Are you completely dried out?

"They were scattered everywhere across the ground and were completely dried out." 

                                                                     v2 of  Ezekiel 37:1-14. NLT 

Ezekiel was given a vision of where he was placed in a Valley full of dry skeletons. This was a shameful examples of the bodies of Jews who had been left following a battle. It was shameful because these bodies were not washed, wrapped and buried, but just left for the vultures to eat. The Lord had warned Israel that this would happen because of their sin. Now, as  Ezekiel walked around these bones in the Spirit, he asked God if these bones could ever live again. 

Like these bones, we can become completely dried out in the Spirit because of sin, lack of teaching and lack of giving ourselves over to God, totally. If we don't read our bibles, we have no food. If we don't walk with Him, we are going nowhere. God replied to Ezekiel and told him to prophesy to these bones; and speak to the dryness asking for renewal. He did this and there came the sound of rattling bones as they joined together, and stood as an army with flesh and sinews, yet with no life. God then told Ezekiel to use the Hebrew word for wind -  ruah, which means wind, breath and Spirit and speak life to this army and life was regained with power. 

We all have dry periods where we just don't hear God and feel far away from Him. However, this must be limited because the evil one will use these times for his own advantage. When we do feel this way, or indeed, meet someone who does, we need to take action and speak to the dryness in Jesus' name. We need to speak life and renewal to them bringing life back to their walk, as Jesus puts it in John 6:63 'The Spirit alone gives eternal life. Human effort accomplishes nothing. And the very words I have spoken to you are spirit and life.'

Don't be fooled, we can look life-like as this army were but remember, they had no life in them and, sometimes you will be the same and others you meet. So perhaps it's time to sharpen up our faith and use it as Jesus has told us to. We have the power to speak life into things that we come up against, not just people but situations

Therefore, don't allow yourself to become dry, encourage yourself and others (Ephesians 4:29), and walk in boldness and power with Jesus.

Lord Jesus, I have sinned and 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

Copyright 2023 Grahame Howard.                                 

dailylifewithjesusbygrahamehoward.blogspot.com          

If you would like to contact me, CLICK HERE

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Envy, jealousy and hurt pride. Part 2

'Jesus said, 'Anyone who is not against you, is for you."   Luke 9:50  NLT 

Carrying on from yesterday, let's delve into this further. Not everyone will be your favourite person. We have friends and we have people that we like and tolerate and sadly there are a few that we don't go near. But the person that makes you feel jealous and envious is the difficult one. For instance, this person may be delegated the role of House Group leader for the group that you attend. How will you handle that, would you leave or remain? If you did the former, you would need a valid reason for doing this; just because you don't like them would not really be the answer; your pastor would soon have something to say about reconciling this. If you chose to stay in the group, how would you work that one? You would have a choice to make and that would be, give the person the benefit of the doubt, in which you may find that the person is not too bad. The other part of the choice would be to be stubborn, refusing to believe anything that this person says and just glaring at them. 

You may well be in a situation at this moment where someone has been made an elder or house group leader and you are getting all wound up about it. You may say, 'Of all the people, why has he/she been put in this position?' The answer to this is because God wanted it. So are you going to argue with God and tell Him He made the wrong choice? Of course you won't. Really you need to look within yourself and determine what it is that is causing you this feeling. Is it jealousy or envy? Has this person hurt you in the past? Or is it just a clash of personalties? It needs to be resolved, otherwise it will destroy your walk with God. 

If there is a history between you and this person, perhaps you need to meet and talk it through and hopefully find reconciliation. If not, it may be the right thing to find another church, but this must be the last resort. There may not be history between you and it may just be friction on your part. Look at Jesus' comments above: 'Anyone who is not against you, is for you.'

Do you know this person? Have you tried to get to know him/her? Perhaps this should be the first place to start. Sadly, we can't always resolve personality issues but, we can overcome them by being more like Jesus. Anyway, you don't go to church or home groups to be like this person, you go to be more like Jesus and, this is what you should do.

You may not ever get through to some people but, you can overcome any rough edges by showing them Jesus. Remember that!

Lord Jesus, I have sinned and 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

Copyright 2023 Grahame Howard.                                 

dailylifewithjesusbygrahamehoward.blogspot.com          

If you would like to contact me, CLICK HERE

Member of the National Association of Christian Ministers

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Envy, jealousy and hurt pride

"John said to Jesus, 'Master, we saw someone using your name to cast out demons, but we told him to stop because he isn't in our group.' 50 'Jesus said, 'Don't stop him! Anyone who is not against you, is for you."   Luke 9:49-50   NLT 

Prior to this happening, the disciples had laid hands on a demon possessed boy and they couldn't drive the spirit out Luke 9:40. Now they witness someone else driving out an evil spirit so, they stop him possibly because of their hurt pride. Let's face it, there had been nine of the disciples praying for this boy, yet not one of them succeeded. Now they see one person doing the job properly. There was possibly jealousy here, especially as the man was not from their group.

Our pride gets hurt when we see someone succeeding where we have failed. But Jesus doesn't want this. The person had been delivered from the evil spirit, therefore, there was freedom and this was something to rejoice in, not throw a pity party. 

Let us not forget there was a similar incident when Paul was in prison. He heard that people from another group were praying in Jesus' name and wrote:

'It's true that some are preaching out of jealousy and rivalry. But others preach about Christ with pure motives. 16 They preach because they love me for they know I have been appointed to defend the Good News. 17 Those others do not have pure motives as they preach about Christ. They preach with selfish ambition, not sincerely, intending to make my chains more painful to me. 18 But what does it matter. Whether their motives are false or genuine, the message about Christ is being preached either way, so I rejoice.'                                                    Philippians 1:15-18  NLT

Paul rejoiced. As long as the name of Jesus was being preached, it didn't bother him. And it shouldn't you either. You may see people who you would never consider as Christians, preaching the Gospel, handing out tracts, serving in a church or generally attending your church. It doesn't matter whether you like them or get on with them. If they are promoting Jesus that is all that matters. There is no room for jealousy in God's kingdom. We're here to be His witness. If non-Christians see us squabbling over doctrine, what are they going to think? Exactly, they won't be impressed.

