God is compassionate and His compassion is based on his understanding of our frailty. He knows we are weak and prone to failure. It doesn't make our failures right; some will never be right but he does understand why we do things. People do things for reasons. C. S. Lewis said, “To a starving soldier, bad love is better than no love at all.”
We can understand why men go to pubs and why young men drink. It’s a religious feeling they get from drinking called transcendence. They feel there isn’t enough of themselves to be worth anything but when they drink, they feel bigger in the universe. We can understand it and so can Jesus. It doesn't make it right but then nothing is right outside of Jesus. Even a tee totalling Pharisee is not right outside of Jesus. Sometimes we beat ourselves because we don’t understand that salvation is not a “cure-all”; it doesn't remove our weakness so there is no longer any risk. There will always be a risk and some temptation; a bias toward sin, the pull will always be there while we live in the flesh. Though the power of sin is broken the penalty of sin is cancelled sin can still launch an attack in our flesh.
God has not taken away the risk of sin from our life. We can minimize the risk but we can’t eliminate it. Recently when two men decided to row from Australia to NZ, they could minimize the risk by preparation but they couldn't eliminate risk entirely.
Friend, there is no “zap” to cure your human weakness. God works through human weakness not through human strength. We can rebuke the devil and we should, but the weakness stays along with His great and free Grace in our time of need!
Read More
David was ashamed of his sin but thankful that he could be forgiven. Still, he had to live with the promise of trouble in his home. Forgiveness was granted but the consequences were massive. He suffered in his life because of the wrong choices he made. Christianity is not magic; it doesn’t dissolve all your problems and potential problems. You will still suffer for your sins, in this life.
Sin repented off will not be mentioned or brought up in the next life but in this life, you will live with the consequence maybe for all your life. We have two choices as believers; not whether we will suffer but whether we will suffer for doing good or doing evil. A man may choose to suffer at work for being honest or he may suffer in his soul if he chooses to be dishonest, but suffer he will. It is not easy being a Christian, but it is always better to suffer to obeying than to suffer because of sin.
Being a Christian doesn’t protect us from all suffering but it does help us to endure suffering, and if we will obey God it will help us avoid having to suffer for sin.
Friend, Jesus suffered in the flesh; meaning that there are things that are right but not easy to do but any difficult thing we need to do will be better than suffering for doing the wrong thing.
David was ashamed of his sin but thankful that he could be forgiven. Still, he had to live with the promise of trouble in his home. Forgiveness was granted but the consequences were massive. He suffered in his life because of the wrong choices he made. Christianity is not magic; it doesn’t dissolve all your problems and potential problems. You will still suffer for your sins, in this life.
Sin repented off will not be mentioned or brought up in the next life but in this life, you will live with the consequence maybe for all your life. We have two choices as believers; not whether we will suffer but whether we will suffer for doing good or doing evil. A man may choose to suffer at work for being honest or he may suffer in his soul if he chooses to be dishonest, but suffer he will. It is not easy being a Christian, but it is always better to suffer to obeying than to suffer because of sin. Being a Christian doesn’t protect us from all suffering but it does help us to endure suffering, and if we will obey God it will help us avoid having to suffer for sin.
Friend, Jesus suffered in the flesh; meaning that there are things that are right but not easy to do but any difficult thing we need to do will be better than suffering for doing the wrong thing.
Read More
It was a wet stormy night and our children were out with their friends. Like most other nights fear fleetingly came and went through my mind as I thought about the worst-case scenario.
Fear is one thing that allows the devil to get a hook into our life. Our fears for the future or our health or that our kids might not be saved, but the devil is a liar. The devil is the source and father of every lie and he is not speaking for God. We should reject his every thought and Gods answer to the devils lies, is always His Truth.
We are prone to worry about our children. We love and care for them most of all but there is one who loves them more. The key to getting free of fear is to declare God love and kindness around your children and trust the angels who are ministering spirit for the heirs of salvation. Next thing to do is consecrate them to the Lord. If there is a fear it’s usually a sign that there is something, in our life which is not yet completely consecrated to the Lord. The Bible says that fear and worry is sin which is hard to understand because to us to worry seems like a parental responsibility. When we fear losing things they maybe have taken on idolatrous importance. Consecration means, there is nothing between you and God. Love for God determines what we do with our life, what we do with our money and what we do with our time and mind. Therefore the devil is happy for you to have any god except the Lord Jesus Christ.
Friend, that relationship with Jesus is of prime importance - anything that comes between us is an idol which the devil is able to use to get a hook of fear into our minds. Consecrate all matters to Him and trust Him to do what you can’t do and to keep what you cannot keep.
