Don't miss God's plan for solving problems between Christians

Matt 18:15 "Moreover if thy brother shall trespass against thee, go and tell him his fault between thee and him alone: if he shall hear thee, thou hast gained thy brother"

 

This is an issue that can be deadly to a church. If issues that affect the purity and unity of church's body are swept under the carpet, God cannot bless the church as He wants to. Do you have issues between a brother or sister that you know you must deal with? Like those that are years Have we been guilty of gossiping and backbiting more than going to that person involved immediately? If you have the tendency to express or air your concerns about someone to another person, I say it's best you stop it. And if you allow yourself to listen to someone share something bad or of great concern about someone, make up your mind to shut it down because it does not involve you at all. Tell that person to go directly to him or her. God's way as in Matt 18:15 an is always the only way. The church body will not suffer so much and be so weak if church members stop gossiping and be open directly with the person involved. May the Lord help us because revival cannot come if we are not united in soul and spirit!

 

 

Why can't we even obey ourselves?

Faith and Discipline works together! If we try to keep ourselves discipline to observe Joshua 1:8, we will all eventually burn out. That is why is it so important to apply faith(God-dependence) into all that we do. The Book of Proverbs says "the soul of the diligent shall be made fat." Do you know that can be applied to your devotions/QT? Most of us make commitments to Christ(doing devotions, meditation, memorization) but often fail to keep them after a while. Why? Because we simply don't believe in Joshua 1:8 or don't apply God-dependence in trying to keep Joshua 1:8. The fact is that many of us are still controlled by our feelings/body. Do you have your mind over body? When we set our alarm clock say at 730am (half hour earlier than normal to seek God in the Bible and prayer), do we end up pressing the snooze button or turning it off altogether? Who are we obeying? Obviously not our mind but our feelings/body. You know if Christians(little Christ) don't meet with Christ before we start the day, we often feel that something is missing throughout the day? We should never let anything come between our walk with God. "No walk, no talk!" We know it but often fail because we let our feelings and body control our mind. Someone said, "The first person we must learn to obey is God, the second is our mind." It will be hard to do that because we have been obeying our feelings and body so much but remember, "no pain, no gain!" May we learn to obey our minds despite our feelings and body. We will ruin our effectiveness for God and life if we keep on pampering our feelings and body. May the Lord show us our need for discipline(mind) and teach us total dependence on Him. You might not feel you are gaining much from keeping your time with God but you know what? Proverbs 13:4 and Joshua 1:8 are words of God and does work when we really trust and obey it! Plan and protect your devotional time with all the help of God and I can assure you - you will never regret because God wants to meet with you every day more than you want to meet with Him! Plan to wake up earlier so that you will have time for "God and I" time. If you don't have a bible reading plan, read a Proverb according to the date and make sure God gives you something or a verse to think about for the rest of the day. Trust me, it will be precious and helpful because God will surely meet your need and make you day meaningful! Just read Ps 119 and you will find out what David is talking about!  Stop thinking why you can't obey your own mind, take small steps of obedience right now. God is there to help. Remember you can do all things through Christ! Isn't that wonderful? I can't all the time but He can all the time when we depend on Him!

 

Proverbs 13:4 "The soul of the sluggard desireth, and hath nothing: but the soul of the diligent shall be made fat."

 

Joshua 1:8 "This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth, but thou shalt meditate therein day and night, that thou mayest observe to do according to all that is written therein, for then thou shalt make thy way properous, and thou shalt have good success." 

Put First things First

"If everything is important, then nothing is really important"

 

