A Real God in End Times (day91/365)

Max Lucado addresses some more fears in “Fearless”.

Fear #11 Fear that God is not real.
After Jesus’ death, his disciples were full of fear and doubt. Jesus appeared to them however. He ate with them and had fellowship with them. He taught them scripture. He brought confidence back into their lives.
For modern day people, it is not all that different. Jesus appears to us through other people. We can fellowship, share meals, share scripture knowledge. We can choose to welcome Jesus (through the Holy Spirit). We can experience the reality of his presence. You know, anything you are not familiar with can seem like nonsense, but two billion Christians worldwide will vouch for the fact that once you have experienced the love and peace of Jesus, you will know without a doubt that God is real.
“Why are you frightened” he asked. “Why are your hearts filled with doubt?” Luke 24:38

Fear #12 Fear of Global Calamity
End times are described clearly in the Bible. We will experience turmoil and persecution. Wars, tornadoes, tsunamis, earthquakes, and people claiming to be Christ will all star in end times. We can choose to have courage however. Triumph will be ours. We may be wide-eyed but need not be afraid. When the world appears out of control, it isn’t. God is in control and it will all work out in the end.
“You will hear of wars and rumours of wars, but see to it that you are not alarmed.” Matthew 24:6

How Can I Resist Evil? (day60/365)

I have learnt so much already reading “Questions of Life” by Nicky Gumbel. Today I’ve learnt about evil and how to put it in it’s place.

Have you noticed that God and good are only one letter difference.
The Devil and evil are also one letter different.

God and the Devil both exist; God being good, the Devil being evil. There’s plenty of evidence that Satan does exist. He is cunning and he is powerful. The Bible confirms his existence, Jesus cast demons (Satan’s sidekicks) out of people, Christians world wide over the ages attest to the very real spiritual forces of evil, and common sense of those viewing the tragedy of abuse, torture, violence, murders, rapes, drug trafficking, terrorism, occult activity confirms the existence of the devil.

The Devil’s main aim is to destroy us. Destruction and despair is what he wants for us. He works very hard to stop any of us coming to faith in Jesus. He does all he can to make us doubt the love of God and the freedom God offers.

While we let Satan rule our lives and hearts, we are subject to sin, guilt, addiction, fear, slavery, death and destruction. Once we ask Christ to take us away from the bondage Satan holds us under, we are free to experience forgiveness, freedom, life, salvation. We are transferred from darkness to light.

The Bible gives us some armour to put on to defend ourselves from Satan’s constant attacks. (Ephesians 6:11)

Belt of Truth – Read the Bible, Christian books, listen to sermons at church, Christian CD’s, DVD,s.

Breastplate of Righteousness – Accept Jesus’ forgiveness. Be sincerely sorry for the bad we’ve done.

Boots of the Gospel of Peace – Be ready to speak about the gospel of Jesus. When we declare our faith, it strengthens our defense.

Shield of Faith – Opposite of cynicism and skepticism. Take the promises of God and dare to believe them.

Helmet of Salvation – Past, present and future. We have been saved from the penalty of sin, we are being saved from the power of sin, we will be saved from the presence of sin.

Sword of the Spirit – Know scripture and use it to throw at Satan to rebuke him and squash his attempts to harm us.

Is there anyone else out there wanting to choose life, freedom, peace for themselves, for their family? I’m all for strengthening my defenses and growing stronger in love, hope and faith.

Blessing Not Judgement (day 3/365)

Have you ever had the guts to say, “I did wrong. Please forgive me”.

In Kenneth E. Hagin’s book  Love. The Way To Victory, I have today been reading his recommendation to judge yourself and not judge others.

He believes there is a consequence for sowing strife and discord and for judging others. (I agree!).  He says we instead need to act in love (God love) to reap the rewards of health, healing, long life and prosperity.

We need to love our enemies, bless them, do good to/for them and pray for them.

Bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you and pray for them which despitefully use you and persecute you. Matthew 5:44

When we pray God’s blessing on our enemies, our heart no longer condemns us. We are then able to inherit a blessing.

I don’t know about you, but I can say I want a blessing and an uncondemned heart more than I want to continue hurting others.

Another decision made.

Healed vs Not Healed (day 2/365)

Have you ever wondered why some people are healed instantly at healing/revival/faith meetings or in their local church when others aren’t and some even die?

It’s a question that has been on my mind recently.

Kenneth E. Hagin in his book Love. The Way to Victory may have discovered the answer. It certainly makes sense to me as far as the non healing of some minor ailments I have been suffering from.

My understanding is that when we harbour resentment, bitterness, unforgiveness towards anyone (when we’re not walking in God love) it doesn’t allow the full potential of our faith to resonate through our body, soul and spirit to be able to pick up the gift of healing.

Indeed the said resentment, bitterness, unforgiveness can be the cause of disease and illness.  Think about the last migraine you had. Chances are you were harbouring ill feelings toward someone prior to the onset.

Personally, I know some bad feelings I have had toward someone has caused me to suffer several ailments recently.

So what can it hurt for me to change my attitude, my thoughts, my words, my actions?

I choose love.

I choose forgiveness.

I choose tolerance.

I choose compassion.

I choose health.

How about you?

Official Day 1

How awesome it was having time on planes and buses the last two days to read.

Five chapters into “Love. The Way To Victory” by Kenneth E. Hagin has enlightened me about the weakness of our human love and in comparison, the everlasting victory, strength and power of God love.

I’ve learnt that  if I am walking in God love, I won’t take account of evil done to me.  ie. hold grudges against others. In contrast to that,  if I am not loving my neighbour with God love (because my own fails) my faith cannot be effective. Or said another way, that if I refuse to forgive someone, my faith is affected and will not be strong enough to receive the blessings of God.

It has been a timely reminder also, that when we forgive, we also need to forget.

Kenneth teaches that when we accept Jesus as our Saviour, our spirit (heart) is made new. Our mind and flesh however are not. We need to work on renewing our mind and subjecting our bodies to God’s will so we can do the forgiving and loving.

So I would have to say that I am encouraged that God love is available for me to tap into, encouraged that my spirit is made new, encouraged that my mind and flesh can be trained to live according to God’s will.

I choose to live a better life with my whole being working toward the freedom of renewal, living in God’s will.

I choose to forgive and forget.

I choose to hold no grudges.

How about you?