Do we really love?

When we watch movies we so often see how wrong the world’s understanding of love is. We are normally introduced to a couple who are engaged or already married. One of the two then meets someone else and “falls in love” with that person. At the end, they then join up with their true love. Well, we see it in real life as well, spouses cheating on each other, leaving each other to marry the real love of their lives. It is this misunderstanding of love that is the main cause for divorce, racism, hate speech and the list goes on. So what does the Word say about love. Well, first thing is this; love is not a bunch of emotions, love is an act of the will. Luk 6:27  "But I say to you who hear: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, It is something you do, not something that happens to you. You do not fall in love, you decide to love. It is an obedience thing. If love was something that happens to us, as we are made to believe, how could Christ command us to love our enemies. That would never happen if it was something we fall into. We have to choose to love our enemies. So when you fall out of love with someone, you actually stopped loving them because you chose to stop. You are being disobedient and you are sinning. Husbands and wives would stay together forever if they would grasp this concept. Love is not an emotion, it is an act of the will. It is clear from this that the emotions we experience when we think we fell in love, is not real love. It might be just a bunch of affectionate emotions, it might be lust, but it is not love. So what is love? Well, anybody who has not submitted to the Lordship of Christ, does not have love, real love. All they have is this collection of emotions that the world calls love. Love is a gift from God, and before you do not believe in Him and received the Spirit, you do not possess it.  1Jn 4:7  Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. Love is from God, and if we have it we are born of God. Love is the outward evidence that we are saved. Love is not something we fall into, it is not something that happens to us, it is something given to us and something that we have to actively work with and practice. But, love is one of the things that shows the world that you belong to God. So, even though the Buddhist might seem like a person with lots of love, what he has is fake, because he does not belong to God. If love is of God and those who have love belongs to God, the opposite is also true. Those who do not belong to God does not have love and those who do not love does not belong to God. By your love, you will be known. Joh 13:35  By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another."  The love the world has is conditional. I will love you if..... you love me back, if I can get something from it, if it is in accordance with what everybody else loves, etc. But the love given by God is unconditional. We must love no matter what. We should love our brothers and sisters in Christ, no matter what their race, social standing or financial position. We are called into a body of unity, one body and their is no distinction between Jew or gentile, slave or master, woman or man before God. We are to love our enemies, so even when you are being beaten to death, you must be able to pray for God to forgive them. You must love the robber while he is going through your stuff to see what he can take. We should love the black man even though we were raised differently. Love everybody, unconditionally. And by your love, you will be known as a child of the one and only true God. We should love that wife or husband, even if it feels like the spark is gone. When we do not like each other anymore. That is when we have to make the choice to obey God and choose to love. How is your loving. Do you love unconditionally or do you make racist remarks, go through divorce after divorce, want to hurt people who you suspect as thieves and robbers and murderers? Do people see you as a disciple of God because of your love.

We should suffer persecution

We are all familiar with the execution of Christians during the 1500’s in England and various other places. Under the reign of Queen Victoria only 80 Christians were executed during a three year period. Yet we all know about it. Why do we not hear about Christian executions any more. It is estimated that 176 000 Christians were killed because of their faith from July 2008 to June 2009. When we read books like Foxe’s Book of Martyrs we are amazed to read about these people’s attitudes at the time of their deaths. Some kiss the stake before they get on to be burned alive. Some pray and preach to their killers while they are burning. They seem to love what is happening to them. It is as if this is the best thing that can happen to them. Well, if your life is lived according to what the word of God requires, this is the best thing that can happen to a person. If you are living your whole life desiring to be with God, then it is a joyous occasion when you are being sent there. If someone wants to kill you because of your faith, then all they are doing is fulfilling your life’s desire. Giving you the one thing you want most. Mat 5:10 says; Blessed are you when you are persecuted for righteousness sake. Rejoice and be glad when men revile you. We should live our lives in such a way that our holy living convicts others of their sins. It is a natural response of humans to attack someone else when the spotlight falls on them, just to draw the attention to the other person instead. So if you live right, you will be persecuted. If you are not persecuted in any way, you have to ask yourself; “what is wrong in my relationship with God? Am. I truly saved?” Because the word tells us that we WILL be persecuted. It is not just a maybe, we will suffer. Php 1:29  For to you it is given on behalf of Christ not only to believe on Him, but also to suffer for His sake, It is given to us, a gift, to suffer. And when we do, it works a reward for us. Mathew says that anyone who loses his life for Jesus’ sake, will find it. Count it all joy when you suffer for the sake of Christ. Relationships, money, material possessions or any other thing on this earth should not be our first love, because that would make us sad to go and be with Christ when the moment comes. If Christ is our first love, treasures in heaven is our first love, we will be joyous to leave everything here behind to be in the presence of our Saviour. How is your heart today, are you willing to die, are you willing to do it joyfully? Do you really long to be with Christ, or is the fun and lusts and desires of this earth keeping you here.

