RUPA Spiritual Impact Model: How to redeem those we love

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How can we grow all of us closer to Jesus?

Lately I’ve been wrestling with a series of questions around:

  • parenting
  • evangelism
  • discipleship
  • inner healing.

This morning — having watched the Indian Forrest Gump last night — I wonder if the acronym RUPA might address all of them:

  1. Relationships that build Trust
  2. Understanding that creates Awareness
  3. Prayer that binds Strongmen
  4. Authority to release Freedom

Here’s a first draft of how that might work. What do you think?

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Divorcing the War on Marriage

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In the conservative Christian circles I live in, we often talk about the war on marriage: how the laws of our culture must uphold the biblical pattern against those who would seek to redefine it.

While that may be true, we seem to be ignoring a painful reality. The church lost that same war decades ago: on the issue of divorce. Maybe we should take the time to understand why before we make the same mistakes all over again.

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Dream: Exterminate!

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Finally, the day has arrived!

Our garden has been infested with poke-lizards at least as long as my son has been alive.
A few years ago we decided to get rid of them.

First haphazardly, then more methodically, we have been trapping them, sealing up the boundaries of our yard, and destroying the warrens they live in.

Now there is only one place left for them to hide.
Time to set off the lizard-bomb.

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Hosea’s Lament

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To the tune of Psalm 22.

Oh Lord! How long must I wait? How long will you leave me in dismay?

The one I love has turned against me. Her teeth rip into my skin. Hard sticks break my bones.


Lord, I am not innocent in your eyes. Who can stand before your perfect justice? Who can measure up to your standards of holiness?

But I have humbled myself before God and man — and woman! I have searched my heart and confessed my sins against those who have wronged me. I have repaid good for evil, and forgiven those who plotted against me.

Lord, look down with mercy upon your servant, who trusts in you. You alone are my hope and salvation. I am like one struck dumb. All my words are turned against me.

Save me O Lord. You are my only hope.

Twelve Steps to Breakthrough: Free Courts of Heaven Worksheet

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Online Version https://forms.gle/xraVo3KsSSQ5npTV8

Introduction

This worksheet is designed to help you achieve victory over the spiritual and psychological “curses” that prevent you from living the abundant life God intends for you. Specifically, it provides a structured format for us to “come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need” (Hebrews 4:6). The idea of making petitions to a heavenly judge is inspired by the idea of literal heavenly courts as taught by Robert Henderson and others, but you can also use it metaphorically as an advanced Twelve Steps program for taking ground in other aspects of your life.

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Twelve Steps to Arrow-Proof Your Ministry

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Apologies for the pretentious title, but I wanted to challenge myself to identify and reorganize the lessons we covered in last year’s leadership class into a coherent prescription for facing down “Ministry Killers”. The idea is that each of these “steps” would be a single “life lesson”, but that together they provide the “full armor of God.

What do you think? Did I miss anything important?

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