Tired, frustrated, think you can’t win? You are not alone!

To be a Christian, by nature is to struggle and oppose. We not only oppose the physical, spiritual and moral, but also everything in the world. This struggle is continuous and has no rest. Be vigil for even when no person is present to test you; the old nature that from within is the subtlest of enemies. How tiresome is our struggle, how constant the battle. Truly we are our biggest enemy, continually putting obstacles in our own paths. It is for this reason we must search within and ask the question, how are we to prevail? The truth is we cannot. We are lost. Insufficient. And nothing we can gather, nothing we do and nothing we achieve will change this fact. Only one has the victory of life, only one the key to true freedom for the flesh, he who died and rose again for us all.

 

Do not despair, for true joy is possible. Imagine not being affected by negativity, that guy in traffic, you know the one, even your boss. It is possible to find this peace and claim this calm. The joy we seek is the song to which my heart yearns to sing. Only one thing will satisfy, only one choice is right, to claim his peace is easy and his burden is light. Surrender your will, your worry and concerns. Trade them for a new spirit, his righteousness and glory he earns. Call on the name of Jesus, give him control. Say goodbye to the old life; for it is enough, sin has taken its toll.

A Lesson in Humility

I just realized today that I have crushed this months quota and will close up the best month I have ever had as a Sales person at my current company. My first reaction was to let out a resounding yop like in the movie, The Dead Poets Society. That was until I realized that perhaps doing so might bring down those around me who are not doing so well. With that thought sinking into my mind I also realized that some might think it sheer luck and not what it truly is, a blessing from God. And now that I have this renewed and corrected perspective, I know that the glory is his alone. The Bible states to him be all the glory and for good reason, for James 1:17 mentions that all good things comes from the Father of Lights. This understanding should have been at the forefront of my mind and my first reaction. To my shame it was not, but to my joy I said nothing to anyone in the office and therefore did not supplant his praise for my own except in my mind. I now have the honour and privilege of telling the correct reason for my good fortune should someone ask, I have been but blessed by a gracious Lord and that with each blessing I pray a new sense and understanding of humility will accompany it.

Whose First in God's line?

Last night was the first night back for the community connections ministry after the Christmas break and I was eager to see and talk with the people we serve in the Chester le area. The evening started off quite well, the bus was loaded quickly, we had a large amount of food, and the weather was not to cold at the time. We arrive at our distribution location and had many volunteers to service on this evening; every thing looked like it was going to be a banner evening and a nice start back to the ministry. That was until an argument broke out between a few ladies in the line, about who was where and when and in what order in the line. Despite several attempts to calm things down, two of these ladies seemed to be more than happy to be in each other’s space and face. Now to give you a perspective of how things normally go, the clients we deal with, line up perhaps an hour or so before we get there and some of them simply leave their buggies in their “spot.” There is no way for us to make a judgement about who was there first except to see their current positions in the line up.

We finally got things settled down but this is not the first time that this issue of who was there first has occurred. On this particular occurrence; a gentlemen waiting in the line also tried to bring some perspective to the ladies, by reminding them that we were volunteers only trying to bless them with free food, even though we came from a different religion than some of those we were serving. This statement gave me a new train of thought for a subject that has been at forefront of my mind lately, which is, Christianity and the behaviour among the believers.

I mean the perfect example of what is happening within the Church, happened last night in the line up. We Christians, like our clients have been invited to partake of a free gift. We all have been asked to act properly and wait on the returning of our Lord, and each one of us in the line are no better or worse than the other and yet we still fight one against the other. Just as ridiculous as the argument was in the line last night, the same applies for all of us Christians who put down and cry foul at one another. None of us deserve to be in God’s line and yet he called us from his servant heart, by way of Jesus Christ to come and dine and reside with him.

So the question I have to ask myself is, am I applying the same ruling to my life as to those in the line? Am I remaining calm and treating those around me with same respect? Am I hurling insults at others in the line? Good questions to ask oneself and better to always keep in my mind.

Salvation is a gift of freedom and since I remain in the line, as do others, my only two actions should be to wait for and honour the host by loving those who wait with me. The only one qualified to judge, reorganize the line or even send someone away is the one handing out the gift of Salvation, Christ himself.

Adam and Me

Last night I went to the first 2012 Wednesday night Meeting Place, a mid week sermon at my home church APC. Pastor Keith Preston was teaching on the topic, the fall of man from the book of Genesis, and some of his thoughts and insights triggered or rather resonated with in me new wells of truth. His teaching truly ignited a new vigor to my craving for the word and in particular the understanding of the original sin. As I sat seemingly isolated and targeted by this message, my mind was flood with many new truths and understandings of the story of Adam and here are some of my thoughts.