When the going gets tough!

When the going gets tough





We so often get angry with God when we go through difficult times. Men wave their fists at the skies in a sign of their discontent with God. But do we understand that these tests come from God and that He has good purpose for them in our lives. If we can understand that tests serves to prove our faith, strengthen our relationships and cause us to fear God, which will cause us to sin less, then we would welcome the tests. We would love them. What did Moses say to the people of Israel? Exo 20:20  Moses said to the people, "Do not be afraid. God has come to test you, so that the fear of God will be with you to keep you from sinning." This is why God tests us. He wants us to live in a deeper, more devoted relationship with Him. We should welcome the difficult times in our lives, we should love them and we should go through them joyfully. We should know that God loves us and that He has only good things in store for us, even if they seem very bad from our perspective. Rom 8:28  And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose. All things means all things, the good and the seemingly bad. We should be happy when hardships come because we know that it works together for good. God is sovereign, God is in control and God loves us, He will not harm us. If you can believe that, then even your most troublesome times would be easy to handle. When Abraham was asked to sacrifice his son, did he argue with God or become angry or worrisome. He knew God and His love for him and therefore trusted God in what He was doing. And after the test, what did God say to Abraham? Gen 22:12  And He said, "Do not lay your hand on the lad, or do anything to him; for now I know that you fear God, since you have not withheld your son, your only son, from Me." Now I know that you fear God and fear means obedience. Oh how we should love the opportunities for our faith in God to be tested! We should live for those moments because it proves even to us that God is concerned about us, about our relationships with Him. It should prove to us that God is deepening our relationship with Him so that we can be used by Him more effectively. And that should make us glad. that should cause us to have joy about our difficult times. This is the reason why Paul was able to say that we should count it all joy when we fall in various trials and tribulations. Jas 1:2-3  My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials,  3  knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience.

