The Thief In The Night

I think at some point in our lives, we all have had a secret which we have kept from others. Something that we dont want others to find out about. We work hard to keep it hidden so that we can keep the image we portray before others alive. But there is one that we cannot hide anything from and that is our Lord Jesus. For He sees everything that is in our hearts and all our motivations. So today I pose a question to you...What would God catch you doing if He was to return tonight?

1 Thessalonians 5 speaks of The Day of the Lord and he says -

 ¹Now, brothers, about times and dates we do not need to write to you, ²for you know very well that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night. ³While people are saying, "Peace and safety," destruction will come on them suddenly, as labor pains on a pregnant woman, and they will not escape.
 ⁴But you, brothers, are not in darkness so that this day should surprise you like a thief. ⁵You are all sons of the light and sons of the day. We do not belong to the night or to the darkness. ⁶So then, let us not be like others, who are asleep, but let us be alert and self-controlled. ⁷For those who sleep, sleep at night, and those who get drunk, get drunk at night. ⁸But since we belong to the day, let us be self-controlled, putting on faith and love as a breastplate, and the hope of salvation as a helmet. ⁹For God did not appoint us to suffer wrath but to receive salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ. ¹⁰He died for us so that, whether we are awake or asleep, we may live together with him. ¹¹Therefore encourage one another and build each other up, just as in fact you are doing.

I hope you take the time to read through that piece of scripture, but basically it is telling us that we must not be naiive, but rather be prepared for the Lord will return when we least expect it. Therefore we must be prepared, we must practice self-control and live according to the word of God. Jesus is coming back again....but it will be a surprise to us when He returns. Therefore we must be prepared.

In verses 3-4 it tells us that if Jesus is your saviour, the you will escape the wrath that is coming. But if you are not saved, you will face horrible times. During this time there will be a surrounding darkness, that is why it is imperative that Christians spread the great word of Jesus, ensure that everyone knows that Jesus will return again.

Verse 8 says -

But since we belong to the day, let us be self-controlled, putting on faith and love as a breastplate, and the hope of salvation as a helmet.

 For even though we live in these troubled times, we have protection in Christ. As long as we live with faith and love and hold onto the hope in salvation, we need not worry.

Matthew 24 tells us that in the final days, peoples hearts will grow cold. Therefore we must continually draw strength from the Lord and live according to His will. I guess you can think of it like an employee who only works hard when he knows that the boss will be coming by. But we cannot live like this, for as Jesus says in Matthew 24:36 -

No one knows about that day or hour, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father.

We must ask ourselves today, what is the condition of our heart? Do we have a heart for people? Or do we only have a heart for ourselves? For many people are saved, they are blessed by God, but then over time their hearts grow cold and they no longer thirst for the word of God, they no longer have a heart for people. But as Jeremiah 17:10 tells us -

I the LORD search the heart and examine the mind, to reward a man according to his conduct, according to what his deeds deserve.

We must fully appreciate the urgency in the fact that Jesus is coming! We must get our hearts right! We must look at our lives right now and analyse what we are doing. Are we really doing what God has called us to do?

I urge you that if you are not saved that you really seek out Jesus and make a decision for your life, as our time here on Earth is nothing compared to eternity which awaits us...an eternity that you will either spend in the company of our loving father in heaven...or an eternity that you will spend regretting the choice you didnt make.

People were what mattered to Jesus, it was the most important thing to Him. Not social standing, not personal achievements. He lived to love people, to see people saved and that is what he has called us to do. Jesus said to us in John 13:34 -

A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.

We must love one another. Not just those people that we like, but even those we dont get along with. This is what is most important go God. So I encourage all of you...dont allow yourself to be unprepared, for Jesus is coming back. Look at your heart, look at your motivations. If your heart's desires are things that you wouldn't want people to find out...the you need to get yourself right. And most of all follow Jesus. The most important commandment he has given us is to love.

Jesus replied: " 'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.'This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' (Matthew 22:37-39)

January is already over

Well we are already one month into 2010...time is flying by. I really have the feeling that this year is going to be an awesome year, as long as I continue to work towards God's purpose and live according to His will. I know I still have many "rough edges", but I know that by continually drawing closer to Christ Jesus, this areas of my life will gradually be smoothed out and I will become a greater man in our Lord.

But its important that we never lose sight of the goal, even when we screw up...which we are all bound to do. None of us are perfect, but we have a hope in the fact that Jesus loves us and forgives us. So even when you feel you have made a total mess of your life, do not lose faith...for God still loves you, He still wants an intimate relationship with you. Just take some time to pray to God...tell Him you are sorry, repent of your mistakes.

This month has been pretty strenuous for me in relation to work...having to manage multiple projects, dealing with challenging situations, meeting very tight deadlines. I feel its a real test for me on a spiritual level. In the past when I was confronted with these kind of circumstances...the first thing to go in my life would be the time I spend with God. I work long hours, come home totally exhausted and just want to rest and sleep. But I began to realise that things were more difficult without God. I would get incredibly tense and stressed over the expectations and whether we could meet all the deliverables. It would really take its toll on me.

But this time I have ensure that God is always first...no matter how busy I am. It is from the Lord that I draw strength. I pray over my situations throughout the day and allow God to work in my circumstances. I still get stressed out some days...but when I go home at night...I try to put everything in perspective and remember that I have a Lord who loves me and always watches over me.

As we move into February, I pray that God works in your circumstances and if you are not saved I just encourage you to continually gain more understanding and that you will make the decision to accept Jesus into your life. It would be the greatest decision you will ever make.

Aspects of Faith

Another post on faith, but that is only because faith is the one of the fundamental keys to our belief as Christians. Hebrews 11:1 says

Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.

God has called us all to have a great faith. For his passion is that not on single person will perish. This is mentioned in Romans 10:9

That if you confess with your mouth, "Jesus is Lord," and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.

 If we have a faith in Jesus Christ, will we have eternal life with our father in heaven.

Faith has the power to release God's miracles and awesome power. Hebrews 11:6 talks of how we cannot please God without faith.

And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.

We must believe and seek after him. Faith is the currency in heaven, it is what please God. It is by faith that great things are able to happen in our lives. But sometimes in our walk we can reach a spiritual plateau. But God calls us never to be still, but always to keep taking steps by faith. So I wanted to talk about five aspects of faith that were shared in service a couple weeks back.

Desperate Faith
In not enough to just have faith in Christ, but we need to get desperate with God. No matter what our circumstance, we need to get desperate with Jesus. For it is in our most desperate circumstances that the greatest miracles can occur. One example of this is in Mark 5:25-35, where we see the story of a woman who had been subject to bleeding for twelve years. But she was desperate for healing and she fought her way through the great crowd that was surrounding Jesus, just so that she could touch the hem of His cloak. In verse 28 its says

because she thought, "If I just touch his clothes, I will be healed.

Through this great faith she was healed of her sickness. Jesus felt her desperate faith as she touched Him and as He says in verse 34 -

He said to her, "Daughter, your faith has healed you. Go in peace and be freed from your suffering."

God reponds to us when we are calling out desperately by faith!


Servant Faith
In Mark 2:1-12 we see the story of where Jesus heals a paralytic. He has gathered in a small house, but the location was surrounded by people coming to see Jesus. Some guys came with a paralyzed friend, but as they could not get inside to see Jesus, they climbed up on the roof of the house. They opened up the roof and lowered the paralyzed man inside so that he could see Jesus. Jesus' response to as we see in Mark 2:5

When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, "Son, your sins are forgiven."

