We all, as Christians, will be held responsible for how we used the talents that God has given to us…
1 Corinthians 6:19-20
Glorify God in Body and Spirit
19 Do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own?
20 For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God’s.
If you are alive, then know that God has a plan and a purpose for your life (Jer 29:11).
By virtue of the fact that we are alive and have been placed on this earth, by God, it then follows that we each have been given certain gifts and talents.
As we read in Genesis, in the beginning God the Father spoke everything into existence, by the Word of His mouth (who is Jesus), and when it says that He created Adam, it says that “the LORD God formed Adam from the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and Adam became a living soul” (Gen 2:7).
God has placed a seed inside of every life form and plant that He made, so that it may produce after its kind.
He also has placed a seed inside of man, and along with that He has placed in man the ability that he might use his God given gifts and talents, so that man, having been made in the image and likeness of God, that we might also be a creative force in the earth.
None of us are here to take up space, and this is where it all starts.
First of all, it is up to each one of us to first obey the Gospel’s message, receive forgiveness for our sins and be reconciled back into God’s family.
Having now made peace with God, by accepting the propitious sacrifice of His only begotten Son – Jesus – on Calvary’s cross (John 3:16), we are now what the Bible calls born-again (John 3:3).
This means that each of us, through Jesus’ sacrifice and our acceptance of that sacrifice by faith, we are now given access and relationship with the one who is both the Source and Author of our lives.
It also mean that after having received Jesus as our Savior, we must now make Him Lord over our life, as He cannot be our Savior without also being our Lord.
It is God’s purpose and design in all of this that we each be conformed into the image of His Son (Rom 8:29); and that we be about our Father’s business, using our gifts and talents to spread the Gospel and make disciples of all nations.
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ΙΧΘΥΣ
Jesus Christ, God’s Son, Savior
—
Ps 150:6
Let everything that has breath praise the LORD!
Jesus told us that we must take up our cross daily…
What did Jesus mean when He said we have to carry a cross?
I’ve heard people talk about a problem they have and say it’s a cross they have to bear, but is this what Jesus meant?
No, this isn’t what He meant—although it’s not necessarily wrong to refer to some problem we are having as a “cross” we must bear.
In Jesus’ day, a cross was a symbol of suffering, and we all have trials and afflictions that may be very hard for us to bear—even with God’s help.
But Jesus meant something far deeper than this when He told His disciples to carry their cross.
He said to them, “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me” (Luke 9:23).
In Jesus’ day, a cross wasn’t just a symbol of pain and suffering; it was mainly a symbol of death.
What Jesus was telling them is that they needed to put to death their own plans and desires, and then turn their lives over to Him and do His will every day.
You see, Jesus doesn’t simply call us to believe that He existed, or even to believe that He can save us.
He calls on us to commit our whole lives to Him—to trust Him alone for our salvation, and then to follow Him as His disciples.
He said, “Anyone who does not carry his cross and follow me cannot be my disciple” (Luke 14:27).
Is Christ the master of your life?
Have you put to death your own plans and committed yourself to His will for your life?
Don’t be satisfied with anything less, for there is no greater joy in life than following Christ every day.
– Billy Graham
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The problems and obstacles in our life come not to defeat us, but to make us stronger in Jesus!
We need to start looking at these obstacles as opportunities for us to grow and be stretched, in order for us to be conformed (molded and shaped) into the image of Christ (Rom 8:29).
Each one is God’s invitation for us to draw closer and sink our roots deeper in Him.
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We Rise
by Graham Cooke
“If then you were raised with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God. Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth. For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is our life appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory.”
– Colossians 3:1-4
Given the right mindset, everything that occurs to us in life is an opportunity.
The temptation is to see the positive and the negative as things that happen to us: just as we can encounter favor and gifts, so too adversity and strife can come to bite us when we least expect it.
It’s like we’re children, wandering cluelessly through a minefield seeded with beautiful flowers.
That isn’t the case, of course. The positive and the negative are creations of our brains, and how we choose to perceive the situations and circumstances that we find ourselves in will inform how we classify them for ourselves.
