Inspirational messages

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Obey God

17th February

 

“If you love Me, obey My commandments. And….”

John 14:15-16a

When Jesus said, ‘If you love Me, obey My commandments’, He wasn’t behaving like a parent trying to get their child to do the right thing by using reverse psychology on us, He was stating a fact! If we love God, we will obey His commandments. It’s a natural process. It comes with the inner change that happens when we accept Jesus into our lives. The Holy Spirit enters our lives too, and with His power, our longings and desires for sins we used to commit decrease, replaced by a longing and desire to please God. We don’t love God and obey His commandments for reward or even to try to gain favour with Him. We do it because we have been loved and it is a natural reaction to love Him back, and want to honour Him. We are not bribed into loving God, we are not forced, and we are not manipulated to love Him either. We love and obey Him, because He loved us first and because He lives in us.

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When You Pray, Do You Believe?

14th February

 

““I tell you the truth, anyone who believes in Me will do the same works I have done, and even greater works, because I am going to be with the Father. You can ask for anything in My name, and I will do it. Yes, ask me for anything in My name, and I will do it!””

John 14:12-14

Perhaps today’s key verse needs reading again! Did you get it? Did it sink into your hearts? Jesus clearly says, that we can ask for anything in His name, and He will do it. We have access to the power of the name of Jesus Christ: the name that has been exalted above every other name in all of existence, both past, present and future. Moreover, Jesus promised that the disciples (we are included in this promise too), will do even greater works than Jesus did! How is this possible? Well simply, because we can witness the greatest miracle of all, salvation through Jesus Himself. It is greater than seeing the dead rise, greater than seeing broken limbs healed, and even greater than seeing body parts regrow. Yet all these things too are possible with God, because Jesus said it. Because Jesus lives, because He resurrected from the dead, because He now sits at the right hand of the Father in Heaven, we are empowered and equipped with the authority of Jesus’ name. When you pray in His name, believe for the answers, trust for the miracles and watch the power of God in action!

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The Way, The Truth, The Life

13th February

“Jesus told him,“I am the way, the truth and the life. No one can come to the Father except through me. If you had really know Me, you would know who my Father is. From now on, you do know Him and have seen Him!””

John 14:6-7

Have you ever wondered how to get to Heaven? Well, the answer is simple; through Jesus. There is no special ticket or no trick questions to answer or no religious act you have to do. Just simply, through Jesus. If you don’t believe these words, then read Jesus’ own words. He said of Himself, ‘That no one can come to the Father except through Me’. He alone is the way, the truth and the life. He is the way to Heaven, He is the truth of God in His fullness, and He is the life beyond life.

Yet Jesus’ words were so much more than just simply directing us to Heaven. Jesus, above all, wanted and wants us to know God for ourselves. He wants us to have a personal relationship with Him, with the Father and with the Holy Spirit. That is why He said, ‘When you know Me, you know who My Father is’. Jesus said this, because He wanted to emphasize that He and His Father are One. He wanted His disciples to know who the ‘Father’ was, who ‘Elohim’ was, who ‘Yahweh’ was, who the ‘God’ that they and their ancestors had been worshiping all of their lives. He wanted to show them that the God of the Torah, of the stories of old, of Moses, Abraham and Isaac, was standing right in front of them, reaching out to have a relationship with them, both in the ‘now’ and ‘eternally’ in Heaven.

We too are presented with the same challenge today. Jesus presents Himself in front of us as the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. He wants us to have a relationship with Him now and forever more. Is Jesus the way, truth and life for you?

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No Worries

11th & 12th February

Weekend Edition

““Don’t let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God, and trust also in Me.””

John 14:1

Why worry when we know Jesus is in control? Probably because there is a natural switch in our hearts that tells us, when something is starting to get out of our control, we must fight to take back the reins, as if we can magically harness the troublesome situation in our own strength and power. We tend to take God’s place as the driver, author and pilot of our life because we think we can handle things by ourselves.

Yet we can’t. Our problems, compared to our understanding of them, outweigh us, oversize us and overshadow us and cause us to worry and be troubled. Yet when compared to the glory, might and magnitude of God, they pale into insignificance. That is why Jesus tells us to trust in Him, to trust in God. Not just with our problems, the things we can see and know now, but also with the uncertain future that we do not yet know about. We can even trust God with our own salvation knowing, as Jesus said, that He has prepared a room for us in Heaven.

