Category Archives: Christianity

Don’t neglect your bodies

20 Tuesday Jun 2017

Posted by in Christianity, Faith, Inspiration

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Look after your bodies2

Man, a tri-partite being exists in three parts that make up a whole; the spirit, soul and body. We have confirmation of this in many scriptures of the Bible.

1 Thessalonians 5:23
And I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. 

To function effectively in this life, all three parts must work as one in purpose and will. The moment one part of our being is out of balance, things start going wrong in our lives. Because many people are dismissive of the spirit or the soul, they are not always able to identify where the problem lies, so they are not able to fix it.

It is not now, nor has it ever been God’s will for us to be sick and suffer illnesses; but with the entry of sin into the world things started going wrong in our lives. The ability to connect with God in our spirit came under attack, mental and psychological problems presented themselves and physical decay leading to death became our new reality. Therefore, I think it only fair to write about some of the physical struggles we are faced with in life as our bodies have to deal with all sorts of disorders, conditions, natural cycles that cause us pain and discomfort. We know that it will deteriorate over time and eventually die, and a body deteriorating over time will sometimes be in pain and generally not respond to life as well as it did when it was young and healthy. Eyesight dims, hearing impaired, joint movements slow or motionless, the aging process and its’ own set of unique attributes.

When we come to the Lord, we must begin to live in the Spirit and the emphasis is no longer on the physical man, but is now on the spirit man. However, the Lord does not expect for a moment that we should lose interest in looking after our physical body or allow it to fall into a state of disrepair. On the contrary, without this body we will not be alive, without it there would be no place for the Father, Son and Holy Spirit to come in and dwell within us. We are need to look after our bodies. Now approaching the age of 53, I am dealing with things that I was definitely not prepared for.

I don’t remember any lessons or guidance on your body feeling like it is overheating to the point of combustion, followed by uncontrollable sweating, and the need to desperately seek for something; anything, to cool yourself down! Call me naïve, but through the years I have often seen women cooling themselves down with fans, sheets of paper, electric fans directed in their faces at work; and never thought to question it. All I knew was that I was nearly always cold and need fairly hot temperatures to truly enjoy the weather. I have often thought ‘it’s not that hot, why are they fanning sporadically?’ Obviously sometimes it’s the heat or a lack of air circulating in the room, but in these last 18 months I seem to have joined in this strange behaviour. Now a little older and wiser, I have come to realise that these ‘heat attacks’ as I call it, is none other than the onset of the menopause, a very natural cycle in our lives yet so full of varying degrees of discomfort pain!

Obviously with all the things happening in our lives, we take them first to the Lord, pray about them ask for healing, endurance and strength to cope with whatever is being thrown at us. But we must also acknowledge that we will not be healed of all ailments in this life because the promise of a perfect life without sickness and death is not here and now, it is the spiritual and everlasting life in Christ. We still need to be wise in looking after this body until it is time to go. We know in Genesis 1 that God gave us all the green herbs and fruits bearing seeds to feed our bodies and keep us healthy. And although we have moved so far from the life God had planned for us, we should continue where possible to use these natural remedies that grow on God’s green earth to help to keep our bodies going.

There are many things as Christians we seem reluctant to discuss or deal with, but for me I think it is good to talk and share our experiences to help each other. Sometimes we have family, friends, acquaintances, church brethren or strangers who are suffering in silence and dare not bring up certain life subjects for fear of reprisal; so it is very important that we talk about these very real issues to help someone who may be struggling with them.

Having always maintained a healthy lifestyle, and healthy diet where possible, I find that as we are getting older and our bodies are not functioning as well as they used to, it is wise to make healthy eating a priority and use healthy products on our skin. More recently I have re-acquainted myself with some healthy remedies my grandmother used to give me. One of them being root ginger, she would pop a small chunk into my mouth as a child to combat travel sickness… and it worked. I have recently become more involved in making my own juices using healthy organic products and avoiding those with unnatural sweeteners, artificial colours and preservatives. It is very exciting and therapeutic, and so much healthier for us as we get older. I have also been given a recipe of: apple cider vinegar, garlic and unpasteurised honey mixed together and taken daily in the morning to help with the effects of the menopause. I have only been using it for a few days so no updates on its’ effectiveness as yet!