How to study God's Word effectively

Study God's Word

Many people have asked me what I believe is the right way to have personal devotions. Well, I do not believe that it is a law that it has to happen early in the morning before everybody wakes up, although I do believe that it is better to have it then. When do you put petrol in your car, before the trip or afterwards? I think it is better to start your day with God, so that you can get encouragement and food for the day to make you strong. (spiritually) So time is not an issue, but my suggestion is to wake up early. We see many times in scripture that Jesus was praying early in the morning. Now, you need to get yourself some tools to be able to do a good, wholesome bible study. First you need a Bible(obviously). Any translation will do, but my suggestions are; King James Version, New King James Version and Amplified version. People complain about the King James English, but there is a new version out now, the King James Version easy Reading(KJVER). This is an excellent Bible, the most accurate translation according to the original manuscripts that make up the word of God. Please, whatever you do, stay away from the Message, that is a story book, not the Word of God! The next tool you will need is a good commentary. I suggest the John Mac Arthur Commentary on the whole Bible, the William Mac Donald Commentary for believers, Matthew Henry Commentary. The last one is written in difficult English but is a very thorough explanation and study of scripture. My personal favorite is the John Mac Arthur Commentary. There is also a more lengthy version available, which you buy book by book. This is a very good option. Buy the one for Ephesians and then only buy the next one when you move on to the next book. Lastly you would need a notebook. Be carefull of topical study, it leaves a lot of room for error. I suggest you start with a book, Ephesians is normally a good place to start. Read the Book description in the commentary to set the scene, read about the writer, the time, the social stand etc. After reading that, for the first week, read all 6 the chapters every day. Read it out loud so that you can hear what you are reading. Now, in week two start with ch1:1. Read the verse. Make notes of any thoughts or questions that come to you while reading. Now go to the commentary and read what it says about that verse. Make a summary of what it says. Go and read any cross references that appear in your bible or in the commentary. Read what the commentary says about all of those. The whole time as you are reading all of these, make notes of what is said, and what comes to mind. When you decide that you have now looked at every possible angle there is to look at for this verse, then you move to verse 2. Do not think that you are bound by time. If it takes you 10 minutes or two weeks to finish one verse, so be it. The important thing is that you must know that verse and its true meaning when you are done. The first time I was involved in a study like this on Ephesians, it took us two and a half years to finish the 6 chapters. Nothing is rushing you. I will spend about 50 mins on studying the Bible and then about 10 or 15 minutes in prayer. That is my way of doing a study early in the morning. Now I need to add, do not think that the hour in the morning is enough. I spend about two hours driving to work in the morning, which I use for listening to sermons. I normally use my lunchtime to research whatever I am blogging on this site. In the evenings I am normally occupied with preparing work for a Bible study. In between I do research on topics that interest me, I do research for a book I am trying to write. So I spend a whole lot of time in the word of God each day. it works like this, the more time you spend in it, the more you will grow and mature. Be blessed.

What do you fear?

Fear does not only come in the super-scary situations we experience, it comes in many milder yet more serious shapes and sizes. Let me give you an example. There is the fear we might experience when we are in a life and death situation, then there is the fear we have that people will make fun of us if we talk to them about God. Which is worse? We will all agree that the fear in the life and death situation is much worse than the other fear, but I say no, the other fear is the worst. Why? Well, just because the Bible warns us about this fear. Mat 10:28 And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. But rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell. See, we fear what people will think of us or do to us instead of fearing God. We fear that we might become the laughing stock at work, school or where ever we are. That means that we have not yet placed God first in our lives, we are still first, our ego, our reputations. It means that we have not yet realised how terrible the judgement of God will be. Once we realise how terrible the judgement of God will be, nothing will scare us more, and that fear will drive us to tell as many people as possible the truth about God and to be obedient to God. That fear will make all our other fears become null and void. Paul knew this, he spoke of God’s love in Ephesians and of God’s terrible judgement in 2 Corinthians 5. He knew there are two sides of God. God is not just the lovie-dovie baby Jesus that was born and now is our best friend. No, there is the other side that tells us that God is a just God and that He will judge all mankind and punish sin, cast it into hell. He is to be feared as much as He is to be loved. I believe that we have lost our fear for God in the church today. That is why churches deal so flippantly with the word, with the doctrines and all other things of God. That is why recent statistics in the USA show that the divorce rate is higher within the church than outside of it. It is time for us to start looking at the judgement of God again. We need to discover this truth again and become fearful of our God again. This will cause us to fear sin as well, which will lead to holier lives and God will be glorified through our lives.

Love yourself? Huh?

