This Side of The Cross

I have been working my way through the Gospel of John for the past month or so. I know it seems like this would be an easy task but it is not. Sure the reading is easy but how do you get past all of the sermons you have heard over the years. God's word is new and fresh but some of those messages from the past are not so fresh.  I decided to read only by paragraph and just let God show me a few takeaways from each section. Some of the takeaways are pretty obvious. Some are not. Now, because this is not an all out Bible Study or sermon, please don't respond with doctrinal arguments. They are what they are. For example. The Words of Eternal Life 60 When many of his disciples heard it, they said, "This is a hard saying; who can listen to it?"  61 But Jesus,  knowing in himself that his disciples were grumbling about this, said to them,  "Do you take offense at this? 62 Then what if you were to see  the Son of Man  ascending to  where he wa...

Yesterday, at Corem Deo, Dave preached a message about "Beginning Well". Starting the message with a story about us needing to hit the {RESET} button in our lives. This really got me to thinking. How many times has God hit the {RESET} button in my life. It's not that I have needed a total makeover or totally changing my life, but many times just a shift in focus. It has come through many ways. Moving, change of jobs, change of churches, loss of a family member, a new baby, win the lottery (no that hasn't happened, yet). All of these are easy to spot. What isn't so easy are the times God speaks to us through a friend, a specific scripture, a song, an experience, a particular sermon or message, a letter from a friend. When I look back, I can see hundreds of these {RESET} moments in my life. Times where The Holy Spirit just turns the rudder a little to the left or right to get me back on course. I am beginning to realize, the more I surrender my life, the more often ...