Do what He says

"8 I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will guide you with My eye. 9 Do not be like the horse or like the mule, which have no understanding, which must be harnessed with bit and bridle, else they will not come near you." 
                                                                                                      Psalm 32:8-9.  NKJV

This Psalm was so instrumental when I was at Uni. As any graduate will remember, University presents you with lots of work and one really wonders how on earth they'll ever cope. My experience was no different. I was inundated with essays - a year's load of them annually. I failed the first one and considered packing it all in. However, God told me different. It was my own fault. He gave me the above text and told me to pray over each and every essay and exam that came my way. I would then have no problem at all. He was true to His Word. I not only passed all of them over the years, but I came top in many of them too. I learnt a big lesson - don't be stubborn like the mule, thinking you know it all. Ask God to help because He's interested. Therefore:

BE TEACHABLE
As we expound these two verses, we see that God wishes for us to be teachable. We cannot possibly know all there is to know. It's arrogant to believe this. Teaching is essential to life and the best teacher is the Holy Spirit. He's never failed in anything and never will! He knows how to do things and He knows the way forward. Each day we need to allow Him to teach us what to do or say in any given situation. If we don't, we end up rushing into things and completely messing things up. 
RECEIVE INSTRUCTION
One would be irresponsible to set out across an area of no man's land without a compass. Especially in dark or foggy conditions. When you can't see the way, a compass can be a life-saver, directing you to safety and your destination. Likewise, God instructs us through His Word - the bible. Failure to read it each day is not wise. We need His instruction - we need to know the way and what to do. If Esau had heeded God's instructions instead selling his birthright for a bowl of stew, things would have been very different for him. (Genesis 25:29-34.) Instead, he was seduced by the wonderful smell of this food and agreed to sell his blessing to Jacob. It's interesting that Adam did the same, he gave up his blessing to eat of the forbidden fruit (Genesis 3).
RECEIVE DIRECTION
There are many people who open a newly acquired gadget and attempt to make it work without reading the instructions. I AM told, it is mostly men, but I don't want to get into a sexist argument. 'Reading the rules', is essential for the satisfactory fitting together of whatever we are attempting to do. It may be a flatpack or a complicated TV system. Many is the time that I have put things together and realised afterwards that I didn't attend to an important detail. I know I'm not the only one. Let God read you the rules of what His plan is for you each day. Otherwise, it will go pear-shaped. Many people have set off on some pilgrimage somewhere and then shipwrecked themselves because God wasn't in it.
BE GUIDED
Proverbs 3:5-6 is probably the most famous of verses for guidance and they're well worth taking on board:

'5 Trust in the LORD with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding; 
6 In all your ways acknowledge Him and He shall direct your paths.'

 There's nothing more that I can add to this because it says it all.

Verse 9 tells us to avoid being like a mule, which can be stubborn the majority of the time. Listen clearly to instruction, teaching and direction. It may save your life one day. It will most certainly help you to make the best of choices for your lives. It is not a sign of weakness to ask how you do something, or request guidance and direction for something. It is a wise thing to do and can save you much stress and heartache. If you knew it all, you wouldn't need God. You would be able to find your own way in life, you would be able to provide yourself with forgiveness and eternal life. You would be able to heal yourself and perform miracles when needed. But you're not and neither am I. 

Common sense tells us to surrender to the only one in life who can help us - Jesus. He took our sin, endured the cross and now puts up with us and our funny ways. But He loves us more than I could ever tell you here. Therefore, let Him be your guide every day of your life.

Copyright 2020 Grahame Howard

dailylifewithjesus@hotmail.com

Just Keep on Blessing and Praising

I will bless the LORD at all times; His praise shall continually be in my mouth. My soul shall make its boast in the LORD."                                                                Psalm 34:1-2.  NKJV

David wrote this passage just after he had feigned a mental disorder  in order to flee for his life from Abimelech. What a terrible place he must have been in to do this. However, his message is, whatever, keep on praising God because He will never let you down. Basically he was saying that we need to encourage ourselves in the Lord because as we speak His Word we hear the words as they come back to us, reminding us how good God is. Secondly, it causes the enemy so much fear as he realises that his intimidation is not working.

Let us look at this Psalm in more detail. 
SOUL (v2)
The soul is made up of our Mind, Will and Emotions. So firstly:
MIND 
This consists of our thought life. What we think about determines what we do. The mind can encourage us or lead us into despair. It controls not only what we think but what we perceive, how we react and what we remember. Some thoughts are good, some not so good. Therefore, we have to determine which way we are going to go.
WILL
James 2:17 says 'Thus also, faith by itself, if it does not have works is dead.' We can stand there all day believing about something but until we step over the line into the realm of action, it won't happen at all. Our will consists of action - we need to step into the situation that we are confessing for it to work.
EMOTIONS
This is our passion, our desire and our yearning to please God and to fulfil all that He wishes us to do. It is the driving force within us, that part that keeps us going even when we feel like throwing the towel in. 

