The Titles of Jesus

Confucius has said, “The beginning of wisdom is the ability to call things by their right names”. There is an importance of calling someone by their correct name. One can call me Kurt, Pastor Kurt, Petty Officer 1^st Class Arnold, Mr. Arnold or even the Meeple Man and I will respond in kind as knowing my name provides a way of connection.

Jesus had many names or titles that he used and those who wrote about him used them. These names all have a prominent place in understanding the nature of Jesus, his humanity and his divinity. The most popular title that Jesus used was Son of Man, used eighty-six times in the New Testament. Jesus tended to use it alongside other names such as Messiah (Bock, 894). Examples include;

• No one has ever gone to heaven and returned. But the Son of Man has come down from heaven. John 3:13
• “Listen to me and remember what I say. The Son of Man is going to be betrayed into the hands of his enemies.” Matthew 17:22

The name Son of Man relates Jesus to his humanity and how he has fully human, experiencing life as a man, but as fully God able to portray authority that is beyond any man before or after him.

Another name is Son of God. Although Jesus never used this title for himself, we must see that he continually referred to God as his Father. The church has taken this as the affirmation that Jesus is the Son of God. Mark and Matthew both understand this “divine sonship in terms of obedience to the will of God” (Winn, 891).

• This is the Good News about Jesus the Messiah, the Son of God. Mark 1:1
• Simon Peter answered, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God”. Matthew 16:16

Jesus has also been bestowed the titles of Son of David, Alpha and Omega, the Word and so many more. Fifty different titles have been attributed to this one man. Each and everyone could fill a blogger’s feed for a very long time, exploring and connecting how these titles are referenced in the Old Testament.  What we need to understand as believers today is that each and every one of these names play a role in connecting people to Jesus. They each define a characteristic of the man, the divine and how intricate his work on earth and beyond truly is. Understanding how to call Jesus with the correct name is the beginning of wisdom.

Jesus, we have so many different names that we can attribute to you. Counsellor, Prince of Peace, Sheppard, each and every name holds a place in our hearts. Help us as readers of your word to recognize the importance of each of these titles. Let their importance shape our hearts in such a way that we know when to use each title when we are conversing with you. Amen

Works Cited

Bock, Darrell I. “Son of Man.” Dictionary of Jesus and the Gospels: A Compendium of Contemporary Biblical Scholarship. 2nd ed., Edited by Joel B. Green, IVP Academic, 2013, pp. 894–900.

JB;, Veale. “The Beginning of Wisdom Is the Ability to Call Things by Their Right Names. Confucius.” The Journal of the American Academy of Gold Foil Operators, U.S. National Library of Medicine, https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/4529991/#:~:text=The%20beginning%20of%20wisdom%20is,Confucius.

McDaniel, Debbie. “50 Names and Titles of Jesus: Who the Bible Says Christ Is.” Crosswalk.com, Crosswalk.com, 1 Dec. 2016, https://www.crosswalk.com/blogs/debbie-mcdaniel/50-names-of-jesus-who-the-bible-says-christ-is.html.

Winn, Adam. “Son of God.” Dictionary of Jesus and the Gospels: A Compendium of Contemporary Biblical Scholarship. 2nd ed., Edited by Joel B. Green, IVP Academic, 2013, pp. 886–94.

Sinners or Children of God?

“For God’s will was for us to be made holy by the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ, once for all time.”
— Hebrews 10:10

“This is the new covenant I will make with my people on that day, says the Lord: I will put my laws in their hearts, and I will write them on their minds.” Then he says, “I will never again remember their sins and lawless deeds.” And when sins have been forgiven, there is no need to offer any more sacrifices.
— Hebrews 10:16-18

I wonder if we are part of the problem when it comes to growing people In the church. I have heard from the pulpit many times over that we are sinners. But if we have been forgiven by Jesus we are no longer labeled sinners but Children of God and a host of other amazing titles. Why do we keep insisting we are sinners? We may sin but that is not our purpose for living by. It has changed from who we are to something we are actively working to removed from our lives.

I see this as not different in calling a race of people hooligans who we expect never to have a place of importance in society. If we keep calling them this they will just assume this is who they are called to be. We know they can be so much more and this should treat them as such.

