Jesus, and the glories of His church

"My heart is overflowing with a good theme; I recite my composition concerning the King; My tongue is the pen of a ready writer."    Psalm 45 :1ff   

This Psalm is Messianic, pointing to when Jesus will walk the earth and be our King. It is not referring to Solomon, as many have thought. It is written by an excited hand; someone who cannot contain the joy and the anticipation of when Jesus will come and reign. The Psalmist confirms this by writing: 'I recite my composition concerning the King.' The Psalmist cannot hide the excitement that erupts from his fingers. One can imagine the rustling of the paper as he writes. 

The is the way God wants us to be about Jesus. He is exciting; He is almighty, yet the best friend you will ever have. He is faithful and eternal. Can you feel the excitement within yourself as you think about the day you will enter heaven and feel His arms around you? Words fail to describe this. However, this Psalmist was specially anointed to write about this thrilling event.

I wonder if it makes you feel like writing a poem, or a song; book or perhaps a sermon? You may have a book inside of you that needs to come out. You can't keep it to yourself if it has an anointing from Jesus. But also, you may write some poetry about Jesus and use it in your quiet time speaking to Jesus. He will be thrilled to hear it. Oh yes He will. He is not some Professor of Literature who will edit it and write critical comments all over it. Not at all, Jesus will say words such as, 'That has thrilled my heart, please write some more.' He takes so much delight in you.

Take a read, prayerfully through this Psalm and check out the key parts. Jesus is fighting on behalf of truth, humility and righteousness. It's hard to realise that some will oppose this but, this is all part of the evil that causes war, and we know who is at the bottom of this, Satan. But Jesus will reign forever. 'Therefore, God, Your God, has anointed You. v7' He is the King of kings and people need to realise this. I like what the Psalmist writes in v17: 'I will make Your name to be remembered in all generations; therefore, the people shall praise you forever and ever.' Try and make this a prayer for your quiet time. Saying this, you are declaring that, whatever happens, you will tell people about Jesus and promote His name forever, wherever you are. Now that is a commitment!

I never like to end without giving someone the opportunity to ask Jesus into their life, or, re-dedicate their life. If that is you, pray this prayer and please let me know:

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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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Watch the conceit and envy

 "Since we are living by the Spirit, let us follow the Spirit's leading in every part of our lives. 26 Let us not become conceited, or provoke one another, or be jealous of one another."                                   Galatians 5:25-26  CSB

Soldiers when they first join the army, learn, among lots of other things, to march together properly. They learn to keep in step with one another. This can be difficult at first but after many times on the drill square (the reason it's called this, is because it us drilled into you until it is second nature). And this is what is needed as we learn to follow the Holy Spirit - we keep in step with Him as He leads us on. Notice what v25 says above 'let us follow the Spirit's leading.' The Holy Spirit is the source of your new life, so you must keep in step with Him, step by step as He leads us on in our new life.

Now this 'keeping in step' is the way that the Spirit teaches us how to live for God, and eventually, we get the feel of this kind of living and it is just natural to live this way. Yes, we have problems along the way. Do you realise that when you are living for Jesus, the devil is jealous and very angry. You are no longer in his camp and so, you become a threat because he doesn't know what you are going to do against him. Therefore, he goes into defence mode and after a while of assessing you, makes certain attacks to try to prevent you going any further. This could be anything, so keep alert.

When we begin to be successful for God,  we have to watch the risk of trying to please people and seeking the praise that they may give us. Everyone of us needs a certain amount of approval from others, but, if we go out of our way to increase this approval, we can become conceited and puffed up. This shows that we are not in step with the Spirit but our own conceited self. The Holy Spirit always points to Jesus, no one else. 

This also goes for having a spirit of envy. If we are not in step with the Spirit, we can become envious of other people who are receiving great accolades for their preaching and teaching, We can begin to resent them and be envious of all the praise they receive for the work they do. One person may preach a sermon and receive very little by way of encouragement and thanks. Whereas, another may receive screams of excitement and great waves of the Holy Spirit. It doesn't matter; we serve God not a congregation. We serve God, not the eldership. It is God we seek to please in all we do, no one else. Yes, we want to do a good job so that people are pleased but, that is all. As long as God is pleased - end of story.

So, watch the conceit and envy and keep in step with the Holy Spirit in your Daily Life 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

Member of the National Association of Christian Ministers

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

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Don't fear, God will save you

"If the LORD had not been on our side when people attacked us, 3 then they would have swallowed us alive in their burning anger against us. 4 Then the water would have engulfed us; the torrent would have swept over us; 5 the raging water would have swept over us."    Psalm 124:2-5   CSB

Some people have trouble after trouble; sickness after sickness, when others seem to have nothing like this happen to them. You may say, it is the luck of the draw. However, there is no luck in the kingdom of heaven, it is called faith. Many people go through great testing times and I believe it is because God has great things for them to do. If they can handle the flak, they are more likely to be able to stand against what comes their way. That doesn't mean that the others are not chosen for great tasks; it is how you measure what is great and don't forget, God knows our hearts and therefore can tell who will be useful on the front line, while the others form a defence. It is like a chess game, there are the ones who attack the opposite side and there are others who do the defending.

