Sunday, 30 October 2016

Faith filled Christianity

God’s plan for our lives will always be better than any of our own, even though we won’t always see or understand this at the time. It is God’s ability to see things that we can’t see that reassures us that He is in all Control.

Source: Pinterest
I recently went to the 2016 Hillsong Conference in London and it was here in one sermon, by one preacher, among thousands of people that God literally spoke to me. Amongst these thousands of people it felt that there was a spotlight just on me and that the preacher and was speaking directly to me. The preacher was talking about faith and the power that we possess as Christians in the precious name of Jesus, which we are told throughout the bible. One example is Matthew 17:20 ‘Truly I tell you, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you’.

What specifically resonated with me was when the preacher said one simple thing; ‘the world is so full of need filled Christians and we need to be more faith filled Christians’. This got me thinking about how many times I have asked God for something but I never received it or the times when my prayers were not answered. I realized that it’s not that God is not there or that He doesn’t love me, in fact it’s the opposite. It is actually that He loves me so much and He knows that the thing I wanted or thought I needed is actually not in His plan or purpose for my life. This is awesome because the bible tells us in Jeremiah 29:11 ‘For I know the plans I have for you, declares the LORD, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future’. Amen.

Source: Nurturing Body Mind & Spirit
You see God works on a different time frame to us, what seems like years to us is a blink of an eye to Him; 2 Peter 3:8 ‘But do not forget this one thing, dear friends: With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day’.  As I get closer to God and become even more of a ‘faith filled’ Christian I have learned to not be dismayed or disheartened when I don’t get the thing I really want or achieve an aspiration, or life doesn’t go the way I planned. Instead I rejoice because I know that God has ‘got my back’ and while ‘Humans plan their course, the LORD establishes their steps’ (Proverbs 16:9). Amen. God’s plan for our lives will always be better than any of our own, even though we won’t always see or understand this at the time. It is God’s ability to see things that we can’t see that reassures us that He is in all Control; Isaiah 41:13-14 ‘For I am the LORD your God who takes hold of your right hand and says to you, Do not fear; I will help you. Do not be afraid, you worm Jacob, little Israel, do not fear, for I myself will help you, declares the LORD, your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel’.

Have you ever noticed the amount of times the bible tells us to not be afraid and how we can find strength in the Lord?  If you haven’t realized this already this highlights to me that life is not easy!  We will fall, we will get tempted, we will clash with people, we will struggle at work and we will go through painful situations. Being a Christian does not prevent us from experiencing these situations and dilemmas, in fact the closer to God we are the more satan will try to attack us. This is why being ‘faith filled’ is so important. A perfect example of this is Peter in Matthew 14:27-30 who had complete faith and began walking on the water but then when he saw the wind he looked back and started to sink to which Jesus says ‘You of little faith, why did you doubt?’ How many times does our faith waiver just like Peter’s? How many times do we doubt and prevent God from fulfilling His full purpose in us?  These are really good questions for us to think about.

Luke 17:5 ‘The apostles said to the Lord, Increase our faith!’ Let us pray these very words, to seek Him, to wholly trust in Him and to have complete faith that He is in control and not try to live our lives our own way. May we realise the power we possess and that we would be completely lost without Him. Our faith and trust in God reassures us that although it is tough at times we are on the winning team, and He will never ever let us down and we will soar on wings like eagles; Isaiah 40:31 ‘but those who hope in the LORD will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint’. Amen.


Author: Joleana O’Neill

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Sunday, 23 October 2016

Not 'Churches together' but the 'Church together’

If churches decide to work together it can only be on a superficial basis, as their rules, regulations, red tape etc. prevent them from being able to be completely surrendered to the will of God and to serve His purpose

Source: Lexington Baptist Church
What do you think of when you hear the term 'churches together'? Does it fill you with hope that at last churches of different denominations are coming together to work with each other where they can, to be able in some way to serve the community? Does it make you want to get involved so you can do your part? Whatever your thoughts are at this point, ask yourself this; is it scriptural? Is this what Jesus meant when He prayed in John 17:20-23 ‘My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in Me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as You are in Me and I am in You. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that You have sent Me. I have given them the glory that you gave Me, that they may be one as we are one— I in them and You in Me—so that they may be brought to complete unity. Then the world will know that You sent Me and have loved them even as You have loved Me’.