Does the consistent reminder that we are but sinners saved by grace lower our image of who we are in Christ? Does this work towards the lifestyle of, if I am still a sinner I might as well sin? What would happen to the church if we were to stop calling the children of God sinners and disciple them as they should be?

Some use this as to point out we were once sinners saved by grace, and this is true. But when you continually tell someone they are a sinner they feel less then, especially when they have made a heart change to follow Christ. So many believers who are young In the faith have walked away feeling as if they do not fit in and life would just be easier living the sinner life.

So are we Children of God or are we sinners? If we are children of God then let us start treating one another as such. Let’s start empowering our Children of God to be strong men and women of the faith.

Father, help us as your Children, forgiven and free, to stop labeling ourselves sinners. We have been given a new name, new life, new purpose. Yes we may sin, but we are living our lives in service to you. We are doing our earthly best to avoid temptation and sin. We ask for your help on this as we know on our own we will stumble on occasion, but as a loving father you still forgive us. Thank you for loving us! Amen

#foreveryone

Letter to the Churches in NY

I had to write a Paul Style letter for the Course I am in to earn my theology degree/diploma. I got an A, so happy, but I thought I would share what I wrote.

 

Letter to the Church in New York

This letter is from Kurt, chosen by God to minister and reach the lost. I am writing to the churches in New York who have been called to be set apart, shining a light to the world around them. May God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ give you grace and peace. Daily I lift you up in prayers of thanksgiving thanking God for the mighty things your churches have done. I bring forward to the Father the requests that you have given me. I pray that your love will overflow the confines of your church buildings and spread further into the streets. I want you to live lives in tune with the Holy Spirit ready willing to respond to His direction.

Dear brothers and sisters, I want you to understand that God’s love to those in your communities is not limited to the family in the church but extends to all. There are those who have been using God’s name to shame those who are not covered by the grace of God. Did Jesus come to shame those who opposed him? Of course not! He reminded us that we are to love our enemies as God loves us. Judgement comes at the end, but here and now we must love as He loves us. Put down your signs of anger and religiousness, shine the light of love that comes from communion with Christ. Remember we were once sinners who knew nothing of the love of Christ, it was only once we received that we were able to see His love a interpret the darkness for what it is. Show those around you the light.

Remember the words of the Son ‘take care of widows and orphans’, we must work to provide homes and care for those without homes. Put down your picket signs and pick up the children who are longing to be loved. Let your example of love be the hope for your community and they will see the freedom and hope found in the truth.

The churches here in Victoria send greetings in the Lord. All the brothers and sisters send fist pumps and high fives. Encourage one another in love, build accountability with one another, May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with you all.

3: 50 Days of Pray – Time for a Change

In the journey to change it is time to recognize who we are in Christ. Are observers of the faith, watching and hoping someone else will do something? Are we senders expecting others to do the work while we throw money at them, so we can feel like we have contributed? Are we bench warmers hoping one day to be called into the forefront, but until we get the audible call we just sit and wait? No, we are called to be much stronger than that, we are called to be so much more than that. We are called to be ambassadors of our faith.

 

Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ, as through, God were pleading through us; we implore you on Christ behalf, be reconciled to God. 2 Corinthians 5:20

 

Ambassadors do not sit idly by and expect someone else to do the work. They do the work, they put in the hours the effort and the preparation. Jesus gave us the job description himself;

 

“As you go, preach, saying ‘the kingdom of God is at hand.’ Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out demons. Freely you have received, freely give.” Matthew 10:7-8

 

This isn’t just a suggestion, Jesus was not giving this as a one of speech to the disciples, he said it again in Matthew 20:18-20. We are to reach out to this world as if this world is not our home. Ambassadors belong somewhere else, as believers in Jesus and those who have a relationship with God we no longer are citizens of the earth but are citizens of heaven living on earth. As such we need to be reaching those who are still clinging to the hope this world offers. So as ambassadors we had better start learning where our strength comes and start applying it in our lives.

 

We need to be reminded that God made the plan, Jesus fulfilled the plan and the Holy Spirit gives us the power to live within the plan. We often forget about the power the Holy Spirit has for us. We think God and Jesus and leave the breath of God as some sort of lower part of Him. But it isn’t like that, Jesus himself understood who the Holy Spirit was and how important he would be for the believers as they traversed in this world. In Jon 12: 15-18 hear Jesus promise about the Holy Spirit;

 

“If you love Me, keep My commandments. And I will pray to the Father and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever- the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive because it neither sees Him nor knows Him; but You know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in You. I will not leave you orphans; I will come to you.”

