The Love of God

I pray that you and all God’s holy people will have the power to understand the greatness of Christ’s love—how wide, how long, how high, and how deep that love is. Christ’s love is greater than anyone can ever know, but I pray that you will be able to know that love. Then you can be filled with everything God has for you.  Ephesians 3:18-19

The Apostle Paul prayed for the saints at Ephesus, that they would know the amazing dimensions of Jesus’ love for them.  Why not pray it for yourself?  I fully believe that if you get even a tiny glimpse of the love of his for you, you will be stronger and more powerful than anything that can possibly come against you. 

Good News is the Best News!

Proclaim every day the good news that he has saved us.  Proclaim his glory to the nations, his mighty deeds to all peoples.  1 Chronicles 6:23, 24

The word ‘Gospel’ means good news.  But what is that good news?  The good news is that God isn’t mad at you.  He has never been mad at you and he will never be mad at you.   Our God is a loving father who knows about all your missteps past, present and future, but no matter what you do wrong, he will always love you.  

Isn’t that good news?  Actually, I think it’s the best news and we should be so excited about it, that we can’t help but praise God and share his love to all we meet.

After all, the Gospel isn’t about getting you into Heaven when you die. It’s about getting you into relationship with your Heavenly father while you live! 

Jesus Tweets

Have you ever thought about how you describe Jesus? 

I don't know about you, but I have a tendency to use many words and sometimes the message gets lost. 

My Wednesday home group was in the midst of a study on Jesus when we came across an exercise to see if we could compose a tweet describing Jesus.  It wasn't easy but the group put their collective heads together to compose a 140 character twitter post describing Jesus and this is what they came up with:

“Jesus reconciles us with God. Shows us what God's like. God living as one of us. Loves us. Died, rose again, is coming back. Teaches truth.”

I think it’s pretty cool. What do you think?

No Ordinary Sunday

Around the world, next Sunday is just an ordinary Sunday but In the Christian Church calendar, next Sunday is Pentecost. 

Pentecost celebrates the occasion of the Holy Spirit first descending upon Christ’s disciples. It is also the last day of the Easter season—meaning it falls on the fiftieth day after Easter. Pentecost is also proclaimed as the birth of the church. 

I believe church isn’t just the thing we do for an hour and a bit on Sunday but something we are every day of the week. We, the Church, are the bride of Christ and we represent him in our families, our communities and our workplaces.  

I also reckon we need to keep meeting together because that is the time when we hear the word of God explained to us, we get to thank Jesus for being with us in the past week, and we have the opportunity to encourage each other as we walk with Jesus in the coming week.  And when we walk with Jesus, we have his power and wisdom as we take his love to those who are hurting, those who need forgiveness and to those who are without hope.

But you shall receive power (ability, efficiency, and might) when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you shall be My witnesses in Jerusalem and all Judea and Samaria and to the ends (the very bounds) of the earth.  Acts 1:8

How to walk in victory

‘But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ’. 1 Corinthians 15:57

More than anything else in life, a Christian needs to walk in victory.  But sometimes victory seems to akin to a mirage in the desert, especially when you are going through tough times.  However, God is not asking you to create your own victory nor struggle alone in the wilderness. 

I reckon God is asking us to stay close to him. He wants to pour words of love into each of our hearts and sing songs of love over each of our lives.  

But how do we do we hear him when everything else in the world screams for our attention? 

I believe we need to ask the Holy Spirit to give us ears to hear his voice and eyes to see his presence in our lives.  We also need to be intentional about worshiping Jesus and spending time with him in prayer.  And it’s about recognising that we need Jesus to stand up for us when we can’t stand up for ourselves. 

When we walk with Jesus in our everyday lives, then we walk in victory everyday.

God's Masterpiece

 “For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things He planned for us long ago.” Ephesians 2:10

I’m not an artist but I really admire works of art and the creativity behind them. 

When you think about it, a painting doesn’t have to actually do anything to earn the love of the artist. The artist doesn’t love it because it receives a special award or earns him money in an auction. No, the artist loves the painting because he created it with his own hands exactly the way he wanted it.

You are God’s greatest masterpiece and you are loved with a passion. All you need to do is remember how loved you are and how free you are to walk in that love.

Christian Disciplines and Why you don't have to do any of them.

“So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live your lives in him” Colossians 2:6

Have you ever heard the term ‘Christian Disciplines’?  Christian disciplines usually refer to a list of things you have to do to maintain your Christian walk and to me it all sounds pretty boring. 

In my opinion, the Christian life should be anything but boring.  At the risk of being controversial, I will say that that a Christian doesn’t have to do a single thing in their walk with God.

We don’t have to read the Bible but we get to read words which are both God inspired and breathed.

We don’t have to go to church but we get to gather with other believers and celebrate Jesus together.

We don’t have to pray but we get to talk to our Daddy God and hear his voice.

We don’t have to worship Jesus but we get to lift his name on high.

We don’t have to do anything but we get to do everything.  And I reckon it makes our Daddy God’s heart sing when we come to him by choice and not because we feel we have to do it.