The friends had a great servant faith for their paralyzed friend. We are called to also have this kind of faith, serving a this generation who are crippled in faith.

Obedient and Courageous Faith
Another story of healing is seen in Mark 3:1-5 where Jesus singles out a man with shriveled hand to stand up. In verse 5 we see -

He looked around at them in anger and, deeply distressed at their stubborn hearts, said to the man, "Stretch out your hand." He stretched it out, and his hand was completely restored.

Can you picture the situation, you have an area of weakness, the area you try to conceal and hide, but this is the single area which Jesus will call you to stretch out before everyone. This is the kind of obedient faith we are called to demonstrate. But it wont be easy, the voice of the devil will plant doubt within us. But the voice of Jesus will calls us to have courage and step forward. We must come to realise that God is low on details, but high on obedience. Jesus didnt say to this man "please stretch out your hand, dont be afraid, i know your afraid, but I will heal you". No, all Jesus called the man to do was stretch out his hand, He didnt give details, but He expected obedience.

This is how God works, sometimes He will call us to do something, but we wont receive all the details. We are called to be obedient in our faith. For if we are obedient to God, He will provide us with everything we need. But never be mistaken, 99% obedience is still disobedience.


Persistent Faith
Luke 18:1-8 tells the parable of the persistent widow. It tells of the woman who constantly came to the judge requesting justice, until he finally gave in and granted her the justice she was seeking. Jesus tells this parable in order to teach us that we should always pray and not give up. The problem is today we live in an instant generation. Look around you and you will see that there are many things in your life that work towards making things happen faster and when we want them. Many people have lost the gift of patience and being persistent. This poses a problem when we pray to God, but we don't instantly see Him move in our circumstances. People may then be inclined to attempt things by their own strength.

But we need to learn to be both patient and persistent. We must recognise that God is never too slow, He is actually always on time. He has a great plan for our lives, he has mapped out every day of your life even before you were born as it says in Psalms 139:16

your eyes saw my unformed body. All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.

Therefore if God gives us a promise, we need to be persistent in prayer. Sometimes we just give up to easily, but we must learn to be faithful in prayer.

We need to be people of great faith. For when the apostles asked Jesus to increase their faith, He replied in Luke 17:6

"If you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mulberry tree, 'Be uprooted and planted in the sea,' and it will obey you."

We must learn to strengthen our faith in all aspects. It starts with small steps and small opportunities. It only takes a small seed. For as it says in Hebrews 11:6 it impossible to please God without faith -

And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.

I pray that you will daily exercise your faith in Christ Jesus, following Him with obedience and daily immersing yourself in His word!

Consequently, faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word of Christ.

(Romans 10:17)

Who are you following?

Each day Im finding that more and more of my friends are joining twitter. One of the things that I enjoy about twitter is looking at who other people are following. Usually its a mix of celebrities, friends and family. While most people would consider twitter to just be another social media craze which will fade, I think it shows a good representation of our lives. Through our twitter feed we are able to follow the lives of other people will choose. Ultimately who we follow defines who we are!

Jesus called each and every one of us to follow him. Jesus said in Matthew 16:24 -

Then Jesus said to his disciples, "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.

This is our fundamental calling in life. These are the very words of our Lord and Savior! But if we are are to be followers of Jesus, we must be going in the same direction as he is. It is pretty hard to follow someone if you are actually going down a different path.

In Matthew 4:18-20 we see the calling of the first disciples -

And Jesus, walking by the Sea of Galilee, saw two brothers, Simon called Peter, and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea; for they were fishermen.  Then He said to them, “Follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men.” They immediately left their nets and followed Him.

These people were called by Jesus to leave their jobs, leave their family, leave the security of the life they have and follow Him. This takes a serious faith!

So how do you become a follower of Jesus? We can look at the previous scripture and break it up to see what we need to do to be a follow of Jesus Christ

1) Follow Me
We need to learn to follow Jesus closely. If we learn to stick close to Jesus, when He changes direction we will not have any problems staying on track. But sometimes we are lazy and we don't follow Jesus closely, we dont read His word daily and we gradually begin to follow from a distance. Maybe we only hear His word once a week when we are in church, but how can you truly follow Jesus if you are so far away from him. Its just like using twitter, when you chose to follow someone, you receive an insight into their lives. But if you don't read twitter frequently, you will not have that intimate relationship

2) I Will Make You
If you just follow Jesus, He will make us...we no longer need to rely on our own personal strengths. We need not worry that our effort is not enough. Before I gave my life to Jesus I would get quite stressed that I wouldnt be able to do certain things in life, whether it was a difficult exam, find a job, be successful in life. But when I came into relationship with Christ, I realised that everything comes from Jesus, as Proverbs 3:5-6 says -

Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight.

For we must acknowledge that we are all here for a purpose and God will give us all the abilities we need to fulfill that purpose as it is stated in Ephesians 2:10 -

For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.

3) Fisher Of Men
When we make the decision to follow Christ, we are called to be people of influence. We are called to make a difference in the world, we are called to be the light in this world. This is said by Jesus in Matthew 5:14-16 -

"You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven.

4) Immediately
Jesus has called us to follow him immediately. Not later today, not when we feel like it and its convenient for us...but right now! But the problem is we can put other things above God, we put other priorities first. But Jesus has called us to give up everything else and follow Him just as it says in Matt 16:24 which I already referenced above -

Then Jesus said to his disciples, "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.

The final thing I want to ask is - Who is the Jesus Christ that you are following? Are you just following a Jesus who is a good friend, a wise teacher, a kind man, a guy who helps you in hard times?

We follow a Jesus who rose again and wants an intimate relationship with us daily!

Living the life we are called to

Another great message that we heard a couple weeks back talked about the life we are called to live and I just wanted to share some of the great points that came out of the sermon.

God has incredible dreams on our lives. None of us are here by accident, we all have an amazing purpose. But it is up to us if we are to fulfill that purpose in our lives. This is summed up excellently in Psalm 139:16 where it says -

You saw me before I was born and scheduled each day of my life before I began to breathe. Every day was recorded in your book!

Therefore we must never be still, for if we are in a position that we are not seeing any development, then we need to relocate ourselves into a new environment. There are little specifics know about heaven, apart from the fundamental fact that it will be the most amazing place we have ever encountered, but one thing im convinced of is that it will be loud! Therefore we must learn to live large, live loud and live the dream!

God has called us to live large lives, we are no longer bound by our past situations and circumstances. Sin no longer has a stronghold on our lives when we are born again. We are called to live amazing lives, therefore we are not to look at what we dont have, but rather what we do have. For if we keep focusing on the things we dont have, we will miss the amazing things God has in store for our lives. God can make awesome changes in your live if you just let him, as the best is yet to come when you have God in your live!

If people are going to want what we have, then they need to be inspired by us as Christians. They must see how awesome it is to live by God's will. We all have the potential to live large lives, we just have to seize the moment!

Sometimes we feel that we cannot live large lives due to our past, what we have gone through in recent times. But in heaven there are no excuses, we must let go of the past hurts and step into what God calls us to do. Through this God will be able to do great things in our lives! We must remember that God created us for a great purpose, it would be selfish of us then to live a small insignificant life!