Obstacles in life are challenging, in the best and most brilliant meaning of that word: they set out a challenge to us to meet, to rise to in Christ.
They challenge us to increase our capacity for God’s fullness, to make the dream bigger in every respect.
We are in Christ, learning to become more like Him.
That’s our identity in the Kingdom: followers of Christ, subject to the furious love of God.
The church is the Lord’s Beloved, forever learning how to best accept that love, and that passion that God has for us provides us with our identity as Christians and as people, as individuals.
We are warriors. We are men and women who overcome: we do not simply endure, we rise up and overwhelm.
We have been provided with a place in the Kingdom, a place on high by the side of the Father, and we rise up to claim that place.
The action of that rising is the beginning of a spiritual journey.
In point of fact, it’s a Spiritual journey, as we partner with the Holy Spirit, our mentor in Christ and our sponsor in the Kingdom.
His vision becomes our vision as we set out upon the journey: and make no mistake, the road can be a bumpy one.
We’ll encounter blessing, no question.
We’ll meet the fullness of God, the joy of His anointing.
We’ll embrace His kindness and favor.
We’ll come to know the incredible rest that lies at the core of God’s being, that peace that He brings to us all.
There will be an experience of His Presence that will last our entire lifetime.
There will also be opposition. Warfare and persecution come hand in hand with living in Christ.
We’re children in the Kingdom, but we cannot afford to be naïve… we are opposed in our journey.
Negativity has declared itself our enemy. But just as the best and greatest way to destroy an enemy is to make him our friend, so the best way to conquer negativity is not to deny it, to turn our backs upon it, but rather to flip it around and see it from another angle, a loftier perspective. God’s perspective. It’s the art of thinking brilliantly.
The obstacles that we encounter are good for us. Adversity is opportunity in disguise.
Often it’s a very good disguise, of course—but that’s the point. If these things are here to challenge us, they have to represent a challenge.
There’s no Spiritual cache in overcoming when it’s easy, and each one of these stressful situations is specifically designed to provide a maturing experience in Christ.
We need to grow up to be the people that God knows we can be, and these confrontational circumstances are part of the ongoing conversation with Him that allows us to catch a glimpse of those people: to see how He sees, discover how He thinks, and sense His perception of us.
These things are necessary because, to be absolutely blunt, left to our own devices we would probably take every easy option there was.
We’d keep following the line of least resistance, coasting down in the same direction, specifically avoiding anything challenging.
Obstructions will slow us down: but that’s a good thing. It gives us time and space to stop and to think, to examine where we are in Christ and how to overcome this latest incidence of negativity.
Barriers in our way are useful, necessary pauses for reassessment and reevaluation.
It’s at this point that the conversation with the Kingdom must take place.
There are questions that must be raised with the Spirit: what is the obstacle intended for? What is its purpose? What can be released to us in the examination of this latest challenge?
We must always allow ourselves the space to receive what the Father is intending to give to us.
The Father’s vision for our journey isn’t just about the direction we’re intended to take, but also about the height at which we are intended to travel.
You’ll have heard it said before: everything there is to experience in Christ has an element of elevation to it.
We are seated with Him in Heavenly places. We seek what is above. God is on high, the highest, and that perspective is the one we’re intended to assume.
Once we imagine every obstacle, every adverse circumstance, as being a gift from the Father, our own perspective will shift and alter.
It must, because our old perspective was that of the obstructed.
Taking God’s perspective allows us to see the obstruction from a position of having already overcome it.
That challenge moves from tragedy to opportunity. That grief becomes our greatest gift, because it’s been designed, tailored and placed there specifically to assist us in becoming something magnificent… that thing He saw in us before we were even born.
The questions that we ask the Spirit are key here.
In Acts 2, at the Day of Pentecost, the first coming of the Holy Spirit that Jesus had prophesied, two of the truly great questions were asked by those in attendance that day:
What does this mean? and
What shall we do?
That’s inspirational.