Above all, let’s make sure that our hearts are not troubled with things for the now and future but rather trust in God.

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A Burden Left At The Cross, It A Burden Lost

10th February

“Then Jesus said, “Come to Me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest.””

Matthew 11:28

A University professor, challenging his philosophy class, asked his students how much the cup of water weighed in his hand. Some students shouted out 50 grams, others 200 grams, until the professor finally shared his reflection on the weight of the water. “Actually the absolute weight doesn’t matter. It depends on how you hold it for.” He continued, “If I hold this cup for a minute, it won’t be a problem. If I hold it for an hour, I’ll have an ache in my arm. If I hold it all day, it will become so heavy, that I’ll be in considerable pain. In each case, it’s the same weight, but the longer I hold it, the heavier it becomes.” The same is with our burdens. The longer we hold them and the longer we cling on to them, the heavier they become.

Jesus encourages us to ‘Go to Him’ when we are weary and have heavy things burdening our hearts. He wants us to be free from them. Moreover, He wants to take them from us. The weight of our burden disappears at the finished work of the cross. It is in Jesus that we find rest. But we need to ‘GO TO HIM’ and ‘Give Him Our Burdens!’ Don’t keep holding onto your burdens like the person holding the glass. We don’t have to carry them. Give them to Jesus.

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The Humble King: A Deeper Look

9th February

“Now Jesus was deeply troubled, and He exclaimed, “I tell you the truth, one of you will betray Me!””

John 13:21

Yesterday we looked at the wonderful passage of Jesus washing His disciples’ feet. It was a fantastic example of complete and utter humility; The ‘Lord’ and ‘Teacher’ washing the feet of His disciples. Yet if we are to read just a few more verses on, we find the most astounding fact, that reveals more of who Jesus was and His character.

Would it astound you to know that Judas, the disciple that betrayed Jesus, was present at that ‘Last Supper’. Probably not, because He was a disciple after all, right? Well, would it surprise you that Jesus knew Judas would betray Him, yet still humbly washed His feet. Yes, Jesus also washed the feet of the one who would betray Him just a few hours later. Isn’t this just a mind-boggling fact. It is one thing to find out after washing Judas’ feet that he was Jesus’ betrayer, but Jesus knew before Judas actually betrayed Him that he would. If this is so, then Jesus’ washing of the feet takes on an even greater significance and highlights even more so, the loving and gracious character of God in Jesus.

Even to this day, Jesus continues to shower His love on all of humanity, even the ones He knows will betray Him, or not even believe in Him. Jesus even knew that the great Apostle Peter would deny Him too, yet that didn’t stop Him stooping down to wash His feet. This tells us that Jesus’ character never gives up on us. He knows we will make mistakes but yet He still ‘washes our feet’. He knows our actions will deny Him, yet He still chooses to call us His own. Our choice is whether we come back to Him and accept His grace like Peter, or let the regret of our mistakes lead us to death like Judas. Both had the same choice, to simply accept Jesus’ love and forgiveness.

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The Humble King

8th February

“So He got up from the table, took off His robe, wrapped a towel around His waist, and poured water into a basin. Then He began to wash the disciples’ feet, drying them with the towel He had around Him.”

John 13:4-5

One often wonders why the practice of washing feet is not seen much in churches anymore? Jesus did say to His disciples after all, ‘since I have washed your feet, you ought to do the same’. What we see Jesus do here in this passage is completely the opposite of what the King of Kings should be doing. He shouldn’t be stooping down to wash the disciples feet. It should be the other way right? It should be the disciples washing their Master’s feet. Yet this action, completely epitomised who Jesus was and what He came to do. Yes He was the King of Kings, but He came and humbled Himself, for our sake, lower than a servant, to take our place. In fact, the feet washing process was only done by a servant when their masters came home so they would not bring the dust of the road and streets into the home. Yet Jesus took on this role to show a greater meaning to His disciples.

“The Son of God came, not as a proud master who demanded service from others, but as a humble servant who delighted in helping others. In stooping down to do the most menial of jobs (washing His disciples’ feet). Jesus showed them that true leaders serve their followers.”1 Jesus is a leader, who first, wants to serve His followers. He came to show us His love before we could truly love Him. He came to die for us first before we could accept His salvation. And because of His actions, we are saved and commanded to do likewise; to love others first and to lay down our needs for the sake of others. Perhaps it is time to wash your brother’s and sister’s feet.

