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