Drop off your bagged bottles and cans at Hope and at the end of the month we will redeem them. Also bring your spare change!

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As we labor in our vocations as parents and workers and witnesses to Christ we are commanded to ask for and to be ready to receive much—all in the right spirit of faith [James 4:3]: “Delight yourself in the LORD, and he will give you the desires of your heart,” says David in Psalm 37[:4]; “Whatever you ask in my name, this I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask me anything in my name, I will do it,” says John in chapter 14[:13-14] of his Gospel.

There is no failure in Christ, for He has given us the means for success, in both our temporal lives and for eternal life as He promised: through faith and prayer in Christ! Jesus has promised to stand with us before God as our High Priest when we petition Him to bless our talents to be fruitful [Hebrews 7:25]; the Spirit teaches us what to say in prayer through faith [John 14:26] even as the Father Himself puts the words on our lips: “O Lord, open my lips, and my mouth will declare your praise.” [Psalm 51:15]…

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Additional Resources:

Issues, Etc.: Luke the Evangelist (Dr. Peter Scaer of Concordia Theological Seminary-Ft. Wayne, IN)

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A Christian animator wrote the following in his study of the overarching Christian themes in the animated story, TANGLED:

“What if we are all royalty and living our lives imprisoned in a tower, with some sort of ache and inkling that there is another world out there where we really should be living? What if an evil being was feeding us lies about where we come from, and allowing us to doubt that there really exists a kingdom ruled by a King who loves us?”

What do you think about that?…

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Additional Resources:
“Once Upon a Time” (Interview with Disney Animator Greg Keane) | Christianity Today
Issues, Etc.: Pastors Roundtable: Matthew 13:1-9, 18-23, “The Parable of the Sower”

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On July 4th, 1776 fifty-six men—renowned judges and lawyers, highly successful businessmen and aristocrats, respected ministers and other vocational representatives—combined their understanding of Scripture, the accumulated philosophical ideas of that time, and what they saw to be ample missed opportunities by the British Crown and Parliament to address the injustices over the preceding decades; and they officially declared American independence with these words: “…with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.” The “united States of America” was born.

For more than five years following this landmark date in world history, the American colonists struggled to make their declared independence a permanent reality. Even after Lord Cornwallis’s surrender at Yorktown in 1781, the new American states battled on to make this new country of life, liberty, and opportunity a permanent fixture—indeed “a city on a hill”, as the Massachusetts Bay preacher John Winthrop said in 1630, where “the eyes of all people are upon us.” From the Civil War to clashes in today’s political and judicial arenas, the fight for freedom goes on, likely until Christ returns to claim His Church.

Christians can empathize with this never-ending fight to maintain our freedom on the spiritual battlefield. Hoping to regain their form and power, the phantoms of our old Adams, allied with the oldest tyrant in creation, the devil, and his top Generals—our sinful flesh and death—continually rebel against God’s Kingdom of new creations that we have become in Christ through our Baptism…

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Additional Resources:
Dr. John Warwick Montgomery - “The Revolution: Christian in Spite of Itself”
Issues Etc.: Open Lines, 5 July 2006 - “Was the American Revolution a Violation of Romans 13″

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