Lets note a few words that come from our text:

ALL (v1)
'I will bless the LORD at ALL times.  All means here- forever; wherever, always, everything. I will never stop blessing Him. It is a forever thing.
BOAST (v2)
'My soul shall make its BOAST in the LORD.' This is where we witness for Jesus - what He has done for us. It's our testimony - how proud and blessed we are to have Him in our lives. It's where we tell people about Jesus and when we are over the moon about what He has done for us - how we brag about Him.
CONTINUALLY v1
'His praise shall continually be in my mouth.' This is non-stop, a no matter what, I won't stop talking about what He has done for me. It is repeatedly praising and shouting for joy about Him.

James wrote 'My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience.'  James 1:2-3.
Why did he write such a verse? It seems an odd thing to advise when you're going through a rough time. But he had a point to make. He was saying, 'Jesus is still on the Throne. He won't let you down no matter what is happening. Don't worry.' He is like a friend who sticks closer than a brother. Proverbs 18:24. And he wrote to encourage us to count it all joy because joy is our strength. Nehemiah 8:10.

You may be in the deepest of holes at this moment. Things may have gone terribly wrong and you may feel lost and at rock bottom. But as you bless and praise Your Father, He will give you the strength to get through each and every situation. 

Try blessing and praising Him right now.

Copyright 2020 Grahame Howard

dailylifewithjesus@hotmail.com

False Impressions

"14 Let no one eat fruit from you ever again"                         Mark 11:12-14 & 20-26  NKJV

On the way to the Temple, Jesus was hungry and seeing a fig tree in the distance, made His way over to it. Now this was the Passover season - the middle of April. Leaves were displayed on a fig tree as early as March but usually, figs were not found on the tree until late May - early June. 
Jesus, never the less, approached the tree because it appeared to be displaying fruit. However, when He saw that there was no fruit on it, He said, 'Let no one eat fruit from you ever again. 'It may have been possible that green figs - not ripe - were on the tree but they would have been very unpleasant to the taste. He then carried on with His journey to Jerusalem. The disciples must have been wondering what their Master was doing, they would have known it was the wrong season. What on earth was happening? The fig tree, to Jesus, was presenting an unfulfilled promise, it was a fake impression, promising something it couldn't produce or hadn't produced yet. 

Jesus though, had something that He wanted to teach His disciples. He wished to demonstrate how faith works. He needed to instill in their minds how to live by faith. They'd witnessed Jesus' faith in action; it was now time to teach the men - the men who would be carrying on His work when He ascended into Heaven. 'Have faith in God,' Jesus said, which was similar to what the apostle Paul would later write in 2 Corinthians 5:7, 'For we walk by faith, not by sight.'

Verse 22 talks about a mountain. This is something symbolic, something so big and awesome in our lives that brings fear or concern. A mountain is something that looks impossible to be able to conquer. David was faced with this when he looked at Goliath. He was a mountain of a man - perhaps nearly 10 feet tall. Now that is big, especially when David was only a small guy. He must have looked awesome to David. The Israelites recognised this and wouldn't go near him. David on the other hand was not impressed or frightened. He knew what must be done to stop this intimidation. He also knew that God was with Him. Just one smooth, round stone later and the mountain fell. (1 Samuel 17).

We all face mountains from time to time but with faith in Jesus, we can overcome them. We can tell these mountains to move out of our lives - and they will! The key is believing and refusing to doubt v23. Doubt robs us of our faith. 

If you're going to do something major where faith is concerned, consider not telling anyone; otherwise they may put doubt in your mind, 'Well I don't know about that. God doesn't always do that etc etc.' Keep it to yourself - think big! Think faith! Think Jesus! This was how Smith Wigglesworth worked, 'If God said it, I believe it and that settles it.' Yes, we need prayer back up at times, but details can be kept to yourself. Trust Jesus.

Finally, but very importantly, make sure there is no unconfessed sin in your life and that you hold nothing against anyone, as this could block your faith from working. Then just go and pull that mountain down. I like what Kenneth Copeland says:

"We ought to walk around in faith acting like healing belongs to us (regardless of symptoms to this contrary). We should walk around like prosperity is ours (regardless of the figures in our cheque book). If we'll do that, God WILL get those things to us. It is His Will for us."
                                                  (The Blessing of the Lord (2011) p113 Kenneth Copeland)

Copyright 2020 Grahame Howard

dailylifewithjesus@hotmil.com

BOOK PROMO

Jesus will not put up with injustice

"11 And Jesus went into Jerusalem and into the Temple. So when He had looked around at all things, as the hour was already late, He went out to Bethany with the twelve."
                                                                                                   Mark 11:11 & 15-19  NKJV

This piece of scripture is usually viewed together with the account of The Fig Tree verses 12-14 & 20-24. But let us look at the account of Jesus in the Temple and then we'll look at The Fig Tree account tomorrow.