In Matthew 14, we see where Jesus is walking on water and when Peter sees this, his response is to ask Jesus if he can do it too! This is the kind of lives we are to live. We are to step out in faith, for God will not put us to shame!

Therefore the four things we have to do to live large, live loud and live the dream...

1) Live Passionately
Can you think of anything good that wasnt the result of passion. The great masterpieces of the world came about because someone had a passion, when people see something that amazes then, it stirs up a passion within them, when people are at an exciting sporting event, they are passionate! We must live a life with passion. For others will be attracted to our lives when we have a passion for Jesus.

2) Live Consistently
God never changes but he is always on the move. This should be applied to our lives as well. The message of God never changes, but the delivery method changes over time. We  must never change our conviction, but we must always be on the move for God. We must live for God in everything we do, not just when others are watching.

3) Live Purposefully
A life without purpose is a waste. We are all created for a purpose and we must live the will of God! Think of any successful, it was able to serve a purpose and its the same with our lives. We are created and called to do amazing things!

4) Live with Perspective
We must keep learning there are different angles to see things from. Just as we continue read the Bible, we will get different perspectives of the same verse, we must life life with perspective. There are different views on everything.

We must remember the great things God has called us to do. We are called to live loud lives with purpose. It says in Psalm 96:3 -

Declare his glory among the nations, his marvelous deeds among all peoples

How can we declare His glory to all nations if we are meek and quiet? We need to make some noise and start living the dream. Jesus never called us to just get comfortable and wait for the end to come, actually quite the opposite, as he stated in Matthew 28:19-20 -

Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you

This is what Jesus has called us to do. So we must start living the life we are called to...today!

"You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven.

Matthew 5:14-16

Maslow's hierarchy of needs and Christianity

The is a theory in Psychology called. Maslow's hierarchy of needs. It is represented in the shape of a pyramid, where the largest and lowest levels of needs at the bottom, and the need for self-actualization at the top. I was recently asked where does Christianity fit into this pyramid.
Firstly a quick summary of the different levels in the hierarchy.
1) Self Actualization - morality, creativity, problem solving etc.
2) Esteem - self esteem, confidence, achievement, respect etc.
3) Love/Belonging - friendship, family etc.
4) Safety - security, employment, etc.
5) Physiological - breathing, food, water etc.

For more in depth info i refer you to wikipedia

But what I wanted to highlight where our relationship with God fits into this hierarchy. Some may feel its in "Love/Belonging" as its a relationship. Or maybe in "Safety" as we feel safe when we know God is always with us.

But I believe that our relationship is the single most important thing in our lives and therefore would be in "Physiological". This category defines itself as "they are the literal requirements for human survival". While some people may not believe a life with Christ is not a requirement for survival, these people are unfortunately blinded to the truth

Jesus said in John 14:6 -

Jesus answered, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.

There is two important things to consider here. Jesus is the truth and the life. Without Jesus, we lead a purposeless life, for we are created for a purpose and our lives where planned out before we were even conceived, as it says in Psalm 139:16 -

You saw me before I was born and scheduled each day of my life before I began to breathe. Every day was recorded in your book!

Secondly no one can come before the Father except through Christ. We are dead unless we accept Jesus Christ as our personal saviour. For He died on the cross for our sins, therefore unless we have relationship with Christ, we are still condemned for our sins. In Romans 6:23 it states this -

For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Therefore we must recognise that our relationship with God is vital to our existence, its the reason why we are here on Earth. God created each of us for a purpose, a much greater purpose than you could imagine. Therefore we need to be desperate for the ways of God and hunger for His word and follow His heart. For when we open our hearts to God and accept Jesus as our almighty savior, we step in the realm of eternal life and the great promises God has made.

He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; by his wounds you have been healed.

(1 Peter 2:24)

Unforced Rhythms of Grace

I hope todays post will be a bit more comprehensible than my last post, which got quite messy. I wanted to share what was spoken about a few weeks back at church, where they talked about understanding grace.

Im currently reading an awesome book by John Bevere titled "Extraordinary" and it defines grace as "God's unmerited favor". I really like this definition as it really sums up an aspect of our relationship with God which can be easily misunderstood by Christians.

Everything about God and our relationship with God is to set us up to win. God has never planned for any of us to fail, He wants to see us succeed in our purpose and pursuits. But sometimes we can bring the "law" into our relationship with God and the we begin to see our imperfections. We can fall into the trap that we feel the need to satisfy the law in order to please God. But this is far from the truth and it is highlighted in Ephesians 2:8-9 where it says -

For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast.

 There is nothing that we can do by our own will or strength that can see us saved. It is only by the grace of God that we are saved. Therefore in order to know the full power of God's love we must engage in grace. To recieve grace we must first give grace.

There are four things that grace does...

1. Grace Captivates
With grace, we can imagine the impossible, for grace has a purpose and allows us to fulfill our destiny. When we are captivated by grace, we have the passion to pay it back.

2. Grace Compel
I mentioned this scripture in my last post, but Im going to show it again as it so powerful. Ephesians 2:8-10 says -

For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.

 We are made alive in Christ. We always have God's love, but are we always in His presence? Grace empowers us to live right. For if we are living for God, then we will always succeed through grace.

3. Grace Convinces
When you think about the love of God and the grace He pours out on each and every on of us, it convinces us to live right! In 2 Corinthians 2:9 Paul says -

But he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me.

His grace is enough!

4. Grace Convicts
When we fully realise the grace we have recieve, it convicts us to live right. Just as the thief who was on the cross next to Jesus, he was convicted. For before we were even brought into this world, Jesus died for us, so that we could live in freedom. He loved us, even when we were sinners. 1 John 4:19 says:

We love because he first loved us.

Simple verse, but it sums up how grace convicts us to live right for God.

The grace of God calls us to live freely. God is for us always.

"Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light."

(Matthew 11:28-30)

Living In Hope

Today I wanted to discuss a message that was shared in church recently on hope.

We all have hopes in our lives, whether you believe in Christ or not. One thing we are called to do as Christians is to live in hope. There are going to be times inlife where we will face disappointment, but we have an eternal hope. We can not achieve great things for Christ, unless we live with a great hope. Just as 1 Peter 1:3-4 tells us -

Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade—kept in heaven for you

 We have a great hope in Christ Jesus.

Hope is the foundation of Christian faith. As it says in Hebrews 11:1

Faith is the confidence that what we hope for will actually happen; it gives us assurance about things we cannot see.

Although we cant actually see the future, we know that its in good hands, God's hands. Faith is the conviction that directs us towards our expectations and hopes. And faith comes from the word of God as it says in Romans 10:17

Consequently, faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word of Christ.

When we talk about living in hope, there are three levels of activating our faith in line with hope.

1. Abstract Faith
This is a mental hope, for example having a hope in creation.

2. Practical Faith
This is giving practical expression to our faith. This means actually activating our faith, for example when we give a 10th to the church. An example from the Bible includes Noah, where he was asked to build the Ark, which took him 120 years, but he didnt give up, for he had faith.

3. Whole-hearted Faith 
This is where we lay down our lives for our faith, we put our life in Gods hands. Through this kind of faith we will be greatly rewarded, as it says in Numbers 14:24 -

But because my servant Caleb has a different spirit and follows me wholeheartedly, I will bring him into the land he went to, and his descendants will inherit it.

