today I want to look at the subject of unity: unity in our Church family and unity across denominational lines.
The scripture says:
Behold, how good and pleasant it is
when brothers dwell in unity!
[Psalm 133:1]
we all can see that when a Church is unified and working together it is a much more pleasant environment, a place of peace and harmony..
Divisions in the Church can cause heartache and may result in some members leaving the Church, but when the members of a Church make an effort to strengthen the bonds of unity and heal the hurts that have resulted from disunity, the church can be stronger and more able and willing to serve God, our master and blessed lord.
In my town we have interdenominational prayer meetings, where members of the different Churches get together at one church to pray about a variety of things. We also work together for a few events during the year such as the world day of prayer service and the carols service at the end of the year. The pastors of the Churches get together for discussion and prayer from time to time. We can do a lot for God when we all work together.
Here is an example of what unity can do:
In the time after the flood and before Abraham, all the people spoke one language and lived near each other. They decided that they
would build a tower that reached heaven, not to glorify God but as a show of what they were capable of doing, to glorify themselves.
Here is what God says:
" And the LORD said, "Behold, they are one people, and they have all one language, and this is only the beginning of what they will do. And nothing that they propose to do will now be impossible for them. [Genesis 11:6]
That is what unity can accomplish. Of course, they were united in an act of rebellion against God, but they were united and God knew the best way to deal with this was to scatter them and give them separate languages.
Because the devil knows that we can accomplish a lot when united, he will do his level best to cause divisions in the Church.
Here is one example from Scripture of a divided, disunified Church.
Now I encourage you, brothers and sisters, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ: agree with each other and don't be divided into rival groups. Instead be restored with the same mind and the same purpose. My brothers and sisters, Chloe’s people gave me some information about you,
that you're fighting with each other. What I mean is this: that each one of you says, "I belong to Paul," "I belong to Apollos," "I belong to Cephas," "I belong to Christ." Has Christ been divided? Was Paul crucified for you, or were you baptized in Paul’s name?
[1 Corinthians 1:10-16]
the group had splintered into 4 separate factions,for Paul, for Appolos
For Peter [Cephas] and for Christ. This division had caused arguing among the believers.
as each side argued for their chosen leader. I am sure you can imagine the sort of problems that would arise in a divided group like this, arguments between groups, divisions even in homes where people were for different leaders, each group trying to prove that the others were all wrong and they were in the right. you know how it goes,
when we know we are right our flesh nature wants to prove to everybody else that they are wrong in whatever it is we are arguing about ,and give detailed explanations as to why they are so wrong, we love to be proved right.
What a mess! Paul makes it clear to them that Christ is the leader of all and that himself, Appolos and peter were only servants through whom they learned about Christ and began to grow in the faith. What sort of example do you think this kind of Church group would be setting for non-believers?
Unity doesn't mean we necessarily totally agree with everything each other believes, but unity is when we agree to disagree and put our differences aside.
Of course, if someone's beliefs differ in a major area such as salvation by faith in Christ or salvation by works only, then we need to pray for the one who believes in a works based salvation to learn the truth, loving them, not looking down on them and, if God guides us to,gently and respectfully show them the truth from God's word.
An example of a doctrine that people disagree on is the doctrine of the rapture. some are pre-tribulationists [/That is, that Jesus will come for the Church before the Tribulation starts], some are mid-tribulationists and others are post-tribulationists. others don't believe in the rapture at all. The truth is we don't know, when Jesus is coming back. I personally am a pre-tribulationist, as I explain in another post here, but just because I think that way doesn't mean that if I had a friend who doesn't agree with me about that I need to argue with them about it and try to prove I'm in the right. Rather, since we don't really know anyway we can agree to disagree and focus on the things and beliefs we do have in common.
The Scripture says:
Remind them of these things, and charge them before God not to quarrel about words, which does no good, but only ruins the hearers. [2 Timothy 3:14]
Another thing that causes disunity in the Church is gossip. This is one I struggle with a bit. We have to think, when we are going to share some piece of information about another,
- is this true,
- is sharing this helpful,
and
- what is my motive for sharing it.
Let me show you how this works. Now, as an example, Imagine if you heard that I was taking drugs. NOW I don't and never have taken drugs but this is just an example. Then if you told your friends "Did you know that Rishie takes drugs, and she calls herself a Christian,don't you think that's terrible?"
even if it was true Jesus gives us very clear ways of dealing with sin in the Church and they don't include gossip. The way to handle it would be to confront me and if I didn't listen, to bring a couple of witnesses along, and if I still didn't pay attention to make it known to the Church and if I still didn't pay attention, to treat me like an outcast and hopefully I would be brought to a realisation of my sin.
Gossip doesn't do any good but it can do a lot of harm, especially if the things we are gossiping about aren't true, it can damage relationships and cause problems in the church.
Another thing that can be very hurtful is if someone treats us nicely but then says unkind things about us behind our backs and it gets back to us. Ouch!I had a friend, once who came to stay with us for a while and when she left she said it has been nice seeing me and she was looking forward to next time but she said to one of my friends that she would not come back to visit here as long as I was here. Now that person and i sorted things out and I'm not saying this to put her down just using it as an example. You can imagine how that hurt. now if we have a problem with someone the best thing to do is to lovingly speak to them about it and tell them how we feel.
So if there is disunity in the church, What can we do about it?
Firstly? pray. Take it before the lord, if possible get a group of people together and pray about it.
Secondly, if God leads, you may be able to intervene to help reunite the rival groups.
I entreat Euodia and I entreat Syntyche to agree in the Lord. Yes, I ask you also, true companion, help these women, who have laboured side by side
with me in the gospel together with Clement and the rest of my fellow workers, whose names are in the book of life.
Sometimes one who isn't in the middle of the dispute can bring rivals together to try and sort things out or at the least, to agree to disagree. Jesus says this:
"Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.
[Matt 5:9]
we need to be guided by the Spirit because on our own we could end up doing more harm than good But with God's help we may be able to reconcile those who are at odds with each other.
If there is disunity in the Church it shouldn't be ignored but the members of the Church need to seek God about it and then do what he tells us to do.
As for disunity between members of different denominations, We need to pray about that too and God may show us something that we can do, such as starting a morning tea for Christian ladies in the town or area you live in,
or having a men's breakfast or a picnic or something every so often.
We need to be careful that we are not critical of people in other denominations I know someone who sometimes makes negative generalisations about members of a different denomination, and i have been guilty of negative thoughts about people from another denomination, all this should definitely be avoided. If we know that we are feeling this way or doing this sort of thing we need to pray about it. In one of her books Beth Moore talks about making friends with a Christian lady she met and then discovering that this lady belonged to a denomination that was looked down on by the members of Beth's Church. She explained that this friendship helped open her eyes and that God used it to deal with this prejudice she had against members of the other Church. God can do the same in our lives too, if he sees we have a prejudice against members of other denominations or other races or people of different colour or whatever our prejudices might be. Prejudice has no place in the body of Christ and if we are prejudiced God is not likely to allow you to stay that way.
In closing I want to leave you with a scripture from the book of Ephesians chapter 4 :3-6:
and make an effort to preserve the unity of the Spirit with the peace that ties you together. You are one body and one spirit just as God also called you in one hope. There is one Lord, one faith, one baptism, and one God and Father of all who is over all, through all, and in all.
Do you notice what stands out in this passage?
1 ... 1.... 1 ... 1....
He couldn't have made it clearer. As the song says:
Father make us one
that the world may know
you have sent your son
father make us one."
May this be our prayer.
I hope I have given you all something to think about. May God bless each of you!
Showing posts with label christian teaching. Show all posts
Showing posts with label christian teaching. Show all posts
Tuesday, 6 March 2012
Sunday, 6 November 2011
Reflecting on the Rapture
Let's look at the subject of the rapture today. Unfortunately there are those out there who predict the day that Christ will return. Even more unfortunately there are those out there who believe these people. why? Because they don't check what someone says to see if it lines up with scripture. Please, my dear brothers and sisters, do not be deceived by these people. They may just be misguided but they are also misguiding others and causing heartache and anxiety. I don't mean to sound harsh but I'm so saddened by those who believe these false prophets and find themselves confused and doubting when what is prophesied doesn't come to pass.
Don't misunderstand me, I firmly believe in the rapture, Jesus is coming one day and those who are his people will meet him in the air. I don't believe in those who say they know when this event is going to take place because of what the bible says. I'm going to talk briefly about what the Bible teaches in the hope that someone who reads this won't be mislead into believing what someone tells them if it doesn't line up with scripture. I'm not a pastor or theologian and my own understanding of these issues is limited, so I encourage you to check what I say and the scriptures I will give and if what I say doesn't line up with scripture please disregard me and be guided by the Word.
There are bible scholars who disagree about the order of end-time things. Some say that the rapture will come first, followed by the tribulation and then the glorious appearing of our lord Jesus. Others believe that the rapture will take place half way through the tribulation and others don't believe in the rapture at all. I'm not a theologian by any means but i personally take the first view, that the rapture will occur before the tribulation.
Now to explain a few terms so you will be able to follow the rest of this study, just in case you are already confused. The rapture is when those of us who believe in Jesus will be caught up in the clouds to meet him in the air. Every Christian who ever lived will rise from their graves and we will be given new, glorified bodies that are far superior to the bodies we have now, just as a mansion is far superior to a tent.
The tribulation is a 7 year period of time where the Lord will begin to judge the earth for their rejection of his son Jesus. There will be those who come to salvation at this time and many of those will be martyrs. At this time we will see the rise to power of a man who will be at the head of a one-world government. He is known by many names but most commonly known as the Antichrist. in the second half of the Tribulation, known as the Great Tribulation, he will be worshipped as God, and those who don't worship him or who don't have his mark on their head or hand will not be able to buy food.
The tribulation is also known as 'the time of Jacob's trouble' and there will be a second and worse Jewish holocaust where two Jews out of three will be killed. Please don't think I am antisemitic by saying that, I'm really not.
The Tribulation will end with the glorious appearing of our Lord Jesus, who will come in the clouds and everyone will see him. he will defeat the antichrist and set up his kingdom on earth for 1000 years. This is called the millennium.
This study is just a brief overview of some key passages dealing with the rapture. this isn't a full study on end time things but if people are interested we can do a deeper study of these things in the future. one of the key passages dealing with end time things is Matthew chapter 24, where Jesus addresses some of those issues. I actually started preparing a study on that chapter before I realised that wasn't the direction I should take this study. We are going to look at a few verses though as I think they are relevant:
And Jesus answered them, "See that no one leads you astray. For many will come in my name, saying, 'I am the Christ,' and they will lead many astray. And you will hear of wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not alarmed, for this must take place, but the end is not yet.
Then if anyone says to you, 'Look, here is the Christ!' or 'There he is!' do not believe it. For false christs and false prophets will arise and perform great signs and wonders, so as to lead astray, if possible, even the elect. See, I have told you beforehand. So, if they say to you, 'Look, he is in the wilderness,' do not go out. If they say, 'Look, he is in the inner rooms,' do not believe it.
[verses 1-8, 23-24]
Jesus warns us that false christs and false Prophets will arise and they will lead people astray. The trouble with false prophets is: unless we know the scriptures we may not even know we are being deceived. that's why it is all the more vital for us to know what the bible says and if we don't know if something is true or not, to check it up and not just believe what someone tells us. most authentic bible teachers and pastors will encourage us to do that very thing, check if what they teach is in agreement with what the bible says. It is sad but true that devout believers have been mislead into joining cults because they accepted and believed what they were taught and were discouraged from checking to discover if what they were told was scriptural. .
The passages where the rapture is discussed most clearly are in the books of 1 and 2 Thessalonians. we are going to read these passages and I will make a couple of comments.
The Coming of the Lord
But we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about those who are asleep, that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope. For since we believe
that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep. For this we declare to you by a word from the Lord, that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord. Therefore encourage one another with these words.
[1 Thess 4:13-18]
The first thing that needs to be clarified here is what Paul means by sleeping, and Jesus clarifies that nicely in John 11:
After saying these things, he said to them, "Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep, but I go to awaken him." The disciples said to him, "Lord, if he has fallen asleep, he will recover." Now Jesus had spoken of his death, but they thought that he meant taking rest in sleep. Then Jesus told them plainly, "Lazarus has died,"
The early Christians distinguished between the death of a believer and the death of a non-believer. For a believer, absent from the body is present with the Lord and the Church knew that they would see that loved one again in heaven. For an unsaved person they said he died because Death is a place of no hope, where god is not
The Church at Thessalonica had received a letter purporting to be from Paul, claiming that the resurrection had already happened. Also some of them were worried because they knew in the future there will be a time known as the great tribulation but at that time they were experiencing a lot of persecution. What if this was the end time already? Did that mean they missed the rapture?and what about their departed loved ones? So they were confused and uncertain, which is why Paul wrote these letters to them and explained these matters a bit more clearly. Confusion is one of the enemy's tricks.
The time of The rapture will happen at a time we are not expecting it. Jesus set it up that way so that we would have to be ready. If we knew he wasn't' coming for 100 more years we would relax and not try too hard to reach the lost and we wouldn't care about our spiritual growth, but if we realise he could come at any moment we are going to want to be ready. There won't be any advance warning, we can't predict from the scriptures when the Lord will return. That's why we shouldn't listen to anyone who says the world is going to end in 2012 or anything like that. the bible gives us prophecies of things that will happen in the last days but we can't discover the exact dates of things.
Now concerning the times and the seasons, brothers, you have no need to have anything written to you. For you yourselves are fully aware that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night. While people are saying, "There is peace and security," then sudden destruction will come upon them as labor pains come upon a pregnant woman, and they will not escape. But you are not in darkness, brothers, for that day to surprise you like a thief.
[1 Thess 5:1-4
If we knew that our house was going to be robbed on a certain night we would be there waiting for the robber and we wouldn't let him take anything and would take him to the police. In the same way, if we knew Jesus was coming today we would wait for it and we would be very careful about how we lived and what we did on the last day. We don't know when he will come but we need to be ready. i have heard of some Christians who think "O well, the rapture is coming soon, so I don't need to worry about saving money for the future and i can just live for today because Jesus is coming back soon." That, of course, is spurious. The knowledge that the lord could come at any moment should encourage us to get our lives right and deal with any sin we have in our hearts so that if he does come today we will be ready.
God considers it just to repay with affliction those who afflict you, and to grant relief to you who are afflicted as well as to us, when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with his mighty angels in flaming fire, inflicting vengeance on those who do not know God and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. They will suffer the punishment of eternal destruction, away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his might, when he comes on that day to be glorified in his saints, and to be marveled at among all who have believed, because our testimony to you was believed. To this end we always pray for you, that our God may make you worthy of his calling and may fulfill every resolve for good and every work of faith by his power, so that the name of our Lord Jesus may be glorified in you, and you in him, according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ.
[2 Thess 1:6b-12]
This refers to what is known as the judgement day, it will happen at the very end of time, when everyone who has rejected the great thing that Jesus did for us by dying on the cross will be judged. The time of judgement for the Church takes place after the rapture, when all of our works are tested by fire.[See 1 Corinthians 3]
We need to remember that we will have to give account for the way we lived our lives here on earth. It should make us reflect on the way we live and the decisions we make.
Now concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our being gathered together to him, we ask you, brothers, not to be quickly shaken in mind or alarmed, either by a spirit or a spoken word, or a letter seeming to be from us, to the effect that the day of the Lord has come. Let no one deceive you in any way. For that day will not come, unless the rebellion comes first, and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of destruction, who opposes and exalts himself against every so-called god or object of worship, so that he takes his seat in the temple of God, proclaiming himself to be God. Do you not remember that when I was still with you I told you these things? And you know what is restraining him now so that he may be revealed in his time. For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work. Only he who now restrains it will do so until he is out of the way. And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord Jesus will kill with the breath of his mouth and bring to nothing by the appearance of his coming. The coming of the lawless one is by the activity of Satan with all power and false signs and wonders, and with all wicked deception for those who are perishing, because they refused to love the truth and so be saved. Therefore God sends them a strong delusion, so that they may believe what is false, in order that all may be condemned who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness.