The world we live in emphasizes man and his potential. It propagates a pathetic desire for recognition, popularity and acceptance. It is so sad to hear these things being preached from pulpits worldwide. Walk into any “Christian” bookshop and you will find many titles that deal with this topic. Books like; Love yourself, The art of learning to love yourself, Self-love, the dynamite force to success fill the shelves. Everywhere we look it is all about self. Advertising campaigns are focused on letting you believe that you need their product, that you will look better with it, feel better with it, live better with it. Pastors shout out; “come to Jesus and everything will be all right.” Will it be? What does the Bible say? Well, if everything is going all right after you got saved, ask yourself; “did I really get saved?” because the word guarantee us that things will not be all right. Php 1:29 For to you it has been granted on behalf of Christ, not only to believe in Him, but also to suffer for His sake, - It was granted us, a gift, to suffer for His sake. Mat 10:22 makes this promise to us – “you will be hated for My names sake” Does this sound like the problem free life we are promised. Definitely not, but we are promised these things because it is part of the religion of self. They want us to feel good about ourselves, but we should not, we should realise that we are vile sinners in the presence of God’s holiness, that we fall short of the glory. We do not have any righteousness of our own. If it wasn’t for the righteousness of Christ that was imputed on us, God would not even be willing to look our way. Its like throwing a blanket over yourself. When someone looks at you, all they see is the blanket. But under the blanket is the real you. We are sinners, dirty rotten people, but Christ throws His righteousness over us and when God looks at us He sees Christ’s righteousness. How marvellous is that thought, how humbling. Forget about feeling good, forget about having a problem free life, only focus on the God that forgives, is merciful, is in control and loves you. Cry because of your sin daily, beg for forgiveness continuously, and thank God that He does not see you when He looks at you, but that He sees Christ.

You keep on knocking but can you come in?

So often we run into scriptures that are totally misunderstood or misrepresented. One of those scriptures I recently ran into was Rev 3:20. We so often hear this verse quoted, and then explained in a way which does this verse no justice, especially not if you compare it with the rest of scripture. See, the usual explanation for this scripture is that God stands at the door of the heart of the sinner and knocks, hoping that you might open for Him, begging you to open. This is not what this verse is saying at all. We cannot take verses out of their context and make up our own belief system from them, because then our belief system will also be faulty. We cannot worship God in Spirit and truth, if our perception of the truth is based on a misrepresentation of truth. Then we have a false gospel. So what does this verse actually teach. Let us first put this verse into context. This scripture was written to the luke-warm Christians at Laodicea. It was not written to the unsaved. They were being reprimanded about the fact that they are luke-warm. There were areas in their lives that were not completely surrendered to God. He wanted to take over their whole lives, not just parts of it. So He was not knocking at the doors of the hearts of unsaved people, hoping they will invite Him in, He was knocking on the doors of the hearts of Christians, hoping they will completely surrender to Him. God wants us to surrender to Him, He wants us to be obedient to the spirit and to allow Him to control every part of our being. This verse cannot mean that it is God that knocks on the unsaved person’s heart, because the rest of scripture tells us that God does not need an invite to save someone, He saves who He wants to save. It is not about us deciding to serve Him, but about Him deciding to whom He will show mercy. It is not because of man’s will that we are saved, but because of God’s grace. Rom 9:15-16 For He says to Moses, "I will have mercy on whomever I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whomever I will have compassion." So then it is not of him who wills, nor of him who runs, but of God who shows mercy. – Before this world was made, God already wrote our names in the book of life. Because He wrote our names in there, we have to be saved because everything that God says must happen. He cannot lie. Eph 1:4-5 just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love, 5 having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will, - It does not matter whether you want to believe it or not, it is in the word of God, hundreds of verses, that tells us that God saves because He chose. After he saved us He stands at the door of our hearts knocking to gain complete control of every area of our lives. He is a just and merciful God, He is a sovereign and powerful God and He does whatever He pleases here on earth. Even when Jesus prays, He only prays for certain people, not the whole world. Joh 17:9 I pray for them. I do not pray for the world but for those whom You have given Me, for they are Yours. It is important that we get our belief system right. When you read the Bible right, then suddenly the words “I found Jesus” do not make sense anymore. How can you find Jesus if Rom 3:10 tells us that no man on this planet is looking for Him. The Bible does not make mistakes and does not contradict itself, yet the belief systems we create do. Let us be good Bereans and search the scriptures to make sure what we believe is actually what the Word teaches.

What color is heaven?

