A Christian Life

Ruth the Moabite said to Naomi, “Let me go to the field and glean among the ears of grain after him in whose sight I shall find favor.” Ruth 2:2 Do you ever start your day lying in bed thinking of all that’s ahead of you and around you? Do you find yourself feeling overwhelmed by the challenges of the day to come or underwhelmed by the routine of it? Continue reading click here  

I began to weep loudly because no one was found worthy to open the scroll or to look into it. And one of the elders said to me, “Weep no more; behold, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has conquered, so that he can open the scroll and its seven seals.” And between the throne and the four living creatures and among the elders I saw a Lamb standing, as though it had been slain. Revelation 5:4–6 As children, many of us heard our parents say, “Did you remember to…?” One example that I remember hearing often when I returned from someone’s house was “Did you remember to say thank you?” I didn’t need a fresh revelation; I simply needed to remember. Click here to continue reading

 

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him. In love he predestined us for adoption to himself as sons through Jesus Christ. Ephesians 1:3–5 God has loved you for a long, long time. Paul’s striking outpouring of praise at the beginning of his letter to the Ephesians announces to us the wonder of all that God has done for us in Christ.  Click here to continue reading

  But who am I, and what is my people, that we should be able thus to offer willingly? For all things come from you, and of your own have we given you. 1 Chronicles 29:14 Some time ago, some of the staff at our church decided to put stickers on everything in the building, announcing that it was “Property of Parkside Church.” Initially, I wondered if we really expected that someone wanting to steal a garbage can would turn it over, read the sticker, and suddenly decide to return it. It seemed like a fairly pointless exercise. I soon discovered, though, that I actually quite enjoyed turning things upside down and looking at these little stickers declaring, “This belongs to the church”! Click here to continue reading

  A man of many companions may come to ruin, but there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother. Proverbs 18:24 No one likes to feel alone and without a friend. We all recognize the importance of friendship and the priceless gift that a true friend can be. Deep friendship—the kind marked by consistency, honesty, and sensitivity—is the standard which the Bible holds up to us. Click here to continue reading

After six days Jesus took with him Peter and James, and John his brother, and led them up a high mountain by themselves. And he was transfigured before them, and his face shone like the sun, and his clothes became white as light. Matthew 17:1–2 As John Lennon and Paul McCartney once suggested, there are places we’ll remember all of our lives. [1] Surely Peter, James, and John would have regarded this mountainside, where they saw Christ’s transfiguration, as one of those places. Certainly Peter never forgot it (2 Peter 1:17-18). To Continue reading click here

 Nor should you swear by your head, for you cannot make a single hair white or black. Simply let your ‘Yes’ be ‘Yes,’ and your ‘No,’ ‘No.’ Anything more comes from the evil one" Jesus the Christ - Matthew 5:36-37 55 people have died in the U.S after receiving the vaccine, I'm sure some vaccine propagandists will complain that it wasn't the vaccine (much like the polio vaccine has never killed any children or had any side effects for the benefit of the "herd"), I hope they did not put their faith in medicine because it will help them nothing now, I hope they have their hope and faith in Jesus, so who decides who gets to live and who dies, your government should they be able to force you, your neighbor, or you? If you think the vaccine is going to be good for you and you want to accept the risks involved that is entirely up to you no one knows you better than you, but to all those virtue signalling lamebrained idiots out there, stop telling others what is good for ...

Dear brothers and sisters in Jesus Christ our Lord, the Son, of God who came to us in the flesh for our redemption, may He bless you and His love be a spring of life giving water within you. As we are going through this time of the year when many become festive as we remember the great gift to the world, the gift of God's great love stamped out in a little baby and the Holy Spirit fills our hearts with joy, I was reminded of the words of Jesus as He was praying to the heavenly Father, His words ultimately signaling His complete trust in the Father, Jesus said "Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will, but yours be done." , Jesus went through great hardship and endured for the will of the Father, but it was also the will of the Father to show His love for us even at this time we must not be duped into romanticizing the story too much. Let me just remind us of a few points. 1. Mary confronted by an Angel a fearful thing 2. Mary told she will bear a...

Dear Brothers and Sisters, I thought this a wonderful message to start the year ahead building on my previous post about building a house how the Lord is transforming us let us not put aside the call to use our intellect for God's purpose and for our intellect to be enriched by and transformed to conform to Godly principles, may His Spirit guide us have a listen let me know what you think.  God Bless.