Faced with the unprecedented, that first Act that would create a whole church, change the course of millions of lives, level and raise nations and kings, those experiencing the challenge asked the questions that would see them surf that tidal wave and experience the greatness to come.
On that day, they rose. When our time comes, we’ll rise with them.
During those times in your life when you feel like you have more than you can bear and your prayers are not getting through the ceiling, remember this…
God promised in His Word that He will NEVER leave you nor forsake you (Deut 31:6, Heb 13:5); that He will be with you always (Mat 28:20); and not only that, but He also promised to complete the work that He has begun in your life (Php 1:6).
Here’s the deal though, as Christians, we have to learn to live by faith, not by sight; and the Bible says that “without faith it’s impossible for us to please God” (Heb 11:6).
In other words, we have to learn to hang our body and the total of all our circumstances on the reliability and trustworthiness of both God and His Word; and we have to learn to do this in the face of any and all contradictory feelings, evidence or circumstances.
God has a plan, He always does, as we can learn from all the many examples found in the Bible.
He will come through and make a way – even when there appears to be no way – but He’ll do so in His timing and in His way.
Take the children of Israel, for instance, when God delivered them from their bondage of slavery in Egypt, He led them into a box canyon, with two scaling walls on either side and the Red Sea in front of them, with Pharaoh’s army barreling down behind them.
What did God do?
He did the impossible, He opened up the Red Sea so that the children of Israel could pass through on dry land.
He also use that same Red Sea to destroy all of Pharaoh’s army.
Jesus is the same yesterday, today and forever (Heb 13:8); and we’re told in first Corinthians 10 that these stories, that we find in the Old Testament, were written for our edification and admonition, as lessons that we can learn from and apply to our own life.
In Hebrews 5:8, we are told that Jesus learned obedience through the things that he suffered.
As His disciples, do we think things will be any different with us?
Jesus is the Prize that we are all running towards, and the goal is for us to be conformed into His image (Rom 8:29).
We all have those times when we feel as though God is a million miles away and hasn’t a clue about what’s going on in our life.
In these times this is God’s invitation for us to enter into a closer relationship with Him.
An Oak tree can take as much as 60 years to reach maturity, and during those years it passes through many dry spells, where the water is still there; but in order to reach the water the roots have to stretch down deeper into the soil, where the water is.
Likewise, during our dry spells we also have to stretch the roots of our faith deeper into God.
So we have a choice, we can either become a MIGHTY OAK; or if we want to take the quick and easy way, we can become a mushroom, which only takes about an hour to mature.
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ΙΧΘΥΣ
Jesus Christ, God’s Son, Savior
—
Ps 150:6
Let everything that has breath praise the LORD!
The masses groan and moan in fear and trepidation, as they see what’s coming upon the earth; while the nation’s governments war one against another.
Jesus used a Greek word for the labor pains of a woman about to give birth, because He knew that every generation could understand this illustration.
His meaning is clear. Just as a woman experiences birth pains that increase in frequency and intensity just before giving birth, so also will be the signs of His return, as we see and experience an increase in both frequency and intensity of these events.
Matthew 4:4-8
And Jesus said unto them:
“Take heed that no one deceives you; for many will come in My name, saying, ‘I am the Christ’ (God’s Anointed – Messiah) and they will deceive many.
And you will hear of wars and rumors of wars; but see that you are not troubled because all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet.
For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, and there will be famines, pestilences, and earthquakes in various places.
But know this, and that ALL these are but the beginning of sorrows.”
For the first time in history, in our generation, we are seeing all of these signs occurring together, just as Jesus said, in increased frequency and intensity, just as happens when a woman is in labor and is about to give birth.
The centermost important focus in God’s prophetic timetable, when it comes to eschatological prophecies, regarding the last day’s events, and it’s all centered around the nation of Israel and God’s chosen city of Jerusalem.
Israel’s miraculous rebirth, as a nation, occurred in 1948, after over 2,545 years of the Jews (House of Judah) being dispersed throughout the nations of the world; and it was in 1967 when they recaptured Jerusalem, during the Six-Day War, which I believe is what marked the beginning of God’s end of days timeclock, as we approach the time of our Lord Jesus’ return to earth.