We live in a society where racism is still rampant. Although it was abolished on paper, it is in the hearts and minds of people where we struggle to get rid of it. When I was young, I was the second in charge of the AWB in the Namaqualand region. When I got saved later on, this was one of the first things God sorted out in my life. Our bodies are just temporary transport while we are here on earth. Once we die it will go to the ground and rot. When Jesus comes again we will receive our glorified bodies, but we have no idea what that will look like. So our bodies are not lasting and therefore not important. What matters is our spirits. If we believe that Christianity is for whites only, we will get a big surprise when we get to the gates of heaven one day. Acts 8:27 onwards talks about an Ethiopian man that got saved and baptized. He was a eunuch, and basically second in charge of his country. If we read the history books, as written by people like Josephus, we would find that this man took the gospel to his country and many people were saved because of his work. So here we have a black man that became one of the first missionaries. Surprise surprise, he is going to be in the same heaven as you and me, and to top it all of he might even receive more crowns than us because of the work he did for Christ. According to me there is only one type of racism that is biblical and that is the separation between the saved and the world. We are in the world but not of the world. I am not speaking of the people of the world, it is the things of the world that I am speaking about. We should not be partakers of the things people in the world do, but the people themselves, we should have compassion on them because of their lost state. So the racism I am talking about is really between sinfulness and holiness. Between light and darkness. Once we get saved there is no difference between color, class or sex. We are all one in Christ. In whose image were we created? In God’s image. so who’s image do we despise if we despise another man? God’s. How scary is that thought for all confessing Christians who claim to love God but cannot love a black man? We can say whatever we want, but the word does not lie. The word says Act 17:26 And He has made from one blood every nation of men to dwell on all the face of the earth, and has determined their preappointed times and the boundaries of their dwellings. He made us all from one blood, so the same blood that is flowing through the black man is the same blood that flows through me. and this is not the only verse that deals with this. Mal 2:10 Have we not all one Father? Has not one God created us? Why do we deal treacherously with one another By profaning the covenant of the fathers? If you are a true Christian, there is no space or place for racism in your life. Racism is hatred, and we are told to love even our enemies. We still find many churches that would not allow blacks into their services, yet the word says that if you do not love your brother, you do not love God. But I guess it is easier for us to rather ignore certain parts of scripture than to break through the boundaries of our comfort zones. Bottom line, heaven does not have a color. We are supposed to love all.

When evil strikes, what should I do?

Living in South Africa, with all its crime and corruption, it is very hard to grasp what the Word expects of us in these situations. I am not going to try to go into an in-depth theological study of the matter, but I am going to say what I believe the basic teaching in scripture is. before I explain, let me give you the punch line – Love your enemies. That’s it. It sounds easy, but when you get down to the nitty-gritty of the matter it is not. What should I do, or who should I be when robbers enter my house and hold my family at gunpoint? What should I do if they decide to rape one of my daughters or my wife? I really do not have exact answers, but I can tell you what the Word says. Firstly I believe that we are not really permitted to become physical. 1Pe 3:9 not returning evil for evil or reviling for reviling, but on the contrary blessing, knowing that you were called to this, that you may inherit a blessing. We should not repay evil with evil. By fighting back or becoming physical, are we turning the other cheek? Are we loving? Are we blessing those who curse us? Rom 12:20-21 Therefore "If your enemy is hungry, feed him; If he is thirsty, give him a drink; For in so doing you will heap coals of fire on his head." 21 Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good. – Is it clear enough? We should be good to those who overcome us with evil. Now this is a lot easier said than done, where do we get the power to do something like this? There are a whole lot of different views we can take on this matter. Let me give some examples. Firstly, what is God’s main plan? To draw sinners unto Himself. Who does He use to do that? Us, the church, the believers. So if you become physical or retaliate, how are your actions drawing that sinner closer to God. Secondly, we say God s sovereign. What does that mean? It means God is in complete control of every action, every thought, every circumstance every second of every day. God is in control of the spider making its web behind the cupboard and God is in control of the black hole swallowing whole solar systems. Nothing, absolutely nothing happens outside of His perfect plan and nothing catches Him by surprise. So, if God is truly sovereign, then that robber is also under God’s control, and nothing can happen to me that is outside of God’s perfect plan. So why would I rather retaliate than trust in God? Did He not open the seas for the Israelites when the Egyptians were chasing them? Did He not give army after army into their hands when they entered the promised land? Has He not always taken care of His people? Why should this be any different? Does God change? No, even in a situation like this I can trust and rely on Him, nothing can remove me from His love. Rom 8:35-37 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? 36 As it is written: "For Your sake we are killed all day long; We are accounted as sheep for the slaughter." 37 Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. I am not going to go on and on about this, I believe it is clear. We should love our enemies, we should turn the other cheek, we should not repay evil with evil, we should act in such a way that our enemies might meet God.

