Appreciation is the highest form of prayer, for it acknowledges the presence of good wherever you shine the light of your thankful thoughts. ~ Alan Cohen

Lost? Alone? Fighting for the path ahead and not sure of the destination?

Facing indecision, is what a pure mind does when faced with overwhelming odds, isn’t it?

Yet in the maze of the thoughts the one pure thought is that the love of God abounds and drives us forward on a path of adventure, glory, and praise of the most high.

Never do we expect to be respected for the effort due, but we always experience the overwhelming presence of God, as we trudge the pathways of life into the vast unknown.

Gladly we step out, to do God’s word in his work! Gladly, we start on the journey, not always sure of where it leads. A true pilgrim, in an unknown land.

Joy fills our hearts and minds, as we move in the power of the Spirit!

Yet there are dangers along the way, we have to overcome hurdles and drown our fears in the light of God’s love. Not once, but continuously, we need to draw near to God’s presence. We need to ask His directions, pray for His guidance and let the light of His love envelope not only our words, but our past and future, exposed by our mumblings to the most high God.

Prayer is our strength and gift!

It provides us with the tools to take on this world! Prayer is the motor that engages into the quagmire of our life’s path, and drains the swamps opening up the roads ahead. Prayer enables us to meet needs, calm fears, minister to the hurt and needy! Prayer lifts away the burdens that close the pathways to us, and it gives us renewed energy when ours is failing.

Prayer ascends to the throne room of God, as the words leave our lips!

Even the apostles asked for prayer support of others… Paul says; “Finally, brothers and sisters, pray for us. Pray that the Lord’s message will spread quickly. Pray that others will honor it just as you did. ² And pray that we will be saved from sinful and evil people. Not everyone is a believer.

³ But the Lord is faithful. He will strengthen you. He will guard you from the evil one.

⁴ We trust in the Lord. So we are sure that you are doing the things we tell you to do. And we are sure that you will keep on doing them.

⁵ May the Lord fill your hearts with God’s love. May Christ give you the strength to go on.”[1] 2 Thessalonians 3:1-5

Prayer demands a response and receives it!

Responses of God, are not the responses of men and women! God responds in many ways and as he sees is right for our lives. Not all our desires are met, but our hearts always receive his love, as we move in faith.

Guarding against the hypocritical prayer, or the repetitious meaningless prayer, we lift our hearts to God and ask him to cradle them in his will. Nurturing and growing our requests into a truth that is presentable to God by angels. Then our prayers rises to be assimilated by God, to provide a fragrance to his heavenly experience, and to lift our needs to the highest authority for review.

Our words count!

We need to be aware that only righteous prayer is effective!

Those praying, need to be right with God, and the very words need to be in right relationship with God’s words. We pray for what God has shown us is true and right from his word. We pray in his will, not our own! We need to let Holy Spirit have the final say, and bend our words to God’s true understanding.

Then as we step forward, we have no concerns when we are going into unknown, as we are wandering the path led by God. He is in front of us, and behind us! Holy Spirit is within us and our eyes set upon living as Jesus desires, lead us to eternal happiness.

That’s prayer, my friend, and to today I pray you will find some of the glory of it as you respond to God!

Yesterday I was sent a series of questions by a person doing a “religions” class in a Canadian school. These were direct and penetrating questions to discern truth and I thought maybe it would be good for others to see the answers. Here are the questions and answers…(slightly changed to protect the identity of the person who asked them)

A.  How did you find Christ?

A young boy had been caught by police for breaking and entering. He was thrown in jail. His father bailed him out. He knew he was guilty and was scared of the punishment. His father showed him money that relatives had got together to bail him out. There was a lot of it as he was well loved by his relatives.

His Father was so disappointed in him. Not angry! Just disappointed! That hurt! The young boy lay in his bed that night, desperately thinking of how to get out the situation.

In those years, punishment in Africa for youth that were found guilty of crimes was getting caned until they split the skin on your butt. Then since you were tied down, they then put sacks of raw salt on the open wound to disinfect it. Shear pain!

The young boys had heard screams of people who had been given this treatment because his grandfather’s house was about 1/3 km  from where the police station was where this occurred. The young boy decided to run away and steal his bail money from his parents. He decided on the route and then carefully listed in his head everything he needed to do. As he finished, he asked himself “what have I left out?”  It was dark that night and as he lay there he was desperately unhappy.

