Proverbs 3 v 5 - Trust is a two way street...

Firstly, I would like to thank a good friend of mine, Neil, for providing me with the leg up and the boost that I required to write this today. I’ve been beaten with the wind and the rain that I spoke about yesterday, and in testament to that I’ve stood strong in the face of it all. I’ve been struggling with my own work situation and not feeling settled there. Ever since I have come back to Christ, my work has been seen to be immoral to a point and the pressures that are involved are not the pressures that I would want as a Christian.

I have been searching for a way out and been getting myself more and more stressed with the situation. Coupled with the situation that is still manifesting with regards to Brazil, there is a lot more pressure that I could really cope with for a time. Neil very kindly provided me with the following;

Proverbs 3v5 Trust in the LORD with all your heart
and lean not on your own understanding;

Ok, so you may be asking yourself, how has that helped Mike? Well lets actually look at the situations which I’m being faced with and the stress that is on me. This is my own doing in some respects as because we are Christians, we should trust in the lord with all of our heart and we should not worry. I had to read back over my own words to drive the point home about this.

Trust in the lord with all our heart, how many of us can actually say that we do this? How many of us are faced with situations where we do not get worried or stressed about them? And ultimately, how many of us fail to trust him at all.

“and lean not on your own understanding”, we can interpret this in the bible saying that we shouldn’t trust our own understanding about situations or indeed even the world as we have no need to understand why God does things, he has never steered us wrongly he has never failed us, we have only failed ourselves by understanding situations and reading them for what they seem to be and not for what is planned.

Again I ask you, how many times have you had the instinct to do something yet God was pulling you in another direction and in order to stop you from following your own intuition, has put barriers to stop you from doing what is against his will? I know I have, I know I have recognized the barriers and just driven straight through them.

When we want something so badly, or when we think something is the best thing for us, we can become blinded to God’s will and to God’s plan and think we are doing God’s will by pushing against his barriers. It is important to remember that God does things for a reason, not just to stop you having fun or to stop you from doing what you want, he does it for our own protection.

So if you feel that your plans are not coming to fruition, you’ve got to pray. Pray that you know God’s will, pray that he will lead you to where he wants you to be, either in your work or home life.

Trusting in God once again,

Mikey.

Matthew 7: 24 -27 Foundations.

Following a very good and fruitful weekend, I’ve come back to work this morning and its easy to forget what I have learned and what I have seen because of being within an environment that doesn’t work for God. The basis of my life and my thoughts should be deeply rooted in God’s word and what I have learned so that when difficult times come my way I stand fast in the face of the winds and storms of the world. When I think about this, I think of one of the more famous parables that Jesus taught.

Matthew 7:24"Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. 25The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock. 26But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. 27The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash."

Through all things God provides a foundation of rock for us to build our lives on. When we do things in the name of God and we focus on building our lives on his sure and stable ground, we are protected from the rains and the floods.

There are very many layers to this parable and many things that you can take from it. But today, I am going to draw from the location of where we build our lives, and give a warning to Christians and non Christians alike.

There are Christians who will build their lives for God and can build a huge tower but not really build it in the right context of frame of mind without the intention of glorifying God. This can be construed as building your life in the sand. If the things that you do are not fully and whole heartedly in his name, you have no base, and you have no foundation. Its true to say that your faith is tested fully when you are faced with difficulties and faced with the rain that will beat down. And without the foundation of God in your life, your construction that you have built will collapse and fall and will become nothing.

Therefore, be sure that with all that you do and all that you build in your own life in God’s name, it is built solidly on God’s foundation on the rocks. It is obvious that building on rocks can take a lot longer but these constructions will last longer and when the rain of life’s trouble comes along, you are strong and steadfast in God’s foundations.

With this in mind, I pray that God’s work is always done with the foundation that God has given to us and commissioned us to do. His plan is unchanging and is perfect, and we should remember that it has been written that being a Christian is not the easy option, the easiest option is to build your life up quickly with the foundation of sand, but we should strive to make every effort to make sure the basis of all our works are strong.

The decisions that we are making at the moment, and the ideas that we are making need to be assessed to make sure they are being done for the right reasons and with God’s foundation for our lives.

I cannot stress enough to Christians that troubles and life’s “Rain” WILL come your way, as a Christian we are in the direct firing line of Satan and you will be tested, as long as your foundations of your life are in God, you cannot be shaken, be sure that you make every effort to make each decision prayerfully and with God at the forefront of your mind, he will give you the direction, however difficult it may seem.

I pray then today that whatever comes your way, you are doing all things in God’s name, and that all the decisions you make are with God as a partner in these.

In his most precious Grace,

Mikey.

1 Thessalonians 5 v 11 - Encourangement

As in contrast with yesterday’s desperation that I was feeling toward what I was doing and where I was going and feeling disillusioned, so today, in God’s grace, I feel the exact opposite. I feel encouraged by the spirit and I feel confidence in God’s unfailing plan and that whatever is thrown my way it is within his will.

I had all my work checked by my boss this morning. He sat with me for a couple of hours going through all my outstanding work and asking me what position I was in. Its strange, when this has happened before I thought he was picking on me to make me look stupid or just to pick holes in my work, but in fact it is quite the opposite. He was encouraging me and helping me with any problems. We as Christians should do the same thing, take this scripture for example –

1 Thessalonians 5:11 Therefore encourage one another and build each other up, just as in fact you are doing.

Quite explicit really, its states that we are to encourage one another in what we are doing and we are to almost assess each other’s situation to be able to give advice based on our own experiences. The bible is literally full of encouragements. In fact 59 references are “Encourage” its self.

