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Five themes for encouragement and inspiration
The Priority of His Presence - The Discipleship Process - The Divine Purpose - The Heavenly Perspective - Growing Personally
These five themes are Jim’s ministry emphasis, the focus of his study and the passion of his heart!
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The Priority of His Presence- Understanding why every thing must begin with Him
Paul sat thinking about the Isthmian Games held close to Corinth, where he had repaired tents, and wrote to encourage the church to run their race, “Run in such a way that you may obtain it.” The track was roughly two hundred meters, and the runners ran with every weight removed. Only freemen of Greece could compete—not slaves or foreigners. This all pictures our Christian life as only freemen in Christ, not slaves of the world, can run this race. And all believers are in the race. As sinners, God offered us eternal life as His free gift: Yet once we believe and possess eternal life, scripture tells us we are running for a prize. A reward often talked about by Jesus, to be granted for faithfulness, diligence, endurance, and wholehearted devotion.
Paul declared that he ran this race with purpose, embracing suffering, thirst, and hardships because he saw the value of the prize. Paul’s strategy to fulfil his calling and win the prize was simple and instructive. “I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus”. Php 3:14 . The word Goal, often translated Mark, is the Greek word “skopos”. In the race, the “skopos” was the man at the finish line watching for the victor. The prize was given to the one who reached the mark (goal) first. That goal is Christ
Friends, to finish our race well, we too must press toward the “skopos”. Whether in a difficult patch or times of joy and releasing the kingdom, our pursuit is to close the gap between Him and us. Jesus is our mark—not ease or ministry success. Even revival and harvest are not the mark. To pursue anything above Him is to miss the goal entirely. Jesus is the One thing needed. He is the message, the mission, and the measure. Just seek Him, adore HIm, gaze on Him, listen to HIm, and obey HIm. When we live in intimacy with Him, other kingdom goals are secondary, but the fruitfulness of purpose and mission becomes inevitable.
We don’t know her name only her love. When Jesus was in Bethany at the house of Simon the leper, a woman came to Him with an alabaster flask of costly fragrant oil and poured it on His head. Set free from torment and now living with new hope, she came to pay her debt the best she could. But some disciples including Judas asked why the fragrant oil was “wasted?” GK Apoleia” Literally “ruined to perdition.”
300 denarii was close to a year’s wage. That is extravagant worship. You can’t accurately ladle out worship, so she poured it out. Worship is wasteful; it is always excessive, even over the top. You can only pour it out unmeasured. Extravagant worship always exposes the hard, pragmatic, selfish or merely natural mindset
Judas also asked why her passion and devotion were not used to help the poor. But worship is not about being helpful or alleviating need. Meeting a need is a good thing to do at any time but it is not worship. Worship is given to the One who has no need - we worship because it is we who have the need to worship.
Tellingly, when Jesus was describing Judas later, as the “son of perdition”, he used the exact same word "wasted", meaning “ruined to perdition.” When a man calls wasted a thing that God esteems, God who wishes to esteem every man's life, may call it wasted.
Friends, the extravagance of our worship and how we rejoice in extravagant worship by others, is a good indicator of our heart and our future.
The Discipleship Process- How Father creates the image of His Son within us
My friend at the gym went on,” But do you know that only a third of the world population is Christian? I said, “It started with Jesus and only 12 men! today the impact of Christ is global and continues to grow. Jesus Christ is a Divine mystery; he was born of a woman, yet he created all women and men. He is hard to fully understand. You can understand Mohammed. He lived, he died and his bones are still upon the earth. We can understand Buddha. Born a man but said his father was an elephant with six trunks and that there was no way to find God. He died in 400 BC. But Jesus! This manual labourer who walked with dirty feet, calloused hands, and a rough village accent is, in fact, the Being who has existed from all eternity. He is the Holy One who hurled all the galaxies into being. Yet He came to earth.
Evidence of Messianic prophecy. The Old Testament contains over 300 predictions about the Messiah from His birth to His death and resurrection, all written centuries before Jesus arrived. The odds of one person fulfilling even eight of these is 1 in 10¹⁷. That’s like covering New Zealand in coins five metres deep, marking one, blindfolding someone, dropping them anywhere in N.Z. and expecting them to pick the marked coin on the first try.
Evidence of Jesus Christ. Jesus was God in the flesh, so He is the ultimate proof of God. He has more attested evidence than any Caesar. Jesus acted in ways only God can. Jesus commanded demons, seas, storms and diseases to go, and they did. He commanded eyes to see, the lame to walk, and fig trees to wither. He walks on water and raises people from the dead. Jesus made statements that only God can make. He promised forgiveness of sins and resurrection to eternal life to all who will trust in Him.
