He is the only One

Jesus claimed to be sinless, to have never committed a sin. If any of the founders of the world religions had claimed that they would have been laughed out of existence. Jesus is the only sinless Man who ever lived.

Idols take the place of Jesus

The danger of spiritual hero idols, for true Christians, is that these are designed to take the place of Jesus as Mediator to God. The idol begins to have a higher place in their consciousness than Jesus does.

Enough Proof

God put an end to all religious or spiritual theories and conjectures by declaring Jesus to be His Son, by His perfect, sinless life, by His perfect love and mercy, by healing the sick, the blind, the paralyzed, by raising the dead and casting out demons, by His obedience to the death of the Cross, and by raising Jesus from the dead. That’s enough proof. Don’t ask for more proof than that.

Audio Bible

While i was traveling back to Shillong i was listening to the Audio Bible (KJV) Genesis and Exodus, and was transfixed. To me, this is the ultimate, to listen to God’s Word. While i would normally find the KJV hard to read i found it very easy to listen to and powerful, a different dynamic than reading. And kept backing up and hearing portions again and again until it sunk in. These are a great tool. My wife has been using it in the mornings and i’ve always been blessed by listening in.

Never forget

Seventy years since the liberation of Auschwitz – a reminder that something is still terminally wrong with the human race – that not very far beneath the “thin veneer of civilization” lurks a race of savages, and that evil exists as a very real spiritual force in the world, and a reminder that man never learns.

Questions to ask

Does it agree with the general tenor of Scripture? Is it something the Apostles would have given a hearty Amen to? Asking questions like these is how we test all things and hold fast to what is good.

Shallow waters

During a drought the river becomes shallow, and during a spiritual drought people become shallow.

How great is He?

What do you think about the fact that God knows every person in the world by name and knows everything they think, say and do? He is very great.

Worship or run

So, what do you think about the fact that God knows everything you are thinking and the deepest intentions of your heart? Does this fact make you want to worship Him or run from Him?

What is normal?

If you walk in the Spirit then the throne of God is real to you and the things of heaven normal to you, but if you walk according to the flesh then the things of the world are normal to you and more real to you than the things of heaven.

Don’t try and conform Him to you

Let’s not drag Jesus down to our level but rise up to His by the grace of God. Let’s be conformed to Him, and not conform Him to us.

Two keys

Two keys which can change your family and bring the fragrance of Christ in your home: Discipline yourself to spend quality time alone before the Father every morning, and take off the mask and be real.

Victory

Victory is the outcome of standing by faith thru trials. The greater the trial, the greater the victory, the greater the glory in Jesus.

Getting leavened

The risk of watching Christian TV is that you could become as fake and as shallow as them and not know it. A little leaven leavens the whole lump. This is the greatest challenge facing Christians in the last days, that we would become salt which has lost its flavor while thinking we have “arrived”, that narcissism gradually replaces character until character is lost. Can the salt make itself salty again after it has lost its flavor? Jesus said, no.

Our life takes the shape of our prayer life

Over time our life takes the shape of our prayer life, and our fellowship with the members of the body of Christ takes the shape of our prayers for them. As we have prayed faithfully for others over years, accordingly will our relationships be, for laboring in prayer for others is the essence of Christ’s love manifest, and He makes His love manifest and establishes true, lasting relationships on this foundation.

We are commanded

We are commanded… Humans sometimes object to being commanded. If we object to being commanded by Jesus Christ it’s cos we don’t have a clue who He is and how He loved us even to the death of the cross.

We will stand right there

Have a read of Revelation chapter 4 and think that very soon you will be taken up thru that same open door and stand right where John stood and see with your own eyes what John saw. This is reality.

The two great issues in Christendom

In my opinion there are essentially two great issues within the Christian world. One is concerning the great divide or barrier between those who are filled with the Holy Spirit and those who aren’t, and the other is concerning those who claim to be filled with the Holy Spirit and yet are deceived.

Convinced about 1 Cor. 14?

A letter to a brother:

My own testimony is that when the Lord saved me i was in a “normal”
church for 2 years (Rhema and then AOG) and had become a worship
leader. I was preaching on the streets and a bro came up to me and
became my friend and kept inviting me to a house church. I told him
the concept could never work in practicality, but he kept pestering
me so i went with him, and by that evening i was convinced the
pattern works cos i saw it with my own eyes.

Yes, it would have been better if i had instantly believed what the
Scriptures had to say about it, but there was still a lot of the
influence of my flesh – pragmatism : “If it gets results, it’s good”.

You would be most welcome to observe how we meet as equals and have
participatory meetings, and also, by His grace, you could simply take
1 Cor. 14 at face value and begin to teach and encourage obedience to
these apostolic commands.

I think a key to this is to reconcile the present day concept of
formal and informal. Christians have been moulded by other forces
and by a lack of real personal relationship with the Lord to associate
holy with formal, and worldly with informal: a compartmentalizing of
their life. They can’t countenance that we can be truly spiritual and
serious in an informal setting, in the normal day to day setting of
life. Hence, most people are “frozen” in church, and this is normal.
They adhere to an unBiblical concept of divine order and what holiness
means.

Closer than your heart?

If Christ dwells in your heart by faith, what does this mean for your heart, and, hence, for your life? Could there be anything closer, more central, more immediate or more personal than your own heart?