However I am more than happy to trial healthy remedies with no side effects than the artificial alternatives with side effects. Don’t be afraid to use the natural remedies that come from the earth and balance it with the medical alternatives that God has blessed us with also. And please, introduce some exercise into your daily lives. Keep that heart healthy. Let us do the little things to help ourselves and leave God to do the big things. Remember Faith without Works is dead; so let’s not abuse our bodies and then expect God to work a miracle to fix it.

Don’t neglect your bodies, it is the house of the soul and the spirit; and the dwelling place of God, so it is important that we take care of it. We have a responsibility to look after ourselves as no one can do it for us. If you have any healthy remedies you are using, don’t be afraid to share them.

Be Blessed!

 

The most persecuted Faith on earth!

30 Tuesday May 2017

Posted by in Christianity, Faith, Jesus, Persecution, Religion

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Cross on the Rock2

CHRISTIANITY; to be Christ like. To spread the Gospel of Christ and tell the world of the Kingdom of God. Not to force our beliefs onto anyone but to let them freely chose. To share God’s love and to do it peacefully. That is who we are…

So how did we become the most persecuted Faith (religion) on the earth? Well we know that everything God does is challenged by the opposing force; the enemy, Satan! And we know that all strife in the world has a spiritual foundation. Every single one, without exception. Whether the world believes that or not is a different matter altogether!

Ephesians 6:12-13
For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. Wherefore take unto you the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand. 

Regardless of what the physical world professes; it is driven by spiritual forces which we cannot see and often do not understand!

Persecution of Christians is not new and it will not stop! This is not to say it should be accepted, because it should not; but we know that it will not stop. The Faith itself came into being through persecution of our Lord and Saviour Jesus; our God who gave us life allowed His to be taken, to free us from ourselves.

Whilst not the most accurate timeline, let us take a look at just some of the major periods of persecution that Christians have endured since the inception of the Faith. Jesus was killed, though not against His will. He allowed it to happen to bring us back into a relationship with God. But although He chose to go through it; that death was brutal and evil. And through that single selfless act of Love, Christianity was birthed. Then the Apostles took up the mantel and travelled far and wide preaching and teaching in the name of Jesus. They too were beaten mercilessly again and again and later killed. The various deaths included, being crucified upside down, being tied to a cross to prolong death, being killed by a sword, beheaded and so it continued. John being the only Apostle to live to an old age, but he was stilled imprisoned on the Isle of Patmos.

Christians were being hunted and killed by Saul who later became Paul; one of the greatest Apostles to walk the earth, literally. He preached and taught the Gospel across continents, and he too was beaten to within an inch of his life on several occasions, then later imprisoned and continued to write the majority of the books of the New Testament. Later, Christians were murdered and fed to animals for entertainment in the Roman Amphitheatres. Christianity went through many dark times across the globe. Many were martyred, burnt and brutalised for worshipping the one true God, Jehovah. Killed for proclaiming that Jesus Christ is Lord and often forced to denounce their beliefs.

Today, in our civilised world, you could be forgiven for thinking that this situation has gotten better and this is no longer the case. But no; it has gotten worse. These few lines could not begin to accentuate the peril that many millions of Christians face today.

Open Doors has been serving persecuted Christians worldwide for the past 60 years and have profiled 50 countries; where Christians are being brutalised, and killed on a daily basis. Christianity is now identified as the most persecuted religious group in the world! That is indeed some title and not one that anyone would compete to have! Yet how often do we hear in the news bulletins about the atrocities that Christians all over the world are being faced with on a daily basis? This has been iterated by the German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who claimed that ‘Christianity is in peril, like no other religion.’ The extreme persecution of Christians is a global problem which some world leaders are now beginning to address. Basic human rights and the freedom to choose are not on the radar of the governments of the countries that persecute Christians.

We, more than any other body of believers are being targeted for our Faith!

These persecutions are not always undertaken by extremists; but by governments who have decided that the people should not have a choice to worship freely; but instead should worship who they are told to worship. But we know that as Jesus went through unjust persecution; so too must we. And He confirmed this to us in the following scripture.

John 15:20-21
Remember the word that I said unto you, The servant is not greater than his lord. If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you; if they have kept my saying, they will keep yours also.
But all these things will they do unto you for my name’s sake, because they know not him that sent me.

We know we must go through major persecutions; many have and many will. So; for our part; as a member of the Christian family, let us join in PRAYER for ALL our brothers and sisters, wherever they are in the world who cannot worship freely and are facing daily persecutions and even death.

Join me in prayer for the 50 countries where our brothers and sisters are suffering on a daily basis. We know prayer works, so let’s mobilise our Faith now. Follow me on Facebook for a list of which countries to pray for.