Jesus went into Jerusalem and entered the Temple there. Note that, 'He looked around at all things, v11. What He was doing was summing up the situation - doing a recce. He would have heard so many rumours about what was happening there that He wanted to check out the situation Himself. William Barclay states, 'When He looked round everything, He was like a Commander summing up the strength of the opposition and His own resources, preparatory to the decisive battle.'

After Jesus had done this, because of the hour, and the knowledge that they had three miles or so to walk back home, He decided that they needed to get back before it became dark. He also needed to rest and recuperate for the task He had the next day. He needed strength and courage for what He had to do. He also needed to spend time with His father.

The next day, rested and ready for the job ahead, Jesus and His disciples set off again for Jerusalem. By now the disciples must have been thinking that He acted quite weird at times. Going into the Temple and just staring around, going back home and now returning there. They just couldn't figure Him out. Yet, they couldn't leave Him. He was irresistible to them; they just had to remain with Him. They were free to leave Him at any time. No one would have stopped them, but they were faithful to Him. Many times, we can't figure things out; why He allows this or that but seems to ignore other things. We have a choice, we could easily desert Him. The thing is, once you have experienced life with Jesus, there really is no other way of life.

The Temple area is known in Hebrew as Hieron and translated as 'a sacred place'. It would have been around 30 acres in size. There was a wide outer area which was called the Court of the Gentiles. Anyone could enter this - Jew or Gentile. However, if a Gentile went past a certain point, it was punishable by death. People went there to pay their taxes which was half a shekel for the year, which was quite expensive. The coinage had to be a shekel, nothing else was accepted. This is why there were many money changers. They charged exorbitant prices for this exchange, sometimes up to three times as much. Also the people could purchase doves outside of the Temple, quite cheaply. However, it was rare for the Temple Inspectors to accept these owing to blemishes that they would find. They sold their own doves which cost fifteen times as much. It really was a thriving yet unfair business.

Jesus had witnessed all of this the day before and He was angry. Also, His anger grew because Gentiles were not allowed to go to areas in the Temple where a Jew could go. He knew the scripture that said, 'My house shall be called a House of Prayer for all people (nation).' Isaiah 56:7, and He considered this discriminatory. Put together with the way the people were being ripped off at high costs, He took action. He drove out of the Temple, the money changers and overturned the tables of those who sold doves until it was empty.

Jesus will not put up with injustice. Sooner or later He will act or use one of us to step up and take authority. Today's text shows us how He looks around and takes note of things. We can always expect Him to shake up the applecart where injustice rules.

Perhaps He is showing you something that needs to be challenged!

Copyright 2020 Grahame Howard

dailylifewithjesus@hotmail.com

Soldiers Part 4

"You therefore must endure hardship as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. No one engaged in warfare entangles himself with the affairs of this life, that he may please him who enlisted him as a soldier."                                                                                  2 Timothy 2:3-4.  NKJV

I mentioned in Part 1 about attitude. This is a major area that we need to be able to contend with. Attitude shows in our behaviour, it shows in what we say; how we handle ourselves and in our faces. When we have an attitude it is incredibly difficult to hide this fact and it is a killer to our whole Christian witness.

Regular soldiers are taught to deal with attitude. This is not always successful and takes a lot of training, will-power and practise. Even then, it can surface again many years later if regular attention isn't given to it. Christians are taught to deal with this by 'Dying to self'. This means that you are no longer subject to a certain behaviour because you have died to this and a new life has begun:

"I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life that I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave Himself for me."                                                                                            Galatians 2:20.  NKJV

With Christian discipline, it is possible to die to your old self, with all the rough edges, and be a new person - have a new life - in Jesus. A word of warning here though. This is not a once only thing. It needs to be done each and every day, rather like putting on your armour. It is discipline and a soldier is trained to discipline their body and their behaviour on a regular basis. It's called training.

Regular soldiers are taught not to react in certain circumstances, such as being interrogated. Name, rank and number is really the only permissible reaction that they can offer, no matter what the questions are about. Regular soldiers are also taught not to react in certain situations, such as being insulted and intimidated while on duty, especially guard duty at certain barracks or when on duty in delicate areas. God's soldiers  would benefit from this type of training and discipline. Many are the times when we are ridiculed, persecuted and considered mad by some unbelievers. Actually, unbelievers are taking risks with where they will spend eternity, because even the devil believes in God:

"You believe that there is one God. You do well. Even the demons believe - and tremble."
                                                                                                          James 2:19

One of the hardest things to do, is to bless people who persecute and curse us. Those who do everything to upset and ridicule us and make our lives miserable. We have to bless them not curse. (Romans 12:14). This is the type of discipline God's soldiers have to get right. It's not easy, but then again, nothing ever is. It takes effort, hard work and sheer will-power to be able to react in this way to our enemy. Unlike the regular army, God will take care of our enemies if we react in this way. Try to remember that when you are in a situation like this, (and you will be). 