“Imagine yourself as a living house. God comes in to rebuild that house. At first, perhaps, you can understand what He is doing. He is getting the drains right and stopping the leaks in the roof and so on; you knew that those jobs needed doing and so you are not surprised. But presently He starts knocking the house about in a way that hurts abominably and does not seem to make any sense. What on earth is He up to? The explanation is that He is building quite a different house from the one you thought of – throwing out a new wing here, putting on an extra floor there, running up towers, making courtyards. You thought you were being made into a decent little cottage: but He is building a palace. He intends to come and live in it Himself.” ― C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity

Often times we go through some hard times and when we get through it we don;t always know ho we did, but it always leaves behind a sense that we are better or it is over, and, we realize that it wasn't too much and we have grown and can handle more in future. As the Apostle said perseverance builds character. Silver is refined through fire made purer and more precious.

38 Coming up to them at that very moment, she gave thanks to God and spoke about the child to all who were looking forward to the redemption of Jerusalem. 19 And he directed the people to sit down on the grass. Taking the five loaves and the two fish and looking up to heaven, he gave thanks and broke the loaves. Then he gave them to the disciples, and the disciples gave them to the people. 15 One of them, when he saw he was healed, came back, praising God in a loud voice. 16 He threw himself at Jesus' feet and thanked him--and he was a Samaritan. 26 While they were eating, Jesus took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to his disciples, saying, "Take and eat; this is my body." 27 Then he took the cup, gave thanks and offered it to them, saying, "Drink from it, all of you. 34 Now I urge you to take some food. You need it to survive. Not one of you will lose a single hair from his head." 35 After he said this, he took some bread and gave thanks to Go...

 "Come, follow me," Jesus said, "and I will make you fishers of men." Matt 4:19 Those which take this verse lightly, forget what happened to the Apostles. To stand for truth while being persecuted is not easy, many come to churches to have titles, positions and to boast about their knowledge and "gifts", they chase wealth, health and prosperity but let us see how many of them would face walking from town to town, beatings, stoning, hunger, cold, rain, thirst, being boiled alive and sickness all just to tell someone else one story, very few that I have laid my eyes upon would do that for people they love but no-one for those who do not deserve it, no-one for their enemy. Come and follow me they left everything, they were chosen and given to Jesus for His ministry, and for the Gospel, their message would be taken to the whole world, but here we see Jesus' calls to follow Him in both senses, to learn from Him while abiding with Him and to follow late...

Matt 4:17 From that time on Jesus began to preach, "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near." John has been imprisoned his voice now silenced but Jesus shows complete agreement with John's message and a continuation "Repent" turn for the kingdom of heaven is near, Jesus is calling those who hear to turn to God to turn toward the kingdom of heaven which is where God is. The word repent here means - to change one's mind or purpose - I repent, change my mind, change the inner man (particularly with reference to acceptance of the will of God). - Jesus is calling people to think on Godly/heavenly things and to turn toward those things. The call is still the same today as it was then to make the things of the Lord important to keep them sacred and to follow the Godly way to turn away from the worldly activities which reap only worldly benefits. BUT then our Lord says "for the kingdom of heaven is near" this could be an encouragement to some or sc...

“There is but one good; that is God. Everything else is good when it looks to Him and bad when it turns from Him.” “The Great Divorce” (1945) C.S.Lewis

Jesus said to him, "Away from me, Satan! For it is written: 'Worship the Lord your God, and serve him only.' " Matt 4:10 Amazing the temptation of Jesus, have you noticed what was missing during the temptations and what was included. Satan wasn't telling Jesus what God was saying he didn't remind Jesus of God's words for God's sake, then when he realized that Jesus knew God's word he tried to twist scripture to suit his own goal when this failed he tries the subtle approach with just all the world's empires up for grabs. If any human had been placed under those temptations we would have thought nothing of it had they accepted it, using your "gifts" for your needs but wait are we supposed to use our gifts for God's glory? Then you're such valuable person God will save you he says so right, then hey I can give you so much and so much comfort just give me your vote. As the character playing Satan said in the1997 movie Devil...

In this world you may be judged by the amount of people which serve you. In the next you will be judged by how many people you served. Ravi Zacharias - Sermon series "Character Counts"

“Joy is the serious business of heaven.” C.S. Lewis - “Letters to Malcolm” (1964)