Being a Christian can seem lonely sometimes and can definitely feel like its you against the rest of the world which is why it is so important to go to a church, not only to hear God’s word preached, but also to be around other Christians and be encouraged with your walk. We should never assume that we will be fine. When we are alone is when we’re easy pickings for Satan to pick us off.

How often has your conversation gone as follows – “Hi (insert your name), how are you?”, you reply almost instinctively “I’m fine thank you how are you”, they reply “fine thank you…” and the conversation continues about football or computer games (well my conversations do). We should not be afraid to answer, “not so good, I am struggling”. Its one of the fantastic parts of being a Christian and belonging to a Christian community being able to talk to other Christians about God.

Similarly, we shouldn’t just assume that when someone tells us they are fine, we take it as red and carry on. As well as asking for help, we should also be offering that help, whether that be practical help or spiritual encouragement, as Christians, we have a duty to each other to make sure we are being prayed for, that if someone is struggling, they are helped.

I cannot stress enough the importance of being caring towards each other. I know from experience that an unexpected email when you are feeling low with some words of encouragement works absolute wonders in confidence!

I pray that you are being encouraged and that you are giving encouragement in abundance. Take time think about someone you know is struggling and send them an SMS or an email or call them just to let them know they are being prayed for and ask if they need any encouragement or help.

Encouraged by God’s Holy Graces,

Mikey.

2 Samuel 22 v 3 - Refuge.

I am struggling today. I’m not above admitting when I am feeling distressed and helpless in my life and I am not above asking for help from God for help and deliverance from problems that I am facing. There are people in my job that I feel Satan is using to make me feel disillusioned and lost and feel that God is very far away from me and certain situations such as these have manifested in different ways today.

I had planned on writing about God’s love for the world and how we should do his work as evangelists, but I prayed about what to write about today and I was drawn to the following verse.

2 Samuel 22: 3 my God is my rock, in whom I take refuge,
my shield and the horn of my salvation.
He is my stronghold, my refuge and my saviour—
from violent men you save me.

When I read this the first time I thought about God being there for me and it really warmed my heart to think that all I need do is pray and he hears me, but the more I read it over and over, it struck me, that as well as God being there for me, he is also actively protecting me and helping me, even before I pray to him.

I felt my disillusionment disappear and I just broke down and prayed that I continue to do his will and that the things that are standing in my way will be broken down in accordance to his will.

As Christians we are taught to face adversity and meet it head on because we have a God that protects us and will deliver us from all evil, but sometimes, in our human frailty and in our weakness we have times when we feel like the way that I felt this morning, and God not only provides protection, but also he provides a refuge and a stronghold to retreat to and regroup our thoughts and strengths.

It is not weakness to seek God’s help when we are struggling, in fact I would go as far as to say there is strength in that because we will be acknowledging out own inability to things our way and alone, but that we are trusting in God to do things that may seem impossible. Instead of feeling that Satan is in our way, we should be thinking, God is infinitely more powerful that anything Satan can throw in our way and we should take blessing from all situations.

God cares for us. He is watching over us and he is providing strength and protection to those who ask of it, but also, he provides a safe place to go and get our thoughts and feelings together without having fear of being attacked.

I pray today that God provides you with your strength and your protection to do all things in his name and to actively work to do His unchanging will.

To God be the glory, the power, and the wisdom.

Mikey.

Hebrews 7 v 27 - Giving God everything

As I’m sure you are mostly aware, today is the first day of lent for some Christian denominations, where some Christians either take up or sacrifice something within their own lives to honour the sacrifice that God gave by giving up his only son as a sacrifice for all of our sins. I don’t know if any of you have given something up, whether it be chocolate or something more significant, but lets actually look at that sacrifice for a couple of moments. The scripture has many references to different sacrifices but today I’m going to look at the following:

Hebrews 7:27.

27Unlike the other high priests, he does not need to offer sacrifices day after day, first for his own sins, and then for the sins of the people. He sacrificed for their sins once for all when he offered himself.

This particular passage really does drive home the point and the amazing gift of life that God has given to us through the death of Jesus. How many of us would actually give up our lives just for one person. Its interesting when you look at songs and poems that non Christians write when they talk about dying for someone, but when the rubber hits the road, how many of these people would give their life for someone.

Lets think about that for a second, they offer their lives to someone they either love or know very well, can you imagine if they did something wrong against the writer, they wouldn’t want to die for them. However Jesus died for everyone, even people that hadn’t even been born at the time and for the billions of people who have ever lived, he gave his own life as a sacrifice to all people without fear or question to enable these people to receive redemption from the wrongs that have been done against him.

As Christians we are taught to be like Christ and live as he lived and strive to do the things that he has done. I don’t know about you but I’ve failed every day in this, I’ve sinned against God and I’ve been foolish with my decisions. Yet everyday I pray that God take my life, my whole life and all that I have to offer and use it in His will, I am effectively sacrificing my old life and asking God to use my new life for what he wants from me.

