church with Attitude, Part 1

    Saturday, February 5th, 2005

    Can you name the people–outside of your immediate family–who KNOW that you absolutely love them? Believe it or not, that’s your church. How refreshing it is to discover “church” isn’t what we thought!sort of like attending a weekly college lecture series, arriving and departing as strangers (or class acquaintances), and thinking you’ve taken the course. [...]

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  • Church with Attitude, Part 4

    Saturday, March 12th, 2005

    You wouldn’t just go to the gym without working out–-not if you expected results. To shape up, slim down, or build muscle, you have to work up a sweat. Here’s a physical truth that parallels the spiritual realm: although you’ve been “pre-approved” by God for significance, you still need to be stretched, pulled, squeezed, and [...]

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  • Commended to The Word

    Wednesday, March 11th, 2009

    by Daniel A. Brown, PhD
    I wish I could say that I had come to the understandings and realizations concerning God’s Word, contained in the following pages, by the time I graduated from high school. I wish I could say they had become part of my Christian experience before I finished my undergraduate work in college. [...]

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  • Cost of Congregational Growth

    Wednesday, September 30th, 2009

    As a church, we orient ourselves toward growth—not just in the number of people who call The Coastlands home, but in the quality of our individual and corporate life in the Lord.  Our significance comes from believing in God’s plan to transform and utilize people for His glory.  The more we are a part of [...]

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  • Count on Me

    Wednesday, March 11th, 2009

    by Daniel A. Brown, PhD
    From our earliest years on the planet, we learned how to size things up—comparing the length of our 4-year-old stretch, to the distance between us and the cookie on the counter; counting leftover allowance coins to see if they could get us a candy bar and a soda; and, stacking up [...]

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  • Cure for Anxiety

    Tuesday, June 10th, 2008

    Matthew 6:19-34
    Jesus delivers the Sermon on the Mount to a group of people who want to live their lives according to the power they witnessed when Jesus healed and performed miracles. They want to function like Jesus does. The power He has to transform life on earth is obvious. They now want that power in [...]

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  • Difference One Can Make

    Wednesday, October 29th, 2008

    Introduction to the book of Ruth
    Sometimes difficult circumstances force a change in your life plans that we would rather not undergo.  It may be a financial crunch that requires us to change jobs or move out of our house; or a family need that calls us to move to another city; perhaps not getting a [...]

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  • Escape Spiritual Lies, Traps and Traumas

    Tuesday, November 10th, 2009

    This is an edited transcription of a series of teachings prepared by Daniel while he was Senior Pastor of The Coastlands in Aptos, California. It addresses some of the questions that many of us might have asked like, “Why does the God of the Old Testament seem so vengeful? What are some of the lies [...]

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  • Escape Spiritual Lies, Traps and Traumas (Part 1)

    Saturday, May 28th, 2005

    “Everyone did what was right in his own eyes.” That could sound normal, expected and even exemplary–if there were no other recourse except our own devices. Unfortunately, when everyone “does his own thing”, pride, addiction, distress and rebellion surface, wreaking havoc with everyone’s life and causing people to perish. Join Daniel this week as he [...]

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  • Excising Evil

    Wednesday, June 11th, 2008

    Psalm 106:24-48

    They despised the pleasant land…and did not believe…but grumbled” (vs. 24-25).
    They joined themselves to Baal-Peor (v. 28-31).
    It went hard with Moses because they were rebellious (vs. 32-33).
    They served idols which became a snare to them (vs.34-36).
    Their enemies oppressed them, and they were subdued under their power”(v. 42).
    They were rebellious in their counsel, and so [...]

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  • Focus Points for Church Leadership

    Wednesday, September 30th, 2009

    INTRODUCTIONIn some religious circles people talk about a call on their life—a sense of mission and purpose, an assignment for how to direct and devote their energies.  A typical call might be into medical missions work, pastoral ministry, etc.  While I would never argue with anyone who spoke about a call on their life, I [...]

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  • Following God, Part 4

    Thursday, January 29th, 2009

    Most of us feel like God is urging us to give away whatever we have so that we end up
    with less. But if we come at Jesus’ words with the understanding that He just wants us to
    follow Him, and that He wants us to enjoy abundance of life as a result, we’ll hear
    something fresh in [...]

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  • Following The One Who Leads Us

    Wednesday, September 30th, 2009

    “For Thou art my rock and my fortress; For Thy name’s sake Thou wilt lead me and guide me”. PSALM 31:3
    “And I will lead the blind by a way they do not know, in paths they do not know I will guide them.  I will make darkness into light before them and rugged places into [...]

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  • Four Ordinary Men

    Thursday, March 12th, 2009

    Introduced Jesus to The World
    by Daniel A. Brown, PhD
    Introduction to the Gospels
    The Gospels are synopses (brief overviews), not moment-by-moment biographies that record every event in Jesus’ life. Although the Gospel accounts accurately record actual, historical events and conversations, their main purpose is to reveal a Person and a Purpose, a Messenger and a Message—Jesus Christ [...]

