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Posts Tagged ‘Jeff Borden’

Further Meditations in Genesis 15

^{My Comments (jb)} …this week has concentrated on dependence upon God, trusting God, and following Jesus. I started the week with Genesis…it just seems fitting to end the week with it as well.

God makes an incredible covenant promise to Abram that included protection, an heir, descendants numbering as many as the stars, “great” reward, land, and a long healthy life… Awesome stuff indeed! But wait; what about the process of getting there, to all those awesome blessings? Abram = Yay! Descendants = not so much. God also assures Abram his descendants will be “slaves” in a foreign land where they will be oppressed for 400 years. Wait for it… Let that sink in a bit… 400 Years.

Sure, they (the slave descendants) had Abraham’s covenant promise conveyed upon them…but people were born, lived, and died without seeing anything but slavery and oppression. I can’t help but wonder if Abraham’s knowledge of the 400 years was passed along to his descendants as part of their “blessing.” In other words, did they know they were going to be enslaved for this long?

400 Years…

Their emancipation was no cakewalk either… chased by an Egyptian army into the desert wilderness, they failed to trust God. An entire generation was “blessed” to die in their “desert of distrust” as part of their reward. Fortunately, we finally see the privileged inheritors of God’s promise walk across the river into land God had given to Abraham… YAY! But wait; these “people of the blessing” who were unskilled in the art of war, knew little in the ways of societal governance, and had little in the way of supply-line resourcing… were going to have to fight/war for every square foot of land that had been “promised” to them.

There’s more to this story, and these long periods of silence from God and oppression of His people have a disconcerting manner of repeating themselves… “Yeah, but that was the Old Testament, back when God was mean and people were primitive and ignorant” Right? Jesus ushered in an era of blessing and brilliance… Right? Of course he did, but not in the context most of us like to think about. Remember, all but one of the “Twelve of Jesus’ Disciples” met violent deaths. Most, if not all, followers of Christ were ostracized, oppressed, persecuted, and often killed because of their “blessed” status. It wasn’t until the fourth century before this level of oppression began to let up.

“Anyone who talks about spiritual things without any experience in them is like a person who is lost in the desert, dying with thirst… If you try to tell me about the Christian life without any personal involvement in it, you will mislead me. You will tell me fictional things, mistaken things.” ~Pseudo-Macarius

…the story continues, but we’re talking about trust, dependence, and following Jesus. What really is the cost, and what really is the blessing? How are these really measured? Can I trust God…? Am I willing to release my own self-reliance and independence to follow the unseen future led by the Invisible God?

“Deliverance can come to us only by the defeat of our old life… God rescues us by breaking us, by shattering our strength and wiping out our resistance. Then he invades our natures with that ancient and eternal life which is from the beginning.” ~A.W. Tozer

The picture I painted of the plight of “God’s people” is pretty terrifying and doesn’t look all too inviting to us from our perspective, but what if we glimpse how God looks at this:

I was always on your side. I destroyed the Amorites who confronted you, Amorites with the stature of great cedars, tough as thick oaks. I destroyed them from the top branches down. I destroyed them from the roots up. And yes, I’m the One who delivered you from Egypt, led you safely through the wilderness for forty years And then handed you the country of the Amorites like a piece of cake on a platter. I raised up some of your young men to be prophets, set aside your best youth for training in holiness. (Amos 2:8-10)

“God who is everywhere never leaves us… Yet He may be more present to us when He is absent than when He is present.” ~Thomas Merton

What if I’m one of those “400 year” people? What if I’m one of the persecuted, poverty stricken, disease-infested, natural disaster called Christians? Will I follow Him? Will I trust Him? Am I willing to depend upon Him?

“To live for the lesser things of life is to risk not really living at all.” ~Joan Chittister

“God says, when I toss My children into the air, terror comes before delight. Put yourself in the place of My people in Daniel’s day. They felt thrown into the air with no safety net beneath them. They couldn’t see their God ready to catch them.” (from 66 Love Letters: A Conversation with God that Invites You into His Story by Dr. Larry Crabb, ©2009.)

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Pneuma-Somnambulism by Jeff Borden

(Spiritual – Sleepwalking)

As we journey this life, how many are sleepwalking through it?

How many of us live in a Matrix existence created by the media and the moguls of consumerism?

How many of us live in the nightmarish dream of our own individualism and ambition?

Are our thoughts of things that matter eternally… kept at bay with slight-of-hand distractions by the enemy of our soul?

Every time you attempt to awaken from your slumber of soul… are you rendered again, unconscious by the pied-piper of the American Dream?

We groan in the pangs of our own rebirth; terrified of what lies on the other side

We are strangled with anxiety and fear at the thought of losing control…as if we ever were in control in the first place; crippled with the illusion of our own self-sustaining power

We wrestle with shaking the slumber and cobwebs of confusion from our Intellect, the Master-mind of man, who with steely grip and maniacal tyranny controls the passions of our heart

Will we ever awaken?

Can we break free from the narco-hallucinogenic bondage of the adamic self?

A Rescuer beckons us; with kerygmatic boldness, His Spirit calls:

“Wake up, O sleeper, rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.”

Awaken O Sleeper, Awaken.

“..everything exposed by the light becomes visible,  for it is light that makes everything visible. This is why it is said: “Wake up, O sleeper, rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.” Be very careful, then, how you live—not as unwise but as wise, making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil. Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the Lord’s will is…” Ephesians 5:13-17

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Installment #4 was my assignment for this weekend’s worship services. My title for this message was “Rules of the Road: God’s Way of Loving Ourselves and Loving Others.” As is my custom, I have included the manuscript, sermon outline, and small group discussion questions along with the audio file. I am always interested in constructive critique and feedback.

download manuscript (.pdf file)

download outline and sm.grp. discussion (.pdf file)

2010JAN24 ChristianJourney 4jb by valleychapel

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Here is an embedded player that has all the audio files updated into a single player. Scroll through the list to select the sermon/message you’d like to hear.