What we are praying for
We pray for strength, endurance, courage and for governments to pass laws to protect them and allow them to worship freely. And we pray that they will have peace in the midst of all the turmoil:

Philippians 4:7
And the peace of God, which passes all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.

Bless you!

Don’t force your beliefs on me!

25 Thursday May 2017

Posted by in Christianity, Faith, The Gospel

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Spreading the Gospel

No one can force you to accept Jesus as your Lord and Saviour, it cannot be done. You have to accept Salvation of your own free will.

If God wanted to force you to love Him He would have done it all by Himself and He didn’t, so no one else can do so.  If you are being forced, be weary make sure you accept the Lord because you believe in Him and not in the person trying to convince you, no matter how charismatic they seem to be. As a Christian you should preach and teach the gospel, be patient with the non-believer and do not get angry with them. Remember you were once in that same position, when you did not believe, thought you had all the answers and rejected anyone sharing the faith with you.

There is an urgency for us to preach the gospel today but this is not to be confused with pressuring someone into submission. The urgency lies in the fact that no one knows when it is their time to leave this world, today, tomorrow, next month, next year we have absolutely no idea. The following scripture tells us of a rich man who thought he had everything the world could offer and was pleased with his accomplishments. But:

Luke 12:16-21
And He spoke a parable unto them, saying, the ground of a certain rich man brought forth plentifully: And he thought within himself, saying, What shall I do, because I have no room where to bestow my fruits? And he said, This will I do: I will pull down my barns, and build greater; and there will I bestow all my fruits and my goods. And I will say to my soul, Soul, you have many goods laid up for many years; take thine ease, eat, drink, and be merry.
But God said unto him, you fool, this night your soul shall be required of you: then whose shall those things be, which thou hast provided? So is he that lays up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God.

Having accumulated great earthly wealth, with no concern for the things of God, the rich man was completely satisfied with himself and was set for life or so he thought.  At no point did he think that he would not be alive long enough to enjoy it, and he wasn’t, so there is an urgency for Christians to preach the gospel and for those hearing it not to delay in answering the call. Jesus did not force anyone to follow Him, He fed thousands, He walked on the sea, He preached the kingdom of heaven to them, He healed the sick, raised people from the dead, not in secret but in very public places surrounded by the same people who rejected Him.

When Jesus explained to them that He was the Bread from Heaven sent down by the Father to give us life and that this was a spiritual illustration of who He is, they thought it was too difficult to understand and complained. The following scripture tells us that many of Jesus’ disciples walked away from Him:

John 6:60
Many therefore of his disciples, when they had heard this, said, This is an hard saying; who can hear it?

In that very moment in front of Jesus Himself, many disciples walked away from Him and never returned. They didn’t want to take up the challenge or try to understand something that was out of their comfort zone, remind you of anyone?

John 6:66-67
From that time many of his disciples went back, and walked no more with him.  Then said Jesus unto the twelve, Will you also go away?

Jesus never forced anyone to follow Him, you cannot force someone to want to be with you. This would be a good time to remind ourselves of the Fruit of the Spirit: Love, Joy, Peace, Longsuffering, Kindness Goodness, Faithfulness, Gentleness and Self Control. When these characteristics develop in you, you will have patience to go that extra distance, to keep preaching the gospel even if many walk away when they hear it, never thinking that there’s no point to it. Don’t try to drag anyone kicking and screaming; guide them, answer their questions, be gentle, do not anger and do not attempt to force them to get results. If they don’t want to hear anything you have to say and walk away, you must respect their wishes and leave them alone.

When a Christian attempts to share their faith with a non-believer it is to help them to find the Lord and to receive the gift of Salvation freely, not to force their beliefs on them. When Jesus sent His disciples to spread the gospel, He directed them saying, if people do not receive you, move on.

There are billions of people in the world who need to hear the Gospel, so we must keep moving on to get to as many people as possible, the urgency is in the second coming of our Lord Jesus and we have absolutely no idea when this will be. It is not for us to labour at trying to change someone’s mind; we leave the Holy Spirit to work with people’s hearts and minds when drawing them to the Lord. If someone hardens their heart and mind against the Lord, no amount of cajoling will change it, but don’t be discouraged. Someone out there needs to hear the Gospel.

Be encouraged and keep going in Christ!

Blessings!

