Posts

Mercy

“But you, dear friends, as you build yourselves up in your most holy faith and pray in the Holy Spirit, keep yourselves in the love of God, expecting the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ for eternal life. Have mercy on those who doubt; save others by snatching them from the fire; have mercy on others but with fear, hating even the garment defiled by the flesh.” ‭‭Jude‬ ‭1‬:‭20‬-‭23‬ ‭HCSB‬‬ Jude was a brother of Jesus. He has spent that last 16 verses speaking against false believers, their attitudes and behaviours. Now he encourages the true believers. Do you make time for those who doubt and are weak in faith? Do you find their moaning difficult? Do you find their self-preoccupation challenging? Then have mercy! Don’t criticise or judge.  We need to rescue these! Challenge their faith by all means but do it in love. To do this we must spend time with the Lord and be charged up in faith. Amen!

Clean

“Keep creating in me a clean heart. Fill me with pure thoughts and holy desires, ready to please you.” ‭‭Psalms‬ ‭51‬:‭10‬ ‭TPT‬‬ I am grateful that the Lord has given me a new heart, a heart that wants to please Him. I am grateful He has given me His Holy Spirit within that instructs me and guides me. However, I cannot take Holy Spirit for granted but honour and treat Him with respect. It is Him I must please, not myself. As I come to prayer with gratitude for His goodness and His purpose for this day I am blessed with an awareness of Him. He is good! Thank you Holy Spirit for your presence. You are my holiness, my goodness, my righteousness. Thank You for Your direction today. Lead me and guide me as to how to please you today. Amen! 

The Sabbath

““Remember to observe the Sabbath day by keeping it holy.”  Exodus‬ ‭20‬:‭8‬ ‭NLT‬‬ There are some Christians who believe they should respect the Sabbath, while others do not. What is the truth? When Jesus was asked what the greatest commandment was, He replied: ‘to love the Lord your God with your whole heart, soul and mind, and there was another like it, love your neighbour as yourself’.  He was often accused of breaking the Savbath, according to religious traditions. What did the apostles teach? Hebrews talks about another rest, that rest is found in Christ (Hebrews 4:9-10). Paul admonished the Galatians for trying to earn points by observing special days (Gal 4:9-11) and he also dealt with this in his epistle to the Colossians 2:16-17. So what should we do on Sunday? Remember the Lord and gather to celebrate Him. Christ is our rest! Amen! Sunday is a day when I go to church and spend time with friends to eat and relax. 

Like Jesus

“This is how love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment: In this world we are like Jesus.” 1 John‬ ‭4‬:‭17‬ ‭NIV‬‬ I have to remind myself, always, to live in God’s love for me. As I abide in Him I love. If I am not abiding I do not love, I tolerate. Toleration comes to an end and then I become nasty. I speak unkindly. I am not representing Jesus but rather my flesh. I, daily read an excerpt from Watchman Née, a Chinese minister who spent most of his life in prison. He had a deep understanding of the scripture and what it meant to be a Christian. He talked about living out of the light inside. I liken this to having the Lord’s compassion and loving from that. The light he talked about was the illumination that the Lord gives. We are called to be lights. However, if we do not abide in Him our flesh is in control and there is not light within us. As I fellowship with the Holy Spirit within He shows me the Way of Jesus, as I allow Him to pray thr...

Waging war

“We are human, but we don’t wage war as humans do. We use God’s mighty weapons, not worldly weapons, to knock down the strongholds of human reasoning and to destroy false arguments. We destroy every proud obstacle that keeps people from knowing God. We capture their rebellious thoughts and teach them to obey Christ.”  2 Corinthians‬ ‭10‬:‭3‬-‭5‬ ‭NLT‬‬ I have been presented with a problem. Unknown to me my colleague invited along his father to Sindhulpalchok. His father has a drinking problem. The area we are in has a problem with alcoholism. I am seeking to minister into that problem and have been, it seems, compromised. If that was not bad enough my colleague took his father with him to the school we are running a program on trafficking. When he showed me the vidoe of the classroom and I saw his father sitting in the classroom I was horrified.  It seems I have a decision to make. I spoke to my colleague in private and told him it was never to happen again. He agreed! However...

Be the blessing!

“And this same God who takes care of me will supply all your needs from his glorious riches, which have been given to us in Christ Jesus.” Philippians‬ ‭4‬:‭19‬ ‭NLT‬‬ Paul is writing this to the Philippians who had given to him generously. They were already givers. He was responding to their generousity.  Imagine someone gives you a generous gift, right out of left field. It is way beyond anything you could imagine. You were in need and they were promoted by God to send it to you. How grateful would you be? This was how Paul was. I want to be the recipients of God’s promptings to give because He then blesses ‘preseed down and shaken together will be poured onto my lap!’ I want to experience His abundance. On Monday I went under prompting from the Lord to a Methodist Seminary School to sponsor a young man from an area called a Mugu, which is in the North West of Nepal. This young man was from a Tibetan tribe here in Nepal called Karmarong. He had never met me before and he wondered...

Guard your heart

“Guard your heart above all else, for it determines the course of your life.” Proverbs‬ ‭4‬:‭23‬ ‭NLT‬‬ Do we really take this verse seriously? Are we too easily angered? Are we too easily wasted by popular opinion? Are we more responsive to negative comments from others or do we relish the positive? I am on the bright side of the fence. Even when bad things happen I look for the seed of change. I might be laid out for a short while but pull back and seek my God in what is next. I read a Napoleon Hill book over the past few days and he was much like me in attitude. It was written in the mid 1900’s but is very relevant to attitudes of success. A positive mental attitude is one of the attributes he speaks about. My heart is really the dwelling place of my God and I must see things from His perspective. I cannot allow bitterness, resentment, self-pity etc to dwell there. He is none of those things. As you read the Old Testament and in particular the book of Kings you see the kings who wer...