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  • Fruitful Repentance

    Tuesday, November 24th, 2009

    by Daniel A. Brown, PhD
    I am always a bit hesitant to talk on repentance, not because it isn’t a great subject, but because most people have already thought in their minds what repentance is. And, what they thought in their mind is something they want to avoid at all costs—images of people who are yelling [...]

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  • Getting Your Church Unstuck

    Thursday, March 19th, 2009

    by Daniel A. Brown, PhD
    Most of us have been stuck somewhere, somehow—in the desert sand off the main road; up a tree we climbed in our pre-adolescence; or, on a tricky algebra problem. But somehow, someway we got unstuck. When our tires spun uselessly in the sand, we tried different approaches; when the algebra equation [...]

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  • God is My Portion

    Tuesday, November 3rd, 2009

    The Bible and the people in it are no strangers to depression. Neither do they paint an all rosy picture of life with our problems and discouragements. Misery and heartache stem from many different roots; rebellion, victimization, deferred hope, physical or emotional disappointment, etc. But their ultimate source is in the death that invaded our [...]

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  • Greater than Growth

    Thursday, August 21st, 2008

    The goal of the church is not growth. The goal of the church is to be the most effective tool that it can be to accomplish the purposes of the Kingdom, and I want to have an ambition that’s a lot greater, spiritually speaking, than just growing.

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  • Healthful Characteristics in Your Church

    Thursday, March 19th, 2009

    by Daniel A. Brown, PhD
    If size alone is not a legitimate indicator of spiritual health—since political conventions, Mormon Temples and stock car races all attract crowds—are there other, more telling signs of well-being in church?
    Here are some of pulse points I keep my finger on in my congregation:
    • Leaders’ Lives—Like Old Testament prophets, are the true [...]

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  • Hearing God, Part 1

    Thursday, January 15th, 2009

    One of the most fascinating (and sometimes frustrating) aspects of our relationship with the Lord is our God-given ability to hear Him speak to us by His Spirit. The Bible acknowledges that discerning God’s voice and distinguishing it from all the “noise” in our minds is not always the easiest thing to do, and it [...]

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  • Hearing God, Part 6

    Thursday, January 15th, 2009

    Why does God whisper when He could use a megaphone? The answer is INTIMACY—a close connection that keeps us leaning into His private counsel instead of relying on
    rules and regulations that need to be announced with a loudspeaker. We’ll look at Hebrews 11 and 1 Corinthians 14, with special attention on the “mystery” of spiritual
    language.

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  • Heart of Counseling

    Wednesday, September 30th, 2009

    1 Kings 3:6-9, 10:1-10Most people have heard of Solomon’s wisdom even if they do not realize that he wrote Proverbs and Ecclesiastes, two Books in the Bible that are filled with practical advice and counsel for almost any imaginable subject.
    The Queen of Sheba (a country 1,200 miles southeast of Jerusalem, in modern-day Yemen) heard of [...]

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  • Hints For Understanding Difficult Passages

    Wednesday, September 30th, 2009

    All of us have encountered verses and statements in the Bible that confuse or alarm us because they seem to be saying something that sounds so unlike the Lord, so different than how we have experienced Him in our personal life.  When that happens, what can we do to at least begin to look at [...]

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  • How to Stimulate New Growth

    Sunday, July 6th, 2008

    I am the true vine, and My Father is the vine-dresser. Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit, He takes; and every branch that bears fruit, He prunes it, that it may bear more fruit. John 15:1-2
    Only as we make constant choices to live in Jesus and abide in His words of life [...]

    Excerpt from “How to Stimulate New Growth”

  • Jesus Has a Problem

    Tuesday, March 3rd, 2009

    Luke 4:42-5:39
    If Jesus knows us intimately…why on earth would He limit Himself to losers like us for accomplishing His work in the world? That could be a real problem for anybody—but especially for Jesus, who could do it all Himself (and do it so much better, at that).
    As Daniel carefully explains Jesus’ “problem,” you will [...]

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  • Jesus Has a Problem

    Thursday, March 12th, 2009

    by Daniel A. Brown, PhD
    Luke 4:42 – 5:39
    It’s easy to spot ourselves in the Bible—and I don’t mean just at the end in Revelation, among the throng praising and worshipping Jesus before the throne. The Bible is a book about people just like us, at every stage of spiritual development, and in every messy situation [...]

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  • Jesus’ Lesser Known Words, Part 1

    Saturday, April 16th, 2005

    Some of the things Jesus said don’t receive quite as much press as others–and some of His comments are downright jarring because they break in on our rose-colored view of life. Once we get past our reluctance to hear them, however, we’ll discover how much sense and order they bring to our real-life experiences. How [...]

