Christian Life
Christian Life
Monday Jul 26, 2021
The Lord is my Shepherd
Monday Jul 26, 2021
Monday Jul 26, 2021
‘The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not want. He makes me to lie down in green pastures… Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me.’ The valley of the shadow is where the light of the sun is cut off. I love walking in the mountains. On the mountain top the sun can be bright, but when you drop down into that valley, there’s no sunlight, it can’t penetrate the valley walls – that is the valley where the light of the sun is cut off! I want to tell you that wherever you go in your life, whatever trial, whatever problem, whatever difficulty you are going through – even if you feel the light of the sun is cut off – then God will not fail you. He says His rod and His staff will comfort you, and you will come safely through.
Friday Jul 23, 2021
Delighting in the Lord, Pt 2 (Psalm 37 & 63)
Friday Jul 23, 2021
Friday Jul 23, 2021
I love the promises in Psalms. There comes a time in your life and mine when only God can satisfy. In my teenage years my prayer was, “My flesh longs for You Lord, I’m thirsting for You, I’m hungry for You,” – but more, the next verse, I’ve never forgotten it, “to see Your Power and Your Glory, NOW, as I have seen You in the past, in the sanctuary” – this is my heart’s desire, NOW! That just as I have seen the Power of God in the past, I want to see MORE, NOW, IN THE FUTURE. I have to live, I cannot die, they can’t take me until I see Your Power, Your Glory, NOW – GREATER THAN ANYTHING I HAVE SEEN IN THE PAST!
Monday Jul 19, 2021
Delighting in the Lord, Pt 1, (Psalm 1)
Monday Jul 19, 2021
Monday Jul 19, 2021
When our delight is in the Lord, there will be a tangible, physical evidence! We will be like a tree planted by rivers of water that brings forth fruit in season! Our leaves shall not wither! And whatever we do shall prosper! That’s a phenomenal promise and encouragement!
'Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor stands in the path of sinners, nor sits in the seat of the scornful; but his delight is in the law of the Lord, and in His law he meditates day and night. He shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that brings forth its fruit in its season, whose leaf also shall not wither; and whatever he does shall prosper.' (Psalm 1.1-3, NKJV)
Friday Jul 16, 2021
The Coming of the Lord
Friday Jul 16, 2021
Friday Jul 16, 2021
The Lord’s Coming is as a thief in the night. But for the believer, the Apostle Paul teaches that we should be living in expectation and anticipation of that Great Day, because in 1 Thessalonians 5 verse 4, he writes, “YOU, brethren, are NOT in darkness that that day should overtake you as a thief!” Paul is saying, as far as the world is concerned, the Coming of Christ will be a sudden unexpected happening – but you, brothers and sisters in Christ, should not be in such darkness that the Coming of the Lord will overtake you as a thief! The suddenness of the Coming of the Lord is a shock to the world, but not so to the Believer, who should be expecting it, because we are children of the Light and children of the Day.
Friday Jul 02, 2021
What is your inheritance through Christ, Part 3
Friday Jul 02, 2021
Friday Jul 02, 2021
Why did God bring Israel out of Egypt into the Land by such a difficult route? They could have gone a different way. But God WANTED them to cross the Red Sea. Firstly, because it needed a miracle that God opened the waters, and once the Israelites had crossed over, there was no way back! But secondly, in opening the waters, the Egyptian army – at that time, the most powerful army in the world – was drawn into the sea with all its might, its chariots and warriors – so that when God released the pent-up water, the whole of the Egyptian army was drowned! The power of the enemy was destroyed!
I believe the Red Sea typifies the Blood of Christ. God opens a way into the Promised Land through the Blood of Christ – and also destroys the power of the enemy! But we have to fight to possess the land. I challenge you – your life needs to be a spiritual battle. The reason I have so much strength and health at my age it because I haven’t finished the battle yet!
