A testimony to the saving grace of Jesus Christ. He is no respecter of a person's lineage, level of education, social status, financial status or anything else with which this world defines an individual. The Bible says that ALL have sinned and come short of the glory of God. There is pardon for ALL in the blood of Jesus Christ and ALL are given the privilege of sons & daughters of the Most High God. Through Jesus we are heirs to all the promises in the living Bible.
"How terrible it will be for anyone who causes others to sin. Temptation to do wrong is inevitable, but how terrible it will be for the person who does the tempting." - Matthew 18:7
These are words from the mouth of Jesus Christ as we read in the new testament book of Matthew. These words made me reflect on my life...
As a parent, do my actions reflect love or harshness that will bring my children closer to God or drive them away from God?
Do my actions show that it is out of love for their good or would it drive them away to someone else, something else, to seek the love and approval a child looks for in a parent?
Do they feel threatened or protected? How can I be loving, yet stern so that I can nurture them to grow up to be responsible, caring and God fearing individuals?
As a husband, do my actions make my wife question the love of Christ? Do my words tear her down or build her up? Does she find the love and security a woman looks for in her husband or would it drive her away to find it somewhere else?
In the world I work, is God reflected in my interactions with my co-workers?
Among strangers, will my actions reflect my God?
To my neighbor, will Christ be reflected in me?
LORD, I need your grace to finish this race and see your face in eternity!
One of the most powerful stories I have ever heard on the nature of the human heart is told by Malcolm Muggeridge. Working as a journalist in India, he left his residence one evening to go to a nearby river for a swim. As he entered the water, across the river he saw an Indian woman from the nearby village who had come to have her bath. Muggeridge impulsively felt the allurement of the moment, and temptation stormed into his mind. He had lived with this kind of struggle for years but had somehow fought it off in honor of his commitment to his wife, Kitty. On this occasion, however, he wondered if he could cross the line of marital fidelity. He struggled just for a moment and then swam furiously toward the woman, literally trying to outdistance his conscience. His mind fed him the fantasy that stolen waters would be sweet, and he swam the harder for it. Now he was just two or three feet away from her, and as he emerged from the water, any emotion that may have gripped him paled into insignificance when compared with the devastation that shattered him as he looked at her.
“She was old and hideous...and her skin was wrinkled and, worst of all, she was a leper....This creature grinned at me, showing a toothless mask.” The experience left Muggeridge trembling and muttering under his breath, “What a dirty lecherous woman!” But then the rude shock of it dawned upon him—it was not the woman who was lecherous; it was his own heart.
- Ravi Zacharias, Can Man Live Without God
1Peter 5:8-9 - Stay alert! Watch out for your great enemy, the devil. He prowls around like a roaring lion, looking for someone to devour. Stand firm against him, and be strong in your faith. Remember that your family of believers all over the world is going through the same kind of suffering you are.
A feeling of emptiness had crept inside of me. I was on my knees one evening not having any motivation to pray or even knowing what to pray for. The year had been one of the biggest challenges in my Christian walk. God commands his people to be holy for He said He is holy. And on my knees I knew I had been failing miserably.
As I was there on my knees not knowing how to pray for holiness, God reminded (a random thought that came into my mind) me of what I’d been doing about my diabetes. How regimented I was becoming about managing it. Monitoring my blood glucose levels at set intervals, documenting it and making the necessary adjustments to my diet to bring it in control or keep it in control.
Earlier this year I had my physical and the results were not pretty. So I'd decided to watch my diet more carefully starting late October, keeping track of my blood glucose levels before and three hours after every meal. This allowed me to see the effect of what I ate. Based on the results I adjusted what I ate and drank. I also started researching about various diets that would help me keep my diabetes in check, yet retain muscle mass. Through trial and error, I was figuring out what worked for me to get the results I desired. In November 2008 I'd decided to trust in God rather than on medicine.
