A Key Insight into Challenges and Maturity

A Key Insight into Challenges and Maturity

The apostle John celebrates the fact that we're all in differing stages of development [see 1 John 2:12-14]. The point isn't to dwell on how weak or immature we are currently; it's that we're all in process, and our goal is to become fully grown and mature persons. The apostle Peter said... "Like newborn babies, crave pure spiritual milk, so that you may grow up in your salvation, now that you have tasted that the Lord is good" (1 Peter 2:2-3).  The pure spiritual milk Peter refers to can only be attained through Scripture. Our heavenly Father loves us as we love our own children, and he longs for us to mature just as we desire growth and maturity for our own sons and daughters.

Eye opener..

There is a certain tendency of sin to blind a person into ignoring the sins we commit on a daily basis, and because we have not been found out, we think it is alright.

I have been or rather, am in one such scenario myself. One that has sort of shaken me to say, what are you doing Yvonne?

The small meeting I had with a work colleague brought me back to reality, and the fact that I had to put a straight face and lie, really made me sit down and ask questions.

What qualifies me??

Global Media Outreach posted this in my inbox and i looked at the newsletter. In the state that i have been in the past few weeks, I felt the message speaking to me. In fact, I can feel the heat welling up in my body as I note this down, and the only thing i can say is: Only God knows that you qualify, not what you are able to do or where you have been. It is only how willing you are to allow God to lead you forward. Let him cause none of us can ever be qualified in the face of God. No one is qualified for the kingdom, even if you try...


Have you ever been to a job interview where they ask you, “What qualifies you for this position?” You might go on and on about what makes you the best employee they could ever have, desperately hoping for the position.

However, we often do the opposite with God. He comes to you and says, “I have a great plan for your life. I want you to reach many people with My love and display My glory.” And you say, “Not me, God. I can’t do that. I have too much sin, too many weaknesses. You have the wrong person. Pick him over there…he never makes the mistakes I do.”

10 Reasons to Celebrate

If anybody on earth has the right to celebrate, it is those of us who have committed our lives to Christ and been accepted into God’s family! Just think of all God has done for us! As we trust in Jesus Christ we are: given a new life of purpose and significance forgiven for every sin, mistake, and failure loved unconditionally and accepted by God provided with a spiritual family for our support set free from worry because God is in control offered God's power to overcome hurts, habits, and hang-ups equipped with spiritual gifts, talents, and abilities to use protected by all of God's promises supplied with everything we need guaranteed eternal life...

3 Lessons from Toppling the Outhouse

Many years ago, a little boy lived in the country, out in a rural part of West Texas... For facilities, his family had to use an outhouse, and the boy hated it because it was hot in the summer, cold in the winter, and stunk all the time... Well, one afternoon after a hard spring rain, the little creek [near the outhouse] became so swollen that the boy decided it was his perfect chance to get rid of the much-hated outhouse. [He pushed] until the outhouse toppled backward into the creek and floated away... 

He lifts me up..

We all get hurt in life in our relationships and interactions with other people.

I have been hurt, and I did some stupid things because I thought I was okay, yet I was not. I have kissed different men of different ages in a very short space of time. I didn’t want to admit it, but now I do, because I am not so proud of myself. The experience has left me with a terrible feeling.

I cried, asking him to see what he had made of me. I no longer knew myself. I had been shattered right to the core. And now I sit down and ask God – where were you? Why didn’t you protect me from this? I feel vulnerable, I feel exposed and I feel as though I have not been able to handle anyone who has given me that much attention.

Void in my heart

I have a deep seated distress within me. I have no idea how it has come to be, but I think I feel betrayed, I feel neglected, I feel I am lonely and I have this deep hunger for God to speak to me.

It has been two if not more months before I could actually fast and pray. Though, as a leader I have been thrust on the altar to lead in prayer, or song or to preach and have stood there and asked God to give his children what he wanted them to get, I feel my spiritual life has been either stagnant or regressing.

