Savior

Passion, Persistence, Perseverance

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“Love must be sincere. Hate what is evil; cling to what is good. 10 Be devoted to one another in love. Honor one another above yourselves. 11 Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor, serving the Lord. 12 Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer. 13 Share with the Lord’s people who are in need. Practice hospitality.”

Romans 12:9-13 NIV

We are loved

We are forgiven

The battle has been won

Jesus has claimed victory over sin and death

No matter where you are or what the circumstances of your life look like…don’t give up

Remember what Jesus did for you and stir up the passion of His love in your spirit

He is with you…always

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“Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. 8 Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. 9 This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. 10 This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. 11 Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. 12 No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.”

1 John 4:7-12 NIV

(This photo was taken at a lake in northwestern Wisconsin)

With Jesus We Find Rest…Hope…Joy…Peace

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“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”

Matthew 11:28-30 NIV

The Heart Of Worship by Michael W Smith

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“May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.”

Romans 15:13 NIV

(This photo was taken while visiting Rocky Mountain National Park)

God’s Love Changes Lives

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“Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. 8 Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. 9 This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. 10 This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. 11 Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.”

1 John 4:7-11 NIV

God’s love is the most powerful thing in the world

Nothing can compare to it

No matter where you are, no matter what has happened or is happening in your life

God’s love can change what you believe is impossible

Trust Him, seek His Word, believe, confess your sins and surrender you ways for His way

Nothing is impossible with God

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“No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.”

1 John 4:12 NIV

(This photo was taken in Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming)

He Did It All For You

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“But he was pierced for our transgressions,
    he was crushed for our iniquities;
the punishment that brought us peace was on him,
    and by his wounds we are healed.
6 We all, like sheep, have gone astray,
    each of us has turned to our own way;
and the Lord has laid on him
    the iniquity of us all.”

Isaiah 53:5-6 NIV

From Genesis to Revelation the over-arching theme of the Bible points to Jesus and His love

This love is not a guarantee that life will be easy and always pleasant

Yet it is a love that is consistent, unchanging and comes to us directly in His birth, life, death and resurrection

Open your heart and mind to Jesus every day…everything He did was done for you

End Of The Beginning by David Phelps

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“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.”

John 3:16-17 NIV

(This photo was taken at a lake in central Minnesota)

Peace

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“For Christ himself has brought peace to us. He united Jews and Gentiles into one people when, in his own body on the cross, he broke down the wall of hostility that separated us.”

Ephesians 2:14 NLT

“Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.”

John 14:27 NIV

Peace comes from God and God alone…not from ourselves or the world

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“Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. 7 And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”

Philippians 4:6-7 NIV

(This photo was taken at a lake in central Minnesota)

Savior…Sacrifice…Salvation

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“Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. 14 But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.”

Matthew 7:13-14 NIV

The world tells us to pursue money, comfort and the easy life

To look out for ourselves and satisfy ourselves first and most often, this is the sinful nature and it has taken hold in many people

There is a way to be different and to live with purpose and it is based on your personal relationship with Jesus Christ

He loves you, He gave His life to save you and His way is the only way to God the Father

Spend time reading God’s Word and learn about the life, death and resurrection of Jesus

He came down from heaven and sacrificed His life to save us from our sinful desires

Think about what He has done, His Sacrifice as our Savior for our Salvation

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“Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life.  No one comes to the Father except through me.”

John 14:6 NIV

(This photo was taken on the shore of Lake Superior near Ashland, Wisconsin)

Surrender

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“What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don’t they come from your desires that battle within you? 2 You desire but do not have, so you kill. You covet but you cannot get what you want, so you quarrel and fight. You do not have because you do not ask God. 3 When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures.”

James 4:1-3 NIV

Read Isaiah 53 to learn how Jesus would submit to God’s plan to save you and me

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“Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. 8 Come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. 9 Grieve, mourn and wail. Change your laughter to mourning and your joy to gloom. 10 Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up.”

James 4:7-10 NIV

(This photo was taken at a lake in northwestern Wisconsin)

Healed By His Love

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“He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed.”

1 Peter 2:24 NIV

“Therefore, rid yourselves of all malice and all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and slander of every kind.”

1 Peter 2:1 NIV

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“For this reason I kneel before the Father, 15 from whom every family[a] in heaven and on earth derives its name. 16 I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, 17 so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, 18 may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, 19 and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.”

Ephesians 3:14-19 NIV

(This photo was taken at a lake near Plymouth, Minnesota)

Character Building

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“Not only so, but we[c] also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; 4 perseverance, character; and character, hope. 5 And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.”

Romans 5:3-5 NIV

Father God, I am Your child

Thank You for adopting me into Your eternal family

Please shape my heart

Teach me how to act in a way that honors You in my daily life and circumstances

Help me correct my thoughts and perspective along with any patterns of behavior in my life that displease You

Replace these things with characteristics that show how much I love You

In Jesus name, Amen

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“Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. 9 Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me—put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you.”

Philippians 4:8-9 NIV

(This photo was taken at sunrise at a lake in northwestern Wisconsin)

The Message

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“…but we preach Christ crucified: a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, 24 but to those whom God has called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.”

1 Corinthians 1:23-24 NIV

“Who has believed our message
    and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?
2 He grew up before him like a tender shoot,
    and like a root out of dry ground.
He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him,
    nothing in his appearance that we should desire him.
3 He was despised and rejected by mankind,
    a man of suffering, and familiar with pain.
Like one from whom people hide their faces
    he was despised, and we held him in low esteem.

4 Surely he took up our pain
    and bore our suffering,
yet we considered him punished by God,
    stricken by him, and afflicted.
5 But he was pierced for our transgressions,
    he was crushed for our iniquities;
the punishment that brought us peace was on him,
    and by his wounds we are healed.”

Isaiah 53:1-5 NIV

All of life comes down to this question…

What do you believe?

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“Do you now believe?” Jesus replied. 32 “A time is coming and in fact has come when you will be scattered, each to your own home. You will leave me all alone. Yet I am not alone, for my Father is with me.

33 “I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”

John 16:31-33 NIV

(This photo was taken at a lake in central Minnesota)