Praying in tongues

The Gift of Tongues by Stephanie Isom
 

The Power of Prayer and Praying With Power



Click here to watch: My daughter and I talking about prayer with power from God.

 

Following Jesus: Loving our Enemies

 

     The question of how to follow Jesus in loving our enemies is in many ways a 3rd-culture issue.

     As God's adopted children, the Bible tells us our citizenship is in heaven (我們是天國人 --- literally: We are Kingdom-of-Heaven people). Christians are all mixed culture in the sense that our earthly ethnic culture is temporary in comparison to eternity, but for all who believe and follow Jesus, the eternal King of Kings and Lord of Lords, our "forever culture" is that of the Kingdom of Heaven.

     In many ways Bibilical Kingdom-of-Heaven culture is counter-culture and counter-intuitive to how so many of us have been brought up to perceive and respond to the world and to others.

     We are each in the process of learning how to live and walk in our heavenly identity, becoming more like Jesus as we spend time with Him in His Word and in His Presence, learning to be more and more like Him.

     (see Hebrews 希伯來書 11:9-16 & Philippians 腓立比書 3:20 。。。see also Romans 羅馬書 12:1-2)

     In a spiritual sense we are all 3rd-culture kids, learning to live by God's heavenly culture of "agape" love --- the brotherly self-sacrificing love of Jesus, learning to consider others first, like Jesus, with healthy heavenly boundaries. 

     (((Think about it: in coming to earth and experiencing human limitations and struggles, what Jesus experienced in this fallen world was so very different from life in heaven. The eternally pre-existent God, the Living Word who created all things, was born to a poor family in an occupied country, experiencing all the struggles and weaknesses that humankind experiences (see John 1:1-5, 14-16; Hebrews 4:15-16, 5:1-10; also 1 Corinthians 10:13; 2 Corinthians 12:9) --- this should give us all increasing hope in seeking God's help with our struggles and weaknesses, including the challenge of learning how to love our enemies)))

Encouraged in the Lord,
Mary Isom
(guest blogger for my awesome husband, Bruce Isom)

According to religious zeal I was faltless - Saul of Tarsus

    

     We can have religious zeal and still have fault in what we think and do. Saul of Tarsus thought he was doing the right thing by putting Christians into prison and killing them. Zeal and confidence are not a sign that someone is mature in the Lord or even walking in the truth. Even moving in gifts like healing or prophecy are not a sign of maturity.  This is not to judge people when they do stupid things but to understand that they still may need to mature in the Lord. It is not hard for some of us to make mistakes in life and sometimes the only way we can grow in the Lord is to try things out and make mistakes.

     I have heard some people say things like "He can't be a Christian he just did . . ." or something similar. To be a Christian is not to have everything in your life in order but to believe in Jesus Christ. On the other hand, God wants us to grow up to be mature Christians so we are walking more and more in the truth. The only way we can do that is by being taught by those that are more mature in the Lord than us and studying the Bible.

     Mankind has a way of lying to themselves and being zealous about living those lies out in their lives. There was a large group of people that followed Hitler and thought he was a great guy. They didn't even seem bothered that they were killing Jews. In our present day, there are many people that feel like abortion is okay but in God's eyes it isn't any different than killing Jews.

     Because Jesus said that He is the Truth, The Way, and the Life we need to get to know Him so we are not just calling ourselves Christians but are actually living the Christian life the way God wants us to.