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  • Jesus’ Lesser Known Words, Part 2

    Saturday, April 30th, 2005

    Jesus not only claimed to speak directly to God–He actually claimed that He offered humanity a food and drink that would never leave them empty. The only problem about that was well, this special food happened to be His own flesh and blood. A pretty nasty thought, right? You’ll be fascinated to hear how Daniel [...]

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  • Jesus’ Lesser Known Words, Part 3

    Saturday, May 7th, 2005

    How do you leap from Jesus’ comments concerning His mother, and land into an expose’ on the modus operandi of demonic spirits? In the final part of this series, Daniel continues to explore some of the sayings of Jesus that we don’t often hear about, and discover that there’s always something to be gleaned by [...]

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  • Keeping Your Church On Course

    Thursday, March 19th, 2009

    by Daniel A. Brown, PhD
    How do we know if we are headed in the right direction?
    In some religious circles people talk about a call on their life—a sense of mission and purpose, an assignment for how to direct and devote their energies. A typical call might be into medical missions work, pastoral ministry, etc. [...]

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  • Lord Jesus, Come (Again)! Part 1

    Saturday, January 8th, 2005

    Almost everyone has gotten news of the terrible tsunami that devastated so much of coastal Asia on Christmas 2004. In the aftermath of an event of this magnitude, most of us are left with questions and concerns: Didn’t God care about all the innocent lives that were lost? Was this a judgment against a people [...]

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  • Lord Jesus, Come (Again)! Part 2

    Saturday, January 29th, 2005

    Even though we’ve been assured that the human spirit (not to mention the earth itself) is evolving toward unity and freedom from suffering, our personal experience and our observations about world events would persuade us otherwise. Who wouldn’t be nervous in the light of war, terrorism, and tsunamis? Interestingly enough, our suspicion that we live on a sinking planet [...]

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  • Make Ready, Make Him Room

    Saturday, December 18th, 2004

    All kinds of circumstances may accompany the arrival of a newborn, but in any case this one thing is true: when the baby comes, your life is never the same. On the one hand, you’ll have to clear away the spaces in your surroundings (and your heart) which were once filled up with other things; [...]

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  • Marks of Spiritual Maturity, Part 1

    Thursday, January 29th, 2009

    Although the forgiveness and acceptance we have in God is a done deal once we receive
    it, our growth in Him happens “a little here, a little there” over time. So what does it mean to grow into spiritual maturity? It’s a sure thing that doing our lives according to “shoulds” and should-nots” will never really [...]

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  • Marks of Spiritual Maturity, Part 2

    Thursday, January 29th, 2009

    What does it mean to “grow in the Lord?” Does spiritual fruit mature on its own, or do we have a part in the process? Whether it’s in our own lives or in the lives of those we disciple, what can we look for and aim at? In Part 2, Daniel studies two “fruits of [...]

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  • Message to the Exiled, Part 1

    Saturday, July 16th, 2005

    Ever heard the expression, “Well, you’ve made your bed–now lie in it”? In this message from the book of Jeremiah, Daniel demonstrates how we can extract applications for our lives from the Old Testament!particularly when we’ve gotten ourselves into a jam. Sandwiched somewhere between the theme of human failure and the overarching reality of God’s [...]

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  • Out from Under the Law

    Friday, October 23rd, 2009

    How Do Believers Relate to the Law?
    We as believers sometimes get confused about commandments and promises. After all, God gives both to His people. However, commandments and promises are very different types of statements:

    God’s commandments govern our behavior. God’s promises pledge His behavior.
    Commandments are about “right and wrong.” Promises are about favor and blessing.
    Commandments [...]

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  • Parent Church Identifiers

    Wednesday, September 30th, 2009

    WHAT MAKES A LOCAL CONGREGATION A PARENT CHURCH?
    Our need for more church planters means that we need more parent churches which give birth to these new pastors and congregations. But just because a planter comes from a particular congregation, that church may have little interest in (or understanding of) fulfilling a parental role.
    I was intrigued [...]

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  • Paying the Internal Cost

    Monday, January 11th, 2010

    The following is an excerpt from “Jezebel: A Controlling Spirit that Splits Churches.”
    In 2 Corinthians, Chapter 12, we are reminded that over the long-haul that everything in the kingdom that is going to do you good and grow you up in God, is always something that will cost you something. It is by grace we [...]

    Excerpt from “Paying the Internal Cost”

  • Power Behind Giving & Tithing, Part 4

    Saturday, December 11th, 2004

    We’ve been discovering over the past three weeks how our participation in the (often lunatic-seeming) ways of God will never take away from our lives–quite to the contrary, it’s guaranteed to add to us things we could never appropriate for ourselves. These are His “power principles” for rich living. As we conclude the series, we’ll [...]

