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Living The Solution – Online Newsletter |
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June 29, 2005 ISSUE |
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Opening Thoughts:
What is freedom? The word conjures ideas of being able
to do as we please, but is it really about getting what
we want?
July 4th is Independence Day in the United States. It’s
a holiday to commemorate our nation’s birth and freedom.
There has never been another country quite like the United
States, yet the history of the world and big powerful countries
shows what can inevitably happen to superpowers.
The strength of America is the
diversity of our people and those who both share and live
the dream this nation was founded on. The liabilities of
our country are easy to spot and point out, but criticism
is always easier than honest self-evaluation. The featured
article in this issue, “A New Freedom”, touches
on these issues. Like all big issues the truth is more “yes/and” than “either/or”.
I hope it stirs you up much as it did me as I wrote it.
Peace and joy,
Tom Gilbert
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IN THIS ISSUE
Feature Article: A
New Freedom
In The Spotlight: Live
8
Daily Thoughts: More Than You See
Prayer & Sharing Requests
Quotable: The Whole Being |
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| FEATURED
ARTICLE |
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| A
New Freedom
Article by Tom Gilbert
Freedom is
something we all believe is important. The freedom
to pursue our lives with liberty and a pursuit of
happiness is something the founding fathers of the
United States deemed important.
On July 4th of each year the citizens of the U.S. (we the people) commemorate
our nation’s birth with a holiday. We call it Independence Day. We celebrate
that our country chose to shake off the shackles of oppression and to establish
a government that believed in the importance of liberty.
Like many summer holidays, the true meaning and importance of this holiday gets
overshadowed by things like parties, family gatherings and day off from work.
Yet, at the heart of these pursuits is the desire to freely enjoy our lives.
Over the years millions have flocked to our shores seeking out a life with this
promise – the American Dream. And our country has grown in wealth and influence
precisely because we accepted these people. They were not always welcomed with
open arms as racism and bigotry have always been around. But the diversity of
our population is an asset. Too often we think it is the source of our problems.
We think it was alright for our ancestors to find America’s shores but
we’re not so certain about new arrivals that we fear will take our piece
of American pie.
Read the entire article here.
Discover more thought provoking articles
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| IN THE SPOTLIGHT |
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Live
8 Aid for Africa
 The
overwhelming debt of many countries in the world is preventing
them from being able to meet the challenges of health issues,
disease (AIDS), and poverty. This is especially true in
Africa.
July 2 and surrounding dates various cities around the world are hosting benefit
concerts to address the poverty crisis. The concerts are called Live
8 and like the Live Aid shows twenty years ago they will feature the
biggest music entertainment acts calling for attention to the dire needs of Africa
and other developing countries.
The timing of the concerts is specific. Soon the leaders of the largest industrialized
countries on the planet, G 8, will meet and there is hope that
they will address the overwhelming burden of poverty that is aggravated by the
incredible debt these countries owe to world banks. Hopefully this debt will
be forgiven, as many religious leaders have called for.
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DAILY THOUGHTS & REFLECTIONS |
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More Than You See
During the time he was in Jerusalem, those
days of the Passover Feast, many people noticed the signs he was displaying
and, seeing they pointed straight to God, entrusted their lives to him.
But Jesus didn't entrust his life to them. He knew them inside and out,
knew how untrustworthy they were. He didn't need any help in seeing right
through them. (John 2:23-25 — The Message)
This is another one of those verses
that catches you off guard, one that you say to yourself,
I didn't know that. Here are a group of people who, according
to John, on the surface saw Jesus for who He was, were
pointed to God, and entrusted their lives to Him, but Jesus
saw that they were not real. There was something about
their "conversion" that did not ring true and
He did not trust them.
What was it that Jesus sensed or saw? What clues does John give us? First, John
never says that they recognized Jesus as the Son of God, the Messiah. He tells
us they saw the signs Jesus was doing and that they pointed to God. They knew
that no one could do the things Jesus was doing unless they were God's messenger
and a prophet. But they did not necessarily believe he was the Christ. So many
of them may have only entrusted themselves to God because of the things Jesus
did, but never entrusted themselves to Jesus. There may also have been those
that entrusted themselves to Jesus but for wrong reasons. They wanted a miracle
from Jesus; they wanted Him to do something for them, but from an impure motive.
They were not entrusting themselves to Jesus out of a desire to have an intimate
personal relationship with God and to serve Jesus, but rather to see how Jesus
could serve them and help them get what they wanted. Whatever the case may be,
Jesus saw right through them.
How about today? Are there still those that claim to have seen what Jesus has
done, point to God and tell us they have entrusted their lives to Him that God
does not trust? Sure there are. The church at large has many who attend who are
there for their own selfish reasons. "What can I get out of it, who can
I control, and what can I get God to give me?" They see the Church and God
as nothing more than their own personal vending machine to get what they want
when they want. They are expecting the kind of life they want, the things they
want, etc. You've seen or heard them, the "Name-it and Claim-it" crowd,
the ones that are always trying to employ the world's ways of doing things into
the fabric of the Church. They have yet to see that a life with God is about
serving — serving the one you love and adore. Jesus came to show us how
to live. We are to emulate His way of life. Jesus came, as He said, not to be
served but to serve. That is our blue print for life — to serve. We are
called to serve God and others. It's not about us; it's all about God and others.
The type of people Jesus will entrust His life to are those willing to be His
servant-partners. I say servant-partners because Jesus Himself has called us
to be more than servants. He has called us to be His bride; we are His lover
and a perfect love relationship is all about serving the other person.
Live it with Passion
Pete Reinbold
Get daily inspiration with a Scripture verse and commentary
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Daily Thought
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PRAYER REQUESTS & RESULTS |
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Prayer works. It really does.Submit your prayer
requests and we will pray for them.
Of course, we keep your information confidential.
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My thoughts are shared regularly on the pages of
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Send an email
Quotable: The Whole Being
"The whole being of any Christian
is Faith and Love...
Faith brings the man to God, love brings him to men”
—
Martin Luther
Copyright 2005 Living the Solution, all rights reserved.
Tom Gilbert
Editor/Web-servant
Living The Solution
www.livingthesolution.com
P O Box 25584
Albuquerque, NM 87125-5584
Toll free 1-800-399-2564 ext 105 (US only) or 505-247-3232
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