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Was honored to share the third message in our (my local church) latest sermon series on the Beatitudes. My lesson was on the third beatitude; “Blessed are the meek for they shall inherit the earth.” I have included the audio file, outline with discussion questions, and my manuscript. Blessings!

Outline and discussion questions here |||||  Manuscript here

2009OCT04 WGWUTB humble by valleychapel

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This was a sermon I shared in yesterday’s continuation of our “One Church” Core Values teaching. My contribution to this was centered on our core commitments of Growing through Spiritual Development and Loving & Encouraging One Another. I am including the audio file as well as my sermon notes. I always enjoy feedback and discussion!

Sermon Transcript ||| Outline and Small Group Discussion Questions

2009SEPT06 OneChurch Pt2 by icrucified

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Over twenty-two years ago Laurie and I attended a small “revival” meeting in Start, Louisiana. The visiting evangelist was a man named Danny Stevenson. During that evening toward the end of the service, Brother Stevenson came to Laurie and I laying hands on us in prayer. During his prayer he spoke words that reflected a shared (Laurie and I) life in service and ministry for the Lord Jesus Christ. Through trials, turmoil, and many years of my own rebellion and selfishness we arrived today as one…Laurie and Jeff, sharing ministry side-by-side teaching about what marriage looks like in the eyes of the Creator of marriage. While ministry and serving Jesus is a joy to me beyond expression, today a memory was made that will stand as cherished for the remainder of my days.

I am including with the audio file, two .pdf documents:

• Sermon outline and small group study questions
• Sermon transcript

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Daily Meds [01AUG09]

Reading this morning from 2 Chronicles my attention was drawn to a couple of passages. These Scriptures retell the stories of Israel’s and Judah’s kings and while these passages in particular are not directly related to one another, they seemed to be speaking a unified message to me.

Passage no. one: (Speaking of King Uzziah) “But when he had become powerful, he also became proud, which led to his down fall. He sinned against the LORD his God…” (2 Chronicles 26:16)

Passage no. two: (Speaking of King Hezekiah) “At the same time, God’s hand was on the people in Judah, giving them all one heart to obey the orders of the king and his officials, who were following the word of the LORD.” (2 Chronicles 30:12)

As I mentioned, these passages jumped out from amongst the others I was reading this morning. I was prompted to ask myself; “Jeff, what does the Lord want to teach you from these verses?” This is what came to me… Read the rest of this entry »

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Day 12: Homeward Bound and Answers in Genesis

Still making our way North to NY state…much of the drive today was without event. We listened to an audiobook along the way this time, Affabel, by John Bevere. It is an allegory about the Christian life. I thought it was good and could provide some excellent family discussion. It probably would have for us except for the fact that two of our boys are in California and Josh was asleep. Nonetheless, we (Laurie and I) enjoyed it.

We arrived at the intersection of Ohio, Indiana, and Kentucky and spent the late afternoon at the Creation Museum (Answers in Genesis). I think it was very well done and the quality of the displays and wax figures was excellent. I think, with regard to Creation, that many of the explanations and alternative viewpoints of intelligent design were very well presented and some of them highly plausible. In fact, many of them I do believe. Some, on the other hand, were quite a stretch (in my mind) and hard for me to accept; of course, I’m no scientist and have no basis for what is or is not other than what I can conceive in my own mind. I guess this is where I come to the point of saying at some place in the life of every person as they journey the path of their faith, they will have to come to a point of acceptance of God’s word. You either trust Him with what He has passed down to us or you don’t. Trusting Him does not mean that we have to understand all the details of how things are, or how they came to be… That’s my position. I don’t understand all the details of Creation. I know what God has given us and I just don’t get tripped up on things that I don’t understand.

We had a great time and I wish we’d arrived earlier because we missed some of the displays and the nature hike outside of the museum. Oh well, maybe there will be a next time.

Laurie and Josh are ready for the Holiday Inn Express breakfast buffet, so I better roll. We’re on the final leg of our homeward bound journey, so the next update will include our arrival at home and me typing at my familiar dining room table. Peace and Grace be yours this day!

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Day 11: On the Road Again…

We hit the road early today (well, yesterday now), as Stefan and Garrett had a flight they weren’t willing to miss. We dropped them off around 11:00am for the first leg of their West Coast adventure. I tried to chronicle what I could of this day with my best photojournalistic eye, but was shot down by my proof editor refusing to allow my posting of the images without extensive editing.

Did I mention it was/is Joshua’s birthday today…? I granted him executive privileges all through the day reminding him that the preferential treatment he was receiving was because of his birthday. Immediately following this declaration, I quickly reminded him that “today is your birthday; tomorrow is not.” (heheheheheh) – We treated him to a “Smorges”-borden at the Golden Corral for lunch and we dined at his favorite eatery (sigh) Arby’s for supper. (The things we do for love…)

Our journey took us mostly by highway today making for a very quiet and scenic drive…until we landed on the periphery of a tornado warning in Northwestern Alabama for around two hours of our drive. It was exciting if not taxing for that little piece of the drive anyway. About the time we crossed the Tennessee border, the boys called to let us know they arrived in Los Angeles safely and were proceeding to their hotel; we heard from them a little later once they got settled in to their hotel.

We settled in to a Holiday Inn Express in downtown Nashville for the night and plan to hit the Creation Museum in Kentucky tomorrow. I’ll try to do better with my photojournalism….maybe a good night’s rest will help.

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