There is nothing you can do to make God love you more, There is nothing you can do to make God love you less

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Here is a PURELY THEORETICAL exercise. When Peter asked Jesus how many times we should forgive the answer was seventy times seven.

Matthew 18

21 Then came Peter to him, and said, Lord, how oft shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? till seven times?

22 Jesus saith unto him, I say not unto thee, Until seven times: but, Until seventy times seven.

Imagine if God was only going to forgive you seventy times seven times, or 490 times. Try and calculate how many times you have needed God’s grace. What number are you up to? How many times do you have left? If getting to heaven relies on having enough ‘points’ left, will you make it?

There are two things we can take from this exercise:

1)    Don’t mess with God’s grace.

2)    Be thankful that God doesn’t work like this at all. God…

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Your Will Be Done

Matthew 36-39

36 Then Jesus went with them to a place called Gethsemane, and He told His disciples, Sit down here while I go over yonder and pray.

37 And taking with Him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee, He began to show grief and distress of mind and was deeply depressed.

38 Then He said to them, My soul is very sad and deeply grieved, so that I am almost dying of sorrow. Stay here and keep awake and keep watch with Me.

39 And going a little farther, He threw Himself upon the ground on His face and prayed saying, My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass away from Me; nevertheless, not what I will [not what I desire], but as You will and desire.

 

If your child was deeply grieved and almost dying of sorrow, how would you feel? Would you like to alleviate their pain? Is there anything you wouldn’t do to relieve them from their suffering?

That was the situation when Jesus was praying in Gethsemane. Jesus was dreading what was coming up. After he had gone back and found the disciples sleeping, he returned and prayed two more times.

42 Again a second time He went away and prayed, My Father, if this cannot pass by unless I drink it, Your will be done.

44 So, leaving them again, He went away and prayed for the third time, using the same words.

We often find ourselves on our knees, begging God to intercede and do something. We pray that He will take away certain circumstances in our lives or bless us with needs we are sure we have.

The tendency of many when God doesn’t seem to act  is to ask WHY?. If you love me God, WHY would you let me suffer like this?

When John the Baptist was in prison and sent his disciples to Jesus, the response he received was:

Matthew 11:5-6

 “5 The blind receive their sight and the lame walk, lepers are cleansed (by healing) and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up and the poor have good news (the Gospel) preached to them.

6 And blessed (happy, fortunate, and [a]to be envied) is he who takes no offense at Me and finds no cause for stumbling in or through Me and is not hindered from seeing the Truth.

John the Baptist was beheaded. But I am sure he had the faith to say “God’s will be done” We live by faith and not by sight. If we have truly died on the cross and been born again our only response to life’s challenges must be “For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain.” Philippians 1:21

God’s Pet

 Dog one: Owner comes home, jumps for joy, wags tail, follows owner around house sniffing him and licking him and being excited.

Owner pats him and takes dog to backyard. Owner throws ball, dog chases it, picks it up brings it back and repeats 10 times. Owner praises dog for fetching ball, pats dog and gives him a hug.

Owner notices dog has pulled washing of line and torn up shirt during the day. Owner scolds dog and tells him he is a naughty dog. Owner stops playing with dog, cleans up mess and goes inside.

One hour later owner returns to yard, feeds dog, refills water bowl, sits with dog, pats him and they watch the sunset together.

   Dog Two: Owner comes home, dog nowhere to be found. Owner searches and finds dog hiding. Owner speaks encouragingly to dog and tries to entice him out to play. Dog finally comes out reluctantly and stands with tail between legs while owner tries to pat and give affection. 

Owner coaxes dog into backyard and throws ball. Dog ambles towards ball and brings back with head hung low.

Owner notices dog has pulled washing of line and torn up shirt during the day. Owner scolds dog and tells him he is a naughty dog. Owner stops playing with dog, cleans up mess and goes inside.

One hour later owner returns to yard, feeds dog, refills water bowl, sits with dog, pats him and they watch the sunset together.

Dog sits next to owner during sunset worrying that owner is still angry. Dog’s eyes are droopy and teary, head is down, each time the owner pats him he cringes and worries.