What do you think Jesus meant when He prayed to the Father ‘that they may be one as we are one - I in them and You in Me - so that they may be brought to complete unity’? Was it so that we as one could become so caught up in our own sense of self-importance that we thought we could do a better job of things here on earth than God could? After all it was man who decided that splitting the church by creating different denominations with different ideas and countless unbiblical rules, regulations, red tape and bureaucracy was a good way to go. Look how that's turned out! This is why if churches decide to work together it can only be on a superficial basis, as their rules, regulations, red tape etc. prevent them from being able to be completely surrendered to the will of God and to serve His purpose, so that His Kingdom can come and His will be done on earth as it is in Heaven.

Source: https://uk.pinterest.com/tinkee1/church/
Or was it that Jesus saw the mess we were going to make of it all, and that just maybe He was talking about the 'church' being brought to complete unity, not 'churches'. After all, if you know Christ as your Lord and Saviour do you not belong to the Church which is described in Colossians 1:17-18 which says 'He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together. And He is the Head of the body, the church; He is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything He might have the supremacy’? Notice the scripture says 'He’ (that is Christ Jesus, and not a man elected sinner), ‘is the Head of the body, the church', also note the scripture also says 'church' not 'churches'. Isn't it therefore about time we took our hands off the church and once again let Jesus have complete supremacy over His body the church, and allow Him to hold us all together?

Wouldn't it be amazing if we saw a revival of 'church together' actually happening, so that Ephesians 2:17-22 which says 'He came and preached peace to you who were far away and peace to those who were near. For through Him we both have access to the Father by one Spirit. Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and strangers, but fellow citizens with God’s people and also members of His household, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus Himself as the chief cornerstone. In Him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord. And in Him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by His Spirit.' along with the prayer of Jesus for the church in John 17 could be fulfilled in our time. How awesome would that be?

Sadly I believe this will not happen easily with many of the established churches, as they appear to have their own agenda's, are ingrained doctrinally and love to show they are working ecumenically to tick all the right boxes. They will never surrender these or the chattels they have built up around them for anybody, including God. I do pray that the leaders of fellowships and all the congregations who are 'born again' believers, will prepare themselves for the battle and the victory that is theirs in Christ Jesus, surrender their will to God's will, and live as bond servant's of Christ, coming together as His church to establish and advance His Kingdom here on earth as it is in Heaven, so that as the scripture states above; ‘In Him the whole building is joined together and rises to become a holy temple in the Lord. And in Him you too are being built together to become a dwelling in which God lives by His Spirit’.

Time is running out, the end of all time is near, so let us not procrastinate and let us come together as one body, the church...Now. Not 'churches together' but the 'church together'. To God be the glory for ever and ever. Amen.


Author: Kevin Hunt

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Sunday, 16 October 2016

To be a Pilgrim

I can’t blame satan for tempting me because all he can do is use the things I like to entice me into sin. So it’s not the devil, it’s me and it’s you that choose to sin. It’s our own free will and our own choice to sin.

Source: www.titanicuniverse.com
The sinking of the Titanic is one of the most well-known and widely talked about events in history, but was the tragedy man-made, was it an act of God or indeed was it procured and instigated by the devil? God does not engineer evil and in fact the tragedies and disasters of life are more often the consequence of sin, ignorance and carelessness. Many people believed that the loss of the Titanic in 1912 was an act of God’s judgement due to the proud boastful owners who proclaimed to the World that the Titanic was ‘unsinkable’. I however have a different view as I do not see it in that light at all. The history books tell us that one of the main contributing factors to the ill-fated journey was the reckless manner in which the ship raced through ice fields. The death toll was far greater than it needed to be because on this maiden journey the Titanic only carried lifeboat accommodation for 1,200 people, even though the passengers and crew totalled 2,293. The great ship went down due to a combination of pride and criminal folly by those who prioritised the publicity of a fast journey over the lives of those who were on board.  After the tragedy the route of west bound ships across the Atlantic was shifted further south, away from the dangerous ice-fields and the obsolete board of trade requirements with regard to emergency boat accommodation were stringently revised. This prompted one writer to say ‘many a life has been saved by the titanic’, which is quite ironic given the amount of people who lost their lives on that night. 

It would have been so easy to justify the sinking of the Titanic through the Word of God;  Genesis 50:20 (NKJ) ‘But as for you, you meant evil against me; but God meant it for good, in order to bring it about as it is this day, to save many people alive’ and 2 Corinthians 7:1-6 (NKJ) ‘let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and the Spirit perfecting Holiness in the fear of God’ (The sin nature is the great enemy of the cross of Christ). However, one thing we all have to come to terms with in our Christian lives is that we cannot continually blame all of our sins, faults and inadequacies on satan, which in most cases are our own doing. 

