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To Whom Should We Pray?

Last night I had one of those rare instances where I actually had a mental conversation with God.  As with many my age, I frequently wake up in the middle of the night, perhaps several times.  On one of those instances last night I was thinking about the upcoming Prayer Meeting the next day.  As I thought about this, I also thought of how some people always address their prayer to the Father while others pray to Jesus.  Mentally I said to God, "To whom should we pray?"  Amazingly enough I got an instant answer.  In my mind God clearly said, "It depends on what you're asking for."  That thought had never entered my mind, so I asked God to elaborate on it...and He did.  "If you are asking for protection, provision or blessing" God said, "ask Me.  But If you are asking for redemption, healing or guidance, ask Jesus who died for your redemption, who was known as The Great Physician and who said that He was the Good Shepherd.  However, if y...
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How Much Faith is Enough?

I just finished writing a sermon from Matthew 8 about the faith of the Roman Centurio in Capernaum.  Here was a pagan who had more faith than the "Chosen People" who lived in the area.  Here was a man of authority approaching one over whom he was given authority by Rome.  It would have been understandable if he had demanded that Jesus heal his servant.  Instead he approached Jesus humbly. (Luke said that he didn't even come himself, but some Jews came on his behalf.)  He called Jesus "Lord", which acknowledged His position, and he even said, "You can do this with just a word and not even have to come to my house."  Jesus was amazed. He had never encountered such faith even among the Jews.  As a matter of fact He had admonished those closest to Him on several occasions for their "little faith".  However, Jesus did teach that little faith could be effective faith.  He said that one with faith as small as a mustard seed could move a tree or a mo...
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Punishing the Wrong People

The US and many other countries have activated numerous sanctions against Russia.  The people who are being hurt by those sanctions are not the oligarchs or Vladimir Putin.  They all have their money well hidden.  The general population of Russia is taking the brunt of these actions.  When I was in Russia in 1993, the exchange rate was 1250 to 1.  That meant that one American dollar bought 1250 rubles.  The impact was visible when we walked into grocery stores and saw one loaf of bread and one box of cereal on bare shelves.  People on the street were doing whatever they could just to get enough food to eat.  Some had set up makeshift grills on street corners and were selling who knows what.  Others were selling vodka by the shot from a bottle they had somehow gotten.  When we flew into the airport in Rostov after midnight, we were surrounded by people who had cars who wanted us to "rent" them to take us to our destination.  Our dele...
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