faith

My church teaches the truth
No my church teaches the truth
You guys have no idea, my church teaches the truth


There are so many different christian churches that are separated over the most basic ideas of Christ's teaching that I am sure if Christ came just now we would fall to the ground in shame.

I am amazed that so many people, so many intelligent people can argue over nothing but that nothing becomes massive in their eyes.

Be baptized and follow me. What can be more simple than that?
One is baptized because they believe that Jesus Christ is who He says He is and they believe He died on the cross for their sins leading to their eternal salvation. But when man gets a hold of this basic truth they change it and add to it and make things more difficult.

What did Christ say "have faith like little children" Why? Because children don't try to rewrite the Bible to suit themselves. They don't argue over silly points. They accept without questioning.

You can read and reread and reread and reread the Bible and still not understand what it means to have faith. You cant intellectualise the Bible because faith is a free gift. You don't get it because you have a PHD or you have studied at a Bible collage or go to church every Sunday. You get it because God in His grace gives it to you.

Stop thinking that you must read your daily portion of scripture to be a christian
Stop thinking that if you miss church you are not a christian

I have heard people say "oh I missed reading my Bible today and I had a bad day or I never prayed this morning and what a terrible day I had" so they then read more of the Bible and pray more.

People do you really think God is going to punish you for not reading or praying every morning?

Come on your not stupid!!!!

Your Christian heart will lead you to read and pray because you desire to know God and to spend time with Him.
The fruits of the Spirit will move you to meditate on scripture
The fruits of the spirit will move you to pray

A church that teaches Christ as Lord and saviour and preaches the word of God with Love is all you need.

Throw the rule book in the bin because its just a chain around your neck

follow God

I am not a great one for sprinkling my blog with bible quotes because we can all use a quote to suit our own view. Sure I use them when I write something longer and its in the right spirit and context but for the most part I like to write from the heart.

There are 10 basic rules or commandments that God gave us and in my mind if we follow them we cant go far wrong. I say far wrong because we can never follow them absolutely and that is why we ALL need Christ Jesus as our saviour.

Does God love me because I follow His rules or does God love me because I trust and rely on Him?
Those who know me well, know I suffer from panic attacks and I admit many times I have ran about like a headless chicken before I stop and call out to God for help. By nature I am a fixer, that is I like to fix the problem, I like to rely on me but I cant fix all problems and I have learned to go to God first.

For a while there I was trying to live up to what a certain individual wanted me to live up to. I read the books they gave me, tried to think the way they wanted me to, in fact I was trying to please them but the end result was "How could I ever please anyone and at the same time be me?"

I know I should have said NO! I should have said something but I was afraid of not being liked. Afraid of not being accepted. I wanted to please them so much that I was having more anxiety because I couldnt.


Dont base your faith on anyone else but God.
Sure you'll mess up
Sure you'll get somethings wrong but thats were loving friends come and wrap their arms around you and with gentleness guide you.

I will add that the person I was trying to live up to is a good person and I am sure I lack a lot spiritually but with God's grace I hope to be more Christ like.

love

I have been in churches were the preaching has been 100% true to the word of God but what was lacking was love. That may sound like an oxymoron but its true. There is no doubt the church today needs solid preaching but without a heart of love a church is nothing more than a clanging bell.

How many times have you listened to a sermon and left the church feeling that you have been preached at?

A church is not just about hearing a sermon. A church is about the love that you feel from the moment you enter until the moment you leave but it still does not stop there, because that love extends to each person 7 days a week, 365 days a year.

Remember we are all damaged people who need love

self control

2 Peter 1.13-16 - a ready mind. What is your mind filled with each day? Is it a diet of soap-operas, unrealistic fantasies, glossy magazines with airbrushed models and unachievable expectations? Is the Truth of God's Word applied to your mind? Do you bring every thought captive before Christ? Do you actually have a Christ centred mind. You lacking self-control? Where is your mind this morning? Colossians 3.2 tells us it should be focused on the things above - but how often do we actually think of eternity? Of Christ during a day?
1 Peter 5.8 be aware of what is around you. we often lack self-control because we are blind to what is going on around us and within us. We are often spiritually blind to the spirit realm around us. We seriously need to open our eyes - not to see demons under everything and every common cold as a spiritual attack but we are so reluctant to see spiritual things at work in and around us.
Daily Reading of God's Word - there is no substitute for the Word of God in our lives. As humbly as I can say to you this morning - you will not hear God speak and you will have no self-control in your life if you do not read the Bible.
Regular prayer - again there is no substitute for this basic discipline in your spiritual life. There will be no self-control if you are not praying regularly.
Stop sinning. I want to be honest with you and this applies to me as well,I am tired of hearing excuses for sin. I am tired of hearing 'therapeutic' reasons being given for people's sinful behaviour. I am sorry, I am not dismissing therapeutic work but it is time for a reality check - sin is sin. You can dress it up how you like but it is sin and it is an abomination before God. You lack self-control - stop sinning. Be disciplined.
Keep good company. That sounds like old-fashioned advice doesn't it - but let me read to you some verses from Psalm 1. You know if you took each of those verses this week and applied them to your life you would see a remarkable development in your self-control. Bad company corrupts good character. Please do not come to me and tell me that it is a means of evangelism - the truth is you are more likely to fall down than for your friends to come to Christ. I want to say something to some of you which you will not want to hear. God is not fooled by your life. It is a sinful lack of self-control to run with the fox and hunt with the hounds. You cannot be a Christian on a Sunday and live as you please with your friends. Your company reveals more about you than you realise. Keep good company. Ecclesiastes 4.10 - cultivate spiritual friendships. I Corinthians 15.33 curtail the bad influences on your life.
Admit you have a problem with self-control and yield to the Lordship of Christ in your life - Galatians 5.16. Job 31.1 practice good habits and welcome gracious corrections - Samson should have listened to the correction and he would not have fallen into sin and captivity.
Babies have no self-control - they need someone else to feed them, clothe them, bathe them but eventually they grow and mature and do all these things for themselves. Self-control is a sign of growing up. So this morning - it is time that as Christian believers and as a Christian church we held one another accountable to be self-controlled. To lovingly no longer accept the respectable sin of not controlling ourselves.
You know the area in your life that you need self-control. You need to pray about it and then you need to get on board and be disciplined about it.