 

Be a Game Changer

11 Thursday May 2017

Posted by in Christianity, Faith, Spiritual Training, Spiritual Warfare

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Game Changer2

Your world was upside down without God; but now it is turned the right way up!  Make no mistake, Satan does not like this, he is mad and angry, actually he always is.

Let us remind ourselves of what we are dealing with here.  He challenges God at every turn, he knows there is no forgiveness for him so he hates the fact that there is forgiveness for us.  He will seek to destroy you at every turn as told to us in the following scripture:

John 10:10
The thief (Satan) comes not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy:

This is Satan’s purpose, to steal your salvation, to kill you and to destroy your life, and not just yours, but he will target your family and friends all at the same time.  He will try to use you to harm someone and then destroy you afterwards if you let him.  It is all a game to him, so when he brings his game to you, you need to be a game changer.  You need strategy, spiritual weapons, endurance and there is only one way you can be victorious over him and that is through Jesus Christ.  There is power in the name of Jesus and everything you do must be in His name.  God gave Him this name because of the power in it.

Philippians 2:9-11
Wherefore God also has highly exalted Him, and given Him a name which is above every name: That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.  

Satan and all his demons have to bow to the name of Jesus.  Whilst we acknowledge what he is capable of we do not fear him.  All Satan had to do in heaven was to look beautiful, worship God and be a leader over the angels under him, and he couldn’t even do that!  He could not fulfil his purpose and he does not want you to fulfil yours, so do not fear a failure and a continuous one at that.  He does not know what you are thinking unless you vocalise it, he cannot take your life because he did not create you and God will not allow it (however he can convince you to do it or convince some else to do it,) he has tactics.

He cannot create, because he is a created being, in a word he is ‘limited’ in what he can do to you.  His strategy is to remind you of your past sins, keep throwing the same temptations back at you and sometimes throw you some curve balls when you least expect it.  So you need to know the game.  The only way you will know the game is through studying the bible and prayer.

When someone hurt you, Satan will convince you through thoughts to seek revenge and to hurt them.  Our natural logic and the sin nature will want to seek to get even also.  He will use unwitting friends, family and acquaintances to convince you that what you are doing is right.  This is his game plan, but don’t play it with him, change the game.  Do it God’s way and love those who hurt you, the enemy will hate it, but there is nothing he can do about it because you have the power of the Holy Spirit protecting you and he cannot take on the Holy Spirit, he cannot win; but this is not to say he won’t keep trying.

Take advice and counsel from wise men and women of God and more importantly be led by the Holy Spirit.  To be a game changer you need to focus on Jesus, the Word of God; to turn Satan’s games on him.

Be blessed!

 

Walking with God!

10 Wednesday May 2017

Posted by in Christianity, Faith, Inspiration, Jesus, Love, Spiritual Training, The Gospel

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 Jesus footsteps2

For the best part of three and a half years twelve men walked with God, literally and in every sense of the word; on this earth. They lived with Him, ate with Him, prayed with Him, laughed with Him, cried with Him, worked miracles with Him… do I need to go on?

What an awesome, awesome honour! When I meditate on this it is very humbling that our God, came down out of heaven, to work with us and for us. He could have brought the mighty angels with Him; He could have done so many other things to fix us, but He chose to include us in His plan. And if that wasn’t awesome enough, He WASHED the feet of His disciples and after He rose from death, He COOKED for them… fish on the beach! People of God it doesn’t get any better than that.

Let’s take that in for a moment… then reflect on ourselves. When was the last time we did something that special for someone, whether we know them well or not? It is so easy to go through life focusing on ourselves and not putting anyone else first. Everything Jesus did was for others; for us. The level at which He humbled Himself for us, means that surely we can humble ourselves for each other. Remember we were created in His image and in His likeness; so it is possible to be like Him and indeed we should be.

Love started us on this journey and love will bring us through.  Often when relationships fail in life, you will hear people say ‘Love was not enough,’ and this belief is expressed in films and books again and again.  Whilst this statement is true to some extent it is not the whole story.  The truth is, “Our love is not enough but God’s love is more than enough and perfectly able to cope with anything we experience in life.”  We need to practice God’s unfailing, unconditional, unfathomable transcendent love.  Through it all things can be accomplished.

He was and still is our example of how to show real unconditional love to each other.  Being a trained Complementary Therapist; I enjoy helping people to look after their tired and overworked bodies; and of all the treatments I have done my most favourite is looking after peoples’ feet. Those poor little members do so much to bear us up, becoming sore and swollen after a long days’ work, yet often we treat them so poorly. Many will tell you they are disgusted with their feet, refuse to look at them or show them to anyone and absolutely refuse to let anyone else look after them.

