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Greetings!
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After viewing the greeting, return here to the Journal for articles covering the latest news from Embracing Life Ministries. Various members of the ELM team will be contributing each month.
Check it out.
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Quote of the Month
"When once you realize all that it cost God to forgive you, you will be held in a vice, constrained by the love of God." My Utmost for His Highest, Oswald Chambers, November 20th
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ForgivenessExcerpted from the ELS Guidebook, Session 8
by Jonathan Hunter
In our post-modern society, special interest groups latch on to a word or phrase and before you know it, its meaning and usage has been re-symbolized in your mind. Forgiveness is just such a word. Apart from the Scriptures, the phrase "I forgive you", "You're forgiven", in our culture can seem facile, a throw-away line, almost sarcastic. However, for God it is the difference between life and death for the forgiver and the forgive-ee.
"Compared with the forgiveness of sin, the experience of sanctification is slight. Sanctification is simply the marvelous expression of the forgiveness of sin in a human life, but the thing that awakens the deepest well of gratitude in a human being is that God has forgiven sin." (My Utmost for Your Highest, Oswald Chambers, Nov. 20)
Previously I shared about the emergence of the true self that comes from the daily application of the cross to our lives. Jesus and his cross mediate the forgiveness of God. Through the cross, God's image is restored in our humanity.
Walking humbly in Jesus' steps, in the way of the cross, is part of that restoration process. Denying ourselves means releasing our claim to justice or vengeance against another who has hurt us. Taking up our cross means submitting our claim to the One who forgave us. Taking our cross and following Jesus means we must forgive the other. Forgiving others is not an option for those who follow Jesus. When we forgive the other, we forgive as Jesus forgave, releasing new life in the process. By the grace and power of God we change our world. By the act of forgiveness we reflect God's image as a creative being.
If we stubbornly refuse to release others from real or imagined wrongdoing, our lives become loaded down with all kinds of sin: envy, covetousness, malice, vengeance, pride, self-righteousness, judgements and condemnation. Instead, we should be running to the cross to unload all our unrighteous thoughts. At the altar of the cross, we exchange our burdensome, controlling thoughts of retribution for the Lord's way of forgiveness, liberation and healing. "Therefore confess you sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed" (James 5:16)
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"The foundational scripture for Embracing Life Ministries is John 10:10 where Jesus says: 'I came that they may have life, and have it to the full.' Ever-increasing life in relationship with Jesus Christ is the focus and goal of Embracing Life Ministries."
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In Gary's Words
Musings...
by Gary's wife, Karen Greeno
Gathering Hope...
This week a friend passed along John Eldridge's current newsletter. I find his writing to be so readable, honest and clarifying. His message was on hope: our need to be free of the obstacles to our hope in God, and our need to have hope renewed, to have Great Expectations.
As I finished the newsletter, I thought:
That's exactly what we do in our Ingatherings for Embracing Life.
We break agreements with resignation, despair and defeat.
We become realigned with our God of hope and truth.
...Saturday, May 19th was our quarterly Ingathering.
We were on the short end of the stick -
only 6 team members were available to participate and minister;
only 6 more gathered with us, one of whom was completely new to Embracing Life.
Twelve in all.
But what we saw!
As we walked through the familiar rhythm of an Ingathering: worship, teaching, group breaking free...prayer, individual ministry, communion and testimonials, I saw:
...worship at the feet of Jesus
...a message fitly tailored by the Holy Spirit to the group that was present
...my husband, whose speech has been severely compromised by Parkinson's Disease, laying hands on participants in silent prayer, weeping in his heartfelt cry to the Father
...our friend ministering with his harp, walking back and forth before our tiny group, bathing our hearts with the love of the Father through worship
...the Lord's heart pouring through me in song as I lifted women in prayer. I noticed a natural and easy flow without the insecure, interior yammering that usually goes on inside me..."Naturally supernatural", John Wimber, founder of the Vineyard would have called it.
Each of us lifted, encouraged with renewed hope, blessed by community as we serve and are served in turn - a body being built through the mercy of the Holy Spirit.
For we are surely a needy people. And He delights to meet with us, answering our heart's cry with more of Himself.
Small, Sweet, Blessed...
Gathering hope in...
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| We hope you will consider sharing this email with friends and loved ones whom you think would benefit from the ministry of Embracing Life. This is a good way to introduce the material and we would appreciate your passing it along. Thanks!
Sincerely,
Jonathan Hunter
Embracing Life Ministries
(626)798-7398
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COMING IN AUGUST:
MARK THE DATE
Embracing Life Ingathering
Saturday,
August 18th
Anaheim Vineyard
5:30pm - 8:30pm
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"Something to Say"
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Featured:
Tina Pizzarello
Embracing Life Leader
Anaheim, California
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Quick Links
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Testimony from Embracing Life Series Participant
...Each time I would fail my extremely high expectations of myself, I would be brutally unforgiving toward myself and furiously angry not only with myself but with whomever I perceived to have caused me to fail.
...Interestingly enough, I had been feeling for at least a year that something inside was blocking me from receiving the love and comfort of the Holy Spirit - like a rain gutter full of dead leaves and trash.
So it was in Week 8 when we looked at forgiveness, that I became painfully aware of my un-forgiveness toward myself. Eureka!! The garbage inside is my un-forgiveness toward myself.
I have now begun the very difficult practice of forgiving myself...
K.R. (2007)
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"HEALING PRESENCE" NOW AVAILABLE ON iTUNES
Produced in 1994, this album benefits Embracing Life and features Marty Goetz, Wendell Burton, Alice Echols and Rick Norris among others. Hard copies sold out early on, but now you can download it digitally and take a journey of faith, prayer, forgiveness, thanksgiving, encouragement and worship.
Healing Presence more than lives up to its name.
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Embracing Life Journal