And Jesus went on to say (in vs 34) that the generation that would see all of these things come to pass, that they shall not pass away before He returns!
I believe that we are now on the verge of seeing the third Great Spiritual Awakening, that will usher in the greatest revival this world has ever seen, and it all is happening in what the Bible calls the “fullness of time,” as we are seeing all of these events occurring right before our eyes.
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ΙΧΘΥΣ
Jesus Christ, God’s Son, Savior
—
Ps 150:6
Let everything that has breath praise the LORD!
Good Will Hunting is one of Robin Williams’ greatest films.
After Williams’ death in 2014, the bench he sat on with Matt Damon in the film became an icon with flowers and quotes written on the ground below it.
On this bench in Boston’s Public Garden, Williams articulated words that brought about a significant turn in the movie.
Having watched the film a number of times, I’ve come to realize its intensity and importance.
Its messages and lessons are unquestionably abundant. Nevertheless, it highlights a crucial idea that exists in everybody’s life: the idea of love.
As I watched Good Will Hunting, I realized that there is a Sean (Robin Williams) and a Will (Matt Damon) in every one of us.
Sean, Will’s psychologist, is a giver who holds tremendous love for his wife, who passed away. Will, on the other hand, loves a girl named Skylar, but has built a wall to protect himself from getting hurt.
While forming a unique relationship, Sean and Will open our eyes to these remarkable lessons on love…
We find in the Bible that the ancient Greeks had six different words to describe love, whereas we only have one in English.
1. Eros, or sexual passion – The first kind of love was eros, named after the Greek god of fertility, and it represented the idea of sexual passion and desire.
But the Greeks didn’t always think of it as something positive, as we tend to do today. In fact, eros was viewed as a dangerous, fiery, and irrational form of love that could take hold of you and possess you—an attitude shared by many later spiritual thinkers, such as the Christian writer C.S. Lewis.
Eros involved a loss of control that frightened the Greeks. Which is odd, because losing control is precisely what many people now seek in a relationship. Don’t we all hope to fall “madly” in love?
2. Philia, or deep friendship – The second variety of love was philia or friendship, which the Greeks valued far more than the base sexuality of eros.
Philia concerned the deep comradely friendship that developed between brothers in arms who had fought side by side on the battlefield.
It was about showing loyalty to your friends, sacrificing for them, as well as sharing your emotions with them.
(Another kind of philia, sometimes called storge, embodied the love between parents and their children.)
We can all ask ourselves how much of this comradely philia we have in our lives. It’s an important question in an age when we attempt to amass “friends” on Facebook or “followers” on Twitter—achievements that would have hardly impressed the Greeks.
3. Ludus, or playful love – This was the Greeks’ idea of playful love, which referred to the affection between children or young lovers.
We’ve all had a taste of it in the flirting and teasing in the early stages of a relationship. But we also live out our ludus when we sit around in a bar bantering and laughing with friends, or when we go out dancing.
Dancing with strangers may be the ultimate ludic activity, almost a playful substitute for sex itself.
Social norms may frown on this kind of adult frivolity, but a little more ludus might be just what we need to spice up our love lives.
4. Agape, or love for everyone – The fourth love, and perhaps the most radical, was agape or selfless love.
This is the love that we find defined in the Bible, as the God kind of love, which He beats towards us, which He also intends for us to bear for others.
As we read first Corinthians 13, where this Agape-love is defined, we learned that it has nothing whatsoever to do with our feelings, but rather it’s all about a decision that you make towards the other individual, based on the value which God sees in them.
This is a love which, as Christians, we are to extended to ALL people, whether family members or distant strangers.
The word “Agape” was later translated into Latin as caritas, which is the origin of our word “charity.”
C.S. Lewis referred to it as “gift love,” the highest form of Christian love.
There is growing evidence that agape is in a dangerous decline in many countries. Empathy levels in the U.S. have declined sharply over the past 40 years, with the steepest fall occurring in the past decade.