 

What a promise we have that we are not alone in this mission. Yet I know personally I feel overwhelmed and afraid at times to share my faith. Why is this, why if I have the Holy Spirit empowering me am I afraid and timid? I believe it is because I don’t spend enough time talking to God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. We pray and ask and ask, yet there are times we just need to embrace and listen. Work through the situations with God and let Him show us the truth. We need to trust that the Holy Spirit has our back, He will help us in our faithfulness. What is it going to take for you to stand up and be an ambassador for the kingdom of heaven?

 

Father, for far too long have I been sitting hoping others will rise up and reach the lost in my place. I can’t expect others to learn about you from just seeing me being good but they need to hear the hope I have in you. There are lots of good people in this world who they can follow, but they will lead them down paths that lead to nowhere. Holy Spirit gives me strength and wisdom to step out of my fear and into the role you are leading me into. Use me to be the man of God you need me to be. Let me be a strong witness to my friends, neighbours and family. Amen

2: 50 Days of Pray – Time For a Change

I wonder how many believers take the time to pray and fast? I can honestly say I am not in the category of those who have. I have taken time away from things using the excuse that I work too hard to give up food, but I could give up something else. Sure, it can be giving up something else, but I believe there is something about fasting in the traditional sense that has meaning to it.  Here in Nehemiah, we see the prophet of the same name hearing the stories of the broken city of Jerusalem and her walls in shambles from those who had escaped. In his heart, he knew something needed to be done but he did not know what, so he prayed.

 

 

 When I heard these things, I sat down and wept. For some days I mourned and fasted and prayed before the God of heaven. Then I said:

“Lord, the God of heaven, the great and awesome God, who keeps his covenant of love with those who love him and keep his commandments, let your ear be attentive and your eyes open to hear the prayer your servant is praying before you day and night for your servants, the people of Israel. I confess the sins we Israelites, including myself and my father’s family, have committed against you”

Nehemiah 1:4-6

 

This is only the first part of his prayer but it is the cry of many believers who felt they have lost their way. Those who feel like they haven’t heard God’s voice in such a long time, maybe they have just been going through the motions. Then one day something breaks them, brings them to their knees with an unbridled passion to repent and crying out to the one who loves them. Nehemiah didn’t just expect God to answer, he fasted and prayed for some days, how long is not important but he prepared his heart to listen to what God would say. He trusted that God would answer and give him some sort of guidance in what was happening. We don’t hear what exactly God says to Nehemiah but what we do see is the confidence he has to speak to King Artaxerxes about what he needed to do.

 

What I love reading in 2:4 it says: Then the king said to me, “ What do you request?” So I prayed to the God of heaven. Think about it. He didn’t respond right away. Nehemiah stopped and went to ask God for what to do. I know all to often I have made brash and rapid decisions that have changed the course of my life. Did I stop and ask God, I wish I could say yes or that I took more than a 2 min moment with Him? No, I rushed into things and expected it to be okay. Why, because we love to make our own decisions.  We don’t know how long Nehemiah took from the moment he was asked till his answer but the king waited, and he gave Nehemiah what he requested.

 

Imagine with me if you will a church that takes the time to fast and pray for their communities.? What if believers when making life decisions took the time to ask God what he thought about the situation? We need to be church inside and outside of the building. Sunday is a place where we gather and grow but for the rest of the week, we need to be sharing the love of Jesus all over the place. How much more effective will we be if we take the time to ask and listen to what God’s thoughts are?

 

Maybe you have been living a life that is on the outs, you once served God but now you’re not so sure. God loves you and is calling you back. Take the words of Nehemiah and make them yours, let God know that you have fallen and you want to get right with him again. That’s the awesome thing about our relationship with God, he is not vindictive and will always be ready to welcome you back. Don’t ever think that you have done something that there is no returning from. Take some time and pray, I encourage you to try to fast a meal and focus on him. It is one thing to skip a meal but if you don’t pray and focus on him you might as well just eat. Fasting and Prayer go hand in hand. I am going to try to myself, are you up to see what God has to say to you?