This happens all too often in life. We can be dismissive, refuse to show love to others, embarrassed by each other, will not give unless we receive; yet no one is able to repay Jesus for the things He did and continues to do for us. Could we wash the feet of a tired brethren, show unparalleled hospitality to strangers and loved ones, without ever expecting some kind of repayment? He knew we couldn’t repay Him yet He did it anyway… To walk with God we must first walk in His footsteps, because now it is a Spiritual Walk!

Recommended Reading
The Gospels – Matthew, Mark, Luke and John

 Stay Blessed!

The Default Position

09 Tuesday May 2017

Posted by in Christianity, Faith, God, God's Plan, Heaven, Jesus

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Default positionThere is so much confusion in the world today, with Christianity right up there at the top of the list. Many people don’t realise they are in a certain position in life and that they need to make a choice to get out of it. I call it the ‘default position.’

In the day that Adam and Eve ate the fruit of the tree of knowledge of Good and Evil, they inherited the knowledge and all that it had to offer, they lost the will to do the right thing and this became inherent in mankind.  They had the Knowledge but not through experience of that knowledge.  The curse of sin, not individual sin, but the sin of the world was that we, ‘man-kind’ gave away our birth-right and the right to all that God had for us.

Our birth-right was to have dominion over all the earth and the life in it from a position of holiness because we knew no sin.  Holiness was our default position.  When we gave up our birth-right to that holiness we also turned the natural order upside down and the world also ‘fell,’ it was no longer a perfect world.   An imperfect ruler cannot rule over a perfect world; one way or another they will corrupt it.  So our default position was now a sinful one in a fallen world and no longer holiness in a perfect world.  For this reason, Jesus had to come to give us our birth-right back.

Our peaceful, beautiful world became beset with one disaster after another. Jesus did not come to fix this world or to patch us up to continue living in it, He came to make all things new, a new people and a new world, as told to us in the following scripture.

Revelation 21:5
And He that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new.  And He said unto me, Write: for these words are true and faithful.

In this world as we know it, there are only two forces, the force of ‘Good’ (God) and the force of ‘Evil’ (the Devil).  When Adam and Eve gave away our birth-right we did not have a choice in the matter, but now we do have a choice in our destiny and our final destination.  Jesus came to give us back our choice so now we have power over our own destiny and not someone else.  Now we have a choice and can choose to be with God or to be with the devil.  In choosing one the other will be rejected and most people find this easy enough to understand.

However, if you do not make a choice, you are in the default position which is sin, Satan’s domain and there is no middle ground and no grey areas.  If you do not chose God, by default you have chosen the devil, because you will remain in your sin and sin is of the devil.

The default position is inherited, we are all born in it so we must make a conscious decision to get out of it, this is the choice Jesus gave back to us.  As stated earlier, the human race came under it when mankind fell and it is the worse position we could be in which is why God gave us a way out.  Many however, do not realise that they are in the default position, so they do not think they have to make a choice to get out of it.  To get to heaven, you must choose Jesus Christ as your Lord and Saviour, He is the only way, it has been ordained by God from the beginning of time.  Jesus confirms this in the following scripture when He is talking to Thomas one of His disciples:

John 14:6
Jesus said unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man comes unto the Father, but by me.

There is no other way to get to the Father or to get into heaven.  No matter how much we challenge this, criticise it, reason against it, it is what it is.  Any doctrine or teachings that sidestep Jesus are redundant.

Stay blessed!

Understanding Resurrection

18 Tuesday Apr 2017

Posted by in Christianity, Faith, Jesus

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grave-2115941And He took bread, and gave thanks, and brake it, and gave unto them, saying, This is my body which is given for you: this do in remembrance of me.
Luke 22:19 

We have just had an amazing weekend remembering the death, burial and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ the one thing the Lord asked us to remember until He comes.  We know that there are many stories surrounding Jesus’ resurrection as the Roman government of the day and Jewish Religious leaders plotted together to fabricate stories that His disciples stole His body. But there are many, especially new converts who don’t fully understand and are just not sure what the Resurrection really signifies in the life of a Christian.

Resurrection is such a huge concept to understand that I couldn’t let this most important event pass for another year without writing a few lines about it, especially for our new converts or anyone struggling to understand it. I often read of three different types of resurrection; but for me there is a fourth.

