Mike Morgan

the earthly church and it's denominations

Colossians 2:16 (MSG)
So don't put up with anyone pressuring you in details of diet, worship services, or holy days. All those things are mere shadows cast before what was to come; the substance is Christ.

Colossians 2:18 (MSG)
Don't tolerate people who try to run your life, ordering you to bow and scrape, insisting that you join their obsession with angels and that you seek out visions. They're a lot of hot air, that's all they are. They're completely out of touch with the source of life, Christ, who puts us together in one piece, whose very breath and blood flow through us. He is the Head and we are the body. We can grow up healthy in God only as he nourishes us.

Colossians 2:20 (MSG)
So, then, if with Christ you've put all that pretentious and infantile religion behind you, why do you let yourselves be bullied by it? "Don't touch this! Don't taste that! Don't go near this!" Do you think things that are here today and gone tomorrow are worth that kind of attention? Such things sound impressive if said in a deep enough voice. They even give the illusion of being pious and humble and ascetic. But they're just another way of showing off, making yourselves look important.

Galatians 5:13

Galatians 5:13 (MSG)
It is absolutely clear that God has called you to a free life. Just make sure that you don't use this freedom as an excuse to do whatever you want to do and destroy your freedom. Rather, use your freedom to serve one another in love; that's how freedom grows. For everything we know about God's Word is summed up in a single sentence: Love others as you love yourself. That's an act of true freedom. If you bite and ravage each other, watch out—in no time at all you will be annihilating each other, and where will your precious freedom be then?

Backsliding

1 Peter 1:16 (MSG)
God said, "I am holy; you be holy."

2 Peter 1:5-8

2 Peter 1:5-8 (NLT)
In view of all this, make every effort to respond to God’s promises. Supplement your faith with a generous provision of moral excellence, and moral excellence with knowledge,

2 Peter 1:5-8

2 Peter 1:5-8 (NASB)
Now for this very reason also, applying all diligence, in your faith supply moral excellence, and in your moral excellence, knowledge,

2 Peter 1:5

2 Peter 1:5 (NLT)
In view of all this, make every effort to respond to God’s promises. Supplement your faith with a generous provision of moral excellence, and moral excellence with knowledge,

Philippians 1:6

Philippians 1:6 (MSG)
There has never been the slightest doubt in my mind that the God who started this great work in you would keep at it and bring it to a flourishing finish on the very day Christ Jesus appears.

Philippians 4:6-7

Philippians 4:6-7 (MSG)
Don't fret or worry. Instead of worrying, pray. Let petitions and praises shape your worries into prayers, letting God know your concerns. Before you know it, a sense of God's wholeness, everything coming together for good, will come and settle you down. It's wonderful what happens when Christ displaces worry at the center of your life.

Proverbs 24:16-17

Proverbs 24:16-17 (AMP)
For a righteous man falls seven times and rises again, but the wicked are overthrown by calamity.

1 Thessalonians 5:16-18

1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 (NIV)
Rejoice always,

what?

Matthew 24:34 (NASB)
Truly I say to you, this generation will not pass away until all these things take place.

father

Matthew 23:9 (NASB)
Do not call anyone on earth your father; for One is your Father, He who is in heaven.

Proverbs 29:25

Proverbs 29:25 (MSG)
The fear of human opinion disables; trusting in God protects you from that.

2 Corinthians 12:7-10

2 Corinthians 12:7-10 (MSG)
Because of the extravagance of those revelations, and so I wouldn't get a big head, I was given the gift of a handicap to keep me in constant touch with my limitations. Satan's angel did his best to get me down; what he in fact did was push me to my knees. No danger then of walking around high and mighty! At first I didn't think of it as a gift, and begged God to remove it. Three times I did that, and then he told me, My grace is enough; it's all you need. My strength comes into its own in your weakness. Once I heard that, I was glad to let it happen. I quit focusing on the handicap and began appreciating the gift. It was a case of Christ's strength moving in on my weakness. Now I take limitations in stride, and with good cheer, these limitations that cut me down to size—abuse, accidents, opposition, bad breaks. I just let Christ take over! And so the weaker I get, the stronger I become.

Philippians 3:8

Philippians 3:8 (NASB)
More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish so that I may gain Christ,

1 Corinthians 13:3

1 Corinthians 13:3 (MSG)
If I give everything I own to the poor and even go to the stake to be burned as a martyr, but I don't love, I've gotten nowhere. So, no matter what I say, what I believe, and what I do, I'm bankrupt without love. Love never gives up. Love cares more for others than for self. Love doesn't want what it doesn't have. Love doesn't strut, Doesn't have a swelled head, Doesn't force itself on others, Isn't always "me first," Doesn't fly off the handle, Doesn't keep score of the sins of others, Doesn't revel when others grovel, Takes pleasure in the flowering of truth, Puts up with anything, Trusts God always, Always looks for the best, Never looks back, But keeps going to the end.

1 Corinthians 13:4

1 Corinthians 13:4 (MSG)
Love never gives up. Love cares more for others than for self. Love doesn't want what it doesn't have. Love doesn't strut, Doesn't have a swelled head,

1 Corinthians 13:5

1 Corinthians 13:5 (MSG)
Doesn't force itself on others, Isn't always "me first," Doesn't fly off the handle, Doesn't keep score of the sins of others,

1 Corinthians 13:6

1 Corinthians 13:6 (MSG)
Doesn't revel when others grovel, Takes pleasure in the flowering of truth,

1 Corinthians 13:7

1 Corinthians 13:7 (MSG)
Puts up with anything, Trusts God always, Always looks for the best, Never looks back, But keeps going to the end.

Philippians 3:8

Philippians 3:8 (NASB)
More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them but rubbish so that I may gain Christ,

Acts 5:39

Acts 5:39 (MSG)
but if it is of God, there is nothing you can do about it-and you better not be found fighting against God!"

Acts 5:41

Acts 5:41 (MSG)
The apostles went out of the High Council overjoyed because they had been given the honor of being dishonored on account of the Name.

Acts 5:42

Acts 5:42 (MSG)
Every day they were in the Temple and homes, teaching and preaching Christ Jesus, not letting up for a minute.

Acts 5:39

Acts 5:39 (MSG)
but if it is of God, there is nothing you can do about it-and you better not be found fighting against God!"