living for eternity today

Tag: reset

You’ve Been Blocked

Do you feel You Have Been BLOCKED??? | The Heartbeat of the Queen of Hearts

Have you ever been blocked on someone’s social media or cell phone? A while back an acquaintance and I were chatting by text message and we weren’t exactly seeing things eye to eye. He was in a different place than I was, so I tried to end that part of our conversation and change the topic. Before I could even type a message about changing the conversation, he said that’s it, “I’m blocking your number. I don’t want to talk to you anymore.”

In this day and age, it’s super easy to not only socially distance from someone but actually socially delete someone! When someone says something that doesn’t line up with our ideas, values, thoughts, or worldview – we can all too easily just remove them from our lives as if they never existed. We block their phone number, unfriend them on Facebook, hide them on other social platforms. For all intents and purposes they no longer exist.

While social media blocking someone won’t get rid of them completely it’s a form of what Saul was doing in his day. In our lesson on Sunday, we met up with Saul. He was on his way to go “block some people” in his own way. He wanted to change their worldview or eliminate them.

Take a listen to the message below as we discuss the implications of Saul’s actions and a better way to handle the challenges of different opinions.

We Are Not One

It’s the truth isn’t it. We’ve become so divided that it’s hard to even see other people who think differently in a positive light. We pick one another apart and choose to focus on the things that separate us rather than the ones that unite us.

So what do we do about it? How do we come together when we’re so far apart?

This week in our message we focus on the reality of division in the world but also in the church. The message may be hard to hear. It wasn’t easy to preach. The intent of the message below isn’t to condemn anyone. Rather the intent is that of self reflection on the part I play in the troubles around me.

Perhaps you have the same thoughts? Perhaps you can some of the same struggles in how you see the world and how you react to those around you?

Give the message a listen and then honestly look at what is God calling you to do differently as a means to unify His church?

Heal Our Land

It’s no secret that this world is in a bit of a messy place. From natural disasters to a global pandemic to racial issues to concerns about violence to political betrayals and the list goes on and on. It’s no wonder the world is more divided than ever before! It’s no wonder that everyone is feeling the effects of this past 12 months in some way, shape or form.

But how do we fix it? How do we heal this broken land? How do we right what is wrong and turn this ship around?

This week’s music monday is about the healing that’s needed in our land and an idea for how to move beyond where we are to a place of healing. I’m going to let this song speak for itself. I hope you enjoy.

Old vs. New

A New Year typically brings time for a reset. We start a year with goals and ideas and images of the new you that you’d like to see in the new year. But this new year I imagine is a little different. We all made plans for 2020 and most of them really didn’t pan out the way we had planned!

As we kick off 2021, we’re slowing down a bit here at Living Word and looking back to see forward. Our series in church as we kick off the new year is all about getting a fresh reset. Sometimes we reset because there’s a problem. Sometimes we reset because we just feel the need for a fresh perspective. Whatever the reason, doing a little reset is a very good way to start a brand new year.

The first stop in the reset series is to compare old verses new. There’s nothing wrong with the old. And you don’t want to move onto something new just because you are easily bored. But evaluating the benefits and drawbacks of where you’ve been will better prepare you for what adjustments you need to make moving forward.

Jesus did something similar in Mark 12. He took the people of his day back to the Old Testament so they could better see why he was there and what he was going to accomplish. Our first message in this series looks at the rules of the Old Testament then gives them a fresh perspective. Perhaps this was the original intent to start with and we missed the point all along? Perhaps the reset was needed to help bring deeper meaning to the truths they had known since long ago?

Whatever the reason, Jesus brought a hard reset to the way the first century followers of God saw life. And I think we’re due for that same reset today!

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