When sin entered the Garden of Eden It was partially the fault of Satan but it was completely the fault of Adam. Yes, the devil will tempt us but he can only tempt us in accordance with our own affections; 2 Corinthians 6:11-12 (NKJ) ‘O Corinthians we have spoken openly to you, our hearts is wide open, you are not restricted by us, but you are restricted by your own affections’.  So if drinking alcohol does not do it for you, satan could give you an endless supply of alcohol and it will not tempt you. If on the other hand you enjoy alcohol then this will be a temptation because satan uses our natural affections. Satan tempts us with the sin we like, not with the sin we don’t like. So in the New Testament when Paul says to the people of Corinth ‘we are not the ones restricting you, it’s your own Christian walk’, he is actually saying; ‘on the contrary, you are restricted by your own affections’.

We need to be honest with ourselves and to admit that the problem within our Christian lives are self-made because as previously stated, satan cannot tempt us with anything that does not appeal to us. If satan was to present to me a variety of illegal drugs it will have no effect on me because drugs don’t tempt me, they never have and never will. If however he put a tray of fresh cream cakes and trifles then I may be tempted and fall into gluttony.  Hopefully you can grasp the significance of this: I can’t blame satan for tempting me because all he can do is use the things I like to entice me into sin. So it’s not the devil, it’s me and it’s you that choose to sin. It’s our own free will and our own choice to sin.

We could also choose to blame the devil for our unholy behaviour; ‘the devil made me do it’, we may say, however it is the root of our sin that is the problem. Matthew 4:8-11(NKJ) ‘again the devil took him up on an exceedingly high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their Glory. And he said to him all these thing I will give you if you will fall down and worship me, then Jesus said ‘away with you satan, for it is written, you shall worship the Lord your God and him only you shall serve’. Then the devil left him and behold angels come and ministered to him’.  It is dangerous and foolish not to realise and acknowledge that we are in a war with the devil. Any Christian or congregation sold out for Jesus will certainly be in the firing line. But God will use his strength and might to protect us and all the power of heaven to strengthen us. Praise God.

Source: www.Amazon.com
A good example of how to deal with and overcome temptation can be found in the popular Christian book ‘Pilgrims Progress’. Throughout his journey Christian (the main character) was tempted continually and although he steered off the path a few times he kept a strong focus and a strong desire for the things of Christ his Lord and Saviour. On his journey Christian’s great desire was to reach the Celestial City. At one point Apollyon (the devil) nearly destroyed him, but God protected him and gave him helpers along the way. Does this sound familiar?  Does this sound like our own journeys? Do we sometimes fall off the path and start to travel down a road we should not be on? Does God provide people throughout our journey to help us back onto the right path? Yes He does!

Source: quotesgram.com
John Bunyan’s ‘Pilgrims Progress’ was published in 1628 and is still in print today. It is so loved and read all over the world, and the most popular Christian book next to the bible. John Bunyan was put in prison many times for refusing to stop preaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ. It was during his time in prison that he wrote Pilgrim’s Progress. When he was released from prison he would boldly claim ‘to the town I go to preach of my sweet saviour’ and then he would get re-arrested. This went on for many years. The authorities eventually grew weary of constantly putting him in prison and stopped arresting him and left him alone.  While writing this blog I felt so sad because I realised that in these days of political correctness Christians in many parts of the world are in a similar position to John Bunyan. I pray that God will raise up men and women of God to speak boldly of God and our sweet saviour; Matthew 28:19-20 (NKJ) ‘go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptising them in the name of the Father and the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Teaching them to observe all things that is have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age’. Amen.

One of the greatest hymns (by John Bunyan) which is not heard very often in churches today is ‘He who would Valiant be’ also known as ‘to be a pilgrim’. Why not take a some time to listen to the short video of the song below. God bless.


Author: Eileen Greaves

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Sunday, 9 October 2016

How our perception influences everything

Jesus, above all people knew how important it was to see with the eye of faith, how important it was to keep a God based perspective on things. How could He have endured the journey to the cross without seeing the freedom for the world that the cross would achieve?

