Freedom in Christ

So if the Son liberates you [makes you free men], then you are really and unquestionably free. John 8:36 (AMP)

As children of God, it is vitally important to our Christian health and faith to walk in the freedom of the truth of the Word of God. Jesus told the Pharisees, who seriously lacked joy in their lives, so bound by religiosity, that He, the Son of God, could set them free. The Pharisees and Sadducees should have been the most joyful, free people of the day, as they were the ones to serve God but all their man made traditions and rules made them the most guilt ridden, sin-focused, finger-pointing hypocrites of the time. Unfortunately, The Truth, Jesus as the Son of God, did not reach their hearts because of the presupposition of who they expected the Messiah to be and to do. Yet the sad truth is, if they had studied the scripture and with open heart and applied them to Jesus, it would have been abundantly clear that Jesus was, indeed the Messiah they were waiting for. Scripture was being fulfilled before their eyes, from Jesus birthplace, the virgin birth, His ministry of healing and teaching, the presentation of Himself as their Messiah riding on a donkey into Jerusalem right through to His death and resurrection.

The Word of God is the truth and is "living and powerful" (Heb 4:12) and when we accept the truth and believe it, we can and will be set free. I remember so clearly when I first accepted Jesus as my Saviour, I was so full of self-loathing, it sucked my joy and kept me bound until the truth of God's Word that I was a child of God, made by Him and given gifts bestowed to me, that He had a plan for me and my future, finally set me free to like who I am in Christ. With my upbringing, I had a victim mentality, and expected life to be hard for me and it was until I realised that the Word warned about "evil forebodings" but I could instead put my trust in God for His good plan for me and that I was indeed a victor in Christ, who said He has overcome the world. I learnt from the Word of God that I could choose, "life or death" through the power of the words I spoke over myself.

Death and life are in the power of the tongue, And those who love it will eat its fruit. Pro 18:21

This scripture really changed my life dramatically.

Condemnation seems to be a frequent visitor to those whose sins have been forgiven. When we confess our sins, the Word promises us that God will forgive us. Not only that, but Jesus intercedes on our behalf before the throne day and night. We are a forgiven people and God has put our sins away from us as far as the east is from the west so we should not carry the burden of guilt and condemnation.

From a child I felt unloved but God tells me that I'm precious in His sight, that His thoughts about me are uncountable and that He sings over me and delights in me. Not only that, but God showed His love for me, that whilst I was a sinner, Christ died for me.

Let's walk in the freedom of the truth of the Word. I would encourage you to read the scriptures frequently and absorb the truth of the word into your soul. Christ paid for our freedom and our joy and peace and all blessings flow from His hand. Let us choose Life, Amen?

The Main Thing (Pt 2)

Teacher, which kind of commandment is great and important (the principal kind) in the Law? .. And He replied to him, You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind (intellect). [Deut. 6:5.] This is the great (most important, principal) and first commandment.

And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbour as [you do] yourself. [Lev. 19:18.] Mat 22:36-39

What is the human soul? It is the seat of our mind, emotions and will. Already I have a problem with loving God with all my soul in the surrender of my will. Why do we always have to struggle so hard with this when we know that God loves us and He does know better than us? His thoughts and ways are higher than ours and not so easily understood by human finite minds. It is so hard to relinquish our stubborn ways but the best example we have by far is Jesus in the garden of Gethsemane.

Jesus did not want the cup of sin that He had to take upon Himself but He surrendered to the Father's will and I'm so glad that He did. Our eternity was hanging in the balance in the fight between Christ's will and that of His Father and the judgement that was to be placed on Jesus, the sinless one, was enormous, considering the weight of the world's sin. All His emotions were crying out to "pass the cup" and do it another way but Christ did not live for Himself, but purposely came to seek and to save sinners. His love for us and for His Father overcame all emotion and His own will to surrender and humble Himself on that cross. The way of surrender is the path of blessing. Look at what Christ accomplished for us the day He surrender totally to the Father's will and brought us with His blood. We get to spend eternity fellowshipping with the Triune God in Heaven and here on earth can have His guidance, love, protection, joy and peace.

I think to worship and love God with our emotions, is to have faith in Him, beyond what our emotions dictate to us. We honour God greatly when our emotions are telling us the opposite of what God has revealed in His Word to us, and we ignore what we see, feel or hear and hold stubbornly onto God's truth. The prophet Hababkuk taught us this principle when he penned in time of great disaster:-

Though the fig tree does not blossom and there is no fruit on the vines, [though] the product of the olive fails and the fields yield no food, though the flock is cut off from the fold and there are no cattle in the stalls,

Yet I will rejoice in the Lord; I will exult in the [victorious] God of my salvation! [Rom. 8:37.]