It has become even more difficult to go through the bible, and recently I was telling myself that I needed to memorise scripture so that I do not necessarily need to carry my bible. And here I am stuck between wanting to memoraise and not reading the bible at all.

Can We Heal on Our Own?

When a relationship goes the wrong way, you experience some sort of wounding inside. It may be mild, moderate, or severe, but there is hurt. You may feel used, let down, controlled, or put down, depending on what has happened. But it is a thoroughly negative experience. 

In and of itself, the existence of the wound is not a bad thing. In fact, it is a sign that you are alive and that the person meant something to you. If the person you love most looked at you and said, "I don't want you anymore," and you thought, Oh well, that's a choice you have a right to make, with no emotional response, that is a problem. 

Help me Lord

I have been feeling tired lately. Pitching up at home very late, sitting in the office till late, and I have been asking myself what for?

God I need your help!!

I am tired of a broken down home. I have held on, and I am still believing in your saving power Lord, but honestly speaking I am tired.

I don't know how long I can hold on father, I am only believing in you to bring the family back again. I am so lost, and I feel helpless, but I am holding on to your cloak because I have the confidence that hope in you does not dissapoint.

FAMILY CLOTHES

 

Colossians 3:12-14  Therefore, as God's chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. (NIV)
 
Families are often glad to pass clothing from one child to another. It is economical but also allows the older children to say, "I used to wear that": a sort of bonding with younger siblings. On the other hand, rebellious children can refuse to wear what is conventional for the family, and dress differently as a way of expressing that they do not respect the family values. What we wear identifies us: an external sign of our loyalties and values. Using that picture, Paul tell the believers in Colossae that they need 'new clothes' because they belong to Christ.

Prayer Like Dynamite

When faced with a dilemma or personal tragedy too large for any human being to handle, I have sometimes thrown up my hands and said: "All I can do is pray."  Over the years, I have come to realize how ridiculous such a statement really is. It's as though I were to become frustrated with a piggy bank I couldn't open and to say: "Well, all I can do is light this stick of dynamite and hope that it blows things apart."  That's what prayer is like - a spiritual explosive with the power to reconfigure the natural world.

Is Jesus a Lifeboat?

Jesus was never meant to be a lifeboat. He's the ship. He's not Plan B. He's not what is going to work if all else fails.  He is the ship. If we live our lives as though he is Plan B, we're not living the life God created us to live... When we shield little compartments from God and make our own plans, we choose the lifeboat over the ship. We may fool ourselves into thinking the lifeboat is part of the ship and we're still with the ship, but we have opted for Plan B.

An Unexpected Gift

For my birthday one year, my mother sent me a package wrapped in plain brown paper. When I opened it, there was a gaudy, multicolored [straw basket] stuffed with tissue paper.  I actually thought my mother had totally lost her good senses! I tossed out the tissue paper, wondered what in the world I was going to do with the basket, then called to thank her for her "gift." Mother laughed when I thanked her for the basket, then asked what I thought about what was inside it.  I told her that nothing was inside except tissue paper, and I had thrown that out. She responded urgently, "Oh, no, Anne! Inside that tissue paper is your real birthday gift!"

God Pursues You

You have never slipped God's mind. Even if you haven't thought about him since the last time you walked through a church door, he has been walking with you, watching you, talking to you.  And God has been trying his best to catch your eye because he pursues you. God doesn't pursue your country. He doesn't pursue your state or your town or even your church. He pursues you, just as he did the woman at the well [see John 4:4-42]. At times, I've had to come to God ... after creating my own solutions instead of seeking God's guidance and waiting on his answer. I entertain thoughts like:

The Ropes that Hold Us Down

[My friend] Orville finished the checklist [for liftoff]. The tower gave us the go-ahead. He glanced out the side window [of the plane] and blanched: "Oh my gosh! Look at that! We haven't untied the ropes! ...I can't believe we were getting ready to take off without untying the ropes! That's a good one." I wanted to get out of the plane...  If I am not yet living according to what I believe matters most, it is no accident. There are forces or habits that have a deep hold on me that I will have to get rid of.  The writer of Hebrews puts it like this: "Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us" [Hebrews 12:1].