A PURE HEART

A pure heart begins with a fear of the Lord God and a right understanding of sin. If you want to understand a pure heart then you must know the holiness of God - you will only know that if you know the truth of the Bible and what it teaches about the holiness of God. Do not neglect the OT and the countless examples from Genesis 1 onwards that reveal the total separateness of God from Creation and His purity, holiness, which will not tolerate any presence of sin. You cannot read the OT without realising how seriously God treats sin and how devoted He is to purity/holiness. We would do well to get that right understanding into our own hearts and what a difference it would make. We need to see with the eyes of God. Too often as Christians we look at a situation and ask ourselves "What is wrong with this?" God looks at a situation and asks "What is right with this?" We need to see with the eyes of God and we can only do that if we know the Word of God. If you do not know the Bible and the truth of the Bible you cannot expect to have a heart that is pure nor will you have a desire for a heart that is pure. There is no shortcut to a heart that is pure. James 2 verse 17 - a heart that is pure is the evidence that we are saved. Purity of heart is evidence of true Christian faith and therefore we should seriously question our faith if we do not have a pure heart or a desire to have a pure heart. You see without purity of heart you will not live a holy life and holiness of life is an assurance of salvation - 1 John 2 verse 3 and 3 verse 19. You see Judas Iscariot had the name of a disciple and he followed Jesus closely for years but he had no purity of heart and his heart led him to betray Christ and to his ultimate damnation. In the opening chapters of Revelation God condemns the churches of Sardis and Laodicea for having hearts that were not pure.
Would you have a heart that is pure? Then you must begin with Jesus Christ. You can have no purity of heart without Christ Jesus in your life. In Romans 6 verse 6 Paul tells us that when we come to Christ our old selves are crucified with Him and they are gone, dead and buried. I need to remind myself of that constantly. My old self is dead. It is Christ who lives and reigns in me today and not the old Adam. When I repented of my sin and put my faith and trust in Christ there was a clean break with sin in my life. As I identify with Christ Jesus I become alive to God and the ways of God. Recognise that when you came to Christ your sin was taken away. Would you continue with a pure heart? Then you must abide in Christ Jesus - John 15 verses 4-5. When Christ abides in me and I in Him then I am called to stop sinning and to stop living the old life - Romans 8 verse 13. You see if I continue to live a life which reflects an impure heart the consequences are eternal damnation - Ephesians 5 verse 5. I must seek the help of the Holy Spirit through prayer and the study of God's Word. When sin is exposed in my life I must repent of it and turn from it. 'I' must do that and not someone else. 'I' need to take responsibility for my own sin because one day 'I' will be answerable before God for it. You see too often Christians want an easy way out and they do not want to put any effort into changing their lives. It is sad, but true, that there is all too often nothing to distinguish the Christians from the non-Christians in this world. A heart that is pure will make you distinctly different from those of the world and the ways of the world.

Christ died so that we may live

A few years ago I read a story in a National Geographic magazine. The story was set in a National Park in the USA. A fire had destroyed many acres of trees and when the rangers went to investigate they found a surprising survivor. They came across a little bird at the base of one of the charred trees. The little bird was dead but when the ranger poked it with a stick and it fell over, out from underneath its wings fled three little chicks. In the midst of the raging fire all around, that mother bird had gathered her chicks and spread her wings covering them, shielding them from the flames. She gave her life that they might survive.

Never leave the house without this

Can you imagine the looks we would get if we left the house without getting dressed! Its something that we would never do but we do leave the house spiritually undressed and the truth is its so important that we are spiritually dressed or to put it another way "spiritually prepared to face the day".

Our attitude to prayer is a reflection of our relationship to God.

Prayer gets you there