Month: May 2020

Take time to stop and send out/broadcast your love today!

We’ve been talking about the apostle John being the ‘apostle of love’. In the beginning of 1 John 2 he gives a couple of simple guidelines for walking out our lives here;

“Whoever claims to live in Him must walk as Jesus did”.

John has been saying that those who do what Jesus said, obeying His word, are living in Him. We can’t say we’re in Him and live our lives in a different way or carelessly, we need to stay ‘connected to the head’. Col 2:19 Smith Wigglesworth, the Apostle of Faith, said he never prayed for more than half an hour, but never went half an hour without prayer. He stayed in continual connection with Jesus, the head. He lived in the atmosphere of Heaven! Our minds are constantly bombarded by many voices today, but we are from another reality, the Heavenly realm. So how can we stay connected with Heaven or turn our hearts to the Lord during our busy days? Most people have mobile phones, so why not set your phone to remind you at certain times or intervals to stop for a moment and focus on Heaven, praise, read the Word, pray. We need to strengthen our connection with the Head(Jesus) in these days.

The next part of 1 John 2 says;

“Anyone who claims to be in the light but hates his brother is still in the darkness, whoever loves his brother lives in the light and there is nothing in him to make him stumble”.

John said we cannot live in an atmosphere of hatred and live in the kingdom of love, it’ll be a stumbling block to us. WE CAN BLESS THOSE WHO HATE US, CHRIST DID. As we take time to turn to the Lord, during our day, bless our brothers and sisters. We can set the atmosphere in our day to be the Love Atmosphere that John spoke about.

Give some thought about how you can connect with Heaven and stay in the Love Atmosphere today.

God bless and keep you and make His face shine upon you and give you peace.

First of all a correction to yesterday’s blog, there was an eighth reference in 1 John with the words ‘Dear children’. I missed a very important verse;

4:4 You, Dear children, are from God and have overcome them, because the One who is in you is greater(the Greater One dwells in us)than the one who is in the world. Hallelujah!

Surely this is something to be thankful for today, the Greater One, The Lord Almighty, lives in each of His children. Take a moment to praise and be thankful to the in dwelling Spirit of God in our lives.

The apostle Paul had to bring correction to the early church but he also makes a number of references about a loving relationship to those entrusted to him;

1 Thess 2:7,8 …but we were gentle among you, like a mother caring for her little children. We loved you so much that we were delighted to share … our lives with you as well, because you had become so dear to us.

1 Thess 2:11  For you know that we dealt with each of you as a father deals with his own children, encouraging, comforting and urging you to live lives worthy of God, who calls you into his kingdom and glory(yes Lord, help us to come to You).

1 Cor 4:14  I am not writing this to shame you, but to warn you, as my dear children. Even though you have 10,000 guardians in Christ, you do not have many fathers, for in Christ Jesus I became your father through this gospel.

Gal 4:19  My dear children, for whom I am again in the pains of childbirth until Christ is formed in you, how I wish I could be with you now and change my tone, because I am perplexed about you(even though Paul was bringing correction to the Galatian Church, he still addressed them as his ‘dear children’).

God has appointed offices within His Church, Eph 2:20, 4:11, “to prepare God’s people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ”. John and Paul functioned in these high offices, but treated those they ministered to as ‘dear children’. They ministered out of Christ’s love; ‘NOT LORDING IT OVER those entrusted to you, but being examples to the flock’. 1 Peter 5:3.

May you be blessed with loving, caring leaders as you walk with your Lord this day.

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God bless and keep you and make His face shine upon you and give you peace this day.

Hezekiah means ‘God has strengthened’. As we saw yesterday Hezekiah turned to the Lord and received strength in various trials.

When he faced overwhelming odds from Sennacherib, king of Assyria, he went in and sat before the Lord. He commanded the people ‘not to answer’ the taunts of the enemy, he went to the Lord and his prophet, Isaiah. We can learn this way of handling our own problems. Sometimes it’s wisdom NOT TO TALK TO OTHERS, EVEN CHRISTIANS because they can discourage us. WE NEED TO STAY IN FAITH BEFORE THE LORD, keep our eyes on Him and trust for the answer.

As king and leader of the people of Judah, Hezekiah couldn’t share with just anyone and cause fear in the city. WE CAN EMPOWER THINGS BY TALKING ABOUT THEM TO OTHERS! Hezekiah went into the Temple, apparently alone, laid out the situation before the Lord. His problem was so serious that only God could deliver the city and people(Assyria had already deported most of the population of Israel from their land). 2 Kings 18:10,11

Later in the reign of Hezekiah we see that he faced personal illness and the Lord once again sent Isaiah the prophet to tell him to put his house in order because he was going to die. Hezekiah ‘turned his face to the wall’(turned to the Lord) and reminded God that he’d been faithful to Him. Isaiah received another word which may have seemed strange, that God was going to add another 15 years to Hezekiah’s life. God turned the shadow back on the steps to confirm that He’d do what He said for His servant. Hezekiah ruled in Jerusalem for 29 years.