Resurrection evidence. Eventually, He died on the cross to pay for our sins. The people who saw Jesus die later found His tomb empty. This tomb was impenetrable and guarded. “Then the other disciple, who came to the tomb first, went in also; and he saw and believed”. John 20:8. Seeing Jesus resurrected transformed the disciples into men willing to live and die for the Truth. The global Church remains evidence and the only religion not founded by dead men.
Personal Evidence. The greatest evidence is the fact that many millions of people around the world, from Iran to the New Guinea highlands to the streets of New York, have met Him and been changed by him. If God is real, we should encounter Him. And we do. I wasn’t looking for Him or expecting Him to notice me when He touched me. While camping. I met some young people who talked about a Saviour who loved me. I cried for hours in my tent. God speaks, God heals and cynics become worshippers. I’ve seen God transform marriages, free the addicted and deliver those bound by demons.
Friends, you might argue with theories and philosophies. But you cannot argue with a God who shows up. None of this is self-help, but the power of a risen and present God. It is all totally believable, so come on, believe! The Bible says, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved!” Acts 16:31 .
Recently, I spoke to a dear man facing cancer. As we talked about hope, he said, “I know the tomb was empty, but perhaps that was fake”. I shared what I could and went home to continue my research!
If God were to speak to humanity, he wouldn’t leave a Post-it note on the Wailing Wall. He left something impossible to fake, powerful enough to outlast empires and include some miraculous evidence.
Evidence of Divine authorship. The phrase, "The word of the Lord came to..." or "Thus says the Lord" appear over 2,000 times in the Old Testament alone. The Bible was not written by human genius or even illumination from God. The Holy Spirit caused men to write the infallible word of God without violating their personalities.
Historical Evidence: The Bible records actual conversations, commands, covenants, and encounters with God. Abraham, Moses, and Samuel were real people who met with God. Archaeology repeatedly confirms the Bible’s accuracy. The Tel Dan Stele verifies the “House of David.” The Pilate Stone confirms the Roman governor who sentenced Jesus. The discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls in 1947 demonstrated that the Hebrew Scriptures have been transmitted with precision for over two thousand years.
The Evidence of theUnity of Scripture. Written by forty authors on three continents over fifteen hundred years, in different languages. No group chat or shared Document and yet there is one storyline, one message of unfolding revelation. You can’t get three people today to agree on where to eat lunch, yet forty authors in different centuries could agree because of inspiration from an ever-living person.
Evidence of miraculous deeds and words. Moses parted seas, Joshua parted walls. The prophets healed lepers and multiplied oil and predicted events, hundreds of years before they took place, about Egypt's judgment, Israel's dispersion, and the rise and fall of Assyria, Babylon and others.
Friend, since it was penned, the Bible has been the most loved and most hated book. Empires have banned it, burned it, and killed those who possessed it, yet it remains the most printed, translated, and influential book ever produced. It has shaped justice, inspired art, launched scientific discovery, and transformed lives. Paul, the Pharisee, went from persecuting Christians to joyfully suffering for Christ because he met the risen Jesus. As he wrote, “I know whom I have believed” (2 Tim 1:12).
To be continued..
The Divine Purpose - Seeing Fathers purpose to form a bride for his Son and mature offspring for His Kingdom
At the beach I was brought a flat white with a flower crafted on the top. It was skilful and as it illustrated God's creation, it turned my thoughts toward Heaven. Work didn’t begin with the fall. Sometimes we connect Sunday with God, but not Monday. Yet in Eden, work and God are never separated. God met Adam in the quiet of the garden and in the middle of his work. My friend Winky says that God was the first gardener, builder, artist, farmer, engineer, physicist etc. and our jobs continue His work.
Humanity was tasked to rule and subdue the earth as God’s regents — earthly rulers representing a heavenly King. That means dressmakers, farmers, steel fixers, and florists, are all doing what Adam did: taking the raw materials of creation and releasing its potential. Our work is shaping the world God gave us. The nurse isn’t just caring — they are partnering with the Great Physician. The cleaner isn’t just cleaning — they are restoring the beauty God intended. When someone builds a tunnel under the sea and connects nations, God says yes. When a teacher draws out potential in a student, God says yes. Every time you create something, you echo the Creator. Every time you improve something, you redeem brokenness. Every time you serve or choose to bless someone, you reveal the Father’s heart. Your workplace is not a secular zone; it’s a place where God’s Spirit works through you. Your work is not a distraction from God but a partnership with Him. Your desk, your truck or your worksite is an altar.
