A Heart persuaded that all is well.

Lately there seem to be a new wave on the blog regarding the question of church. The need to go and worship on Sunday, finding hard to blend into the church and so on and so forth.I just wonder what is the cause and issue at hand? Can we look around us and find out why? So often everyone can point to errors of judgment, performance and hurts that have caused problems for others. But often the memories of such painful moments can linger longer after the offense has been forgiven.
No it is not the harsh criticism berating you but the silent accusations of your own heart, the inner turmoil of conscience only you and God can hear, others may forget but somehow you can't.
"Whenever our hearts condemn us... God is greater than our heart, and He knows everything" (1 John 3:20) The meaning here seems to be that we shall allay our doubts and produce a state of quiet and peace by the evidence that we are of the truth. Our consciences are often troubled by past guilt. But, in furnishing the evidence of true piety love to others, we shall pacify an accusing mind, conciliate our own hearts and convince ourselves that we are truly the children of God.
In other words, though a person's heart may condemn him as guilty, and though he knows that God condemns the sins of the past, yet his mind may be soothed by evidence that he is God's child and that he will not be finally condemned. We do not have to attempt to conceal the fact that there is much for which our own heart and conscience might justly accuse us but finds in spite of all this and persuaded that all will be well. The heart can only be kept calm by such a course of life that God and our own hearts shall approve the manner in which we live.
Reminders of the past are best remedied by thoughts of our present life in Christ. Indeed, without Him life would be one dark memory. When God has forgiven us and has buried our past in the deepest sea, He also puts up a "No fishing" sign and He means it! God bless

Reason to Worship

"Then the man said,"Lord, I believe," and he worshipped Him. (John 9:38)

This is a front page story, a man born blind received his sight, a miracle which the Pharisees found disturbing. For the more they investigated, the more they were faced with a decision regarding the Sight- giver. They are unwilling to admit in their unbelief what the man born blind was only to willing to acknowledge. "Believing with the heart, the man professed his faith in Christ: "Lord, I believe you to be the Son of God." Oh yes! He not only gave HIM the civil respect due to a great man but he gave HIM the divine honour and WORSHIPED HIM as the SON of GOD come in the flesh.
None but GOD is to be worshiped, and by worshiping Jesus, the man acknowledged HIM to be GOD. True faith will show itself in humble adoration of the Lord Jesus. Thus we who believe in Him will see all the reason in the world to worship Him.
Therefore as we cope with the trails that come our way, let the account of this miracle comfort us. Let God know that, though we may not understand the "why" of our suffering, we do rejoice that He will be glorified by its outcome. Regardless of our circumstances, He is worthy of our confidence and our worship. Praise God.

Who do I have?

"Listening is rare". We need the certain people to whom we feel we can talk because they have such a deep capacity for hearing, not just our words, but hearing us as a person. They enable us to communicate on a level we have never reached before. They enable us to be as we have never been before.We will never truly know ourselves unless we find people who can listen, who can enable us to emerge, to come out of ourselves, to discover who we are. We cannot discover ourselves by ourselves. Note the words "there are certain people… who enable us to be as we have never been before." Those are the people we need most.
Who is my coach? The older, wiser, and more experienced person who would stand on the sidelines of my life watching out for me and at the same time having the bigger picture in his mind all the time? A coach who doesn't try to run the race for me but sets the standard for the race and makes a judgment on my performance.

Who does this for me? Who stretches my mind? Who makes me wince as he exposes the many faces of my ignorance; who will not let me get away with Spiritual and intellectual superficiality. Who listens to and encourages my dreams? Dreams are not intellectual propositions that must be proven. They are the work of visionaries; they are out-of-the-box, frequently awful and occasionally good. These are the folks who, when others laugh and say I am trying to build castles in the air, remind me that God is ever unchanging and never forsake His child, that He is the one Who protects and cares for me?

When the Christians in Jerusalem wanted nothing to do with the newly converted Saul of Tarsus, Barnabas acted as his advocate. You don't have enough voices. You need others to speak up for you. Who shares your tears? Mary of Bethany was the only person in the room who understood what Jesus was going through as He came closer to His hour of death. She alone shared His tears.
Who is close enough to us to pick up the signals, to sense when fears and tears need to be shared? Yes, there are times when we need a pep talk or a boost, but there are also times when we need to be encouraged, to process our emotions. Who does that for us? Who rebukes us? Even with our 20/20 vision, one pair of eyes is not enough. We have blind spots. Satan is always ready to remind us of our good qualities. But a true friend is the one who exposes and challenges our self-seeking, self-pleasing and self-dependence, and helps us to restore to God the authority that we have robbed Him of. Who seeks God with us? Praying together to keeps us honest. It also keeps us dependent on God. We are reluctant to open up, to get real about our areas of struggle. Yet it's only in the honesty of shared prayer that we draw closer to God - and to one another.

