Tag Archive - Jesus

The different understandings of forgiving…

October 21, 2010 in Challenges with 0 Comments

Yesterday I linked to a post by Carlos Whittaker about forgiving.

This started to draw some debate from some of my friends on Facebook, saying that for certain kinds of ‘sins’, they will not forgive the person. In this case specifically a child molester.

Now, if we look at the example (Jesus) we have when we need to gauge how we need to react in certain situations, it becomes clear that irrespective of what the person did, we need to forgive 7 times 70.

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

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

Matthew 18:21-22

Now, should this person have committed this sin against me or my family, I am sure I would find this very difficult to do, but God truly convicted me yesterday that we need to forgive. Not for that person that committed the sin, but for our own good. If we do not forgive, the sore the person left there, will start to fester, and over time this will start to consume your life, which will then enable the enemy to take hold of you.

As long as we hold firm to our faith in Christ, and let the Holy Spirit guide our daily walks of life in a loving way, He will be able to give us the strength to overcome a situation like this.

Another example of ultimate forgiving is the story of the two criminals hanged with Jesus on the cross.

One of the criminals who hung there hurled insults at him: “Aren’t you the Christ? Save yourself and us!”
But the other criminal rebuked him. “Don’t you fear God,” he said, “since you are under the same sentence? We are punished justly, for we are getting what our deeds deserve. But this man has done nothing wrong.”
Then he said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.”
Jesus answered him, “I tell you the truth, today you will be with me in paradise.”
Luke 23:39-43
One of my friends came out and asked if Hitler also had a free pass to heaven should he have accepted Christ as his Saviour before his death?
This screamed at me on how we as humans judge sins. We say some sins are greater than other sins, but God does not see it in that way. Sin is sin, and we need to start to understand this that way.
The only way that sin can be washed away, is by the grace and the blood of Jesus Christ.
This will definitely not be an easy thing to do, as we will be hurt along the way, but through the power of the Holy Spirit all things are possible…

The rejection

September 4, 2010 in Challenges with 0 Comments

Don’t we all just want to be accepted for who we are?

Don’t we all just want to be able to live our lives, without having to worry about what other people think of us?

Then why is it, that most, if not all, of us, are basically living to fit into the mould the world has created for us, which is supposed to be normal?

Even in and at the church building, we tend to try and fit in. We want to be accepted by the “COOL” crowd, and we want to be known by the pastor and all the church staff, and so forth…

Why is that?

We have been created by God to be unique in every way, so the question is, does normal exist?

In my personal opinion, I want to say that normal is not a Godly word, and is something that has been placed on us by the enemy. As long as he can keep us focused on trying to be normal as far as worldly standards go, we tend to forget who we are within Christ, and thus our relationship with Christ suffers, and is that not exactly what the enemy wants?

Another thing is, why are we always so afraid to speak what we really feel? To really be able to say what we want to say in church, to our friends, our family and generally everybody around us?

When someone says something that we have a big issue with, in church or wherever, we usually just keep our mouths shut, and bury it inside. Then this thing starts to grow within us, and eventually we are unable to look beyond that thhing, and see the person behind it anymore.

I saw this happen this week to a dear friend of mine, who has been going through really dark valleys in his life lately, and he simply does not need negative or synical people around him. He needs people that he can speak to, who will listen to what he has to say, and who will validate his views. I have decided this week, that I should probably be that person.

We really need to, as Christians, start to accept people that does not believe the way we do, for who they are, and stop to try and force them into our little mould of what a Christian should be.

The only mould we can try to force anyone, including ourselves, into, is the mould of Jesus Christ. And quite frankly, while we are mortals here on earth, that is going to be impossible. Every other persons view of what we should be, look like, and think like, is skewed, since we are all uniquely created by God, and we cannot be someone else, even if we try to.

So, let us all stop this general rejection of people different than ourselves, and start to love them for who they are. Even if they look like this…

Unfathomable love

June 18, 2010 in Challenges with 3 Comments

Read the following passage, and ponder on it for a while…

I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.

Ephesians 3:16-19

So, what do you know. The love of God surpasses knowledge.

Why do we still try to measure God’s love for us in human terms?

I have been on a  journey with God the last couple of weeks around what His love means, and every time I try to place it in terms of human love, I have been disappointed.

We need to just let God love, and stop to try and measure His love in the way we measure the love we have for each other, like by the size of gifts we give to each other, or the amount of time we are willing to spend on someone.

The love of God is so big, that He was willing to carry all our sins on the cross for us, even though we did not deserve it?

Would you die on a cross, the most humiliating way to die, for someone that does not know you? You might know them, but they do not necessarily know you.

That is what our Father did for us, and we need to simply accept that.

Works will not, and I repeat, will NOT get us in heaven with God, but only accepting Jesus, which is His love for us, will get us there.

Through accepting this love, the works will come naturally, and it will not be a forced act of love, but a genuine act of love.

This is the difference to unbelievers doing good works, and a reborn Christian doing works through faith.

I pray that God will reveal His love for you today, and that this will transform your life, in ways that you will never imagine.

Not of this world

December 3, 2009 in Challenges with 12 Comments

baptism

How many times a day do we just wish that the people around us, would accept us and love us?

How many time a day we just do something, because the people around us do it?

I am quite often guilty of trying to fit in, because it is the easy thing to de, but Jesus is pretty clear about this.