And friend, there are no easy jobs done by Christians. We all have time, abilities and responsibilities. Every job is diffict to do faithfully and well. And whether we whether you produce potatoes or spreadsheets, or bring order to chaos, clarity to confusion, or hope to people — you are doing Kingdom work. In Luke 16 10 -12 Jesus says, the way we mange our natural responsibilities are one key to seeing the release of His spiritual treasures, so step into your work expecting to hear His voice, guidance and gifts and know that your job is holy, your hands are anointed, and your workplace is a place where God wants to work with you and through you to bless His creation.
I got saved in the 70s, and I listened to a lot of sermons, but I can only remember one about Onesimus. My reading was in Philemon this morning, and I see what made it so memorable. The shortest book in the New Testament carries the biggest practical punch. Romans explains the gospel, but Philemon shows what it does.
Paul writes from prison, to Philemon, a wealthy Christian leader, about Onesimus who was Philemon’s runaway slave. Onesimus had fled to Rome, met Paul, got saved, and stayed to help Paul. But Paul is sending him back to his owner and asking the unthinkable: receive him not as a criminal slave, but as a beloved brother. Remember in the world they lived in, Roman slaves were legally “talking tools.” Owners could beat, brand, sell, or kill them. A runaway slave brought shame and legal liability. Add to that the culture of Rome, where gaining status and avoiding shame was everything. Nothing about this situation made reconciliation likely. Yet Paul asks Philemon to embrace Onesimus in love.
And the basis of his request is brotherhood. Many groups call themselves brotherhoods—communists, Muslims, cultural identities and secret societies—but true brothers share the same father. Jesus said that all people have one of two fathers: God, who becomes the Father of all whom He creates anew as His children, or Satan, who is the father of all who are not yet born into God's family.
This is the value and thrust of the Letter. The gospel has created a new humanity where Jew and Gentile, slave and free, owner and runaway, honourable and shameful are equals. The Gospel redefines a slave as a brother, overturns the Roman hierarchy without a single protest march. It brings reconciliation amid power imbalances and establishes a counter‑cultural community where identity in Christ erases every social label. Paul calls both owner and slave “brother,” and that says everything.
Jesus Christ achieves what Cloe’s Marxism, Te Ao Māori frameworks, liberal politics, or social‑engineered education never can: He creates a family that literally has the same Father. A brotherhood! Men and ideologies all attempt to create unity by a shared struggle, ethnicity, cultural narrative or even a shared political vision. But none of these creates a new creation identity. Ideologies may seek to rearrange society, but they cannot regenerate hearts. Yet in Christ, slaves and owners became brothers—and the shamed became beloved.
Friends, only Jesus can heal our society because spiritual identity always shapes social identity.
The Heavenly Perspective - The power in being able to see our lives from our loving Fathers point of view
Charles Dickens’ Great Expectations tells of a young man who dreamed of wealth, status, and a beautiful bride, only to discover that great expectations can become great disappointments. Life is full of these moments. Young couples marry expecting endless romance, but a lot can happen between the wedding cake and the silver‑anniversary cake. Careers stall, children need attention, partners grow older, and the answers to prayer can take longer than you expected.
The people who thrive are not those who avoid disappointment, but those who learn to face failed expectations without becoming offended — at people or at God.
In Scripture, offence means a trap, a snare, a stumbling block. Jesus said offences are inevitable. The issue is not whether they come, but whether we let them trip us. We can be offended by people who correct us, fail us, or misunderstand us. But we can also be offended at God, and Paul knew it could happen. He said, “I myself always strive to have a conscience without offence toward God and men.” (Acts 24:16). And he had every reason to be offended. He was beaten, flogged, imprisoned, shipwrecked, slandered, and rejected by the very people he was trying to save. Yet he guarded his heart fiercely from the poison of offence.
John the Baptist was Jesus’ relative, childhood friend, and the man who lived on bugs to serve God with absolute devotion. He prepared the world for Salvation, yet he ended up in prison. He expected Jesus to get him out. After all, God delivered Daniel, the Hebrew boys, Jeremiah, and Joseph. But Jesus didn’t. John died in prison. And Jesus sent him this message: “Blessed is he who is not offended because of Me.” (Matthew 11:6). It looked like a raw deal, but heaven saw it differently. Jesus called John the greatest man ever born of women. His mission changed the world. His honour is eternal. He was a “victim” for a moment but a victor for eternity.
