Friday, April 13, 2012

Happy Thursday!

Today, I completed registration for fall classes! Very exciting. I also heard three excellent sermons in preaching class. My homiletics professor has crafted the scripture verses so that the sermons delivered follow the story. We have been preaching on scriptures from Genesis beginning with the Abraham and Sarah story and today landed with the Israelites in the wilderness and the manna from heaven. It has been so great to hear different people preaching sermons based on scriptures as the scriptures are sequenced in the Bible.

Prayer: “Lord, as I bow in Your presence, speak to my heart this very moment. Lord, remind me of Your goodness and mercy. Fill me with Your Holy Spirit power. Open my eyes to the needs and hurts around me. Guide me by Your Spirit to those who are in desperate need of the Savior. Use me as Your vessel to make a difference. Grant this prayer, O Lord. Amen.”

John 3: 8 The wind blows where it wishes and you hear the sound of it, but cannot tell where it comes from and where it goes. So is everyone who is born of the Spirit.

As a master teacher, Jesus taught all of the time. There are those who will say that a good teacher can teach in a cabbage patch. Well, Jesus taught in all sorts of places and times using whatever was around Him to illustrate his teaching points. Jesus used images of sheep, goats, fig trees, fish, bread, mustard seeds and small coins.

Nicodemus attended night classes with Jesus and learned about the Holy Spirit when Jesus used the illustration of the wind. Jesus used the wind to teach how the individual is transformed from flesh to spirit. The wind and the Holy Spirit are both invisible, but both produce visible change with powerful forces and go wherever God chooses. The wind as a supernatural force is compared with the Holy Spirit. On the day of Pentecost the wind is given the description of a mighty and rushing wind declaring the Presence of the Holy Spirit. God breathes His Holy Spirit upon His children, giving a new life to all who receive it. It is this very breath of God that transformed the chaos into land and water and all of creation by God’s command and according to God’s good purpose.

So my friends, let’s go to school and be taught by the Master Teacher. Let us receive instruction by His Word and through the voice of prayer, each of us being transformed by the power of the Holy Spirit.

Take joy in the journey. Wear comfortable shoes. Count your blessings and say your prayers. Love you so very much, Bruce, Gaylene, Geni and Travis.

Gcapplenotes@aol.com

I am not moved by what I see. I am not moved by what I feel. I am only moved by what I believe and I believe God.

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