We urgently need to revive our capacity to care about strangers.
5. Pragma, or longstanding love – Another Greek love was the mature love known as pragma. This was the deep understanding that developed between long-married couples.
Pragma was about making compromises to help the relationship work over time, and showing patience and tolerance.
The psychoanalyst Erich Fromm said that we expend too much energy on “falling in love” and need to learn more how to “stand in love.”
Pragma is precisely about standing in love—making an effort to give love rather than just receive it.
With about a third of first marriages in the U.S. ending through divorce or separation in the first 10 years, the Greeks would surely think we should bring a serious dose of pragma into our relationships.
6. Philautia, or love of the self – The Greek’s sixth variety of love was philautia or self-love. And the clever Greeks realized there were two types.
One was an unhealthy variety associated with narcissism, where you became self-obsessed and focused on personal fame and fortune.
A healthier version enhanced your wider capacity to love.
The idea was that if you like yourself and feel secure in yourself, you will have plenty of love to give others. Or, as Aristotle put it, “All friendly feelings for others are an extension of a man’s feelings for himself.”
The Bible tells us that the most important of these various kinds of “Love,” which we only have one word for in English, is a Agape; and this is how it is described:
1 Corinthians 13
Living Bible (TLB)
1 If I had the gift of being able to speak in other languages without learning them and could speak in every language there is in all of heaven and earth, but didn’t love others, I would only be making noise.
2 If I had the gift of prophecy and knew all about what is going to happen in the future, knew everything about everything, but didn’t love others, what good would it do? Even if I had the gift of faith so that I could speak to a mountain and make it move, I would still be worth nothing at all without love.
3 If I gave everything I have to poor people, and if I were burned alive for preaching the Gospel but didn’t love others, it would be of no value whatever.
4 Love is very patient and kind, never jealous or envious, never boastful or proud,
5 never haughty or selfish or rude. Love does not demand its own way. It is not irritable or touchy. It does not hold grudges and will hardly even notice when others do it wrong.
6 It is never glad about injustice, but rejoices whenever truth wins out.
7 If you love someone, you will be loyal to him no matter what the cost. You will always believe in him, always expect the best of him, and always stand your ground in defending him.
8 All the special gifts and powers from God will someday come to an end, but love goes on forever. Someday prophecy and speaking in unknown languages and special knowledge—these gifts will disappear.
9 Now we know so little, even with our special gifts, and the preaching of those most gifted is still so poor.
10 But when we have been made perfect and complete, then the need for these inadequate special gifts will come to an end, and they will disappear.
11 It’s like this: when I was a child I spoke and thought and reasoned as a child does. But when I became a man my thoughts grew far beyond those of my childhood, and now I have put away the childish things.
12 In the same way, we can see and understand only a little about God now, as if we were peering at his reflection in a poor mirror; but someday we are going to see him in his completeness, face-to-face. Now all that I know is hazy and blurred, but then I will see everything clearly, just as clearly as God sees into my heart right now.
13 There are three things that remain—faith, hope, and love—and the greatest of these is love.
Since we know from the Bible that God is love (1 John 4:8), in each one of the above versus, where it says “love is,” it would be perfectly appropriate to insert the word God for love, because this is how He loves and treats us.
It’s also how He expects us, as Christians – as His Light and Love distributors in the earth, to treat those around us.
As we read about this Agape-love, we find there no strings attached; and as I said before, neither are our feelings attached to it.
Agape-love is all about our making a decision to treat others and love them the way God loves us, and also the way we would want to be loved ourselves.
It’s about our getting ourselves out-of-the-way and giving God permission to love others through us!
It’s the kind of love that we read that Corrie ten Boom had, whose life was portrayed in the movie called the Hiding Place; when after having lost her entire family in a Nazi concentration camp, she was later – after a Christian meeting – confronted by one of her Nazi tormentors, after he had become a Christian.
She said that there was nothing inside of her that wanted to embrace this man, but as a Christian she gave God permission to love him through her.