Owner walks back inside and dog goes over to food bowl. Dog looks at food and panics. What if the owner doesn’t feed him tomorrow? What if this food has to last a week? Should he eat it all or just have a nibble? What if the owner does feed him tomorrow and he hasn’t finished today’s portion? Will it rot?

Dog slumps down next to food bowl thinking life is just too hard!!

Conclusion: We are the sons and daughters of God but it may help you to think of yourself as God’s pet just for a moment. He loves you! HE just wants you to be happy, have fun, don’t worry…He will take care of you!

Yes, if you do something wrong He will correct you. You may even have to endure consequences. Maybe you will be ties up from now on instead of left to tear clothes off the line. But he still wants to sit with you and pat you and enjoy being with you.

Find the joy in leaning on Him and not your own understanding. Live by grace and then you can worship him freely, which is what we were created for!!

Get your eyes off you and onto God!

So Moses goes to see the burning bush. God tells him that He has seen the affliction of the Israelites and wants to send him (Moses) to Pharaoh to tell him to let the Israelites go.

Moses is looking at a bush that burns but does not get burnt, he is listening to the direct, audible voice of God and his response is: “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?” (Exodus 3:11)

God responds by telling Moses that one day he and his people will be living it up in the land of milk and honey. All he has to do is do is trust in the power of the living God.

But Moses responds by saying : “What if they do not believe me or listen to me and say, ‘The Lord did not appear to you’?” (Exodus 4:1)

So God gives him three miracles to perform, he can throw a wooden staff on the ground and it becomes a snake, he can take water from the river Nile and turn it to blood and he can make his hand go completely white and then be transformed back again.

But Moses wasn’t focused on God and his power. Moses was focused on himself and his insufficiencies. Thus he said: “Pardon your servant, Lord. I have never been eloquent, neither in the past nor since you have spoken to your servant. I am slow of speech and tongue.”

11 The Lord said to him, “Who gave human beings their mouths? Who makes them deaf or mute? Who gives them sight or makes them blind? Is it not I, the Lord? 12 Now go; I will help you speak and will teach you what to say.”

13 But Moses said, “Pardon your servant, Lord. Please send someone else.” (Exodus 4:10 – 13)

One would think that Moses would have got the message by now! Didn’t he see that God was on his side? Didn’t he understand that God was powerful enough to do what needed to be done?

Gideon was also so focused on himself that he couldn’t see that it was God who would give the victory. That’s why:  Judges 6:12 When the angel of the Lord appeared to Gideon, he said, “The Lord is with you, mighty warrior.”

When the angel told Gideon to go and save his people, his response was Judges 6:15 “Pardon me, my lord,” Gideon replied, “but how can I save Israel? My clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my family.”

Later, when Gideon was preparing his army, God made sure to drive the lesson home. The lesson that it is not you but God that wins the victory. That is why he made Gideon reduce his army to just 300.

David got the right perspective. He took 5 small stones and a mighty God and defeated a mighty foe.

What about today’s Christians? I think most of us are in churches talking about how to live right. I think we are praying for strength so we are not so miserable and insufficient when we should be worshipping God for how strong and sufficient He is. If we switch our perspective from our lack to His sufficiency, maybe He will be able to truly use us as He desires and promises.

There is No ‘Power’ in the Holy Communion

When we take communion, we are NOT cleansed of our sins.

1 Corinthians 11:23-26

23 For I received from the Lord what I also passed on to you: The Lord Jesus, on the night he was betrayed, took bread, 24 and when he had given thanks, he broke it and said, “This is my body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of me.” 25 In the same way, after supper he took the cup, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood; do this, whenever you drink it, in remembrance of me.” 26 For whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes.

So why do we take communion?

Two reasons:

1)   To ‘proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes’

2)   To remind ourselves of the fact that WE HAVE ALREADY BEEN FORGIVEN.

God does not condemn us for our sins.

John 3:17

For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.

We do not get praised when we do well and cursed when we do bad.

When we sin, we distance ourselves from God. Just as with the first sin, God DOES NOT distance himself from us.

Genesis 3:8-9

8 Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the Lord God among the trees of the garden. 9 But the Lord God called to the man, “Where are you?”

The devil’s trick is to get us to focus on our righteousness. “Look what you’ve done, and you are supposed to be made in the image of God!” But the bible says our righteousness is like filthy rags.(Isaiah 64)

If you are saved, God has forgiven all your sins, past, present and future.

