Choose Life – 11th of April

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HEIRS AND DOGS

” 1 John 3:1
‘ How great is the love the Father has lavished on us,that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are!’

A new convert approached Watchman Nee in deep anguish of soul, saying, ‘No matter how much I pray, no matter how hard I try, I simply cannot seem to be faithful to my Lord. I think I’m losing my salvation.’ Watchman Nee replied, ‘Do you see this dog here? He is my dog. He is house-trained; he never makes a mess; he is obedient; he is a pure delight to me. Out in the kitchen I have a son, a baby son. He throws his food around, he fouls his clothes, he’s a total mess. But who is going to inherit my kingdom? Not my dog. My son in my heir! And you are Jesus Christ’s heir because it is fo you that he died.’
It’s deeply liberating to know we are Christ’s heirs not through our strivings for perfections, but simply by means of grace. It’s difficult for us to grasp fully the concept of grace. Maybe this illustration will help: A burglar broke into a house and killed a sleeping baby. If the father tracked down the burglar and killed him, that would be revenge. If the law took its course and the burglar was sent to prison, that would be justice. If the father forgave the burglar, took him into his home, and treated him as his own son, that would be grace. It sounds an absurd scenario, yet that’s what God did for us, even though it was we who killed his son. How about spending some time meditating on that for a while?”

50 Shades Of Grey.

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I saw this post on Facebook by a girl who has a blog called The Full Time Girl ( http://thefulltimegirl.com/) This is what it said:

‘Our world is so messed up. The past few days you’ve seen article after article about the movie 50 Shades of Grey coming out on Valentine’s Day. I know you probably don’t want to read one more status about it, but hear me out…

We have millions of women- women!- just melting over a narcissistic sociopathic rapist, and calling it love. Sure, everyone wants to be a feminist and scream, “girl power” until it means acknowledging that chains are not the path to freedom. Even Christians are defending domestic violence masked as erotica and torture porn presented as a fairytale? What is wrong with us?

We have men now believing that this is what women want. We are teaching them to be every nightmare we’ve ever had. Men are watching women embrace the idea that they can do whatever they want to women and they will like it even when they say, “no.” But wait, no means no right?? Apparently, not any more….

What are we teaching each other about the way to treat human beings? Like they are animals. We have now crossed a line in our society that can not be erased. A dangerous line- and any woman in a society that freely accepts pedophilia, rape, and abuse as “sexy” should be scared for themselves and scared for their children.

Shame, shame, shame on us. Shame on anyone who would read those books, watch that movie, or talk about it as if it were normal. There is nothing normal about it. There is nothing sexy about it. There is nothing lovely about it. There is nothing harmless about it. It’s flat out disgusting and dangerous, and if you even begin to think otherwise, I am sad for your soul.

Jesus is the only answer. The bible holds the path to purity, and to truth, and to love, and if we don’t start speaking up, and standing out, and being a light, we will drown in the sea of sexual sickness and depravity like Lot and his entire family. Are you willing to lose everything? Go watch 50 Shades of Grey.’

And I just wanted to leave you with that, because, personally, I agree with her.
The stereo typical thing to do on Valentines Day these days is to watch 50 Shades of Grey and it honestly terrifies me. Rape is my worst fear and we are, technically, glorifying it…

Planet Earth as You’ve Never Thought of it Before…

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After I finished my blog post yesterday, I told you I was going to church. So, at New Hope last night, the sermon was on planet earth. It was about our assignment on planet earth. That planet earth isn’t our home but it is our assignment from God. Heaven is our home. 

We need to actually remember that we have an assignment on earth because other wise we will value worldly things more and forget what we are actually here to do. 

Mathew 4:19
‘And he said to them, “Follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men.”‘ 

Mark 1:17
‘And Jesus said to them, “Follow Me, and I will make you become fishers of men.”‘

Why did Jesus say this? I hear you ask. Its because, He is a fisher of man. If we spend time with God then we will also become and this and share the Gospel with the nations. The thing is, everybody is looking for the truth but they don’t know where to find it. They are tired of all the lies. But, people aren’t interested in our religious beliefs. They are just interested about their life on this earth.
If we are to be a Christ centered Church then we will be a church that knows our assignment.
Heaven is going to be amazing right? we all know that 🙂 we will be mesmerized bu Gods work, we won’t see a non Christian. On this earth we can take people with us there, to heaven, to paradise. 

1. A Christ Centered Church connects everything it does to a soul. 
We are becoming to comfortable on the earth and forgetting why we are here… 

John 4:35
‘Do not say, ‘There are yet four months , and then comes the harvest’? Behold, I say to you, lift up your eyes and look on the fields, that they are white for harvest.’

