1 – “ Now when the adversaries of Judah and Benjamin heard that the returned exiles were building a temple to the Lord, the God of Israel, they approached Zerubbabel and the heads of fathers’ houses and said to them, “Let us build with you, for we worship your God as you do, and we have been sacrificing to him ever since the days of Esarhaddon king of Assyria who brought us here.” But Zerubbabel, Jeshua, and the rest of the heads of fathers’ houses in Israel said to them, “You have nothing to do with us in building a house to our God; but we alone will build to the Lord, the God of Israel, as King Cyrus the king of Persia has commanded us.”” (Ezra 4:1-3, ESV)

RAF: There may be those who are sympathetic with Christianity, and who have added Christ to their other gods and ways, who are nonetheless not Christians. They are not to be evangelists. They have no part in discipleship. They cannot be part and parcel of ministry. They are not whole-hearted after God. We must make these distinctions if we are to be about the business of the Church, and not just religion. Mere religion breeds syncretism.

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1 – “And he did what was right in the eyes of the Lord, yet not with a whole heart.” (2 Chronicles 25:2, ESV)

RAF: Heavenly Father, it is in this matter of whole-heartedness that I see such failure in myself. I content myself so easily in you. To barely know you. To spend little real time with you. To be so unfamiliar with what you have taken countless lives to reveal, write, copy and preserve throughout the centuries for us. To think little of your daily graces. To live in the shadow of the Cross and virtually take it for granted at times. Oh Father – make me a whole-hearted man after you.

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In the infinite wisdom of God,

He has filled all of life with types and shadows of spiritual truth.

In marriage,

His word makes clear,

there is to be found a most wonderful and detailed portrait of the love and bond between our Lord Jesus Christ and His Bride – the Church.

Which picture paves the way

for a no less stunning parallel to be drawn between Mothers themselves,

and the nature of God’s true Church.

It is in this figure,

given to us by God’s own hand

that I have learned much of Christ’s Church

In the life and ministry of my own Mother.

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Josef Fritzl, the Austrian man who fathered seven children with his daughter while keeping her imprisoned in a windowless dungeon in his cellar, has complained about poor media coverage of the case.

JOSEF FRITZL and ROSEMARIE FRITZL are being honoured at their 50 years wedding anniversary in 2006….

JOSEF FRITZL and ROSEMARIE FRITZL are being honoured at their 50 years wedding anniversary in 2006. Josef Fritzl made an astonishing plea for understanding from his cell today saying: “I am not a monster.” The Austrian, who locked up his own daughter in a dungeon for 24 years and subjected her to repeated rapes, claimed he has been unfairly represented by the police and the media. And in a twisted bid for sympathy he argued that he should be held in high regard for not killing Elisabeth, 42, and the children he incestuously fathered on her – Kerstin, 19, Stefan 18 and five-year-old Felix.

(Mark Large/Daily Mail/SOLO Syndication/Zuma Press)

His criticism of the international media’s reporting was published in the German tabloid Bild Zeitung.

“I could have killed them all,” reads the front page headline of today’s Bild Zeitung. And Fritzl, dubbed a monster by the Austrian media, told his lawyer, Rudolf Mayer, “I’m not a monster,” according to today’s report.  Read the entire article HERE AT ABC NEWS

• RAF: Hitler wasn’t a monster, he COULD have killed even more Gypsies, Jews, impaired or otherwise undesirables. Sure, 6 million Jews – but there’s still lots left – right?

• As shocking as Fritzl’s self-justification is – it is no different than yours or mine when we excuse ANY sin on the ground that we could have sinned worse.  Just because the lid is off of Fritzl’s depravity doesn’t mean ours would be any less heinous if it could be brought to the light of day.

• Thank God for His salvation – for the death of His precious Son, which alone can make any man right with God, to stand in His presence unafraid.

• Be repulsed at Fritzl’s obscene admission.

• And then remember what you have been saved from. And weep that his soul might too be rescued in Christ Jesus.

• For you and I were not one iota better. Only less exposed.

1 – “Jabez was more honorable than his brothers; and his mother called his name Jabez, saying, “Because I bore him in pain.” Jabez called upon the God of Israel, saying, “Oh that you would bless me and enlarge my border, and that your hand might be with me, and that you would keep me from harm so that it might not bring me pain!” And God granted what he asked.” (1 Chronicles 4:9-10, ESV)

RAF: Tucked away in the midst of these chapters with their long lists of people we do not and cannot know – about whom we know no more than their being listed here – is this simple reminder: When men call upon the Lord, He hears. And He answers. He is ever willing to meet us if we will but seek Him. Father, grant that I might seek you always and never stop.

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1 – 2 Kings 17 / Entire chapter.

RAF: 1. God must be our God. 2. God must be God, alone. 3. God must be worshiped according to what He has revealed. 4. God must be believed, and served according to what He has said. It is for want of these that Israel was decimated. Oh Father, keep us.

2 – “This is the word that the Lord has spoken concerning him: “She despises you, she scorns you— the virgin daughter of Zion; she wags her head behind you— the daughter of Jerusalem.” (2 Kings 19:21, ESV)

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1 – “A man came from Baal-shalishah, bringing the man of God bread of the firstfruits, twenty loaves of barley and fresh ears of grain in his sack. And Elisha said, “Give to the men, that they may eat.” But his servant said, “How can I set this before a hundred men?” So he repeated, “Give them to the men, that they may eat, for thus says the Lord, ‘They shall eat and have some left.’ ” So he set it before them. And they ate and had some left, according to the word of the Lord.” (2 Kings 4:42-44, ESV)

RAF: This precursor to Jesus feeding the 5000 & the 4000, is a great reminder of God’s good provision for us. And, how it is He often makes what we have sufficient, rather than our needing more. How we need to trust Him for sufficiency. Temptation is warded off when we look to Him to make sufficient what we already have.

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1 – ” In the thirty-eighth year of Asa king of Judah, Ahab the son of Omri began to reign over Israel, and Ahab the son of Omri reigned over Israel in Samaria twenty-two years.” (1 Kings 16:29, ESV)

RAF: And still God tolerated Ahab to reign in Israel for 22 years. His patience is displayed toward Ahab, and His provocation against the Israelites in leaving them to the whims of such a wicked man. There is always more going on that just the one circumstance.

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1 – 1 Samuel Chapter 26.

RAF: While Jesus walked the earth, though the anointed King to come, nevertheless, He did nothing to overthrow or harm those authorities the Father had set in place. He bids His disciples to submit to them, in spite of their corruption. He could have come and judged all. But He did not come the first time to judge – rather to save. He will come again. The next time it will be to judge the earth in righteousness. But how He treated the lives of those who hated Him as precious. How He did not revile them when reviled. How He remained harmless, though they sought His life to take it. How He called to them and sought to have them reconciled. But they would not.

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1 – “And Saul said to Samuel, “I have obeyed the voice of the Lord. I have gone on the mission on which the Lord sent me. I have brought Agag the king of Amalek, and I have devoted the Amalekites to destruction. But the people took of the spoil, sheep and oxen, the best of the things devoted to destruction, to sacrifice to the Lord your God in Gilgal.”” (1 Samuel 15:20-21, ESV)

RAF: Like Eve in Eden thinking it was better to add that the fruit of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil shouldn’t be touched either, so here, they thought they could do one better than just following what God commanded. Whether it be subtracting or adding to what God says, either makes us God. And He will not stand for it. Many believe it is good and right to add works in salvation, that it is noble and higher than simply believing God to be justified. But in the end, it isn’t what He commanded. We cannot make His Word better.

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