Hope is actually the joyful anticipation of good in the promises of a never changing God. For we believe in a living God that works in our lives. When we are born again, we have Christ living within us, a living Christ! For these promises were given to us from the beginning as it says in Titus 1:2 -

a faith and knowledge resting on the hope of eternal life, which God, who does not lie, promised before the beginning of time

We cannot live the Christian life without the power of Christ within us, we have the Holy Spirit within us, as 1 Cor 6:19 says -

Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own

But we must remember hope is a choice. We are to put our hope in God and then we are to also praise Him. We must not allow our negative thinking control us, we must put our hope in Gods word.

I have jumped around a bit in this post, but I hope there was something you can take away from it. We must acknowledge that we cant live the Christian life without Christ within us. Lets confess what God confesses and not get caught up in the downward spiral. Then we must praise Him. Sometimes we have words that come out but it takes a bit longer for our feelings to really catch up with our mouths. We must get our feeling in line and put our hope in God!

For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what he already has? But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently.

 In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express.

(Romans 8:24-26)

Knowing Gods Purpose

Today's message is more directed at Christians, but I also pray that it will serve those that read this blog and are not yet believers of Jesus Christ. It is my hearts desire that everyone who reads my blog will eventually come to the point that they are prepared to give their life to Jesus and confess He is their savior. Anyhow I hope this post will be helpful for you.

As I have stated many times in the past, God created each of us for a purpose as it says in Psalm 139:16

You saw me before I was born.
      Every day of my life was recorded in your book.
   Every moment was laid out
      before a single day had passed.

Before you had even formed inside your mothers womb, God had planned every day of your life. He had an amazing purpose in store for you. When we are born again, we pray that we will live for God and the purpose He has for our lives....but how do we discover what the purpose actually is?

Until we know God intimately we cannot truly see our purpose, we cannot understand His motives and we will not be able to understand the great promises. I didnt fully appreciate this when I first was saved. I mean I praised God and repented my past ways, but I didnt seek the intimate relationship that God is after with us. Then I began to wonder why I couldnt fully understand what God had planned for my life. It was then that I not only began seeing my purpose, but my desire to serve God increased. My heart was more in line with God's heart, from spending time with God and in His word, my passions mirrored His passions. This highlights why it so important to know God intimately. It is summarised in Ephesians 1:11-12

In him we were also chosen,having been predestined according to the plan of him who works out everything in conformity with the purpose of his will, in order that we, who were the first to hope in Christ, might be for the praise of his glory.

Another problem is living your life without a plan. Many Christians live their lives without a plan, they love God, they are kind to others, but beyond that they dont have a passion to really serve God, they are just going through the motions till the grow old and go to heaven. This is similar to the way a lot of people go to the gym. They go to they gym because they want to be "healthy", but when they are there, they dont have a plan and they workout with no purpose. This is not going to see the results you are after because no doubt you are doing exercise that dont serve the purpose you are after

It's important we live a life with a plan and a purpose. We are not to be luke warm in our ways. This is not the life God calls us to live, as it says in Ephesians 2:10

For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago.

We are God's masterpiece!! What more motivation do we need. We are called to do the "good things" that were "planned for us long ago". We are called to do great things, not mediocre things. When was the last time you saw a masterpiece that was only "mediocre"?

But some people may feel daunted by the fact that they are destined for great things. It similar to when you are in your work place and your boss gives your an extremely challenging duty, something you are to complete on your own. This is exactly how i felt when I was sent to Canberra for work on my first trip. I will sent up their alone and with little background knowledge and a very tight deadline. The whole situation felt really daunting, I was unsure I could complete the task set for me. This is how we can feel sometimes when we think about Gods purpose for our lives. But you need not worry for God is with us and will guide us, as it says in Deuteronomy 31:8

Do not be afraid or discouraged, for the Lord will personally go ahead of you. He will be with you; he will neither fail you nor abandon you.”

Pretty awesome promise that! The Lord will go ahead of us, He will always be with us.

But despite all this, some non-believers will still question why? Why do we serve God? Why do we do this? Because we desire to please our holy father and closest friend. When you fully appreciate the sacrifice that Jesus made for us on the cross, when you understand that God gave up His only son so that we could be redeemed, you will see the great love God has for us. John 3:16 says it all

"For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.

When you reach they point where you are in close relationship with God, your heart will desire to please Him for you will see the great things He has already done in your life and also the great promises that await us.

We are called for a great purpose in life. We were not put on Earth to just go through the motions, but to fulfill God great purpose for our lives. We have all been given spiritual gifts from our Lord in order for us to fulfill our calling, as it highlights in 1 Peter 4:10

Each one should use whatever gift he has received to serve others, faithfully administering God's grace in its various forms.

Therefore don't be a normal Christian, for we are called to be extraordinary Christians, just as Jesus lived an extraordinary life.

Remember what Jesus sacrificed for us and remember the love God has poured out on us.

The Love of God

This week is crazy busy...but I feel by posting about Christ, I receive a timeout from my work. In God I receive comfort despite the busyness that is going on around me. Despite the troubles that are before me, I trust in the Lord and know that He will be with me each day.

Todays post focuses on one of key elements in the Bible...the Love of God. You could write 1000 posts on this and still have only scratched the surface. Sometimes in life we make mistakes, mistakes that cause people close to us to change their feelings for us...but with God, no matter how much we mess up, our Lord always loves us. But do we truly understand the love of God?

Jesus lived a life where He stood out, He lived a perfect life despite what the circumstances He faced. After we give our life to Christ, a time will come in each of our lives to stand up for Christ. Paul says in Ephesians 4:1 -

As a prisoner for the Lord, then, I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received.

We have a calling in life and that is to live for Christ, He has set us free from the sin of our past and loved us even when were still away from Him. But as I always say, we must have an intimate relationship with God, we must know His will.

But in order to understand the desires of God's heart, we have to imitate His actions. But how can you imitate someones actions if we know nothing about them? We need to spend time in prayer, for this is actually Gods desires....to be intimate with us! Through this we will come to understand His will even more and learn the purpose He has for our lives. If we are to stand out for God, we must have a heart after only God.


We may have a great knowledge of God, but it is possible to still not have a heart after God's heart, we dont share His heart's desires. Therefore we must know the love of God, we must imitate God and walk in love. But this will all come from experiencing and acknowledging God's great love. The love of God will get us moving! The love of God will have us continually on fire!

But when we grow cold for God, it will feel as if God has left us. Ephesians 4:17-19 talks of this -

So I tell you this, and insist on it in the Lord, that you must no longer live as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their thinking. ¹⁸They are darkened in their understanding and separated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to the hardening of their hearts. ¹⁹Having lost all sensitivity, they have given themselves over to sensuality so as to indulge in every kind of impurity, with a continual lust for more.

But the good news is that when we are on fire for God, great things will happen. Unfortunately many Christians today are living no differently to the way they were before they were saved. Then they wonder why they dont see God moving in their lives, they questions God's love. But they ignore the fact that we are called to be different!

To know what we are to do, we must be intimate with God each and everyday!

1. Imitate God
2. Possess Integrity
3. Love One Another
4. We Must Be Unified!
   

Faith and Works

Well I had a few days away from blogging and although I would love to say I took those days to relax, unfortunately the reality is I have been working really crazy hours and by the time I get home and even contemplate adding to my blog, its well past midnight.

