Blessings of God shared!

I know I'm a little late today, but late is better than not at all. Today's reading for me was Galatians 3 continuing with Paul's letter.
Quite often I find that when I read the word of God it's one verse that jumps out at me and today that is what happened. The verse that impacted my thoughts today was verse 8 which says this,
'Scripture foresaw that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, and announced the gospel in advance to Abraham: 'All nations will be blessed through you.'
Paul announces that the gentiles are blessed through Abraham. This got me thinking today about how God has blessed me, but also how I bless others because of that blessing.
This also challenged me, as it made me question whether or not I do bless people as I should?
As Christians we are blessed and so therefore should be blessed to be a blessing. I want to make sure that I am that person. I want to make sure that I am a blessed person that shares that blessing nature of Jesus wherever I go!
If you know the Lord and have just read this, then challenge yourself today to bless those around you, even those that irritate you!
If you don't know the Lord then I want to tell you that you too can know him as Lord and Saviour. It's as easy as this...
1. Believe...Tell Jesus that you believe that he died for you
2. Ask...Ask Jesus to forgive you for all the sin in your life
3. Accept...Jesus and receive him as your Saviour and King of your life.
4. Share...Jesus wants to part of your life, join a church that will encourage you in your faith and help you to understand how to follow him in your daily life.

Who am I?

Today I've been reading Galatians 2. In this chapter Paul gets really angry at Peter for pretending to be someone else. Peter is behaving differently around the Jewish people and so Paul calls him a hypocrite.
This got me thinking about how people see me. Do people see me as a Christ follower, or do people see me as a church goer? In other words, do people see Jesus in me or do people just see someone that goes to church and acts no different to those who don't?
This is a huge challenge for all of us. We need to make sure that we practice what we preach. 
Jesus calls us to make disciples of all nations, but we are not going to do this if we are two faced. We need to be true to him and true to ourselves. We must allow God to be the very centre of our lives and so live for him. Let's show the love of God to those we meet today. Let's bless those people in our path and allow them to see Jesus through our words, actions and deeds!

'Let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.' Matthew 5:16

Praise God!

As I was reading my Bible this morning I realised that I hadn't written my blog for a long time. I think it might be time to start this back up again as it really helped me to focus on God's word and on what I was reading. Today I read Galatians 1 and the verse that jumped out at me was this, 

"And they praised God because of me." Galatians 1:24

This got me thinking, does anyone praise God because of me? Does anyone want to know God because of me? These are huge questions. My job is to share Jesus with children, therefore I should radiate the presence of God, but do I? I don't think I do as much as I could; therefore this means I have some work to do.I guess the answer is this...I must invite more of God into my life so that I that others are attracted to the Holy Spirit in me.The only way that others will see Jesus in us and therefore 'praise God' because of us is if we look to him and invite him into every part of our lives. Let's do that today...let's invite God into everything!

Help!

My Bible reading today is from John 5. Jesus is talking about how he relies on God to guide him and that everything he does comes from following God's lead.

This is brilliant. The Son of God totally relying on his Father to be able to complete anything. In fact he says this in verse 30... 

"By myself I can do nothing; I judge only as I hear, and my judgement is just, for I seek not to please myself but him who sent me."

This is something that we as Christians need to take notice of. If Jesus himself says he can't do anything without God, then who are we to think we can go it alone? We need to make sure that everything we do is committed to God.

I have learnt many things over the last 10 years of knowing the Lord, but one of the most important things that I always try to remember is this...

                         'If it's good enough for Jesus, it's good enough for me'

Basically, if Jesus did it then we should do it too. One of my favourite verses emphasises this point, 'Follow God's example, therefore as dearly loved children and walk in the way of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.' Ephesians 5:1-2

We need to be holy, we need to follow Christ's example. When we follow Christ's example we follow God's example, when we follow the example of God we lead others to Christ!

Tempted? PRAY!