Unity, unity....much used and said word!!!!!!!

Yesterday we had a visiting speaker to take the pulpit ministry, the needed break I long for so much, praise GOD!.

He was sharing about unity in prayer, and I was only pondering over this subject as I was asked to meet up with a fellow pastor who seemingly felt that I have encroached into the so called turf as I reached out to some unsaved students in the local university. I was asking God why all these issues, are we not to have Kingdom mentality. Hey there are thousands of students out there and I am only searching and reaching out to the non Christian. My heart wrenched out in pain as I seek the Lord.
I thank God for revealing to me, to lift me up again as I read His words, "So we all agreed... it seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us not to burden you with anything beyond the following requirements" (Acts 15:25, 28).

Controversy among churches is nothing new. Where two or three are gathered together, there we will find difference of opinion, but sad that church would spend so much time in debate...that has more people trying to fix blame than are trying to fix the problem.

Consider His word "It seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us." Communion with Christ by the Holy Spirit lies at the very root of that expression. Also, an outcome of this is the unity of the church by the Spirit. And finally there is the unanimity of the Spirit and the church. This picture of the council in Jerusalem is that of a company of men and women, sharing the life of Christ, desiring only to know the mind of the Lord, having no selfish views for which to contend. These are the conditions upon which it is possible for any such assembly to say, "It seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us." Can the church say this today? Hey I am not judging but what can I say as I want only to do His work in that vast mission field. Can we come to unanimity when we are prepared to discuss our absolute difference freely and frankly, not my turf and your turf but on the basis of common desire to know the mind of the Lord.

God I surrender it to you for it is not the colour of the curtains but the quality of the commitment to Christ that makes your church effective, the church which you have give me shepherd.

Grace for our journey

When will we be there? Is it much further? Oh yes how long still, how many more minutes or hours? Often we get tired, tired quickly of the troubles that crowd us, tired of the trouble of this world. Yet what is suffering for "a little while" in anticipation of the glory that is to follow?

"A little while! Compare it with the eternal years, with the far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory, with the compensation that awaits us.

My friends, there is a limitation to our suffering. It is only for a little while, but every moment has been fixed by the immutable purpose and love of God. We shall not suffer one moment more than is absolutely necessary for our perfecting of God's glory, and for every moment there is an ample supply of grace.

What a banquet that will be when God will satisfy the expectation of those whom He has called to partake of it! And the suffering is being used in ways we cannot understand in perfecting, establishing and strengthening us. God brings forth His hosts in the day of battle. It is not so much of an affliction as of the love of Christ, and the blessedness of being like Him and with Him forever.

Arriving at our destination, the memories of pain and fatigue along the journey quickly fade. My friends, we have a destination worth the cost of any trip. "Eternal Glory" is the name engraved above the gate. And it is one way journey we will never forget!

In the Master's service

"Each one should use whatever gift he has received to serve others, faithfully administering God's grace in its various forms.: 1 Peter 4:10.

A person who boasts of his gifts as if they were part of him often is not at all concerned about what becomes of God's honour or welfare of his neighbour. The Apostle Peter reminds us to attend to our occupation and faithfully do whatever is demanded of us. For no work is nobler than obedience in the calling and work God has assigned to each one. Many fickle, unstable believers think to much of themselves to continue in their calling. They stir up nothing but mischief and have no grace to do anything good. For they do not use their talents in the service for their neighbour; they use them only for their own glory and advantage.

Self promotion has a way of crowding out self sacrifice. Self promotion says, "hold on to what you have, and use it to your fullest advantage." Self sacrifice says, "be willing to release what you have, that you might become God's channel of blessing in the life of another.

Matthew 27:40, 42 The taunts were loud and ugly: "come down from the cross, if you are the Son of God... He saves others....but he can't save himself!" The crowd had jeered. If they had only known...... What they were seeing was not limited power but limitless love. "Freely you have received," He told His followers. And you might have excepted what He said next: "Freely give." (Matthew 10:8).

Showing ungrudging hospitality to other Christians means more than opening your home to them. It means making room in your busy day to pray for them. It means gladly sharing yourself and all you have and are. I pray and praise God that as you make room in your heart for others, you do so because He has made your heart His home. God bless.