Then a miracle happened! The world flooded with love in a way he hadn’t ever experienced before, waves upon waves of it.

Out of the darkness came light and Jesus appeared! The young boy was asked one simple question “what about me?”.  Knowledge of who it was that was asking somehow appeared directly into the young boys mind together with it's implications and the once off nature of the question. The boy thought carefully and decided on this answer, “Get me out this mess and I give my life to you!” was his answer.

The next day in court, his case was postponed. Then a member of the board of the sports club he had broken into, approached the prosecutor to drop the case providing the young boy joined the regions sports team each game and helped the players. Instead of punishment, he got a free season to first class sport viewing that many fans would have paid a lot for! The case was dropped.

The young boy was me and my life belongs to God!

B.    What do you think is the most important lesson God wants us to learn?

Love in it’s purest form, flows from God!

C.    What would you do if proven beyond a reasonable doubt that there really is no God?

That is impossible! That would be like someone asking me what I would do if proven beyond a reasonable doubt there is no you! It’s a really silly question when you know the person, right?

D.   Do you have to be religious to be moral?

No, and I don’t think religion is worth much anyhow!

E. If there is a God, could someone live a good life, but never really declare true faith, still get in to heaven?

Unfortunately not! Good lives mean little! What is good anyhow, unless it is measured against something? A Satanists good, may mean sacrificing another person. Is that good?

F. Do you think Christ accepts everyone, no exceptions?

Jesus loves everyone, no exceptions!

Whether they accept him and his gifts is a different question.

A person can go and offer to pay for another person’s prison sentence, but if the guilty person refuses the gift, is it the person who offers fault when they end up going to prison?

H. Do you believe that Christianity is a superior religion?

Does knowing you make me a superior or inferior person? Christianity isn’t a religion to me!

I don’t really like religions who don’t understand that relationships is where true value is, and not ritual or procedures.

I.           Do you think someone of a different faith can get into heaven?

If there is a specific key to open a door, would any key do? We can argue all keys should open the door, but in reality only the right one does  and no amount of discussion changes that, does it?

J. What do you want people to know about your religion?

I want them to meet the amazing wonderful God who loves me so much and has done such amazing things for me all my life.

Religion’s and religiosity is the pits! Life with God in Jesus, empowered by Holy Spirit, and within the fullness of the Fathers love is the critical aspect that makes all the difference.

Would I like to introduce people to Jesus? Sure! Then they take it from there!

K. What does being Christian mean to you?

Loving Jesus is everything! The label “Christian” that goes with it is unfortunate. These directed questions show the attitudes many people have towards Christianity.

It’s sad! They miss the relationship because of the label and the colors people paint that label.

L. What is the biggest misconception you have had to clarify about your religion?

It’s not a religion! It’s a relationship!

M. How has being Christian had an impact on your everyday life?

In every way! I’m a better person, a more loving person. I want to help others, I care deeply for others, I want to live life to the fullest and have a positive understanding that life is purpose filled and wonderful! I have a deep inner joy!

N. What is your view on homosexuality?

Why the question? Is it more important that other aspects of a person’s life?

It’s interesting that this one subject is used to try and paint people into corners.

God loves everyone, nobody less or more than another! God through his bible tells us to do the same!

I have lived together with a homosexual man. He respected me and my beliefs  enough to come to me and tell me he wanted to change, and without my even ever discussing it with him. I didn’t judge him and he knew it! Yet, he saw Jesus in me and wanted the change. He judged himself, not me. He told me he wanted to try and change to spend time with a woman. When he told me he had a new girlfriend, I thought it was a male. He very excitedly told not that “no, it’s a real girl!”.

That was his decision and I have incredible respect towards him for it!

Whether a person is homosexual or not, doesn’t change my attitude to them at all. I love people no matter what they do!. I am not judging.

I do however think people that follow this lifestyle are not enjoying the full sexual experience that God planned for a man/woman couple. Great sex is not even just male/female sex, but is sex under Holy Spirit’s anointing as a loving married couple have intimate relationships. God suggests that we should be Chrsitans, married under the power of his Holy Spirit, with him being part of that marriage, and many people also loose out on that!

I can confirm for myself this is wonderful and want it for others. But that is their choice!

I have also probably made similar incorrect choices in different areas in my life that limit my growth. None of us does everything right for ourselves!

That is however not Gods problem, but ours as we do have free choice.     