1Every Man’s Bible Commentary (NLT) pg 1414

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Meeting Jesus Personally

7th February

“But despite all the miraculous signs Jesus had done, most of the people still did not believe in Him.”

John 12:37

Today’s key verse, is almost like a red traffic light or a huge wall in the middle of the road. You have to stop. You can’t go around it. It has got our attention because it has just sent a shocking right hook of truth our way. We are K.O’d. Did I really just read that? Is it a grammatical error? Did people still not believe in Jesus, despite His many miraculous signs? Could this be true? Yet the truth is there in black and white: “despite all the miraculous signs Jesus had done, most of the people still did not believe in Him.” Yet should we be so shocked? We are surrounded by a world full of miracles, yet people still don’t believe today.

The truth is that some people can witness the most amazing miracle, yet if their hearts are hardened and their eyes blinded, they will miss the truth. When we pray for our unbelieving friends and families, perhaps our prayers should be that the Holy Spirit open their hearts and eyes to see Jesus and to see the wondrous miracles around us that lead us to Him. Furthermore, that they would encounter Jesus for themselves.

We too are challenged to daily put our trust in Jesus, not just because of the miracles He does, but because of who He is! May be too encounter Jesus for ourselves.

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Living In Christ

6th February

 

“…since we believe that Christ died for all, we also believe that we have all died to our old life. He died for everyone so that those who receive His new life will no longer live for themselves. Instead, they will live for Christ, who died and was raised for them.”

2 Corinthians 5:14b-15

Jesus’ death and resurrection, was and still is, so significant for our lives. When we commit to serving Jesus, following His ways, and giving Him our lives, we too die and are raised to life again spiritually. We die to our old lifestyles, habits, choices and desires that are contrary to Godly living and are raised to live for Christ in all we do. Moreover, sometimes it is not even a conscious decision that our former desires have faded away. It is part of a regenerative work of the Holy Spirit in our hearts and lives, changing our desires for God’s desires. This is not to say we become puppets, but rather daily experiencing goodness and perfection from spending time with a good and perfect Father, eventually leads to His characteristics becoming ours, aided by the wondrous work of the Holy Spirit.

Living in Christ means that we are longer living for ourselves but living for Him. Our dreams are birthed from God’s desires, to see the best in our lives. Our hopes and plans are inter-twinned with God’s purposes for us. Our daily living is in pleasing Him, sharing His goodness with others and bringing Jesus’ light into this dark world. We are beacon’s and ambassadors to show the world the power of Jesus’ finished work on the cross and fullness of His love and grace.

“..Be my everything, be my everything, be my everything, Jesus, everything…!”

SONG: Tim Hughes, Everything

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4th & 5th February

Weekend Edition

“And this same God who takes care of me will supply all your needs from His glorious riches, which have been given to us in Christ Jesus.”

Philippians 4:19

God will supply all your needs. A bold statement but one echoed by Jesus Himself in the Lord’s prayer (Matthew 6:11) and again in the sermon on the mount (Matthew 7:11). God will provide for us. That’s a promise. And when God makes a promise, He doesn’t lie. His promises are Yes and Amen.

Yet is this verse purely talking about physical possessions? Well, of course in its context yes it is. Paul is addressing the faithfulness of the church in Philippi and the generous support he had received. Yet Paul notes that even though the support came from people, it ultimately came from God. He then leaves an encouragement for us too, his readers, by saying that the ‘same God who supplies my needs and has taken care of me, will also take care of you.’

But here is where it takes on a deeper meaning, perhaps more than just physical needs. Paul comments that God will “supply all” our needs from His own glorious riches. In other words, everything we have, everything Paul was provided with through the hands of the church in Philippi, was indeed God’s. His provision provided Paul’s support; from the throne room of Heaven, to Paul’s hands. Yet there is even more depth in Paul’s words which takes this meaning beyond just physical wealth. Paul says that God will supply our needs, from His glorious riches, “which have been given to us in Christ Jesus.” What is that? It is every spiritual blessing. Paul tells us in Ephesians 1:3 that we are “blessed with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms because we are united in Christ.” Because of Jesus, we have everything we need spiritually. And these blessings will never run dry. It is from God’s unlimited storehouse, for all His children.