Daily life with Jesus by Grahame Howard

Sunday, 10 August 2025

The FFF

"If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. 9If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. 10If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us." 1 John 1:8-10. NKJV

God knew you were screwed up when He called you, do you realise that? Yes He did, and He made provision for this through Jesus who was happy to take your sin upon Himself, if you repented. Can you remember before you knew Jesus. Someone would encourage you to do something that you knew was wrong and, if you did it, you would feel an overwhelming guilt. That was the Holy Spirit. He was around you the moment you were born into this world. You just didn't realise it. You knew it was wrong to steal but, you probably did steal a sweet or something when no one was looking (the Holy Spirit was looking). Even now, after giving your life to Jesus, you are tempted to do wrong.

There is a dodgy scheme going around at the moment. Someone will buy a digital fire stick and send it away to someone who then converts this - for a fee, into being able to use this stick into receiving all TV streaming channels together with many more. And all this costs you is the one time fee to the person who provides this service. Of course, this is totally illegal, but some Christians are taking advantage of this service. When they are caught - and they will be - what a discredit to their faith this will be.

Temptation is all around - heavy gambling, drug and alcohol addiction, adultery, homosexuality - just to name a few. Once a person is drawn into this kind of thing, it is difficult to break free of it. The ideal way is to avoid it but, this is not as easy as it sounds. There are people with very convincing tongues who will tell you that it is all right. You know it isn't and what's more, God's Word reinforces this and if you will take note of it, Jesus will help you to break away from that kind of life.

For a title in today's commentary, I have used 'The FFF.' What is this? It is the an acronym of a phrase 'Freely Flowing Forgiveness.' This is what has always been offered to people who fall into sin and through the revealing power of the Holy Spirit, repent and accept forgiveness and follow Jesus for life. Wherever sin and temptation are, FFF is around too. Whenever you find yourself falling into temptation, the Holy Spirit will be hovering around you (Genesis 1:2.) He has always been around as I said earlier and He has one interest and that is, introducing you to Jesus. He is the N0 1 evangelist to be found.

Why not write this acronym down in your bible. It will remind you that wherever you are you are surrounded by 'Freely Flowing Forgiveness'.

If you don't know Jesus or, have fallen away, why not say this prayer right now
Lord Jesus, I have sinned. I ask you to forgive me and be my Lord and Saviour. Please come into my heart, fill me with Your Spirit and give me a brand new start today. In Jesus' Name. Amen.
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If you would like to contact me, grahame.howard@hotmail.co.uk

Member of the National Association of Christian Ministers
Why not order my Daily Commentary from Amazon - Paperback or Kindle Check it out. Just tap on Grahame Howard books.

Saturday, 9 August 2025

You are the elect of God

"Therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, put on tender mercies, kindness, humility, meekness, longsuffering; 13bearing with one another, and forgiving one another, if anyone has a complaint against another; even as Christ forgave you, so you also must do." Colossians 3:12-13 NKJV

Bob Gass wrote: 'It's much simpler to act like a Christian than it is to react like one. Anybody can put on an act. But your reactions expose what is really in the heart. And if you love God with all your heart, you won't merely act like it. You will react like it.'

Striong words but, they have to be. This is a serious subject, this is why Paul wrote that we are the elect of God, holy and beloved. This is what He thinks of us and He trusts us to live like this every single day. Therefore, we need to adopt and practice diligently every form of relational righteousness; love, compassion, humble attitudes, self-giving behaviour, freely flowing forgiveness and patience with others.

Notice in the latter part of our text today, it says: "if anyone has a complaint against another; even as Christ forgave you, so you also must do." We can't get away from the fact that we need to forgive people just like God forgives us. If we don't forgive people when they have wronged us, why should Jesus forgive us for our wrongdoings? Yes people hurt us but, we hurt them also, remember that. When we don't forgive we live with the misery of living with unforgiveness in our hearts, and this lasts longer than the pain of the offence - always! When we hold on to resentment, we open the door to depression and physical illness. We stumble around carrying a great baggage of wrongs done to us. At every opportunity we try to bring into a conversation what wrong someone has done to us and people can feel the bitterness that comes from our presence. This is not living as the elect of God - holy and beloved. Empty the bag at the dump and be free from it forever more. Otherwise it is destroying your walk with God.

Picture all of this on a white board and then, wipe it all off never to be seen again. Say out loud, 'I will remember this no more. It is finished.' And then move on with your life, holy and beloved.

If you would like to contact me, grahame.howard@hotmail.co.uk

Member of the National Association of Christian Ministers
Why not order my Daily Commentary from Amazon - Paperback or Kindle Check it out. Just tap on Grahame Howard books.