So why do right?

Because when you are sinning, you focus on your sinful nature. It’s natural. You think and pray about being freed from the guilt and thoughts and habits that result from your sins. If you avoid those sins and resist the devil, you are free to operate on a higher level. You no longer focus on your sinful nature, or even yourself! You focus on God and His plans in the lives of others.

This is the ‘power’ that lies in the Holy Communion. The power to remind us that it is not about us. It is ALL about Him! He knows without a shadow of a doubt how weak we are. He sees everyday of our life even before one day was over. And yet, He chooses us. He knows you will fall. He knows you will stumble. He knows you are not good enough. That’s why he sent Jesus. So He could redeem you, to use you. He didn’t redeem you so you could pray and think and work on being redeemed. It’s DONE!!

2 Corinthians 3: 4-6

4 Such confidence we have through Christ before God. 5 Not that we are competent in ourselves to claim anything for ourselves, but our competence comes from God. 6 He has made us competent as ministers of a new covenant—not of the letter but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life.

Get out there and live it.

Galatians 20

I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.

 

There is nothing you can do to make God love you more, There is nothing you can do to make God love you less

Here is a PURELY THEORETICAL exercise. When Peter asked Jesus how many times we should forgive the answer was seventy times seven.

Matthew 18

21 Then came Peter to him, and said, Lord, how oft shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? till seven times?

22 Jesus saith unto him, I say not unto thee, Until seven times: but, Until seventy times seven.

Imagine if God was only going to forgive you seventy times seven times, or 490 times. Try and calculate how many times you have needed God’s grace. What number are you up to? How many times do you have left? If getting to heaven relies on having enough ‘points’ left, will you make it?

There are two things we can take from this exercise:

1)    Don’t mess with God’s grace.

2)    Be thankful that God doesn’t work like this at all. God doesn’t condemn us, therefore we don’t need to be forgiven more than ONCE. We surrender to Him and His blood covers all the sins we did in the past, all the sins we are doing now and all the sins we will do in the future.

You Can Overcome

James 2:10

For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles at just one point is guilty of breaking all of it.

This verse is most often used to illustrate God’s grace.  We cannot be righteous by trying to keep the law. If we have ever sinned then we are guilty etc.

But I want to put a different slant on it. If you are doing well in your Christian walk, if you are giving well, serving well, praying well, reading your bible well….and yet there is one part of your Christian walk where you are struggling, you may not be moving forward spiritually.

What is that bad habit you have? Is it smoking? Is it a tendency to rage on the roads? Is it porn? Is it bad language? Is it what you do with your money? Is it anger?

Whatever it is, make a decision that you will conquer it.This thing may be all that is blocking you from powering ahead. Get rid of it and the dam will burst. The floodgates will be opened. You will surge ahead spiritually.

You may have tried to conquer this problem in the past. This time, don’t try, take it to God with a determination that you will succeed because you know that you can do all things through Christ who strengthens you (Philippians 4:13).

Look past the pain of the discipline you need to show and see that you will be rewarded. You will be more effective, your life will be better, you will bear more fruit. And if that doesn’t work for you, think of the pain or regret if you let your flesh control you. Which would you prefer, the pain of discipline or the pain of regret? You choose.

GBU

Are we bad shepherds?

Ezekiel 34:1-6

The word of the Lord came to me: 2 “Son of man, prophesy against the shepherds of Israel; prophesy and say to them: ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: Woe to you shepherds of Israel who only take care of yourselves! Should not shepherds take care of the flock? 3 You eat the curds, clothe yourselves with the wool and slaughter the choice animals, but you do not take care of the flock. 4 You have not strengthened the weak or healed the sick or bound up the injured. You have not brought back the strays or searched for the lost. You have ruled them harshly and brutally. 5 So they were scattered because there was no shepherd, and when they were scattered they became food for all the wild animals. 6 My sheep wandered over all the mountains and on every high hill. They were scattered over the whole earth, and no one searched or looked for them.

So who are the shepherds of Israel?’ Well Israel would be those who are saved. And who are the shepherds? You could argue that the shepherds are the priests and ministers of the modern day church.

But when I read this verse what I get is that God is speaking to ME.