The Lord God is my Strength, my personal bravery, and my invincible army; He makes my feet like hinds' feet and will make me to walk [not to stand still in terror, but to walk] and make [spiritual] progress upon my high places [of trouble, suffering, or responsibility]! Hab 3:17 - 19

Job too amidst his anguish and adversity declared:-

For I know that my Redeemer and Vindicator lives, and at last He [the Last One] will stand upon the earth. [Isa. 44:6; 48:12.]

And after my skin, even this body, has been destroyed, then from my flesh or without it I shall see God,

Whom I, even I, shall see for myself and on my side! And my eyes shall behold Him, and not as a stranger! My heart pines away and is consumed within me. Job 19:25 -27

Love explicitly trusts and we have a God who is faithful in all seasons of our lives. Because God is so trustworthy and the fountain head of all truth, we also honour Him and show our love for Him with our minds by "casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ." (2Co 10:5)

We need to believe what God says about us in His Word and what He tells us we can do is simply possible even if past experiences dictate the opposite. We may believe from past experiences that we are unloved but God's word declares that He has loved us with an everlasting love and that His love for us is unfailing. This is exactly where we cast down those thoughts and replace them with the Word and thereby "renew our minds." We walk in the light and allow the Holy Spirit to shine the light on those things in us that separate us from the truth of who God is and what is not pleasing to Him. We love Him when we are prepared, with His help, to change and become more and more sanctified in our walk. We love Him when we show Him that we are willing to trust Him enough to visit those painful areas in our souls and let Him to do a work in us.

Let us spend the quality time with Him and not rush off into our day without having consulted Him for His plan and His will for the day. And let us put aside the distraction of the day and the entertainment of the TV at night to also spend some time with Him, reflecting on His goodness that has kept us and will continue to keep us day in and day out.

And set your minds and keep them set on what is above (the higher things), not on the things that are on the earth. Col 3:2

The Main Thing (Part 1)

Teacher, which kind of commandment is great and important (the principal kind) in the Law? .. And He replied to him, You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind (intellect). [Deut. 6:5.] This is the great (most important, principal) and first commandment.

And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbour as [you do] yourself. [Lev. 19:18.] Mat 22:36-39

This is a very challenging word from our Lord Jesus when a religious teacher of the Law tries to trick Him into saying something that could be held against Him. It is a word however, that is very relevant to the church today, in living our lives with priority and purpose. So how do we love the Lord our God with all our heart, soul and mind? Perhaps we need to meditate on this as Jesus declares that it is the greatest, most important principal under which to live.

Our heart, the very place of our love and devotion, and the area that scripture has plenty to instruct us over as the Word warns us to "guard our hearts, for out of the heart will flow all issues of life." We begin to love God with a repentant and contrite heart which brings forth the "fruit of repentance" and shows a change of heart in our lifestyle. (Matt 3:8) Jesus tells us that only those who are pure in heart shall see God. (Matt5:8) Perhaps we need to have a regular heart check and we can by checking our attitudes, desires and words of our mouth.

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  Do we harbour anger in our heart against a brother (or sister),


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  Do we speak contemptuously of others (we are in danger of Gehenna) (Matt 5:22)


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  Do we look with lust upon a man or woman (we are committing adultery) (Matt 5:28)


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  Do we judge what comes out of our mouth, because it is our words that make our heart unclean. (Matt 15:18)


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  Are our thoughts evil that is (reasonings and disputings and designs) such as murder, adultery, sexual vice, theft, false witnessing, slander, and irreverent speech. (Matt 15:19)


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  Do we hold offences and unforgiveness (Matt 18:35)


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  What about covetousness (the greedy desire to have more wealth or what someone else has)


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  Are we deceitful, hold envy slander or pride (the sin of an uplifted heart against God and man) in our heart

Quite a challenging list! But the most amazing thing is that when we experience God's love in our hearts, and we in turn love Him back, we find joy in keeping our hearts pure with the help of the Holy Spirit. Jesus told us that if we love Him, we will obey His commands, and His commands are not burdensome. Love is the motivator. Love gives the desire to please. Love sets the thoughts and heart toward the person of our love. Love desires communication and intimacy and love is transparent. No games are played, no self agenda is hidden and love trusts explicitly.

Have we made God our treasure? Do we recognise what treasure is found in Jesus Christ and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit. We cannot help but love God back when we mediate on what He has done for us through the cross of Calvary. That God would give up Jesus for us, not in a time that we were searching for Him, but amongst the filth of our sin and waywardness. He reached out and He is the lifter of our heads and has promised never to leave us our forsake us, but has made us the apple of His eye.