  1. The raising of the dead such as Lazarus, Jairus’ daughter, and the young man from Nain; to mention a few
  2. Jesus’ resurrection
  3. The resurrection of those who die in Christ when Jesus comes again
  4. Resurrection from Sin into Christ

Definition: Resurrection put simply is the raising up of someone from the dead; bringing them back to life.

Jesus showed us that this was possible when He rose Lazarus from the dead and indeed throughout His ministry He raised may others from the dead; but as we know the vast majority of miracles He did could not all be contained in Bible. However, we have enough to gain a full understanding of this amazing act of God. The following scriptures tells us of some of the people who Jesus resurrected. These people were resurrected into their physical bodies and continued life as before and later died again just as we all must die one day: unless we are alive at Jesus’ second coming. But that’s topic for another time. 

Recommended Reading
Matthew 9 – Jairus’ daughter
Luke 7 – The young boy from Nain
John 11 – Lazarus

Then we have Jesus’ death, burial and resurrection as told to us in the four Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke and John). Now this resurrection is the one that is extremely important to mankind! For it is this resurrection that gives us eternal life. The following scriptures tells us that Christ is the ‘firstfruits’ of the dead, so He is the first one to be raised from the dead. 

1 Corinthians 15:20
But now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the firstfruits of them that slept.

But we know many others were raised from the dead also and before Christ died because He was the one who raised many of them. So, what does this really mean for us? The scripture is referring to the first one to be raised from the dead into eternal life. Jesus was not raised into His earthly body to continue suffering pain or to die again. He was raised into His glorified spiritual body, never to be a man again, never to suffer pain and NEVER to die again. And He is the first one to experience this and through Him, we will later experience this also.

The third resurrection is the one that affects all those who die in Christ. When the Lord Jesus comes again, the dead in Christ will rise and not into our physical, sick dead bodies, but into our spiritual, glorified bodies; never to die again. We will be resurrected onto eternal life in Christ.

So where does the fourth resurrection come in? Well, for me it is in fact the first one, because before any of us can be resurrected into eternal life, we have to die to sin and be resurrected in Jesus Christ; we have to be saved. Kill the old sinful man and be born again into the new righteous man. And we do this by accepting Jesus as our Lord and Saviour and later receive water baptism in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

Be blessed!

 

In Christ you are FREE!

09 Sunday Apr 2017

Posted by in Christianity, Faith, Jesus

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When the Lord sets us FREE, takes us out of the bondage of SIN we are truly free in Him. So, why do we then put ourselves back into bondage by enforcing man-made laws, onto ourselves and spend our lives trying to live by them? This has always been a bone of contention for me and I refuse to let anyone force their beliefs and interpretations of the Christian Faith onto me. I strive every day to get into a closer and closer relationship with God so He and only He can truly reveal the things of God to me.

Many worldly interpretations of the Gospel have crept into the Faith through the centuries and its’ effects are felt from the moment we accept the Lord Jesus as our Saviour. One area most affected by this is the outward appearance. The world puts so much emphasis on looks and outward appearance and too many Christians are also putting great emphasis on the way people look.

“Your looks do not define your heart or your love for the Lord,” and no one should be able to convince you otherwise. God is not interested in Christians ‘looking the part.’  The Scribes and Pharisees in Jesus’ time looked the part but were completely corrupt inside and were very harmful to the people they should have been protecting and Jesus did not like it.  He was angry with them for leading people astray and adding to their suffering.  The following scripture tells us exactly what Jesus thought of the religious establishment of His time who ‘looked the part’ but were completely corrupt inside.

Matthew 23:27-28

Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye are like unto whited sepulchres, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead men’s bones, and of all uncleanness.  Even so ye also outwardly appear righteous unto men, but within ye are full of hypocrisy and iniquity.

They dressed right, looked the part but their hearts were unclean, cold and without love just like the bones of the dead, with no life in them.  Jesus was not in their hearts and they were definitely hypocrites.  While it is good to look right and dress appropriately, do not get too caught up with the outward appearance and don’t judge others because of how they look, actually don’t judge at all.  Don’t use the way you look to hide an unrighteous lifestyle because it cannot be hidden from God.        

The way Christians dress or look has been a topic of much discussion, debates and preachings through the ages.  The Bible does not say you should not take care of your appearance; or that you cannot wear jewellery or colour and style your hair.  It does not say women cannot wear trousers or must cover their hair. The following scripture says we should not concern ourselves only with the outward appearance, but it is the beauty of the inner heart that God loves.