This is a what Agape-love looks like in practice.
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Jesus Christ, God’s Son, Savior
—
Ps 150:6
Let everything that has breath praise the LORD!
Immersion in both God’s Word and in the Holy Spirit are mandatory for every Christian…
There are numerous places in the Bible that makes this very clear, that a Christian is not just someone who is one in name only (Mat 16:25, Luke 16:33, 1 John 2:6); who carries the label alone, without any corresponding Fruit.
John 15:2-8
J.B. Phillips New Testament (PHILLIPS)
Jesus teaches union with himself
1-8 “I am the real vine, my Father is the vine-dresser.
He removes any of my branches which are not bearing fruit and he prunes every branch that does bear fruit to increase its yield.
Now, you have already been pruned by my words. You must go on growing in me and I will grow in you.
For just as the branch cannot bear any fruit unless it shares the life of the vine, so you can produce nothing unless you go on growing in me.
I am the vine itself, you are the branches. It is the man who shares my life and whose life I share who proves fruitful.
For the plain fact is that apart from me you can do nothing at all.
The man who does not share my life is like a branch that is broken off and withers away.
He becomes just like the dry sticks that men pick up and use for the firewood.
But if you live your life in me, and my words live in your hearts, you can ask for whatever you like and it will come true for you.
This is how my Father will be glorified—in your becoming fruitful and being my disciples.
Remember how the Bible says that on this one day Jesus cursed this fig tree?
“Jesus was hungry, and seeing in the distance a fig tree in leaf, He went to find out if it had any fruit.
When he reached it, he found nothing but leaves, because it was not the season for figs.”
(Mark 11:12-25)
Well the Bible tells us that, as Christians, we are to be constant, bearing fruit in season and out (2 Tim 4:2); and as we just read in John chapter 15, all those who do not bear fruit, are removed from the Vine and those who do are pruned back for further growth!
So if you find yourself in a predicament today, where you are facing obstacles and circumstances that seemingly are holding you back and restricting your growth, then you should feel right at home because this is all part of your training.
Christianity is definitely NOT a religion and it’s not for wimps.
The Bible says that if we are Christian, then we are to walk as Jesus walked; that we are first and foremost God’s occupational force in the earth, His foot soldiers, and it’s our mission to spread the Gospel and disciple nations, and also to destroy the works of the devil (Luke 19:13, 1 John 3:8)!
And we are also to operate as Jesus’ Ambassadors in the earth (2 Cor 5:20).
Our life upon this earth is in fact our training ground for eternity, and the first step in this process is for us to grab hold and be obedient to the Gospel Message, which brings us back into relationship with God, through our faith in Jesus Christ!
But salvation is ONLY the beginning!
Whether you understood it or not, this is what you signed up for when you were born-again.
That’s why the Bible tells us that we need to count the cost first (Luke 14:28), and not enter into this relationship, unless we are willing to go the distance!
Going to church and being religious, without any corresponding works, meaning your constant 24/7 immersion in God’s Word and Spirit, your growing in faith and bearing fruit, doesn’t gain you anything at all.
You have to get with the program!
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ΙΧΘΥΣ
Jesus Christ, God’s Son, Savior
—
Ps 150:6
Let everything that has breath praise the LORD!
Mankind was NEVER designed, nor was he created to operate independently from God…
Without that God connection in our life, we are ALL like fish out of water, flopping around on the shores of life, looking for our way back home.
We were given dominion over this earth to operate in unison with God (Gen 1:28), through the power and guidance of the Holy Spirit, just as we see that Jesus modeled in His earthly ministry (1 John 2:6).
We were also given a free will that we may choose to do this, or not.
The Bible clearly tells us that most people will choose not to follow Jesus and not to live their lives this way, in submission to God (Mat 7:13); but for those of us who are paying attention, we recognize this as the greatest privilege, gift and adventure we could ever have!
The number one requirement for anyone who obeys the Gospel message is that they first recognize the value of the gift God is offering them!
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Depending on Him
Do everything in dependence on Me.
The desire to act independently—apart from Me—springs from the root of pride.