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  • Power of the Bible

    Wednesday, September 30th, 2009

    The Book of Psalms is so vast and filled with all manner of helpful truths to explore, that we cannot hope to examine all its content related to even one topic. But nowhere does the Bible speak more eloquently about itself than in Psalms. Here we will look at one of the best-known passages about [...]

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  • Proposed Adoption Protocol for Churches (in Europe)

    Monday, March 9th, 2009

    by Daniel A. Brown, PhD
    The following thought-piece was composed in March 1997 as a beginning point for discussion. It was not then, nor is it now, a complete or thorough discussion of all the issues related to adopting churches and pastors into the Foursquare Church. The paper centers on Europe, but most of the [...]

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  • Scriptures on Slander and Gossip

    Wednesday, September 30th, 2009

    PSALM 15:1-3 “O Lord, who may abide in Your tent? Who may dwell on Your holy hill? He who walks with integrity, and works righteousness, and speaks truth in his heart, “ “He does not slander with his tongue, nor does evil to his neighbor, nor takes up a reproach against his friend… He who [...]

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  • Singapore: 2009, Days 1-2

    Saturday, December 5th, 2009

    Sitting at the nicely apportioned desk, complete with a yellow orchid in a slender vase that accents my view of the Singapore skyscrapers and its lush green foliage, the last couple of days blur into an endless series of plane trips. Having just returned from two weeks in Asia only nine days earlier, I flew [...]

    Excerpt from “Singapore: 2009, Days 1-2”

  • Strategic Questions To Ask When Event Planning

    Wednesday, September 30th, 2009

    Long ago when I was a kid, I heard from knowledgeable sources (older friends on the block) that if I was ever alone in the wilderness and needed to survive on my own, I should not waste my energy hunting rabbits. “Rabbit meat costs your body more to digest than the meat gives back in [...]

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  • Stretching…But Which Way?

    Sunday, November 2nd, 2008

    I’ve been thinking about the pain that comes from being stretched by the Lord into/for more ministry. When we “go through” difficult trials or when God has us in seasons of lesson-learning and character-shaping, it isn’t fun. It hurts. It’s tempting to opt out of such an ever-expanding training process. And many people do! The [...]

    Excerpt from “Stretching…But Which Way?”

  • Structure Your Church Differently

    Wednesday, October 7th, 2009

    Practical Thoughts for Church Leaders
    INTRODUCTION
    Sometimes the most obvious truths escape our attention until we find ourselves in a new setting. For instance, even though I had been taught the truth of God’s word from boyhood, it was not until after I began attending a Pentecostal church during my college years that I realized how often [...]

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  • Study of Acts, Part 13: Radical Turnarounds

    Thursday, January 15th, 2009

    The Study of Acts is a series taught by Daniel while he was Senior Pastor of The Coastlands in Aptos, California. It’s packed full of scriptural truths and practical nuggets of how ordinary people like you and I can embrace life in God and make an impact in the world we live in today.
    For related [...]

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  • The Problem with Kings, Queens and Presidents

    Thursday, October 8th, 2009

    Note: If you would like to listen to the audio of this teaching, click here.
    When I take time to preface my remarks with the recognition that we might be getting into something controversial or with “different vantage points,” by that I don’t really mean that I am going to select an issue about which there [...]

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  • The Problem with Kings, Queens and Presidents

    Saturday, November 1st, 2008

    The kingdom of God is not of this world. The issues of men’s kingdom and God’s overlap only slightly, and that is why church and politics mix so imperfectly. At this season of political focus in our nation, we should re-examine government from a biblical view, rather than looking at the Bible from a political [...]

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  • Understanding the Counsel of God

    Wednesday, September 30th, 2009

    I. What is Counsel?A. English and Greek B. HebrewC.  Special advice and insight not available to just anyone—only to a close few.D.  Foundational purposes, values or mentalities.E. Advice, guidance and direction to help put or keep someone on the best course.
    II. What are the Various Sources of Counsel?A. Natural Sources (JAMES 3:15)1. Our own heart and minda) JEREMIAH 17:9; ECCLESIASTES 9:33—The heart cannot [...]

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  • What’s So Great About God?

    Tuesday, November 24th, 2009

    WHY DID GOD GIVE US THE BIBLE ANYWAY?
    The thoughts and conclusions we come to about God on our own—without the Bible—are, at best, incomplete. At worst, they can be confused, or tragically inaccurate. Yet even the Bible itself can seem confusing. Have you ever read a passage of the Bible several times and found yourself [...]

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  • When Jesus Steps In

    Monday, June 1st, 2009

    Jesus Has a Problem

    Excerpt from “When Jesus Steps In”

  • Year for Discipleship

    Tuesday, January 1st, 2008

    Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age. Matthew 28:19-20The directive is very simple: make disciples—pupils [...]

    Excerpt from “Year for Discipleship”