Holiness, I was reminded on my knees, similarly needs the individual to continually check and see where they stand. If something is not right (be truthful to yourself!), make the necessary corrections. Feed on / meditate on God’s word (the Bible) regularly so that you know what’s right and what’s not (Joshua 1:8). Be in communication with God, through prayer, so that your mind is in tune with godly things. Keep at it - check yourself continually. See where you are going off course. Correct your thoughts and desires. Control your passions. God’s word says pray always so that it becomes second nature. And you will be able as Christ to overcome the lust of the eye (covetousness - desiring the riches of the world, material riches), lust of the flesh (the appetite for indulging in all things that excite and inflame sensual pleasures) and human pride (the craving for the grandeur & pomp of life, thirsting for honor & applause).
In the book of Colossians 5:17, apostle Paul reminds us that the two forces, our holiness & our sinful nature, are constantly at battle. Our choices are never free from this conflict. But take heart, for Christ said since he’s overcome the world, we shall too. He’s a man of his word! So, help me God.
For the past several months life's been teaching me who I am and what I am not as a person, and a little more understanding of Christ my savior. Stumbling along on this Christian walk, I feel weighed down with my lack of faithfulness in my relationship with a God to whom I owe it all, and for all that he has done for me, I come up short in my gratitude to him. I am flawed and my testimony is flawed. Though I want to love and follow this Christ with my whole being, I find myself lacking in my daily walk. I find it hard to be faithful to a God whom I have not seen with my eyes, touched with my hands, nor spoken to and heard from in a human voice. Even so, I have felt his presence time and again, have heard his counsel through the Bible, and have been led down life's pathways not knowing where I was headed, only to look back and see with amazement that I have been mysteriously led along a path unchartered, yet to the right destination. In circumstances beyond my ability to control, my experiences have led me to feel the presence of this omnipresent, omniscient, omnipotent, sovereign being who has guided me through all aspects of my life - the good times, the bad times and the ugly times.
What does it mean to really love God. To really love God, Christ says that you have to love him with all your heart, all your mind, all your strength and all your soul. And equally important, Christ says, that you love your neighbor as yourself. This, Christ says, is the first and foremostof God's commands. How does one love God with all of one's heart, all of one's mind, all of one's soul and all of one's strength? How can it be done in our daily walk as we face the daily, hourly challenges that life throws at us? The peaks and valleys of our lives, the carnal desires of our heart, the selfish desires, the lustful pleasures that the body craves - whether it's food, alcohol, drugs, sex, or anything else. The prideful desires for wealth, fame, prestige and adoration. These crowd God out of our hearts.
No matter, this seems to be the normal course for every man's life. Yet we can overcome these, and moment by moment fulfill the first and foremost command in the Bible to truly love God. This is where the three temptations of Christ and why he went through them makes sense. First, the three temptations of Christ - the lust of the flesh, the lust of the heart and man's pride that he overcame with God's word (God's commands in the Bible) and his relationship with Father God, are lessons for us to take to heart. The lessons of prayer, fasting and meditation on God's word. Secondly, how Christ loved his neighbor, not the pharisees and the religious right wingers, but the blind, the deaf, the lame, the cripple, the sick, the lepers, the prostitute, the destitute and the marginalized ones of society, showing them through his love and compassion, his way of life, the pathway to salvation. This is our roadmap on how to truly love God. Daily overcoming the temptations of life and loving our neighbor as ourselves. Loving your neighbor is not just loving your brother/sister at home or in the church, rather how do you show another, someone who doesn't know Christ, the pathway to salvation that you so dearly want for yourself.