Friend, when it comes to people, don’t assume that others think, feel, or prioritise the way you do. And don’t expect more than they have the capacity, maturity, or skill to give. Separate what you wish they’d do from what they’ve actually promised. And when it comes to God, expect great things — but expect what He promised, not what you imagined.
Standing at the Anzac Day parade this year, two things struck me: Many people were present because their father, grandfather, or great‑grandfather came home. We came to give thanks to God. Others might have been born just before their father left, like my cousin, whose dad was shot down over Norway. And there were veterans, but all of us stood there to honour those who never returned, who sacrificed their lives so we could live ours.
Secondly, world war 2 was not all about aggression but about people who believed some values were worth defending. A man may pray for protection, but love for his home and children sometimes demands action, and there came a time when the “Christian West” felt its people and values must be defended. When Hitler’s war machine rose, Churchill warned of “The abyss of a new Dark Age.” He wasn’t talking about lost territory. He was warning of a collapsing moral framework and the erosion of human dignity, freedom of conscience, freedom of speech, freedom of belief, and freedom of choice. These have long been understood by many as rights given by God, not granted by governments.
Totalitarian systems — whether Nazi, communist, or radical Islam, claim ownership of the mind. They demand that the state or leader become the ultimate authority, leaving no room for individual conscience. By contrast, God gives us the right to choose and to bear the consequences of those choices.
Anzac Day reminds us that the liberties we enjoy were purchased at a cost. Men marched believing their families, Christian culture and its freedoms, were worth protecting. We honour their sacrifice, but we must recover the values they fought for.
This is why national sovereignty matters. A nation is like a home — held together by shared values. When those values fragment, the will to defend them weakens. Today, freedoms once seen as God‑given are being eroded by laws, censorship, and cultural pressure. My friend Steve Maile, preaching in his own town square, was recently arrested in Britain while holding a British flag and expressing concern about the loss of Christian values.
Friends, nobody wants war. But the real question is this: Before Jesus returns, will the West live in peace because there are no wars, or because people in the West no longer have values worth defending?
In 2025, we visited Malta, specifically to see the Bay of St Paul, where Paul was swept ashore after his ship went down. We travelled for an hour to a mountain village, where the bus broke down. We waited in 40‑degree heat for the replacement, which came so late that we no longer had time to reach St Paul’s Bay. It wasn’t the day we imagined or planned!
Paul’s story carries the same shape. He thought he would sail all the way to Rome, but the ship broke apart. Acts 27–28. Yet we know Paul still reached Rome, just not by the path he assumed. Sometimes what we think is necessary to reach our destination isn’t needed at all. God often takes us by a route we never expected to bring us His desired plan.
With rocks approaching, the sailors tried to escape in the lifeboat. Paul told them to stop and to cut the boat loose. Faith often looks like releasing the thing we were relying on and trusting God. When the ship finally shattered, the sailors reached Malta by clinging to broken planks of wood. In Scripture, wood often points us to the cross—Moses throws a tree into bitter waters, and they are healed. This time, wooden boards carry the endangered to safety. Clinging to the cross is still our strategy. It can bring us from shipwreck to shore if we hold on. Hold on and look to the One who was nailed there for you. The cross is the sure promise of His love and purpose for your life.
Friend, your life may not have unfolded the way you thought it would, but God can still bring you to His desired destination. In our shipwrecks, understanding God is optional, but trusting God is essential. Perhaps you feel like you are the broken thing? Being broken doesn’t deter Him. If you’ve failed, He can restore you. And if you are not right, you can call on the Name that is always right. The storm may rage, and the plans you thought would work may be sunk, but God’s promise stands. God fulfilled His plan for Paul, and He can do it for you.
Growing Personally - On becoming Spiritual people
The people of Israel were excited at the prospect of the land God had promised. It was to be a land of blessing and fruitfulness, but along the way, something kept sabotaging their progress: bitterness. Their backs were free of Egypt's burdens, yet they still carried Egypt in their hearts. Every trial—whether it was the Red Sea, hunger, thirst, or delay- triggered complaints, fear, and blame. Even at Marah, where God showed them that bitterness is always premature, their default was distrust, and it poisoned their perspective.