Source: www.pinterest.com
The dictionary definition of perspective is `a particular attitude towards, or way of regarding something; a point of view`.  It is so easy for us to have our perspective influenced by all sorts of things.  For instance at the moment I am experiencing very dry eyes during evenings.  My eyes get sore and gritty so I put in drops, which soothe the eye but results in my vison becoming very blurred and I can’t see as clearly for a while once I have applied the drops. This results in me getting frustrated, agitated and losing my sense of peace about everything!  The other night, during a prayer meeting, I was particularly distracted by this problem and feeling a bit aggrieved when the Lord used it to show me something so simple yet so profound; ‘If our vision/God given perspective (faith) gets blurred everything starts to  look different. Our perception changes and we stop seeing clearly which results in us getting frustrated, agitated and losing our peace’.

How we feel and act about things is determined by our perspective, I know we all know this but I was amazed by how subtly our attitudes are affected by our perspective.  For instance in 1 Peter 2:9 (KJV) Peter says to the church ‘You are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, and holy nation a peculiar people’. The dictionary definition of peculiar is `strange, unusual, weird, odd, curious’. Now, like me, you might think ‘hey Lord I want to follow you but I really am not sure I want to belong to such a `peculiar` bunch of people and I certainly don’t want to be seen as peculiar! But if we look at the meaning of peculiar further it can also mean `distinctive, individual, unique, essential and special`; ‘well Lord now that’s better, that sounds like a really great bunch of people to belong to and to be myself, yes I`m happy with that’.  Nothing has changed, we are still a peculiar people but as the New Living Translation (NLT) puts it in 1 Peter 2:9; we are `God’s very own possession` with a purpose to love Him and love each other’.

Source: www.pinterest.com
So our perception influences everything. If a group of people go to see a film or read a book they will all have seen or read the same material, but each one is likely to perceive it differently. Our lives are like this too, we make judgements on how we perceive a situation, which is natural as what else have we got in our toolkit other than our perception, based on our own experiences? But The Lord wants to change that because He wants us to see with His eyes.  There is a wonderful song by Michael Card entitled through the eye, it refers to using our natural eyes versus the eye of faith: -


‘Through the eye, they must always believe a lie
Who see with and not through the eye, with and not through the eye

You may see what angels long to see, hear the harvest`s harmony
Leave the prison of your shame, and hear the sound of your own new name

Only the eyes of the heart perceive, That the deaf and blind can hear and see that insanity`s saner than sanity, That only a slave can be truly free

Through the eye, we see our life it has come alive
and only those who will see survive, with and not through the eye’

So it’s faith that changes our perception; how we see things. But just like me trying to see things clearly through my sore blurred eyes, I get caught up in how the world looks at that moment and lose sight of how the world will look once the drops have worked and my vision clears. In the moment I get agitated and lose my peace and perspective. But Jesus, above all people knew how important it was to see with the eye of faith, how important it was to keep a God based perspective on things. How could He have endured the journey to the cross without seeing the freedom for the world that the cross would achieve?

Jesus understood the importance of asking God for His perspective on His life every day. How often do we read Jesus went off by himself to pray? He knew that without talking to His Father He would lose the true perspective of His purpose and could so easily get side-tracked, discouraged or succumbed to temptation. We are no different, I find I need to constantly ask the Holy Spirit to help me have faith and to see things how God sees them and not to be blinded by how things may appear, as it`s all too easy to be overwhelmed by daily living sometimes. Jesus lays this out very clearly in Matthew 21:21 ‘Jesus replied ‘truly I tell you, if you have faith and do not doubt, not only can you do what was done to the fig tree, but also you can say to this mountain, Go throw yourself into the sea and it will be done’.

Sometimes our perspective gets confused or mixed up and at these times we can see our faith as very small and the mountain as very big (and sometimes the mountains are genuinely very big). I find that it is at this point, if I can stop panicking long enough, that I have to ask the Lord to change my perspective so that I can see through the eye of faith. Thank God that the bible teaches us that faith is a gift and we can ask God for, even for the faith to see things as He sees them. He is truly wonderfully understanding of our human condition. We need faith to change the perspective of our mountain/s and He even provides as a gift the faith to do that.

So my daily challenge and prayer is; ‘Lord help me to see things through the eye of faith – to see things how You see them Lord, and to not see them how they sometimes appear’.


Author: Jan Pearson

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Sunday, 2 October 2016

One more night with the frogs

We need to protect ourselves because if we choose to spend one more night with the frogs, by sinning or living in disobedience or doing something that is not of God then we could be jeopardising our salvation

Source: kentcrockett.blogspot.com
Any Christian who attends Church regularly will quickly accumulate a vast range of messages that are delivered from the pulpit along with further Words of God from meetings, bible studies and other Christian activities. The truth however is that unless you are like my wife, who takes meticulous notes in Church, the vast majority of messages/teachings are quickly forgotten. There are however those occasions when God speaks so powerfully that somehow a message imprints itself onto our minds and is not lost so easily. I remember hearing a message at our local church, possibly as long ago as seven or eight years, which I cannot remember the detail but I cannot forget the theme. This recently prompted me to re-look at this story and to write this blog.  

