Sunday 10 May 2020

'I don't know what to do, Lord'

"O our God, will You not judge them? For we have no power against this great multitude that is coming against us, nor do we know what to do, but our eyes are upon You."
                                                                                               2 Chronicles 20:12 of 2 Chronicles 20 NKJV

 Jehoshaphat was faced with a great problem, a multitude of armies were coming against them to attack Israel - Moabites, Ammonites and Meuntites and he became afraid. But rather than cower in fear, he declared a fast and called the nation to seek the Lord.

 The people came from far to seek God. This may have been from a necessity to repent and ask for God's favour and forgiveness, as well as ask for wisdom and power to face this incredible problem that was imminent. When our hearts are right before the Lord, He reveals His will and brings protection. When our hearts are not right, it's possible that He will allow things to happen to us in order to get our attention. This all helps to keep our focus on Him and Him only; not on the battle that we face. He is able to take care of that. It is more important that we make sure our walk is right with Him. When we do this, the rest will follow. This all comes from prayer and possible fasting. God doesn't want us to deliberately starve ourselves. Fasting is a way that we can show Him that we mean business and we are willing to make sacrifices in this way. This helps us to win.

 Jehoshaphat reminded God that they were in the place that He had provided to their descendants, the people who were attacking them, God had prevented their descendants from attacking and they were now showing their thankfulness by trying to kill them and take their land. At that time, their descendants, had stood in the place and declared that if disaster should ever come upon them, they would cry out to God and He would hear their prayer and save them (verse 9)

 Reminding God of His promises is never rude, pompous or out of line. We have a relationship with Him - a covenant, and He holds that dearly and so should we. Through Jesus, we have a wonderful relationship with God, and He wants us to trust and rely on Him. Jehoshaphat said, 'Lord, we don't know what to do, but our eyes are upon You.' (Paraphrase) It was almost like he was saying, 'Lord we don't know what to do, but You do and we're counting on You.' Nothing wrong with that, because we are displaying our trust and friendship with Him. 

 Our whole relationship with Jesus would be greatly improved, if we could say, Jesus, our eyes are upon You.' Just think about that. Whatever problem came our way, if we were only to say to Him, 'Jesus, we don't know what to do, but our eyes are upon You, because You know the way forward, because You are the way. We are counting on You and You only.'

 There would be no mountain too big for us to conquer. Try it.

 Copyright 2020 Grahame Howard

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Saturday 9 May 2020

Never stop talking about Jesus

"18 So they called them and commanded them, not to speak at all nor teach in the name of Jesus. 19 But Peter and John answered and said to them, 'Whether it is right in the sight of God to listen to you more than to God, you judge. 20 For we cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard."  
                                                                                                  Acts 4:18-20.  NKJV

 Some people do not want to hear us speak about Jesus. These may even be members of our own family. Even Jesus had family members and people in the neighbourhood, who didn't believe in Him or want Him around. (Mark 6:1-5). If He was an embarrassment, you can bet that you will be too.
You may have noticed that people give you a wide berth when they know the you are 'religious'. They may be polite but you may not be on their Christmas card list.

 People all over the world suffer because of their faith. Some are imprisoned, beaten, raped or even killed, because they will not give up on Jesus. A few years ago, I watched a film which was produced by Open Doors. It was set in China and showed the brutality that Christians had to suffer for their faith. I will always remember, one chap in the film, who was threatened with his life, saying, 'You can hack us Christians down, but like the bamboo, we will only grow back taller and stronger.' He was then shot dead. This statement has stayed with me ever since. He and his family, would not give up speaking about and believing in their Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ.

 When I was a social worker, I was actually warned by superiors, not to mention Jesus to anyone, even if they brought up the subject. My job would be on the line if I did. As I was working with dying people and they needed comfort, I decided that I was not going to abide by these threats, and I continued in this job until I retired 8 years later.
The devil will do anything he can to prevent Jesus being mentioned to people who are in need.

 And this was where Peter and John were. They were threatened but they determined that nothing was important enough to prevent them fulfilling the commission Jesus gave them to, 'Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature.' Mark 16:15.

 Charles F Stanley comments on this:

 'We should always respect authority, even when it appears wrong. But if some authority tells us to defy God and His commands, we are to disobey that authority. For Jesus' sake, we accept the consequences of our allegiance to Him, knowing that He will reward us in the life to come.

 Never stop talking about Jesus!

 Copyright 2020 Grahame Howard








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Friday 8 May 2020

Weakness

"My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness"
                                                                                           2 Corinthians 12:9.  NKJV

 God sent one solitary man to bring the children of Israel out of bondage. He didn't send an army. He sent one man to deliver mankind from eternal darkness - Jesus. It was an impossible task for Moses, this is why he wriggled to try and get out of it. It must have seemed an impossible task to save mankind from distinction; but Jesus knew that He could do it, because His Father had told Him so.

