If Only You Would…!!

Tommy Boland
5 Jun 2012
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only you

How often we use this statement, tacking on a variety of endings to point the finger of blame at someone else for whatever it is in life that displeases us. I call this “victim mentality,” because when we point the finger of responsibility at others we play the role of the victim. Do any of the following statements resonate with you at all? If only you would grow up! If only you would do more around the house! If only you would be more intimate! If only you would get more serious! If only you would lose a little weight! […]

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A Blessed Bunch of Believers

Tommy Boland
25 May 2012
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At The Cross Community Church we are in the middle of a sermon series I am teaching on The Epistle of Paul to the Ephesians.  Right at the beginning of the letter we read that we are “blessed in Christ with every spiritual blessing” from adoption, to the forgiveness of sins, to the gift of eternal life.  In addition to every spiritual blessing, we have the great blessings of the gift of the church.  When we are saved we are indeed saved individually.  But we are saved to community and that community is the church made up of every tongue, […]

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blessed

Scandalous Love

Tommy Boland
17 Feb 2012
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scandalous

The message this month is about a love so scandalous that it was willing to leave the court of heaven and the throne of grace, take on human flesh, dwell among us, live a perfect life, be ridiculed, slandered, falsely accused, betrayed, abandoned, condemned to death, beaten, nailed to cross beams, and forsaken by His Father in heaven.  In the gospel of Luke chapter 7, verses 36-50 we read this: “One of the Pharisees asked Him to eat with Him, and he went into the Pharisee’s house and reclined at the table. And behold, a woman of the city, who […]

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Immanuel

Tommy Boland
2 Dec 2011
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(Scroll down to leave a comment on what Immanuel means to you) Finally we have arrived at our favorite time of the year as a family…Christmas time! We wait all year to get out those lights and decorations that mark the beginning of Christmas for us. We love the sights. We love the smells.  We love the tastes. We love the sharing with family and friends. But most importantly, we love the reason for the season and His name is Jesus Christ. Immanuel, God with us I would like our meditation this month to lead us back, by faith, to […]

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immanuel

Glorious Freedom

Tommy Boland
3 Nov 2011
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freedom

We talk a lot about freedom – Jesus came to set the captives free, and if the Son has set you free you are free indeed!  But did you ever consider the height, width and depth of this freedom? I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us. The creation waits in eager expectation for the sons of God to be revealed.  For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself […]

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Spiritual Snobs

Tommy Boland
30 Sep 2011
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(Scroll down to leave a comment on what makes a spiritual snob) Spiritual snobs are everywhere.  Have you seen any lately?  Do you know what a spiritual snob looks like?  At times, you may see one looking at you in the mirror! What makes a spiritual snob? We are all spiritual snobs by nature; it’s woven deep into our sinful DNA. We like to judge others on everything from lifestyle to looks . . . money to Life . . . personality to profession. We spend far too much time searching for and speaking about the speck in the eye […]

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spiritual snob

It’s Not About Being Good

Tommy Boland
7 Sep 2011
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good

Far too many in the church today believe Jesus saved them to make them “good”. They’re missing altogether the deeper message of our salvation.  They have reduced the Bible to a book of rules and shrunk their faith to a “things-to-do” list.  For those who may be trapped in this gross misunderstanding of the Christian faith, let me say this, “Jesus did not save you to make you good; He saved you to make you His!” And out of the Gospel-truth of being His, good behavior and good works naturally flow! Titus 2:14 states that Jesus “gave himself for us […]

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The Blinding of Believers

Tommy Boland
11 Aug 2011
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The devil is on the prowl for unbelievers; he is busily engaged in keeping them in utter darkness. 2 Corinthians 4:4 states, “The god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.” Satan is on the prowl for the believers too! Scripture is bookended by admonitions to be on guard against our cunning and terrible adversary.  God cautioned Cain, “Sin is crouching at the door. Its desire is for you, but you must rule over it” (Genesis […]

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blind

Dependent Independence

Tommy Boland
5 Jul 2011
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dependent

(Scroll down to leave a comment on how much you are dependent on God) This month in America we celebrate the adoption of the Declaration of Independence in 1776. July 4th is a legal holiday celebrating the anniversary of the beginnings of national independence of the Colonists from the authority of the British Crown. As important as this day is in the life of our great nation for independence, it is critical that we never forget to declare our dependence upon God. Sadly, Adam and Eve forgot this truth and sent the entire cosmos into a downward spiral of depravity, […]

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Faith and the Functional Atheist

Tommy Boland
2 Jun 2011
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At first glance, faith in Jesus Christ and the beliefs of the functional atheist seem as far apart as the east is from the west. But upon closer inspection, we see that everyone who professes faith in Christ does, at times, live like a functional atheist. A functional atheist is someone who professes faith in Christ, but behaves as if He doesn’t exist. They don’t say, “There is no God,” but rather they deny the existence of God in their lives by the way they are living at a particular time. The functional atheist has decided to live apart from […]

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atheist