Through gold-refining fires

To get gold to its purest state you have to melt it over immense heat. All the nonsense then comes to the top and can be scraped off. What stays behind is 24 carat gold. This is the same thing that happens to us as Christians. We are refined by fire. All of life’s trials, tribulations and circumstances is that fire. As we go through the fire, all the nonsense comes to the top. It is in the midst of trials and tribulations that we can see where we truly stand in our relationship with Christ. In each situation we have 2 choices. Will I be obedient to God’s word or will I be disobedient? See, a trial is not a temptation, no, it is a test from God, to prove your character and to show you what your character is. It is only when we decide not to obey God’s word in that situation, that the trial turned into a temptation. To not obey is a sin, so the trial was there before you, you thought about it and chose the “easy” way out. Satan tempts us. The moment you start wondering about doing the thing which you know is not right, the trial turned into a temptation and you now have to resist the devil in that temptation. But trials in themselves are good for us, we should welcome them and not try to pray them away. Jas 1:2-4 My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, 3 knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience. 4 But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing. see also 1Pe 1:6-7 In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while, if need be, you have been grieved by various trials, 7 that the genuineness of your faith, being much more precious than gold that perishes, though it is tested by fire, may be found to praise, honor, and glory at the revelation of Jesus Christ, If we allow the trials to do what they need to do to us, if we respond in a godly way to them, we will be made perfect and not lacking anything. That is why we should count it all joy. I do not care how hard or tuff the trial seems, we should know that our God is in control of everything and therefore we do not have to worry about a thing. Rom 8:28 And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose. See, ALL things work together for good for those who love Christ, we must just get this truth through our skulls and believe it. Is there proof, of course there is. Let me show you – We know the story about Joseph. His brothers wanted to kill him and in the end just sold him to slave traders. this was an evil thing to do, especially towards your own flesh and blood. Do you for one moment think that God was not ruling the situation, that God was not in complete control. God was in complete control because this was His plan. What men were doing was evil, but according to God’s plan it all worked out for good. God wanted to save a whole nation from starvation. Look at what Joseph says to his brothers when he was finally reunited with them. Gen 50:20 But as for you, you meant evil against me; but God meant it for good, in order to bring it about as it is this day, to save many people alive. So, when the next trial comes your way, smile, ask what God’s word wants you to do and do it. Be obedient. Consider trials as blessings, not as something bad happening to you, it is something good happening to you. And believe me, trials will come. If you are not experiencing difficulties as a Christian, chances are that you are not really a Christian. Php 1:29 For to you it has been granted on behalf of Christ, not only to believe in Him, but also to suffer for His sake,

Are we wasting time?

Eph 5:15-16 See then that you walk circumspectly, not as fools but as wise, 16 redeeming the time, because the days are evil.

In our time the world has gone absolutely mad with entertainment. Everywhere you go, everything you look at, all of it has been optimised to entertain us. Television is probably one of the biggest culprits. these little magic boxes keeps the average man busy for hours everyday. Kids do not play outside anymore and do not learn to develop their imaginations, everything is done for them. We have to be careful how we spend our time. If you show me where you spend your time, I can tell you where your heart is. It is not a matter of only watching good clean shows, the fact is that even that good clean show is keeping you away from the work of God. I think the Americans have perfected the art of entertainment. We are quickly catching up with them here in South Africa. People go to movies, sporting events, rock shows, DVD rentals, basically anything that can keep them entertained for a while. And all of these are timewasters. The word says that we should walk wisely, being mindful of the time. So we have to do stock take, how much time are we spending with all the other stuff each day and how much time are we spending with God? Everything you watch and listen to everyday influences your way of thinking. Whatever you allow to go into you is what will influence your heart. If you spend 4 hours a night watching TV, then you should spend 5 hours a day in the Word, to make sure that is the main influence in your thought patterns. All of us are called to spread the gospel, when last did you seriously investigate a piece of scripture and shared it with others? We do not have time to waste. Someone once asked me; “If you knew you had 24 hours left to live. what would you do?”. I answered that I will get a car with huge speakers on top of the roof and that I will drive through the worst neighbourhoods preaching the gospel. His next question was; “So what stops you from doing that now” That is the question, what is stopping us from doing these things now? Is it TV, Movies, Music, Friends, Sports or even debt? Examine your life, get rid of the timewasters and work, slave yourself for Christ.