The teaching related to the early part of the Old Testament where under God’s instruction Moses asked Pharaoh to release the Israelites so that they could start their journey to the Promised Land. Each time Pharaoh refused, God would send a plague for which each one was all consuming and affected the whole land (each plague is vividly described in the book of Exodus). Exodus 8:1-15 describes the second plague which is the plague of frogs. What is particularly interesting in Exodus 8:8-10 is that Pharaoh is given the opportunity to bring the plague to an end however when Moses asks him when he wants it to end Pharaoh says ‘tomorrow’! ‘Pharaoh summoned Moses and Aaron and said, ‘Pray to the LORD to take the frogs away from me and my people, and I will let your people go to offer sacrifices to the LORD’. Moses said to Pharaoh, I leave to you the honor of setting the time for me to pray for you and your officials and your people that you and your houses may be rid of the frogs, except for those that remain in the Nile. ‘Tomorrow,’ Pharaoh said. Moses replied, ‘It will be as you say, so that you may know there is no one like the LORD our God’.  Given the severity of the plague of frogs, Pharaoh’s response is a real surprise and you could say quite extraordinary.

Source: www.jesuslovesyoutoday.org
Why would Pharaoh choose for the land and the people to endure a further horrendous night with the frogs when he had been given the opportunity to end the pain and suffering? This is a really good question and anyone looking from the outside in would think that Pharaoh must have been mad. This however is an important question for all of us because how many times, just like Pharaoh, do we choose to remain in our own situations when we have the opportunity to change them? How many times do we ignore advice, which we know is good, but choose to continue on our own path regardless?  How many times do we not do what is right with God but continue anyway? How many times does our selfishness prevent us wanting to make real changes in our lives because the alternatives may be difficult or mean giving up something that we like doing even though we know it might be wrong? I am sure you could think of other questions yourself, however unless we make a decision to make real changes in our lives then just like Pharaoh, we too are choosing to spend at least one more night with the frogs.

When we are given the opportunity to do something that can have a positive impact and to change our lives then we really should take it. The problem with waiting for tomorrow is that we are not actually guaranteed a tomorrow (on this earth). This is particularly important with regards to our salvation. For those who know Jesus as our Lord and Saviour we need to keep short accounts of ourselves with God (this is something we have been hearing a lot about in our Church recently). We need to protect ourselves because if we choose to spend one more night with the frogs, by sinning or living in disobedience or doing something that is not of God then we could be jeopardising our salvation because that night with the frogs could be the very night that Jesus returns for us. Guarding our salvation is about saying to ourselves I refuse to spend another moment, let alone another night with the frogs. I refuse to continue in disobedience, I refuse to jeopardize my salvation, I refuse, I refuse and I refuse because I am not guaranteed tomorrow. 

When Jesus died He did so once and for all for ours sins. Every time we decide to spend one more night with the frogs we are actually putting Jesus back on the cross. We are not acknowledging that Jesus paid for our sins in the most painful and horrifying way, we are denying our salvation. We must ensure that we guard and protect ourselves every moment of every day because yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery but today is the day of the Lord, today is a gift from God Himself.

If you have not yet given your heart to the Lord then God is telling you that He loves you very much and that He does not want you to spend another moment let alone another night with the frogs.  As discussed, time is short and we are not guaranteed tomorrow.  This is particularly important because God tells us in His Word that Jesus is coming back for us, but we do not know when; Philippians 2:10-11 ‘that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father’ and in Matthew 24:36 ‘But about that day or hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father’.  Are you spending your nights with the frogs?  If so, then now is the time to act, by asking Jesus into your life. After you have done this, speak to your Pastor, one of your Church leaders or somebody in your church who will help you on your new exciting journey.

Father I pray that hearts are not hardened like Pharaoh’s and I pray that those who have not given their hearts to you do not wait for tomorrow to except and secure their salvation.  I pray that the Holy Spirit speaks into the hearts and minds of those reading this prayer and that they wait no longer to accept the free gift of salvation so that they can look forward with confidence to the triumphant return of your Son and our King, Jesus Christ.  Amen.


Author: Gary O’Neill 

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