 

Father, I am done making excuses for my actions. I choose things without prayer and wonder why life isn’t going the way I expected. This shouldn’t surprise me as I know that when I trust you it all works out. So forgive me for my arrogance. I give my life back to your hands and I will work at strengthening our relationship with more prayer and fasting. Help me to reach those around me that need to hear about the love Jesus has and the hope found in him. Let me now hide in the shadows but step out and share. Like Nehemiah, my heart breaks form those who are hurting living in shambles. Use me. Amen

1: 50 Days of Pray – Time For a Change

All too often we get to a point in our lives where we wonder where God has gone. We want to hear him speak to us and wonder where he has disappeared to.  I was reminded again today about the old saying that when it feels like God is distant it isn’t Him that moved. He is faithful and just and longs to have this relationship with us that is inconceivable to those who don’t know Him. When I took a break from writing it was only meant to be two weeks as I was moving, yet life happened, and the excuses flowed, and I never started up again.  To be honest, I felt like I was done with this chapter of my life, when I started, I dreamed of a following of readers that would change the world. High expectations from an unknown writer yet aspirations and hope stove me forward. After three years of seemingly minimal results, this felt like a good time to jump out, it wasn’t like anyone cared that I had stopped.

I don’t write this to ask for pity or comments of encouragement. I write this as an apology to you those who did read what I have written. You are important and there have been many moments where I have received confirmation that what I was doing was important. My pride and ego wanted something I don’t think that I would have been even close to prepared for. I know that God has called me to ministry and a journey I began three years ago is still going. But I had once again begun filling my life with distractions that have been working to silence God in my life. So here I am halfway around the world in a hotel room reconnecting with God and knowing that I cannot live the same anymore.

So, I am asking for forgiveness, I haven’t always followed through on what I have written in the past. I posted about accountability, yet I have not been able to find anyone to hold me accountable. I don’t put myself out there to help my brother be accountable either. I get scared and wonder what they will think of me if I call them out on their actions. It is something I have to work on, easy to say but harder to put into action. It confuses me how one can go to church on Sunday then get drunk the next week. How do I reach out to someone like that who I want to see grow in their faith yet give themselves into drunkenness? Are they ready for that sort of spiritual intervention?

 

Don’t hide your light! Let it shine for all; let your good deeds glow for all to see, so that they will praise your heavenly Father.

Matthew 5:15-16 Living Bible (TLB)

 

For far too long I have been hiding my light, embarrassed by the glow and the power it has. Our lights are meant for more than out gatherings on Sundays, we are called to so much more then that. Far too long have I(we) been tiptoeing around the fact that this world that we live in needs to see who Jesus is. Who he is to them. Our brothers, sisters, families, friends, co-workers and more. I(we) have become so over sensitized into believing that what we have will offend others if we share it. That we will lose them in the process never to speak to us again. Jesus himself told us that following him would not be easy. He knew that some would forsake you for your choice, but that the reward would be far greater than the pain caused by losing the loved one. We focus on the pain we receive here on earth when it is only a blip on the grand scale of eternity.

 

It is time for a change. It is time for believers to step up to the calling we have been given. It is time to wake up from the slumber and rise to the occasion. I for one am so tired of the distractions and the excuses that I have been giving to live like this. It is time for a change. In writing this I am giving each and every reader permission to hold me accountable for my actions. If what I say or do contradicts what Jesus asks of me then please let me know. If you take the time to share this, you are making the same request of anyone who reads it. Are you ready for that?

If you are reading this and don’t quite know what this is all about, it boils down to this.

• God Loves you, he created you,
• God wants to have a relationship with you,
• Sin separates us from having this relationship, and due to a serious of events all mankind is living in sin,
• God sent His Son Jesus to live as a man, and die on the Cross, taking on all the sins past, present and future, paying the ultimate price, his life.
• Jesus did not stay dead, he rose again after three days defeating sin once and for all,
• And he is ready willing and able to take your sin from you if you would only ask it of him.

 

I would like to say that if you follow Jesus everything will change, and life will be filled with rainbows and puppies, but that would be further from the truth. You will, however, feel whole, love, joy and peace. You will be joining a family of millions who lift one another up. We will fall as you might assume from my writings above, but without these moments we cannot grow. In storms trees send their roots deeper to avoid falling over, they grow stronger because of the storm.  If we continue to trust God in the storm, we come through it we will be stronger because of it not despite of it.