Self-sufficiency is subtle, insinuating its way into your thoughts and actions without your realizing it.
But apart from Me, you can do NOTHING: that is, nothing of eternal value.
My deepest desire for you is that you learn to depend on Me in EVERY situation!
I move heaven and earth to accomplish this purpose, but you must collaborate with Me in this training.
Teaching you would be simple if I negated your free will or overwhelmed you with My Power.
However, I love you too much to withdraw the godlike privilege I bestowed on you as My image-bearer.
Use your freedom wisely, by relying on Me constantly.
Thus you enjoy My Presence and My Peace.
See also John 15:5; Ephesians 6:10; Genesis 1:26, 27
(From Jesus Calling by Sarah Young)
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ΙΧΘΥΣ
Jesus Christ, God’s Son, Savior
—
Ps 150:6
Let everything that has breath praise the LORD!
I have been hearing reports all over that God has been supernaturally moving in the Muslim community and revealing Himself through dreams…
In this article (below) we read how a Christian brother, just before he was killed, forgave his executioner and gave him his Bible.
ISIS Fighter Converts to Christianity After Vivid Dream of Jesus Who Told Him ‘You Are Killing My People’
AN ISLAMIC State fighter who ‘enjoyed’ killing Christians wants to follow Jesus after dreaming of a man in white who told him, “You are killing my people.”
I t has become a common occurrence over the years for Muslims in the Middle East who have converted to Christianity to claim to have been compelled to do so after dreaming of a person who they believe is Jesus Christ…
This reminds me of both Jesus’ forgiveness on the cross, as He forgave His executioners, and also the last words of the first martyr, Stephen, as he forgave, while Saul of Tarsus (the apostle Paul) watched him be killed (Acts 6:8–8:3).
Only God has the power to recycle men’s lives, and I’ve seen it happen over and over again.
Even as Jesus said, “He that is forgiven of much, loves much” (Luke 7:47); and as it says in First Corinthians 5:17, “Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a NEW creature: old things are passed away; and behold, ALL things are become new.”
Truly this is the greatest miracle!
I think a lot of times, and I’m certainly including myself in this, we’re more like Jonah in our attitude towards our enemies, we want to see the fire of God fall down upon them.
When l hear of stories like this, all I can say is God’s mercy and grace is beyond amazing!
This conversation of this ISIS fighter sounds a lot like Saul of Tarsus’ conversion, after he also had been responsible for killing Christians.
Acts 9:3-9
3-4 But on his journey, as he neared Damascus, a light from Heaven suddenly blazed around him, and he fell to the ground. Then he heard a voice speaking to him, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?”
5 “Who are you, Lord?” he asked.
6 “I am Jesus whom you are persecuting,” was the reply. “But now stand up and go into the city and there you will be told what you must do.”
7-9 His companions on the journey stood there speechless, for they had heard the voice but could see no one. Saul got up from the ground, but when he opened his eyes he could see nothing. So they took him by the hand and led him into Damascus. There he remained sightless for three days, and during that time he had nothing either to eat or drink.
I do know that this is God’s heart, that none should parish and that ALL men should be saved (2 Peter 3:9); and we as Christians are to be about our Father’s business, having been assigned the duty of being God’s distributors of His Love and Light in this dark world.
I continually have to remind myself of this fact, especially in the light of all the brutality and cruel savagery I see coming from this particular group of people.
God’s ways and His thoughts certainly are not ours, but as His occupational force (Luke 19:13), here on earth, as His ambassadors, we are here to represent and enforce His will in the earth, and not our own.
Even as we’re told in the Bible of how Paul tried desperately to witness to his tormentors and captors, before his execution, when he witnessed to Porcius Festus and Herod Agrippa II (Acts 26:1-32).
Particularly in this day and age, in this increasingly evil and violent world that we live in, I think we as Christians have to maintain a balance.
After all, Jesus did tell His disciples to go sell their cloak and buy a sword (see Luke 22:36); and the reason I believe that He said that is, as Christians, we at times have to defend ourselves and others.
