DRAFT: Fruit Of the Cross

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Practicing to Become More Like Jesus

[A 12-week class I might build. Feedback welcome!]

As Christians, we all want to live and love more like Jesus. But books, sermons, Bible study, quiet times, and even counseling only get us so far.

To fully address our strongholds, woundedness and blind spots requires encountering Jesus in a supportive community that models how to deny ourselves, take up our cross, and follow Him. In practice, not just in theory.

Fruit of the Cross (FOTC) is a 12-week online course, built around the Fruit of the Spirit, where we learn how to help each other identify and surrender those parts of our “flesh” that hinder us from growing closer to Jesus. By the end, you will be equipped and certified to host your own online or offline FOTC courses, using or adapting our free materials. You also gain membership in our missional social network, where you can continue to grow and plan with like-minded believers.

The course is built around active learning, inspired by Discovery Bible Study and the Minerva Project. Each week focuses on practicing a different Fruit-related learning objective, via:

  • a brief recording, which you listen to on your own time
  • a 2-hour live session where we encounter Jesus through His Word, Spirit, Body & Blood
  • an online chat community where we share questions, testimonies, and encouragement

The course is being developed via the Maven Accelerator Program in January 2022, and we hope to host our first cohort by Lent. Cost will be $14 per student, but scholarships and group discounts are available. For more information, please contact ernest.prabhakar@gmail.com.

“The body of Christ arose as ONE mighty army”

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A prophetic glimpse into the coming time!

by John Dayalan Edwards

(My cousin, born in the US but now living in Chennai)

This past Sunday I was preaching on inner healing and deliverance in our Tamil service. The anointing of the Lord was present to heal inner wounds and hurts and the love and compassion of the Lord was abundant.

During that time, in a moment I felt as if I was one with the Lord as I prayed — it seemed like Jesus Himself was praying —from John 13:34,35 and John 17:21.

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Hale’s Accusation (Alternate Ending of The Crucible)

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1 Samuel 15 (KJV) – For bitterness is as the sin of witchcraft, And presumption is as iniquity and idolatry.

[Our Christian high school just put on a “fearless” production of Arthur Miller’s The Crucible, which continued to haunt me after leaving the theater. I identified deeply with many of the characters, whose seemingly minor flaws led to tragic results. I am writing this in hopes it will help me identify (and repent of) the deeper sin they shared — but could not name — which ultimately destroyed them all.]

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Dream: Impostor

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Our family is staying at a tropical casino.
The kids are getting bored, so we start wandering towards the outside.

The casino is having their grand evening religious ritual.
The main hallway and staircase are lined with formally-dressed staff holding candles.
I am never sure if they are genuinely devout, or just putting on a pageant for the tourists.

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Dream: Guidebook

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It is our group’s last day in this beach town
We have all packed our bags
And checked out

We are storing our things
In some sort of common room
While we each wait to depart

I realize I have no more obligations
This is the perfect time
To do
Some serious drinking!

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Dream: Discrepancy

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I am back at my old consulting firm
As a new recruit
Along with a whole class
Going through a training exercise

We are all given slips of paper
With a particular business Case study
We have to solve

The trainer first calls
On a couple of smart college guys
Who give the textbook answer

He then turns to me
With a knowing smile
Showing me he remembers me
And suggests I merge my Case with theirs

I haven’t been paying attention
So I start talking
While rearranging my slips
I see and say the name
Of the client: Salomon Brady
And haltingly explain that
they’re missing $5.1 million dollars
Joking that is probably because
They (too) didn’t keep track of the papers

There’s two main possibilities
Deliberate fraud or sloppy bookkeeping
I explain to my two “colleagues”
Whom I pretend to meet
At the cafeteria there

I’m assuming they’ve already
Solved their Case
So I suggest ways that they each
Might help prove or eliminate
One of my hypotheses

They play along
In a rather condescending way
Which is only fair
Because I wasn’t very prepared
Since I wasn’t paying attention
Even though I mostly covered it up
By being smart and self-deprecating

Just like I use
Being clever and charming
To compensate for a lack
Of being emotionally available
In my closest relationships

Redeeming Aphrodite: Freeing Minerva (Part 12 of 12)

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Continued from Part 11

Prologue

All of us turn South, seeking the Voice which interrupted our tableau, here in the Box of Hades:

  1. Eve, Queen of the Damned
  2. Minerva, her Champion
  3. Aphrodite and Artemis, my Advocates
  4. Myself, the Son of Adam

We gaze toward the far horizon, where Eve’s Multitude had wreaked their vengeance upon Adam.
I am sure it is not his Voice we just heard.
I cannot place it; though it did sound familiar.

Movement stirs at the very limits of our vision.
A pale blue light, in sharp contrast to the dim red glow of our surroundings.
I think I catch a glimpse of one like a Son of Man

Sons of Man

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