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Exercises for Entering Prayer
Hands Up, Hands Down Put your hands in your lap. Ask God for his loving presence, and then lift up your hands and turn them palms down saying something like “I release anxiety.” Now turn your palms up and say “I receive peace.” You can repeat this with these same emotions or different ones as often as you need until you are calm, or at least calmer than when you started! Name whatever negative emotions you want to release, picture these emotions flowing down from your down-turned palms and disappearing in mid-air, then picture the positive emotions flowing down from God, settling in your palms, and moving through your body.…
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The Shepherd’s Story
8 And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. They were not well thought of, these shepherds. Sheep were the basis of the national economy. Milk, cheese, mutton, wool – a man and his family could live off of a few sheep and the Temple’s sacrifices depended on a never-ending supply. The smaller flocks were looked after the owner and his sons, but the larger flocks were looked after by hired shepherds. And these hired shepherds weren’t like the Christmas cards. It was the hired shepherds people couldn’t stand. Dirty and smelly from spending months in the grazing hills; rough, poor…
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Believer’s Independence Day
Believer’s Independence Day Thanks to http://www.familyministries.com/independence.htm for several of the original references and headings. But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ. Philippians 3:20 We recently celebrated Independence Day which is a fine thing to celebrate. I am deeply grateful to God for living in a country where I have religious and political freedom. But we are only secondarily citizens of the United State of America. We are first citizens of the Kingdom of God. What freedom and independence can we celebrate every day? Freedom from the bondage of sin that leads to death and eternal separation from God. 18 “’The…