DON'T BE DECEIVED

 

Colossians 2:8  See to it that no-one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the basic principles of this world rather than on Christ. (NIV)
The gospel is attractive to spiritually hungry people, and those who submit to Christ receive forgiveness, enter a new family and start a new life. But these spiritual infants are vulnerable and need to be protected. Paul knows that spiritual predators are always nearby waiting for an opportunity to hijack young believers. So he warns the church not to be moved away from Christ as their only hope.

These deceivers want to claim, capture and own people ... making them serve them and their cause. They use 'fine-sounding arguments' (Colossians 2:4) but their ideas are hollow: they deceive with empty promises. These liars use human ideas offering promises of security, favouritism or power in exchange for devotion, service and money. Looking at them objectively, they are simply running a business, trading in people. But they are spiritual frauds, offering a 'contract' of spiritual benefits in exchange for worldly assets of wealth, honour and obedience to human rules. 

God Uses Broken Vessels!

I cannot begin to tell you how many times I have been broken during my Christian walk and yet God continues to use me, He continues to love me and cherish me.

At the end of last year I was challenged by my own flesh playing up, the good that I wanted to do, I seemed not to do and the evil I didn’t want to do that kept on presenting itself. Feelings of frustration, un-forgiveness and resentment wanted to plague me for a season yet every time I tried to disqualify myself from the race, God would show me through His Word how many broken people were intricate parts of His family and plan for this earth and I really wasn’t any different.

Fear chokes the Word

Many lose the Word in their heart through fear, which is a manipulative tool of the enemy. Never give room to fear in your heart, for fear chokes the Word. Rather, through faith, receive the engrafted Word of God into your spirit and safeguard it therein.

Everything in life stems from the Word of God. God's Word, which encapsulates prosperity, health, success and victory is in your heart, and the devil is bent on stealing it from you. Therefore, you're to mount guard over your heart and safeguard the Word in your spirit.

The way to do this is through prayer and meditation. Meditation drives the Word deep into your spirit, causing your understanding to be broadened and as such the Word you've received stays. Prayer, on the other hand, concretizes it!

Through prayer your spirit is positioned and conditioned rightly to receive and retain God's Word. So, when you hear the Word, as you've done even now, don't neglect to drive it deep into your heart by meditation, and then concretize it with prayer! Otherwise, you could be creating an inroad for the enemy to steal it from you. Never let that happen.

Pastor Chris

Can This Wait?

Thomas Lynch is a mortician-poet who has written a surprisingly witty book called The Undertaking: Life Studies from the Dismal Trade.  He tells how often people instruct him about what kind of funerals they want, and his response is always the same: "The dead don't care."  One of them is a wealthy, worldly Irish priest who rides in a big car and has his eye on the cardinal's job. "No bronze coffin for me," he tells Lynch at the cemetery one day. "No orchids or roses or limousines.  The plain pine box is the one I want, a quiet Low Mass and the pauper's grave. No pomp and circumstance."

God is drawn to the diamonds -in- the- rough

You may have heard the phrase, “A diamond in the rough.” Usually, it is talking about that bad guy or girl who has lots of potential but so many rough edges. Some people have an eye for diamonds-in-the-rough; others dismiss them. But most people don’t know exactly what to do with them to make their true potential come out. They see good in there, but how do you chip away all of the hardened, rough rock surrounding it?

God knows exactly how to make diamonds come forth. It is His specialty, in fact. If you look at all of the people in the Bible He chose to work with for His plan, you’ll see soon that they are a bunch of diamonds-in-the-rough. Moses, for one, was chosen to be a speaker when he was a criminal ex-patriot with a speech problem. David was chosen to be King, though he was the least valued in his family and just a little shepherd. Mary was chosen to carry the King of Kings, Jesus, though she was poor and unmarried.