[2 Thess 2:1-12]
This is talking about the glorious appearing, the return of Jesus to the earth after the tribulation. he will defeat the antichrist, [the lawless one mentioned in this passage], and all those who follow him and then Jesus will reign over the whole earth from Jerusalem for 1000 years. After that time the devil, who had been chained and left in the bottomless pit for 1000 years, will be released, and the final battle between good and evil will take place. None of this will happen until the tribulation happens and the tribulation i believe won't happen till after the rapture, it's the explanation that makes most sense to me although bible scholars disagree about the order of things.
I hope this has been helpful to someone. Let us live each day in readiness for the return of our Lord and saviour!
Don't misunderstand me, I firmly believe in the rapture, Jesus is coming one day and those who are his people will meet him in the air. I don't believe in those who say they know when this event is going to take place because of what the bible says. I'm going to talk briefly about what the Bible teaches in the hope that someone who reads this won't be mislead into believing what someone tells them if it doesn't line up with scripture. I'm not a pastor or theologian and my own understanding of these issues is limited, so I encourage you to check what I say and the scriptures I will give and if what I say doesn't line up with scripture please disregard me and be guided by the Word.
There are bible scholars who disagree about the order of end-time things. Some say that the rapture will come first, followed by the tribulation and then the glorious appearing of our lord Jesus. Others believe that the rapture will take place half way through the tribulation and others don't believe in the rapture at all. I'm not a theologian by any means but i personally take the first view, that the rapture will occur before the tribulation.
Now to explain a few terms so you will be able to follow the rest of this study, just in case you are already confused. The rapture is when those of us who believe in Jesus will be caught up in the clouds to meet him in the air. Every Christian who ever lived will rise from their graves and we will be given new, glorified bodies that are far superior to the bodies we have now, just as a mansion is far superior to a tent.
The tribulation is a 7 year period of time where the Lord will begin to judge the earth for their rejection of his son Jesus. There will be those who come to salvation at this time and many of those will be martyrs. At this time we will see the rise to power of a man who will be at the head of a one-world government. He is known by many names but most commonly known as the Antichrist. in the second half of the Tribulation, known as the Great Tribulation, he will be worshipped as God, and those who don't worship him or who don't have his mark on their head or hand will not be able to buy food.
The tribulation is also known as 'the time of Jacob's trouble' and there will be a second and worse Jewish holocaust where two Jews out of three will be killed. Please don't think I am antisemitic by saying that, I'm really not.
The Tribulation will end with the glorious appearing of our Lord Jesus, who will come in the clouds and everyone will see him. he will defeat the antichrist and set up his kingdom on earth for 1000 years. This is called the millennium.
This study is just a brief overview of some key passages dealing with the rapture. this isn't a full study on end time things but if people are interested we can do a deeper study of these things in the future. one of the key passages dealing with end time things is Matthew chapter 24, where Jesus addresses some of those issues. I actually started preparing a study on that chapter before I realised that wasn't the direction I should take this study. We are going to look at a few verses though as I think they are relevant:
And Jesus answered them, "See that no one leads you astray. For many will come in my name, saying, 'I am the Christ,' and they will lead many astray. And you will hear of wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not alarmed, for this must take place, but the end is not yet.
Then if anyone says to you, 'Look, here is the Christ!' or 'There he is!' do not believe it. For false christs and false prophets will arise and perform great signs and wonders, so as to lead astray, if possible, even the elect. See, I have told you beforehand. So, if they say to you, 'Look, he is in the wilderness,' do not go out. If they say, 'Look, he is in the inner rooms,' do not believe it.
[verses 1-8, 23-24]
Jesus warns us that false christs and false Prophets will arise and they will lead people astray. The trouble with false prophets is: unless we know the scriptures we may not even know we are being deceived. that's why it is all the more vital for us to know what the bible says and if we don't know if something is true or not, to check it up and not just believe what someone tells us. most authentic bible teachers and pastors will encourage us to do that very thing, check if what they teach is in agreement with what the bible says. It is sad but true that devout believers have been mislead into joining cults because they accepted and believed what they were taught and were discouraged from checking to discover if what they were told was scriptural. .
The passages where the rapture is discussed most clearly are in the books of 1 and 2 Thessalonians. we are going to read these passages and I will make a couple of comments.
The Coming of the Lord
But we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about those who are asleep, that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope. For since we believe
that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep. For this we declare to you by a word from the Lord, that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord. Therefore encourage one another with these words.
[1 Thess 4:13-18]
The first thing that needs to be clarified here is what Paul means by sleeping, and Jesus clarifies that nicely in John 11:
After saying these things, he said to them, "Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep, but I go to awaken him." The disciples said to him, "Lord, if he has fallen asleep, he will recover." Now Jesus had spoken of his death, but they thought that he meant taking rest in sleep. Then Jesus told them plainly, "Lazarus has died,"
The early Christians distinguished between the death of a believer and the death of a non-believer. For a believer, absent from the body is present with the Lord and the Church knew that they would see that loved one again in heaven. For an unsaved person they said he died because Death is a place of no hope, where god is not
The Church at Thessalonica had received a letter purporting to be from Paul, claiming that the resurrection had already happened. Also some of them were worried because they knew in the future there will be a time known as the great tribulation but at that time they were experiencing a lot of persecution. What if this was the end time already? Did that mean they missed the rapture?and what about their departed loved ones? So they were confused and uncertain, which is why Paul wrote these letters to them and explained these matters a bit more clearly. Confusion is one of the enemy's tricks.
The time of The rapture will happen at a time we are not expecting it. Jesus set it up that way so that we would have to be ready. If we knew he wasn't' coming for 100 more years we would relax and not try too hard to reach the lost and we wouldn't care about our spiritual growth, but if we realise he could come at any moment we are going to want to be ready. There won't be any advance warning, we can't predict from the scriptures when the Lord will return. That's why we shouldn't listen to anyone who says the world is going to end in 2012 or anything like that. the bible gives us prophecies of things that will happen in the last days but we can't discover the exact dates of things.
Now concerning the times and the seasons, brothers, you have no need to have anything written to you. For you yourselves are fully aware that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night. While people are saying, "There is peace and security," then sudden destruction will come upon them as labor pains come upon a pregnant woman, and they will not escape. But you are not in darkness, brothers, for that day to surprise you like a thief.
[1 Thess 5:1-4
If we knew that our house was going to be robbed on a certain night we would be there waiting for the robber and we wouldn't let him take anything and would take him to the police. In the same way, if we knew Jesus was coming today we would wait for it and we would be very careful about how we lived and what we did on the last day. We don't know when he will come but we need to be ready. i have heard of some Christians who think "O well, the rapture is coming soon, so I don't need to worry about saving money for the future and i can just live for today because Jesus is coming back soon." That, of course, is spurious. The knowledge that the lord could come at any moment should encourage us to get our lives right and deal with any sin we have in our hearts so that if he does come today we will be ready.
God considers it just to repay with affliction those who afflict you, and to grant relief to you who are afflicted as well as to us, when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with his mighty angels in flaming fire, inflicting vengeance on those who do not know God and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. They will suffer the punishment of eternal destruction, away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his might, when he comes on that day to be glorified in his saints, and to be marveled at among all who have believed, because our testimony to you was believed. To this end we always pray for you, that our God may make you worthy of his calling and may fulfill every resolve for good and every work of faith by his power, so that the name of our Lord Jesus may be glorified in you, and you in him, according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ.
[2 Thess 1:6b-12]
This refers to what is known as the judgement day, it will happen at the very end of time, when everyone who has rejected the great thing that Jesus did for us by dying on the cross will be judged. The time of judgement for the Church takes place after the rapture, when all of our works are tested by fire.[See 1 Corinthians 3]
We need to remember that we will have to give account for the way we lived our lives here on earth. It should make us reflect on the way we live and the decisions we make.
Now concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our being gathered together to him, we ask you, brothers, not to be quickly shaken in mind or alarmed, either by a spirit or a spoken word, or a letter seeming to be from us, to the effect that the day of the Lord has come. Let no one deceive you in any way. For that day will not come, unless the rebellion comes first, and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of destruction, who opposes and exalts himself against every so-called god or object of worship, so that he takes his seat in the temple of God, proclaiming himself to be God. Do you not remember that when I was still with you I told you these things? And you know what is restraining him now so that he may be revealed in his time. For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work. Only he who now restrains it will do so until he is out of the way. And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord Jesus will kill with the breath of his mouth and bring to nothing by the appearance of his coming. The coming of the lawless one is by the activity of Satan with all power and false signs and wonders, and with all wicked deception for those who are perishing, because they refused to love the truth and so be saved. Therefore God sends them a strong delusion, so that they may believe what is false, in order that all may be condemned who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness.
[2 Thess 2:1-12]
This is talking about the glorious appearing, the return of Jesus to the earth after the tribulation. he will defeat the antichrist, [the lawless one mentioned in this passage], and all those who follow him and then Jesus will reign over the whole earth from Jerusalem for 1000 years. After that time the devil, who had been chained and left in the bottomless pit for 1000 years, will be released, and the final battle between good and evil will take place. None of this will happen until the tribulation happens and the tribulation i believe won't happen till after the rapture, it's the explanation that makes most sense to me although bible scholars disagree about the order of things.
I hope this has been helpful to someone. Let us live each day in readiness for the return of our Lord and saviour!
Tuesday, 18 October 2011
prayer2 - the Lord's Prayer
Pray then like this:
"Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come, your will be done,
on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our debts,
as we also have forgiven our debtors.
And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil.
[Matt 6:9-13]
Now Jesus was praying in a certain place, and when he finished, one of his disciples said to him, "Lord, teach us to pray, as John taught his disciples."
And he said to them, "When you pray, say:
"Father, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come. Give us each day our daily bread, and forgive us our sins,
for we ourselves forgive everyone who is indebted to us.
And lead us not into temptation."
I want to talk to you today about using the beautiful prayer known as the Lord's prayer as a prayer guide. It is nice and meaningful to pray that prayer through, we often do it in Church services and it's often the first prayer taught to new believers. however Jesus gave us not only a prayer to pray but a guide for our prayers. We are going to go through this prayer bit by bit and i will share what I have learned about using this prayer as a guide.
Firstly though, notice what the bible says in Luke 11:1
Now Jesus was praying in a certain place, and when he finished, one of his disciples said to him, "Lord, teach us to pray, as John taught his disciples."
I think we can all benefit from learning more about prayer, it's such a vital part of our Christian life and yet it is one that so many believers including me struggle with at times. We looked at prayer in a previous message but there is so much more to say about it.
now let's look at the Lord's prayer phrase by phrase:
1.
"Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name.
[Matt 6:9b]
God is our heavenly father. The bible says:
God destined us to be his adopted children through Jesus Christ because of his love. This was according to his goodwill and plan
[Ephesians 1:5 CEB]
and this:
Like a parent feels compassion for their children- that’s how the LORD feels compassion for those who honor him.
[Psalm 103:13 CEB]
notice the verse in Ephesians says:
God destined us to be his adopted children through Jesus Christ....
we are not natural born children of God, we are not god as Jesus is, but we are adopted into the family of god. An adopted child doesn't have the same birth parents as a child of the family would have, but an adopted child is legally part of the family.
When we became Christians we became part of the family of god. That's why the Lord's prayer starts with "Our father" not "My father". It reminds us that we are united with every Christian everywhere in the world and all those who have gone to Heaven before us, in one family with God as the head and Jesus as our holy big brother.
Hallowed is an old fashioned word meaning "holy". Other translations put it in different ways such as:
May your holy name be honored;
[GNT]
Reveal who you are.
[MSG]
may your name be kept holy.
[NLT]
uphold the holiness of your name.
[CEB]
may your name be honoured;
[Phillips]
God's name is holy, and that will always be true. The fact is, though, that people judge god by what they see in us. That's a very sobering thought. If they see us lying or using profanity they will think less of god and so in that way his name is not hallowed. his name refers to his character. We want to live in such a way that people won't have a lower opinion of god because of us.
Suggested prayer points:
* thank the Lord that Jesus died for you
* thank God that you are now a part of god's family, if you are a Christian.
* Pray that the way you live will bring glory to God and not bring dishonour to his holy name.
2. Your kingdom come, [Matt 6:10a]
Jesus is the King and one day he will return to set up his kingdom here on earth but for now he is in heaven, ruling over the heavens and ruling over our lives. One of the reasons he came to earth was to speak about the kingdom of heaven:
From that time Jesus began to preach, saying, "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand."
Matthew 4:17
We are subjects of the kingdom of heaven if we have surrendered our lives to Christ and accepted him as our Lord and Saviour. He rules over us from heaven through his holy Spirit who lives in each of us.
When we pray "your kingdom come" we are praying for the day when King Jesus will return in all his glory and will set up his kingdom on earth for 1000 years. after that time, when Jesus has defeated Satan once and for all, ,there will be a new heaven and a new earth where god and Jesus will reign from the New Jerusalem.
We are also praying for God's help to live here and now as subjects of the kingdom should live, that we might follow the King's rules for our life and do the work god has given us to do. for example, Jesus tells us this:
Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age."
this is the most important work that we as Christians can do: sharing god's truths with the people he brings into our lives.
Suggested prayer points:
* Pray for your unsaved family and friends to come to know Jesus.
* ask god if there is some way you can help your unsaved friends and family to come to know Jesus.
* Pray for missionaries and evangelists, who are busy about the work Jesus gave us to do.
3. your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. [Matthew 6:10b]
god has a perfect plan for the universe and for our lives, a plan he knew of before the world was formed. He wants us to walk in that will. god is our loving heavenly father so his will is always best for us even though it may not always seem to be so.
God reveals this will to us in various ways such as:
* when we study the bible
* through the advice of Christian friends we trust, especially those who are mature and can advise us well.
* when we examine our circumstances and see if god is opening a door for us to go through or if the door we think we want to go through is shut.
* through the still small voice of the Holy Spirit, who speaks to our hearts and tells us what god wants us to do.
Can you think of other ways god speaks to us?
When God tells us what he wants us to do he also gives us the grace and strength to do it. Sometimes, though, he will tell us to do something that
*. we really don't want to do. the choice then is between doing our will and doing god's will. Sometimes it can be really hard to say no to what we want, and we can battle with ourselves about whether we should do what we want or what we know is right.
We also pray for god's will to be done not only in our lives but on earth. We can pray for situations like war, famine, natural disasters and corrupt political leaders, because in every situation god has a perfect will and we know that his way is far better than ours. The trouble is that most of the people in the world are not children of god, most of them haven't asked Jesus to be their Lord and Saviour and even those of us who are Christians often choose to do what we know is wrong. There is also the enemy, satan, who temporarily rules over this world. he wants to do as much damage as possible, keep as many people as possible from getting saved and tries to work against God's perfect plan for this world.
We can still pray "your will be done on earth as it is in Heaven" because God can take the worst possible situations and bring some good out of them.
In Heaven god's will is always perfectly carried out, and the time will come when this will be true of the earth as well.
Suggested prayer points:
All we have to do is listen to the news to find plenty of bad situations we can pray about.
* pray that God will bring something good out of the bad situations that are happening.
* pray that you will know what God's will is for your life.
* Pray for the strength to choose god's will over your own in situations where you find it hard to obey.