There is a paradox that Christians live with and that’s when we know God’s forgiveness and worth, yet feeling inadequate and worthless as humans before him. We need to give everything we have, even if we don’t think that is very much to God and do his will and we will be blessed in life and when we stand before God and we are told, “Enter, good and faithful servant”.

I don’t know about you but actually thinking about that makes me want to give more than I have to God who blesses us for our sacrifices of faith to him. So today, if you are giving up something for lent, think about your sacrifice and think, am I giving all that I am as a sacrifice as Jesus gave up everything to save you.

I pray that God will use your life and will make your sacrifice a act of faith and trust to God’s unfailing love and forgiveness.

By Jesus’ death I am saved.

Mikey.

Psalm 23 - God provides a way

The theme of my life at the moment has been to trust God in all that I do, there are many uncertainties in my life and a lot of things that seem to be impossible. There is potential to get stressed and upset about things that are beyond my control or beyond my understanding. I was talking last night with a close friend about miracles that have happened in each other’s lives and situations that have from a worldly sense seemed to be impossible.

I thought about that quite a lot last night, and as I got into bed, I read the following.

Psalm 23.

1 The LORD is my shepherd, I shall not be in want.
2 He makes me lie down in green pastures,
he leads me beside quiet waters,
3 he restores my soul.
He guides me in paths of righteousness,
for his name's sake.
4 Even though I walk
through the valley of the shadow of death,
I will fear no evil,
for you are with me;
your rod and your staff,
they comfort me.

It is obviously one of the most famous Psalms that are in the bible, and there is no coincidence with that and this passage bringing peace to Christians across the globe.

As I spoke about yesterday with Jesus calming the storms in our lives and in our situations, this passage is also speaking to us about peace and about restoring our faith and confidence in God’s providence and God’s gifts to us.

It teaches that if we trust in Christ and trust in his unfailing faithfulness with our lives we will not want for anything but be lead by him to the places in the world where he wants us to be and where he can provide for us adequately. It talks of Christ leading us along path’s of righteousness, although these paths may lead us through bad times and bad places, (Valley of the shadow of death) we have no need to fear as long as we are following his path.

There is something extremely special for Christians to remember and only really as a Christian will you feel this, when God provides for you, you can see his hand in your life and see him providing for you the correct path.

With our situation, it seems like we’re staring up a mountain but the more I pray about it, the more I can see the path that is on the mountain winding up to the top where God wants us to be. It suddenly doesn’t become a question of how to climb the mountain, but where do I need to start to start the climb.

A wonderful analogy of this is when Moses had lead God’s people out of Egypt and was faced with a wide and unswimable sea. Moses doesn’t give up and actually parts the sea to get across. That is a wonderful act of faith that we should all aspire to, if he can part seas and calm storms, suddenly our problems seem less like mountains, but flat roads with God’s help.

Continue to pray for Nell and I as we embark on our journey to get to where we need to be. Pray that this is God’s will, and if it isn’t, this will be made apparent to us.

I pray that the mountains in your life are changed to flat roads with God’s help and his Grace and mercy be upon you all.

In Christ.

Mikey.

Matthew 8 v 24-26 - Storm? What Storm?

I don’t like storms because one of the scariest attributes about being in a storm is the feeling of not being in control and having to submit to the elements whilst you try and keep yourself safe. I don’t know about you but I respect the awesome power of nature, and when I’m in the middle of a storm, I am afraid to go outside and tend to shut myself in and close the elements outside.

This is no different when we look at our lives and as Christians feel that we are in the middle of a spiritual storm. The bible says this;

Matthew 8:24 Without warning, a furious storm came up on the lake, so that the waves swept over the boat. But Jesus was sleeping. 25The disciples went and woke him, saying, "Lord, save us! We're going to drown!"
26He replied, "You of little faith, why are you so afraid?" Then he got up and rebuked the winds and the waves, and it was completely calm.

This passage makes me think “wow, he has authority above those things which we cannot control”, and you might think, well duh, isn’t that the fundamental part of being a Christian, trusting that God controls all things, and you’re right, but when do we actually believe it?

We are all given situations when we feel like we are being buffeted around by the wind and waves of the world, whether that be with temptations, things that are said to us or just feeling lost. Its easy for us to panic and start thinking about giving up. Take a look at the disciples, the men that were actually there with Christ on the boat, and they actually woke Jesus who knew he was in full control of all things that he was sleeping and the disciples with panicked voices asked for Him to save them.

Jesus’ response is something that I remember in time of problems and when I feel like I’m going to drown, “You of little faith, why are you so afraid?” this statement comes to mind every time I’m feeling like that, almost like Jesus speaking to me, asking why I’m running around like a headless chicken when I’m despairing about things.

Why then do we fear when we are in the middle of a raging storm in our lives, why do we shout and panic that all is lost and we’re going to drown. We should remember Jesus’ words here and just trust that storms are temporary and can be calmed in an instant through God and we can become completely calm with situations.

God knows our every trouble and our every problem, and he watches over us when we feel we are in trouble and we should trust that God that he will help us. Cast your cares upon and everything seems brighter and lighter.

I pray today that if you are experiencing any spiritual storms that God will grant you peace and a sense of his hand upon you calming the waves and the wind and making the day bright again.

In Christ alone.

Mikey.

Psalm 9 v 9 - Do not Fear.