The king of Babylon sent envoys to Hezekiah with letters and a gift to congratulate him on his recovery. He in turn showed them everything he had in his palace, all his wealth. Isaiah told him that all he had would one day be taken by Babylon, including some of his own descendants, who would serve as eunuchs there. This was the one time Hezekiah blew it, he talked and showed too much to strangers. Truly we need to be wise in guarding what God has given and spoken to us and not to share it with just anyone who comes to us. Learn the lessons of the good king Hezekiah and be careful what we say and with whom we share.

God bless and keep you this day.

 

Ignore the taunts(maybe thoughts in our minds) of the enemy(it really annoys him) and turn it over to the Lord.

Hezekiah, the name means ‘God has strengthened me’.

Hezekiah was a special king of Judah, likened to king David, he destroyed idol worship in the land of Judah.

“Hezekiah trusted in the Lord, the God of Israel. There was no one like him among all the kings of Judah, either before him or after him”. 2 Kings 18:5

Hezekiah won some battles and it says God was with him, but in the end Sennacherib, king of Assyria, came against Jerusalem with an overwhelming army. Twice he issued threats to the city, it’s king and the people. On both occasions Hezekiah sent word to Isaiah the prophet and went into the Temple and laid the matter before the Lord.

On the first confrontation with the field commander of the army, the enemy addressed the people on the wall of Jerusalem, but Hezekiah told them ‘not to answer him’! The enemy may push you to answer, but the battle is the Lord’s! Don’t allow yourself to take the fight into your own hands, keep silent and give it over to the Lord. Our talking needs to be before God, who has a covenant with us.

“I will defend the city and save it, for my sake and for the sake of David my servant(God had made a covenant/binding agreement with David)”. 2 Kings 19:34

God said He would give Isaiah a sign, ‘this year you will eat what grows by itself and the second year what springs from that, but the third year sow and reap, plant vineyards and eat their fruit’. God was going to supernaturally feed and provide for His people(remember and remind Him we are His) in the midst of the enemy’. Like Psalm 23, preparing a table for us.

God said the enemy will ‘not shoot an arrow here’ and they didn’t. God put 185,000 men in their camp to death during the night.

Don’t engage with the enemy, ignore him, lay your situation before the Lord and be at rest. May not be easy but remember God is your Father and will deliver you.

God bless and keep you.

Fellowship only happens in the light!

We proclaim to you what we have seen and heard, so that you also may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father(think about that) and with His Son, Jesus Christ. We write this to make our(or your) joy complete(there is a joy in fellowship). 1 John 1:3,4

John was the apostle whom Jesus loved and much of his writings are about love and relationship. 1 John begins with personal testimony, ‘we have heard, seen with our own eyes, which we have touched with our hands’. All personal testimony, we and our, not hearsay, not somebody else’s account. The reason for these eyewitness accounts is given in V3, ‘so that you may have FELLOWSHIP with us. And our FELLOWSHIP is with the Father and the Son’. The word fellowship occurs four times in verses 3,6 and 7. The fellowship mentioned is on two levels, with God twice and with one another, also twice in these verses.

So God wants a people to have fellowship with Him and has invited us into that fellowship through Jesus sacrifice. The Greek word translated ‘fellowship’ is Koinonia and means communion, sharing in common. It’s no small thing to be invited into fellowship with God. I do believe it’s positional, because we are in Christ(God sees us in Him) but these verses also state it’s according to our walk.

“If we claim to have fellowship with him yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live by the truth. But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another and the blood of Jesus, His Son, purifies us from all sin”. 1 John 1:6,7

We must walk in the light to have true fellowship with God and one another. If we knowingly walk in deliberate sin we only deceive ourselves. The next two verses provide a remedy for our condition if we haven’t been walking in the light.

“If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.  If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness”.  1 John 1:8,9

We need to accept our responsibility to walk in the light, now. The Lord has paid the price for us to do this, so let’s benefit from His sacrifice today.

God bless and keep you today.

Today is the 75th Anniversary of the Allied Victory in Europe in World War 2, VE Day. This anniversary is being remembered, but in a more subdued way because of the lockdown restrictions. Victory in Europe didn’t mean the total end of the warfare, VJ Day, Victory in Japan, didn’t come until later, 15 August 1945.