What matters most of all is the souls that are being saved. Everything we do is for the sake of souls. God values Christians and non-Christians the same. We are not just here as a gathering of Christians, we are here also to be Gods co-workers. In Heaven, God will ask us, “How many  children did you bring home with you?” 
We won’t have another chance at this life again. Now is the time. 

2. A Christ Centered Church never forgets her assignment. 
You might think God can’t use you. You might think you too young, too old, not good enough, not wise enough. That doesn’t matter. God uses everyone . We have one life to give. 

John 20:21
‘So Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you; as the Father has sent Me, I also send you.’
We are sent people. God has a great plan and purpose for you. He wants us to make the most of every opportunity. To bring them home. 

Why are we here? that is the question… 
We are here to love others. We made the decision to obey God and follow him. 

3. A Christ Centered Church chooses to love the people in its community and its calling to reach them. 
No matter how bad people may seem or how unlovable they may seem, we must love anyway. Harder than it sounds.. but the greatest love is the love of choice.

 

For example, if you run simply because you love loving, you will run forever. When you love simply for loving people, you will love them forever. 

Mathew 20:34
‘Moved with compassion, Jesus touched their eyes; and immediately they regained their sight and followed Him.’

We are here to love. We are here to build people because its people God died for not for things such as our reputations. 
Jesus was moved by compassion. Miracles are usually prefaced by compassion. 

*look at 1 Corinthians 13.*

Love never ever gives up. The love of Christ transforms us. Love doesn’t force itself on itself. We must trust God always. The love of God transforms us to become like Jesus. 
‘Its not the magnitude of our actions but the love that we put into them that matters.’
If we love, even the small things give us joy.

4. A Christ Centered Church chooses that about everything else. 
2 Corinthians 5:14
‘For the love of Christ controls us, having concluded thins, that one died for all, therefore all died;’

If the love of God controls us then we won’t be here for us. We will understand that it is our assignment. We always have to know what our assignment is. We have to choose to love the people who God puts around us,. We have to choose to be controlled by Gods love. The Devil will try to tell us lies but we won’t listen to them! In Heaven we will never see a non Christian again, now is our chance to bring others with us, home, to paradise. 

 

God Is Love.

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Now, I realize this was my first time back at church since before Germany so I think I am a bit behind with all the sermons but today we looked at a fruit of the spirit, Love.

God’s love:
– His character
– It’s everlasting
– For everybody
– The unlovely
– His motivation. 

Let me explain.
How do we describe God? God is love. If you look into other religions, if you read the Koran there is nothing that says anything about God of love. Our God has everlasting love. Everlasting. Whether you are pleasing him and serving Him or doing things that break his heart, his love never changes. He loves you always. God loves the unlovely. For God so loved the world that He gave His only son. Why? because he loves us, even the unlovely.

We need to have passion for the lost. We need to love the lost like God loves the lost.
Love is: Patient, not jealous, not proud, not self seeking, no wrongs, rejoices in truth, trusts, perseveres, kind, does not brag, not rude, not angered, no delight in evil, protects, hopes, love never fails. We must not keep records of any wrongs!

Now, love is tough. God says we are to love God, we are to love each other, we are to love our neighbor, we are to love our enemies, we need to love with all our mind, heart, soul and strength (Just like Maria explained in the kids talk during the service).

There is good news! It is Gods love through us. *exhale*. That makes it easier right? Its a fruit of the spirit.
Our responsibility is to “Enjoy serving the Lord and he will give you what you want.” (Psalm 37 verse 4)

There are results of loving. 
1. God gets excited.
2. The world is touched.
3. We are enriched.

The love of Jesus flows in our lives. 
Amen.

P.s you have homework! Well, we got homework 😀 Our Pastor said we should read Ephesians chapter 3 verse 14 to 21 (The end of the chapter) every day for a week (or longer if you like;) )  I encourage you to do the same 🙂 

Now, after church Rachael and I longboarded back to her house. Just for the fun of it. I did have a rather funny experience. Just as we were leaving Peta, your longboard decided to make its way into the bike compartment. Now baring in mind it’s a Sunday which meant all gates were shut and probably padlocked, so this led me to having one choice. Climb the fence. I’m about 5’1, I estimate the gate being double the size of me if not more so I had to sort of pull myself up over it, in a dress. Lol!! It was quit funny. I guess all those childhood years of climbing trees does come in handy in situations like these 😀