God the everlasting, always with us!

Deuteronomy 31.8

"It is the Lord who goes before you. He will be with you; he will not leave you or forsake you. Do not fear or be dismayed." (ESV)

Think about that our God has made this promise for us in Christ, to never leave us. Whenever we feel like it or not, he will be with us, and he will also help us on our journey. Some of us may be a little frightened and thinking: "Will he watch every step that I go?". Yes he will! This is positive news, if you have accepted his son as Lord and Saviour, he will never leave you or forsake you.

We should always keep this in our mind, that he is always with us, thru the Holy Spirit, that dwells in us. God can't lie, or go back on his promises. So if we welcome Jesus into our lives, his spirit is with us whereever we go. When we wake up, or during the day, or thru the night he is still there. What an awesome God he is!

Let us always remind us, when we are feeling lonely, that Christ was hung on the cross outside the city, away from his people, to die for you and me. So we will never have to be lonely again, thru his grace, because he will be with us always! 

Christ in me

Isaiah 43.18-19

"¹⁸ Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. ¹⁹ See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland.." (NIV)

Jesus has fulfilled every desire you and I might have. It means he will give us all that we need if we pray in accordance to his will. If we have sickness, sorrow, shame, guilt, pain; Jesus wants to to save us or to help us to raise us upon all the circumstances we might face. 

 (The lyrics to this song is given at the bottom of this blog post. )

He wants for us to renew our mindsets, and help us to let go of the past, things that might weigh us down. We can't do this by our own strength. We need the Holy spirit to guide us. But he is more than able and he also wants us to grow in wisdom and truth. He actually also gives to us the desire to seek His face and strive for holiness!

Glory to God, he will help us with all our needs! And all glory belongs to him forever and ever! 

In Christ alone

In Christ alone my hope is found,
He is my light, my strength, my song;
this Cornerstone, this solid Ground,
firm through the fiercest drought and storm.
What heights of love, what depths of peace,
when fears are stilled, when strivings cease!
My Comforter, my All in All,
here in the love of Christ I stand.

In Christ alone! who took on flesh
Fulness of God in helpless babe!
This gift of love and righteousness
Scorned by the ones he came to save:
Till on that cross as Jesus died,
The wrath of God was satisfied -
For every sin on Him was laid;
Here in the death of Christ I live.

There in the ground His body lay
Light of the world by darkness slain:
Then bursting forth in glorious Day
Up from the grave he rose again!
And as He stands in victory
Sin's curse has lost its grip on me,
For I am His and He is mine -
Bought with the precious blood of Christ.

No guilt in life, no fear in death,
This is the power of Christ in me;
From life's first cry to final breath.
Jesus commands my destiny.
No power of hell, no scheme of man,
Can ever pluck me from His hand;
Till He returns or calls me home,
Here in the power of Christ I'll stand.

Life changing message!

Titus 3.4-7

"⁴ But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, ⁵ he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, ⁶ whom he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, ⁷ so that being justified by his grace we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life." (ESV)

The good tidings, the gospel. Is it too good to be true? I hope that every person on this earth will hear about this good news, that not comes from this earth but from heaven. Even though many know about Christianity, most people haven't got the real message. It has nothing to do with the work of man, but the work of God! He has fulfilled every promise! Still when it comes to the acceptance of the message, it's the matter of life and death!

There is an eternal life for every one that accept Jesus Christ as lord and saviour. So let's all be more bold about spreading this great tidings out to our friends and neighbours. Our lives is also perhaps the only testimony of Jesus some people will see, so let's all focus to live closer to Jesus, so that we may reflect more and more of his glorious light.  

He is our hope, and he also gives us hope for our future, even after death! Even though we all deserved to die, God wanted all of us to live. Still God is a just God, and our sin needed to be paid for. That's why he sent his only Son to die for us. He paid for our sin, so we can live free of guilt. We are justified by God himself! It doesn't make any sence? Well it's not for us to try to justify ourself, when God has not condemned us! But if we choose to live under our own justice, God will not push his mercy upon us. He will let us live the way we want, but then we have to reap what we sow, and that will lead to our own death!

