Pastor Percipia

   For full message, see link at bottom I have a friend who I'm going to call Jordan. Jordan is in their early 70s, intelligent, likeable, as level-headed and mentally healthy as most of us most days. Jordan lives in their car. They lived in their car last winter and the winter before, and now winter is here again and nothing has changed. And Jordan woke up this morning in their car. They have gone through official channels to get assistance. They've been told in some cases that they're on the waiting list (along with approximately 900 other people in our county). And in some cases, Jordan has been told that they don't qualify for assistance because they are “semi-housed.” Jordan has agreed to be one of the inaugural occupants of a sleeping cabin if and when they are approved, and has been part of that proces, consulting on design, requirements, and location. Jordan has read and heard in the media opposing points of view from people largely motivated by fear, wondering,...

   For full message, see link at bottom The ancient Greek noun that gets translated to ‘ temptation ’ is peirasmos . Sometimes it is translated into E nglish as ‘ temptation ’ and sometimes as ‘ testing ’ depending on the context. There's a big difference between th e two ideas of temptation and testing .   W hen scripture talks  about being drawn towards doing something that we should not do because it is wrong , t ranslators use the word temptation .    I want to focus a b it more o n the second translation : testing . Same original word i n the original language, but i t gets translated differently.   God does test us. He does bring things i nto our lives that challenge us and make us marshall everything we've learned and the strength that we have built . He gives us the opportunity to flex the spi ri t ual muscles that we've been building to overcome a test s o that ...