More and more I am see that God’s kingdom is a “Both-And” kingdom. Sure, it doesn’t make much sense grammatically, but those rules have never meant too much to me. Grammar guidelines aren’t intuitive for me. Sort of like fashion. Please forgive me and avert your eyes as needed.
Half-hearted apologies out of the way and back to my grammatically incorrect statement. Both-And. So often in scripture we see two seemingly dissimilar ideas linked together. One ought not to be neglected in favor of the other; both deserve our attention. Spread your resources between this and that. That really irks an all-or-nothing thinker like me. Nonetheless, he keeps speaking to my heart about the mysterious synergy of his kingdom.
 Praise and petition in prayer
We spent last week at the WorldVenture Renewal Conference both praising God for who he is and praying earnestly that He will send out workers.
Giving and serving in obedient worship
"Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You give a tenth of your spices--mint, dill and cumin. But you have neglected the more important matters of the law--justice, mercy and faithfulness. You should have practiced the latter, without neglecting the former." Matthew 23:23
Foreign missions and local outreach
"But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you. And you will be my witnesses, telling people about me everywhere - in Jerusalem, throughout Judea, in Samaria,and to the ends of the earth." Acts 1:8
The apostles were already in Jerusalem. That was their local outreach. Jesus didn’t tell them to stop there. He commanded them to also go out to the “ends of the earth”. That was their, and our, foreign mission directive.
Christian students and non-Christian students
We’ve introduced you to some of our brand new Christian students. Now we will introduce you to one of our students that has been following Jesus for several years. With her fun-loving personality, open nature and deep desire to reach the Lost, I think you will like her as much as we do.
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Did you know that in addition to regular pledges we also need cash gifts to cover our outgoing expenses? Here is another great example of Both And. See? It keeps popping up!
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