I’ve been sitting here today, thinking about how to tell the world about God. There are those in the world that would actively seek to oppress the truth and grace of God to the world. There is a person in my office (not naming any names of course) but this person will always argue with myself and a good Christian friend of mine about God, and generally anything at all. God calls us to evangelise, and to speak his name to all people. But there are times when this is difficult.

God’s word says the following…

Psalm 9:9 The LORD is a refuge for the oppressed,

a stronghold in times of trouble.

I don’t know about you but when I was younger and when I was a little bit less mature than I am now (not that much less!) I found it very difficult to talk to my friends about God or about what I belived. I’ve already touched upon this in a previous sermon but there would have been bullying and there would have been a lot of problems, but that shouldn’t have stopped me.

God says that he will protect his people from oppression. He says that anyone who calls to him, he will hear and as Christians, we shouldn’t feel fear when approaching other people with His truth. “Easier said than done” I hear you say, yes it is, it is difficult and it takes a lot of nerve and a lot of courage to do it, but ultimately, God gives us the confidence and the courage comes from him.

“What if it goes wrong and these people make my life a misery”, well as this passage says above, The Lord is a refuge for the oppressed, he is a sanctuary for those being persecuted and he will give us protection. He is a stronghold in times of trouble, not just in this respect, but in ALL troubles.

As Christians we should not fear about what the devil and other people have to throw at us. We have God on our side. I challenge you, name me one battle God has ever lost to the Devil? Jesus was tempted by Satan in the desert, he won that battle. God was challenged by the Devil over Job, guess what? He lost that too… I could go on and on, but you get the point.

Take a step back today and see where God has given you opportunities to speak to friends/family and you’ve taken the easy option. Ask for forgiveness and strength that the next time the opportunity arises, you can talk about God.

In Christ alone.

Mikey.

Matthew 6 v 34 - Don't worry!

What with making plans for the future as I am at the moment, its easy in the worldly sense to forget the here and now. There are obviously things in which myself and Nell want to partake in and making financial plans and making practical plans for a long way off in the future are starting to take over. Having though about these things I picked up my bible. I read the verse that keeps me going and further on the passage I came across this;

Matthew 6 v 34 Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.

This made me think what God was trying to say to me. I know that earlier on in the passage he is telling me that he will provide for me if I trust upon him and I am doing that with gusto at the moment, but what God is saying here is slightly different yet resoundingly the same.

God is telling me her through the words of Jesus that I need to concentrate on my day to day walk with God and making sure that is right before the plans of the future can manifest into something much more.

Again, this all boils down to trusting God’s will and God’s ultimate and unfailing plan. We all think about the future, we all have ambitions but as Christians, these ambitions should walk hand in hand with what God is telling us and with God’s own plan. Worrying about how these things are going to work out, isn’t going to make the day go any faster, and can detract from the problems in my life as a the day goes on.

Obviously, this doesn’t mean that we should forget about the future, for if we did that, then nothing would get done, but what its saying here is that we shouldn’t worry ourselves by it. That we shouldn’t forget to glorify God in our actions today.

I challenge you, take a step back from what you are doing at this very moment, forget about tomorrow and the troubles it may bring and ask God for strength to do what his will is today and having the knowledge that what you are doing is glorifying him.

I pray today that my worry’s and concerns about the future and all of my plans and ambitions are placed into his hands and his will be done, not my own.

In Christ alone.

Mikey.

Psalm 18 v 6 - Hello?

Over the past 24 hours I have prayed more than probably my whole life. As Christians we are taught to pray and we are told that it is the right thing to do but often we can take this act for granted and just mumble a few words except when we’re really in trouble.

My passage is the following;

Psalm 18:

6 In my distress I called to the LORD;

I cried to my God for help.

From his temple he heard my voice;

my cry came before him, into his ears.

This verse means a lot to me because it actually proves that he does hear our prayers. There are over 150+ references in the bible to prayers being answered, I could probably double that with just my own experiences of prayers being forgiven.

We have to make sure we do not become complacent in our prayers, and that each day we speak to God, not just recite the same old mumbo jumbo day after day. Imagine if a friend only spoke to you properly when they needed something, you would begin to start doubting your relationship with that friend because they don’t need you when things are going swimmingly, you start to view them as a “fickle” friend. We need to try and not be “fickle” Christians.

In the same way we need to remain steady with our relationship with God, try and speak to God everyday with something new to say, someone new to pray about or just talk to him and tell him what is troubling you. In this way, we form a closer and more personal relationship with God as we are more and more honest with him.

It is my experience that the only time people cry out to God is when they need this help. When was the last time you cried out to God in Joy? Or in prayer for someone else? God allows us to be able to speak to him directly through the Holy Spirit, and isn’t that an amazing thought? We speak DIRECTLY to God.

God hears our prayers without any doubt, of course he chooses where and when to answer those prayers and we need to remain patient. This is something which I am praying for at the moment, and I’m personally struggling with quieting my heart and waiting for God to answer.

I ask for your prayers once again for the same things as I asked for yesterday, but also patience that it will be God’s will not ours.

Walk by Faith, Not by Sight.

Mikey.

Matthew 6:25-26 - God's Will

Well today I have had good news and bad news really. The bad news is that my work have not provided me with my yearly bonus, upsetting but I’m sure there is a reason for it. The good news however is that I have been provided with some dates so that Nell and I can go to Brazil in the summer.