I’m not comfortable referencing mens’ battles alongside those of the Kingdom of God, but I’m reminded of all that Jesus won for us, His people on the cross. Today may be a good time to reflect and remind ourselves of His sacrifice and victory 2000 years ago and what a victory, the firstborn of many children of God.

“The Son is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For in him all things were created…  He is before all things, and in him all things hold together(God holds/keeps everything in creation together). And He is the head of the body, the church; He is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead so that in everything He might have the supremacy(Lance Lambert, from Jerusalem, gave this advice to younger Christians, IN EVERYTHING GIVE CHRIST THE SUPREMACY). … once you were alienated from God and were enemies in your minds because of your evil behaviour. But now He has reconciled you by Christ’s physical body through death to present you wholly in his sight, without blemish and free from accusation –  if you continue in your faith, established and firm and do not move from the HOPE held out in the gospel”. Col 1:15-23

Christ is our victor and has indeed crushed the head of the enemy. There may be more fighting but the battle has been won and victory is sure. We are fighting FROM HIS VICTORY, NOT trying to win victory for ourselves, Hallelujah.

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God bless and keep you today and evermore.

 

What are we habitually(regularly, often) thinking about? What we regularly think and say determines who we are!

The late Neville Johnson told a story about a mentor of his, Walter Bugler? He often had encounters with the Lord and once when he was teaching a class of Bible students the Lord stood outside the glazed door of the classroom. He went and asked the Lord to come in to the students, but the Lord said if He came into the room the students would be undone. We are incompatible with the Lord in many areas, but that can change and the beginning of the change is in our minds! We need to change how we think and what we’re thinking about most often. Our minds are being infiltrated by this world and the powers of darkness more than we know, so here’s a measuring grid to regulate our thought life.

FINALLY brothers and sisters, whatever is TRUE, NOBLE, RIGHT, PURE, LOVELY, ADMIRABLE(OF GOOD REPORT, NO GOSSIP), if anything is EXCELLENT OR PRAISEWORTHY, THINK ABOUT SUCH THINGS. Phil 4:8 NIVUK

And now, brethren, as I close this letter, let me say this one more thing: FIX YOUR THOUGHTS on what is TRUE, GOOD and RIGHT. THINK ABOUT things that are PURE and LOVELY and DWELL ON THE FINE, GOOD THINGS IN OTHERS. THINK ABOUT ALL YOU CAN PRAISE GOD FOR AND BE GLAD ABOUT. Phil 4:8 TLB

Summing it all up friends, I’d say YOU’LL DO BEST BY FILLING YOUR MINDS AND MEDITATING on things TRUE, NOBLE, REPUTABLE, AUTHENTIC, COMPELLING, GRACIOUS—THE BEST, NOT THE WORST; THE BEAUTIFUL, NOT THE UGLY; THINGS TO PRAISE, NOT THINGS TO CURSE. PUT INTO PRACTICE what you have learned from me, what you heard and saw and realised. Do that and God, who makes everything work together, will WORK INTO YOU HIS MOST EXCELLENT HARMONIES. Phil 4:8,9 MSG

Here is a last piece of advice. If you believe in goodness and IF YOU VALUE THE APPROVAL OF GOD, FIX YOUR MINDS ON THE THINGS which are HOLY and RIGHT and PURE and BEAUTIFUL and GOOD. MODEL YOUR CONDUCT on what you have learned from me, on what I have told you and shown you and you will find the God of Peace will be with you. Phil 4:8,9 PHILIPS

‘FIX YOUR MINDS’ THEN ‘MODEL YOUR CONDUCT’.

When our lives are over and we stand before God(a good friend’s wife went home yesterday) we won’t have the gifts that were loaned to us. We’ll be standing as who we are, ourselves alone and the people we have become while on earth will be obvious to all. Our lives here need to line up with the Word and with the Lord for us to be compatible up there.

God bless and keep you and make His face shine upon you.

 

 

…and turn and I would heal them. Acts 28:27, Isa. 6:10

Paul had finally arrived in Rome and been placed in a rented house with a guard. He immediately called the leaders of the Jews in Rome to meet with him and told them about himself. They hadn’t received anything bad about him and were open to hear what he had to say. They arranged to meet Paul on a certain day and came in larger numbers to the place where he stayed. ‘From morning till evening he explained and declared to them the kingdom of God and tried to convince them about Jesus from the law of Moses and from the prophets. Some were convinced by what he said, but others WOULD NOT believe’(Simeon prophesied, Jesus would cause the ‘falling and rising’ of many in Israel).

They began to leave after Paul made a final statement from Isaiah 6:9,10;

“Go to this people and say, you will be ever hearing but never understanding; you will be ever seeing but never perceiving”.

For this people’s heart has become calloused; they hardly hear with their ears and they have closed their eyes. Otherwise they might see with their eyes, here with their ears, understand with their hearts and turn and I would heal them.