 

So will you join me in another 50 Days of Pray? It’s time for a Change.

 

Father, forgive me for my inactivity and laziness. I ask that you strengthen me in all that I do. I no longer can sit back and just watch the days go by not doing anything. I need to be a man of action and working to share the love you have for others to those around me. Remove any fears I may have of failure and insecurities I am holding on to, no more excuse. The harvest is now and I want to be counted among the workers. Help me to be effective in sharing your love with my world. I know I have prayed this in the past but it still rings true today, they matter to you so they have to matter to me. Amen

 

45: 50 Days of 3:16

We have an ingrained sense of what is right and wrong. Our upbringing will shape that to some extent allowing us to mould our moral compass. Our original programmed moral code is given to us by the creator. We tend to self-program ourselves to agree with some things because it makes sense to us. A little lie cannot hurt. Stealing from them shouldn’t matter, do you know what they have done and who they are stealing from, they have lots of money and no one will notice. God created the human form so why shouldn’t I be able to gaze at it in all its beauty whenever I want however I want in the privacy of my own home. Blurring the lines of what is right and wrong sets us up for all kinds of trouble.

 

Keeping a clear conscience, so that those who speak maliciously against your good behaviour in Christ may be ashamed of their slander.

1 Peter 3:16

 

We are living in a society where the moral compass of right and wrong might as well be broken. Some of the foundational facts are inherently followed, you ask anyone if murder is acceptable they will quickly correct you and tell you, of course, it is wrong. Then ask them their thoughts on abortion and you may hear them tell a different story. Or ask them their thoughts on those who prey on children or vulnerable woman. Some quickly change their tune and condone the destruction of these people.

 

As believers in Christ, we need to be better at following the moral compass that God has provided us. We do not need to be programmed robots, but we need to know right from wrong. How we live our lives outside of church needs to reflect our lives as a believer. We cannot be seen as one who speaks out of both sides of their mouth, saying they believe one thing but acting out another. What we do in secret will not always remain a secret. We will be tempted to do things, that is inevitable, we may even step into the temptation, but as a believer, we see our mistake, take a step back ask for forgiveness and walk away from it. When we choose to stay in the temptation that will lead us into all sorts of trouble.

 

Is your life focused on doing good things for God? Works do not get us to heaven and we do not need to do good works to be accepted into heaven. Jesus paid the cost for that and when we accept what he has done that is all the payment needed to be welcomed into heaven. We are to do good works because of what he has done for us. We have been called to share this faith with others. If we keep ourselves doing good work, other then being lazy, we will keep ourselves from doing things that lead us into sin. Idle hands tend to wander into places that tempt us to do things we shouldn’t. We see this in the children/teenage years, those kids who have activities to do tend, for the most part, keep busy and get into less mischief. Keep busy doing God’s work, not just to keep busy but to grow the kingdom of God.

 

Father, what in my life is keeping me distracted from doing the work you have called to do? Forgive me for the distractions I have allowed, the temptations I have dipped my hand in. I want to follow you with everything so forgive me for my weak ways. Strengthen me to withstand the temptations that are sent my way, Holy Spirit show me ways out and guard my heart from evil. Let those who wish to slander me realize that their words are not true and that the God I follow is the God who is calling out to them. Use me to reach the world around me. Give me boldness to be effective in all I do. Amen

42: 50 Days of 3:16

There are those who argue that that Bible is nothing more than the writings of an ancient culture with no relevance to us today. If they would only take the time to read and connect the relevant information they would find things in the Bible that the writer would have no knowledge of. The age of the Bible is not in dispute, but the content gets pushed aside as nonhistorical by many. For the believer, it is the Basic Instructions Before Leave Earth, and the more we dig into the more we discover.

 

All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness

2 Timothy 3:16

 

Have you ever said to yourself ‘why isn’t God speaking to me?’, or ‘what does God have planned for me?’ If we want God to meet us where we are at we need to be digging into the His scriptures He left for us. Inside we find stories and information on so many issues. If you are going through something more than likely there was someone in the Bible who went through something very similar. Of course, it will not be exactly, but the struggles remain the same. Jonah struggled with fear, David had an affair, Job asked the question ‘why do bad things happen to good people’, Paul had an infliction that wasn’t being healed, Jacob had problems with his in-laws and it goes on and on.