I find it encouraging that the man who wrote a good portion of the new testament in the Bible, apostle Paul, cries out to God to help him overcome a thorn in his flesh, that may have affected his christian walk; an infirmity, whatever that may be whether physical or mental the Bible does not say. In 2 Corinthians, chapter 12, we read Paul's writing,
"7 And lest I should be exalted above measure by the abundance of the revelations, a thorn in the flesh was given to me, a messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I be exalted above measure. 8 Concerning this thing I pleaded with the Lord three times that it might depart from me. 9 And He said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore most gladly I will rather boast in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. 10 Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in needs, in persecutions, in distresses, for Christ’s sake. For when I am weak, then I am strong. "
God's answer to Paul's pleas was not by removing the "thorn in the flesh," but to let him know that his grace was sufficient to live with it and conquer it on a daily basis. A promise, that in good times, bad times and ugly times of our lives, God was not going to let go of us, but in our weak moments, his strength, his grace would keep us moving forward. Christ has a personal agenda for each of our lives. As the author and finisher of our faith (Hebrews 12:1-3), he takes a personal responsibility to make sure that we finish this journey of life victoriously. Christ's prayer in the book of John, chapter 17, for his disciples and all future believers is an attestation to this. The only one mentioned to be lost in this chapter was Judas Iscariot. Yet I believe he would have been pardoned if he had asked for God's forgiveness.
Each day in our life we will be faced with the same temptations that Christ faced. Some folks will be strong in dealing with some aspects of these temptations in life, but none is strong in all aspects of these temptations that each of us will face at one point or another in our lives. The hope that we have in Christ is that since he has overcome all temptations, his grace will be sufficient at our time of need. Ask God without any reservations, ask him bluntly (for no sugarcoating of our predicament in life is needed in front of an omniscient God) to help as you face your thorn(s) in the flesh. The bible says that it is very personal to God when it comes to his children, for his glory is what's at stake. It's personal to God when it comes to your life.
We need to be sincere in our asks to God each day, and know that there will be missteps and falls along the way, but you will find a God who keeps every promise he's ever made to mankind. He will keep us standing each day as we put our faith in him to help us with the thorn(s) in our flesh. As you face and overcome the temptations in your life on a daily basis, with God's grace, you will find yourself loving this God with more of your heart, more of your mind, more of your strength and more of your soul; and loving your neighbor as yourself.
May our prayers each day be the prayer of David, "Search me oh God and know my heart, test me and know my thoughts. Point out within me all that displeases you and lead me along the paths of everlasting life." - Psalms 139. And one day we will stand in front of him loving and worshipping him with all our heart, all our mind, all our strength and all our soul; and that neighbor you loved as yourself will be standing beside you. And His grace which is sufficient will make this happen!
As a Christian, the act of suicide, or even assisted death (euthanasia), questions the "sovereignty" of God. It is the culmination of the thought that God is helpless in the individual's life. This action questions and diminishes the omnipotence, omniscience, and omnipresence of a sovereign God. The act of suicide (which is an individual and very personal decision) amounts to a denial of the sovereignty of God. This act seems to me the ultimate sin as the individual has denied God for who he is and rejected God's ultimate purpose for his/her life. What recourse is there when life comes to an end? Times of great challenges will come in our lives. The Bible is peppered with characters like you and I, who've had times of great anxieties and fear, where they wanted their lives to end. The bible talks of prophets, powerful men of God who performed great miracles, and yet during times of great disappointments in life or fear, prayed to God to end their lives wishing their suffering would end right away. But God had a plan for them. It is as we journey through our darkest period, the valley of shadow of death (Psalms 23), we experience the sovereign God if you put your trust in him. A God who is all capable in all circumstances. I would encourage you to put your trust in God, Jehovah, to see you through your situation. Read the Bible and pray. And your trust will not be misplaced. In the Bible in 1 Peter 5:7 we read apostle Peter encouraging us to "cast all our anxieties on Christ for he cares for us" and may we draw encouragement from Psalms 121 where the author writes...
1I lift up my eyes to the mountains— where does my help come from? 2 My help comes from the Lord, the Maker of heaven and earth.
3 He will not let your foot slip— he who watches over you will not slumber; 4 indeed, he who watches over Israel will neither slumber nor sleep.
5 The Lord watches over you— the Lord is your shade at your right hand; 6 the sun will not harm you by day, nor the moon by night.
7 The Lord will keep you from all harm— he will watch over your life; 8 the Lord will watch over your coming and going both now and forevermore.