4. Give us this day our daily bread, Matthew 6:11A]
In this petition we are asking god for the things that we need. He already knows what our needs are but he wants us to talk to him about them. Notice that it doesn't say "give us our daily cake" but "our daily bread." God will give us the things he knows we need to have, not necessarily the things we want to have. God will say no if what we are asking for is not good for us. He may sometimes choose to give us what we want to have but not always. He may also give us the answer "wait", because he knows that what we ask for is not best for us at this time and also he wants to teach us to pray without giving up, even if we have to wait years for what we have prayed about. Abraham prayed for a child for years and years and when he was 100 God gave Isaac to Abraham and his wife, when they were far past the age of childbearing.
god wants us to talk to him about every situation of our lives, bring to him every need no matter how trivial, and then trust him with the outcome. He is our heavenly father and he desires to have a relationship with us, isn't that a great thought?
we can also use this time to pray about the needs that our loved ones have, [our friends and family members], for our Church groups and for any needs we are aware of in the community or even our country.
Suggested Prayer Points:
* talk to God about the things you need.
* talk to god about the things your loved ones need
* Talk to god about any needs you know about in your town or even your country.
* If God says no, pray for the strength and wisdom to accept it.
* If god says "Wait" then pray for the patience you will need as you wait.
* if God has answered your prayers then thank him.
5. and forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. [v12a]
and forgive us our sins, for we ourselves forgive everyone who is indebted to us. [Luke 11:4]
we are asking God to forgive our sins. We all sin every day, sometimes because we choose to and sometimes just because it is part of our nature. Whatever the cause of our sin, we need to confess it to god, taking full responsibility for our actions and asking his forgiveness, ... but there is a proviso: we have to be willing to forgive those who have sinned against us. We have to forgive those who have hurt us, those who lied to us, those who spoke unkind things about us behind our backs, and anything else that anyone might have done to us. The bible says:
“If you forgive others their sins, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you don't forgive others, neither will your Father forgive your
sins.
[Matthew 6:14-15]
Sometimes it can be hard to forgive. maybe there is someone who hurt you badly in the past and you can't even imagine forgiving that person. That's when you need to ask god to help you forgive them. maybe you also need to see your pastor or find a Christian counsellor in your area. I have a person in my life I'm finding it hard to forgive but I'm trusting the Lord and I'm talking to him about the issues and I'm sure he will help me to really forgive them and put it behind me.
Remember that those whom we have hurt and treated harshly will have to forgive us too. It can be hard to forgive but God blesses us when we sincerely make an effort to do it and he will help us.
suggested prayer points:
pray for the willingness to forgive those who have hurt us.
Pray for the ability to forgive fully.
Thank god that he has forgiven all your sins.
6. And lead us not into temptation, v12a]
Every human being experiences temptation, even Jesus went through seasons of temptation but he never sinned.
god isn't the one who leads us into temptation. We are tempted either by our own desires, and/or by the enemy. God can and will help us when we are tempted, however. The bible says:
No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation
he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it.
1 Corinthians 10:13
when we experience temptation we can ask God for help and he will always show us a way to go that we will not fall into the temptation. Sometimes though, we don't want to avoid the temptation and there is a war in our hearts between what we know we should do and what we may want to do even if we know it's not good for us. we need to choose to do god's will even though it's hard, because what God tells us to do is really for our best even if we can't see it at the time. We need to cry out to God for help and for strength to do what we know he wants us to do.
Suggested prayer points:
pray for guidance about avoiding situations where we know we will be tempted.
pray for the strength we need to say no to sin even though our flesh is fighting against us.
7. but deliver us from evil. [v13b]
another translation says it like this:
but deliver us from the evil one. [v13b]
That's what this is all about. We know the evil one has plans and schemes against us. We want to avoid those schemes as much as possible. To do this we need god's help. As a blind person, there are times when I need to rely on someone to help me find my way, if I am in a place I don't know or if I'm walking in a place that is familiar to me but there are obstacles in the way. then I need to trust the person who is helping me, and go where they lead.
If we want to avoid the pitfalls and obstacles the enemy puts in our path we need to trust god and follow where he leads us, even if we don't understand or if we don't know the path he is leading us on .
Suggested prayer points:
pray that God will help us to be aware of the enemy's schemes against us.
Pray that God will keep us out of the traps the enemy sets for us.
Pray for your loved ones that the enemy's schemes in their lives will not stand.
To finish off this prayer we have to go to the KJV because this part is not always included in all the versions of the word:
For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen.
[Matt 6:13c KJV]
the word "thine" is an old-fashioned way of saying "Yours".
In this final part of the Lord's prayer, known as the doxology, we are acknowledging god as king, as the all-powerful one and as the only one worthy to receive glory.
this doxology can be compared to the praises Solomon gave to God when the first temple was consecrated:
11 Yours, O LORD, is the greatness and the power and the glory and the victory and the majesty, for all that is in the heavens and in the earth is yours.
Yours is the kingdom, O LORD, and you are exalted as head above all. 12 Both riches and honour come from you, and you rule over all. In your hand are power
and might, and in your hand it is to make great and to give strength to all. 13 And now we thank you, our God, and praise your glorious name.
Many believe that this part of the prayer was included at a later time and wasn't part of what Jesus taught his followers. It's a great way to finish praying though, to offer praise to god for who he is and to remember he is the all-powerful, glorious king of kings.
The word Amen comes from a Hebrew root word meaning truly or surely. The word for faith, emunah, comes from this same word. When we say amen we are expressing our agreement with what has been prayed.
I hope you have found our study of the Lord's prayer helpful. May the Holy spirit lead and direct you as you pray this prayer and use it as a prayer guide.
Prayer:
Dear Lord Jesus, thank you that you have given us a prayer to pray and also to use as a guide for our praying. help us to learn to pray as you have taught. Help us to be honest and sincere, talking to you freely about every aspect of our lives. Thank you lord god that you always hear us when we pray. Amen.
"Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come, your will be done,
on earth as it is in heaven.
Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our debts,
as we also have forgiven our debtors.
And lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil.
[Matt 6:9-13]
Now Jesus was praying in a certain place, and when he finished, one of his disciples said to him, "Lord, teach us to pray, as John taught his disciples."
And he said to them, "When you pray, say:
"Father, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come. Give us each day our daily bread, and forgive us our sins,
for we ourselves forgive everyone who is indebted to us.
And lead us not into temptation."
I want to talk to you today about using the beautiful prayer known as the Lord's prayer as a prayer guide. It is nice and meaningful to pray that prayer through, we often do it in Church services and it's often the first prayer taught to new believers. however Jesus gave us not only a prayer to pray but a guide for our prayers. We are going to go through this prayer bit by bit and i will share what I have learned about using this prayer as a guide.
Firstly though, notice what the bible says in Luke 11:1
Now Jesus was praying in a certain place, and when he finished, one of his disciples said to him, "Lord, teach us to pray, as John taught his disciples."
I think we can all benefit from learning more about prayer, it's such a vital part of our Christian life and yet it is one that so many believers including me struggle with at times. We looked at prayer in a previous message but there is so much more to say about it.
now let's look at the Lord's prayer phrase by phrase:
1.
"Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name.
[Matt 6:9b]
God is our heavenly father. The bible says:
God destined us to be his adopted children through Jesus Christ because of his love. This was according to his goodwill and plan
[Ephesians 1:5 CEB]
and this:
Like a parent feels compassion for their children- that’s how the LORD feels compassion for those who honor him.
[Psalm 103:13 CEB]
notice the verse in Ephesians says:
God destined us to be his adopted children through Jesus Christ....
we are not natural born children of God, we are not god as Jesus is, but we are adopted into the family of god. An adopted child doesn't have the same birth parents as a child of the family would have, but an adopted child is legally part of the family.
When we became Christians we became part of the family of god. That's why the Lord's prayer starts with "Our father" not "My father". It reminds us that we are united with every Christian everywhere in the world and all those who have gone to Heaven before us, in one family with God as the head and Jesus as our holy big brother.
Hallowed is an old fashioned word meaning "holy". Other translations put it in different ways such as:
May your holy name be honored;
[GNT]
Reveal who you are.
[MSG]
may your name be kept holy.
[NLT]
uphold the holiness of your name.
[CEB]
may your name be honoured;
[Phillips]
God's name is holy, and that will always be true. The fact is, though, that people judge god by what they see in us. That's a very sobering thought. If they see us lying or using profanity they will think less of god and so in that way his name is not hallowed. his name refers to his character. We want to live in such a way that people won't have a lower opinion of god because of us.
Suggested prayer points:
* thank the Lord that Jesus died for you
* thank God that you are now a part of god's family, if you are a Christian.
* Pray that the way you live will bring glory to God and not bring dishonour to his holy name.
2. Your kingdom come, [Matt 6:10a]
Jesus is the King and one day he will return to set up his kingdom here on earth but for now he is in heaven, ruling over the heavens and ruling over our lives. One of the reasons he came to earth was to speak about the kingdom of heaven:
From that time Jesus began to preach, saying, "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand."
Matthew 4:17
We are subjects of the kingdom of heaven if we have surrendered our lives to Christ and accepted him as our Lord and Saviour. He rules over us from heaven through his holy Spirit who lives in each of us.
When we pray "your kingdom come" we are praying for the day when King Jesus will return in all his glory and will set up his kingdom on earth for 1000 years. after that time, when Jesus has defeated Satan once and for all, ,there will be a new heaven and a new earth where god and Jesus will reign from the New Jerusalem.
We are also praying for God's help to live here and now as subjects of the kingdom should live, that we might follow the King's rules for our life and do the work god has given us to do. for example, Jesus tells us this:
Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age."
this is the most important work that we as Christians can do: sharing god's truths with the people he brings into our lives.
Suggested prayer points:
* Pray for your unsaved family and friends to come to know Jesus.
* ask god if there is some way you can help your unsaved friends and family to come to know Jesus.
* Pray for missionaries and evangelists, who are busy about the work Jesus gave us to do.
3. your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. [Matthew 6:10b]
god has a perfect plan for the universe and for our lives, a plan he knew of before the world was formed. He wants us to walk in that will. god is our loving heavenly father so his will is always best for us even though it may not always seem to be so.
God reveals this will to us in various ways such as:
* when we study the bible
* through the advice of Christian friends we trust, especially those who are mature and can advise us well.
* when we examine our circumstances and see if god is opening a door for us to go through or if the door we think we want to go through is shut.
* through the still small voice of the Holy Spirit, who speaks to our hearts and tells us what god wants us to do.
Can you think of other ways god speaks to us?
When God tells us what he wants us to do he also gives us the grace and strength to do it. Sometimes, though, he will tell us to do something that
*. we really don't want to do. the choice then is between doing our will and doing god's will. Sometimes it can be really hard to say no to what we want, and we can battle with ourselves about whether we should do what we want or what we know is right.
We also pray for god's will to be done not only in our lives but on earth. We can pray for situations like war, famine, natural disasters and corrupt political leaders, because in every situation god has a perfect will and we know that his way is far better than ours. The trouble is that most of the people in the world are not children of god, most of them haven't asked Jesus to be their Lord and Saviour and even those of us who are Christians often choose to do what we know is wrong. There is also the enemy, satan, who temporarily rules over this world. he wants to do as much damage as possible, keep as many people as possible from getting saved and tries to work against God's perfect plan for this world.
We can still pray "your will be done on earth as it is in Heaven" because God can take the worst possible situations and bring some good out of them.
In Heaven god's will is always perfectly carried out, and the time will come when this will be true of the earth as well.
Suggested prayer points:
All we have to do is listen to the news to find plenty of bad situations we can pray about.
* pray that God will bring something good out of the bad situations that are happening.
* pray that you will know what God's will is for your life.
* Pray for the strength to choose god's will over your own in situations where you find it hard to obey.
4. Give us this day our daily bread, Matthew 6:11A]
In this petition we are asking god for the things that we need. He already knows what our needs are but he wants us to talk to him about them. Notice that it doesn't say "give us our daily cake" but "our daily bread." God will give us the things he knows we need to have, not necessarily the things we want to have. God will say no if what we are asking for is not good for us. He may sometimes choose to give us what we want to have but not always. He may also give us the answer "wait", because he knows that what we ask for is not best for us at this time and also he wants to teach us to pray without giving up, even if we have to wait years for what we have prayed about. Abraham prayed for a child for years and years and when he was 100 God gave Isaac to Abraham and his wife, when they were far past the age of childbearing.
god wants us to talk to him about every situation of our lives, bring to him every need no matter how trivial, and then trust him with the outcome. He is our heavenly father and he desires to have a relationship with us, isn't that a great thought?
we can also use this time to pray about the needs that our loved ones have, [our friends and family members], for our Church groups and for any needs we are aware of in the community or even our country.
Suggested Prayer Points:
* talk to God about the things you need.
* talk to god about the things your loved ones need
* Talk to god about any needs you know about in your town or even your country.
* If God says no, pray for the strength and wisdom to accept it.
* If god says "Wait" then pray for the patience you will need as you wait.
* if God has answered your prayers then thank him.
5. and forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. [v12a]
and forgive us our sins, for we ourselves forgive everyone who is indebted to us. [Luke 11:4]
we are asking God to forgive our sins. We all sin every day, sometimes because we choose to and sometimes just because it is part of our nature. Whatever the cause of our sin, we need to confess it to god, taking full responsibility for our actions and asking his forgiveness, ... but there is a proviso: we have to be willing to forgive those who have sinned against us. We have to forgive those who have hurt us, those who lied to us, those who spoke unkind things about us behind our backs, and anything else that anyone might have done to us. The bible says:
“If you forgive others their sins, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you don't forgive others, neither will your Father forgive your
sins.
[Matthew 6:14-15]
Sometimes it can be hard to forgive. maybe there is someone who hurt you badly in the past and you can't even imagine forgiving that person. That's when you need to ask god to help you forgive them. maybe you also need to see your pastor or find a Christian counsellor in your area. I have a person in my life I'm finding it hard to forgive but I'm trusting the Lord and I'm talking to him about the issues and I'm sure he will help me to really forgive them and put it behind me.
Remember that those whom we have hurt and treated harshly will have to forgive us too. It can be hard to forgive but God blesses us when we sincerely make an effort to do it and he will help us.
suggested prayer points:
pray for the willingness to forgive those who have hurt us.
Pray for the ability to forgive fully.
Thank god that he has forgiven all your sins.
6. And lead us not into temptation, v12a]
Every human being experiences temptation, even Jesus went through seasons of temptation but he never sinned.
god isn't the one who leads us into temptation. We are tempted either by our own desires, and/or by the enemy. God can and will help us when we are tempted, however. The bible says:
No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation
he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it.
1 Corinthians 10:13
when we experience temptation we can ask God for help and he will always show us a way to go that we will not fall into the temptation. Sometimes though, we don't want to avoid the temptation and there is a war in our hearts between what we know we should do and what we may want to do even if we know it's not good for us. we need to choose to do god's will even though it's hard, because what God tells us to do is really for our best even if we can't see it at the time. We need to cry out to God for help and for strength to do what we know he wants us to do.
Suggested prayer points:
pray for guidance about avoiding situations where we know we will be tempted.
pray for the strength we need to say no to sin even though our flesh is fighting against us.
7. but deliver us from evil. [v13b]
another translation says it like this:
but deliver us from the evil one. [v13b]
That's what this is all about. We know the evil one has plans and schemes against us. We want to avoid those schemes as much as possible. To do this we need god's help. As a blind person, there are times when I need to rely on someone to help me find my way, if I am in a place I don't know or if I'm walking in a place that is familiar to me but there are obstacles in the way. then I need to trust the person who is helping me, and go where they lead.
If we want to avoid the pitfalls and obstacles the enemy puts in our path we need to trust god and follow where he leads us, even if we don't understand or if we don't know the path he is leading us on .
Suggested prayer points:
pray that God will help us to be aware of the enemy's schemes against us.
Pray that God will keep us out of the traps the enemy sets for us.
Pray for your loved ones that the enemy's schemes in their lives will not stand.