Read More
When I was about 15 years old, I was camping at the beach with my friend when we were invited by some believer to their campfire for dessert. Being hungry we went and had a great time playing games. They also sang worship songs and gave testimony before we left. When I went back to the tent I was not converted but I was convicted and changed. From that night I never blasphemed again. It was a permanent instant change in my heart, but most times change is not that instant. Most recovery and restoration takes place through a crisis and a process. Jesus changes our lives but although sometimes it is instant, mostly it happens over a long time. We need crisis; the altar call, the powerful laying on of hands, experiences of the Holy Spirit but we also need the process; perhaps the introduction of many new disciplines or habits like reading, worship and prayer. My most important crises were complete surrender to God. To follow Him whatever that meant. After 30 years I can say I never dreamed of the fulfilment and joy I’d receive from following Him.
Friend, I have loved the encounters I have had with Him on occasions but it is the daily surrender and seeking Him in order to hear and obey that has been the most important thing to my growth.
Read More
The funeral ended and the crowds moved outside to comfort the family. Tears flowed as they embraced the grieving; the family received strength. We are designed to need other people, even when it comes to grieving properly. We cry more freely at funerals when people hug us. The hug tells us, that it is alright to let go because there is still someone here for us. We need others to hold us through the process. Rom 12.15. We mourn with those who mourn.
Tears come in the eyes, not in the souls of our feet, so people can see our need and hold us up.
We can experience grief whenever we lose a family member when a dear relationship ends or even when we lose a cherished job. When hopes are smashed, we need someone to hold us and help us through to a new life. As the natural body heals itself, so it takes the spiritual body of Christ to heal us too. The Body can take a load from us; it can compensate and take away infection from our soul. God brings people into the church body to be healed, who are emotionally wounded, rejected or damaged by life and relationships.
Friend, when people first come into a loving church body, they are nearly always dulling the pain in their heart but when they are healed by the Body, the pain and even destructive cycles of sin can be broken. Didn't someone sing "Love the one your with"? Maybe they meant at Church!
Read More
The funeral ended and the crowds moved outside to comfort the family. Tears flowed as they embraced the grieving; the family received strength. We are designed to need other people, even when it comes to grieving properly. We cry more freely at funerals when people hug us. The hug tells us, that it is alright to let go because there is still someone here for us. We need others to hold us through the process. Rom 12.15. We mourn with those who mourn.
Tears come in the eyes, not in the souls of our feet, so people can see our need and hold us up.
We can experience grief whenever we lose a family member when a dear relationship ends or even when we lose a cherished job. When hopes are smashed, we need someone to hold us and help us through to a new life. As the natural body heals itself, so it takes the spiritual body of Christ to heal us too. The Body can take a load from us; it can compensate and take away infection from our soul. God brings people into the church body to be healed, who are emotionally wounded, rejected or damaged by life and relationships.
Friend, when people first come into a loving church body, they are nearly always dulling the pain in their heart but when they are healed by the Body, the pain and even destructive cycles of sin can be broken. Didn't someone sing "Love the one your with"? Maybe they meant at Church!
Read More
People are designed to need God and to need people as well, in fact, there are many important things we can’t fully receive apart from people.
We all need acceptance; it is the cry of everyone to be accepted. We try to dress right, look right and talk right just to fit in. We know we are accepted by God but often we struggle to know it in our heart. What can help us is the acceptance of people? When acceptance also comes from Gods people, we can feel love. We need God with skin on; someone who Jesus is “wearing.”
Often people that live in isolation, nearly always feel bad about themselves. Often they feel guilty. They reason, if I feel lonely, I must not be loved and if I'm unlovable it must be because I'm bad.
Grace is the foundation of all true success and life from God. Everything we receive; everything you have; including grace itself is by grace. 1Peter 4.10 Grace is something that has to come from outside of us; from God or others. God uses His Body to dispense His grace. Many of Gods gifts to His children, come to us through the Body. Knowing God’s love and forgiveness also goes from our head to our hearts, when we experience it through His people.
Friend, we receive Life from God only, but often He dispenses it to us, through His body the Church. Find a true friend today or reach out to the one you trust already.
Studies show us that any child that doesn't bond with its mother and father is more likely to have relationships affected by emotional problems. Without bonding, children, teenagers and even adults are hindered in their growth to emotional maturity, continuing to act like children. People like Lee Harvey Oswald the killer, who shot President Kennedy. On November 22, 1965, he fired two shots into the head of the President; a man who represented good looks, brains and respect. His killer had all the classic handicaps; his mother was domineering and a brawler; she was not gentle or nurturing and even beat up her three husbands. She gave the boy no affection and no discipline. The school psychologist said that Oswald probably didn't know the meaning of love. He dropped out of the Marines because he couldn't accept discipline or authority and married a foreign girl who mocked him treating him like a kid. He was often locked in the bathroom or out of the house, till he came begging. One day he took the rifle from the garage and climbed to the sixth floor. Inadequacy, lack of loving relationships with his parents and sin, had bred a monster. A person who has not bonded with parents and others later in life will have little basis for morality. A mother doesn't hold her child because she should but because she wants to; she loves that baby. Friends don’t visit their friends in the hospital because they should but because they love them.
Friend, the bond of love is always a more powerful motivation than morality or doing what is right. Jesus said love is the fulfilment of the law. Let His love fill you today and live free!
Read More