O. What do you do to help spread the word of God?

Live and let others see a little bit of Jesus in my life, even if it’s not the best view they could have!

Maybe it will help them?

Thanks J for reading my answers and have a wonder filled day!

 

Most directors have little lists in their heads of people they really want to work with. ~ Alan Parker

We like lists! They bring an order to life when it is difficult to structure it don’t they?

When our lives start to get chaotic and busy, when things come at us faster than a starship going into hyperspace, then we need to get order around us, and get control of uncontrollable circumstances.

One of the simple ways we gain control is by writing down all the things that count. Then ordering and prioritizing them.

Just the activity gives us some relief! It is as if by bringing words to the events and situations, we put a fence around them, and constrain them to a specific area. Then, as we start on the first item, and can strike it off that list, we start to feel like we can maybe get back to normality, and life can start to become enjoyable again!

Then once normality is resumed, we often put the list aside.

Yet there is another purpose to a list, it can be used to build us up and lift our spirits, moving us to happy places.

It’s for that purpose today, that I have put my list together. It’s a list of why I love God!

10.God is genuine

God is not a fake. He is true, the very epitome of truth!

Jesus said;  “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. [1]John 14:6

9.   My true friends and family are Christians

Isn’t it wonderful to know that wherever we go in this world, if we find another Christian who loves God, Jesus and Holy Spirit, we can know immediately we are with family? That love and trust is present and that people will be willing to help us in difficulty. That’s a great reason to love God.

8.      God gives our life meaning and purpose.

Meaningless is horrible! A meaningless life where we don’t have a goal or direction, where everything is bland, the same, boring, and tiresome, is horrible! This is often the case without God in our lives. Once God takes control, then we see great improvements! Our lives become focused, aligned, directed, with great joy, filled with purpose. The air seems crisper, the days more vivid, and the world a place of great potential. This is another great reason to love God.

7.      Heaven is a better destination than Hell!

I like to travel to a good destination. A journey to pain and death is not one I find inviting, and I don’t think too many people would. God gives us a journey to life, joy and a painless existence, if we love him and live our lives for him. That’s a good reason to love God.  

6.      God adopted us, making us nicer people.

Isn’t it good to feel wanted! To be needed! God wants us and needs us, and wants to give us great things! That’s a good reason to love God isn’t it?

5.   God removes the selfish, ignorant and nasty side of me and replaces it with a loving forgiving person.

 All my screw ups are counted as null and void by God, once I accepted Him into my life! The horrible nasty things I have said, done and thought, are taken away and replaced by a clean heart. My soul and spirit that make me want to jump for joy! That’s a fantastic reason for loving God isn’t it?

4. Because God is strong in areas where we are weak.

God can do anything! I can’t! It is wonderful to have a friend who can take situations I cannot control, and in a way that enables me to grow, change them or myself, to get the best from each day. It’s also good that God doesn’t remove all the pain and stress of life, for unless it is there, there would not be the opportunities to learn and grow. It’s wonderful to have a powerful loving friend, who is all knowing, and a magnificent teacher at the same time. God is great!

4. Knowing that God would never intentionally hurt us no matter what happens in our life.

It is wonderful to know God only wants the best for us. That he will never intentionally hurt us. That he never has a “bad” moment! That he never “takes it out on us”. That no matter what happens in our life, God loves us unconditionally.

3. Knowing that God makes me able to feel absolute love, happiness and respect for Him, others and myself.

This is that gentle comfortable knowledge that we can experience amazing love, peace, joy, happiness and the respect that is beyond what we can earn, when we allow God to envelope us in his presence, when we have him fill us with Holy Spirit from the inside out, when we exuberantly shout songs of praise, when we whisper love prayers to Him. A deep reason to love God!

2. Know it has always been God’s plan to love me.

Knowing we were chosen by the God, who is the one who created and established everything we experience, and that he WANTED to have a relationship with ME! Wow! That’s just mind blowing! God loved us before we ever knew him! Wow!

1.   God deserves it! He is God!

We need to love God simply for who he is! The great “I am”! YHWH, the most high! The only true God, God of gods! We need to bow in honor to his greatness, knowing we cannot even start to compete with anything he is or can do. He needs worship, because it is right to do so.

That’s my list and I do pray it lift’s up all of us that read it as much as it lifted me up this morning. May you have a wonderful, God filled, glorious day!