As King Solomon said in Ecclesiastes 3:8b, “there’s a time for war and a time for peace.”
After all, our nation was birthed through the Revolutionary War, with England; we’ve also had two World Wars and have had many other wars between.
Obviously if we had not fought in those wars our nation would not even exist today, and whereas I respect an individual’s right, according to his or her’s conscience, to be a pacifist, I obviously think that would not be a wise course for every Christian to take.
And to bring it home, and even make it more personal, I would say that if you saw someone attacking or raping your wife or daughter, you would not call a prayer meeting; but you would do whatever you could to stop it, including using deadly force.
For most of us, anyway, I believe that course of action would be a no-brainer.
I believe that there is a time to fight and there is also a time not to; and it is wisdom that lets us know when to do which.
Particularly in America it would seem that our history has often been that our military, in times past, as had to go in and make the playing field level, so that the missionaries can go in and do their job.
As is the case with all things, with God, there is a balance in everything.
At least that’s the way I see it.
Skip
ΙΧΘΥΣ
Jesus Christ, God’s Son, Savior
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Ps 150:6
Let everything that has breath praise the LORD!
Augustine once said, “Love God and do what you want”…
If we truly love God, with all our heart and soul and mind and strength, then nothing else matters and everything we do will be exactly what God desires.
The precise quote from Augustine goes like this:
“Love God and do whatever you please: for the soul trained in love to God will do nothing to offend the One who is Beloved.”
So the question is, do you truly love God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength?
There are two categories of people in the world, who say they are Christian.
For some Jesus is the center most important part of their life, He is like the hub of the wheel, around which everything in their life revolves.
For others He’s nothing more the than a spoke in wheel, that’s no more than an accessory; and their lives will roll along just fine without Him.
This latter group knows God in name only, but they don’t have a relationship with Him.
Listen to these words of Jesus and you decide which group you might be in?
Matthew 16:24-26
J.B. Phillips New Testament (PHILLIPS)
24-26 Then Jesus said to his disciples,
“If anyone wants to follow in my footsteps he must give up all right to himself, take up his cross and follow me.
For the man who wants to save his life will lose it; but the man who loses his life for my sake will find it.
For what good is it for a man to gain the whole world at the price of his own soul? What could a man offer to buy back his soul once he had lost it?
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Monday, December 21
The Winning Walk
DO YOU REALLY LOVE GOD?
St. Augustine asked his followers if they really loved God.
“Do you love Him with all your heart, soul, mind and strength?” he asked.
Then he told a story as a way to discover the answer.
Suppose God came to a man and said, “The world and all that is in it is yours.
I will give you perfect health. Whatever your heart desires is yours.
I will even do away with sin and death and enable you to live forever.”
Sounds good, doesn’t it? The whole world at your disposal-no sin, eternal life? Too good, perhaps.
“There is only one thing you will not have,” God would say in this imaginary exchange. “You will never see My face. The choice is yours. I will respect your wish.”
Augustine said if there were a quiver in a person’s heart at the words “you will never see My face,” it is quite possible that he might really love God.
If a man decided to turn away from all that the world could offer for the joy of seeing God’s face, his love might be true.
Sounds like a pretty good test to me!
The only satisfaction to be found in this life is found in the love of God.
We can choose Him through His Son Jesus Christ and know Him as we are known.
Only then does satisfaction come-but then, it comes from everywhere.
Because when the soul is satisfied, all the other things in life may be enjoyed for what they are: gifts from a God who is unchanging and good, and whose love endures forever.
Memory Verse
MATTHEW 22:37
You shall love the Lord Your God with all you heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.
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A word of caution to the wise, who have ears to hear, who have not yet made their peace with God, this may very well be your last call to enter into this Grand Adventure.
So don’t put this decision off another day, for tomorrow is promised to no man.
Skip
ΙΧΘΥΣ
Jesus Christ, God’s Son, Savior
—
Ps 150:6
Let everything that has breath praise the LORD!
SB SALT AND LIGHT MINISTRIES 