THE FULLNESS OF CHRIST

Colossians 2:9-10  For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form, and you have been given fullness in Christ, who is the Head over every power and authority. (NIV)
Christless religion keeps God and humanity remote from each other. That approach seems reasonable to imperfect people. It preserves the dignity of the deity, and protects weak humanity from the full force of the god's anger. It also suits any religious hierarchy by preserving mysteries which only they can understand and teach to others. But faith in Christ is totally different. Jesus Christ was God in a human body - offensive to some but gloriously liberating to those who receive Him.

What if God...?

I picked this one in my inbox the other day, and I thought, Oh my GOD! What if any one of these things were to happen due to negligence, ignorance and oversight? I hope you get inspiration to live for God daily, hourly, every second of your life.

What if God
Couldn't take the
Time to bless us
Today because  we
Couldn't take the
Time to thank Him
Yesterday?

GOSPEL PAIN

Colossians 2:1  I want you to know how much I am struggling for you and for those at Laodicea, and for all who have not met me personally. (NIV)

Paul is not ashamed of his personal struggling as a servant of the gospel. Everything which is worthwhile will involve some kind of suffering (the word used here is 'agona'). Examinations, athletics, construction and school teaching - they all have rewards when done excellently, but they will all involve struggle and suffering. Much time is sacrificed, skills are painfully refined, outcomes are clarified, strategies are devised, problems are anticipated; and everything is committed to the task irrespective of the cost - because the outcome is important.

A moment to weep

One way or the other, as humans, we are bound to break out. I have. I guess what I needed the most was just a moment to scream and shout and pray loudly. After so much time, staying in the house and just singing praises and hardly reading the bible, I felt an urge to just shout it all out.

I still am yet to do it - actually, I hope to do so this day when I walk into church. Why have I felt so?

There are these circumstances where as a leader, you need to be strong for those you lead. At times, you have to take the beatings and look alright. Though deep inside, one is vulnerable. I am torn between so many emotions and I really dont know how to deal with them. Maybe the best is to deal with one after the other - but i am not sure how to separate the emotions.

Dealing with self

As I pen this down, I feel totally bad, cause I know what it means to live with something that you shouldn't do, but you still do it. I am equally guilty of resorting to a self blemishing exercise each time i feel pressured, rejected, anxious, out of sorts and sad.

Do you know what sexual sins do to a person? They erode a bit of self, it is endulgence that can leave you empty, feel guilty, and each time you want to stop, you find yourself back at it again. And so much for trying to live a Godly life.

I wondered, why it gets to be so difficult to drop a bad habit picked up a long time ago, when no one knows about it, and when you just do it in protected privacy. Like you lock the door, so you don't get an unexpected visitor in the midst of your experience, like you wait up until everyone has gone to bed, or when you just feel lonely like I sometimes do, then you get back into that habit of your own, when no one else, but one watches.

God is watching us, nomatter how often we may try to run. God is watching.

It takes acknowledging that you have a problem, sharing it with someone you trust and working on stopping that seemingly litle yet significant habit.

Some preacher the other day spoke on the ten elements of integrity. What struck me was one of these elements, and i found myself asking God, why then do we find ourselves involved in sins of sexual nature??

Pornography, masterbation, prostitution, fornication, adultery,and many others that I may not know of are some of the sexual sins we commit and put our integrity on the line. We need to stop, we need to change, we need to be sexually pure in order to live a life of integrity.

How then are we able to defeat the devil when we deny our sins before God? Let us go before God in our weakness, and beg him to forgive us and purify us. It is in our vulnerability, sincerity and willingness to beg, that we find forgiveness, restoration and renewal in Christ.