Sometimes, we face the most awful of challenges, something so enormous that it doesn't appear achievable. Yet, when we are in a helpless situation, one in which there is no way out, as we call on Jesus, He takes delight in helping us.

 Joel 3:10 says, 'Let the weak say I am strong,' because this is what happens when we call on the Lord. In our weakness, His grace is all we need. He provides a way through the situation and it can leave you amazed at the outcome. 

 Charles F Stanley says:-

 'Whatever brings you to your knees in weakness, carries the greatest potential for your personal success and victory.'

 Just think about this statement for a moment; when we are willing to say to Jesus, 'I can't do this, I really need Your help,' then this is the time that He sees our weakness, knows we have acknowledged it as such and is blessed that we are relying on His strength to help us through.

 Proverbs 16:3 says, 'Commit your works to the LORD and your thoughts will be established.' In other words, as you give it to God, you will be successful. The word, 'Commit,' here is a Hebrew word meaning 'roll'. The idea being, we roll our burdens over to God. It is a picture of a ladened camel, who on reaching its destination, kneels down and rolls the load off its back. 

 In the world, to be weak is a stigma especially to certain men. However, to paraphrase  the Apostle Paul's words, 'I don't mind being weak, because when I am this way, then in Jesus, I am strong. And so are you!

 Copyright 2020 Grahame Howard


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Thursday 7 May 2020

Never stop praising God

"I will bless the LORD at all times, His praise shall continually be in my mouth."
                                                                                                       Psalm 34:1.  NKJV

 Picture the scenario:
You don't hear the alarm and sleep through until 8.30am - you're supposed to be at work at this time, but work is 30 minutes away. Is this a time to bless and praise God? This scripture tells me it is - 'at all times.'
After a quick shower, hurried dressing and hasty goodbyes to your family, who are also late; you dash out into the bitter cold. Your car is iced up and you have no de-icer; also the inside of the car is also misty. You turn on the ignition and nothing happens, except for a slow whurring sound - flat battery. AAARGH!
By now it's 9am and you're on you mobile to a garage who tell you that it will be an hour before they can get to you - at least. Is this a time to bless and praise God? 
'Yes, but things happen,' you say, 'the devil's doing this, he's after ruining my day.' That may be so, but you can't blame the devil for everything that goes wrong. Wouldn't praise be a better thing to do? 'You must be joking,' you scream back, 'how can you praise God when all of this is happening?' Quite easily. Just open your mouth and do it. Watch this from Psalm 34:-
'I sought the LORD and He heard me, and delivered me from all my fears.' v4

'This poor man cried out and the LORD heard him, and saved him out of all his troubles'  v6

And what about Paul and Silas in Acts 16? They had been falsely imprisoned, beaten with rods and then thrown into a rat-infested, smelly old prison and clamped into stocks. Did they moan about it? No, they praised God and there was an earthquake, setting all of the prisoners free.
Come on, how can you not bless and praise God. At this particular time, you're probably thinking that I'm crazy, but I'm not. I'm quoting God's Word to you. Whether you take notice of it is up to you; but it's wise to do so.
'Why do things go wrong like this?' you may ask. It's life. Things happen and we need to rise above it. God does test us to see how we're getting on. At times such as this, what does he see in you? Do you pass the test? We all fall short at times but it is what we learn from the experiences that matter. It helps to play the video back in your mind and identify where it went wrong for you. Ask yourself what you could have done differently and then determine that you won't do this next time.
The real secret is learning to bless and praise God, AT ALL TIMES!

Copyright 2020 Grahame Howard






                                                                             
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Wednesday 6 May 2020

God thinks you're very good.

"Being confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you, will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ."                                Philippians 1:6.  NKJV

 So, God has started a good work in you, Hasn't He? No? Are you born again? Have you given your life to Jesus? If the answer to these two questions is, yes, then you can be sure that He has started a good work in you.

 Firstly, I would class you as a good work. God doesn't make mistakes. He created you and He considers that what He has created is a good work. You may not agree, but let's look at this. He knows what he is doing. Now that you have made Him your Lord and Saviour, you have given Him permission to change the rough bits about you. To tweak them a little bit. Now this can take a bit of time. For some, a lifetime. The more that you co-operate with Him, the sooner He will get you into the position He needs, to do His work.

 Secondly, you can be confident about this, God is. He is confident about the good work He has started in you. He feels good about it and so should you too. Stop and think for a moment. The God who created the world is confident about the work He has started in you. Jesus died and rescued you from an eternity in hell. What for? Because he loves you; but there's more. He is confident that He can build you into a person who can make a difference - a history maker!