 

We often easily go to the scripture that says judge not lest you be judged, yet here we see that we are to use the scripture to not just teach but to rebuke. Rebuking is defined as ‘express sharp disapproval or criticism of (someone) because of their behavior or actions.’ We have become a church who have forgotten how to do this properly. Some churches have taken this to the extreme and have been a bad example of what the church is meant to be. There is a difference between rebuking and correcting. When we find someone, who is brother or sister in the faith who is sinning we bring it to their attention that it is wrong, we teach them the way to forgiveness in Christ and help them through it if they refuse to turn from their sin then we should consider rebuke, this is not something anyone should rush into. New believers will spend much time in the correcting part of their faith. Most if not all believers would never need rebuking, but there are cases that are ignored and maybe should have been addressed.

 

We need to be in a consistent mentorship with each other. Every believer should be a mentor and have a mentor. A mentor is someone, who will show you things from experience and what scripture is showing them about the Christian life. The mentor is someone you can ask the hard questions and provide gentle correction and guiding. They have the heart to help you grow in your faith and life a life of righteousness.  The next verse confirms why we need the scripture ‘God uses it (the scripture)  to prepare and his people to do every good work’.

 

How are using the scriptures? Are you using them at all? Have you given them much thought throughout your day? Take some time today to read your bible and think about what it is saying to you, what it was saying to the people of the day and how you can apply it in your world.

 

Father, thank you for the word. This scripture has been influential in so many lives and I cannot understand how it is ignored by so many people. I pray that anyone who picks up a bible and reads it to try to disprove it will have a change of heart and experience your glory turning to your love. You have given this scripture to us to teach others, rebuke, correct and train in righteousness and I pray we will be able to do all those things not leavening any out for the sake of acceptance. Help us to love those around us and reach them with the truths delivered in the word. Let us be light and salt to this world. Amen

 

41: 50 Days of 3:16

 

This week I was once again bombarded like many of you with pride images and posts. One headline I read stated something in the lines of ‘The reason we still need pride parades is because people keep asking why we need pride parades’. We are bringing our children up in a world where they will have a hard time understanding what it means to be men and woman. But despite this God is still in control and Jesus is still working to bring mankind into a relationship with him. He can still transform lives no matter what they have done to pervert it.

 

I feel that John 3:16 fits so perfectly before today’s verse and 1 John 3:16 right after;

For this is how God loved the world: He gave his one and only Son so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.

John 3:16

Without question, this is the great mystery of our faith:

Christ was revealed in a human body
and vindicated by the Spirit.
He was seen by angels
and announced to the nations.
He was believed in throughout the world
and taken to heaven in glory.

1 Timothy 3:16

 We know what real love is because Jesus gave up his life for us. So we also ought to give up our lives for our brothers and sisters.

1 John 3:16

 

Sin has had free reign in our world ever since the dawn of man. Adam and Eve only had one limitation in the garden, one rule to follow, yet human curiosity and the need to think only of ourselves lead to the breaking of that one command. Talk about a butterfly effect that changed the course of history. God at that moment could have wiped mankind from the earth and started over with some other form, he could have destroyed everything and just moved on. Yet God had made us in his image and was not done with us. God wanted to have a relationship with us, not that he needed us for anything. He is God, self-sufficient all powerful, needing nothing. For some reason, we can never fully understand He wants us to have a relationship with him.

 

We as humans have this desire for a relationship as well. We want people to love us to want us. The enemy knows this and has perfected a way to cause us much grief when it comes to relationships. What God has made for good, the enemy perverts and works hard to confuse and manipulate. God created man and woman to be in a relationship, so they could reproduce and fill the earth, love one another and glorify him in this. Yet the enemy has convinced many that they can be fulfilled by being in an unnatural relationship. People can decide to up and change who God made them to be based on feelings which change like the wind. Parents now have the power to set their children on a path of confusion by not officially calling a boy a boy or girl a girl from birth. Our laws do not allow a child under 16 to drive, under 21 to drink, under 18 to vote, under 12 to look after themselves yet we expect them to be able to choose if they are a boy or girl.