The obvious thing for me to worry about is the money aspect. I will cost upwards of £3000 for us both to go. It got me thinking about God’s grace and god providing for his people, the obvious verse came to mind;

Mathew 6: 25-26 "Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes?
Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they?

Its very difficult for people these days to actually think about life in this way, but I know that if you are trusting of God, then God will provide a way to full fill his will. This is very important to emphasise – HIS WILL, not ours. I know that if it is God’s will that we go out to Brazil in the summer with Mez, then he will provide a way for that to happen.

We as human beings want for a lot of things, whether that be possessions in a worldly sense or being in a nice house with a nice car etc, now God may want you to do something else or be somewhere else and we need to trust God through all things. How did God make Moses do his will in Egypt, he had to take drastic measures but eventually God’s will was done.

We need to learn that God will provide for his will to happen, whether that be financially or physically, there is always a way that God will do this.

I have felt extremely flat today, and I have prayed so hard all day that if this is God’s will that it will be done and he will provide a way for us to go to Brazil.

A request: I’ve not made any on here before, but I request prayer that God gives both me and Nell peace of mind and a sense of God’s will being done. At the moment I feel that God really wants us to go there as the doors are open, but the hurdles that need to be overcome seem to be mountains at the moment. God can do all things, this I know and I ask that you pray that God helps me to overcome the hurdles.

God’s Will, Not ours.

Mikey .

Apologies

Hello everyone,

Sorry I've not been able to update this today, i was in hospital until after 1pm and haven't had chance to write a new sermon just yet. I will however do this this evening at some point so you will have an evening "Tea" sermon today! I trust you all had a good weekend and those of you in the UK enjoyed the snow... while it lasted!

God has helped my thumb heal and i ask you to pray that it will continue to get stronger!

Speak to you all later!

Mikey.

2 Samuel 11:2-4 - Tempting, but NO!

As I have already mentioned in previous entry’s, we are all in a battle. We are in a battle between ourselves and with Satan. Its like fighting a war on 2 fronts and having the same number of troops to fight with! One of the biggest weapons Satan uses is Temptation. I think about the following section of the bible when I think about temptation –

2 Samuel 11:2-4.

One evening David got up from his bed and walked around on the roof of the palace. From the roof he saw a woman bathing. The woman was very beautiful, 3 and David sent someone to find out about her. The man said, "Isn't this Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam and the wife of Uriah the Hittite?" 4 Then David sent messengers to get her. She came to him, and he slept with her.

Here we see (arguably) the greatest king to sit on the Jewish thrown being dropped right in it by his own lustful and impure thoughts. When we actually take a step back and look at the situation, we actually realise how bad it was for David to give into this.

We are all faced with temptation and all of us give into that temptation, if we didn’t we wouldn’t sin and we wouldn’t have to ask for God’s forgiveness. I for one struggle with a certain temptation (between me and God before you ask) and with his help and with his mercy and love I am overcoming Satan and being blessed by God for my strength.

When you are a Christian you are put squarely in the firing line of Satan, its easy for him to tempt people to do things when they do not know from right and wrong and give in so easily, his most fun prey is Christians. If he can get a Christian to fall, he is laughing his head off when they are wracked with guilt and sorrow. But this is also his stumbling block as the Christian prays for forgiveness and receives it, something that Satan will never experience!

When we know we are being tempted, a simple prayer asking for God to help and support you through the situation tends to help (helps me at least) and suddenly you catch sight of what you were about to do and you think “what am I doing?!?!”

We are all tempted, and we give into temptation, however through God’s love, grace and protection we can tackle these temptations head on and overcome them.

After all, we still know David as the greatest King and he was a wretched and as sinful as the next person. Imagine what God can do with you!

Walk by Faith, not by Sight.

Mikey.

Isiah 61 v 10 - White as Snow

As I was walking through the snow to work this morning, the whole world looked white and pure. It made me think about all the bad things in the world and how the snow can cover the darkness and clothe it in light. Being the Christian that I am, I thought of the following verse;

Isaiah 61:10.

10 I delight greatly in the LORD;

my soul rejoices in my God.

For he has clothed me with garments of salvation.

and arrayed me in a robe of righteousness,

as a bridegroom adorns his head like a priest,

and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels.

It got me thinking about the dark and the bad parts of my life and where I had sinned and thought about how Jesus’ blood and washed them away to make me pure.

I love the snow, I love the way it makes the world look and the way in which is has power to strip away the worlds darkness and cover it with blinding light. God does the same thing with us. When we stand before him in the last days, we will be as snow to him if we are Christians, we will be as a blinding light as Jesus has covered us with righteousness.

If it hasn’t snowed where you are, I hope you can visualise the world covered in God’s light and God’s glory and see yourself as pure before him. We all sin, that’s a given for Christians and Non-Christians alike, however God clothes us in his white robes and makes us pure again if we ask for his forgiveness.

Take care getting home if it has snowed where you are and I trust you will be able to look at the snow and be encouraged with God’s love and graciousness.

Walk by Faith, not by sight.

Mikey.

Luke 15 v 10 - Rejoice!

Jesus told many parables when he was on earth, I for one would have loved to be there when he spoke them. Problem is, a lot of people around didn’t understand what he was going on about, its only from the view we have of the whole bible do these things make sense fully. One of my favorites is the parable of the Prodigal Son.

I take my text from –

Luke 15:10 In the same way, I tell you, there is rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents."