 Thirdly, you're not there yet. You know that you're not. There's a lot of rough edges that need His attention. But He is confident that the good work He has started in you, He will complete. You are His work in progress. 

 Do you have confidence in your own ability? Do you believe that God is perfecting you? God has so much confidence in you, that:
'God saw everything that He had made and indeed it was very good'
                                                                                  Genesis 1:31.  NKJV

Note the words, 'very good.' This is the way He feels about you and the way He wants you to feel about yourself. Therefore, build yourself up in the confidence of God. Start thinking, 'very good,' things about yourself; and when you do, you'll be in agreement with God. And that's always 'very good.'
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Tuesday 5 May 2020

Bubble Bursters

"So my dear brothers and sisters, be strong and immoveable. Always work enthusiastically for the Lord, for you know that nothing you do for the Lord is ever useless."
                                                                               1 Corinthians 15:58.  NLT

 People with a limited experience of God, may speak to us as if they have a vast knowledge of Him. As they listen to what we say, they may shake their heads and try to extinguish our faith, rather like pouring water on hot coals. 'Be careful,' they may say, 'you could make a fool of yourself -God doesn't speak to us like that.' You've heard them and if you're not careful, they have the ability to rob you of your enthusiasm. I call them, Bubble Bursters, because that is what they do, they burst our bubble of enthusiasm and make us feel inadequate, as if we have not heard God properly. It's ok to receive good, solid advice - we need this. But you will notice the difference in your spirit as you walk with God. The Holy Spirit will let you know.

 Enthusiasm spreads like a wild fire if done properly - when it comes from the Lord. We burn with zeal, having a warmth and deep conviction and an eager devotion to do something. In other words, to spread our enthusiasm. 

 This is where you may be at this time. God may be stirring something up within you, something new. It may appear exciting and scary at the same time. But, deep down within your spirit, you know it's God. If that's where you are, take notice of it and do it. Avoid the Bubble Bursters, they'll only shout you down. 

 Notice the word, 'Immovable,' in our text. This means, unyielding in principle, purpose or adherence, in fact, steadfast. Don't be moved. Your work has value when you do it for God. He will be right behind you, empowering and encouraging you. 

 There are talkers and doers, which one are you? Don't get down the road later in life with, 'I wish I would have done that. I know it was God's will. 2 Timothy 1:6 tells us to 'Stir up the gift of God which is in you through the laying on of my hands.' Use the gifts that you have been given for the benefit of God's people. 

 If this is you, go and do it and watch out for the Bubble Bursters.

 Copyright 2020 Grahame Howard





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Monday 4 May 2020

Discouragement Part 2

"But David, strengthened himself in the LORD His God"         1 Samuel 30:6   NKJV

 At times, we have no one who can or will, encourage us. This can be a difficult and lonely time. It is a time when discouragement is knocking at the door; a time when the devil is whispering, 'Nobody cares; you may as well give up.' Probably you have heard that voice just lately.

 It's interesting to see from our text, that David received no help or comfort until he called on God. We read: 'For whoever calls on the name of the LORD, shall be saved.' Joel 2:32 and Romans 10:13. We often place this verse in line with salvation - being 'saved', or 'born again' and that is correct. However, the word salvation is much more than that. The Greek word for salvation is Soteria, which incorporates, deliverance, preservation, soundness, prosperity, happiness, rescue and general well-being. We can call on the Lord at anytime and He will be there to help us, but we must call on Him. And this, David knew. This is why he was able to strengthen himself in the Lord. He remembered all that God had done for him in the past and he knew that God would not let him down. His discouragement turned into encouragement.

 God wants to empower each and everyone of us. He can take distress and disappointment and turn it into joy and hope. It's not just about us though. Many other people feel the same. They may be good at hiding it, but rather like applying whitewash to a damaged wall, the cracks begin to show through as it dries. You may know someone who is going through discouragement at the moment. For them to receive a card with, 'Just want you to know that I'm thinking about you,' or some other appropriate message, can lift their spirits.
A telephone call is also helpful but, many times the person may not want to speak or will put on their, 'Happy exterior,' voice. But a text may help.

 You may say, 'Well no one's done that to me and I've been really low,' But, as I have said, it's not always about you and being the one who takes the initiative and does it, scores points with God - smartie points - you're doing it as if you're doing it for Jesus:

 "Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these, My brethren, you did it to Me."    (Matthew 25:40).

 Why not strengthen or encourage yourself in the Lord right now, or do the same to someone who needs it. It will really brighten, their's and your day.

 Copyright 2020 Grahame Howard




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