I started reading Revelation today, and to be honest I was of the mind that I wouldn't really be able to understand it enough to write about it on my blog. However, my God is a great God and He speaks to me no matter what. How dare I think that God wouldn't reveal what He would want to say to me. This came to me as I read the very first verses of chapter 1 it says,
Grace and peace to you from him who is, and who was, and who is to come, and from the seven spirits before his throne, and from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness, the firstborn from the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth. To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood, and has made us to be a kingdom and priests to serve his God and Father—to him be glory and power for ever and ever! Amen.
Wow, Jesus was there from the very beginning. I know this is such an obvious point to make, but it is a valid one. He is Lord and with that in mind we need to realise that He's been there, seen it, done it etc... He knows everything there is to know about us. He knows the good and the not so good. He knows when we are awake and asleep. He knows when we are listening to His guidance and when we are doing our own thing and ignoring Him. He knows when we say things about others that are not Holy as well as when we encourage one another in the Lord. Let's face it I could go on with this train of thought, but let's look at this from a Kingdom perspective. Jesus is LORD - THERE IS NOTHING HE DOESN'T KNOW OR SEE! We cannot hide from Him. There is good news in all of this though. Jesus loves us so much that He stretched His arms out wide to show us how much we mean to Him. He paid the ultimate price for our sin and shame and it costs us nothing. He did much so that we can do so little. Trust in Him today - He is our only hope, our redeemer, our LORD.
But you, dear friends, by building yourselves up in your most holy faith and praying in the Holy Spirit, keep yourselves in God’s love as you wait for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to bring you to eternal life
Jude is only one chapter long, although in this chapter he encourages us to keep going. He wants us to persevere. In these few verses Jude is telling us to build our faith up. To continue praying in the Spirit. In a nutshell he's telling us to make sure that we are close to God.
I know this is obvious, but we do need to make sure that we are close to God. Without His guidance we can do nothing. We'll keep going for a while, but nothing will come of it as we need His Strength to help us to get through.
I know from personal experience that when I work in my own strength, things don't go to plan. The difference happens when I rely on God, when I tune into His frequency, then amazing things happen not only in my life but in the lives of others.
It may be that you are struggling with something. Hand it over to God and allow Him to work through that situation. We need to keep going, we need to make sure that we totally rely on God, we need to go through the hard times with our heads held up high, because we are sons and daughters of the Living God. Let's persevere and contend for our faith today, making sure that we rely on the one who is above all others - Jesus.
In 3 John we find John encouraging his friend. He writes a letter to encourage Gaius in everything he does. He commends him for what he has done and what he is doing in the name of the Lord.How often do we encourage one another? When was the last time that you said to someone else, "I think you are doing an amazing job for the Lord"
I know that when people say things like this to me it makes me feel a little uncomfortable. However, I think that is wrong attitude to have. The people that say this to me are just trying to encourage me, and motivate me in the work of the Lord.
We should do this more often. We need to raise one another up. We need to motivate and encourage one another in the gifts that God has given us. Let's try and honour one another, let's try and make someone feel loved and respected. We are all in this together, and without the support from the people around us it becomes really difficult - so lets make sure that we make things easier for our Christian brothers and sisters and encourage them today.
I am currently at a Children's leaders conference, and on reading today's scripture it has really encouraged me. In 2 John it starts with this verse, To the chosen lady and her children, whom I love in the truth. It then continues in verse 4 with these words, It has given me great joy to find some of your children walking in the truth, just as the Father commanded us.WOW! Do you realise what this means? Children are allowed to follow Jesus! Children are allowed to know the truth!
This is not a revelation to me, as I work as a children's worker and my prime goal is getting boys and girls to know Jesus. Unfortunately there are Christians that don't see children as important. They see children's church or Sunday School as a baby sitting service that happens while the REAL worship in the adult church goes on.
I guess I'm now officially on my soap box! I love the Lord with all my heart, with all my soul and with all my mind, and so why would I not want the same for the children? Adults claim to love the Lord, to want to serve the Lord, to want to do the will of the Lord, but yet they don't read the bible to their children, they don't even buy a bible for their children, they don't pray with their children. How can we make sure that our children are walking in the truth if we are not doing everything in our power to guide them in the way of Jesus?
Come on people! I know that this is my job to tell children about Jesus, but it has to begin with the family. Our Kids deserve to know the fullness of Christ for themselves, let's show them, let's grow them, let's do everything we can to give them the best Spiritual home we can - never mind playing games or sports, which I would like to say are fine - but instead let's encourage our children and young people that God comes first - even if it means that they don't play sport with their friends on a Sunday. They may be the only Christian on the team, but where and when are they getting fed if they are not in Church? If we give them an excuse now then what will happen when they are older? They'll find other excuses like, I don't have any friends in church, I have homework to do, I'm too tired! What is that? We need to make sure that our Children and Young people are encouraged to fellowship with God and with like minded people.
Come on church let's be like this lady in 2 John. Let's do our best to bring our children and young people into the Kingdom of God.
I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life. This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. And if we know that he hears us—whatever we ask—we know that we have what we asked of him. What a great way to end 1 John. In chapter 5 John encourages us that if we believe that Jesus is Lord then we will have eternal life. He then concludes this chapter with these verses. We can have confidence going to God that He will hear our prayers.
Our Heavenly Father is interested in our prayers, He wants us to come to Him with our hearts desire. This is not that we go and start making 'wish list' prayers, but it does mean that He will instill into us the desires of our hearts so that His will will become real to us, so that we will want to be all that we can be for Him.
Our God loves us so much that He paid the price for our sin and then allows us to come before His throne with our prayers and petitions. If Jesus didn't do anything for us ever again, answer any prayer, or even listen to our prayers then He still has done everything for us. He died for us to live - job done. He doesn't need to do anything else, however, Praise God that He chooses to listen and answer. He wants to be part of our lives - invite Him today. He's only one prayer away!
I guess the reason for my struggle is others. When you know that you know that God has spoken to you, and then others challenge you about what you believe God has given you, you begin to doubt yourself. This verse really helped me tonight to sort my thoughts. I know when my God speaks to me and so when others challenge what He's said it doesn't make it less valid.
Jesus lives in me. The Holy Spirit guides me, and so I will hold onto this verse today knowing that God is at work, and that He will bring His will into being. I praise God tonight that He will bring forth His plan and purpose for my life. I praise God tonight that I can say that Jesus is Lord of my life and that He will enable me to overcome any challenge in my life at this point or in the future.
If you are reading this tonight and are struggling with anything or anyone. Be Blessed and know that Jesus is Lord, and that no matter what happens He is with you and remember - the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world
1 John 3 says this, Dear children, let us not love with words or speech but with actions and in truth.
How often do we pay lip service to God? How often do we tell someone we care, but our actions don't show that? When we tell others how we feel about them its great, but we need to show them with the things we do. It's so easy for us to say something and do something else, but as Christians our actions should show others Jesus.
If we are proclaiming to be Christians but then treating others in a manner less than Christian, how is that going to witness the love of Christ into their lives. We need to be talking the talk and walking the walk if we want to see others come to know the Lord and so enter the Kingdom.
Jesus was the same all the time, in fact it says in Hebrews 13:8 Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever. He loved everyone the same, always behaved as He should, so that's what we need to be doing. We need to imitate Jesus in such a way that we show His light to the people we meet. We need to show others Jesus, not just by the way we talk but by the way we love one another and by the way we love them. Let's make sure that our actions speak just as loud as our words.