Anyhow...today I wanted to talk about Faith and Works and the significance of each. Think of a husband and wife. The husband can daily say to his wife "I love you", but if he then went out with other women every night, never did anything his wife asked of him and generally was rude to her in his actions, do you think his wife would really believe his words?

This is the same in our walk with Christ. It says in James 2:20 -

How foolish! Can’t you see that faith without good deeds is useless?

This is exactly the point of my post today. Works and faith go hand in hand. You cannot truly have one without the other. The day I gave my life to Christ, I made a choice that I wasnt only going to profess with my lips that Jesus is my Lord and Saviour, but I also decided to live a life according to God's will, a life that fulfills His purpose and is pleasing to our Lord.When we give our hearts to Christ, our works must continually reflect our faith. One of the first things we must realise when we are born again is we are renewed, we must separate ourselves from this world. We must demonstrate we are different.

This is essential if we want to lay claim to the many promises throughout the Bible also.We must have faith in the word of God and our lives must live up to that. But our lives cannot just be about works, there must be a strong faith behind it. Romans 3:20 states -

Therefore no one will be declared righteous in his sight by observing the law; rather, through the law we become conscious of sin.

This refers to the fact that even if you live a life where you obey the law, care for others, help the needy and so forth, if you have no faith in God, you will still not make it to heaven. We must live a life where we have a strong faith in God and works that demonstrate that faith.

But thats all fine to write down here, but how willing would you really be to pack up and leave you home, your family, your current position? There are many example of this throughout the Bible, where God calls people to just up and leave there current position to serve Him. Genesis 12:1-3 says -

The LORD had said to Abram, "Leave your country, your people and your father's household and go to the land I will show you.
"I will make you into a great nation
       and I will bless you;
       I will make your name great,
       and you will be a blessing.
I will bless those who bless you,
       and whoever curses you I will curse;
       and all peoples on earth
       will be blessed through you."

At this point Abraham was 75 years old and he is told to leave his home to go to the place God calls him to. I dont know about you, but when Im 75 years old, I would prefer to stay sitting in my rocking chair and watch TV. But a great faith listens to the will of God, the desires of His heart and acts accordingly!

But there is a great promise awaiting us when we serve God as is his purpose for our lives. There is an example of this in Genesis 15:1 where it says -

Some time later, the Lord spoke to Abram in a vision and said to him, “Do not be afraid, Abram, for I will protect you, and your reward will be great.”

Abraham was faithful in serving God and he was rewarded in amazing ways! And this isnt the only example in the Bible where someones faith was rewarded greatly. There are many others such as Noah. Joseph and Job amongst others.

Another important thing is that we must acknowledge God's perfect timing in everything. This plays a major part in our faith. Psalm 118:8 says -

It is better to take refuge in the Lord than to trust in people.

When things are not happening and we think there is no movement from God, we try to push things along ourselves. By faith we must learn to wait upon God's timing and path to His promises. We must remember his plan is perfect, always flawless! But in those instances where things go wrong, we must accept responsibility since it is no doubt going to be due to the fact we drifted off God's track, and the path we took wasnt part of Gods plans.

But again its easy to say all this, but how long are we really willing to wait to see God move in our circumstances? 1 year? 5 years? 50 years. Then there is the case where we look upon the promises and laugh at the possibility, just as Abraham in Genesis 17:17 -

Abraham fell facedown; he laughed and said to himself, "Will a son be born to a man a hundred years old? Will Sarah bear a child at the age of ninety?"

But God doesnt understand why we laugh, as he will always see us through any trial, for his ability is limitless. We just need to trust in His word and be patient for His promises. Just look at how long Abraham had to wait for the promise of a son. This is highlighted in Hebrews 11:11 -

By faith Abraham, even though he was past age—and Sarah herself was barren—was enabled to become a father because he considered him faithful who had made the promise.

God will see us through anything...we just need to have faith in Christ our savior. Its easy to have praise for God when things are going well, but how about when things are not so great and we are waiting. But what we must remember is, when we look back over our past circumstances, we see a great testimony of the great power of God and how he has moved in our lives. Christ will always see us through, by His precious blood we have the power to keep on going.  All we need to do is have faith and live as God has called us.

Then Jesus said to his disciples, "If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. (Matt 16:24)

Sin in disguise

Before I talk about todays topic I just wanted to raise a quick point. I have been discussing a variety of topics, but if there is a specific topic that someone wanted to hear about in relation to Christ, then please contact me or leave a comment and I will work on a post that talks about that topic or area.

As for todays topic, I wanted to discuss a message that I heard a few years back. Its a bit more negative than some of my recent posts, but I pray that it will serve you well.

1 Kings 14:1-6 talks about the Ahijah's Prophecy Against Jeroboam. Ahijah was a prophet who was quite old and as a result has very poor sight. Jeroboam had previously mocked Ahijah, but now that his son was very ill, he sent his wife to Ahijah wearing a disguise and carrying many gifts. He wanted to hear what would happen to his son. But God told Ahijah that Jeroboam's wife was coming, so before she had even entered Ahijah's presence he said (1 Kings 14:6)

Come in, wife of Jeroboam. Why this pretense? I have been sent to you with bad news

He was proceeded to inform the wife that disaster would fall on their house, because Jeroboam had turned his back on the Lord.

The point here is that most people that mock you now, will run to you later when they hit tough times. Despite the fact that they have mocked you, they can see something is different in your life when you serve Christ and live according to your will. It is because of this, they can see we are different, they can see Christ working in our lives. They can see our approach to God.

But one problem we face is, when sin enters our lives, it wont appear clearly. It will be disguised and not appear as we would expect. An example of this was King David and Bathsheba in 2 Samuel 11. For those that dont know the story I suggest you read this chapter, but basically it speaks of when King David saw Bathsheba bathing and lust took hold of him. He had sex with her and she became pregnant. But she was already married and her husband was currently in the midst of a battle. Therefore to remove his guilt, King David asked his general to place Bathsheba's husband in a dangerous position in the battle that would see him killed.

How this relates to my point is, for King David sin didnt appear as he would have expected. Sin appeared in the form of a beautiful woman (Bathsheba), it didnt show up in the form of what would be the result (pain and death). If sin was to show up in our lives as it truly is, we would never let sin into our lives. But you can liken sin to a wolf in sheeps clothing.

Sin will destroy your life if you allow it to come in, therefore it is vital that we are able to discern when sin is knocking at the door. This ability to discern is vital to our salvation so that we can determine when sin is before us. But how do we gain this ability? Spend time in the Lords word and pray for discernment, for God wants to fill us wisdom as was the case with Solomon in 1 King 3. He asked the Lord for the ability to discern, rather than asking for riches and good health and the Lords reply was as follows in 1 King 3:10-13

The Lord was pleased that Solomon had asked for this. So God said to him, "Since you have asked for this and not for long life or wealth for yourself, nor have asked for the death of your enemies but for discernment in administering justice, I will do what you have asked. I will give you a wise and discerning heart, so that there will never have been anyone like you, nor will there ever be. Moreover, I will give you what you have not asked for—both riches and honor—so that in your lifetime you will have no equal among kings.

See how great our God is! Solomon had only asked for discernment, but God delivered far beyond what he had asked.