Friday, 8 August 2025

The ''But if not' people

"If that is the case, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and He will deliver us from your hand, O king. 18But if not, let it be known to you, O king, that we do not serve your gods, nor will we worship the gold image which you have set up.” Daniel 3:17-18. NKJV

These two verses are wonderful to study and pick the bones out of. These three guys - Shadrach, Meshach and Abed-nego showed unshakeable faith when they refused to bow down to Nebuchadnezzar's 90 foot golden statue. They knew the risk they were taking but it was not going to stop them. If God didn't show up for them, they would still honour Him.

Nebuchadnezzar had thrown down the gauntlet and said, 'And who is the god who will deliver you from my hands?' This was a self-centred attitude that the king was showing them. He was actually stating that no one, not even God would be able to deliver them from his hands. One would have thought that this would have caused God to retaliate and teach him a lesson. But, God didn't. He had nothing to prove. Notice in v18, they had made provision for this happening. They told the king that God would save them ,'But if not.' Whether God saved them or not, they would still not bow down to this false image.

Later, a similar thing happened to Daniel. This time, Darius had replaced Nebuchadnezzar as king and had a lot of respect for Daniel. But some people who wanted to make things bad for Daniel, tricked Darius into making a decree forbidding anyone to bow down and offer praise and prayer to any god, except the king. They then reported Daniel for breaking this decree. When Darius realised what he had done, he was mortified. He attempted to rescue Daniel but his hands were tied. He ordered that Daniel be thrown into the lion's den and spent a sleepless night fasting and praying about Daniel. When morning came, he was overwhelmed with joy that Daniel was safe and rejoiced when he heard that an angel had kept the lion's mouth closed.

Daniel had no doubt refused to stop praying to God and even though he realised the punishment for doing this was certain death in the lion's den, he had a God who will rescue me 'But if not'' I will not stop praying to my God.

This type of people - the 'But if not' people, are a unique group of people who trust God wholeheartedly and, no matter what, will refuse to stop talking, praying or praising Jesus. These are the people who get the job done for Jesus. Their fear is in not doing what God has told them to do. They are 'But if not' people and nothing will stop them.

What about you. Are you a 'But if not' person or, would you like to be? God wants this for all of us. Jesus is in heaven now and He has left the job with each one of us to complete. People need Jesus. Many don't know this fact and many just refuse to follow. 'But if not' people change things. They forge ahead and bring people into the kingdom. If you want this, why not tell Jesus about it and ask Him to give you this anointing.

If you would like to contact me, grahame.howard@hotmail.co.uk

Member of the National Association of Christian Ministers
Why not order my Daily Commentary from Amazon - Paperback or Kindle Check it out. Just tap on Grahame Howard books.

Thursday, 7 August 2025

Be thankful to God

"you therefore have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him, 7rooted and built up in Him and established in the faith, as you have been taught, abounding in it with thanksgiving." Colossians 2:6-7. NKJV

When you think about it, we have so much to thank God for and, there's more to come. Did you hear me - there's more to come! Someone said recently, 'It's my birthday and I have lots of gift cards to spend. The problem is, I have everything so I don't know what to buy.' Now, some people would say that this is pride and being puffed up. But, it isn't. This is the hallmark of a blessed life, something God has done for someone that probably had very little before they knew God. Now they do, and have done their best to walk with Jesus, tithing and walking in the Spirit, it is time for them to be blessed. Remember John 10:10 'I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.' This is the reward of obedience to Jesus.

Being thankful and grateful to Jesus brings us into a deeper relationship with Him. He gives us joy and contentment and strengthens our faith. He also leads us into a deeper spiritual growth as we acknowledge our gratitude to Him. Prayer and praise costs us nothing but leads us into a much better place with Jesus. Some people say that they never hear God. My reply to this is that it's possible that they don't spend enough time with Him. Give Him more of your time and listen rather than doing all of the talking and then there may be a more favourable response from God.

God does speak, let's face it, the bible is full of His Word and He has a wonderful way of speaking to us when we read through the bible as well. We may have had something on our mind, when suddenly, a verse pops out and it's the answer we have been searching for. At other times, we may hear that quiet voice within our spirit. The great thing is, the more time we spend with Him, thanking and praising Him, the more He will speak to us.

God will never stay quiet if you are spending time alone with Him, praising and thanking Him and just delighting in His presence. 'Trust in the Lord, and do good; Dwell in the land, and feed on His faithfulness. 4Delight yourself also in the Lord, And He shall give you the desires of your heart.' Jesus longs for that special relationship with you and what's more, He went to the cross, on your behalf to receive it too.

If you want to be blessed, cultivate a deeper relationship with the one who loves you more than anyone could ever love you. Thank Him; praise Him and enjoy His company. He's longing for this right now! Go on, go and spend some time with Him.