Monday Jun 28, 2021
What is your inheritance through Christ? Part 2
Monday Jun 28, 2021
Monday Jun 28, 2021
So many look at the Promises of Scripture, at the Promises of Pentecost, and they say, “That’s for the past, it’s historic, it doesn’t apply today.” It is so easy to know what is in the Bible, but then dismiss it. We read it, study it, preach it, ‘spiritualise’ it, until there is a danger that we make it mean something else. But everything in the Bible can happen today! Don’t limit God. I want to challenge you to a new kind of faith. We are commanded to go in and possess all the blessings which God has promised.
1 Corinthians 12:31 says, ‘Covet the best gifts’. When I first received the Holy Spirit, I was thinking, “What gifts do I want?” I said, “Lord, more than anything else, give me the Gift of Faith” – because I saw that one gift as the major key that would open the door into all the rest of them! I can never claim to have the Gift of Faith, because I want to tell you quite bluntly, that gift is only as good as your ‘today’ – you have only got the Gift of Faith if you can put it into action today!!!
Friday Jun 25, 2021
What is your inheritance through Christ? Part 1
Friday Jun 25, 2021
Friday Jun 25, 2021
What is our inheritance through Christ? According to Paul in Ephesians, our inheritance down here is the Power of the Holy Spirit to fulfil the ministry of Jesus. Yet the Scripture is also very clear – we DO inherit the land! The question is, which ‘land’ do we inherit? The Gospel message we preach is of the Kingdom of Heaven. Scripture is clear, the teaching of Jesus is clear – our inheritance is in Heaven. In that sense, our inheritance is not in this time period on earth – it’s in the Kingdom of God!
Monday Jun 07, 2021
Monday Jun 07, 2021
We have to accept suffering. We need to teach this more to Christians, that suffering is an ‘acceptable’ part of our lives. We are called to KNOW Christ, the Power of His Resurrection – AND the fellowship of His sufferings! If you are called to suffer – it is because Christ suffered! You don’t hear me grumbling about the fact that I was in a communist prison for one year. The fact that I didn’t suffer any after effects is because when I came out, I was filled with the Glory of the Resurrection! I know what cancer is, I’ve had it twice – but God took it away! I’ve had so many other things. But I have health, and I’m not afraid of suffering. In the early days of my Bible smuggling, people were afraid for me, “What are you doing? You’re going behind the Iron Curtain, you’re going to be put in prison!” But what is that? Jesus got put in a prison! If I go in a prison, I’m only sharing HIS suffering. Paul is passionate about identifying himself with Christ’s suffering, even to His death.
Friday Jun 04, 2021
Friday Jun 04, 2021
Our experience in Christ cannot be defined by obedience to physical observances and ceremonies. Today so many within the Church call themselves ‘Christians’, not because of a born again experience, a new birth, but simply because they are adhering to the teachings and traditions, of the ‘Church’. Church, as the world sees it, is more identified by its ceremonial, than by the reality of the new birth. So many things are considered to be the way into salvation, even the Roman Catholic Mass (communion) is seen as a sacrament, adding grace upon grace each time it is received. I take communion, I’m sure you do, but this does not replace Christ’s command that, in order to enter into your salvation and to see the Kingdom of God, you must be born again!
Monday May 31, 2021
Who Jesus really is and why He came (John 3:16) Pt 3
Monday May 31, 2021
Monday May 31, 2021
Our God SO LOVED! It’s not ordinary love, it’s not human love. Young people get so taken up with what they think is ‘love’, but it’s infatuation. Love, real love is something deeply emotional, life-consuming, life-changing. Jesus didn’t just say God ‘loved’ the world, but that God SO LOVED THE WORLD THAT HE GAVE! He gave the most precious thing that He had. And what God wants you to do is give back to Him the most precious thing you have – your own life, your own soul – that’s what He wants in return! Give yourself to Christ!