When facts fail, then imagination grows in the minds of sinful people,  allowing greed and fear to fulfill their desires with unreasonable thoughts.

Dishonest arguments by people who have leverage over us, is a form of contorted reasoning that introduces a small piece of hell into our everyday life, doesn’t it?

Ever been in a situation where we are due something, and the other person deliberately takes a line of reasoning that is untrue and distorted so that they can have the advantage.

How does this make us feel?

Abused?

This week I need a great deal of prayer for a young friend who must go into court. She was physically abused and now she needs to stand in front of judges and explain what happened. She is scared, and feels she need lots of prayer. I know she does! My advice to her to tell the truth was well taken, and I know she loves Jesus, and will do so. Yet, my huge concern is that in the hands of skillful sharp talkers, she will get hurt further and damaged more.

Pray with me for her!

Yet, even this is subject to the control of the justice in Canada and so should be reasonable. In Canada, justice is fair and even-handed!

Many years ago, it was another woman who needed prayer! She was a mother of a number of children and she had to appear before a court of 13 and 14 year olds, on trumped up charges.

This was during apartheid times in Africa! The court was “freedom fighters” and while it had no legal control, it controlled through fear and gun power! You ignored the court, only if you wanted to be killed! She had to go!

This lady was nurse, who had gone into the squatter areas to provide medical support to the hurting people. She was also a Christian.

At that time, young people had been given rifles and ammunition by the people wanting to destabilize the government. They become hoodlums, with political agendas.

She was a threat, because people respected her, and if she supported any one party, those that respected her would as well. So they planned to bring her up on trumped up charges, and have her killed.

She came to our home that evening to bring us her three children, and ask us to look after them, if she didn’t come back.

This was our night for having a bible study in our home. We had a crowd of Christians in our home all ready to do spiritual work. We submerged ourselves into God’s will! We prayed fervently and long! Concern washed over our souls!

She should never have come back to us! We knew that! However, the reality was incredible when God took control.

She arrived at the “court” to find the few young “judges” who had setup the “court”, were surrounded by over two thousand residents of the area who had also come to the “court” that evening. The community had come out to support her, even though it meant they themselves could lose their lives. Yet they we so upset, that this honest loving lady was to be hurt, that it overcame their own fear. Love conquered evil! Even the hoolums rifles could not help them if this crowd got upset.

Instead, they were forced to be fair in their judgement! One of their own teenage number, who had been the one to bring the false charges forward, was identified and was taken out and whipped. The crowd was appeased, and my friend was released to continue her good work.

It could have turned out very differently, couldn’t it?

God is to be praised! Prayer works!

Dishonest arguments by people who have leverage over us, is a form of contorted reasoning that introduces a small piece of hell into our everyday life, but praying to God brings miraculous relief.

Let’s not forget that!

Let’s remember prayer is a powerful weapon! Let’s remember prayers instantaneously break the barrier of space and time, to rise before God in heaven in eternity.

The bible says…

God sits on his throne forever. He hears my prayers and makes my enemies suffer[1] Psalm 55:19

Also
Another angel came and stood at the altar. He had a shallow gold cup for burning incense. He was given a lot of incense to offer on the golden altar in front of the throne. With the incense he offered the prayers of all God’s people.[2] Revelation 8:3

Prayer is central to our bringing items into focus in heaven so that good may be done on Earth.

Today, as we face our own abusive situations, let’s pray, take God’s direction and do what is right, even if it seems difficult to do.

 

It seems to me that many people are aghast at the continual decline of our world towards a less beneficial state at time goes on. Our planets water becomes more polluted, our biological diversity decreases and then on the human front, lawless acts seem to increase daily, don’t they?

Often we hear people putting out stories about the end of the world, and unfortunately often these are from what others consider “Christians”, or Christian sects. Yet they are what we Christians would consider cults that fail to understand God’s word.

This is not new however! The Thessalonians in Paul’s day had similar problems. In fact people were considering that the “day of the Lord” had already come and people were getting upset about it. Here is what the bible says…

“Brothers and sisters, we want to ask you something. It has to do with the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. It concerns the time when we will go to be with him.

What if you receive a prophecy, report or letter that is supposed to have come from us? What if it says that the day of the Lord has already come? If it does, we ask you not to become easily upset or alarmed.