Jesus talks about a man who wanted more from his life and wanted everything his way. I know I have been in the same position and had the same thoughts, as I’m sure a lot of you have too. The man goes out, has his party’s and has his way with the women of the time and spent all of his money. He ends up cleaning out the Pigs, the same as doing the lowest Job you could do here and eating the pods.

He was at rock bottom but remembered his father’s home and goes back to an old man who threw his arms around his son and welcomed him back. There are many metaphors and many sermons you can do from this one story but I am going to appeal to those who are none Christians, and encouragement to those who are.

God cares about us. I touched upon this on the first sermon I wrote, but it’s a point worth driving home over and over again. God cares for us. Its hard for a human mind to comprehend that. There are currently 6 billion (odd) in the world and its been calculated that about 66 billion people who have ever lived. And yet, out of all those people, out of all those souls, he cares about yours.

The text talks about rejoicing in heaven at just 1 soul being saved. It should make us feel special to think that heaven would have a party if you were saved and you will be garenteed a seat at the biggest party ever when you die!

As Christians, we shouldn’t loose sight of this when the world throws all it can at us. We should remember that God is looking out for us. We will stray from time to time, we all do but as the Father welcomed home his son, God welcomes us back with open arms if we repent of our sins.

Jesus died for everyone, he took upon his shoulders the wrath of God for our sin and if we ask for forgiveness we will be washed clean of that sin and can present ourselves blameless before God.

Christians, rejoice that God has washed you clean, celebrate your freedom! To those who haven’t found God yet, ask him to wash you clean, give your life to him and he will pour out blessing upon blessing.

God is truly awesome.

Mikey.

1 Peter 5: 6-8 - Help in Suffering

I was going to do a little bit about joy in Christ today, but a mate (who shall not be named) had told me of a few troubles which he is having and how he is struggling. So instead I’ve decided to do a very short bit about suffering and what God says about suffering and how not to loose faith, nor loose your way.

I take my text from the following;

1 Peter 5:6-8.

Humble yourselves, therefore, under God's mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time. Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you. Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.

God never said this lark would be easy. Not once does it say in the bible that a Christian walk is one that is all roses. The bible says that once we are Christians, we’re thrown into a battle. A battle between ourselves and temptation and a battle between God and Satan.

I’ve had many problems and I’ve major setbacks in my life and my Christian walk, those who know me closely know the intimate details however for those who do not know me so well, its not right for me to detail what and when things happened, just rest assured it hurt more than any other pain that I had encountered. We’ve all been at a spiritual low, and we’ve all felt emotionally and physically exhausted.

At these times we feel the furthest away from God we can do, I always imagine this like being at the bottom of a well, knowing God can hear our shouts but not being able to do anything about it. The truth of the matter is that God is with us in that well, and helping us to climb out.

In the passage, Peter is saying that we are to “Cast all your anxiety (cares, worries, problems) on him because he cares for you (us)”. Its an easy thing to type and its an easy thing to say because when you are at that low point, it seems to easy and too simple to cast your cares upon him, but if we remember that God is infinite and God hears all and he is ultimately, all powerful, we should feel comfortable in asking for God’s help.

Take heart and do not fret, God is watching over us and he cares for us, if we truly believe that, suddenly mountains are molehills, and wolves are like sheep.

Walk by Faith, not by sight.

Mikey.

Matthew 9:21 “Have Faith”

I can remember once someone saying to me “Faith is something you’ve either got, or you don’t”. I think this is completely off the mark. If somebody didn’t have faith, they wouldn’t be able to do anything. We all put “faith” in something everyday. When you get in your car, do you not put faith in the brakes that they will stop you? When you support a football team, do you not have faith that they will win? Of course you do.

The passage I take my text from is as follows;

Matthew 9:21.

She said to her, "If I only touch his cloak, I will be healed." Jesus turned and saw her. "Take heart, daughter," he said, "your faith has healed you." And the woman was healed from that moment.

I heard a sermon on this yesterday myself however it was only 1 of the points in the sermon, but I thought I’d bring my own interpretation on here, as it was helpful to me.

Part 1 – Faith through Seeing.

Part of today’s philosophy is “seeing is believing” and if you can touch it, it’s not real. For Christians this is a difficult concept to overcome as we’re so used to being able to see the things of the world, and you are able to touch things.

But I ask you; do you believe in the wind? “Ah yes but we can see the winds effects Mike”, yes you can, but if you look in the right places you can also see the effects of God in the world. God does things in people’s lives every day, just look around you. Think about your life and when you’ve been at your lowest points, when you have felt the most alone, if you’re reading this I bet there was a turning point and you realized that God is there, and even though you cannot see him, you can see his effects in your own life.

Seeing is believing? Well you can see God’s effects so what’s the next excuse?

Part 2 – Faith through Touching.

As I’ve already mentioned, people of the world expect to be able to touch something. How many people will actually believe that something is hard or soft just based on your say so? How many children will accept that something is hot or cold just by you telling them.

We have a natural inbuilt system that allows it to feel and touch and taste things so that our brains can store this information.

John 20:25-28 so the other disciples told him (Thomas), "We have seen the Lord!"But he said to them, "Unless I see the nail marks in his hands and put my finger where the nails were, and put my hand into his side, I will not believe it."

You see, even a disciple who had been with Jesus right until the end would not believe until he touched his wounds. We shouldn’t loose heart if we find ourselves wanting to feel God and Touch God to make sure he’s real.