In my Bible reading today, Jesus and his disciples are at the Mount of Olives. Jesus is preparing himself for what is about to happen  but before going to be alone with God, Jesus says to this to his disciples, "Pray that you will not fall into temptation."
This statement from Jesus got me thinking this morning; Do I pray that I will not be tempted to do something that I shouldn't? Do I pray for protection against temptation on a daily basis, or only when I remember?
In the Lord's Prayer, Jesus instructs his followers to pray exactly that, to pray that God will help them when they are in temptation. 
We live in a dark and sinful world. We accept this as OK because its the 'NORM'. We allow ourselves to be tempted to do things that look fine because it doesn't harm anyone, but in the eyes of God we are NOT doing what is righteous.
If you are a regular reader to my blog you will know that I believe the Bible with all my heart. You will also know that I will not compromise the things of God intentionally. You might even think that I am a fundamentalist - well I am!
When I look around me I see people that profess to be Christian that do compromise the things of God. I see people that do not understand that the things that they are doing are not in line with what God has called them to be. Come on Church! We are God's people! We need to be what HE'S called us to be! We must pray that God will help us fight the temptations of this world. It is so easy to become apathetic and complacent with our way of thinking. 
Jesus didn't go to the cross so that we could pay at being Christians; he didn't die so that we could compromise his word or do things just because they feel good! He went to the cross so that we could have life in ALL its fullness!
My prayer for today is that we all ask God to help us not fall into temptation. That we trust in him and turn away from our evil ways following him and him alone!Say goodbye today to apathy and complacency. Say goodbye today to compromise and temptation - live the life that God has called you for...a life in all its fullness...John 10:10

Pick up your sword!

This morning I read from Luke 22 which retells the story of the last supper. I have read this passage many times, in fact this is the passage I like to use for communion, however I noticed something that I had never noticed before. Jesus tells his disciples to use a sword.  In verse 36 Jesus says this, "But now if you have a purse, take it, and also a bag; and of you don't have a sword, sell your cloak and buy one."
This really got me thinking, why would Jesus be telling his disciples to buy a sword? He was warning them that things were going to get tough, things were going to get really bad. He wanted them to be ready.
What about us? Are we ready? Do we have our sword? Well I hope so, as without our sword we are unarmed. The sword I speak of is the word of God. We must never be too far away from it, in fact we should have it written in our hearts. The word of God is just what it says on the tin...the word of God. It is our weapon against the enemy, it helps us to discern whether people are telling us the truth or not. 
A few years ago not long after I became a Christian, I asked my father a question about something. To be honest I can't remember what the question was, but I remember the answer as if it were yesterday. He told me to be a 'Berean in everything' What my dad was telling me was to test everything. Just because people tell us something it doesn't mean it's of God. Just because they have been Christians for a long time or are even in leadership doesn't mean that it is of God. Being a Berean means that we test everything against the word of God, we test everything with the sword. Look at the word SWORD...it is WORDS, God's words to us. Be a Berean today, soak in the Sword of God, allow the Holy Spirit to minister to your needs, believe the Bible and use it to defend yourself. PICK UP YOUR SWORD!

Worship...or the Rocks will!

My Bible reading today is in  Luke 19 and is the famous passage of scripture describing Jesus entering Jerusalem. Each year at Easter time we remember this story and think of how everyone welcomed Jesus with open arms, only to shout 'crucify him' only a few days later.
The verse that stood out for me today, has to be verse 40, 

"I tell you," he replied, "If they keep quiet, the stones will cry out."

 In this verse Jesus is replying to the Pharisees that are not happy with the shouts of praise. Jesus is letting them know that he deserves to be worshipped, that if the disciples stopped worshipping then the rocks would take their place.
What an awesome thought. Jesus is so worthy of praise that if we don't do it then the earth beneath us will. We were born to worship God. We were made to worship God. We need to remember that if we don't do what we are called to do, then the rocks will do it for us.
I know one thing, I don't want to be replaced by a rock! I want to worship God and live a life of worship and praise. Let's remember that we are called to worship the creator of the universe, let's not leave it to the rocks to do it for us, let's worship God in everything we do!