For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. (Mat 6:21)

Beloved, let us leave our hearts in the throne room of God, for He surely is our greatest treasure and Father in Heaven. As we draw near to Him, He will draw near to us and fill us with His love that can never be measured. Glory be to God forever and ever, Amen.

The Power and the Presence

I had occasion to listen to some testimonies of different people's journeys up to the time they met Jesus Christ.

It's an incredible thing! People from different walks, different upbringings and different journeys in life. Stories vast and varied, yet a common thread emerges throughout each one. In the words of the hymn writer, "Once I was blind but now I see."

At this Christmas time, it's hard to imagine that Jesus Christ would come to this earth, touched with and by humanity, for a purpose:-

"The spirit of the Lord is upon Me, because He has anointed Me [the Anointed One, the Messiah] to preach the good news (the Gospel) to the poor; He has sent Me to announce release to the captives, and recovery of sight to the blind; to send forth delivered those who are oppressed - who are downtrodden, bruised, crushed and broken down by calamity; To proclaim the accepted and acceptable year of the Lord - the day when salvation and the free favours of God profusely abound." [Isa. 61:1-2] (Luke 4 18:19)

Many of us, pre-Christ, were in darkness where our hearts were cold, life had no meaning, joy and hope had flown the coup. But the good news of Jesus came to our hearts and His light drove the darkness out.

Each one who retold their story of this most significant moment of holy complication had the raw emotion of that meeting surface again. A turning point in life for those of us who meet Jesus, a moment so significant that it doesn't matter how much time passes by, the memory of that day remains as fresh and as raw as the moment it happened, when His touch opened our eyes and our sobs of this intimate meeting sprang forth as mercy and grace touched the deep places of our heart.

To be touched by the Creator, to feel His love touch a weary, lost and hardened heart, is like fresh cool water to a dehydrated and parched throat. A transformation so significant happens as God replaces the broken heart of stone for a heart of flesh - one that rejoices again, one where the warm fires of the Holy Spirit ignite new life, new hope and joy for a future.

The power and presence of a Mighty, Eternal God touches a soul and everything on earth falls away. Human perspective changes from earthly to heavenly.

I pray that each of you who reads this, feels the presence and power of God this holiday season. May His Love warm your hearts and lives in Jesus name I pray.

Living for Others.

"I have brought Gentiles to God by my message and by the way I lived before them." Rom 15:18(b)

The longer I have been a Christian, I realise more and more the importance of not living this life of faith purely for myself. We are called to be light and the only way we do this is to live our faith on the behalf of others. We are an example of a different choice of lifestyle in the world today.

Jesus summed up all the commandments into two specific ones – simply love God, love others. We certainly need the first one to fulfil the second one. Love is the more excellent way and living our lives as a Godly example to glorify God and to bring others to salvation is walking in love and not self.

The Apostle Paul was focused on living for others, becoming all things to all, so that he could have the chance to win some to Christ. There is so much at a stake. We are in a spiritual war for the souls of men and the "prince of the air" is certainly on overtime, appealing to the world through the emotions of lust and love for oneself. The only way to combat that is to show to people a love that is pure, a love that doesn't put self first, a love that is not condemning (even though we may not condone the lifestyle of today's modern living), but a love that will reach out to others in their pain.

The Apostle Paul addresses some of the issues of his day in Romans 14 & 15 regarding foods and different days of worship. How it is that we can so tend to get caught up on the little things, majoring over the minor?

"May God who give this patience and encouragement help you live in complete harmony with each other – each with the attitude of Christ Jesus toward the other." (Rom 15:5)

Christ's attitude towards others is a very hard yet outstanding way to follow. The religious leaders were affronted at the company he kept but as He said, he came to heal the sinners not those who already thought of themselves as well. Even though Jesus hung out with this crowd, He too showed another way and in the process many came to believe on Him and follow in His footsteps. He loved them to their destiny (a quote I heard the other day) which is so true. God knows exactly where we are today and knows exactly how, by receiving His love, we can changed to be more like Jesus. What an incredible Holy God, not scared to pull us out of the muck and mire of sin.

May God enable us to love others and not be so self-centred and may we have the attitude as we go through each day to watch our behaviour for His glory, knowing that others are watching us. As Joyce Meyer says, it is no good for us to have all the different versions of the bible to read, along with all Christian books and literature and maybe even a "fish" sticker on the back of our car, yet not work the biblical principles out in our lives. This Christian walk is to be lived out in front of others to show the glory of God and His power at work in our lives. Exactly why Jesus said He is THE WAY! We too can be the way for others to follow.

Christ in us the hope of glory.