To finish off this prayer we have to go to the KJV because this part is not always included in all the versions of the word:
For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen.
[Matt 6:13c KJV]
the word "thine" is an old-fashioned way of saying "Yours".
In this final part of the Lord's prayer, known as the doxology, we are acknowledging god as king, as the all-powerful one and as the only one worthy to receive glory.
this doxology can be compared to the praises Solomon gave to God when the first temple was consecrated:
11 Yours, O LORD, is the greatness and the power and the glory and the victory and the majesty, for all that is in the heavens and in the earth is yours.
Yours is the kingdom, O LORD, and you are exalted as head above all. 12 Both riches and honour come from you, and you rule over all. In your hand are power
and might, and in your hand it is to make great and to give strength to all. 13 And now we thank you, our God, and praise your glorious name.
Many believe that this part of the prayer was included at a later time and wasn't part of what Jesus taught his followers. It's a great way to finish praying though, to offer praise to god for who he is and to remember he is the all-powerful, glorious king of kings.
The word Amen comes from a Hebrew root word meaning truly or surely. The word for faith, emunah, comes from this same word. When we say amen we are expressing our agreement with what has been prayed.
I hope you have found our study of the Lord's prayer helpful. May the Holy spirit lead and direct you as you pray this prayer and use it as a prayer guide.
Prayer:
Dear Lord Jesus, thank you that you have given us a prayer to pray and also to use as a guide for our praying. help us to learn to pray as you have taught. Help us to be honest and sincere, talking to you freely about every aspect of our lives. Thank you lord god that you always hear us when we pray. Amen.
Tuesday, 13 September 2011
Prodigal Returning
I want to share some thoughts today About the Prodigal son, a story I'm SURE IS
well known to each of you. For those who may not know it or those who need a refresher, here it is:
[Luke 15:11-24]
And he[Jesus] said, "There was a man who had two sons. And the younger of them said to his father, 'Father, give me the share of property that is coming to me.' And he divided his property between them. Not many days later, the younger son gathered all he had and took a journey into a far country, and there he squandered his property in reckless living. And when he had spent everything, a severe famine arose in that country, and he began to be in need. So he went and hired himself out to one of the citizens of that country, who sent him into his fields to feed pigs. And he was longing to be fed with the pods that the pigs ate, and no one gave him anything.
"But when he came to himself, he said, 'How many of my father’s hired servants have more than enough bread, but I perish here with hunger! I will arise and go to my father, and I will say to him, "Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son. Treat me as one of your hired servants."' And he arose and came to his father.
But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and felt compassion, and ran and embraced him and kissed him.
And the son said to him, 'Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.'
But the father said to his servants, 'Bring quickly the best robe, and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet.
And bring the fattened calf and kill it, and let us eat and celebrate. For this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found.' And they began to celebrate.
Here are a couple of points that stuck out at me:
1. the son is saved, he's a son not a servant. the point is, even children of God can mess up big time! I know it from my own experience. all we need to do is put distance between us and God and we allow the enemy an opportunity to get at us.
the bible says:
Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. Resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same kinds of suffering are being experienced by your brotherhood throughout the world.
[1 Peter 5:8-9]
Satan wants us to fall into sin and be ineffective in our Christian life and he will take every opportunity, he and his unholy horde, to tempt us and try to get us to put enough distance between us and God to allow the enemy of our souls access to our lives. that's why we need to be vigilant and why we need to watch and pray. The enemy will try to convince us that it will be fun to step away from god for a while and do some other things, but those who have fallen into sin know it's not fun. Maybe at first it is but it's a downward spiral. when I got out of the mess I was in I wondered how I could have let my life get into such a state. One of The answers is this: sin is deceptive. It likes to pass itself off as something harmless,there is often a false sense of security that what we are doing is really not so bad. i used to justify it by saying
noone knows what I'm doing I'm not harming anyone but god knew and I knew he didn't approve.
2. I'm sure the prodigal didn't overnight decide that he wanted his share of the inheritance. This was something just not done in that culture even in ours. It was extremely rude and the father could have severely reprimanded him for even suggesting it, but he didn't'. The point is, if the son had rejected that sort of thought the moment it cropped up, the whole sorry scene wouldn't have occurred. the same happens with us. Sin starts in our thoughts and moves on to words and actions, and, if it is not dealt with it can really mess up our lives, just like a little fire that starts and begins to spread, if someone doesn't put it out it can do a whole lot of damage.
3. The prodigal realised how bad his situation was, but to return was his own choice. he could have chosen to stay where he was feeding pigs and slowly starving to death, but he made a choice to return to his father. When we are brought face to face with our sin what we do then is our choice. we can cry out for mercy to god and repent or we can stay in our sin, which may lead to our choosing to abandon our faith altogether. Our story differs from the prodigal son in at least one point, the moment we call out to god he is there we don't have to take the walk back on our own, God will help us to get our lives back in balance, there will be a time of restoration, and he is the one who restores us and helps us to change our ways.
4. The prodigal's father wouldn't take him back as a servant and neither does our father. we serve him because we want to thank him for his incredible love for us, but we are god's children not just slaves. Jesus said:
You are my friends if you do what I command you. No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you.
5. The father welcomed the son right back into the family. There was no period of probation to see if his behaviour had changed, there was no stern lecture "you better change your ways, this is your last chance!" The father welcomed him back gladly. I want to look at that scene a bit closer before we conclude:
[Luke 15:17-24]
And he arose and came to his father. But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and felt compassion,
and ran and embraced him and kissed him. And the son said to him,
'Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.' But the father said to his servants, 'Bring quickly the best robe,
and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet.
And bring the fattened calf and kill it, and let us eat and celebrate. For this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found.' And they began to celebrate.
the son hadn't gotten far in his repentance speech when the father started giving orders to the servants and ordering a celebration. Notice what the Father gave the son?
1. A robe.
our Father takes our filthy robe of sin and replaces it with a clean robe of righteousness.
. the bible says it this way:
He himself[Jesus] bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed.
[1 Peter 2:24]
and this:
For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. [2 CORINTHIANS 5:21 NRSV]
2. The ring:
The significance of this didn't hit me until I read one of Max Lucked's books. The ring, in olden times, was used
to seal important documents, the emblem on the ring was dipped in wax to form the seal. The father was showing that the returned prodigal has the right to speak for the father. And we are our Father's ambassadors here on earth. We speak in his name when we tell people of his great love for them. Can you think of other times when we represent God?
3. The party:
the bible says this:
Just so, I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance.
There was a celebration in heaven when you first gave your life to god and there will be one when you go home. God doesn't cancel that party If we get tangled up in serious sin. We may wonder if we will be welcome in heaven because of the bad things we did,but no, god is merciful and if we truly repent he will restore us And our sins will be removed as far as the east is from the west,and that celebration in heaven will happen when we get there.
I want to speak a word of encouragement to anyone caught in a web of sin. Jesus says:
Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me. [Revelation 3:20]
Jesus was speaking to THE Laodicean Church whom he called a dead church. yet though they had sinned by compromising with the world and they were proud and puffed up, Jesus offers them mercy. He is standing at the door knocking. No matter what you've done or where you've been he is standing at the door of your heart waiting for you to open the door. And if you feel that you can't break free enough even to do that, cry out to him and he will come to you and take you by the hand and he will affirm his love to you and help you get started on the journey of repentance and reconciliation. One of my favourite verses says
He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds.
[Psalm 147:3]
We may not feel worthy to come to him, we may feel so sin-stained that we can't approach him, but the truth is we aren't worthy. god's grace is a free gift that we couldn't possibly earn even if we lived as close to perfect as we can. but the enemy wants us to feel so unworthy, so brought low that we may choose not to come to our father because we can't see how he would possibly accept us. he is waiting for us to cry to him, so we need to call out to god, tell him how unworthy we feel pour out our hearts to him and allow him to heal us. The words in the original language of that verse Psalm 147:3 imply a surgeon stitching up a wound. It may be painful but once it's done we will be fully healed and restored.
If we can it might be good to ask someone to pray for us through this process. We don't have to go into specifics unless we feel lead to, but it's good to have someone praying for us and prayer is powerful.
if you're in a situation like this, I would really encourage you to read "When godly people do ungodly things" by Beth Moore. that's where I got a lot of my ideas
for this message. I want to share a message that one of my followers tweeted today:
No matter how far you have fallen....#YOU can begin again.
God bless you all.
Questions:
[These are just for you and God to talk about privately, if you want to]
1. Why do you think that putting distance between you and god allows the enemy access to your life?
2. Why do you think that Satan works so hard to stop us being effective for god?
3. We saw that sometimes we can let our feelings of unworthiness separate us from god. Can you think of other times when we should disregard our feelings and go with what we know is true ?
well known to each of you. For those who may not know it or those who need a refresher, here it is:
[Luke 15:11-24]
And he[Jesus] said, "There was a man who had two sons. And the younger of them said to his father, 'Father, give me the share of property that is coming to me.' And he divided his property between them. Not many days later, the younger son gathered all he had and took a journey into a far country, and there he squandered his property in reckless living. And when he had spent everything, a severe famine arose in that country, and he began to be in need. So he went and hired himself out to one of the citizens of that country, who sent him into his fields to feed pigs. And he was longing to be fed with the pods that the pigs ate, and no one gave him anything.
"But when he came to himself, he said, 'How many of my father’s hired servants have more than enough bread, but I perish here with hunger! I will arise and go to my father, and I will say to him, "Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son. Treat me as one of your hired servants."' And he arose and came to his father.
But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and felt compassion, and ran and embraced him and kissed him.
And the son said to him, 'Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.'
But the father said to his servants, 'Bring quickly the best robe, and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet.
And bring the fattened calf and kill it, and let us eat and celebrate. For this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found.' And they began to celebrate.
Here are a couple of points that stuck out at me:
1. the son is saved, he's a son not a servant. the point is, even children of God can mess up big time! I know it from my own experience. all we need to do is put distance between us and God and we allow the enemy an opportunity to get at us.
the bible says:
Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. Resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same kinds of suffering are being experienced by your brotherhood throughout the world.
[1 Peter 5:8-9]
Satan wants us to fall into sin and be ineffective in our Christian life and he will take every opportunity, he and his unholy horde, to tempt us and try to get us to put enough distance between us and God to allow the enemy of our souls access to our lives. that's why we need to be vigilant and why we need to watch and pray. The enemy will try to convince us that it will be fun to step away from god for a while and do some other things, but those who have fallen into sin know it's not fun. Maybe at first it is but it's a downward spiral. when I got out of the mess I was in I wondered how I could have let my life get into such a state. One of The answers is this: sin is deceptive. It likes to pass itself off as something harmless,there is often a false sense of security that what we are doing is really not so bad. i used to justify it by saying
noone knows what I'm doing I'm not harming anyone but god knew and I knew he didn't approve.
2. I'm sure the prodigal didn't overnight decide that he wanted his share of the inheritance. This was something just not done in that culture even in ours. It was extremely rude and the father could have severely reprimanded him for even suggesting it, but he didn't'. The point is, if the son had rejected that sort of thought the moment it cropped up, the whole sorry scene wouldn't have occurred. the same happens with us. Sin starts in our thoughts and moves on to words and actions, and, if it is not dealt with it can really mess up our lives, just like a little fire that starts and begins to spread, if someone doesn't put it out it can do a whole lot of damage.
3. The prodigal realised how bad his situation was, but to return was his own choice. he could have chosen to stay where he was feeding pigs and slowly starving to death, but he made a choice to return to his father. When we are brought face to face with our sin what we do then is our choice. we can cry out for mercy to god and repent or we can stay in our sin, which may lead to our choosing to abandon our faith altogether. Our story differs from the prodigal son in at least one point, the moment we call out to god he is there we don't have to take the walk back on our own, God will help us to get our lives back in balance, there will be a time of restoration, and he is the one who restores us and helps us to change our ways.
4. The prodigal's father wouldn't take him back as a servant and neither does our father. we serve him because we want to thank him for his incredible love for us, but we are god's children not just slaves. Jesus said:
You are my friends if you do what I command you. No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you.
5. The father welcomed the son right back into the family. There was no period of probation to see if his behaviour had changed, there was no stern lecture "you better change your ways, this is your last chance!" The father welcomed him back gladly. I want to look at that scene a bit closer before we conclude:
[Luke 15:17-24]
And he arose and came to his father. But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and felt compassion,
and ran and embraced him and kissed him. And the son said to him,
'Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son.' But the father said to his servants, 'Bring quickly the best robe,
and put it on him, and put a ring on his hand, and shoes on his feet.
And bring the fattened calf and kill it, and let us eat and celebrate. For this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found.' And they began to celebrate.
the son hadn't gotten far in his repentance speech when the father started giving orders to the servants and ordering a celebration. Notice what the Father gave the son?
1. A robe.
our Father takes our filthy robe of sin and replaces it with a clean robe of righteousness.
. the bible says it this way:
He himself[Jesus] bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed.
[1 Peter 2:24]
and this:
For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. [2 CORINTHIANS 5:21 NRSV]
2. The ring:
The significance of this didn't hit me until I read one of Max Lucked's books. The ring, in olden times, was used
to seal important documents, the emblem on the ring was dipped in wax to form the seal. The father was showing that the returned prodigal has the right to speak for the father. And we are our Father's ambassadors here on earth. We speak in his name when we tell people of his great love for them. Can you think of other times when we represent God?
3. The party:
the bible says this:
Just so, I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance.
There was a celebration in heaven when you first gave your life to god and there will be one when you go home. God doesn't cancel that party If we get tangled up in serious sin. We may wonder if we will be welcome in heaven because of the bad things we did,but no, god is merciful and if we truly repent he will restore us And our sins will be removed as far as the east is from the west,and that celebration in heaven will happen when we get there.
I want to speak a word of encouragement to anyone caught in a web of sin. Jesus says:
Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me. [Revelation 3:20]
Jesus was speaking to THE Laodicean Church whom he called a dead church. yet though they had sinned by compromising with the world and they were proud and puffed up, Jesus offers them mercy. He is standing at the door knocking. No matter what you've done or where you've been he is standing at the door of your heart waiting for you to open the door. And if you feel that you can't break free enough even to do that, cry out to him and he will come to you and take you by the hand and he will affirm his love to you and help you get started on the journey of repentance and reconciliation. One of my favourite verses says
He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds.
[Psalm 147:3]
We may not feel worthy to come to him, we may feel so sin-stained that we can't approach him, but the truth is we aren't worthy. god's grace is a free gift that we couldn't possibly earn even if we lived as close to perfect as we can. but the enemy wants us to feel so unworthy, so brought low that we may choose not to come to our father because we can't see how he would possibly accept us. he is waiting for us to cry to him, so we need to call out to god, tell him how unworthy we feel pour out our hearts to him and allow him to heal us. The words in the original language of that verse Psalm 147:3 imply a surgeon stitching up a wound. It may be painful but once it's done we will be fully healed and restored.
If we can it might be good to ask someone to pray for us through this process. We don't have to go into specifics unless we feel lead to, but it's good to have someone praying for us and prayer is powerful.
if you're in a situation like this, I would really encourage you to read "When godly people do ungodly things" by Beth Moore. that's where I got a lot of my ideas
for this message. I want to share a message that one of my followers tweeted today:
No matter how far you have fallen....#YOU can begin again.
God bless you all.
Questions:
[These are just for you and God to talk about privately, if you want to]
1. Why do you think that putting distance between you and god allows the enemy access to your life?
2. Why do you think that Satan works so hard to stop us being effective for god?
3. We saw that sometimes we can let our feelings of unworthiness separate us from god. Can you think of other times when we should disregard our feelings and go with what we know is true ?
Tuesday, 30 August 2011
Prayer, study 1
Today I want to share some thoughts with you about prayer. there is so much I want to say about it that it will probably end up being more than one study.