The SAS, SBS and other highly trained soldiers throughout the world, are called the elite, and quite rightly so. But you, as a member of the Army of the Living God are the Lord's Elite. There is no one quite like you. You make mistakes, but bounce back, you moan and groan but still go that extra mile, you mess up every day but still try your best. You are the elite and even though you fall into sin most days, you have a Commanding Officer who is right beside you, even on the front line. Wherever you go, He goes. Even though you walk through the valley of the shadow of death, there is no need to fear because He is with you, right beside you. (Psalm 23:4). 
So make sure that you buff up your Armour before you put it on, pick up your sword - your bible, the Word of God and go mightily into battle, soldier.

By the way, Regular soldiers sign on for a few years and then are discharged. There is no discharge in God's Army. You are in it for life, no matter what age you are. So go ahead and serve your Commander in Chief - Jesus Christ.

Copyright 2020 Grahame Howard

dailylifewithjesus@hotmail.com

PS MY BOOK WILL BE OUT ROUND ABOUT THE SPRING 

DAILY LIFE WITH JESUS

FEATURING A YEARS COMMENTARIES

I'LL LET YOU KNOW WHEN IT'S RELEASED

KEEP YOUR EYES OPEN!

Soldiers Part 3

"You therefore must endure hardship as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. No one engaged in warfare entangles himself with the affairs of this life, that he may please him who enlisted him as a soldier."                                                                                  2 Timothy 2:3-4.  NKJV

Part of being a soldier is the ability to keep the peace. Soldiers have to fight at times but their other job is making peace wherever they may be. There's a lot of unrest all around and soldiers in God's Army have the power to spread the Spirit of Peace around. But to offer this peace, they must firstly have this peace themselves. You can't give out what you don't possess. 

Preachers often say, 'I'm preaching to myself here,' and what they mean is, 'I'm preaching to you about what I need to sort out in myself.' When this happens, it is the Holy Spirit pinpointing things that need to be adjusted. It can happen in counselling situations where the client starts talking about something that the counsellor is struggling with too. You may have felt this when you're speaking with someone. In one way, it shows us that none of us are perfect. In another way, if we are going to witness about Jesus to someone, we need to sort out our own life. Otherwise it can verge on the side of hypocrisy.

Hypocrisy is a big problem in the Family of God and is something that the unbeliever looks for when they're speaking with us. The apostle Paul says in 1 Corinthians 13:1, 'Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I have become a sounding brass or a clanging cymbal.' This is so true. We can be tempted to talk about a person when they're not in our presence, or believe some gossip about someone, that may not even be true. Then, we go to church and start praising God as if we've done nothing wrong. The thing is, we are not called to gossip about people or keep records of people wrongs. We're called to think the best of them - to love them. Not easy at times, probably but that's our calling and what a good soldier of Jesus does.

The final settlement for a Regular soldier is a pension, possibly a trade and various medals that they may have earned. The downside to this is the scars that they carry; the memories, the wounds and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. They may also be institutionalised after serving in an environment where they are ordered around, looked after, fed etc etc. This is why we see some veterans on our streets because they just cannot face civilian life. Other ex soldiers manage in life but hide all of these memories in booze and drugs, overwork and other things.
The final settlement for a soldier in God's Army is eternal life, and the rewards from God for the service they gave to other people. 

Both category of soldier have had to take the land and to overcome the enemy. One has done it with their own personal weapon in their hand, such as a rifle or machine gun, The other soldier has completed this dressed in the armour of God with a sword in their hand. Both have scars; both have been criticised, judged, disregarded and forgotten and lost friends and family. The thing is, soldiers get shot at, this is the price they pay for joining up:

"forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press towards the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.'

                                                                                                                        Philippians 3:13-14

They never give up and if you belong to God's Army, I'm talking about you. You may have been wounded and scarred, left on the side-lines and beaten up by Christian life, but you're still here, you're still standing. Well done. It's been a battle you've had for a while now but you've come this far, don't give up the race now. Keep going, there's a great reward ahead. Regular Army officers have to be saluted first before they return this greeting. Your Commanding Office Jesus Christ salutes you right now for all you've done for Him and He is grateful.

But keep buffing up your kit, it's not over yet.

See you at Reveille tomorrow

Copyright 2020 Grahame Howard

dailylifewithjesus@hotmail.com