Friday May 28, 2021
Who Jesus really is and why He came (John 3:16) Pt 2
Friday May 28, 2021
Friday May 28, 2021
We are ‘two times’ God’s!!! He made us. And when we were launched onto the ocean of the world, when we were caught by the wind and blown far away, the Bible says, we were lost! And the only way God could get us back was to find us, pay the price and buy us back! So now we belong to God two times! Firstly, because He made us, and secondly, at an incredible price, He paid a ransom!
There is a story I love to tell. It’s about a boy who, with his dad, made a toy sailing boat. They carved the wood and shaped it, painted it, made sails for it – took it to the seaside and launched it. It was wonderful! It was floating and the wind caught the sail – and took the boat out of reach! They couldn’t get it back. It was lost! The boy was so sad. A few days later, looking in a shop window in the town, he saw a boat – HIS boat! He went into the shop, “Hey! That’s my boat in the window, I made it!” The shopkeeper said, “You can’t have it, it’s mine! I bought it. If you want it, you’ll have to pay the price!” The boy went back home in despair. Of course the father gave him the money, the boy went back to the shop, and now, clutching his boat tight to his chest, he ran home, shouting to his parents, “This is my boat! It’s two times mine!!! Because I made it, and because I bought it back!!!”
Friday May 21, 2021
Knowing the perfect Will of God (Romans 12) Part 3
Friday May 21, 2021
Friday May 21, 2021
“We are all members of one Body in Christ, and everyone members of one another. We, being many, are one Body”, and although we have different gifts, we should employ the gifts as God gives us the grace! This is the Body of Christ; we are united not just in ‘love’ – but honouring and respecting the ministry of the others. Paul also urges us to “Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, instant in prayer…” and to “Bless those who persecute you, bless and curse not!” It is all part of our Christian witness and service.
Monday May 17, 2021
Knowing the perfect Will of God (Romans 12) Pt2
Monday May 17, 2021
Monday May 17, 2021
The perfect Will of God is something which is in your heart to do! According to the measure of faith He has given you. Wherever you are, God is with you. But is where you are right now simply according to your mind and your will – or according to the perfect Will of God? When I launch out and do some of the crazy things I do, people ask me, “How much time did you pray? And did God tell you to do it?” But so often I’ve done it because it’s in my heart!
Friday May 14, 2021
Knowing the perfect Will of God (Romans 12) Part 1
Friday May 14, 2021
Friday May 14, 2021
What is the Will of God for your life? Speaking to the Christians in Rome, Paul says in his letter to the Romans, Chapter 12:1, “I beseech you therefore brethren, by the mercies of God, present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.” When I was growing up, we used to sing a song, ‘Lay your life on the altar for God’! I don’t hear this teaching from preachers today. Later Paul was to literally lay his life on the altar, he died as a martyr in Rome. But here Paul sees that as followers of Christ – and he’s appealing to us – to lay our lives on the altar of sacrifice!
Monday Apr 26, 2021
Called and set apart for a specific purpose (Romans 1:1-12, Pt2)
Monday Apr 26, 2021
Monday Apr 26, 2021
We need to pray one for another, encouraging each other in the faith. The Apostle Paul exhorted in Romans 1:9-12, “God is my witness, that without ceasing I make mention of you in my prayers that I may be able to come to you, that I may impart to you some spiritual gift, to establish you, so that TOGETHER we may be comforted by our mutual faith.” This has been one of the problems with the lockdowns, when we haven’t had the normal services – because the whole purpose of our faith and our meeting together is to strengthen one another. Not to criticise, not to condemn, but to come together to build ourselves up, to grow spiritually in the faith.
Friday Apr 23, 2021
Called and set apart for a specific purpose (Romans 1:1-12, Pt1)
Friday Apr 23, 2021
Friday Apr 23, 2021
We are called and set apart for a purpose: it is a divine calling. We are to regard ourselves as a servant of Jesus Christ, following the Master’s Voice. Jesus Himself said, “Many are called, but few are chosen!” We need to serve in such a way as to be considered worthy of the calling of Christ.