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Testimonies
Sharing testimonies of forgiving others, personal salvation, blessings in your life, or any other act of God that has touched your life makes it possible for others to have testimonies of their own. Those who share these stories become witnesses.
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Life’s Archery Range: The Sure Shot vs The Missed Mark
At the Sure Shot Archery Tournament devotional in Phoenix, speaker Vin connects the concept of sin, or missing the mark, to archery, describing it as failing to align with God’s will. He reflects on personal growth from selfish goals to seeking God's targets, emphasizing the need for practice, scripture, prayer, and Jesus’ guidance to hit life's true mark. The message concludes with community outreach, particularly regarding addiction recovery, underscoring the spiritual and communal aspects of life's aim.
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House of Refuge—Lesson 2 (of 2) God Addict
We need an EGG, Enemy—Identify who this is. You can make an enemy of God or you can make an enemy of the devil. Whoever your enemy is, “Do not rejoice when your enemy falls, and let not your heart be glad when he stumbles.” Proverbs 24:17 Glorify—You can glorify yourself or you can glorify God. It’s your decision. “I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, wholly and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.” Romans 12:1 God— We need a god in our life. We can be gods over our own lives, or we can have…
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House of Refuge—Lesson 1 (of 2) Identity
I use the word NEST to illustrate that the nest that we build for ourselves in our lives will always be built around our identity. NEST means: Nature—Live with a sin nature or saved nature? Eternity—Are we eternally saved or damned? Servant—Do we serve God or Satan? Trust—Do we trust in the world or do we trust in the Creator?
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Vin’s Testimony
I just said, help me. Help me God. I can't do this on my own. And I'll tell you what. God is powerful—if you let Him be powerful in your life.
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Jonesing for Jesus [VIDEO]
God is the only addiction that we should have. That's right. ... He is faithful. He gives back to us better than anything that we've surrendered to him. He ... he multiplies the blessings that he gives to us because he's got a good plan for our lives. His will for our lives is better. His will and his plan is better than our own. He's a good God. Just surrender to him, trust in him and life will be good. The thing that I run into in Celebrate Recovery is that's a huge leap of faith. People don't understand that they're already worshiping little "g" gods. They're already worshiping…
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What does recovery look like? And why do we celebrate it?
A gentleman by the name of Geoff Brown interviewed me for his podcast Kingdom Culture Conversations and the topic of discussion for Part One & Part Two was about Celebrate Recovery. I listened to both of the 2-part episodes after it was released and thought to myself, “How many people are wondering why I gave a testimony—a deeply personal testimony—for all to hear? I mean, really, I was supposed to be promoting a Christ-focused recovery group, but instead I shared more about myself.” If you haven’t heard it, or have no clue what I’m talking about, give it a listen below. I wrote a post called You Don’t Know Me.…
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We come to know God
How do we come to know God? We come to know God by the questions we ask and the answers we come up with. But just as every student needs a teacher, we meditate on His Word—called Scripture—and seek to find answers to things we don’t understand. There are those that might be content with answers that are incomplete or answers that simply don’t make sense. For me, I have a strong desire to be able to make sense of the fundamentals of Salvation and discipleship—key tenets of the mandate to multiply disciples—while remaining unconcerned about what size sandal Jesus wore or if there really are pearls on the gates…
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Crazy Love
“with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love,”Ephesians 4:2 ESV Bearing With Someone vs Tolerating Someone Bearing with one another sounds a lot different than tolerance. What does it matter if I say I am tolerating you versus I am bearing with you? Tolerance seems to mean that I am putting up with you and that I am ignoring your sinful nature and your bad behavior or your glaring struggles. When a person tolerates another person, they are not enduring the pains that others are going through. They’re not even aware of them most of the time. It’s like wanting to be able to stand…
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The Funny Thing About Prayers….
In the past I have prayed this prayer: God, please help me to be a better father. Also, please help my child to be more obedient and kind and loving. Give me patience and gentleness and compassion and understanding and self-control—especially over my anger—and help me to be a better reflection of Christ in my life so my kids can look at me and see the virtues of my Savior throughout my deeds and behavior. At the time, I thought it was an awesome prayer. Somehow, God was going to imbue me with a self-control I have never before experienced. I will soon—with God’s grace—have my prayers answered and be…
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My Story
For most of my life I was unable to hear the Gospel message because of my pride, because of my stubbornness, and because of my love for sin. That last one, my love for sin, was a tremendous obstacle in my path. It felt like it was physically in my way, physically stopping me from moving forward. Looking back at how I lived my life then, I realize now that my love for sin was ultimately very selfish and always insatiable. Because I denied myself nothing I desired, I found that I was denying myself everything that mattered. Not too long ago, I was spiritually broken and twisted inside when…