Jesus said A good tree bears good fruit, and a bad tree bears bad fruit. But the fruit of a tree is determined by its root. Bitterness is a root that chokes out fruitfulness because it focuses on what you don’t have instead of what you have. It’s the quiet resentment that God didn’t give us what we wanted—or gave us something we never asked for. We can all go through loss, disappointment, and become bitter. We may have known betrayal or unmet expectations: left to grieve over the choices of those we love. But if we don’t bring that pain to God, it festers. It defiles our faith, our relationships, and our view of life. “Looking carefully... lest any root of bitterness springing up cause trouble, and defile many.” Hebrews 12:15. Hurt people see life through their wounds. Healthy people see life through their hopes. Bitterness dulls our faith. It convinces us that nothing good will ever happen. And it keeps us from fully trusting God or loving others.
So friend, if there is a root of bitterness choking your joy, your faith, or your relationships, don’t let it stay buried. Bring it to the cross. As you repent, hate only the hurt that bitterness is creating in your life. Let Jesus, the Root of Jesse, replace the root of death with His life. Even if bitterness had a truly painful root in your past, it doesn’t have to define your future. God has a plan to make you fruitful. Bitterness is always self-sabotaging and self-centered. So, dig up the root and let Him be your centre. Receive His grace. And let hope and life flow again.
What a blessing children are and what a miracle birth is. In the weeks following, they will begin to recognize their parent’s faces. They look up and because they are content with the sight of their father’s familiar face, they feel that all is well in their world. A child’s identity is related to their father and mother. Identity is about, who we are, who we are related to and the value we have to them.
Our identity first comes by seeing our father’s approval in his loving face, as we were growing up. The images in our hearts and minds, of his smile, encouragement and love, even when we failed, stamped us with inner security and worth, giving us the strength to live life courageously. This is important as our identity will always express itself. If you are a postman, you do things that postmen do. If you are a policeman, you act like a policeman. And even if you think you are a policeman and you are not really a policeman; you still act like one! If we feel we are worthless we may begin to do worthless things or crave the approval of others to validate ourselves in some way.
As we see God our Father’s face and His love for us in the Word, we develop a new identity that will determine what we do and what we act like. When we know He has declared us to be His holy children, we can more easily live as we want. When we know we are accepted by Him we are more able to live acceptably.
Friend, our Father has revealed Himself to us in Jesus and He wants us to look into the realm of Spirit and see His look of love and approval.
In the garden, Adam became conscious of himself instead of God. His conscience was ignited. Shame became a reality for the first time. “I’ve not done right; I made a mistake there, I messed up. I’m embarrassed by that. Satan awakened the knowledge of good and evil -that was good that was bad. And while we are dealing with the conscience (that was good or bad) we are far from the tree of Life. After the confession of our sin, we have a clear conscience with God and with men.
When we receive Life from Him, we leave Gods presence with joy, direction, confidence, and authority. So Satan tries to keep us from Life in God's presence by bringing an accusation to us whenever we approach Gods presence. His favorite weapon is an accusation
Jesus said “I come that you might have life, but Satan comes only to steal and destroy. To rob, steal and destroy what? Life! Those precious, holy, inspiring moments when God speaks to our spirit. He comes to rob that life!
Maybe this week you have been robbed by condemnation but it won’t be your conscience accusing you any longer - It is only the devil.
Heb 9:14 how much more will the blood of the Messiah, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself unblemished to God, cleanse our consciences from dead actions so that we may serve the living God!
Christ has purged our conscience from an evil conscience. We are to be only conscious of God now. Satan seeks to deceive us into thinking we should be still conscious of our past struggles.
Friend our conscience is purged of all the past dead works of the flesh we have done. We are not conscious of ourselves but conscious of Him. We are no longer sin conscious but Son conscious.
Some anger is caused because our goals and possessions have become idolatrous. Bill Gothard said it is because we haven’t yielded our rights. Think about that. If we get angry because another has wrecked our coat, it's because we never yielded that coat up to God; we saw it as our own and not belonging to God.
When we are angry at a person for not doing what we wanted them to do, its sinful because anger says you believe that this person is in charge of your future and life. Somehow you believe that they are determining what you can be. That their cooperation is key to your life becoming happy and successful. No, your life and fulfillment is not determined by anyone else but you and God. Whose goals in life are you pursuing; whose will do we want to do? |If God gave you the goal, no one can stop it.
And here is the one goal God has for all of us.... to be conformed to the image of Jesus. So traffic jams, screaming kids, etc are all working toward His goals as we need to develop patience and character. That is why the lady Elizabeth young wrote disappointments are his appointments!
Friend, when our goals become more important than His goals, it is an idol and we will tend to become angry!