Prayer is, very simply, talking to god. When my dad was alive and I wanted to ask him for something or even just to spend time with him I didn't drag myself into his room on my knees and grovel at his feet and say something like "O most noble father I beseech thee that in thy mercy I may make a request of thee, unworthy wretch that I am,..." I would walk into his room and say "Hey dad can I talk to you about something?" Now it is true that god is absolutely worthy of respect and we should thank him for the privilege of prayer, but because of what Jesus has done for us we have every right to come into the presence of our Heavenly Father as i had the right to come into my earthly father's room and talk to him. The bible says:
Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.
[Hebrews 4:16]
We are god's children, the bible says;
Because of his love he had already decided to adopt us through Jesus Christ. He freely chose to do this
[Ephesians 1:5 GWT]
god chose to make us his children and he wants us to come and spend time with him, just like earthly parents are happy when their children just want to spend time with them. It is true that we are sinners and we don't deserve the kindness and mercy god has lavished on us, it is true that we do so many things that god does not approve of, yet he doesn't' turn away from us. He forgives us and cleanses us and restores us to fellowship with him.
So prayer is spending time with god; sometimes talking to him, sometimes listening to him, sometimes just being silent in his presence. God wants us to pray to him, he wants to fellowship with us.
If I had a child who came to me every day and repeated the same words and phrases each and every day, i would get frustrated after a while. god wants us to pray to him from our heart, telling him the things that are on our minds. We have seen already that we can talk to God like we would talk to an earthly father, respectfully but naturally. god knows our needs before we voice them so we don't need to repeat prayers or even use the same words every day when we pray. If someone wants to pray but doesn't know what to say to god then they might benefit from saying a prayer that some other Christian has written, it might give them a place to start from and give them ideas to pray about. I have some prayers written by others that on occasion I use to guide my praying but on the whole I think it's best to pray from our hearts.
I would also encourage those who don't know how to pray or what to pray for to turn to the book of Psalms which is basically the bible's prayer book as well as being the songbook of the scriptures. there are other prayers in the bible such as the Lord's prayer in Matthew 6 and Luke 11, or Paul's prayers scattered throughout his writings. These prayers are divinely inspired as all the word of god is divinely inspired. I plan to do a study on using the Lord's prayer as a prayer guide but that's for another time.
Also I think we should try to avoid using the same words whenever we pray for something. sometimes we find words that express so well the things we feel that we put those words in our minds and the next time we pray we use the same words to pray for the same thing. Our prayers can become just something we say by rote if we do that. If we make the effort to find new ways to pray for the same things each time we pray then we are more involved in our praying.
For an example, a person might say grace every time using these words:
"Father thank you for this food, bless it to me in Jesus' name amen." After a while it becomes just a routine to say those words before eating. those words are fine but if the person made an effort and used different words such as
"Lord I'm so blessed that I have this good food to eat, thank you for giving it to me lord and thank you for the good it is going to do to me. I pray in the name of Jesus, amen."
then he or she would be more involved in their praying and it would remind them to be truly grateful to god for the blessings they have received.
There are formulas for prayer such as STAR [Sorry, thanks, adoration and requests] which might help some people in their praying but they need to be careful it doesn't become just a routine of repeated words.
When we pray we pray in the name of Jesus. What that means is that we know on our own merits we don't have the right to pray or expect god to hear us, but because of what Jesus has done for us we are able confidently to enter god's presence and we know our prayers are heard and will be answered in his way and timing. The bible says:
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.
[1 John 5:14-15].
Let's talk for a bit about answered prayer. Sometimes we can pray and pray about something and nothing happens. It can be discouraging but we must never give up.
When we pray, god will give us one of 3 answers: yes, no or wait.
sometimes he will say "yes" and we will receive the thing we asked for. sometimes he will say "No" and we need to accept that he has good and sufficient reasons for saying that. Other times he will tell us to wait. Waiting on God produces patience and trust in him and also produces perseverance which is important.
We don't know how to pray as we ought, sometimes all we can do is tell god what's on our hearts and ask his help. The bible says;
And He Who searches the hearts of men knows what is in the mind of the [Holy] Spirit [what His intent is], because the Spirit intercedes and pleads [before God] in behalf of the saints according to and in harmony with God's will.
[Romans 8:27]
so if you have a situation and you find it hard to pray about, remember that the Holy spirit is praying to God for you.
It can be nice having friends or Church Members praying for you if there is some need in your life. there is power in united prayer. The bible says
Again I say to you, if two of you agree on earth about anything they ask, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven. For where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I among them."
[Matthew 18:19-20]
I meet every week with a little group of people and we have a prayer meeting. I'm always inspired by them. They pray for anything from world governments to members of the website who are unwell or anything else.
I think something like that is a real blessing because we agree with each other's prayers and pray for each other. It might be beneficial for you to find a little group and make a time to pray together online or offline.
The bible says:
Is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer of faith will save the one who is sick, and the Lord will raise him up. And if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven.
the Pastor at my church makes time in our prayer times during the Church service to pray for those who are ill or need surgery. He and one or two deacons will come and lay their hand on the person and the pastor will anoint them with oil, just a little cross on the forehead, and they will pray for the person. This doesn't mean that the Pastor's prayers are more effective than the sick person's prayer, god is not a respecter of persons, it's just that they are praying for the sick person in agreement with what James says in the bible passage above.
We can pray to god anywhere at any time but it's a good idea to have a special place and time set aside for prayer. I pray in my room, when I first wake up in the morning, at some point in the afternoon and just whenever throughout the day.
Prayer Problems:
1. The biggest pitfall to prayer is our lack of faith. The bible says:
But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind. For that person must not suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord; he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.
[James 1:6-8]
and Jesus has this to say:
And Jesus answered them, "Have faith in God. Truly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, 'Be taken up and thrown into the sea,' and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that what he says will come to pass, it will be done for him. Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.
[Mark 11:22-24]
And the writer of the book of Hebrews warns us:
And without faith it is impossible to please him [god], for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.
[Hebrews 11:6]\
2. I don't know about you but whenever I go to pray my mind comes up with a whole stack of things I need to do now and if i persist in prayer all kinds of stray thoughts cross my mind to distract me. We can get around that by asking god's help to control our straying thoughts. He will help us if we sincerely ask him.
3. sometimes when things happen we think "O, I need to pray about this." but when we get to our prayer time we have forgotten what we wanted to pray for. We need to keep a list of things and people we are praying for. I have a file on my computer and I've divided the things I'm praying for into groups like financial needs, healing, missionaries and ministries, prayer needs from my friends, prayer needs for me, etc. During my prayer time I might say "Right I"m going to pray for financial needs today" so I will go down the list and pray over each need. It really helps me to have that file and know what I need to pray for. We need to be guided by God about what things he wants us to pray about. We might be praying for one thing and God will tell us we nee to pray for something else, then we need to drop what we are doing and pray for what God has revealed to us.
I'm sure I will have more to say about prayer at a later time but I'm going to finish this for now.
Questions:
These are just questions to ponder or talk about with God.
1. Why do you think prayer is so important in the Christian life?
2. What are the problems you have in praying ?
3. Have you created a prayer list with all the things you are praying for. If yes, do you find it helpful.
4. what are the problems in prayer that you have experienced?
Prayer is, very simply, talking to god. When my dad was alive and I wanted to ask him for something or even just to spend time with him I didn't drag myself into his room on my knees and grovel at his feet and say something like "O most noble father I beseech thee that in thy mercy I may make a request of thee, unworthy wretch that I am,..." I would walk into his room and say "Hey dad can I talk to you about something?" Now it is true that god is absolutely worthy of respect and we should thank him for the privilege of prayer, but because of what Jesus has done for us we have every right to come into the presence of our Heavenly Father as i had the right to come into my earthly father's room and talk to him. The bible says:
Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.
[Hebrews 4:16]
We are god's children, the bible says;
Because of his love he had already decided to adopt us through Jesus Christ. He freely chose to do this
[Ephesians 1:5 GWT]
god chose to make us his children and he wants us to come and spend time with him, just like earthly parents are happy when their children just want to spend time with them. It is true that we are sinners and we don't deserve the kindness and mercy god has lavished on us, it is true that we do so many things that god does not approve of, yet he doesn't' turn away from us. He forgives us and cleanses us and restores us to fellowship with him.
So prayer is spending time with god; sometimes talking to him, sometimes listening to him, sometimes just being silent in his presence. God wants us to pray to him, he wants to fellowship with us.
If I had a child who came to me every day and repeated the same words and phrases each and every day, i would get frustrated after a while. god wants us to pray to him from our heart, telling him the things that are on our minds. We have seen already that we can talk to God like we would talk to an earthly father, respectfully but naturally. god knows our needs before we voice them so we don't need to repeat prayers or even use the same words every day when we pray. If someone wants to pray but doesn't know what to say to god then they might benefit from saying a prayer that some other Christian has written, it might give them a place to start from and give them ideas to pray about. I have some prayers written by others that on occasion I use to guide my praying but on the whole I think it's best to pray from our hearts.
I would also encourage those who don't know how to pray or what to pray for to turn to the book of Psalms which is basically the bible's prayer book as well as being the songbook of the scriptures. there are other prayers in the bible such as the Lord's prayer in Matthew 6 and Luke 11, or Paul's prayers scattered throughout his writings. These prayers are divinely inspired as all the word of god is divinely inspired. I plan to do a study on using the Lord's prayer as a prayer guide but that's for another time.
Also I think we should try to avoid using the same words whenever we pray for something. sometimes we find words that express so well the things we feel that we put those words in our minds and the next time we pray we use the same words to pray for the same thing. Our prayers can become just something we say by rote if we do that. If we make the effort to find new ways to pray for the same things each time we pray then we are more involved in our praying.
For an example, a person might say grace every time using these words:
"Father thank you for this food, bless it to me in Jesus' name amen." After a while it becomes just a routine to say those words before eating. those words are fine but if the person made an effort and used different words such as
"Lord I'm so blessed that I have this good food to eat, thank you for giving it to me lord and thank you for the good it is going to do to me. I pray in the name of Jesus, amen."
then he or she would be more involved in their praying and it would remind them to be truly grateful to god for the blessings they have received.
There are formulas for prayer such as STAR [Sorry, thanks, adoration and requests] which might help some people in their praying but they need to be careful it doesn't become just a routine of repeated words.
When we pray we pray in the name of Jesus. What that means is that we know on our own merits we don't have the right to pray or expect god to hear us, but because of what Jesus has done for us we are able confidently to enter god's presence and we know our prayers are heard and will be answered in his way and timing. The bible says:
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.
[1 John 5:14-15].
Let's talk for a bit about answered prayer. Sometimes we can pray and pray about something and nothing happens. It can be discouraging but we must never give up.
When we pray, god will give us one of 3 answers: yes, no or wait.
sometimes he will say "yes" and we will receive the thing we asked for. sometimes he will say "No" and we need to accept that he has good and sufficient reasons for saying that. Other times he will tell us to wait. Waiting on God produces patience and trust in him and also produces perseverance which is important.
We don't know how to pray as we ought, sometimes all we can do is tell god what's on our hearts and ask his help. The bible says;
And He Who searches the hearts of men knows what is in the mind of the [Holy] Spirit [what His intent is], because the Spirit intercedes and pleads [before God] in behalf of the saints according to and in harmony with God's will.
[Romans 8:27]
so if you have a situation and you find it hard to pray about, remember that the Holy spirit is praying to God for you.
It can be nice having friends or Church Members praying for you if there is some need in your life. there is power in united prayer. The bible says
Again I say to you, if two of you agree on earth about anything they ask, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven. For where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I among them."
[Matthew 18:19-20]
I meet every week with a little group of people and we have a prayer meeting. I'm always inspired by them. They pray for anything from world governments to members of the website who are unwell or anything else.
I think something like that is a real blessing because we agree with each other's prayers and pray for each other. It might be beneficial for you to find a little group and make a time to pray together online or offline.
The bible says:
Is anyone among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer of faith will save the one who is sick, and the Lord will raise him up. And if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven.
the Pastor at my church makes time in our prayer times during the Church service to pray for those who are ill or need surgery. He and one or two deacons will come and lay their hand on the person and the pastor will anoint them with oil, just a little cross on the forehead, and they will pray for the person. This doesn't mean that the Pastor's prayers are more effective than the sick person's prayer, god is not a respecter of persons, it's just that they are praying for the sick person in agreement with what James says in the bible passage above.
We can pray to god anywhere at any time but it's a good idea to have a special place and time set aside for prayer. I pray in my room, when I first wake up in the morning, at some point in the afternoon and just whenever throughout the day.
Prayer Problems:
1. The biggest pitfall to prayer is our lack of faith. The bible says:
But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind. For that person must not suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord; he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.
[James 1:6-8]
and Jesus has this to say:
And Jesus answered them, "Have faith in God. Truly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, 'Be taken up and thrown into the sea,' and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that what he says will come to pass, it will be done for him. Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.
[Mark 11:22-24]
And the writer of the book of Hebrews warns us:
And without faith it is impossible to please him [god], for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.
[Hebrews 11:6]\
2. I don't know about you but whenever I go to pray my mind comes up with a whole stack of things I need to do now and if i persist in prayer all kinds of stray thoughts cross my mind to distract me. We can get around that by asking god's help to control our straying thoughts. He will help us if we sincerely ask him.
3. sometimes when things happen we think "O, I need to pray about this." but when we get to our prayer time we have forgotten what we wanted to pray for. We need to keep a list of things and people we are praying for. I have a file on my computer and I've divided the things I'm praying for into groups like financial needs, healing, missionaries and ministries, prayer needs from my friends, prayer needs for me, etc. During my prayer time I might say "Right I"m going to pray for financial needs today" so I will go down the list and pray over each need. It really helps me to have that file and know what I need to pray for. We need to be guided by God about what things he wants us to pray about. We might be praying for one thing and God will tell us we nee to pray for something else, then we need to drop what we are doing and pray for what God has revealed to us.
I'm sure I will have more to say about prayer at a later time but I'm going to finish this for now.
Questions:
These are just questions to ponder or talk about with God.
1. Why do you think prayer is so important in the Christian life?
2. What are the problems you have in praying ?
3. Have you created a prayer list with all the things you are praying for. If yes, do you find it helpful.
4. what are the problems in prayer that you have experienced?
Wednesday, 8 June 2011
Getting Closer to God
8 Come near to God, and he will come near to you.
[James 4:8a]
“I have loved you, my people, with an everlasting love.
With unfailing love I have drawn you to myself.
[Jeremiah 31;3b]
I had a message from a potential new friend on one of the penpal sites I'm a member of. he asked me to help him get closer to God. i wrote back and asked if he was a Christian and he told me he isn't. this message is for that new friend and anyone else in the same situation, wanting to get close to god but not knowing how.
Firstly, it is good and right for human beings to desire to get close to god. There is, as I have heard it said, a god-shaped hole in all our lives that only he can fill. When we desire to get close to god we are doing one of the things we were created to do.
secondly I am writing this from a Christian perspective but i am not in any way trying to force anyone to convert to Christianity; although if anyone wants to do that i am more than happy to help in any way I can and I would certainly encourage anyone who is not a Christian to check out Christianity for yourself, at the very least read one of the gospels and learn about Jesus.
Thirdly, God is very willing for us to get closer to him. To those who seek him in earnest he will be found. The bible promises that if we draw near to God he will draw near to us [James 4:8a]
so how do we get close to God? God knew that there would be those who would seek him and he provided ways for us to draw near to him, primarily through prayer and the study of God's word,the bible. We will look closer at these ways.
1: Prayer.