You have to deal with those personal aspects of you that exposes you to the devil's whims. I am overly confident that God is unlike man that he should lie. He says in his word come to me for his yoke is lighter. Let us go before the almighty and beg for forgiveness, and beg for purity, and seek for a fresh start. God will always provide for that because he loves us, so much.

Dear Lord, we come to you in our weaknesses seeking purity from all sexual sins. We seek that the desire and quench be destroyed from my body for it is your temple Lord. We seek that your spirit overwhelms us in all dimensions to create a pure being who walks in integrity. Thank you for the love that you have shown by giving your only son to die for my sins. heal me, and purify me Lord that I may be a worthy and blemish - free sacrifice on the altar of grace, in Jesus name, Amen.

Thank you so much for admitting your wrongs.

God bless you and may he cleanse you, Amen.

The silence treatment..

Silence can just be the solution to many of our problems. Maybe we blow the trumpet a little bit earlier than we should. Maybe we are too arrogant to think about our actions, i mean, we are always right, right?

I set out to write this post some time last year, and i just left it at the first paragraph. So now when I was looking at it, i just wondered why?

Of course, we are human, and we react rather than respond to situations as they arise. Sometimes, the way we react usually is in bad taste. It is impulse reaction, and it can cause more damage than good. I was just reflecting on the book of James 3, and I realsied that the tongue indeed needs to be tamed.

...and hearing the word of God

So, just recently I sought to get back to reading the bible, from the very beginning. Well, I didn't. I ommitted the very first chapters and began reading from Genesis 9.

My issue is not really that I read the bible, but it is the conscious decision I made that I was going to try and read through a book and finish it and grasp the concept of where we are coming from and where we are going to, to find the premises and roots of all the figures we get later and deeper into the bible's pages.

It was quiet interesting, revealing and exposing at the same time going through the first book of the bible.

Does God Still Speak to Ordinary People?

August 3, 2010 Glynnis Whitwer

"All this I have spoken while still with you. But the Counselor, the Holy Spirit,

whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things

and will remind you of everything I have said to you." John 14:25-26 (NIV)

Devotion:

The Bible tells amazing stories of God speaking directly to humans. God walked and talked with Adam. He spoke through a burning bush to Moses, and God had direct messages for His people after speaking with the prophets of old. Growing up, I wondered if God had stopped speaking to normal people after Bible times. After all, I never heard Him speak.

GOD IS FAITHFUL

So many things have been happening lately - and especially this week. Just the week of my birthday was a milestone I guess. I had a particular heaviness in me and today, I am happy, but this happiness is also mixed with some grief. If this office was empty right now, i would cry my heart out and scream for joy, at the same time, praising loudly my God for ever being so faithful.

It sounds crazy I know that one can be sad and excited, jovial, happy at the same time. Like I always tell myself, God has a plan for all of us. We might not know it but the plan is always there.

That explains it...or does it?

A couple of das ago, i was burdened and felt sad, was it because I had a premonition of the theft that took place this morning at my house? Maybe.

So I got home, unusually early, slept on the sofa as there was no electricity. I was just too exhausted and wanted an early nap, which I got. I communicated with my friend for some time, before i called it quits and slept. I woke up around 1 am and checked the time, and this was going to be the last time i saw my phone.

Reflections on a ladder

by Yvonne Mashayamombe on Wednesday, May 11, 2011 at 3:58pm

Birthdays are meant to be fun, as one celebrates life. But today, I am not all excited, or happy or well. Not that I have no excitement or happiness or joy in me, but that I am just in a world i am not too sure where.

I have turned 24, and a lot has happened, whilst a lot more is still to happen.

Confirmation of his presence!!

So yesterday we had a Youth ministry session, more precise, a youth get - together with the societies in my circuit. The programme was organised by the circuit Youth Council, and there we were, in Aldersgate, praising God and launching the beginning of our youth week hey, which began yesterday.