God has commanded that we love each other. Yes, that can be difficult at times but, you can breakthrough this block if you try. But whether you can or can't at this time, they may well be carrying the Word of God, so, let them get on with it without any bickering.

Lord Jesus, I have sinned and 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

Copyright 2023 Grahame Howard.                                 

dailylifewithjesusbygrahamehoward.blogspot.com          

If you would like to contact me, CLICK HERE

Member of the National Association of Christian Ministers

Why not order my Daily Commentary from Amazon - Paperback or Kindle  

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Worship the Lamb

"Worthy is the Lamb who was slain. To receive power and riches and wisdom, and strength and honour and glory and blessing."   Revelation 5:12   NKJV 

While Jesus was on the earth, He never received the honour, the glory and worthiness that He so deserved. Instead, for three years or so, He walked around as God in the flesh, but not recognised as such, except for a few of His disciples (John 1). Whereas, He should have been worshipped and treated as the King of kings, He took on the robes of a servant. Why did He do this? He did this so that you and I and many others would have the opportunity to share heaven with Him. Without Him, we were covered in sin, the sin that would prevent us from ever entering into the Kingdom of Heaven. This shows us the love of God, He had to take human form and come and rescue us. For this, He suffered a terrible death on the cross - The Lamb of God was slain.

Our text for today shows us the the honour and glory He received in Heaven. Thousands and thousands of angels gathered round His throne to worship Him. Can you imagine the sound of that? We get a glimpse of this in Isaiah 6:3-4: 'And one cried to another and said, "Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of hosts; The whole earth is full of His glory!" 4 And the posts of the door were shaken by the voice of him who cried out, and the house was filled with smoke.'

Have you ever been in a church when the worship was so loud and intense that the door posts were being shaken? You will one day, when you enter heaven. It is not a quiet place, it is filled with the wonder of God and this brings praise and worship like you and I have never heard before.

God loves us so much that He sent His Son, Jesus, who came down to earth in bodily form, whichever way you like to hear it. If we look at Philippians 2:5-11, we see that even though He was in the form of God, He made Himself of no reputation and made Himself a servant. He humbled Himself as a man and took our place on the cross for our sins and therefore, God exalted Him and gave Him the name that is above any name - Jesus.

He didn't have to do this for us but His love is so great that, He just couldn't leave us to cope on our own. Therefore, He paid the penalty and died in our place.

Therefore, this is why the praise and worship is so loud in heaven. The reason you are here today, is because God created you in His image and called you by His name and gave you the keys for a mansion in heaven (John 14:1-4). He has everything arranged for you so, don't you think that is a good enough reason to shout Jesus at the top of your voice?

Lord Jesus, I have sinned and 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

Copyright 2023 Grahame Howard.                                 

dailylifewithjesusbygrahamehoward.blogspot.com          

If you would like to contact me, CLICK HERE

Member of the National Association of Christian Ministers

Why not order my Daily Commentary from Amazon - Paperback or Kindle  

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Being flexible

"And in a window sat a certain young man named Eutychus who was sinking into a deep sleep. He was overcome by sleep; and as Paul continued speaking, he fell down from the third story and was taken up dead."                 Acts 20:9   NKJV 

The message for today? Don't fall asleep during a sermon. Joking aside, we've all felt like this during hot conditions when a sermon is rather lengthy. The eyes begin to close and before you know it, you've drifted off only to be forced awake by a dig in the ribs from the person next to you because you're snoring. We can feel empathy for this young man. A young man, in this culture, would have been between 8 - 14 years old and after a long working day, he would have been tired.

Paul would have been preaching, teaching and debating with the others, before he left the area the next day. He probably started around 6pm and and was still going strong at midnight when this unfortunate lad fell out of the third story window to his death. Note what happened next. Paul didn't leave this accident to someone else. Not at all; Paul stopped what he was saying and went down to the young man laying there. William Barclay in his commentary to the book of Acts, claims that he wasn't dead but, unconscious. However, scripture firmly tells us that the young man was dead and that Paul embraced him and then told the others not to worry, he was alive. He then returned to his job of preaching and breaking bread. The young man was called Eutychus meaning the lucky one, and he certainly lived up to this name that day. 

The message here is very clear, don't ever be too busy to stop what you are doing to offer help. Paul was in someone's home. He wasn't conducting an official message to thousands of people. Yes, someone else could have gone to the young man's aid but, Paul demonstrated a 'If you preach it - make sure you do it' attitude and, so should we. Which gets back to the talkers and doers we have looked at in the past week or so.

Don't be rigid in your To Do list or your events for your diary. Where possible be prepared to shift your day around to prioritise events. This of course is not always possible, but where it is, be ready to be flexible in order to meet people's needs. This is what Paul demonstrated that day and a young life was saved.

Lord Jesus, I have sinned and 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

Copyright 2023 Grahame Howard.                                 

dailylifewithjesusbygrahamehoward.blogspot.com          

If you would like to contact me, CLICK HERE

Member of the National Association of Christian Ministers

Why not order my Daily Commentary from Amazon - Paperback or Kindle  

Check it out

 https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B084G9S4FD/ref=dbs_a_def_rwt_bibl_vppi_i2