If we desire to get close to god then all we have to do is speak to him and ask him to help us draw near to him. He is just waiting for that word from us. He will never force himself on us so he waits for us to make the first move. Remember the story of the prodigal son? [Luke 10:25-37] The son had to make the first move but when the father saw him coming he ran to him and embraced him and had a party to celebrate his coming home. The son began to come back to the father, just like we have to make the first move, but when we do the father runs to meet us and if you give your life to god and ask Jesus into your heart then there will be a party in heaven because of you. If you want to know more about asking Jesus into your life I have another message called "Do you know Jesus?" that talks more about that.
Prayer doesn't have to be difficult, we don't have to use formulas and phrases that others have written. We can talk to god like we would talk to a parent or a friend whom we respect. The more simple and sincere our prayers are, the better. god wants us to be honest and talk to him about what we feel and what we need. We don't have to be in church to pray, we can talk to god any time anywhere, and in fact we should talk to him more and more while we go about our day's activities; as well as setting some time aside to be alone with him, talking to him and studying his word.
2. reading and studying the bible. God has given us a book that is all about him from start to finish. There are stories of how God helped his people in difficult situations, stories about Jesus, messages from prophets who told people what god wanted them to hear, and messages from some followers of Jesus who wrote to churches in the time after Jesus lived on earth, just to name a few things that you will find in the bible. The bible is called the word of god because though there were 40 human authors, god's holy Spirit took their words and breathed life into them. here are a couple of verses that talk about the power of god's word:
12For the Word that God speaks is alive and full of power [making it active, operative, energizing, and effective]; it is sharper than any two-edged sword,
penetrating to the dividing line of the breath of life (soul) and [the immortal] spirit, and of joints and marrow [of the deepest parts of our nature],
exposing and sifting and analyzing and judging the very thoughts and purposes of the heart.
[Hebrews 4:12]
16Every Scripture is God-breathed (given by His inspiration) and profitable for instruction, for reproof and conviction of sin, for correction of error
and discipline in obedience, [and] for training in righteousness (in holy living, in conformity to God's will in thought, purpose, and action), So that the man of God may be complete and proficient, well fitted and thoroughly equipped for every good work.
So, if we want to get close to God we can't ignore the bible. Different people will give you different advice about where you should start reading the bible, in the book of john or in the book of Acts or in some of the later books like 1 John or even in the book of Proverbs or the book of psalms in the Old testament, it doesn't really matter where you start, as long as you do start. There are some wonderful resources on the internet for studying the bible, commentaries and concordances and things that will help you understand passages that are hard to comprehend. what I suggest is that you pick a book of the bible, say one of the Gospels or one of the epistles, wherever you want to start from. Before you read spend a few minutes to pray and ask God to be your teacher and help you see things that he wants you to know. Then read a chapter or even a few verses, and stop and think about what is being said and let the Lord show you what he wants you to learn from your reading. That's just a suggestion to get you started, you can ask god to show you how he wants you to study the bible, how much he wants you to read each day and what book of the bible he wants you to study. I suggest that you take one of the bible books and work through it. There are other ways such as taking a topic and looking for all the bible verses relating to that topic, but I think we tend to get more out of our bible study if we take a book of the bible and go through it verse by verse. Remember I'm not a pastor or theologian I'm just sharing with you out of my own experience as God enables me, and how you choose to study the bible is between you and god. the main thing is to take some time each day to read and think about a passage of the bible, a few verses or a chapter or whatever you feel lead to do. Another important aspect of this is that god expects us to live our lives by what the bible teaches, so we need to read the bible so we can see what we should and shouldn't be doing.
here's a message I hesitate to share. John 14:6 says this:
6 Jesus answered, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.
it's good to want to get close to God but if you avoid the truth about who Jesus is and if you don't ask him into your hart to be your Lord and savior then you can't be saved. i pray for all of you to get saved.
Well I hope I have given you a few pointers about getting closer to god. Another thing I would strongly recommend is that if you can, find a Church in your area and start attending on a regular basis. I know it's difficult in some countries to do that but if it's at all possible, being part of a Church family will help us grow closer to god. I will leave you with that thought.
Lord God I thank you that there are those who desire to get closer to you and get to know who you really are. Reveal yourself to them I pray, as they study your word and spend time with you.
[James 4:8a]
“I have loved you, my people, with an everlasting love.
With unfailing love I have drawn you to myself.
[Jeremiah 31;3b]
I had a message from a potential new friend on one of the penpal sites I'm a member of. he asked me to help him get closer to God. i wrote back and asked if he was a Christian and he told me he isn't. this message is for that new friend and anyone else in the same situation, wanting to get close to god but not knowing how.
Firstly, it is good and right for human beings to desire to get close to god. There is, as I have heard it said, a god-shaped hole in all our lives that only he can fill. When we desire to get close to god we are doing one of the things we were created to do.
secondly I am writing this from a Christian perspective but i am not in any way trying to force anyone to convert to Christianity; although if anyone wants to do that i am more than happy to help in any way I can and I would certainly encourage anyone who is not a Christian to check out Christianity for yourself, at the very least read one of the gospels and learn about Jesus.
Thirdly, God is very willing for us to get closer to him. To those who seek him in earnest he will be found. The bible promises that if we draw near to God he will draw near to us [James 4:8a]
so how do we get close to God? God knew that there would be those who would seek him and he provided ways for us to draw near to him, primarily through prayer and the study of God's word,the bible. We will look closer at these ways.
1: Prayer.
If we desire to get close to god then all we have to do is speak to him and ask him to help us draw near to him. He is just waiting for that word from us. He will never force himself on us so he waits for us to make the first move. Remember the story of the prodigal son? [Luke 10:25-37] The son had to make the first move but when the father saw him coming he ran to him and embraced him and had a party to celebrate his coming home. The son began to come back to the father, just like we have to make the first move, but when we do the father runs to meet us and if you give your life to god and ask Jesus into your heart then there will be a party in heaven because of you. If you want to know more about asking Jesus into your life I have another message called "Do you know Jesus?" that talks more about that.
Prayer doesn't have to be difficult, we don't have to use formulas and phrases that others have written. We can talk to god like we would talk to a parent or a friend whom we respect. The more simple and sincere our prayers are, the better. god wants us to be honest and talk to him about what we feel and what we need. We don't have to be in church to pray, we can talk to god any time anywhere, and in fact we should talk to him more and more while we go about our day's activities; as well as setting some time aside to be alone with him, talking to him and studying his word.
2. reading and studying the bible. God has given us a book that is all about him from start to finish. There are stories of how God helped his people in difficult situations, stories about Jesus, messages from prophets who told people what god wanted them to hear, and messages from some followers of Jesus who wrote to churches in the time after Jesus lived on earth, just to name a few things that you will find in the bible. The bible is called the word of god because though there were 40 human authors, god's holy Spirit took their words and breathed life into them. here are a couple of verses that talk about the power of god's word:
12For the Word that God speaks is alive and full of power [making it active, operative, energizing, and effective]; it is sharper than any two-edged sword,
penetrating to the dividing line of the breath of life (soul) and [the immortal] spirit, and of joints and marrow [of the deepest parts of our nature],
exposing and sifting and analyzing and judging the very thoughts and purposes of the heart.
[Hebrews 4:12]
16Every Scripture is God-breathed (given by His inspiration) and profitable for instruction, for reproof and conviction of sin, for correction of error
and discipline in obedience, [and] for training in righteousness (in holy living, in conformity to God's will in thought, purpose, and action), So that the man of God may be complete and proficient, well fitted and thoroughly equipped for every good work.
So, if we want to get close to God we can't ignore the bible. Different people will give you different advice about where you should start reading the bible, in the book of john or in the book of Acts or in some of the later books like 1 John or even in the book of Proverbs or the book of psalms in the Old testament, it doesn't really matter where you start, as long as you do start. There are some wonderful resources on the internet for studying the bible, commentaries and concordances and things that will help you understand passages that are hard to comprehend. what I suggest is that you pick a book of the bible, say one of the Gospels or one of the epistles, wherever you want to start from. Before you read spend a few minutes to pray and ask God to be your teacher and help you see things that he wants you to know. Then read a chapter or even a few verses, and stop and think about what is being said and let the Lord show you what he wants you to learn from your reading. That's just a suggestion to get you started, you can ask god to show you how he wants you to study the bible, how much he wants you to read each day and what book of the bible he wants you to study. I suggest that you take one of the bible books and work through it. There are other ways such as taking a topic and looking for all the bible verses relating to that topic, but I think we tend to get more out of our bible study if we take a book of the bible and go through it verse by verse. Remember I'm not a pastor or theologian I'm just sharing with you out of my own experience as God enables me, and how you choose to study the bible is between you and god. the main thing is to take some time each day to read and think about a passage of the bible, a few verses or a chapter or whatever you feel lead to do. Another important aspect of this is that god expects us to live our lives by what the bible teaches, so we need to read the bible so we can see what we should and shouldn't be doing.
here's a message I hesitate to share. John 14:6 says this:
6 Jesus answered, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.
it's good to want to get close to God but if you avoid the truth about who Jesus is and if you don't ask him into your hart to be your Lord and savior then you can't be saved. i pray for all of you to get saved.
Well I hope I have given you a few pointers about getting closer to god. Another thing I would strongly recommend is that if you can, find a Church in your area and start attending on a regular basis. I know it's difficult in some countries to do that but if it's at all possible, being part of a Church family will help us grow closer to god. I will leave you with that thought.
Lord God I thank you that there are those who desire to get closer to you and get to know who you really are. Reveal yourself to them I pray, as they study your word and spend time with you.
Monday, 16 May 2011
Freedom
[All Scriptures, unless otherwise stated, are taken from
The Holy Bible, English Standard Version
Copyright © 2001 by
Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers.]
FREEDOM
There is a way that seems right to a man,
but its end is the way to death.
[Proverbs 14:12]
In those days there was no king in Israel. Everyone did what was right in his own eyes.
[Judges 17:6]
Sin is no longer your master, for you no longer live under the requirements of the law. Instead, you live under the freedom of God’s grace.
[Romans 6:14]
For you have been called to live in freedom, my brothers and sisters. But don't use your freedom to satisfy your sinful nature. Instead, use your freedom
to serve one another in love.
[Galatians 5:13]
What is freedom? Everyone wants it, people work to attain it but what is real freedom all about? Is it, as some people seem to think, the ability to cast off all restraint and do what they want when they want because they want, irregardless of the consequences? Any thinking person should be able to see that this would be disastrous. Can you imagine saying to your teen-age child "Ok you're 13 now so I'm going to let you live exactly as you want to. I won't try to correct you, I won't tell you what to do, you're on your own." can you imagine the results? the child wouldn't go to school, which would mean they wouldn't learn the skills that will help them later in life. What if they felt like trying drugs or alcohol and physical intimacies that a child that age shouldn't be engaging in? They wouldn't do their chores. Their bedroom would be a disaster area and soon enough it would spread to the rest of the house as they left dirty plates and things around, dirty clothes on the floor, books and papers scattered around. If it continued for long can you imagine what sort of state that child's life would be in? I'm not a parent but I couldn't stand by and see any child of mine wreck their lives in such a way.
For another example, imagine the leader of your country making an announcement over the media that they were dispensing with the law altogether. "We have discovered that the law is hindering people's freedom, so we're getting rid of it," he says. can you imagine the disastrous results if that happened? People would feel free to do whatever they wanted including robbing other people's houses or mistreating animals or speeding on the roads and causing accidents. Could you imagine the crime figures? The country would descend into anarchy and life would be held very cheap.
Some people think that they can be free if they get rid of all religious beliefs, as the bible says:
Why do the nations gather together?
Why do their people devise useless plots?
Kings take their stands.
Rulers make plans together
against the Lord and against his Messiah by saying,
“Let’s break apart their chains
and shake off their ropes.”
The one enthroned in heaven laughs.
The Lord makes fun of them.
[Psalm 2:1-4 GWT]
So we can see that even in freedom there needs to be some sort of boundary to keep freedom safe and to keep us safe in freedom.
But,you might say, how can freedom be freedom if there are restraints and boundaries? Isn't that something of an oxymoron? no, the boundaries make freedom truly free. think of the biblical example of a shepherd and his sheep. The sheep are safe when they are with the shepherd. As long as they stay in the safe area near the shepherd they are free to wander around and find the best grass to graze on. of course, they may choose to wander away from the shepherd, but then they are not protected by him and the lions and bears are free to kill them.
If you look in the bible you will see it is rich with commandments, things we should and shouldn't do. God tells his people to obey him not because he wants to restrict their freedom but because these commandments are the boundaries God sets for our freedom. As long as we stay in these boundaries we are truly free, our great shepherd protects us and lovingly watches over us. outside those boundaries is a roaring lion seeking whom he can devour, as the Bible says:
Control yourselves and be careful! The devil, your enemy, goes around like a roaring lion looking for someone to eat.
[1 Peter 5:8]
Let's continue to look at freedom from a Christian perspective. Jesus taught on this subject and we are going to look at a couple of passages that discuss this. The first one is in John chapter 8:
So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed in him, "If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth
will set you free." They answered him, "We are offspring of Abraham and have never been enslaved to anyone. How is it that you say, 'You will become
free'?"
Jesus answered them, "Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who commits sin is a slave to sin. The slave does not remain in the house forever; the son
remains forever. So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.
[John 8:31-36]
So we can see from this that we need to be set free from sin. But aren't our sins forgiven when we confess them and repent? yes indeed they are. we are fallen humanity, however, we can't even live a day without sin, not even an hour, or a minute without falling in some way. We will never be perfect this side of heaven and god knows that. We can be blameless however. Blameless in this context means not being captive to any persistent and wilful sin. For an example, if I'm talking to a friend and we begin to gossip about someone, then both of us have sinned and need to repent. however, if I, on a regular basis, gossip about people then that is a persistent sin and, if I'm doing that, I am no longer blameless and need God's help to be free and blameless again. yes, Jesus gives us freedom from persistent sins, if we ask him. He forgives all our sins and helps us to live in a right way.
So Jesus again said to them, "Truly, truly, I say to you, I am the door of the sheep. All who came before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did
not listen to them. I am the door. If anyone enters by me, he will be saved and will go in and out and find pasture. The thief comes only to steal and
kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.
[John 10:7-10]
Remember before we talked about the sheep and the shepherd? Jesus is the shepherd and we are his sheep. The nearer we stay to the great shepherd, the safer and freer we will be. We also talked about the lion outside the sheepfold ready to devour the strays. The devil is the lion, he is also the thief in this passage. he wants to take away the freedom that we have in Jesus. He sets traps for us all along the way we walk, just waiting for us to fall into them. Jesus is our great shepherd, the closer we stay to him the more we are likely to avoid those traps. if we fall into one Jesus will help us to get free and he will heal and strengthen us and set us back on the right road. All we have to do is ask him, it doesn't matter what trap we have fallen into or how terrible the things we have done, Jesus will forgive and heal us if we call out to him for help. If Jesus was able to free and heal Saul of Tarsus,a man who killed and tortured Christians, and afterwards use him in a mighty way to preach the Gospel and write letters that have impacted millions of lives, then he is able to forgive and heal you and I, no matter what we have done. The man I am talking about of course is the Apostle Paul, the book of Acts tells his story.
So what do we do now that we are free?
1. We do not use our freedom to indulge in sinful practices that displease God. Remember that we need to be blameless.
Sin is no longer your master, for you no longer live under the requirements of the law. Instead, you live under the freedom of God’s grace.
[Romans 6:14]
2. We are given freedom so that we can develop Christlike character, we are not bound by what the world thinks of us, we are not bound to follow the attitudes and behaviour of people in the world. We are free to grow in maturity, to love God and others, to serve and, with god's help, to become more like Jesus all the time. We must use our freedom for these godly purposes and any more that he brings to mind.
3. we are free to worship god and thank him for setting us free. He is worthy of all praise and adoration because he cared enough to send his son to die for the lost an the captives, so that he could save us and set us free.