John 15:18-19 (The Message)

“If you find the godless world is hating you, remember it got its start hating me. If you lived on the world’s terms, the world would love you as one of its own. But since I picked you to live on God’s terms and no longer on the world’s terms, the world is going to hate you.

Pretty harsh, to know that the world is going to hate you, isn’t it?

Why do we do it then? Why do we follow God, an proclaim to the world that He is the salvation and the way?

This answer will probably differ for many of us, but for me, it is because I only need the love and acceptance from one person, and that is God. For a very long time in my life, I was an ‘Sunday’ Christian. Going to church, and playing in the worship band, but to get the sine for being on stage, and to impress with my talents. I went to church, because my family went to church.

Only after the birth of my daughter, did I really come to grips with what it means to be a Christ Follower. Now, all I want to do is serve, and be Jesus for the poor and the needy, to help the widows and the orphans.

I pray that all of you reading this, will also get to that point, if you haven’t reached it yet, where you can stand up boldly before the world, and proclaim the name of Jesus.

Another scenario from scripture that I really like around me becoming less and Jesus more is in John 3

John 3:27-30 (NIV)

27To this John replied, “A man can receive only what is given him from heaven. 28You yourselves can testify that I said, ‘I am not the Christ but am sent ahead of him.’ 29The bride belongs to the bridegroom. The friend who attends the bridegroom waits and listens for him, and is full of joy when he hears the bridegroom’s voice. That joy is mine, and it is now complete. 30He must become greater; I must become less.

Help

November 19, 2009 in Challenges with 0 Comments

help

So, we are nearing the end of the journey through Romans, and today’s sections from Romans 15 ties in extremely well with the Hillsongs movie we went to see last night. Even though we only saw the first half due to problems with the projector, the theme of all people being created equally and how we can help those around us already sinked in deeply into my heart.

Romans 15:1-2 (The Message)

Those of us who are strong and able in the faith need to step in and lend a hand to those who falter, and not just do what is most convenient for us. Strength is for service, not status. Each one of us needs to look after the good of the people around us, asking ourselves, “How can I help?”

Reading these verses I am again challenged to really go out and make a difference to people’s lives out there that need to see that Jesus still cares. For the people that have nothing to eat and have no clean water, and are at the brink of giving up.

If we read the next section from Romans 15 it tells us what Jesus did. We tend to forget that Jesus worked in the slums of the times. He would seldom be in a position to be lavished with riches. He really got in the trenches and cared for the people that needed it.

Romans 15:3

That’s exactly what Jesus did. He didn’t make it easy for himself by avoiding people’s troubles, but waded right in and helped out. “I took on the troubles of the troubled,” is the way Scripture puts it.

Now, why would we as Christ followers avoid doing exactly this? We tend to look the other way, when a homeless person asks for something at a traffic light. We try do get something to do so we do not have to look at them.

Yes, I am guilty of it as well…

Why don’t we rather just at the very least give the person a smile, and a polite sorry, I don’t have anything to give you today. Or give them a bottle of water, or a word of encouragement?

Christianity in one sentence

September 14, 2009 in Challenges with 0 Comments

Yesterday during our morning church service, Brett Solomon preached about what Christianity should be, and what it has become. Without wanting to go into too many points on his service, he had it all summed up in one sentence…

Christianity is the innocence of man kind…

What this comes down to is that once we accept Christ, and become born again, there is nothing, and I say again, nothing, that we can do to get to heaven. From that point on we are washed clean by the blood of Christ, which He spilled on the cross, and that means that we as mere humans can do nothing out of our own power to get ourselves to heaven.

How do you see this statement, as this is changing my life every minute that I think about it.

Community

September 9, 2009 in Challenges with 0 Comments

community

Acts 2:43-47 (The Message)

Everyone around was in awe—all those wonders and signs done through the apostles! And all the believers lived in a wonderful harmony, holding everything in common. They sold whatever they owned and pooled their resources so that each person’s need was met.

They followed a daily discipline of worship in the Temple followed by meals at home, every meal a celebration, exuberant and joyful, as they praised God. People in general liked what they saw. Every day their number grew as God added those who were saved.

This evening at home church, we discussed these verses, and how it would apply to us as the modern church. I really feel that with the world around us as well as all the technology that we use to communicate these days, we are really missing the essence of these verses.

Even though this section can almost be misconstrued as the basis for communism, which it obviously is not, these early Christians really went out of their way to accommodate each other, by selling all their possessions and sharing everything equally. In the world today, we are so indoctrinated to focus on ourselves, and what material things we can accumulate for ourselves, that we are missing each other.

One shock I had tonight was the fact that for 2 of the 5 families present at the house church, I only know what is going on in 2 other families’ lives, other than myself, obviously.

This was quite a shock for me, as we are brothers and sisters in Christ, and yet we manage to live on a ‘howdy’ basis. By this I mean that we will ask each other how they are doing, not really being interressted in the answer, and the other person knowing this, will say things are OK.

I believe we need to go and sit down with ourselves and God, and get rid of this mentality of saying ‘howdy’ and really get back to caring. We need to get the love for other people, and not just some, all people, that Jesus had for us. He gave His life for us on the cross, even though we definitely didn’t deserve it.

Start with the people around you, and start to really care. Don’t just say ‘howdy’ but really take time to find out what the person sitting next to you at work have going on in his/her life.

They followed a daily discipline of worship in the Temple followed by meals at home, every meal a celebration, exuberant and joyful, as they praised God. People in general liked what they saw. Every day their number grew as God added those who were saved.

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