If you would like to contact me, grahame.howard@hotmail.co.uk

Member of the National Association of Christian Ministers
Why not order my Daily Commentary from Amazon - Paperback or Kindle Check it out. Just tap on Grahame Howard books.

Don't leave it too late!

"Seek the Lord while He may be found, Call upon Him while He is near."

Isaiah 55:6. NKJV

There comes a time in everyone's life when choices have to be made. They may be fairly easy choices or, they be very hard to approach, accept and decide. Let's look further on this:

(1) Some choices may affect you job, your family and the rest of your life. Take for instance if you decide to move to Australia. There are family on both sides that need to be consulted and their view taken into account. Years ago, when a family eloped, it was like it was a total 'goodbye'. Nowadays, it's only a flight away and the family are easily contacted with FaceTime, email, telephone etc. However, it is still a hard decision to make.

You may have been offered a job miles away from where you live and to accept it means that you will have to move. This means, leaving the area you have lived for a long time, leaving family and friends behind and taking a chance on a new venture. There are other hard choices to make and, none of them come easy. Long term, if you decide to leave, you may regret it in years to come. Yet, on the other hand it may be the best choice you have ever made. There is a risk element and it may be a painful one. The thing is, if you don't make the choice now you may regret it later on. So don't leave things too late.

(2) Whatever choice you make on the above, it is not as important as the choice you will make today about your salvation. 'Seek the Lord while He may be found, Call upon Him while He is near.' The thing is, it is not about whether the Lord can be found or whether you are near enough to Him. He can be found and He is near, right now. However, it will not always be this way. When you approach death - which can come at any age - there is only one way you will see the Lord and be with Him, and that is to accept Him. Today is the day of salvation (2 Cor 6:2). If you ask Jesus into your life today, you will be forgiven and will receive a guarantee that you are 'Saved' and will dwell in heaven eternally. However, if you leave it too late and die in your sin, you will still see Jesus but, this will be on Judgement day - the day you will have to account for all the wrongs you have done. Jesus will then declare you guilty and you will spend eternity apart from Jesus.

Be honest, these choices are difficult one's, but the second one is the most important and will affect where you spend eternity - heaven or hell - there is nothing in between and no second chances either. After death you will see Jesus. How do you want to meet Him? As your Judge or as your friend? The answer to these questions are for you to decide and it will be too late after you have died.

No one likes talking about death but, it will affect us all one day. Are you certain that you possess eternal life for when you die or, are you going to leave it until the last minute. Don't gamble with your eternity. This is the biggest decision that you will ever make.

Don't leave it too late!

If you would like to contact me, grahame.howard@hotmail.co.uk

Member of the National Association of Christian Ministers
Why not order my Daily Commentary from Amazon - Paperback or Kindle Check it out. Just tap on Grahame Howard books.

Wednesday, 6 August 2025

The Easy way or the Hard way?

"Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it. 14 Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it." Matt 7:13-14. NKJV

Are you tempted at times to take the easy way of life. For instance (1) you see a job advertised, which seems to be the perfect job, good salary and a future. However, there's a price to pay - you must attend Uni for 3 years in order to be qualified. The job would mean spending 2 days at Uni and 3 days in the field, putting into practice what you are learning. (2) There is a similar job, good salary but you would have to work as an assistant to the person who applies and successfully qualifies for the first job. What would you do here?

The first job means a lot of work and, three years out of you life. It can be quite costly as well without financial support. You would have to study; live on a grant/loan for the duration and would need to pass all of the exams and practice work. Whereas, you could step right into the second option and be earning good money instead of struggling at Uni. It is a difficult decision. There is a benefit in both of the positions but you must make up your mind - the easy way or the hard way.

Our text today, shows us that a decision has to be made if we want to follow Jesus or just go with the flow of the rest of the world. If we want to follow Jesus then, we need to take the narrow road - the hard route. This way it can be lonely and costly. We can walk on the broad way and keep our baggage of sin and worldliness. But if we enter the narrow way, we must give up those things, which can be difficult. And we must choose one of them; we can't walk both of the roads because they are both going in different directions.

There are always choices to make in life and, the choices we make can determine the rest of our life. Therefore, the choices can't be rushed - however, there may be a deadline for things such as described in our two examples. No one can help with the decision either because if they make the wrong one for us, we can blame them. No, the choice is down to each of us. However, a godly person can offer Christian counsel about the narrow gate to heaven or the broad gate to destruction. Jesus wants us to make the right choice. Be honest, where would you like your soul to be at the end of your life? In God's hands or the world's? The answer to this question will determine your future.