How big is Christ in you? How big is He in me? I wonder sometimes. We hear of all the most amazing miracles that still happen today, mostly in third world countries, where simple people who have remarkable faith in God believe that He will heal and therefore blind eyes are opened, the deaf hear and even the dead are raised. Yet in our "civilised" world, we don't see the same amount of people moving in the realm of healings and miracles and our vision of God is seemingly smaller. I wonder why? Is it that they, in the third world, have no other to turn to but God where as we have all our modern "miracles" in our medical world. And we have certainly gone leaps and bounds into modern medicine and research, but still some things cannot be cured.

I so long to see the days of the "Acts" of the Holy Spirit, where He powerfully moved through the apostles with all signs and wonders and diverse miracles. What happened to us? Where is the power today? And there is some school of thought that says that miracles were only for that day. I for one don't believe that, as I have been a witness to miracles, and have especially seen the miracle of salvation where a person life is turned around 180 degrees, marriages are healed, peace is given and prayers are answered.

During His powerful ministry on earth, Jesus went back to minister in His hometown and Matthew records, "Now He did not do many mighty works there because of their unbelief." (Mat 13:58) I find this incredible. His fame had spread far and wide yet He was not accepted in His hometown because they had seen Him grow up and knew His folks and siblings. They only saw Him in His humanity and not in His Deity. Jesus was small in their minds, relegated to the finite realm, when He was much, much more. Scripture teaches us He was "in the beginning" and the creator of all. Is it no wonder that He could do no mighty miracle among them? I guess the same is for us. Do we relegate God to the realm of our finite minds? Or is God indeed for us, All Mighty?

Beloved, mediate on this scripture:-

Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us, to Him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen. Eph 3:20-21

This scripture clearly says that God is ABLE, and able to do EXCEEDINGLY ABUNDANTLY ABOVE ALL. And how does God do this? Don't miss it – according to the power that works IN US. God works through his people. The power that is in us is the power of the Holy Spirit; that same power that rose Christ from the dead! That same power that created when the Word spoke!

Now will we believe as Jesus taught us:-

And these signs will follow those who believe: In My name they will cast out demons; they will speak with new tongues; they will take up serpents; and if they drink anything deadly, it will by no means hurt them; they will lay hands on the sick, and they will recover." So then, after the Lord had spoken to them, He was received up into heaven, and sat down at the right hand of God. And they went out and preached everywhere, the Lord working with them and confirming the word through the accompanying signs. Amen. Mar 16:17:20

I find this absolutely wonderful that God wants to work through us, that His glory would be revealed through broken vessels.

But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellence of the power may be of God and not of us. 2Co 4:7

Imagine, if we could just lay hold of this principle and believe, what we could accomplish on earth in bringing great glory to God when we have learnt to release the power of the Holy Spirit by faith into situations and bring healing and release. But may ALL the glory be given to Him and may no human take it, for the power is NOT OF US but ALL OF HIM.

Those who believe will enter the rest of God.

This certainly is an interesting scripture and brings a sense that God is always calling, always wooing, always speaking and it is up to us to "will" whether or not we listen to Him, receive what He has to say or harden our hearts.

This scripture was first addressed to those in the wilderness, after God through Moses, delivered the Israelites out of Egypt, with a display of His mighty hand. Yet, even though God wanted to draw near to His people, they wanted Moses to be the one to speak to God and relate to them what He had to say. God wanted them to enter into His rest, not to be worried about anything, but to trust in Him as He led them to the Promised Land. But the people complained and even ended up worshipping the golden calf (a by product of idol gods of Egypt). Their trust in God, flew out the tent door, in their wandering through the wilderness. A trip that took 11 days ended up 40 years later with a new generation of young people who were willing to believe that what God had spoken to them, God would bring to pass.

In whom do you trust? Yourself or God! Are you trusting in your own effort and are left without peace and rest. As the psalmist declared:-

Some trust in chariots, and some in horses; But we will remember the name of the LORD our God. Psa 20:7

God's promises to us are useless unless we mix them with our faith and also declare with confidence:-

The LORD is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer; My God, my strength, in whom I will trust; My shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold. Psa 18:2

As for God, His way is perfect; The word of the LORD is proven; He is a shield to all who trust in Him. Psa 18:30

But as for me, I trust in You, O LORD; I say, "You are my God." Psa 31:14

God is proven. His faithfulness is and has been demonstrated in the lives of countless millions throughout the decades, through those who take God's Word as accurate reality and are obedient to what they hear. They do enter His rest and live in peace.

The peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds throughChrist Jesus." (Php 4:7)

When we can give all over to God, fully trusting Him, and not strive, strive and strive, God will work things out for our good. It is so wonderful to live in His rest.

Commit your way to the LORD, Trust also in Him, And He shall bring it to pass. Psa 37:5

And those who know Your name will put their trust in You; For You, LORD, have not forsaken those who seek You. Psa 9:10