1 Peter 3:3-4

Whose adorning let it not be that outward adorning of plaiting the hair, and of wearing of gold, or of putting on of apparel; But let it be the hidden man of the heart, in that which is not corruptible, even the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit, which is in the sight of God of great price.

Many scriptures have been taken out of context with regards to the way Christians should dress especially women, but once you read and study the Bible and let the Holy Spirit guide you, you will know what is pleasing to the Lord and what isn’t.  When you first come to the Lord, just come as you are and don’t worry about what you look like, it is your heart and your desire to follow Him that He is concerned with.  If your dress sense is a little risqué, the Holy spirit will work with you (if you let Him) to assess yourself as you progress and you will be able to decide what to keep and what to shake off. 

Christians all over the world do not dress the same, you have the casual dresser, the smart dresser, the ‘I’m on the red carpet dresser,’ the cultural dresser.  The Lord will not take away your creativity or your desire to adorn yourself, He just asks that we keep it in moderation and concentrate more on our heart and not the outward appearance.  A good rule of thumb would be not to show flesh that we all know should not be on show and make sure you can move or bend in your clothes, your rib cage is not restricted and you can actually breathe.  This is worth noting for anyone and not just Christians, so this shouldn’t be an issue for the Christian.  If you come to the Lord with piercings and tattoos and anything else you adorned yourself with in the world, He will welcome you with open arms, let Him work with you as no one else can.      

When God looks at you, He sees the blood of His Son Jesus Christ, then He looks into your heart to see if love is dwelling there.  He does not see your latest designer shoes or your bright green coloured hair or your tattoos.  If, however He looks into your heart and sees self-worship, pride, vanity, hatred, idolising the materials things that you own, then that’s when you need to be concerned.  When you dress up your heart with love, forgiveness and tenderness, removing hate, greed and self-righteousness, then you are dressed well!

 

 

 

Offload your Burdens

03 Monday Apr 2017

Posted by in Christianity, Faith, Jesus, Seeking God

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Cross_BlogI have made so many wrong decisions in life that I desperately try not to remember many of them and do my best not to bring them into my present. Unfortunately, the ones you try to forget and avoid the most are the ones that keep coming back. Then I get frustrated and the harder I try the more they pop into my head and the challenge is on. It is at this point that I remember to take the Lord at His word, literally and to put all my burdens on Him. 

Matthew 11:28-30 

Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.

The Lord wants us to give Him our burdens because the burdens of life are great and He knows we cannot cope with them. He offers us a blessing in return and a life in Him is not as difficult to bear as the burdens we have already. In Christ, we will find rest. Who does that? Who says to someone, give me your stressed, problematic life and I will give you my easy privileged life so you can rest. The Lord loves to fight our battles for us, but we don’t let Him. He won’t force His help onto us but He has made it so easy for us to come to Him. 

Once I remember to call on the Lord, I don’t stop until I get an answer. We are an impatient lot and we tend to give up quickly. If it is worth having, it is worth waiting for! Don’t give up until the Lord answers you. This is a test of your Faith and your endurance, which will strengthen you spiritually. Talking to the Lord about your problems; all of them, asking Him to help you deal with them or release you from them should not be a one visit, one conversation request. The Lord will not spoil us and turn us into ungrateful intolerable children by giving us everything we want when we want it. You will need to nurture your relationship with God.  

When I go to the Lord about something specific, I go in earnest, full of expectations. I have proved the Lord so many times in my life that I know He will answer me, so I immediately have a joy in my spirit at the thought of it. I get rid of all distractions, find my private space and begin to worship, talk, cry in no particular order, sometimes all at the same time. Often when the burden is really heavy I just lay and think about Him, thinking over everything in my spirit without saying a word out aloud. He dwells in my Spirit, so He completely understands the problem. I don’t always receive the answer I am expecting but I always trust the answer I am given. I will petition the Lord daily, talk, reason, ask questions, laugh and cry. He is my Father and there is nothing He wouldn’t do for me so there is nothing I am afraid to discuss with Him.

When I am feeling sad, anxious, distracted with things happening around me, trying to find the right way to deal with a situation, I take absolutely anything and everything to Him and relieve myself of the burden of it. Many mornings after crying to the Lord at night, I wake up completely refreshed, and with clarity. A peace in my spirit. I go to the Lord with so many things now that sometimes I receive an immediate response, while other times it takes longer. It is not possible to find another person who understands you COMPLETELY and can help you out of your situations EVERY TIME who is capable of giving you REST from your burdens!