If you would like to contact me, grahame.howard@hotmail.co.uk

Member of the National Association of Christian Ministers
Why not order my Daily Commentary from Amazon - Paperback or Kindle Check it out. Just tap on Grahame Howard books.

Monday, 4 August 2025

Where it all began - My Testimony

It was the Autumn of 1980 and things in my life had begun to go haywire. After being a busy Regional Manager of a company dealing in garage and motor equipment, I was made redundant. The company had been taken over by our American competitors and we were all given a month’s notice. Not long after that, I was taken ill with what was initially felt to be a stroke. However, it was determined that it was a bad case of Bells Palsy. My face was all twisted, my nose flat against my left cheek. My right eye wouldn’t close and my mouth was slanted against my nose. I couldn’t eat or drink properly and to talk was extremely difficult. I looked like a monster out of Dr Who. My wife, has just said that I had always looked like that. Thanks for that. I was put on steroids and had to attend Blandford Hospital daily to have electrolysis treatment in order too attempt to coax my face to return to normal. None of this worked.

After about 3 to 4 months there was no change and my GP told me my face would probably stay this way. I had no job, no prospects, I was ill and couldn’t speak properly. No one wanted a Quasimodo type in their company. I became depressed and closed down on most people, I could see no hope at all.
One day, my wife went to work and I was left at home. The kids were at school and I tried to cheer myself up playing my guitar. That lasted about a minute - I just had no motivation to play a note. In the quiet of the house, I heard a voice within myself. The voice said, ‘Say a prayer and I will heal you.’ The voice kept saying this for the biggest part of the day until I thought I was mentally ill. I told my wife when she came home at lunch time and she said, ‘Perhaps it’s God.’ I had never believed in such things so I ignored this. But as I went to bed that night, I heard the voice again, ‘Say a prayer and I’ll heal you’. I was so low in mood and replied in a sleepy voice, ‘Ok, heal me,’ and I went to sleep.

The next day, I got up and I felt strangely better. I could whistle, something I had not been able to do for some months. I went into the bathroom and as I looked in the mirror, I noticed that my face was beginning to go back into place. I was elated but confused also. I went to my hospital appointment later that morning and was told that I need not come again, my face had all returned to normal. I didn’t know what had happened; all I knew was that a voice - God? - had asked me to pray to Him; I had and now, all was ok.

A neighbour in our village knocked on the door and told us both that she had heard that something had happened to me and as she looked at me, she began rejoicing. I was embarrassed but as we talked, I realised that Jesus Christ had healed me. What the health authorities couldn’t do, He did overnight. That day in September 1980, I became a Christian and my wife soon followed me as she had a spiritual experience in the local church a few days later.
This all happened 45 years ago and we are still going on living our lives for Jesus. We’re not religious fanatics, we’ve just realised that there is more to life than we had before. My wife still says that I’m ‘a little fat bloke’ but these days I am known as ‘the little Christian fat bloke’. Yes our lives have changed much for the better and we have found Jesus’ help so strong at times. He has healed us both; supplied extra needs when we have been on slippery slopes and He continues to bless us every single day. Don’t get me wrong, we still have our bad times, argue and disagree on a lot of things. But now, we have a third person - Jesus Christ - helping us through difficult decisions and guiding us in the right direction. He has led me to study and become an Elim pastor and then go to Uni and qualify as a social worker. It’s been a busy time.
Through Jesus we now have eternal life. This means that when we die and our life is over, we continue in heaven, eternally. Without Him, we would have had nothing. This is the true meaning of Christianity. Jesus died on a cross for each one of us. He took our sin upon Himself and everyone who believes this and asks Him to forgive them for their sin and invites Him into their life, receive Him. He makes each one of us brand new. I know there are many questions that can be asked about this, ‘If God is good etc..then why does He allow etc..’ The answer to this is, I don’t know but, what I do know is that the CO and myself belong to Jesus and to the best of our abilities, will continue to serve Him.

We’re nothing special; as I said earlier, we are not religious freaks, we are Christians and have found true happiness and life in Him. He has changed our lives and He can change your’s too, if you ask Him. All you have to say is:

‘Lord Jesus, Please forgive me my sin. Please come and live in my life, fill me with your Holy Spirit and help me to live for you. In Jesus’ Name. Amen

If you said this prayer, you are a Christian. Find a church, get yourself a modern bible and take it from there.

God Bless

If you would like to contact me, grahame.howard@hotmail.co.uk

Member of the National Association of Christian Ministers
Why not order my Daily Commentary from Amazon - Paperback or Kindle Check it out. Just tap on Grahame Howard books.

Sunday, 10 August 2025

Saturday, 9 August 2025

Friday, 8 August 2025

Thursday, 7 August 2025

Wednesday, 6 August 2025

Monday, 4 August 2025

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