Do I have to lose hope?

Sometimes when we go through difficult periods in our life, we ask:  "why me?", "why is God letting this happen?"  The answer to these questions is that we are created to honour God and not the other way around.  Whilst we go through tough times, He wants us to learn certain lessons from it.  The question should rather be:  "am I willing to learn what God wants to teach me or am I going to rebel against what is happening in my life and miss out on the lesson?"  The purpose of difficult periods in our lives is created by God to force us to leave the things of the flesh behind and rather to proceed in the things of the Spirit.  Let's see what we need to do during these difficult times:

Col. 4:2-6 (not quoted).  Be earnest towards such periods, persevere in prayer and be diligent in a continuous manner.  Pray for grace to help you to submit to the lesson which God wants you to learn and for grace to overcome this problem.  Walk in wisdom and continually give thanks to God by giving your time to Him (e.g. doing bible study on your own, even if it is 10 min.)  The seasoning used for answering others should be based in that that opposes sin and preserve from corruption thereof.

Totally new

When Jesus died on the cross for us, all our sins were nailed on the cross with Him.  Jesus took man's place to save him in order to restore the relationship with God the Father.  His blood was shed to wash us clean from our sins. 

It is our choice to choose between right and wrong, being obedient or being disobedient to the guidelines of His Word, to sin or not to sin, etc.  He gave us the freedom of choice but with that the responsibility to make the correct choice or to live with the consequences of our bad choices.  God tells us in His Word that we are a new creature when we are born in the Spirit and this happens only through believing in Jesus Christ.  However this "rebirth" is not out of blood, nor the will of man or the will of the flesh.  You are seen for who you are now (today), not what you did or who you were.  Jesus wants to set you free from your past, all you have to do is to repent your sins before Him.  Remember He didn't come for the righteous but for those who have not received Him as their Lord and Saviour, you are precious to Him. 

Gal. 5:1:  "It was for freedom that Christ set us free"

Are you on your way to your own funeral?

Luke 7:11 tells us the story of a widow whose son passed away and they were busy carring the courpse in a coffin to the funeral.  Jesus and His disciples were on their way to this city (Nain) and as He entered saw this sad scene.  His timing was perfect

He  was moved with pity for her and walked in the direction of the coffin.  When He was next to the coffin, He touched it and command the dead body of the boy to sit up.  The dead boy then sat up and began to talk.  He gave life in death to this boy.

After reading this, are you sure that you may not be on your way to your own funeral? Being in bitterness, be hateful towards others, be angry at someone, unforgiving towards someone, maybe you are engaged in a relationship which is wrong in the eyes of God, maybe lust or dissipation, always seek the acceptance of men instead of God, or maybe you value your possessions and money more than God.  I want to tell you that it is never too late, His heart is crying for you and He want to tell you to stop now and make the correct choice.  Leave behind whatever it is that you are busy with, renounce your sins and be free in Him.  Can you see that you are already in that coffin, Jesus is telling you to get up and to live.  It is never too late, His timing is always perfect. 

The presence of evil in this world

Sin and death are direct consequences of the disobedience of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden.  We inherited the consequences of their sin as the earth is a sinful place as a result of their disobedience. 

The Greek word for plans is inner intentions/inner thoughts.  What Satan does is he wants us to believe the lies of his inner intention/inner thoughts.  He came to mislead, create lies, to keep people in ignorance and to dominate, manipulate and intimidate God's people.  By choosing to live in ignorance and denial God's people are being destroyed by Satan as he infiltrates their lives unknowingly.  Satan wants to create doubt in your mind as he is the enemy of peace.  It is his intention to confuse you.  He runs his campaign by first starting to tempt you.  When he accomplishes that, the next step for his is to deceit you.  Once he deceived you he will start accusing you.  What you need to do is to take every thought captive to the obedience of Christ and the Holy Spirit of God that indwells you, will guide you into the truth.  Ownership is never at stake but your daily victory is.

Eph. 6:12 "Our struggle is not against flesh and blood (people), but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places."

PS:  Please pray for Sandy to be set free on Friday the 10th of February 2012.