We will face sin in our lives, this cannot be avoided. The devil will send things before us that look appealing. We will be tempted continually throughout our walk with God. But we need not worry, for we have the love and grace of God on our lives and He will strengthen us up, giving us wisdom so that when temptation comes to us, we dont let it in, we dont fall victim to the devil's traps.

Temptation will come to us in many ways. If we are not aware of this and are prepared, it is very dangerous to our salvation. Therefore its essential to immerse yourself in Gods word so that you are protected from the devils plans to see us fail. We must pray for discernment and wisdom. But the great thing is we have the Holy Spirit living within us, giving us the wisdom of God so that we can discern what is sin. We must learn to be consistent in our actions, always being an example of God's grace. This is highlighted by Jesus in Luke 21:14-15 -

But make up your mind not to worry beforehand how you will defend yourselves. For I will give you words and wisdom that none of your adversaries will be able to resist or contradict.

Keeping calm in the storm

I have been wanting to share the awesome message from last weekends services all week, but due to a pretty hectic time hasnt permitted me the chance to yet. But as I was driving home tonight there was one piece of scripture from one of the services over the weekend that stood out in my head....or to be more accurate, it was the message that came from that scripture.

Luke 8:22 is a scripture that almost anyone who has heard of Jesus will know of, at least vaguely. It talks of when Jesus is crossing the water in the boat with his disciples and the wild storm comes up against them. When the disciples see the storm in on the brink of destroying them, they run to Jesus who is sleeping at the time and beg him to save them. He gets up and calms the storm, but is disappointed by the lack of faith that the disciples has shown in the middle of the storm.

The parallel's between this story and our lives today are so similiar, its amazing. At first glance you might say "I never travel in a small boat across wild waters" but when you relate it to your life you will see the common parts. In our lives we face storms, bad situations in our lives, problems that we cant see any answer to. Typically in these situation people will run to God and tell Him their problem and beg for Him to save them. They will have lost all hope, they feel there is no way that will survive this situation. Does any of this sound familiar?

But do you really think that a loving and holy God would allow us to go through these situations alone? As my favourite piece of scripture says in Hebrews 13:5

God has said, "Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you."

God has told us that we will never be alone, He will always be with us. All we need to do is trust Him, to have faith in Him. Its put another way in Psalm 9:10 - 

Those who know your name will trust in you, for you, LORD, have never forsaken those who seek you.

Again the focus is on the fact that as long as we have faith in the Lord, we will never be alone.

We need to stop ourselves from being caught up in the storm and remember the one eternal truth...God loves us and nothing can separate us from Him, as it highlights in Romans 8:39 -

neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

As we gain a more intimate relationship with Christ, the more we listen to and speak with the Holy Spirit that lives within us once we are born again, the more we will understand the will of God and that as long as we live for Christ, our prayers will not go unanswered, as it says in 1 John 5:14-15 -

And this is the confidence that we have toward him, that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us. And if we know that he hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests that we have asked of him.

But you may wonder why does God allow us to go through these situations at all? Well sometimes our faith needs to be tested. Its one thing to say that we trust in the Lord, but its a totally other thing to demonstrate that faith when the storms come upon us. Think of it like an exam at school...you might tell your teacher you know all the content, but until you have completed the exam successfully you cant really demonstrate your understanding. Finally through these storms our relationship with Christ grows stronger and stronger as we come to trust in Him and our faith grows.

We just need to trust in Christ our saviour. Psalm 32:10 underlines the great promise -

Many are the sorrows of the wicked, but steadfast love surrounds the one who trusts in the Lord.

There are just so many great scriptures that highlight the fact that as long as we trust in God, we will always find a solution to our problems, a safe passage out of our storms. I also suggest reading Psalm 91.

We are bound to face storms throughout our lives. But we need to always remember the fact that Jesus is always with us and will never leave us, for His love for us is eternal. Christ knows our every situation, so next time we face the storm we should be telling the storm about Jesus instead of telling Jesus about the storm.

Trust in the Lord with all your heart,
and do not lean on your own understanding.
In all your ways acknowledge him,
and he will make straight your paths.

(Proverbs 3:5-6)

Faith in action

When I was younger and not so mature, I used to have the approach of if you do something for me then I will do something for you. At the time it seemed to make sense to me, but as I became older and wiser I understood life doesnt always work like this. Sometimes we need to do things because we trust the other person, we are not expectant of what they can do for us.

As I have talk about previously, faith is a key ingredient to our relationship with God. But its one thing to say "I have faith" but its a totally other thing to actually step out in faith, actually demonstrate your faith. There are so many examples of faith in action all throughout the Bible, but one chapter in particular that highlights some excellent examples is Hebrews 11. This chapter lists a number of people who obeyed in faith, despite their circumstance, for example is Heb 11:11-12 -

By faith Abraham, even though he was past age—and Sarah herself was barren—was enabled to become a father because he considered him faithful who had made the promise. And so from this one man, and he as good as dead, came descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as countless as the sand on the seashore.

There are many other cases, but the point here is that when they demonstrated great faith, God was able to do great works. But they didnt always straight away reap the benefits, in particular Abraham had to wait many years before he was blessed with a son, but that never weakened his faith. Even when he was told to sacrifice his son, he was obedient and put his faith into action.

Another important point about these individuals was that they had an ear on what God was calling them to do.What we must realise is God is contantly trying to communicate with us. Romans 10:17 says -

Consequently, faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word of Christ.

But what God asks of us will not always be easy and we will face opposition. Just as it says in 2 Corinthians 11:14 -

But I am not surprised! Even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light.

God always wants to talk to us through different channels, but we must know how to discern His voice and His heart so that we can fully understand what He is communicating to us. We may think that we are hearing the voice of God, but we are being deceived by Satan. But you may ask how do we know if its truly the word of God...well simply saturate yourself in the word of God. Then when you hear that voice, you will be able to determine if its the word of God or not.

The word of God is what will change us. We must hear the spirit and let it work within us. The power of Gods word is highlighted in Hebrews 4:12 -

For the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.

We must never underestimate the power of Gods word in our lives and that again underlines why it is vital to feast on His word daily.

God is constantly desiring time with us, even when we still sinners. Rev 3:20 mentions this -

Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him, and he with me.

The Lord is telling us that He is waiting for us to open up to Him. When we do He wants to spend time with us intimately. He also wants us to have a passion for His word and to demonstrate through our faith. He doesnt want us to be sitting on the fence, just lukewarm in our faith as it states in Rev 3:16 -

So, because you are lukewarm—neither hot nor cold—I am about to spit you out of my mouth.

God wants us to be on fire for His word!

We need to be dependent on the Lord. That he will see fruits grow in our lives and others can come pick from these fruits and reap the benefits also. But we must first dedicate time to God, to reading His word, meditating on His word. Only then can we truly hear what He is saying to us and we can then put our faith into action according to His will.

Dreams that come from God

Today I wanted to share a message that I received a few years back when I was attending Citywide church. It spoke about dreams that come from God.

I remember early on in my walk with God, I was in my connect group and we were discussing dreams, and how God can use our dreams to speak to us. I distinctly remember this discussion because my dreams were actually a mess. They were distorted because I was feeding my soul rubbish, in the form of movies and tv. It was blocking the way for God being able to speak to me through this channel. From that point I was determined not to feed my soul junk food, but feast upon those things pleasing to the soul, in the form of God's word!

