I see many wanting to penetrate the mystery of the universe and whether there is a God by means of their intellect. Often they claim to base their thinking on science but much of it is in fact not true science and for many this alleged ‘science’ has become yet another god. True science examines the proven facts and comes up supporting the existence of an All Wise Creator every time, although we still do not understand.
I knew a man who had been miraculously healed by God of alcoholism but he still wanted to find God intellectually before he would believe in Him. What a forlorn hope.
Those who want intellectual proof of God will be disappointed. Personally I do not want it as such an idea as encompassing God intellectually denies His infinitude and our place as His creation. It reduces everything to a level not worthy of God.
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God wants my total trust.
I have learned to say with Job “though He slay me yet will I trust Him” (Job 13:15). I can do this with confidence because I know His nature, because I know His grace. Otherwise it would be impossible.
Furthermore, I have proved Him to be trustworthy and trusting Him wholly is the only sensible thing to do.
But that is not enough, He rightly asks more, He wants everything. To be in the fullness of relationship with Him I must give Him my total love. I should:
“love the Lord [my] God with all [my]heart, and with all [my] soul, and with all [my] mind, and with all [my] strength” (Mark 12:30).
Anything less is unworthy of Him and anything less fails to enter into the fullness of His love.
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The grace of God is the sinner’s only hope – “by grace you have been saved” – there is no other way.
Much has been said and written about grace but who can ever fully understand it? It is truly divine, sourced in the infinite goodness of God. It is a gift from God. We can never earn it, but through this grace we receive forgiveness, acceptance, glorification and part in God’s eternal purposes.
God’s – it is of Him, not of us
Riches – “every spiritual blessing in the heavenlies in Christ” plus many more in our earthly life as well
At
Christ’s – all of our blessings are “in Him” and because of what He has done
Expense – how deep and unfathomable the cost to our Saviour
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The Bible tells us that the Holy Spirit is very closely involved in our world and especially in the lives of God’s people.
In the second verse of the Bible referring to the creation of the earth we read “the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters”.
It is the Holy Spirit who convicts the sinner of sin and reveals to him the horrors of his sinful condition, driving him to the Saviour in repentance and felt need. It is the Holy Spirit who reveals to us the uncleanness of the flesh and that flesh cannot enter God’s kingdom. It is He who drives the sinner to seek the Saviour and who creates the seeking sinner anew in Christ (new birth). It is the Holy Spirit who then gives God’s peace and who brings the believer to assurance of faith and the experience of the love of God being shed abroad in his or her heart. He is the “Spirit of adoption” who makes it possible for the believer to live in relationship as a son of God.
It is the Holy Spirit who sanctifies each individual believer and who baptises each one into the one body of Christ.
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Why? Why? Why Daddy?
How often I heard those endearing words when parenting my four small sons – and even a very small child can ask questions that are difficult to answer.
I have misty remembrances of asking the same question when I was a small child. And in fact I have never stopped asking – why? It is just that the questions have become more profound and the answers more elusive.
Why have my life experiences been what they have been? Why have I been so blest and why has there been so much tragedy? Why was I blessed with such a rich marriage to then see my darling die at 63 years of age in extreme pain leaving me to carry on without her and having to deal with extensive metastatic cancer of my own?
What did I do wrong to cause all of this I ask? God is ever good so it must be my fault somehow, I reason. But that gets me nowhere. I do not have answers to many things and one of the great dangers of the human intellect is to presume that it does have answers when in reality it can understand so little.
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Opinions are cheap.
The opinions of this world mostly drift and change.
There is collective popular opinion which attaches to cultures for a period in time but changes like the sand on the seashore.
There are individual opinions. Each of the billions of people on earth has his or her opinions on multiple subjects = billions x billions of opinions.
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Let me tell you a true story.
I had the great blessing of being married for 42 years to someone very beautiful. Apart from being physically attractive she also had a deep inner beauty which showed in many ways, rising to each new challenge with patience, trust and grace. Even in trying circumstances she was predictably at peace, full of faith and ready to give of herself to others. To have her near me was having sunshine around me, even on a very dark day.
You might ask ‘Are you saying that she was perfect?’
‘Well, for me she was. I could not imagine that anyone could ever have equalled her as my wife.’
When at times I told her how lovely I thought she was she would smile modestly and say “the beauty is in the eye of the beholder”.
I was content with that. She had happily received my compliment in the best possible way. After all it was not so important whether she or others shared my opinion but I think that those who really knew her also admired and loved her. Understandably I knew her best and loved her most: I was her lover and she was mine.
I remember her saying not long before her final illness ‘the worst thing about us loving each other so much is that at some stage one of us will leave the other’. She then went on to unselfishly say that she thought I would go first and that she would like to be here to the end for me. Also, she thought that she would manage on her own better than I would.
When she went to Jesus after a dreadful battle with pain aged just 63 years, I felt as though my heart had been torn apart and ripped out of me. I was left with a broken heart and a broken body. I was diagnosed soon afterwards to have extensive metastatic cancer. But I was not fully broken and with the Lord’s help I am still running (perhaps more like Jacob – limping) ‘the race’ which for me has not finished yet.
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We all without exception have faith in something
There is only one “most holy faith” (Jude 20), which has God’s revealed truth as its object, and that is the faith I refer to below
We can never buy it or earn it
But we can in humility receive it as God’s free gift
God’s hand is outstretched generously offering us His gift of faith. But it will be of no benefit to us whatsoever unless we decide to receive it: and then everything changes for “God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life” (John 3:16).
Some say they cannot receive it. I say is that because at some level they will not receive it? But when it is received everything will change.
However, for some this change is immediate while for others it is a longer process.
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May every Pastor become a pastor-teacher, evangelist, apostle, administrator, encourager, elder, deacon, helper, intercessor, advocate or other servant of the body of Christ according to his unique calling and gifting rather than a religious church official in an unbiblical and obstructive office.
As the Pastor and the body of Christ understand the significant difference inherent in this change, the opportunities for ministry based on divine calling and gifting will expand, not reduce, for both the Pastor and others. Ministry will be more effective, safe and Holy Spirit animated and there will be an infusion of divine life into the ailing body of Christ.
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