4. We are free to stay in god's word and it will help us to stay free from the traps and snares of the devil. Study gods word and live by what it teaches and ask god to help you stay free from the enemy's snares and traps. Remember that the devil is the father of lies and he will trap us into wrong thinking and wrong behaviour if he can but if we stay in the sheepfold close to the great shepherd our enemy has a harder time trapping us.
Before we conclude, I want to share with you a passage from the book of Matthew:
And he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up. And as was his custom, he went to the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and he stood up to read.
And the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to him. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written,
"The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,
because he has anointed me
to proclaim good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives
and recovering of sight to the blind,
to set at liberty those who are oppressed,
to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor."
And he rolled up the scroll and gave it back to the attendant and sat down. And the eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him.
And he began to say to them, "Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing."
[Matthew 4:16-21]
Wow, how generous our god is! Look at this closely and see all the things that god has provided. I may just do a message on these verses and the things god has given us and done for us that are mentioned in this passage. God has set us captives free; but more than that, we are in the time of the Lord's favour and he is so merciful to us. he is worthy of all praise and thanks!
So,in conclusion, we have seen what freedom is not, and what it is. We have had a brief look at freedom from a Christian perspective. If we belong to god then Jesus has set us free so let us walk in that freedom, in the boundaries god has set, not being enslaved again to sin but using our freedom to grow in our faith and to do the things we know god wants us to do.
Questions:
Here are a few questions you might want to think about, just between you and god.
1. how would you define freedom?
2. What do you think Jesus meant when he talked about freedom in John chapter 8 verses 31-36?
3. what are some of the ways the devil uses to trap god's people who are walking in freedom?
4. What are some of the things the devil has done to trap you?
The Holy Bible, English Standard Version
Copyright © 2001 by
Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers.]
FREEDOM
There is a way that seems right to a man,
but its end is the way to death.
[Proverbs 14:12]
In those days there was no king in Israel. Everyone did what was right in his own eyes.
[Judges 17:6]
Sin is no longer your master, for you no longer live under the requirements of the law. Instead, you live under the freedom of God’s grace.
[Romans 6:14]
For you have been called to live in freedom, my brothers and sisters. But don't use your freedom to satisfy your sinful nature. Instead, use your freedom
to serve one another in love.
[Galatians 5:13]
What is freedom? Everyone wants it, people work to attain it but what is real freedom all about? Is it, as some people seem to think, the ability to cast off all restraint and do what they want when they want because they want, irregardless of the consequences? Any thinking person should be able to see that this would be disastrous. Can you imagine saying to your teen-age child "Ok you're 13 now so I'm going to let you live exactly as you want to. I won't try to correct you, I won't tell you what to do, you're on your own." can you imagine the results? the child wouldn't go to school, which would mean they wouldn't learn the skills that will help them later in life. What if they felt like trying drugs or alcohol and physical intimacies that a child that age shouldn't be engaging in? They wouldn't do their chores. Their bedroom would be a disaster area and soon enough it would spread to the rest of the house as they left dirty plates and things around, dirty clothes on the floor, books and papers scattered around. If it continued for long can you imagine what sort of state that child's life would be in? I'm not a parent but I couldn't stand by and see any child of mine wreck their lives in such a way.
For another example, imagine the leader of your country making an announcement over the media that they were dispensing with the law altogether. "We have discovered that the law is hindering people's freedom, so we're getting rid of it," he says. can you imagine the disastrous results if that happened? People would feel free to do whatever they wanted including robbing other people's houses or mistreating animals or speeding on the roads and causing accidents. Could you imagine the crime figures? The country would descend into anarchy and life would be held very cheap.
Some people think that they can be free if they get rid of all religious beliefs, as the bible says:
Why do the nations gather together?
Why do their people devise useless plots?
Kings take their stands.
Rulers make plans together
against the Lord and against his Messiah by saying,
“Let’s break apart their chains
and shake off their ropes.”
The one enthroned in heaven laughs.
The Lord makes fun of them.
[Psalm 2:1-4 GWT]
So we can see that even in freedom there needs to be some sort of boundary to keep freedom safe and to keep us safe in freedom.
But,you might say, how can freedom be freedom if there are restraints and boundaries? Isn't that something of an oxymoron? no, the boundaries make freedom truly free. think of the biblical example of a shepherd and his sheep. The sheep are safe when they are with the shepherd. As long as they stay in the safe area near the shepherd they are free to wander around and find the best grass to graze on. of course, they may choose to wander away from the shepherd, but then they are not protected by him and the lions and bears are free to kill them.
If you look in the bible you will see it is rich with commandments, things we should and shouldn't do. God tells his people to obey him not because he wants to restrict their freedom but because these commandments are the boundaries God sets for our freedom. As long as we stay in these boundaries we are truly free, our great shepherd protects us and lovingly watches over us. outside those boundaries is a roaring lion seeking whom he can devour, as the Bible says:
Control yourselves and be careful! The devil, your enemy, goes around like a roaring lion looking for someone to eat.
[1 Peter 5:8]
Let's continue to look at freedom from a Christian perspective. Jesus taught on this subject and we are going to look at a couple of passages that discuss this. The first one is in John chapter 8:
So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed in him, "If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth
will set you free." They answered him, "We are offspring of Abraham and have never been enslaved to anyone. How is it that you say, 'You will become
free'?"
Jesus answered them, "Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who commits sin is a slave to sin. The slave does not remain in the house forever; the son
remains forever. So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.
[John 8:31-36]
So we can see from this that we need to be set free from sin. But aren't our sins forgiven when we confess them and repent? yes indeed they are. we are fallen humanity, however, we can't even live a day without sin, not even an hour, or a minute without falling in some way. We will never be perfect this side of heaven and god knows that. We can be blameless however. Blameless in this context means not being captive to any persistent and wilful sin. For an example, if I'm talking to a friend and we begin to gossip about someone, then both of us have sinned and need to repent. however, if I, on a regular basis, gossip about people then that is a persistent sin and, if I'm doing that, I am no longer blameless and need God's help to be free and blameless again. yes, Jesus gives us freedom from persistent sins, if we ask him. He forgives all our sins and helps us to live in a right way.
So Jesus again said to them, "Truly, truly, I say to you, I am the door of the sheep. All who came before me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did
not listen to them. I am the door. If anyone enters by me, he will be saved and will go in and out and find pasture. The thief comes only to steal and
kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.
[John 10:7-10]
Remember before we talked about the sheep and the shepherd? Jesus is the shepherd and we are his sheep. The nearer we stay to the great shepherd, the safer and freer we will be. We also talked about the lion outside the sheepfold ready to devour the strays. The devil is the lion, he is also the thief in this passage. he wants to take away the freedom that we have in Jesus. He sets traps for us all along the way we walk, just waiting for us to fall into them. Jesus is our great shepherd, the closer we stay to him the more we are likely to avoid those traps. if we fall into one Jesus will help us to get free and he will heal and strengthen us and set us back on the right road. All we have to do is ask him, it doesn't matter what trap we have fallen into or how terrible the things we have done, Jesus will forgive and heal us if we call out to him for help. If Jesus was able to free and heal Saul of Tarsus,a man who killed and tortured Christians, and afterwards use him in a mighty way to preach the Gospel and write letters that have impacted millions of lives, then he is able to forgive and heal you and I, no matter what we have done. The man I am talking about of course is the Apostle Paul, the book of Acts tells his story.
So what do we do now that we are free?
1. We do not use our freedom to indulge in sinful practices that displease God. Remember that we need to be blameless.
Sin is no longer your master, for you no longer live under the requirements of the law. Instead, you live under the freedom of God’s grace.
[Romans 6:14]
2. We are given freedom so that we can develop Christlike character, we are not bound by what the world thinks of us, we are not bound to follow the attitudes and behaviour of people in the world. We are free to grow in maturity, to love God and others, to serve and, with god's help, to become more like Jesus all the time. We must use our freedom for these godly purposes and any more that he brings to mind.
3. we are free to worship god and thank him for setting us free. He is worthy of all praise and adoration because he cared enough to send his son to die for the lost an the captives, so that he could save us and set us free.
4. We are free to stay in god's word and it will help us to stay free from the traps and snares of the devil. Study gods word and live by what it teaches and ask god to help you stay free from the enemy's snares and traps. Remember that the devil is the father of lies and he will trap us into wrong thinking and wrong behaviour if he can but if we stay in the sheepfold close to the great shepherd our enemy has a harder time trapping us.
Before we conclude, I want to share with you a passage from the book of Matthew:
And he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up. And as was his custom, he went to the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and he stood up to read.
And the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to him. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written,
"The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,
because he has anointed me
to proclaim good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives
and recovering of sight to the blind,
to set at liberty those who are oppressed,
to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor."
And he rolled up the scroll and gave it back to the attendant and sat down. And the eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him.
And he began to say to them, "Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing."
[Matthew 4:16-21]
Wow, how generous our god is! Look at this closely and see all the things that god has provided. I may just do a message on these verses and the things god has given us and done for us that are mentioned in this passage. God has set us captives free; but more than that, we are in the time of the Lord's favour and he is so merciful to us. he is worthy of all praise and thanks!
So,in conclusion, we have seen what freedom is not, and what it is. We have had a brief look at freedom from a Christian perspective. If we belong to god then Jesus has set us free so let us walk in that freedom, in the boundaries god has set, not being enslaved again to sin but using our freedom to grow in our faith and to do the things we know god wants us to do.
Questions:
Here are a few questions you might want to think about, just between you and god.
1. how would you define freedom?
2. What do you think Jesus meant when he talked about freedom in John chapter 8 verses 31-36?
3. what are some of the ways the devil uses to trap god's people who are walking in freedom?
4. What are some of the things the devil has done to trap you?
Fear ... and fear
[All scriptures, unless otherwise stated, come from:
The Holy Bible, English Standard Version Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers.]
Whom did you dread and fear, so that you lied, and did not remember me, did not lay it to heart? Have I not held my peace, even for a long time, and you
do not fear me?
[Isaiah 57:11]
well that sure looks confusing to me, he asked them who it was they dreaded and feared, then he says:\
Have I not held my peace, even for a long time, and you
do not fear me?
So, let's talk about fear. Is it a good thing or a bad thing? I would say the answer depends on who we are fearing. I think Jesus sums it up rather well when he said:
And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell.
Matthew 10:28
But let's get back to our Isaiah verse. The word "fear" is used twice in the English translation but in the original Hebrew there were 2 separate words. The first one is "Yare'" which means: to fear, revere, be afraid, to stand in awe of, be awed, to fear, reverence, honour, respect
and the second word is "da'ag" which means:
to fear, be anxious, be concerned, be afraid, be careful, to dread.
[This information thanks to
The Old Testament Hebrew lexicon, Brown, Driver, Briggs, Gesenius Lexicon.]
Ok so what is the point of all that? There is a difference between fearing the Lord and fearing anyone else. the bible tells us that we are to fear God but we are not to fear other things or people, why is that? First of all because god is worthy to be feared, we will look at this later. secondly the fear of god is different from the fear of man. A lot of our fears are unreasoning and can cause panic when we are brought in contact with what we fear: a person who is afraid of spiders, for example, will keep as far away from spiders as possible and even if they just see one they will either run as fast as possible or be so afraid they can't move. If a person has a fear of god, however, it will cause them to keep as close to God as possible. The fear of God is a reverent, worshipful awe and fear, that recognises god's sovereignty and holiness and doesn't want to displease god our heavenly father. Fear of God will help us stay on the straight and narrow road that leads to eternal life, where we will be with God and all his saints and angels forever and ever.
It is a good thing for us to cultivate the fear of the Lord in our lives. Why is that? Because the safest place from the wrath of god is in the love of god. Have you ever been in the eye of a storm? It's raging all around your area but where you are it's quiet and safe, until the storm moves on that is. our sin makes God angry, actually it makes him furious. When we sin we are in essence saying that we prefer other things to him. That might not be in our minds but it is at the back of every sin. God is our creator and lord, the king above all kings and by rights he should always come first in our lives and we should always do what he wants, but you and I know it isn't like that. We fail to keep god's standard which is absolute perfection. We do and think and say a lot of things he doesn't like and that deserve punishment. Fortunately for us, the Lord Jesus took all our sins on himself when he died for us. he also took the punishment for sin. all God's wrath at our rebellion and disobedience, all his anger at our preferring other things to him; the wrath and punishment for all that was put on Jesus, who gave his life as a sacrifice to save those who believe. If we accept the finished work of the cross, if we have faith in what God has done for us, then god puts us in the eye of the storm and keeps us there, unless we reject him and choose to walk away from him. Outside that place of safety is his wrath. he will pour it out on those who reject him and refuse to believe.
yes we do right to fear god, our creator and judge. When we die we will see him face to face. he will demand an accounting of us, and he knows us better than we know ourselves. the bible says:
.... it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment,
[hebrews 9:27]
Our fear of god should encourage us to stay as close to him as possible. It shouldn't be an unreasoning fear and panic that will cause us to stay far from him, that wouldn't accomplish anything and would be detrimental to our faith.
the right sort of fear of the Lord should affect the way we live now and the choices we make. For example, say there is someone in your life who hurt you badly and they come to you asking your forgiveness. your natural reaction is to say "no way!" and to hold a grudge against them for what they did to you, but you know God says in his word that if we don't forgive we will not be forgiven, so you choose to forgive that person even though it's hard. You have just allowed the fear of God to affect your choices and this is what God wants. The bible teaches:
The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge;
fools despise wisdom and instruction.
[Proverbs 1:7]
or, as the Amplified version renders it:
The reverent and worshipful fear of the Lord is the beginning and the principal and choice part of knowledge [its starting point and its essence]; but
fools despise skillful and godly Wisdom, instruction, and discipline.
So how do we develop the fear of god in our lives? May I make a few quick suggestions?
1. Ask god to help us cultivate the fear of him.
2. Search the scriptures for verses that talk about the fear of God and meditate on them. Remember we talked about meditation before? It involves taking some time to think over a verse or concept an ponder what it means and how we can apply it to our lives.
3. As we read the bible we can take notice of people who feared god and see how it affected their lives, for example, the fear of god kept Joseph from sleeping with his master's wife.
We have seen that it is important to fear God, but what about our other fears? Remember that Jesus says:
And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell.
Matthew 10:28
and Isaiah 41:10 tells us:
fear not, for I am with you;
be not dismayed, for I am your God;
I will strengthen you, I will help you,
I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.
There are other verses in the Scripture too that tell us to "fear not". We should take our fears to the Lord, talk to him about them and ask his help to deal with those things so that he is the only one we fear.
Of course there is sooo much more to be said on this subject but I hope I have given you something to think about.
Questions::
Here are some questions to ponder. The answers should be kept between you and god and I hope they will help you to get a better understanding of the subject of fear.
1. What are some of the things you are afraid of?
2. Look at the definitions for the two Hebrew words that are translated as fear in English. Notice the similarities and the differences in the two types of fear.
3. why do you think god is worthy to be feared.
4. Is there anything else you think you can do to develop the fear of god in your life?
5. is there anything else you think you can do to deal with other fears in your life?
The Holy Bible, English Standard Version Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers.]
Whom did you dread and fear, so that you lied, and did not remember me, did not lay it to heart? Have I not held my peace, even for a long time, and you
do not fear me?
[Isaiah 57:11]
well that sure looks confusing to me, he asked them who it was they dreaded and feared, then he says:\
Have I not held my peace, even for a long time, and you
do not fear me?
So, let's talk about fear. Is it a good thing or a bad thing? I would say the answer depends on who we are fearing. I think Jesus sums it up rather well when he said:
And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell.
