The Joy of the Lord?

 To Have!

To believe in the death, resurrection and promised return of the Lord is one thing, but to follow Jesus is another?

To imitate, to apply Jesus actions everyday in our lives is hard and that is perhaps why many people who claim faith are unhappy, since they live as the world?

We were purchased at a heavy price and it is sad to see that many fail at this essential and simple hurdle or that they abuse the power they have been invested with!

Matthew/Levi 25:21-23,  1 Thessalonians 1:6,  Philemon 1:20.

God expects more from Us!

 A den of merchants and Robbers?

One has always felt uncomfortable with the Sunday book store in the Church and despite the need for it, it becomes a king of religious hypocrisy when we are encouraged by some to keep the sabbath and feel okay trading in the confines of fellowship!

Jesus was not to pleased with what He saw in the Temple in Jerusalem, the abuse of the religious leadership turning a Holy building into another outlet for business and His words spoken that they were in relation to what the poor suffering Prophet Jeremiah had to put up in his day!

God wants us to be a people of applied faith, not Church going and not in a religious system of rules and rituals #, but to free in the indwelling holy Spirit to be alive and active, with no fear of people? Respecting the laws of the lands that we are in as long as they do run contrary to God's laws!

Jeremiah 7:3-11,  Matthew/Levi 21:13,  Luke 19:45-46,  Hebrews 4:12,  Revelation 2:19.

Domestic Abuse! Part-One.

Begins in the Church?

What a terrible thing to say, but this is a truth that many believers refuse to admit to at any level of counselling?

Many a minister goes home and hits his wife or husband for saying the wrong thing, looking or being friendly with you know who and so the list of failure continues while the veneer of respectability covers the cracks of keeping face!

Our society at this time in the west is very complex with relationships of every kind that are outside the confines of the Holy Scriptures! We live in a world of more self and so more sin comes with it, if people and believers would only admit these failings revival would break out everywhere!

Job 24:15-18,   Proverbs 2:16-19,   Isaiah 57:3-4,   Matthew/Levi 5:28,   Romans 7:3,   Philippians 1:10,   1 Timothy 1:9-10.

Sinning. Part-One.

Continuing to Sin.

There are many who claim a faith in God today, but they continue to live in the world, as the world. They show nothing of the New Life that they claim to have in Jesus death and resurrection for them?

God warns those who have believed and who then think that they can abuse their position with Him, will loose their salvation! The blood that Jesus spilt for us on the cross/tree/stake is very precious, it was to buy us back to God.

But if we abuse that relationship by living and continuing on in the sinful nature, we will be refused entry into His rest.

Hebrews 10:26, Numbers 15:28-31, Deuteronomy 17:12, Psalm 19:12-13, Matthew 12:31-32, 1 Timothy 1:13, 2 peter 2:20-22.

Excuses for... Part-One.

Rioting after Carnival and Celebrations.

The summer bank holiday is next week in Great Britain and it has a traditional reputation for drugs, abuse and conflict with the police. The last few years since 2011 has been calm, but with another murder in Brixton south-London things might boil over.

Street parades and parties usually lead to some form of disturbances, we only have to look at northern-Ireland and Rio in Brazil to see how things can easily get out of hand.

But these are really all just excuses from the start for vice and sin, what they originally were based on were Christian celebrations that in a away have been hijacked and the real meaning long gone.

Genesis 3:12-13,  Acts 24:25,  Romans 1:20.

Peer Pressure. Part-Two.

Drugs to Rape.

Growing up can be or has been very hard for some of us, who know about being abused by adults.

The drunken parents, the step-parents, uncles and aunts who touch where they should not!

So called mates who introduce us to drugs or think that rape is a way to be accepted in the gang!

God wants the best for us, some of us now try everyday to keep walking in His light of the New Life.

Job 34:30,  Psalm 119:136,  1 Corinthians 4:12.