What is in a name?

Phil 2:9 Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name:

Have you ever wondered how we can be sure that the God we serve is the one and only true God. How do we know for sure that the whole Bible was not just created from the imaginations of men? I mean, the Muslims have the Koran, is that not just a similar book, written by men. There are many things that might serve as evidence for us, but I want to look at the name for today. In the verse for today we see that God gave Jesus a name that is above all other names. As we read through scripture we will see that we baptize in His name, we speak in His name, we heal in His name, we testify of His name, we do things for His name's sake, we pray in His name and the list goes on. There is definitely something about the name of Jesus. It is truly the name above all other names. Now here is the part that convinces me that the God we serve is the one and only true God (not that this is the only thing that convinces me). When we listen to people around us and on TV and movies talk, what is the one name they all use. The name of Jesus. If Satan is at war with someone, it would probably be the true God. Why would he waste his time by fighting a false god, one of his own creations. You never hear anybody using the name of Buddha or Allah in vain. No, it is always the name of Jesus. Now Satan knows the Word and he knows that there is power in the name of Jesus, and that is why he wants to make it so common that it would be powerless. He wants all of us to use it because he knows the Word says we may not use it in vain. That is my proof, the fact that the devil is only attacking this one name. The fact that there is no other name in this universe that bothers him. Let us bring honor to the name above all names by the way we live, the way we speak, the way we act. You are called a Christian, that means a follower of Christ, live everyday to bring honor to the one you are supposed to be following.

Are we testifying or storytelling?

Php 3:13 I do not consider, brethren, that I have captured and made it my own [yet]; but one thing I do [it is my one aspiration]: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead,

So many times I hear people give testimonies. They tell of who they were before God saved them, they talk of the bad things they have done, the misspent lives they lived. Normally these stories are told without any scriptures connected to it. What bothers me about this is that they call it “testifying”. This is not testifying. Testifying is when we tell people about the wonderful works of God. When we compare our lives to the wonderful things that God has done, our lives are not even worth mentioning. We “testify” with the hope that it would draw people closer to God, but I dare say that if that “testimony” does not include scripture, it cannot fulfil that purpose. Paul says he forgets what is behind, should we not do the same, and by telling people who you were, is that not remembering over and over what is behind? Why do I say that if you tell your story and there is no scripture with it, it is useless? It is nothing more than a story and has no power whatsoever to draw anybody closer to God. It can do nothing more for the hearer than stirring their emotions for a short while. There are no lasting spiritual affects. To prove my point, we need to look at what is it that causes lives to change. Is it interesting stories about other people’s lives that cause us to become God’s children, or is it something else? Well, according to scripture it is something else. 2 Tim 3:15 says that it is the Word that makes us wise unto salvation. 1 Cor 1:21 says that it pleased God to save people by the foolishness of preaching. Rom 10:17 says that faith comes by hearing the Word of God. I think scripture is pretty clear on the fact that no man will be saved if he did not hear scripture. Acts 1:8, 1:22, 4:33 and 1 Pet 5:1 speaks of people giving witness or a testimony and not one of them mention themselves, they speak of the Lord Jesus Christ and His suffering and resurrection. So when we testify, do not play around with it, make it worthwhile, testify about Christ, not about your past. In Acts 2 the people heard the men speak about the wonderful things of God and many were saved. Let us stop focussing on ourselves and draw people’s attention to a wonderful, loving, merciful God