Be blessed!

What if?

28 Tuesday Mar 2017

Posted by in Christianity, The Gospel

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 Rocks on the ShoreAnd Moses said unto God, Behold, when I come unto the children of Israel, and shall say unto them, The God of your fathers hath sent me unto you; and they shall say to me, What is His name? What shall I say unto them? And God said unto Moses, I AM THAT I AM: and he said, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, I AM hath sent me to you.  Exodus 3:13-14 (KJV)

Many are adamant that there is no greater power than us, no creator of the universe, no God, nothing after death, we just die and then there is no more consciousness, nothing, it is as if we never existed.  I have a question for you!  What if you are wrong?  What if there really is a God and everything He has taught us is true and there really is a heaven and a hell and an eternal life after the physical death?   

The world invests a lot of time in trying to prove that God does not exist, a God they do not believe exist in the first place; so why so much effort in trying to prove there is no God.  Surely if someone believes there is no God that should be sufficient for them, but this is clearly not the case.  How many expensive and time consuming experiments have been attempted by very intelligent and learned experts to work out how Jesus performed miracles, that they don’t believe ever happened; or whether or not Noah’s Ark ever existed or whether Pharaoh and his army actually drowned in the Red Sea.  Why spend your life trying to prove something you don’t believe ever existed in the first place?  It doesn’t make sense to me, unless there is an element in there somewhere that is not sitting right with the person, that keeps tugging at their spirit or is challenging their disbelief.  It is my belief that many people who say they do not believe there is a God actually do believe to some extent that there is a God but chose to reject the truth because it is not what they want in their lives and it doesn’t sit well with their logic. 

To believe in God, let Him guide us and to give Him control in our lives is just too much for many people to accept.  People like to boast of their personal achievements and the self-gratifying feeling that they did it all by themselves.  They walked on the moon, conquered a race, discovered a planet, they are the greatest that ever lived and the thought of saying ‘I was able to do this through the strength and empowerment of Jesus Christ,’ is too much for them to accept.  I cannot imagine a more wasted existence than to believe that someone or something doesn’t exist but to then spend my entire life trying to prove that they really don’t exist. 

God does not ask us as Christians to prove His existence because we cannot.  Sometimes we get caught up with useless debates trying to prove who God is, when we really cannot and the message we are trying to get across is lost. Moses was most concerned with whether or not the Children of Israel would believe that he was sent by God, but God simply said, tell them my name is I AM. I AM sent you! No further explanation required. We must always testify from our personal relationship with God, by Faith.  How would you begin to prove such a thing?  When I tried to share this concept with a friend I was told that I was ‘disillusioned,’ and that my statement was ‘moronic,’ so in other words I was a ‘disillusioned moron.’  I know the truth and we all will one day!  As a Christian don’t get frustrated when you can’t get through to someone, ask the Lord to reveal the truth to them and move on to the next one.  Time is short and as I said in a previous blog, it is not our friend because it just keeps ticking on regardless of the state we are in. 

Jesus is definitely returning to us very soon, but many people either don’t believe or think it is still a long way away.  Remember Christ left us just over two days ago so by God’s time will it be another half day, a few more hours a week?  We don’t know.  We need to be alert and not ignore the signs of the times.  A broken world cannot produce hope and fruitfulness.  It produces earth quakes with the earth literally breaking apart creating havoc and mass loss of life, or it’s erupting from its’ core with vicious force destroying everything in its wake.  We have rivers which instead of watering the land and growing the crops, as they were created to do, is responsible for the deaths of millions of people each year.  We have cities sinking into oceans with every passing moment.  Tsunamis, floods, avalanches, aeroplanes disappearing in mid-flight, people willing not only to take their own lives, but to strap bombs to themselves and kill as many innocent people as possible.  Children killing parents, parents killing children, the deepest bond possible, giving birth to another human being and they reach a point in their lives where they are able to kill each other.  Countries at war.  Who can stop any of these horrific things from happening!  Who can fix this?

              There is no one on this earth who can fix this and God will not patch it up.  His Word is clear, this world will pass away and He will build us a new one.  It is our duty as Christians to get the message out there, simple and uncomplicated. We cannot force anyone to believe in God but we must continue to spread the Gospel regardless of whether people accept it or not.