Don’t let anyone trick you in any way. That day will not come until people rise up against God. It will not come until the man of sin appears. He is a marked man. He is sentenced to be destroyed. He will oppose everything that is called God. He will oppose everything that is worshiped. He will give himself power over everything. He will set himself up in God’s temple. He will announce that he himself is God. [1]2 Thess 2:1-4

There is a clear indication of when lawless ness and sin will break out in full force in the world.

It is when the man of lawlessness appears and sets himself up in God’s temple.

Now this can have been thought to have been done in the past since the Roman Pompey did this before Jesus was born. This was before the time Paul was writing so he could hardly have been referring to that right?

Then, in 70 A.D. the temple was destroyed. (So Paul must have written this before that time, right?) No temple!

Yet, that time of lawlessness and sin is still to come as well. Today there is no temple and the Moslem “Dome of the Rock” blocks the building of it.

This I do believe was God’s way of extending the time of mercy in which we now live.

Have you thought about it?

God is waiting a while so that those many can will turn to him and his amazing love, and experience the glory of living a life right with god, doing works as Holy Spirit gives us to do each day. This is a wonderful time of joy.

Are times hard?          Yes!

Is there lawlessness and sin in the world?        Yes!

Yet, the lawlessness and sin is nowhere near where it will get before Jesus returns!

We see the signs of this lawless time arriving because Jesus comes after the man of lawlessness, and right now we can see signs of the man of lawlessness arriving.

The bible says…

“The coming of the man of sin will be Satan’s work. His work will be seen in all kinds of fake miracles, signs and wonders. ¹⁰ It will be seen in every kind of evil that fools people who are dying. They are dying because they refuse to love the truth. The truth would save them.

¹¹ So God will fool them completely. Then they will believe the lie. ¹² Many will not believe the truth. They will take pleasure in evil. They will be judged.” 2 Thess 2 NIRV

Fake miracles, signs, wonders and deception abounds in end times. This is something we do see around us from time to time.

Our western world is full of charlatans who make out to be what they are not. Maybe it’s the same in the East, but not living there I cannot comment. I guess some of the bad behaviour comes with freedom of speech, although it appears as if even freedom of speech itself is tenuous.

Just this morning I was reading an article[2] about a man who lost his managerial position and 40% of his income for making some comment about gay marriages in Britain. The courts there found in his favour, so I guess there is some hope for freedom of speech. Why should a person be persecuted at work for a comment made during his free time on a non work topic. If that was the case most people could be in trouble. Wether he should have made the comments is not the important point. It’s that an employer persecuted someone for a non-work related comment they disagreed with! An apparently lawless act by an employer? Britain’s courts agreed! Law is in place in this case, but only just!

Sin abounds! Yet our world is in a waiting state.

Jesus will return and we know before he does things will get much worse. Since we see things getting worse, we expect him sooner, but we should be careful in predicting end times. The bible actually states nobody knows the time. The season of the end times does seem near but we know it seemed a lot nearer during the last world war and Jesus did not come then.

Perhaps we are blessed and living in good times?

We need to simply stand firm in our knowledge of God. Paul puts it this way…

“Brothers and sisters, we should always thank God for you. The Lord loves you. God chose you from the beginning. He wanted you to be saved. Salvation comes through the Holy Spirit’s work. He makes people holy. It also comes through believing the truth. ¹⁴ He chose you to be saved by accepting the good news that we preach. And you will share in the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.

¹⁵ Brothers and sisters, stand firm. Hold on to what we taught you. We passed our teachings on to you by what we preached and wrote.

¹⁶ Our Lord Jesus Christ and God our Father loved us. By his grace God gave us comfort that will last forever. The hope he gave us is good.

May our Lord Jesus Christ and God our Father ¹⁷ comfort your hearts. May they make you strong in every good thing you do and say.”

Today, let’s join with our friends in Christ and together thank God that we live in a time of mercy, that we have access to the God of the universe through Jesus, that Holy Spirit is with us and that Father God in mercy is holding back the floodgates of lawlessness.

God is good and wants good for us! He blesses those who put their trust in him. He gives us interesting and full lives complete with glorious service. He is with us when we are tired, he is with us when others seem to take a lawless path through our life’s experiences. God is with us to heal, repair and protect. God wants us to talk to him and discuss our fears and ambitions with him so that he can be part of building a special life for us.

Isn’t it great to know that no matter what happens to us, no matter how tough the circumstances we face, God is always with us, in us, loving us and willing to guide us?