Do you worship the Work? by Oswald Chambers

'We are Gods fellow workers...' 1 Corinthians 3:9

Beware of any work for God that causes or allows you to avoid concentrating on Him. A great number of Christian workers worship their work. The only concern of Christian workers should be their concentration on God. This will mean that all the other boundaries of life, whether they are mental, moral or spiritual limits, are completely free with the freedom God gives His child;  a worshipping child not a wayward one. A worker who lacks this serious controlling emphasis of concentration on God is apt to become overly burdened by his work. He is a slave to his own limits, having no freedom of his body, mind or spirit. Consequently, he becomes burned out and defeated. There is no freedom and no delight in life at all. His nerves, mind and heart are so overwhelmed that God's blessing cannot rest on him.

But the opposite case is equally true - once our concentration is on God, all the limits of our life are free and under the control and mastery of God alone. There is no longer any responsibility on you for the work. The only responsibility you have is to stay in living constant touch with God, and to see that you allow nothing to hinder your cooperation with Him.The freedom that comes after sanctification is the freedom of a child, and the things that used to hold your life down are gone. But be careful to remember that you have been freed for only one thing - to be absolutely devoted to your co-Worker.

We have no right to decide where we should be placed, or to have preconceived ideas as to what God is preparing us to do. God engineers everything; and wherever He places us, our one supreme goal should be to pour out our lives in wholehearted devotion to Him in that particular work.

'Whatever your hands find to do, do it with all your might....' Ecclesiastes 9:10

The Cross of Christ

Colossians 2:11-15   

 In him you were also circumcised with a circumcision not performed by human hands. Your whole self-ruled by the flesh was put off when you were circumcised by Christ. Having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through your faith in the working of God, who raised him from the dead. When you were dead in your sins and in the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made you alive with Christ. He forgave us all our sins. Having cancelled the charge of our legal indebtedness, which stood against us and condemned us; he has taken it away, nailing it to the cross. And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross.

Because of the work of the cross our legal standing before God is complete at the moment we are born again.It can have nothing added to it, no matter how obedient or committed to Jesus we become after we are converted. This is because it is given to us purely on the basis of God’s undeserved grace and mercy. It is not something we can earn or deserve. It is received by faith. It involves the total cancellation of our previous legal standing of guilt and condemnation before God the Supreme Ruler and Judge John Stott wrote  'The Christian community is a community of the cross, for it has been brought into being by the cross, and the focus of its worship is the Lamb once slain, now glorified. The Christian life is an unending festival. And the festival we keep, now that our Passover Lamb has been sacrificed for us, is a joyful celebration of his sacrifice, together with a spiritual feasting upon it.' 

God Is Love

God is love and the Christian is to show Love.... But first... you must love Jesus.

You cannot truly love your brother or sister if you do not truly love Jesus.

He died for you and freed you from sin.  He showed his love for you by dying for you.

Do you love Jesus?

How is it manifested in your life?

Do you hide from Him or seek Him?

Do you wait for Him in prayer or only on Sundays?

What does it mean to Love Jesus?

It means to put Him first.

It means to obey Him.

It means to love one another.

It means to love God.

The great question which all rational beings must answer is this: "Do you love Jesus Christ?"   As Christians we must ask it often. “If you love me, you will keep my commandments"

Refiners Fire

Malachi 3:2-3

Who can endure the day of His coming 

And who can stand the day He appears?

For He is like a refiners fire and like a launderers soap

He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver; 

He will purge the sons of Levi

And purge them as gold and silver

That they may offer to the Lord

An offering in righteousness

The refiner’s fire that Jesus takes us through, He went through Himself. He went through it and suffered and died for our sake so that we would not have to deal with the flames ourselves. Jesus took that fire upon Himself, though He did not have to, and Jesus offers us salvation from our sins because of what he did.

But then Jesus tells us that if we truly want to follow Him, we are going to have to go where He leads. Jesus doesn't promise us complete prosperity and ease of life. What Jesus does promise is a life that is good.

1Peter 1:6-7

In all this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that the proven genuineness of your faith - greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire - may result in praise, glory and honour when Jesus Christ is revealed.

Promises, Promises Promises!