Matthew 10:28
But let's get back to our Isaiah verse. The word "fear" is used twice in the English translation but in the original Hebrew there were 2 separate words. The first one is "Yare'" which means: to fear, revere, be afraid, to stand in awe of, be awed, to fear, reverence, honour, respect
and the second word is "da'ag" which means:
to fear, be anxious, be concerned, be afraid, be careful, to dread.
[This information thanks to
The Old Testament Hebrew lexicon, Brown, Driver, Briggs, Gesenius Lexicon.]
Ok so what is the point of all that? There is a difference between fearing the Lord and fearing anyone else. the bible tells us that we are to fear God but we are not to fear other things or people, why is that? First of all because god is worthy to be feared, we will look at this later. secondly the fear of god is different from the fear of man. A lot of our fears are unreasoning and can cause panic when we are brought in contact with what we fear: a person who is afraid of spiders, for example, will keep as far away from spiders as possible and even if they just see one they will either run as fast as possible or be so afraid they can't move. If a person has a fear of god, however, it will cause them to keep as close to God as possible. The fear of God is a reverent, worshipful awe and fear, that recognises god's sovereignty and holiness and doesn't want to displease god our heavenly father. Fear of God will help us stay on the straight and narrow road that leads to eternal life, where we will be with God and all his saints and angels forever and ever.
It is a good thing for us to cultivate the fear of the Lord in our lives. Why is that? Because the safest place from the wrath of god is in the love of god. Have you ever been in the eye of a storm? It's raging all around your area but where you are it's quiet and safe, until the storm moves on that is. our sin makes God angry, actually it makes him furious. When we sin we are in essence saying that we prefer other things to him. That might not be in our minds but it is at the back of every sin. God is our creator and lord, the king above all kings and by rights he should always come first in our lives and we should always do what he wants, but you and I know it isn't like that. We fail to keep god's standard which is absolute perfection. We do and think and say a lot of things he doesn't like and that deserve punishment. Fortunately for us, the Lord Jesus took all our sins on himself when he died for us. he also took the punishment for sin. all God's wrath at our rebellion and disobedience, all his anger at our preferring other things to him; the wrath and punishment for all that was put on Jesus, who gave his life as a sacrifice to save those who believe. If we accept the finished work of the cross, if we have faith in what God has done for us, then god puts us in the eye of the storm and keeps us there, unless we reject him and choose to walk away from him. Outside that place of safety is his wrath. he will pour it out on those who reject him and refuse to believe.
yes we do right to fear god, our creator and judge. When we die we will see him face to face. he will demand an accounting of us, and he knows us better than we know ourselves. the bible says:
.... it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment,
[hebrews 9:27]
Our fear of god should encourage us to stay as close to him as possible. It shouldn't be an unreasoning fear and panic that will cause us to stay far from him, that wouldn't accomplish anything and would be detrimental to our faith.
the right sort of fear of the Lord should affect the way we live now and the choices we make. For example, say there is someone in your life who hurt you badly and they come to you asking your forgiveness. your natural reaction is to say "no way!" and to hold a grudge against them for what they did to you, but you know God says in his word that if we don't forgive we will not be forgiven, so you choose to forgive that person even though it's hard. You have just allowed the fear of God to affect your choices and this is what God wants. The bible teaches:
The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge;
fools despise wisdom and instruction.
[Proverbs 1:7]
or, as the Amplified version renders it:
The reverent and worshipful fear of the Lord is the beginning and the principal and choice part of knowledge [its starting point and its essence]; but
fools despise skillful and godly Wisdom, instruction, and discipline.
So how do we develop the fear of god in our lives? May I make a few quick suggestions?
1. Ask god to help us cultivate the fear of him.
2. Search the scriptures for verses that talk about the fear of God and meditate on them. Remember we talked about meditation before? It involves taking some time to think over a verse or concept an ponder what it means and how we can apply it to our lives.
3. As we read the bible we can take notice of people who feared god and see how it affected their lives, for example, the fear of god kept Joseph from sleeping with his master's wife.
We have seen that it is important to fear God, but what about our other fears? Remember that Jesus says:
And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell.
Matthew 10:28
and Isaiah 41:10 tells us:
fear not, for I am with you;
be not dismayed, for I am your God;
I will strengthen you, I will help you,
I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.
There are other verses in the Scripture too that tell us to "fear not". We should take our fears to the Lord, talk to him about them and ask his help to deal with those things so that he is the only one we fear.
Of course there is sooo much more to be said on this subject but I hope I have given you something to think about.
Questions::
Here are some questions to ponder. The answers should be kept between you and god and I hope they will help you to get a better understanding of the subject of fear.
1. What are some of the things you are afraid of?
2. Look at the definitions for the two Hebrew words that are translated as fear in English. Notice the similarities and the differences in the two types of fear.
3. why do you think god is worthy to be feared.
4. Is there anything else you think you can do to develop the fear of god in your life?
5. is there anything else you think you can do to deal with other fears in your life?
Monday, 18 April 2011
Obeying god
Obeying God:
Jesus answered him, "If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him.
[John 14:23]
As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love.
[John 15:9-10]
I want to talk with you today about obedience. Early last year God alerted me that I have an obedience problem. I tried to resolve it on my own, when I failed to obey or deliberately disobeyed I insisted I wouldn't do that again. I read bible verses on obedience and tried to apply them to my life. I could see where I needed to be and where I was but how to get there was something I couldn't fathom. I still don't have all the answers but I want to share with you what God is teaching me. For some people obedience comes easily, but for those like me who are stubborn and self-willed it is a lot more challenging. Be encouraged though, we can get there with god's help.
First let's look at some points on why obedience is so important.
1: god deserves our obedience.
You must obey all my regulations and be careful to obey my decrees,
for I am the Lord your God.
[Leviticus 18:4]
Lord, we show our trust in you by obeying your laws;
our heart’s desire is to glorify your name.
[ Isaiah 26:8]
he is the almighty, everliving God, creator of heaven and earth. more than that, he is the father of our Lord Jesus Christ who gave his life for us on the cross. We should obey our earthly parents so how much more should we obey our heavenly father our creator, our saviour, our Lord and king?
2. Obedience to God is a way of showing that we love him.
Jesus answered him, "If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him.
[John 14:23]
by the same token, our lack of obedience shows our lack of love for him. Ouch!
Henry T Blackaby in his excellent book "experiencing God] tells us that if we have an obedience problem we have a love problem. No matter how you look at that we have a problem and need god's help to sort it out.
3: Disobedience shows a lack of trust in god.
The works of his hands are faithful and just;all his precepts are trustworthy;
Psalm 111:7
[ Trust in the LORD with All Your Heart ] My son, do not forget my teaching, but let your heart keep my commandments,
[ Proverbs 3:1]
if we don't obey the Lord we are basically saying that we don't trust God to know what is best for us, that we think we have a better solution. If we think that way it shows we have a problem with pride and need God's help to sort that out as well. God is our loving heavenly father and he sees things much more clearly than we do. he says:
For as the heavens are higher than the earth,
so are my ways higher than your ways
and my thoughts than your thoughts.
[Isaiah 55:9]
and
For I know the plans I have for you, declares the LORD, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.
[Jeremiah 29:11]
God knows all things and he has a plan for us. We need to trust him and obey even if we can't understand why or what's going on. We may not know all the answers this side of heaven but god is pleased when we obey even when we don't understand.
4: we are God's servants and we must do what he says.
You must obey all my regulations and be careful to obey my decrees,
[Leviticus 18:4]
Can you imagine how it would be if everyone in a company refused to obey their superiors and just did their own thing? the company wouldn't last too long or all those employees would be fired. God is our king and our master and he deserves our obedience. he will help us to obey if we make a commitment to do it.
5: Whatever god may tell us to do is ultimately for our good even if it doesn't seem that way to us at first.
And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.
[romans 8:28]
Anyone reading this who is a parent can identify with this one. A child may see nothing wrong with putting his hand on the fire but his mother or father knows it is very wrong and tells the child "get away from that!" The child doesn't understand why Mummy or Daddy is trying to spoil his fun but he figures he better do what he's told so he comes away from the fire.
God sees things much clearer than we do. He knows if a decision we are about to take is going to be bad or dangerous for us, like the child wanting to put his hand in the fire, and God will tell us no. We don't understand we think "That's ok why won't God let me do it?" but we figure we had better do what he says so we come away from that. Later on we look back and thank him for not letting us do what we wanted to in that situation. Even if we don't understand before we reach heaven, one day we will be so grateful to god for all the times he said no.
But how do we start obeying God? sometimes we can get discouraged when we see how far away we are from where we want to be. I encourage you to go before god in prayer and talk to him about your obedience issues, ask his help and he will show you what to do. There are no quick-fix solutions to a problem like disobedience, it's a process and there will be more falls than successes at first but if we keep going we are bound to see results in time.
Here are a couple of ideas that may be helpful to you.
1: pray about it. Yes that sounds simple but still, take some time each day to pray about it, talk to God about the times you didn't obey and why and ask his help to do better tomorrow. You may like to pick out a few minutes that you devote to praying about this each day. P.U.S.H. Pray until something happens. The bible says:
"Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks
finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened.
[Matthew 7:7-8]
2. Meditate on some bible verses dealing with obedience. this works just as well if you have other issues like fear or needing more faith but I'm using obedience as an example. you can go to
www.biblegateway.com
and do a search for obedience or obey and write down the scriptures that seem to speak to you. Then, ponder them. Go over them in your mind not just once but many times, trying to understand what they are saying and how you can apply them to your life. Speak the verses out loud if you can because the bible says:
So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.
[Romans 10:17]
You can even use those verses you find on obedience as part of prayer. Use your own words to pray but here's how it might work: "Father your word says "You must obey all my regulations and be careful to obey my decrees, for I am the Lord your God." so please help me to obey your commands and decrees, I ask in Jesus' name, amen.
3: ask someone to pray with you or for you about your obedience troubles, someone who is a Christian that you trust. The bible says:
Again I say to you, if
two of you agree on earth about anything they ask, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven.
If you like you can email me and I will be happy to pray with you as well.
Questions:
These questions don't need to be answered except between you and god if you choose to. They are meant to give you something to think and pray about.
1. Why do you think some people have a struggle with obedience?
2. If you have a problem with disobedience, what have you done about it so far?
3. If you don't' have a problem obeying god, maybe you know someone who does. Would you consider mentioning them in your prayers regularly?
I hope that something I have said has helped someone even a little. Thank you so much for reading this and may God bless you!
Jesus answered him, "If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him.
[John 14:23]
As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments and abide in his love.
[John 15:9-10]
I want to talk with you today about obedience. Early last year God alerted me that I have an obedience problem. I tried to resolve it on my own, when I failed to obey or deliberately disobeyed I insisted I wouldn't do that again. I read bible verses on obedience and tried to apply them to my life. I could see where I needed to be and where I was but how to get there was something I couldn't fathom. I still don't have all the answers but I want to share with you what God is teaching me. For some people obedience comes easily, but for those like me who are stubborn and self-willed it is a lot more challenging. Be encouraged though, we can get there with god's help.
First let's look at some points on why obedience is so important.
1: god deserves our obedience.
You must obey all my regulations and be careful to obey my decrees,
for I am the Lord your God.
[Leviticus 18:4]
Lord, we show our trust in you by obeying your laws;
our heart’s desire is to glorify your name.
[ Isaiah 26:8]
he is the almighty, everliving God, creator of heaven and earth. more than that, he is the father of our Lord Jesus Christ who gave his life for us on the cross. We should obey our earthly parents so how much more should we obey our heavenly father our creator, our saviour, our Lord and king?
2. Obedience to God is a way of showing that we love him.
Jesus answered him, "If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him.
[John 14:23]
by the same token, our lack of obedience shows our lack of love for him. Ouch!
Henry T Blackaby in his excellent book "experiencing God] tells us that if we have an obedience problem we have a love problem. No matter how you look at that we have a problem and need god's help to sort it out.
3: Disobedience shows a lack of trust in god.
The works of his hands are faithful and just;all his precepts are trustworthy;
Psalm 111:7
[ Trust in the LORD with All Your Heart ] My son, do not forget my teaching, but let your heart keep my commandments,
[ Proverbs 3:1]
if we don't obey the Lord we are basically saying that we don't trust God to know what is best for us, that we think we have a better solution. If we think that way it shows we have a problem with pride and need God's help to sort that out as well. God is our loving heavenly father and he sees things much more clearly than we do. he says:
For as the heavens are higher than the earth,
so are my ways higher than your ways
and my thoughts than your thoughts.
[Isaiah 55:9]
and
For I know the plans I have for you, declares the LORD, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.
[Jeremiah 29:11]
God knows all things and he has a plan for us. We need to trust him and obey even if we can't understand why or what's going on. We may not know all the answers this side of heaven but god is pleased when we obey even when we don't understand.
4: we are God's servants and we must do what he says.
You must obey all my regulations and be careful to obey my decrees,
[Leviticus 18:4]
Can you imagine how it would be if everyone in a company refused to obey their superiors and just did their own thing? the company wouldn't last too long or all those employees would be fired. God is our king and our master and he deserves our obedience. he will help us to obey if we make a commitment to do it.
5: Whatever god may tell us to do is ultimately for our good even if it doesn't seem that way to us at first.
And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.
[romans 8:28]
Anyone reading this who is a parent can identify with this one. A child may see nothing wrong with putting his hand on the fire but his mother or father knows it is very wrong and tells the child "get away from that!" The child doesn't understand why Mummy or Daddy is trying to spoil his fun but he figures he better do what he's told so he comes away from the fire.
God sees things much clearer than we do. He knows if a decision we are about to take is going to be bad or dangerous for us, like the child wanting to put his hand in the fire, and God will tell us no. We don't understand we think "That's ok why won't God let me do it?" but we figure we had better do what he says so we come away from that. Later on we look back and thank him for not letting us do what we wanted to in that situation. Even if we don't understand before we reach heaven, one day we will be so grateful to god for all the times he said no.
But how do we start obeying God? sometimes we can get discouraged when we see how far away we are from where we want to be. I encourage you to go before god in prayer and talk to him about your obedience issues, ask his help and he will show you what to do. There are no quick-fix solutions to a problem like disobedience, it's a process and there will be more falls than successes at first but if we keep going we are bound to see results in time.
Here are a couple of ideas that may be helpful to you.
1: pray about it. Yes that sounds simple but still, take some time each day to pray about it, talk to God about the times you didn't obey and why and ask his help to do better tomorrow. You may like to pick out a few minutes that you devote to praying about this each day. P.U.S.H. Pray until something happens. The bible says:
"Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks
finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened.
[Matthew 7:7-8]
2. Meditate on some bible verses dealing with obedience. this works just as well if you have other issues like fear or needing more faith but I'm using obedience as an example. you can go to
www.biblegateway.com
and do a search for obedience or obey and write down the scriptures that seem to speak to you. Then, ponder them. Go over them in your mind not just once but many times, trying to understand what they are saying and how you can apply them to your life. Speak the verses out loud if you can because the bible says:
So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.
[Romans 10:17]
You can even use those verses you find on obedience as part of prayer. Use your own words to pray but here's how it might work: "Father your word says "You must obey all my regulations and be careful to obey my decrees, for I am the Lord your God." so please help me to obey your commands and decrees, I ask in Jesus' name, amen.
3: ask someone to pray with you or for you about your obedience troubles, someone who is a Christian that you trust. The bible says:
Again I say to you, if
two of you agree on earth about anything they ask, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven.
If you like you can email me and I will be happy to pray with you as well.
Questions:
These questions don't need to be answered except between you and god if you choose to. They are meant to give you something to think and pray about.
1. Why do you think some people have a struggle with obedience?
2. If you have a problem with disobedience, what have you done about it so far?
3. If you don't' have a problem obeying god, maybe you know someone who does. Would you consider mentioning them in your prayers regularly?
I hope that something I have said has helped someone even a little. Thank you so much for reading this and may God bless you!
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