Quote from Michael Wells' book 'Heavenly Discipleship' - "Is life living you or are you living life?"
So true - we often allow life to get the better of us instead of getting the better of life and living life to the full. This applies especially on Monday mornings and when the sky is grey and it's raining constantly...
How can we live life to the full? God's answer - "The Truth will set you free...". Once you have God's gift of a new nature instilled in you, you can start to really LIVE!! As a friend of mine always says, when asked how he is doing, "I am riding life with loose reins and at full tilt - and loving it!!" I know what he means because he is a Christian who is living his life IN Christ. Christ has lived his old life already and paid the debt oweing on that life 2000 plus years ago and now he can live this life to the full because Christ is living IN him and THROUGH him. Christ now has become his life - his old life has been crucified! There has been a supernatural takeover! Now, instead of going through life like an unwilling dog being taken for a drag by an enthusiastic owner, you and I can be the enthusiastic one - seeing life through new eyes of boundless and exciting opportunities - and life will be the slipstream created and the wake left behind us...
"I came that they may have life and have it abundantly..." (Jesus Christ - John 10 verse 10)
Wednesday, April 14, 2010
Wednesday, November 11, 2009
Saturday, November 7, 2009
Prayer - in 'the fear of God'
There is a major difference between 'fearing' something and living 'in the fear' of something. 'Fearing' shows a lack of security or a sense of being unprotected. Living 'in the fear of' something shows a deliberate and conscious respect towards someone or something.
A healthy 'fear of God' is a forgotten truth today. Jesus gets called the 'Big J' and God 'The Big Guy in the Sky'! Us puny little mites on earth forget that we are living before and coming in prayer before the Almighty Creator of the universe! He gives us the very breath in our lungs and then we want to "tell" God what we want and order requests from Him and His celestial e-store?? It is only when we try to understand God's utter holiness and our utter helplessness and sinfulness without His intervening mercy, that we can come in true humility before Him in prayer and leave our requests before His mercy seat and His promise of an eternal love towards us. Prayer can never be flitting and thoughtless!
A healthy 'fear of God' is a forgotten truth today. Jesus gets called the 'Big J' and God 'The Big Guy in the Sky'! Us puny little mites on earth forget that we are living before and coming in prayer before the Almighty Creator of the universe! He gives us the very breath in our lungs and then we want to "tell" God what we want and order requests from Him and His celestial e-store?? It is only when we try to understand God's utter holiness and our utter helplessness and sinfulness without His intervening mercy, that we can come in true humility before Him in prayer and leave our requests before His mercy seat and His promise of an eternal love towards us. Prayer can never be flitting and thoughtless!
Wednesday, October 28, 2009
Prayer - Glorifying God!
"The chief end of man is to glorify God and enjoy Him forever." - I still remember learning this catechism truth as a child and yet, somehow, when I start praying, I quickly fall into rattling off all the needs I might have or others have asked me to pray for. I don't stop and first consider who this is I am praying to. I take God for granted!
The Psalmist says in Psalm 63:3 "Because Your steadfast love is better than life, my lips shall praise You." I need to start my prayers expressing praise to God for His steadfast, unending and undeserved love to me - a fragile, inconsistent, fallible being. The God of the universe - the awesome, all powerful, all knowing and ever listening God - is the one who hears my words and sees the condition of my heart even as I come before Him.
As I start to praise and glorify God - expressing truth about Him as revealed by God Himself in His Word - my own needs seem to melt away into insignificance and they are replaced with a calm assurance in my spirit that He has heard my heart-needs even though I have not yet expressed them and that He will answer in His own time and manner because He loves me with an unending love!
"To praise God is to prize God" (Eastman). Do I value, esteem and cherish Him enough? Do I 'prize' God? If I do, it will be the first thing that comes out in my prayers because it will flow out of a heart brimming over with thankfulness and love. Soli Deo gloria!
The Psalmist says in Psalm 63:3 "Because Your steadfast love is better than life, my lips shall praise You." I need to start my prayers expressing praise to God for His steadfast, unending and undeserved love to me - a fragile, inconsistent, fallible being. The God of the universe - the awesome, all powerful, all knowing and ever listening God - is the one who hears my words and sees the condition of my heart even as I come before Him.
As I start to praise and glorify God - expressing truth about Him as revealed by God Himself in His Word - my own needs seem to melt away into insignificance and they are replaced with a calm assurance in my spirit that He has heard my heart-needs even though I have not yet expressed them and that He will answer in His own time and manner because He loves me with an unending love!