Whether you are an attacker or a defender, you will have to be able to stand on faith when the going gets tough. This is why David encourages us all to remember the victories you have had in the past; those times when you felt you would faint but, at the last minute God turned up and changed the situation. If the Israelites had not have had the faith to cross the Red Sea, Pharaoh's army would have slaughtered them or, they would have drowned in the raging waters.

With God, there is always a way out. You may feel trapped by overwhelming odds, but, with God there is always an escape route. You have nothing to fear. What you're facing at this time may feel really scary, but remember how He helped you before, He'll do it again. You're too precious for Him to ignore! No problem is beyond His reach and He will make a way where there is no way if He has to.

You will see; and when you're through this obstacle, you will have another testimony of what God did for you. Praise Him for this fact and for the knowledge, that you will be able to help someone else in similar situation in the future.

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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The heart of compassion God has for us

"Since the man has become like one of us, knowing good and evil, he must not reach out, take from the tree of life, eat and live forever. 23 So the LORD God sent him away from the garden of Eden to work the ground from which he was taken"  Genesis 3:22-24.  CSB 

I am sure that you are all aware of how Adam and Eve disobeyed God and ate the forbidden fruit from the tree of life in the middle of the garden. The results were disastrous, bringing sin into the world for all mankind eternally. God was annoyed but, I think more disappointed and sad than anything. But, the thing is with God, He always has another plan and will always have one.

As dismayed as He was, we see this loving God, making clothes out of skins for Adam and Eve. He cared that they were naked and may be cold as they left the garden. This shows how loving and kind He is. This young couple had no life skills, so their Father made them what they would need. This gives us a glimpse of who we belong to, who we worship and love. 

God was sending them out into the world to make their own way. They could have lived in the garden forever but if they ate from the tree of life again, in their sinful state, they would have brought upon themselves a state of eternal condemnation, forever trying to hide away from God. God really did them a favour here; and as heartbreaking for God as it was, He had to let them go.

This is the way God feels about us on a daily basis. He loves us so much, that His heart breaks when we commit any kind of sin. Yes, He is disappointed but He is more upset. Our eternal freedom, cost Him His one and only Son - Jesus. Max Lucardo says: 'God would give up His only son before He'd give up on you.' Every time we sin reminds God of what He gave up on our behalf.

All the more why we need to have a grateful attitude. God could wipe us off the planet in a blink of an eye. Yet, He loves us so much, He gives us another and another chance. This is what He did for Adam and Eve, Are they in heaven now? Yes, I believe so. Just the fact that God was so loving towards them and didn't punish them there and then, proves - to me, that they are in heaven.

And one day, you will see them and all the other heroes of the Word, David, Elijah, Peter and many, many others. It will be a party to beat all parties when we are together. But, we need to keep our eyes on Jesus until then.

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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You need a day off

"On the seventh day God had completed His work that He had done, and He rested."             

                                                                                    Genesis 2:2.  CSB 

God rested on this, the seventh day, which was about to be known as the Sabbath. He did this to give us a model to adhere to. If God needed to take a day off then you definitely do! He wants us to enjoy all He has provided for us. We live in an action-packed, stress-filled world, one in which we meet competition and huge challenges. There's always something that needs doing and very little time to do it in, let alone find time to rest. Notice what Jesus demonstrated when He and His disciples got in a boat to get away from the crowds Mark 6:31-32. 

We need time for our family, our hobbies and for ourselves; yet trying to take a day off seems one of the hardest things to do at times. We get people ringing us with a problem and we feel that we should drop everything and attend to them. If we don't we begin to feel guilty that we haven't helped them. Work wants us to go in and work on a project that needs to be finished by the end of the day. If we turn this request down, we worry that we may lose our job or the promotion that we have been after.

Let me tell you something from experience, the person who rang you for urgent help, will find that help elsewhere if you can't make it. They will survive. Your work place will find another way to reach this urgent deadline; they too will survive and they will understand you need time off, but if they don't they're not worth working for anyway. Relax, everyone is entitled to at least one day off a week. If you don't make the use of some free time now, you may live to regret it later on.

You are one person. As we've seen, God, who is mighty and powerful, needed some time to relax and see His handiwork, so do you. Let's not view this wrong though, God didn't need to rest; He wasn't tired or worn out like we get. No way, Hosea. God was writing a blue print for us to work by; an action plan which included all the things that we would encounter in our earthly life: work, leisure, family, healthy life style, exercise -all these things and more and we need to take notice of what He is saying to us.

Many people reach the end of their life with regret. They wish they had spent more time with family, with their hobbies, holidays etc. We only have a certain time here on earth, so, ensure that you prioritise. Your family are precious, so honour them, no job is worth neglecting them. And this goes with your health too. Take care of yourself and relax when you can. There is so much more you can get out of your life if you think about it.

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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