This day, I was there in that place, not expecting to do anything except hear the word, but this is what happens, as I sing with other youth, just after the main service had ended and the elders had gone home, I was taken out from the midst of the people and asked "Do you mind leading the prayer session?", I was struck hey, and I said I didn't mind, but now I was scared that God, am I really worthy to stand before your children and lead in a prayer session??

Jesus and I...where am I?

It has been a very long while since I wrote on this blog, and just this morning I was asking myself why? Is it that I had run out of what to write?..But no, because God is doing something every second of my life. Is it that i felt incomplete?..well I did at some point. I felt as though I was merely talking about a God I didn't exactly know, but at the same time, I was also telling myself that knowing someone is not a one day event!!

Let me take a few steps back hey, and start looking at my personal life, the unions, relationships and friendships I have made. Frankly speaking, the people I call my friends are only a handful hey, just a few guys, say two...plus a whole barrage of people I talk to on a daily, weekly, monthly or yearly basis. Even friends on facebook that i have never met in my life, probably the closest we can get is through the posts we send on the wall!

But all the same, I have friends, two of them that I can call on at any given time.

Today, I am talking about the relationship we have with Christ Jesus. Who he is, who he is meant to be in our lives, and how much work for the kingdom we were to do had we accorded him the right place.

So who is Jesus?--- The only begotten son of God, to whom authority on earth and heaven has been given?

Is he the messiah we all need?

Indeed, Jesus is the way, the truth, the life, the light, the water, the saviour, the lamb, the lion of the tribe of Juda, oh Jesus is the same yesterday, today and forever, Jesus is the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, Jesus is timeless!!

I could go on and on hey because the whole 'religion' of christianity rests with this Jesus.

He is the first born to the dead, he is the redeemer of the world, he is the lamb that carries all our sins. He is Jehovha!!

The problem we have is SIN.

You see, sin has this tendency of shrinking God and puffing us up. Today, as I was brainstorming on my life, I realised that one too many a times I have reasoned with God, given myself the place of God in my limited view, and given him the post I think best suit him, but God is frighteningly above all. He is after all God, who created the heavens and earth, who knows every atom in my body and knows the amount of hair I have on my head, strand by strand. he is an all powerful God whose strength, knowledge, mercy and grace is unending- infinite he is hey.

That realisation has been fundamental in my life because, I made a decision that I am God's child and all authority has been given to me as co-heirs to Christ's kingdom. I am part of the chosen generation, the royal priesthood. I have been called to be part of God's kingdom through Christ!!

Back to my friends, I will mention that I have grown to love them, to appresiate them in their strength and weaknesses hey. It is through knowing them this much that measures my love for them. I will love them for those things that are 'lovable', and those that are 'unlovable'.

It is when we accept the person at their weakest that we have embraced the whole person hey. So, I was asking myself, how come God loves me with all my sins? How come God continues to hold my hand and lead me in paths that I have never seen myself walk through as if I am not stubborn enough??

God is merciful, and he is loving. I am so unsettled each time i try to be adventurous in his direction because everything about him poses a moral, physical and spiritual challenge around me.

I have failed to sleep at some point thinking about this guy, I have realised that, maybe consciously but more so unconsciously, when I am happy, I would wish he were there to share my happiness, when I am sad, I just want to share with him, when there really is nothing I want to talk with him, and I have asked God why it feels like a mountain climb just to establish something like that? i was asking him the other day, that most of the conversations are informal, when I just subconsciously engage him, but why is it that I am not giving him his proper, formal time to just spend together hey? Why is it so difficult to work with God through the highs and lows, the fats and thins of my life.

I guess it is always a question that lingers on unless I consciously make time, turn it into a habit and eventually mould my character.

I am inspired each time I read the bible and i get to the part where the protagonist go to pray, as was custom!! I want that too. To have a customised way of approaching God and still maintain our informal discussions!!

I need the Holy Spirit to be guiding all my decisions, my actions and my interractions.

To God be the glory..

YM.