Many times, I find myself doing so many things that I end up getting nothing much done. I have learned that if everything is really so important then nothing is really important. Think about it. We can feel that we did alot but find out at the end of the day that we did nothing really important and meaningful to us. How you felt like that? I have! I am sure we do not want to work so hard and end up in regret because we neglected the important things. We must run our lives by what is important not urgent. Running on urgent-mode(fire-fighting all our lives) consistently usually leads to frustration and we all know that is not what God wants for us. God says "Seek ye first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness..." Matt 6:33. How well do we practise this verse in everything we do? If we will put first things first, the Lord has promised that "all these things shall be added unto us." Pray all of us will have God's priorities on ours because we are not of ourselves. At the end of our lives, only what done for Christ will last. What are we living for? Are we single-minded towards the Lord or are we honestly doing things independently from God? Our lives will show it. Are we going soul-winning? praying for God's power and precious souls to be saved? seeing people saved and discipled? Jesus came for the very purpose of seeking and saving the lost(if we read the whole Bible and miss this, we really have missed the very heartbeat of God). He did not seat back on His Throne above. He got up, step out, came, bled and died for us? Imagine if Jesus chose to sit back and do His own things? We will all be lost and on our way to hell! Well, what about us? Are we suppose to follow Jesus' footsteps too? If we do not have those things mentioned above on our agenda daily, something is really wrong. Let's apply Matt 6:33 prayerfully and see God transform our lives according to His priorities and power. God did not say second, third or last. Remember God says "seek ye first." May we change our priorities according to God's right now because that is the only way to real peace and satisfaction with God. Above all, if there is any thing between your walk and God, get it out, give it up and make plans to guard yourself from doing it again(accountability helps because 2 are better than 1, talk to your parents or spouse will help)! Don't just agree about seeking God first as you read this, plan for time to seek God every day first and rest assure He will transform your life if you don't let pride get in the way! Only God can do it if we believe and expect Him to do it. May we exercise our will to depend on Him. Let's put first things first moment by moment!

You are what you think!

"It is Finished" and "The Comforter has come."

Praise God that we can rest in the finished work of the Cross. Many people view the Christian life as tiresome and hard. Very often we struggle with ourselves(flesh/self) so much that we just feel like giving it up altogether. Have you felt like that lately? I have and will always have that struggle as long as I live in my body. BUT thank God He sent Christ and the Comforter! That is a way out every time! (Rom 7)

I have learned that the flaw lies in our thinking. The facts never change. Jesus said "It's finished" and He has sent the Comforter. The question is do we really believe it? Why is it that we can have faith to receive Christ for salvation but not for sanctification (salvation lived out)? Because we are humans? Yes! Because we always think we have to do something by ourselves for Christ to do something for us. Well, is that right thinking? The Bible says in Galatians 3:3 "Are ye so foolish? having begun in the Spirit, are ye now made perfect by the flesh?" Paul asked a rhetorical question. He goes on the say in chapter 5:4 "... whosoever of you are justified by the law; ye are fallen from grace." Let us not frustrate the grace of God, for if righteousness come by the law, then Christ is dead in vain. (Gal 2:21). We know we are not righteous in any angle we look at ourselves, so quit looking at ourselves and turn to Jesus who is the "end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes" Rom 10:4. Let's face it; all of us never deserved His mercy anyway. Let's stop believing in ourselves, repent and step over the other side without delay!

Remember it's not what we do but what Christ did. It is not about what we feel and think but what Christ said and did for us. It's really finished and the Comforter has really come. Can we turn at His reproof and keep our eyes fixed on Him this very moment and the next, next and next moment? It's very practical. Once we take our eyes of what Jesus did and what He wants to do through us, we are finished. But if we come and constantly keep our minds on Him in situations of temptations and discouragements, He wants to tell us it's finished and the Comforter has come to help us!

Stop looking at ourselves and what we can do; recognize what the Lord has done and turn from our sin of unbelief regarding this issue. It's finished, the Comforter has come! Are you still living as if those facts are not true? May we turn away from self and sin and face the One who has finished the work and has sent His Holy Spirit to help us.

We don't have to suffer, God waits to help. Are you willing to cast it all at the foot of the Cross and say "I had enough of my self, sin, and Satan's snares... every single bit of it stinks anyway! I want Christ and Christ alone to control in every situation today."

Christ said, come unto me all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest (Matt 11:28). Did He really mean it? For our wicked heart and weak flesh, it's hard to believe it but you know what, it is as true as the sky is blue! May the Lord help our unbelief because we hurt Him and call Him a liar every time we don't believe something He has said in His Word! In whatever problem and situation we are in, it's only a step of faith away! Turning to the law, a set of rules, and standards will not help, let's "Turn" and "Go" to Jesus alone to work in us through His Word by His Spirit.

It starts in the mind with your thinking! Regarding this issue, change our minds(Repent) at once and turn to Him!

Proverbs 1:23 "Turn you at my reproof: behold, I will pour out my spirit unto you, I will make known my words unto you."