Matthew 25:31-46

The Sheep and the Goats

31 “When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, he will sit on his glorious throne. 32 All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. 33 He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left.

34 “Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. 35 For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, 36 I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’

37 “Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? 38 When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? 39 When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’

40 “The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’

41 “Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. 42 For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, 43 I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me.’

44 “They also will answer, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?’

45 “He will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.’

46 “Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life.”

In Ezekiel and Matthew we are reminder again that it is not enough to go to church and read the bible, we have to have God’s heart for others. ‘Love your neighbor as yourself’ has to be LIVED. You have to DO things to care for others if you love them. ‘Faith without action is dead’.

If I told you I had a wife who I loved  and that we had been married for 20 years but then said I had never asked her to marry me or even talked to her before, you would think I was crazy. If we profess to love God and love our neighbor and yet we don’t do anything to manifest that love, we are crazy.

We must get over ourselves and sow into others. The bible tells us many times that we will be held responsible for people that we DON’T help. Just like my post on Ezekiel 33 below, their blood may be on our hands.

Lets get out there and save the world, oe act of random kindness at a time. GBU

The End is Nigh

I remember a guy who walked around the local Saturday market in my home town with a sign similar to the one in the picture above. We all laughed at him and thought he was crazy. I was unsaved then. Or is that my excuse?

I am saved now. But do I do enough to let people know the truth? I do a lot of ‘soft evangelism. I will share with anyone who is open. But is that enough?

It dawned on me this morning as I read Ezekiel 33 that it is not enough to be saved. I spend FAR TOO MUCH time concerned with my own salvation and personal spiritual growth. In fact, I get caught up on ‘Am I a good boy? Should I do this? Should I do that?’

I spend so much time focused on myself that I am not being as effective as I could be. Even when I do things for God or for others, I calculate it as ‘how am I doing’.

As Christians, do we go with the status quo? Do we try not to rock the boat? Are we radically different or even prepared to be if God challenges us? 

We may find that when we reach heaven God says to us that we scrapped through by the skin of our teeth but He would have been much happier if we had taken some risks for Him. Even worse, He may say “I never knew you”

Ezekiel 33

Again the word of the Lord came to me, saying, 2 “Son of man, speak to the children of your people, and say to them: ‘When I bring the sword upon a land, and the people of the land take a man from their territory and make him their watchman, 3 when he sees the sword coming upon the land, if he blows the trumpet and warns the people, 4 then whoever hears the sound of the trumpet and does not take warning, if the sword comes and takes him away, his blood shall be on his own head. 5 He heard the sound of the trumpet, but did not take warning; his blood shall be upon himself. But he who takes warning will save his life. 6 But if the watchman sees the sword coming and does not blow the trumpet, and the people are not warned, and the sword comes and takes any person from among them, he is taken away in his iniquity; but his blood I will require at the watchman’s hand.’

If we had the mindset that securing our own salvation was not enough, our salvation might be a lot more secure. As people who know the truth we are responsible for helping those that don’t. If we don’t try hard enough their blood could be on our hands.

Be a watchman for you generation. Lord knows they need it. GBU

My Challenge For YOU!!

If you are a male and a Christian I want a comment from you explaining why you are not taking the challenge I am making today. Do not read this post and move on without either:

a)Signing up for the challenge

b)Explaining why you will not

Here’s the challenge:

Go to http://www.x3watch.com/x3watchpro.html and download the software; you only need to download the free version which is hidden down the bottom of the page. Put my email address in as your accountability person (Geoffcollins1@yahoo.com.au) Or feel free to add an accountability partner who is closer to you.

The software will block suspicious sites and report to me when you are trying to access sites that are suspicious. I installed this software a month ago and it is a great way to help avoid temptation.

Protecting yourself against pornography is TUFF!! As men, we can be strong for days, weeks, months, even years and then one day we are surfing on the internet and get tempted by a link and before we know it we are clicking the ‘I am 18 years old and wish to continue’ button.

This software is a great way to get some support in those tough times. To know that someone is there looking out for you. To know that you have a friend to be accountable to.

1 John 1:9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.

James 5:16 Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective.

I guarantee you that if you commit to living righteously and continue to do so, you will see the benifits in every part of your life.

God Bless You