We are like the Cedars of Lebanon

Psa 104:16 The trees of Jehovah are full, the cedars of Lebanon which He has planted;

We as Christians are like the Cedars of Lebanon. God has planted each one of us. No man who follows Christ is doing so because of his own will, but only because God wanted it so. Rom 3:10 says that no man seeks after God, and therefore no man can find God. It is God who seeks us out and then brings us to life and places us in right standing with Himself. In this whole process there is nothing that we do ourselves. Even our repentance unto salvation is a gift from God. Rom 6:23 For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. The Cedars of Lebanon are not watered by any man, and they are growing on rocks. In like manner God waters us and cause us to grow, as we too are firmly planted upon the rock. It is God’s grace that saves us, even when we were His enemies and it is God’s grace that causes us to grow in Him. It is God’s grace that keeps us until we die or Jesus comes back, and even then we will experience God’s grace as He releases us from the bondage of this earthly sinful nature, these corrupted bodies. We have so much to be thankful for. Rejoice in the Lord for He is good. Live lives that show the joy of your salvation clearly to those around you. God is glorified and honoured most when we are satisfied in Him.

Let the pigs run off the cliff

I was reading that scripture today in Math 8:30-33 where Jesus chased the demons out of the one guy and they went into the pigs, which caused the pigs to run over the cliff. I started thinking about this and my train of thought went in a whole other direction in the end. We entertain sin in our lives and it is causing us to go over the cliff. The reward for sin is death and if we entertain sin, it is death that we will reap. The real question should probably be; “why do we see so many Christians today who are caught up in wrongful things? Why do so many Christians look the same as the world? Why is there no distinction?” We are called to be separate from the world, to be a peculiar people, to be different, but we aren’t. Why? Well, my personal opinion is this. Society has camouflaged sin. Over the years the devil has been very successful in hiding sin. If sin is not recognized, then sin do not have to be dealt with. So let me share with you how he has been doing this. We have been giving sin nice names so that it is not sin anymore. If it is not sin, we do not have to deal with it. We do not have to get rid of it. We do not have to send it over the cliff.

James 1:2 says that we should count it all joy when we fall into trials and tribulations. The beatitudes in Math 5 says that the people of God will be blessed, that means completely happy. There is no reason for any Christian to be unhappy. Luke 6:22-23 says you must leap for joy when things are going bad. Are we? Are we as happy as the Word tells us to be? No we are not. We see people committing suicide because life got to hard for them. We see people drinking pills to deal with depression. If the Word tells us that we should be happy when it is going bad, then it means we should be even happier when things are going well. So we are being disobedient to the Word when we are always moping around and feeling bad, and we call it depression. By calling it depression, we can drink a Prozac instead of repenting. We can get counseling instead of begging for forgiveness. We have an illness instead of sin. So we try to deal with it in a worldly fashion, instead of taking it to a merciful God. Being happy is a command, so it is a choice, not an emotional state. Renew your mind!

Gal 5:23 says that self-control is one of the fruits of the Spirit. 2 Tim 1:7 says that God did not give us a Spirit of fear but of self-control. So a lack of self-control is a sin. But we go and call a lack of self-control an addiction. In that way we have a disease. We need help and we go to AA meetings, we use nicotine patches, we go to rehab, we do anything to deal with the “illness”, but we forget that we actually need to deal with the sin.

And so we can go on and on and on. Sin has been camouflaged and we are falling for it. Greed and materialism are called prosperity and is preached in nearly all of our modern day churches. Idol worship is called religion by the Roman Catholics. We watch movies with revenge instead of forgiveness, hate rather than love, we laugh at sinful acts and call it comedy instead of renewing our minds by not filling it with these things. By watching it, laughing at it and calling it entertainment, we condone it and we should not. We are in the world but not of the world. We should be different, not partakers, but shining lights in a dark and desperate world.

What are the sins in your life called? Are they camouflaged? Do you care for the pigs in your life? make a choice today to chase them over the cliff so that God might be honored and glorified through your life. If God is honored here on earth He will draw people to Himself through us. Do you not want to be used by God?