In Genesis 37, we read of the story of Joseph and his dreams. I wont go into too much detail as I recommend you read the story of Joseph, it is actually one of my favorite parts of the Bible. But basically he was given two dreams that highlighted the future God has in store for him, a future where he would be the ruler over the entire land and his brothers would bow down before him. Unfortunately his brother's already despised him, so when he came out and told them about his dream, they were less than impressed. But this highlights an important point, when we do receive a dream from God, we need to be careful who we share it with as some people will not react in a pleasant way.

Even more important though is to test whether the dream is truly God's dream or is just "our" dream? We must realise that if our dream is truly from God, there will be opposition against us. The devil will be against us, but we need not worry because we have Christ with us. If we have faith in Him, he will protect us. We must be expectant on God, that we will recieve the glory and blessing he has prepared for us

But we also must learn to wait upon the Lord, for His timing is perfect. Sometimes we hear a word from God, but are too impatient for the right time. As it says in Psalm 31:14-15 -

But I trusted in, relied on, and was confident in You, O Lord; I said, You are my God. My times are in Your hands; deliver me from the hands of my foes and those who pursue me and persecute me.

This is crucial especially when we are talking about those dreams which appear impossible. Just like with Joseph, he went through many circumstances where he would have felt like he was going backwards from what his dream had predicted. But he never gave up faith in the Lord, he waited upon Gods timing. We must remember not to lose focus when the going gets tough either. We must always remain faithful to what God has shown us in terms of our dream.

We must continually wait upon the Lords timing to ensure He is always with us. Just as Moses did in Exodus 33:15-16 -

Then Moses said to him, "If your Presence does not go with us, do not send us up from here. How will anyone know that you are pleased with me and with your people unless you go with us? What else will distinguish me and your people from all the other people on the face of the earth?"

Moses wasnt prepared to keep going unless he was totally sure that God was going to be with him every step of the way. And what was Gods response to Moses, we read in verse 17

And the LORD said to Moses, "I will do the very thing you have asked, because I am pleased with you and I know you by name."

How awesome is that response from God!

Dreams from God can reveal truly wonderful things that God has in store for us. But we need to be patient and know that Gods timing is perfect. Everything we do must glorify God, for we have a great promise as it says in Romans 8:28 -

And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.

In reality we are unable to do anything without God. We need only trust in Him. He has an awesome plan for each and everyone of our lives.

Trust in him at all times, O people; pour out your hearts to him, for God is our refuge

(Psalm 62:8)

Your choice regarding Jesus - part 4

I have been talking in some detail about why Jesus came and the significance of His life. I now want to move more towards you and your relationship with Jesus or how you regard Jesus Christ.

There will come a day when we all stand before God and are held accountable for our lives. We will be accountable for our actions and our decisions. That's why it is so vital that you make your choice now, God is not looking for people who are sitting on the fence. But unfortunately people make up countless excuses as to why they dont accept Jesus into their lives. I wanted to start by looking at these.

I have no need for God
Some people go through their lives believing they have it all, that they are content in their situation. But what they fail to realise is that the greatest need is not to be happy or content, but rather forgiveness. Without forgiveness, noone will make it into heaven because although God is our loving father, he is also a righteous judge. Therefore as I have mentioned before, we are accountable for our actions and unless the wager for our sin has been paid (the blood of Jesus), then we will not make it into heaven.

We dont want to give up our life
Sometimes there are things in our lives that we hold onto so tightly. We would do anything not to give them up. Sometimes these are things that we know we should give up, but we cannot do it. These are what I referred to as our addictions. When God calls us to give these things up, its not because he doesnt want us to be happy, its actually the opposite. He loves us, he only wants us to give up things that are harmful to us. Just like when a parent stops a child playing with something dangerous, its not that the parent wants to stop the child from having fun, but the parent loves the child and doesnt want to see them get hurt. We must also realise that what we are asked to give up is nothing in comparison to the great promises that await us. And finally what we give up here on earth is nothing compared to what Jesus gave up on the cross for us.

I'm not good enough
None of us are perfect. We have all sinned at some stage during our lives. But this is the reason Jesus came. He made it possible for us to be reconciled with our creator, to be forgiven for our mistakes. So no matter how much of a mess we make of our lives, we can live with the assurance that we are forgiven if we ask for forgiveness and repent of our mistakes.

I will not be able to keep it up
It's true that we are bound to make mistakes, none of us are perfect and we are continually learning. But that is why we have been given the Holy Spirit to dwell within us, so that he can guide us and strengthen us when we are weak. The Holy Spirit gives us the power to keep on going as Christians.

I'll do it later
This is probably what people hear the most. But ultimately it only gets harder and harder to accept Jesus. And you are only stopping yourself from receiving the great promises of Jesus Christ the longer you put it off.

So what do you have to do then? If you have come to the point where you believe that you need forgiveness,  you no longer want to go on living a life only for yourself, but you want to begin living for Jesus, there are a few things you need to do. To receive His great salvation, you must first accept Jesus as your Lord and Saviour by asking Him to forgive you of your sins. But this must be done with a sincere and apologetic heart. Its not complicated, you just need to bow your head and just ask Jesus for forgiveness, acknowledging your mistakes and that you no longer wish to live for yourself, but for the Lords purpose in your life. Its that easy and as it says in 1 John 1:9

If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.

But what do you do then? First of all...tell someone! Every time someone gives their life to God, the angels in heaven rejoice! Just as the angels in heaven are celebrating your decision, I would also be so happy to hear that you have given made the choice to life for God. Another vital step is to get involved in a church. This journey with Christ is not meant to be done alone. Also you need to get a Bible and read it...daily! Finally and probably most important is to start speaking to God every day. Pray to Him and this doesn't have to be only at night, you can praise Him continually throughout the day, thanking Him for all the great things He has done in your life!



Well I hope these posts have given you some good points. Maybe your not yet ready to give your life to Christ, but I really want to encourage you to at least start attending a church. Im by no means a great writer, but I know that there are many awesome pastors out there and they would love to meet you and speak to you. So if you need help finding a church to attend, contact me and I can direct you in the path of a good church that is close to you.

Finally remember 1 John 4:15-

If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in him and he in God.

What did Jesus give us freedom from - part 3

Previously I spoke about how Jesus gave us freedom by dying on the cross. He took the weight of our sins upon Himself and made us clean so that we could come before God without sin. I want to look more closely at what exactly Jesus gave us freedom from, because this can really highlight the awesome power of our Lord and Savior!

Firstly He has given us freedom from guilt. Noone is without sin, apart from Christ Jesus. We have all sinned against God, broken His laws. And just like with any crime committed, there is a price to pay for the wrongs we have committed. This is stated in Romans 6:23 -

For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.

It wasn't till I went to church that I fully understood the significance of this statement. The punishment for our sin is eternity apart from our loving God. We are all guilty and deserve to be punished. But there is some great news...when Jesus was crucified on the cross, he took our sin upon himself, He took our penalty upon himself and by His blood we are free of guilt.

Through Jesus we can also be set free from our addictions. Before being led to Christ, there was addictions in my life. They were not drugs or smoking, but rather addictions to things that were leading me away from God. Sometimes there are things in our lives that we are slaves to and we don't even know it. It may be alcohol, it may be listening to bad music, it may be watching R rated television, it may be lust for the opposite sex, it may even be as simple as swearing or lying. Jesus said in John 8:34 -

I tell you the truth, everyone who sins is a slave to sin.