But I challenge you, if we could see God, and we could feel God, there would be no need for our faith and everyone would believe, as perfect as that sounds God’s love and forgiveness for us putting faith in him would become redundant and meaningless. It would just be something else that we take for granted in the world.

Part 3 – Faith through God.

If we refer back to passage of which I started with at the beginning of this blog, this woman, who is dying from internal hemorrhaging believes through faith that just 1 touch will heal her wounds, and even goes as far as to say that she believes that 1 touch of the end of his cloak would heal her.

How many of us can actually, truly say that we would believe the same things, bearing in mind this man was Jesus, and he was still alive and you wouldn’t have known a fraction about his purpose or his will at this point. This woman would have just heard rumors and little bits of information about Jesus, she wouldn’t have been able to travel very far as she was very ill and she would have had to rely on gossip.

But her faith is unshakeable, her love is unbounded and her belief that this man can heal her because he is the Messiah was unchangeable. I can imagine her waking up on the morning that Jesus was due to walk through the village, and I can imagine her making a plan in her head that she would just need to touch the fibers of his cloak whilst his back was turned and she would be healed.

We should be encouraged and we should be challenged by this woman. We should be encouraged that we are not in her position. Dying and having but 1 chance to be saved, we have had many chances and we are living in the knowledge of Jesus that these people couldn’t have even dreamed about!

Our challenge however should be that despite knowing so much about Christ, and despite hearing his words and being able to hear his word whenever we choose that we don’t loose our unquestionable faith that God will heal our sins, that he is there and that Jesus took away your sins on the cross.

Walk by Faith and not by Sight.

Mikey.

1 Timothy 6:12 - Footaball Battles

For those of you who know me well, you know that I love my football. Its something that I will watch if any team are playing, well I draw the line at Birmingham City but always take satisfaction in watching them loose.

I also love to play football, I’ve had many injuries during my playing “career” and I am at the moment trying to type this with a broken thumb… not easy! I was struggling to think of something to write about today and had toyed with the idea of being quite heavy and talking about Jesus’ wounds when he was crucified, not the best reading for a Friday however.

Instead I take my text from:

1 Timothy 6:12 - Fight the good fight of the faith. Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called when you made your good confession in the presence of many witnesses.

Part 1 – Preparation.

When I do battle on the football field, or when I prance around to be more precise, there are a number of preparations that I have to take. I need to make sure I’m protected, so I wear my shin pads and put on my boots to protect my legs and my feet. I then need to put my colours on so that I can be distinguished from the other team and finally I need to have a good team talk from the manager to get me fired up for the game.

When we are preparing to do battle in the spiritual sense within the world, we need to do a lot of the same things.

We need to make sure we are protected; the bible speaks about protection as a suit of armour. Ephesians 6 talks of this armour being made up of 6 parts. The belt of truth, the breastplate of righteousness, the preparation of the gospel, the shield of faith, the helmet of salvation and finally the sword of the spirit. I am not going to go into these at this time, you can effectively do 6 sermons on each part, and my thumb hurts as it is!

Once we’ve got our armour on, we then need to make sure we are distinguished from the other teams. I spoke yesterday about this and how we need to acknowledge Jesus by our words and our actions, this is how we show we are different to other people. Subsequently, this is like putting on a football jersey on the football field.

Once we are protected and once we look different we need to have a good team talk from our manager. We have this every time we look at the scripture or when we go to church and in some ways, I hope you get a good daily team talk from me! But the important thing to remember is that God has given us instructions for the game and for the battle, if we ignore them, we will end up being beaten.

Once we’re ready, we can go out onto the field.

Part 2 – The Battle.

God has taught us through the bible that we’re in a battle. Ultimately between good and evil but this is manifested by us and God verses Satan.

When I go and play football, it would be stupid for me to go out there without any preparation or protection, but it would be even more stupid for me to go out there if I’ve never played football or even like the game. I would be made to look like a fool and ultimately I would loose confidence in my playing and give up, or even worse get injured and never play again.

The same can be said for our Christian walk. If we had no support or protection from Satan, we would be in a very dangerous place indeed. During the battle of day-to-day life we need to make sure we still cling on to the teaching and preparation we have been given to make sure that the little skirmishes from minute to minute we face can be overcome.

I don’t know about you, but I would hazard a guess that we don’t always win these battles. I would imagine there are times when we give up the fight and just stand still just letting the war be won. We need to make sure that we carry on fighting, that we look to God for strength to overcome the temptations we battle with everyday.

Corinthians 15:57 - But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

Exactly!

Part 3 – Celebration of Victory

Being a fan of Aston Villa, I’ve not had that much in the way of tasting victory, in my lifetime we’ve only won the league cup a few times… nothing to write home about really. Because of this I’ve learned to celebrate in small victories. Winning the games we weren’t expecting to win, and whenever we beat Birmingham City are always party time!

As a Christian, I’m sure there have been times when we’ve won a few major battles but not all the time and in some cases, we might not have won a major battle for a long time. Because of this, we should also celebrate in the smaller victories that we have. The times that we’ve been able to shun temptation, the times we’ve been able to make it through the weak with our faith intact and sit in church praising God and the times when we pray to God asking for his strength,

We should take heart in the minor victories and grow in strength and confidence for the major victories that we need to win. Being a Christian is a war, its not a battle, it’s a season not a match and as such we should always be looking at the hear and now so that we can stay on course to our ultimate aim, winning the war or winning the league.