So let's all choose God's way for us, and live in humility. Let's accept his daily mercy upon our lives, and choose his ways instead of our own way! His ways for our lives, are full of joy unspeakable, and of (true) life!

Live close to God!

James 4.5

"Or do you suppose it is to no purpose that the Scripture says, “He yearns jealously over the spirit that he has made to dwell in us”?." (ESV)

We have many needs. We need food everyday. We also need social fellowship, without nearness we die. But still we are more than our body and soul. Our spirit is in another dimension. But in this dimension is where closeness to God is hidden. 

Who is the lover of your soul? There can only be one master in our lives. It is either God or an idol. God wants of us to just be close with him. As a bride is close to his husband. But to be close to God, we also need to be close to our brothers, the rest of his body. In that way the spirit can dwell richly among us..
God calls us out of isolation. He wants fellowship with us. When we have fellowship with each other in truth, that is also one way of having fellowship with God. God brings new grace each day, let's respond to his invitation in living in close fellowship with Him, the lover of our soul.

Be Still my soul, my heart be still, and know you are God.

Psalm 131.2

But I have calmed and quieted my soul, like a weaned child with its mother;
like a weaned child is my soul within me.

How hard is it to find time to be calm and letting go of all other distractions in life. It's easy to be too occupied by either some sort of activities or of stuff that is total meaningless in the long run. But the truth is that it is good for us to just be quiet, and place our worries or accusations on God. He can listen to everything that we want to say to him. He also wants to do more than listen, he wants to speak to us, from his loving heart towards us.

It's important to find time to be alone with God, so that we can hear his calm gentle voice speak to us. Specially in days with so much going on, we need this more. But there is a fight in us, just as with the child to become proper weaned, it's a process going on in our lives to let things go, and just seek fellowship with God.

God want us to grow spiritually, and not remain a baby the rest of our lives. To do that, we must first of all invite him in to our lives, but we must also seek him on a daily basis, and want to become more like him, and be in his presence.

God bless you!

Be filled with the spirit!

 Isaiah 40:31

"But those who keep waiting for the LORD will renew their strength. Then they'll soar on wings like eagles; they'll run and not grow weary; they'll walk and not grow tired." (ISV)

Can we say: "I charged my mobile phone last week, now I don't need to charge it anymore?" Of course not, and it's the same way regarding our spiritual life. It needs maintenance and care. It doesn't matter what you experienced yesterday, to day is a new dag, and we need to keep our spirit fresh, praying, that is having fellowship with our best friend, Jesus.

If we neglect this, God will not condemn us, but patiently wait for us to again draw near. But our inside will after a while dry up, and we will later drift away from the intim relationship we had.

Let us draw near, while it is day, and seek the Almighty's face. He has then promised to give us strength, to conquer new land, without getting tired.

A life free of bitterness!

James 12.15

"See to it that no one fails to obtain the grace of God; that no “root of bitterness” springs up and causes trouble, and by it many become defiled" ( ESV)

Can a day pass us by, without us even showing some sort of positiveness, or even a smile in our face? If negative thinking is all that consumes us, we must be aware so that we do not break the spirit to those that are close to us.

If this is you, or you have this tendency, we must repent from this wrong behaviour. God wants us to live in close fellowship with Him, and how can we live close to God whom we do not see, while we hate our brother whom we see? It's so important to learn to forgive those that hurts us.

How can we start to turn this wrong mentality? By simply start thanking God for everything that He has given us, and for all or little we may have in this world. When we start praising God for who He is, and not look at our self, and keep doing so, negative thoughts will have to flee from us, seeking some other place to rest.

Take a good look at yourself!

James 1.22-24

"Don’t fool yourself into thinking that you are a listener when you are anything but, letting the Word go in one ear and out the other. Act on what you hear! Those who hear and don’t act are like those who glance in the mirror, walk away, and two minutes later have no idea who they are, what they look like." (MSG)

Jesus don't give us suggestions, He gives us commands! It's up to us if we either want to obey Him or not, or just treat his instructions as mere suggestions, only obeying if it does not cost to much.