"To praise God is to prize God" (Eastman). Do I value, esteem and cherish Him enough? Do I 'prize' God? If I do, it will be the first thing that comes out in my prayers because it will flow out of a heart brimming over with thankfulness and love. Soli Deo gloria!
Tuesday, October 27, 2009
Lord, teach me to pray!
I have been gripped by an insight from Bishop J.C. Ryle on prayer - "Prayer has obtained things that seemed impossible and out of reach. It has won victories over fire, air, earth and water. Prayer opened the Red Sea. Prayer brought water from the rock and bread from Heaven. Prayer made the sun stand still. Prayer brought fire from the sky on Elijah's sacrifice. Prayer overthrew the army of Sennacherib. Prayer has healed the sick. Prayer has raised the dead. Prayer has procured the conversion of countless souls."
I have always believed God answers prayer but, like many Christians out there, I struggle daily to keep my prayer life consistent. As an aid to anyone else with the same struggle, I have found Dick Eastman's book 'The Hour that Changes the World' very helpful in this regard. It is extremely practical and challenging! "Only as we apply our knowledge of prayer to the actual practice of prayer will we discover the practical power of prayer" (Eastman).
Join me as I strive to have prayer become primary in my daily life - not just an add-on or an afterthought...
I have always believed God answers prayer but, like many Christians out there, I struggle daily to keep my prayer life consistent. As an aid to anyone else with the same struggle, I have found Dick Eastman's book 'The Hour that Changes the World' very helpful in this regard. It is extremely practical and challenging! "Only as we apply our knowledge of prayer to the actual practice of prayer will we discover the practical power of prayer" (Eastman).
Join me as I strive to have prayer become primary in my daily life - not just an add-on or an afterthought...
Monday, October 19, 2009
Radio Quizz Awards Weapons as Prizes
Allegedly (according to the NZ Herald, Oct 19 2009) a radio station in Kismayo, Somalia, recently ran a broadcast quizz competition during the Muslim month of Ramadan. It posed questions on science, culture and the Koran and the winners were given a first prize of one AK-47 assault rifle, two hand grenades, an anti-tank landmine and office supplies (supposedly to further their planning activities). Second prize winners had to console themselves with an AK-47 and ammunition only...
One has to question why we in the west (or any other civilised country in the world, for that matter) allow Islam to grow without opposition when you read about incidents like this one. Yes, things look very peaceful and harmless on the surface - and that is the image that is put out there for the general public to soak up - but the latent principles of jihad are deeply instilled and rise very quickly to the surface when any opposition is encountered.
Jihad takes on more subtle forms too. Recently, in a supermarket queue, I noticed a Muslim woman just ahead of me carefully reading the label on a tin of food. When she got to the counter, she placed the tin down and said that she would have liked to have bought the food item but it did not have the halal mark. She asked to speak to the supervisor who apologised profusely and said she would see what could be done. Having myself, previously, tried to ask the same supermarket to try to get hold of a specific food item, I did not get the same response but was told that the company had buyers who only bought specific items. The difference in responses is what interests me. The question is not one of food but of religion. Islam is conquering the west by stealth - one social facet at a time - but steadily expanding.
Radio competitions, like the one above, are only a symptom and indication of progress of a much deeper malady...
One has to question why we in the west (or any other civilised country in the world, for that matter) allow Islam to grow without opposition when you read about incidents like this one. Yes, things look very peaceful and harmless on the surface - and that is the image that is put out there for the general public to soak up - but the latent principles of jihad are deeply instilled and rise very quickly to the surface when any opposition is encountered.
Jihad takes on more subtle forms too. Recently, in a supermarket queue, I noticed a Muslim woman just ahead of me carefully reading the label on a tin of food. When she got to the counter, she placed the tin down and said that she would have liked to have bought the food item but it did not have the halal mark. She asked to speak to the supervisor who apologised profusely and said she would see what could be done. Having myself, previously, tried to ask the same supermarket to try to get hold of a specific food item, I did not get the same response but was told that the company had buyers who only bought specific items. The difference in responses is what interests me. The question is not one of food but of religion. Islam is conquering the west by stealth - one social facet at a time - but steadily expanding.
Radio competitions, like the one above, are only a symptom and indication of progress of a much deeper malady...
Wednesday, September 16, 2009
W(H)anganui Decision anti-democratic...
W(H)anganui ??!! In NZ, DEMOCRACY = BOWING TO A VOCAL MINORITY... That starts at Government level, right down to local bodies. NZ loves PC
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