 

Believers we need to wake up, this world needs Jesus now more than ever. God sent His Son into this world to free people from the perversion sin causes. We can no longer sit back and let sin steamroll over society. I am not condoning bashing or hatred but invoking love, we need to work at loving people who need to meet Jesus. We cannot be afraid to call sin a sin. Jesus called a spade a spade and still loved people. He knew what they needed was a relationship with him. They keep filling their lives with other things when they are longing for a relationship with God. It is not going to be easy, they will resist because they are so entrenched in the life they are living, they will find it hard to let go. But they need to let go and let God transform them into the men and woman they are called to be. The church we need to pray, we need to love, we need to go into the world and be active.

 

Father, this is a hard message for me to write today. I expect some feedback, I pray that you give me the wisdom to say the right things in love. I pray that anyone brave or bold enough to share this post will have opportunities to share your love with others. Bless those who are seeking you and looking to love those entrenched in sin no matter what the cost. We need to be your light to this world, sharing your love with everyone. Use me and anyone reading this to change the world. Amen.

 

God loves you. God wants you. God created you with a purpose. God wants a relationship with you. What is holding you back? God isn’t waiting for you to clean up your life before accepting you. He accepts you as you are, he loves you as you are. Jesus died so that you can live in a relationship with God. I would love to chat and help you make a fresh beginning.

40: 50 Days of 3:16

Turmoil rages in the lives of the believer and unbeliever alike. We tend to focus on the turmoil and work to achieve some relief by any means necessary. Many times, we tend to treat the symptoms of the problem with our dealing with the root cause. In most cases, the solution to our needs is a peace that can only come from God himself. This reminder from Paul could be the answer to many of our troubles. A reminder that God gives peace.

Now may the Lord of peace himself give you peace at all times and in every way. The Lord be with all of you.

2 Thessalonians 3:16

 

Many cultures do not use the term ‘goodbye’. They just don’t have a need for the word. They have come to understand that in life or even death that it is not the end and the hope is that one day they will see their loved ones again. Goodbye is an indication that you may never see the person again, how many times have you heard someone use the phrase when they have lost someone close ‘I never got a chance to say goodbye’? This saddens me as I feel there is a hope of reunion for those who are part of the family of God. But for those who reject or ignore the call of God in their lives, it is final, there is no such reunion. The enemy has deceived the world into believe that a party awaits those who reject God and that heaven is a lame place to be. You see this in many depictions of the afterlife. This could be further from the truth but how can so many people be deceived?

 

It boils down to is that those who tend to believe in nothing will believe in anything. They chase after whatever it is that fills the void and gives them a warm and tingly feeling, yet it never lasts, and they have to go on to another and another.  Each time their resistance to the Gospel of Jesus grows harder feeling that even Jesus cannot have the cure to what haunts them. So instead of going to the source of truth, they continue living in sin using poison after poison looking for peace that is unattainable outside of God’s love. They sacrifice their children to other god’s and wonder why our God does ‘bad things to good people’. They live their lives immorally and in sexual perversion and then ask God’s people not to judge them in their sin. Yet if a murderer was to ask for the same he would be not given the same. The world lives in a constant double standard if not multiple standards.

 

We need the peace of God in our lives. We need to share this peace with the world around us. They need to hear us as believer sharing our faith no matter the opposition and persecution it may bring. As believers if we truly believe that death isn’t the end for those who are in Christ why are we satisfied that it is the end for those who have not accepted him? Our hearts should be broken for those dying in their sin. We can no longer sit on the peace given to us, it is not for us to hoard but to share. I share with you the same words that Paul shared with the church as we go into our day today. Now may the Lord of peace himself give you peace at all times and in every way. The Lord be with all of you.

 

Father, help us as believers to share this peace that you offer to those around us Let us not be content to sit in our faith and with for the end. We are called for so much more. You have called us to be witnesses to the ends of the earth which includes our neighbours, family and coworkers. Not one of us can say that we have no one we can talk to about Jesus, you give us moments daily. Give us the strength, wisdom and boldness to actually do it. We pray that when we take this step of faith it will empower us in a way that we have never experienced and encourage us to keep going. Even if it feels like we have not gotten through to that person we were talking to I pray Jesus that we plant a seed that will one day bud and grow. Use us, help us to share the peace that only you provide. Let us show the world that there are no Goodbyes for believers only see you soon. Amen.