 

Whatever He has told us to do, it's never a better way than obeying His call. He has called us all to go out and share the good news, the gospel, and pray for our neighbours to get reconciled with God. Let us take Him on his word. 

"But whoever looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues in it—not forgetting what they have heard, but doing it—they will be blessed in what they do." (v. 25) (NIV)

When we obey him, we become more like Jesus, and we become more the way God planned for us to be. When we live in fellowship with God, and learn to trust Him more, and also trust Him enough to obey Him, whatever he wants of us, it produces joy in our lives, because that is what we are called to do. Then you will then learn more of, whom God is, and then you get to know yourself in a deeper way. Because God's ways are much greater and higher than our ways, and He knew us before we even was born.

Don't get weary in doing what is good!

2 Thessalonians 3.13

"As for you, brothers, do not grow weary in doing good" (NIV)

Sometimes it seems like no one cares if we want to accept a life behavior we know in our hearts is not right. And since nobody tells us that this is not right, we keep on doing it. But things do not have to be like this.

We can all come (back) to Jesus, and repent from a life that is not pleasing to Him. He is graceful, and will not cast away a repented sinner.

This is something we not have to do just one time in our lives. There is a constant battle for our lives to not set the highest standard. And we can come up with a millions of reason why it's not so bad, but it is still wrong. If we know in our hearts it's not a good thing to do, walk miles away from it, don't let it come near your life.

When we do all this, we have a good conscience, and have peace at heart. It's also then much easier to not loose perspective, but keep on doing things that is pleasing to God.

Who is your master?

Matthew 6.24

"No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money." (NIV)

It is so many things that wants to allure us to believe that, happiness can be bought by money. "If I only had this, I would be satisfied". But the fact that Jesus points out this so clearly; "you will be devoted to the one and despise the other", makes it clear you can not please God, if you have this mentality.

It is so easy to loose perspective in life. What is of importance? Jesus gives us a new way of looking at the issue of money when he says:

"Store up for yourselves treasures in heaven" (verse 20)

Why speak of heaven, when money will not be an issue in heaven anyway? We can live on this earth, and pay our taxes, our bills, and also wish for new stuff, but our hearts should not let these things take dominion in our lives. Our hearts should rather be directed upwards, believing He will give us everything we need, because He is our Provider. We should also know, that everything belongs to Him, including our self. And everything that we have, has been given to us by Him, meaning He can also take it from us.

It's still important to live for something greater than our selves.  If we spend all our money on our selves, it can be because our lives is too much involved around our selves. To give, breaks the habit off a self centred behaviour. And there we have Jesus as our primary example on the cross, when He gave his whole life. It shows the ultimate way of living, not for Him self, but for others. 

Let ut all follow in footsteps of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ!

Take a pause and look up!

Matthew 6.26

“Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they?”. (NIV)

It is so easy to be caught up with daily activities and worries. But our heavenly Father asks us to more and more trust Him to fill all of our needs. Look at the birds! It's amazing how they get fed every day! And we are a lot more valuable compared to them, in the eyes of our heavenly Father.

Jehovah sees - Jehovah knows

Genesis 22.14

"And Abraham gave that place the name Yahweh-yireh: as it is said to this day, In the mountain the Lord is seen."

Sometimes it can be easy to worry and be a bit selfish. Maybe thoughts of condemnation knocks on the door. It can also easy to fall down in self-pity. Then we have to remember that we have someone that has been in bigger trouble than us. He also does not only see our circumstance, but he also is the way out of it. If we look up to our creator God and his son Jesus, he will bring a way for us. He is the Alpha & Omega. He can make a season stop, and create a new season in our lifes. So don't hold on to the past, but let it go, and continue together with Jesus. Invite Him in your life. He is only a prayer away.

 

He sees us. He hears us. He knows what we think even before we do. Let us come before him, and let Him speak to our hearts.