Therefore I want you to know that God’s salvation has been sent to the Gentiles AND THEY WILL LISTEN, the new church.

God’s summation of the religious Jewish establishment at the end of the Book of Acts, a people who couldn’t and wouldn’t hear or see and turn and be healed. Jesus had come and everything had changed. Jesus is coming back and everything will not be business as usual. The world has been shaken by a virus and the results would never have been believed. God will soon move in power across the world again and we need to turn to Him and receive healing for our eyes and ears so that we’ll be ready. The religious rituals of the Jews were a barrier to them receiving truth and God moved on to the Gentiles. Paul said they will listen. It’s the desperate, not the lukewarm who will reach out to receive from the Lord.

Your Kingdom come Lord, on earth as it is in heaven.

God bless you today.

Paul and the ship’s company had survived the storms, the shipwreck and made it safely to shore, whereupon Paul was attacked by the snake, driven out by the fire. It had been a troubled journey, but God had been with Paul throughout it and delivered him. The storms may buffet us but THE LORD IS WITH US EVEN IN THE STORMS, Emmanuel.

‘After three months we put out to sea(even Paul had to wait, he may have been glad, for the season to sail again), … it was an Alexandrian ship with the figurehead of the twin gods Castor and Pollux(the ship that was dedicated to demon gods carried God’s apostle. God can use anything, even dedicated things to fulfill His purposes for us also)’. Now that the ship was in the season to sail again they made steady progress and no storms. We too NEED NOT TAKE UNNECESSARY RISKS, God will bring us to our own destination in His own way and time. Don’t run ahead of the Spirit of God, ‘since we live by the Spirit, LET US KEEP IN STEP WITH THE SPIRIT’. Gal 5:25

God sends encouragements to us along the way, look for the small and large signs that God is with us and BE THANKFUL(for it is good to give praise unto the Lord and speak good of His Name). Paul and his companions spent a week with some brothers in their last port, Puteoli. God sent them brothers to help and support them.

’And so we came to Rome(such a short statement but this was Paul’s final destination and he too was under ‘lockdown’ permanently)’. Acts 28:14

“The brothers there had heard that we were coming and they travelled as far as the Forum of Appius  and the Three Taverns to meet us. At the sight of these men Paul thanked God and was encouraged. When we got to Rome, Paul was allowed to live by Himself, with a soldier to guard him”. Acts 28:15,16 God cared for the needs of His servant in a strange city, He looked after Paul as long as he was alive and serving Him. God is able and willing to care for us too, no matter what the trials and sustain us. Don’t give up, God is with us of a truth, we are no less important to our loving Lord and Heavenly Father.

God bless and keep us this day and every day.

 

’A viper(snake) driven out by the heat, fastened itself on his hand’. Acts 28:3

For those of you who don’t know it, there are no snakes in Ireland, nor anything poisonous, like spiders. Legend has it that Saint Patrick chased them out of the land. Hallelujah!

All the people had finally made it safely to dry land, through the Storm, off the Shipwreck and onto the Shore. The islanders showed them unusual kindness and built a fire and welcomed them all, all 276 people. They had come through a great ordeal, many days at sea in the storms and fourteen days without food, but people came and helped them. God can send help supernaturally(like the angel who fed Elijah twice before his forty day journey to meet God on Mount Horeb) or he can send it through people, even complete strangers. The survivors from the ship would have been so exhausted, they would have taken help from anybody but sometimes we imagine help will come in a certain way(like Naaman before Elisha, ‘I thought he would come and…). We need humility to accept the help that God sends us, wrong attitudes or opinions can separate us from God’s provision!

Paul was carrying brushwood and as he put it on the fire a snake, driven out by the heat, attached itself to his hand. Paul had guided the ship’s company to safety and given them hope in the darkest days and now he was bitten by a snake. The heat drove the snake out and it attacked him. I believe we will see this more often in the days ahead, God’s presence will cause things to surface that may have been hidden for a long time. Even with the Lord, after he came off the Mount of Transfiguration, a deaf and dumb spirit manifested in a boy and Jesus set him free. Mark 9:22

The islanders initially thought Paul was a murderer and then that he was a god, after nothing happened to him. Paul threw the snake off into the fire, the proper place for it. Just because something latches onto us doesn’t mean we have to keep it. SHAKE OFF false attachments from the enemy, we are God’s children and they have no place in or on us.

The islanders continued to bless and help the people and Paul in return healed all the sick and I’m sure brought the news of Jesus to them. We may not be able to repay people in kind, the same way they’ve blessed us, but God may open a way for us to repay them in a greater measure, to meet their needs.

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God bless and keep you and make His face shine upon you and give you peace.