But the great news is by the power of Christ we can be set free from our addictions. By His act on the cross, the power of addiction in our lives was broken. When we are born again and filled with the Holy Spirit, we are no longer slaves to sin. Just as Jesus stated in John 8:36 -

So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed

Jesus also sets us free from fear. Many people who don't have a relationship with Christ fear death. But the good news is when we are born again, death is not the end, but rather the beginning of eternity in the presence of our mighty God.

Although Jesus is not physically still with us, He never left us alone. When we are born again, the Holy Spirit comes to reside within us and He gives us a new freedom. But a freedom for what exactly?

A freedom to know God more intimately. This is a topic by itself, so I will keep this brief. When we want to know someone more intimately, what do we normally do? We want to spend more time with that person, we want to get to know them more closely, we want to speak to them and hear them more and more. Its only by spending large amounts of time in this persons presence that we can intimately know them. When Jesus died on the cross for us, he made a way for us to come into intimate relationship with God. In 1 John 4:15 it says -

If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in him and he in God.

His spirit lives within us and we should constantly be in communication with the Holy Spirit listening for his guidance and wisdom in our lives.

We also have freedom to love. The act of Jesus dying on the cross for us shows just how much God loves us. As the powerful verse in John 3:16 says -

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.

God loves us so greatly and calls us to love others and serving other people in need. We are called to live lives where we don't focus on our own needs, but on the needs of others.


Jesus died so that we could live. He died for us even when we still sinners. And it is only through Jesus that we can truly be set free.

Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free. (John 8:32)

Why Bother With Jesus - part 2

Now we move into part 2 of my posts discussing some fundamentals about Jesus Christ. Today I want to look at what Jesus achieved during His time on Earth and why He came...

Some people have trouble grasping the idea of Jesus, they still question His very existence. Others make statements that he was a great man, nothing more. But the fact is He was so much more!

Firstly, His existence cannot be questioned, there is simply too much historical evidence to prove this fact But what about His claims?

When Jesus came, he stated that he was the unique son of God. He made the claim that He lived a sinless life (John 8:46-47). He claimed to be the only way to God (John 14:6). Jesus claimed that he was able to forgive sins. Jesus claimed He would die and rise again.

If a normal person made these kind of claims, most of us would label him as a crazy person. But Jesus didnt just make the claims, He made them come true. This is most clearly seen in his conquest of death.

But actually Jesus was foretold to be coming long before His birth. There are a large number of accounts of statements made by Old Testament prophets that talked about Jesus coming. Everyone of these prophecies were fulfilled by Jesus, not some of them, not most of them, all of them! Some examples of these prophecies included -

His virgin birth (Isa 7:14)

Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign; Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.

His sacrificial death (Isa 53:5)

But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed.

His crucifixion (Ps 22:14-18)

I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint. My heart has turned to wax; it has melted away within me.
My strength is dried up like a potsherd, and my tongue sticks to the roof of my mouth; you lay me in the dust of death.
Dogs have surrounded me; a band of evil men has encircled me, they have pierced my hands and my feet.
I can count all my bones; people stare and gloat over me.
They divide my garments among them and cast lots for my clothing.

His resurrection (Ps 16:10)

...because you will not abandon me to the grave, nor will you let your Holy One see decay.

 But why did He come? Why did He die? He did this because He loved us and did not want us to have to bear the penalty for all the things we have done wrong. We see this in His act on the cross, He is effectively saying that he is going to bear the weight of our sins. He died so that you and I could be free. This is highlighted by Paul in Galatians 2:20:

...the son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me

But what exactly has Jesus given us freedom from? I will discuss this in my next post. I hope this is proving helpful to you and helping you understand Jesus more.

What's Jesus all about? - part 1

First post for 2010...I better make it a good one! With the topic I have chosen, I can see this being a very long post unless I break it up...

I wanted to start off with a post that talks about one of the fundamental topics, but im going to break it up over a few post starting with What's Jesus all about? This is more focused towards people who dont have a strong understanding of Christ and would benefit from some more foundation knowledge, especially in relation to Jesus Christ.

For those who have little to know knowledge of who Jesus is, the huge amount of interest around someone who lived over 2000 years ago may seem confusing. The fact that I talk so passionately about Him in my other posts may serve to further this confusion.

But if we  break it down even more...what is Christianity all about? To put it simply...its about relationships. Christianity isnt about rules and restrictions, its about the most important relationship we will ever have...our relationship with our Mighty God. This is stated by Jesus in Matt 22:37-39

Jesus replied: " 'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.' This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.'

But why do we need Him? Well its because we were created to live in close relationship with God. This is a crucial part for a lot of non-believers...until we find this relationship, we will always feel that something is missing in our lives. This is exactly how I felt prior to giving my life to Christ. I felt their was a hole inside me, I felt I was missing something. No matter what I did to try and correct this feeling, it always remained. That was until I came to know God. This is highlighed by Jesus in John 6:35 -

Then Jesus declared, "I am the bread of life. He who comes to me will never go hungry, and he who believes in me will never be thirsty

This is exactly the point, when we run to Christ to be filled, we will never be without anything again. Jesus is the only one who can satisfy our deep hunger because He is the one who came to restore our relationship with God.

So we now see one of the important facts and that is Jesus comes to satisfy our hunger for the meaning of life, the purpose for why we are here. Until we come into an intimate relationship with God, we are unable to fully understand our purpose and we cannot come into intimate relationship except through Jesus Christ, just as it says in John 14:6 -

Jesus answered, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.

Jesus is the WAY, the TRUTH and the LIFE!! I dont think there is anything more important to grasp than that.

Jesus also satisfies our hunger for life after death. In the past I was quite fearful of death and avoided the topic. But after coming into a relationship with God, I came to understand that our life on Earth is tiny in comparison to eternity. Death is just the beginning of eternity, an eternity we get to spend with God if we accept Jesus as our saviour. Only in Jesus Christ do we find eternal life.

Finally Jesus satisfies our hunger for forgiveness. How many of us have done something to another person and we feel so regretful and long for forgiveness. We all make mistakes and we all need forgiveness. Our greatest need is forgiveness, we have all sinned against God and fallen short of His grace. But through Jesus we are forgiven. Through His death on the cross, Jesus made it possible for us to come back into relationship with God. No one is perfect, we have all sinned against God, but that sin must be accounted for. God is just and righteous and each and every one of us must be accountable for our actions. Therefore in order for us to enter heaven, we must be accountable for sin. But Jesus came and took our sin, he made us right before God, by dying on the cross. Even before you or I were born Jesus died for our sins! Thinking about now, even after many years of being a Christian still makes me stop and just praise Jesus Christ. Many of us would do something for a righteous man, but how many of us would help someone who has hurt us? Well thats exactly what Jesus did!

To wrap up the first part, I just want to highlight the fact that until we come in to relationship with Christ Jesus, we are always going to have a longing deep inside us, a hole that is impossible to fill with things of this world. But once we come before Jesus and repent of our sinful nature and give our life to Christ...then we will see the purpose of our lives.

As I have already mentioned, this is just the first part of a series of posts that discusses some fundamentals regarding Jesus