In Genesis God makes a clear and comprehensive promise to Abram 'I will make you a great nation, And I will bless you, And make your name great, And so you will be a blessing'. When we as humans make promises we enter in to a contract usually with the intention of fulfilling the contract being made, an example when a groom and bride stand facing each other on their wedding day they make  promises to one another with the full intention of keeping them, many fail in the promises made during their wedding vows .

 Not so with God when he makes promises you can be confident  he will fulfill them he is faithful . The problem arises when the promises do not come to fruition within our time scale, as was the case for Abram. 
God promised that he would have descendants that would become a nation that takes time which Abram clearly did not factor into the promise,  having descendants does not happen over night, but he makes a common mistake he helps God out, through his own scheme rather than waiting for God's plan to come about. Patience is not a gift many of us have but it is a fruit of the Spirit which is given by God and developed within us all we need to do is to ask for it, it is not instant, it is a life time lesson for some of us to learn but learn it we must.
 Blessings Ray     

And Jesus said......

Jesus said 'I am the way, the truth and the life no one can come to the Father except through me'


Jesus said 'I am the Way' he is the one who leads to the path of life, it is only through Him that we can be with God. If you turn up at an airport wanting to travel to South Africa then you need to board a plane that is heading to South Africa, no other plane will take you there. Jesus is the only way to the Father.
 Jesus said 'I am the truth' no other man on this earth can claim to be such. There is no one on this planet who never lied or did anything wrong, so no one can claim to be the truth, except Jesus because He is God himself and there is no sin or lie within Him.


Jesus said 'I am the Life' What is the meaning of life about which Jesus is talking? Are we dead and do we need life? Lets see what it is about. We read in Romans 3:23, 'For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God' And also in Romans 6:23 'For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal in Christ Jesus our Lord.'


All have sinned and so we are lifeless because our soul is dead in sin. because of our sins we are heading towards death - eternal death. But Jesus came into this world to save us from hell. He gave His precious life for us. he shed His precious blood on the cross to purchase freedom for us.


He gave His life for us but now we have to claim life - eternal life, so that we may never die but live forever. Jesus came to give us eternal life - a life that will never fade. He came to give us life abundant and it is available free of cost because Jesus paid the price for it on the cross.


The Good News of Jesus is for all; it welcomes all just as we are. but if that loving invitation into God's Kingdom is to be accepted, it requires radical change of those parts of our human nature that fall short of God's will for His creation. you may recall that the very first recorded words of Jesus in Mark's account 1:15 are these 'The time is fulfilled and the Kingdom of God has come near; repent and believe in the Gospel/the Good News.' The challenge to repent, to turn away from what is selfish and sinful, in order to receive something better - that challenge has always provoked a mixed response.


We are called to preach the whole Gospel, not an edited version, not an inoffensive Gospel like lead free petrol or wheat free bread the gospel only comes with power if there is repentance. 


Blessings
Ray

And He will be called.....

For to us a child is born

to us a child is given,

and the government will be on HIs shoulders

and He will be called Wonderful Counselor,

Mighty God, Everlasting Father, prince of Peace

Isaiah 9:6

Wonderful Counselor - through the birth and death of Jesus, a priceless gift arrived, the Wonderful Counselor sent to dwell in all the hearts of those who would believe. Is He guiding you? Surrender your life to His leadership, what He has for you is beyond anything you could imagine. 1 Corinthians 3:9

Mighty God - We follow a Mighty God, not like the gods of this world, or the gods Isaiah had in mind when he wrote this prophecy. Isaiah was surrounded by gods who were impotent and brought death but we have a God who is mighty to save. This is what makes our God mighty, scripture tell us that while we were dead in our sins He made us alive!

 Our Everlasting Father is compassionate, He is not angry with us, he is concerned about the smallest things in our lives and when He corrects us He does it to bring us closer to Him, not to condemn us or drive us away. He wants for us to be His children.

Prince of Peace - we long for peace in our lives....in our thoughts, decisions, emotions, relationships, families and our world. He is our Prince of Peace, our refuge throughout the storms in our lives.

The Government is on his shoulders all authority is with him, he is the one who is in charge of this world and as Christians we have access to the everlasting father because of the birth of this child Jesus let us honour him.

Blessings Without Warnings  Ray x