The story of Adam is a picture and description of the fall of all mankind. And it has been said that to truly understand who you are you must also understand your origins. Adam was the first of our kind to ever walk on the face of the Earth and to even know that God existed and because he was made perfectly there was a time when he walked with God in perfect harmony and obedience. God at that time was to Adam, his creator, his source of information, his wealth of truth and knowledge, in all aspects his father and teacher. I can picture it now in my mind’s eye Adam strolling in the newly created garden asking question after question, some of those question I am sure have continued through our bloodline and still resound within us today.

Now to that sad part, God in his infinite wisdom created the tree of the knowledge of good and evil a physical manifestation of the single choice given to man, to obey or not to obey. That my dear reader is the only question that God has ever put to him and to us, nothing else matters. Some may have noticed by now that I have left out Eve and I will continue to do so simply because I see them as one entity for the purpose of my study and observations. So back to the tree, I am sure that most of us know what happens next, man takes the forbidden fruit, his eyes are opened, he experiences shame, he experiences sin and now death is introduced to his life and a separation between man and God begins.

One of the observations that Pastor Preston mentioned was that this decision no matter which choice Adam and Eve would make would result in knowledge, obedience would have brought with it the reward of the knowledge of good and we know that the choice of disobedience brought the knowledge of evil. This same choice can be found each day in our very own lives, obedience to God is a choice that has never gone away. And this truth is what rocked me to the core, the sin of my forefather, the sin of Adam was and is the root of all of my sin today. Now I am not saying it is Adam’s fault with that statement, just that all the sin in the world and in my own life exists because of my own disobedience to the command of God. Adams and my sin are exactly the same.

Just like Adam, I have a choice. I too live in God’s once perfect creation that continues to be corrupted and changed through each new generation advancing further away from the creators once comment, “and he saw that it was good.” Now the second thing that resounded in my mind is that just like Adam & Eve there is a snake whispering doubt and lies to me, telling me that I to can be like unto the most high. Remember what he told Eve in Genesis 3:4-5 And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die: For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil. This same doubt, this same shifting of Gods boundaries and intentional misinterpretation of God’s word and command, was and is still at it most stripped down form, the oldest lie in the book. And when we choose to believe his lies, we are substituting Satan for God in the role of teacher, friend, and father. This concept sent me reeling and gave new meaning to John 8:44 Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it. Revelation 12:9 And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him.

So I guess the biggest question is, what do I do with this knowledge? And so I started to think about Jesus and God’s redemptive plan. I mean if the question is obedience don’t we have to look toward the one who came to the Earth and lived as Adam and we should as the ultimate example. Jesus was obedient unto death, read Philippians 2:8 And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. This is why I think we are called to follow him, time and time again Jesus mentions to those he is preaching and teaching, “follow me.” I checked it out on www.Biblegateway.com and the New Testament is pepper with these words of Jesus, no wonder he said I am the way, the truth and the life. Because aside from obedience to God there is no way, Jesus alone is perfect. But the good news is, he died for the sins of the world and he alone accomplished all this through one act, and that act was obedience.

Now that I have established again that Jesus is my only example, my redeemer, my salvation I must look to him also for living life while I am still here in the corrupted world, with all of my flaws and sin. I want to be reconciled to God and since Jesus is the only one who knows the way, why would I follow anyone else’s advice or direction. And so I once again look for his example and just like the “follow me” command I also find another just as prolific.

Matthew 10:38 And he that taketh not his cross, and followeth after me, is not worthy of me.

Matthew 16:24 Then said Jesus unto his disciples, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.

Mark 8:34 And when he had called the people unto him with his disciples also, he said unto them, Whosoever will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.

Luke 9:23-26 And he said to them all, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me.  For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: but whosoever will lose his life for my sake, the same shall save it. For what is a man advantaged, if he gain the whole world, and lose himself, or be cast away? For whosoever shall be ashamed of me and of my words, of him shall the Son of man be ashamed, when he shall come in his own glory, and in his Father's, and of the holy angels.

Luke 14:27 And whosoever doth not bear his cross, and come after me, cannot be my disciple.

And with this knowledge, I once again realize that the choice is simple, I must keep a perspective that is true and not let my vision be narrowed to the things I am commanded to avoid but rejoice in that which the father has provided, the greatest of which is my example, my Friend, my Salvation and my Jesus, my King and Saviour. I must follow him and his example, which involves taking up my cross daily, dying to self and submitting to Jesus and the Holy Spirit and allowing his will to reign in my life in place of my own. To him be all the Glory and Honour and Praise. Amen