God says that he can and will give us the strength to over come all things.

Ephesians 6:20 Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us.

God can and will do all things. As I said at the beginning of the week he made the world and therefore can do anything. That’s the best Goalkeeper, striker, defender and playmaker we can have on our team or any team.

Have a good weekend, I may update this again tomorrow but if not, God willing, I’ll be back on Monday.

Walk by Faith, not by sight.

Mikey

Matthew 26:75 - Who Me?

For people in the current climate of this world, it’s not “Cool” to be a Christian, its not the “in” religion as Buddhism and being part of the Scientology movement is. I was bought up within a Christian home and from when I was born; I was within the church environment. In hindsight, I can see this a blessing that God was there in my life from my childhood.

The hardest part about this, as it is for many younger Christians at school, is standing up for your faith in an oppressive world that denies Christ. Moreover, it is also difficult for older Christians in their work situation and discrimination can happen from the highest director down to the tea boy.

The reason for this is clear. People are scared about what they do not know, and a defence mechanism to this is to make themselves look better than you.

I take my text today from Matthew.

Matthew 26 v 75 - Immediately a rooster crowed. Then Peter remembered the word Jesus had spoken: "Before the rooster crows, you will disown me three times." And he went outside and wept bitterly.

Peter was one of 12 disciples. I’m sure if you had asked him before Jesus was taken away to be killed, he would tell you that he was one of the best. He would be the first to answer questions that Jesus would ask and would try and look for ways to impress him. At the last supper Peter was adamant that he would deny Christ, but as we know from this passage, he did just that.

Part 1 – Confidence within a group.

When I was growing up in the church, I went to Sunday school and went to many thousands of church services. I knew all the answers and eventually I knew what to say in different situations. I was top of my class and could recite from the bible at will. Big Wow. I didn’t have God in my life really; I just knew the bible but did nothing about it. Its like a doctor who knows all the conditions yet never practices it.

At this time, I was confident about my faith within the church environment, superficially of course but confident none the less. I would tell people within the church all these stories about how strong I was but never actually put it in place outside of the walls.

Peter in some ways was the same. He had Jesus Christ as a teacher, he was in the inner circle of Christ’s followers and he also knew the answers. As we look back at the last supper, we can see that peter says the following:

“But Peter declared, "Even if I have to die with you, I will never disown you." And all the other disciples said the same.”

That is some sentiment really; he is pledging to Jesus that he would rather die than disown his master. I would have done the same thing within the church but faced with any other situation I was completely the opposite.

Part 2 – Confidence in confrontation.

As I grew older and got a little bit more curious about the world I started to hang around with a few mates who really weren’t Christian and certainly wouldn’t go to church with me! There is one situation that sticks in my mind where I denied Jesus because I wanted to be cool.

My friend came around for tea, (I shan’t name the guy) and after messing about on the computer and generally having a right laugh, we were called down for tea. We all sat down, my mum and dad, my mate, my brother and me and the food was bought out. My mate picked up his knife and fork and started to eat. My dad said “mike’s friend, we will say grace before we eat thanking God for our food”.

Bang, this was a potential for any street cred I had to fly out the window. (Not that I had much anyway but you get the idea). Dad said grace and all through the prayer I could see my mate’s lip curling with a smirk. Nothing was said in the evening and he went home.

The next day however was a completely different story, I came into school and everyone was laughing at me, “your dad’s a priest”, “going to say grace before you eat that chewing gum” and so on and so forth. Great.

This was when my shame grew for even knowing Jesus and I started to join in the mocking of my parents, of my God and of all the standards I had been bought up to believe. I feel so ashamed of myself thinking back. I started to deny going to church and began my double life of Christian at the weekends and Rebel during the week.

Peter was also faced with criticism, and he denied Christ even when he was still alive and even though he was in the same room!

“He began to call down curses on himself, and he swore to them, "I don't know this man you're talking about."

That sentence sounds strangely familiar…

Part 3 – Forgiveness for Denial

I’m sure we’ve all been in exactly this situation. We’ve been faced with question of “Do you believe in God” or “what do you think will happen after we die”. And I’m sure a lot of us have taken the non-Christian route and glossed over it for fear of ridicule.

Peter knew he had done wrong as I knew I had done wrong at school. The difference is, I didn’t want any forgiveness because I thought that going to church every Sunday will make up for it. How wrong was I?

John 21:17

17The third time he said to him, "Simon son of John, do you love me?"

Peter was hurt because Jesus asked him the third time, "Do you love me?" He said, "Lord, you know all things; you know that I love you."

My point is this. When we are outside of the church and outside of the group of people we associate with that, how do we act? Do we deny Christ with our actions? Are we hypocritical with our words? I think it’s extremely important to remember that God will never deny us, if we don’t deny him.

The biggest cause of atheism in the world is Christians, who acknowledge Jesus with their lips but deny him with their lifestyle – a quote from, I cannot remember where. But its true, we should remember that God has never promised that being a Christian is easy, in fact quite the opposite, but God rewards those who are faithful.

God loves us, we should love God with the same enthusiasm and we should never deny who we are. Easy to say I know but just because we deny God, doesn’t mean he’s not there watching us!

Walk by Faith, Not by Sight

Mikey