Are you a snapper?

"A gentle answer deflects anger, but harsh words make tempers flare."

                                                           Proverbs 15:1  NLT 

This verse comes up over and over again. When this happens, I believe that it is God's way of reminding us that we need to get this area right within us. 

Have you ever noticed that when you are busy people tend to interrupt you. It may be the 'phone or someone calling to have a chat. Somehow, it is like they always pick the busy times. But perhaps you need to ask yourself if this is a description of yourself - 'Busy'. People can be busy doing nothing. If you are the type who likes to get things done instead of leaving it until tomorrow, you may fall into the 'Busy' mode. Ask yourself, who has made you feel this way. Have you got a boss who drives you forward all the time, demanding that the job needs completing. If so, perhaps you need to speak with him or her and let them know that you are doing the best you can do. This may not go down too well but, it is better than getting yourself all wound up with frustration and anger. Martha was like this with her sister Mary. It felt that she was doing all of the work and Mary wasn't, she was spending time with Jesus (Luke 10:40-42.

You may be self-employed or have a job where to a degree you manage your own case load. It is important that you remain in control. Is there any point in getting yourself all wound up and angry? No, there is not, so you need to take the control. You may work from home and have a business to run together with a busy house to take care of. Whatever you do, you need to make some changes because, what you are doing is not working. The way you take control is to, look at all that needs doing - today. Break the workload down into manageable pieces, without making it too hard to handle. You must give yourself time to work with these things. You need to prioritise - what is the most important and so on. If you have appointments and they can be moved easily without problems occurring, then do this. This may give you a little breathing space. Listen, there is no mileage in trying to do everything at once. You will burn yourself out and snapping at someone when they interrupt you, may be a sign that you need to slow down.

Think for a moment, God always has time for you, doesn't He? Yes, He is God but, He gives us all a blue print on how we should handle things, and snapping at people is not one of them. If you are doing this, you need to stop what you are doing and analyse why this is happening. If you can't see why, ask God, He will show you. But one thing is for sure, you know that it is wrong so begin to make some changes today. Write down some of your experiences of the day where you have snapped at someone. Play the video back of this event and ask yourself, 'Why did I do that, what could I have done better?' This kind of thing works but it can only work if you will allow it to. Why not begin right now?

If you don't know Jesus or, have fallen away, why not say this prayer right now:

'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 2024 Grahame Howard.                                

dailylifewithjesusbygrahamehoward.blogspot.com  

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

Member of the National Association of Christian Ministers

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Accepted by the one who matters most

"to the praise of the glory of His grace, by which He made us accepted in the Beloved.
7In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace"  Ephesians 1:6-7  NKJV

Today, all over the world, people are suffering from some type of hangup from their past. It may have started when they they were young and at school - broken marriages and homes, abuse, parenting problems or a host of other things that have followed them all of their life. You may be one of them.

Try and picture the scene below and see if you identify with any of it:

'I've never been accepted really, all of my life I have been a loner, a person who finds it hard to trust other people. When I was young, I was the underdog, the after-thought. I was rubbish at sports and because I was so much of a loner, I was laughed at, and bullied. I never retaliated, just let them hit and hurt me. Some days, my school books were scattered all over the road in the pouring rain. I tried to talk to my mum and dad about it but they weren't really interested. Mum would say that I needed to stand up to them; dad thought I was useless and said I would never come to anything in life. If I cried, I was a baby. I was unloved at home and my dad often said that I was a mistake, he should have been more careful. So I have grown up not knowing how to love people, in fact, I don't even know what love is. I've always felt that I was a disappointment to everyone. Every time that I have tried to speak with people I have always felt they didn't care or didn't want to be around me, so really, I think I have given up trying. There's no point in anything'  

                                  My evidence collated from a life time experience of social work and church ministry

God's heart breaks  at the thought of this happening to His people and is just one of the reasons that Jesus gave His life on the cross to rescue people from a life time of unhappiness. If you can relate to any of the above I want you to know that, even though you may not feel it, you are accepted by the One who matters most - Jesus Christ. The world may not have recognised you at the time but, Jesus did. He has followed you all of your life and has waited for the opportunity to tell you just how much He loves you. At the time, He was longing for you to call out to Him; He would have rescued you in an instant.You may not know Jesus as your Saviour. Then again, you may have been a Christian for some time. Whatever is the case, Jesus doesn't want you going through life feeling like you do. He is reaching out to you right at this moment. He can be trusted with your heart. He will not let you down - ever.. Why don't you find a quiet place where you can just pour your heart out to Him and then afterwards, say the prayer that follows below. You are loved more than I could ever begin to let you know and you are very special. Reach out to Jesus right now!

If you don't know Jesus or, have fallen away, why not say this prayer right now:

'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 2024 Grahame Howard.                                

dailylifewithjesusbygrahamehoward.blogspot.com  

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 

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Be careful what you promise God

"When you make a vow or a pledge to God, do not put off paying it; for God takes no pleasure in fools [who thoughtlessly mock Him]. Pay what you vow. 5 It is better that you should not vow than you should vow and not pay."  Ecclesiastes 5:4-5  Amplified bible

A vow is a solemn promise made to God to perform or to abstain from performing a certain thing. It is a sacred promise that we often take lightly. Many is the time people will try and bargain with God by pleading for something such as money and in return, they will do something special for God. Sadly, if that prayer is answered, the vow may not be fulfilled because they just go off and forget about it. You've probably heard someone say that if God would bless them with a massive Lottery win, they would do such and such for the church or some other venture. We all do it in a small way, 'Please Lord, give me a parking space, I'll do anything you ask if you do.' God may answer this prayer because He cares about your welfare and knows that the parking space is an urgent request. He doesn't need us to bargain with Him at all. He loves us.

Ananias and Sapphira from Acts 5:1-11 are a good example of making a vow to God and then not fulfilling their promise. They sold some possession and led Peter and the others, to believe that they were going to donate it all to the church. However, they kept a certain amount back for themselves. Peter questioned them about this and discussed how the proceeds had been there's in the first place but, they had led people to believe that they were giving everything. It was a lie, not only to Peter and the others but more importantly to God. They had told God a bare-faced lie and they were both judged for it there and then; they both fell down dead.

Perhaps, you may feel this is quite extreme, and anyway, it wouldn't happen like that in this day and age. Are you sure about that? God is an awesome God and a great friend but, He will not tolerate people who lie. It is deceit and when we act this way, we cannot be trusted. How would you feel if God did this to you? What if He promised to give you a lovely place to live in and instead of the mansion you were hoping for, it turned out to be a ruined down and out, old shed? It's not nice is it,

We need to choose our words wisely. Proverbs 18:20 says, 'A man's stomach shall be satisfied from the fruit of His mouth; from the produce of his lips he shall be filled." Therefore, we need to be careful what comes out of our mouths. We need to think first before we speak; once it is out it is too late. Remember, what you confess you will get, it's down to what you say. Promise other people something and not follow through with it, may bring disappointment. A promise to God, needs a lot of thought before you say it because He will hold you to this. It's far better to say to Him, 'I will try Lord, please help me to do this.' Do you get the point?

If you don't know Jesus or, have fallen away, why not say this prayer right now:

'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 2024 Grahame Howard.                                

dailylifewithjesusbygrahamehoward.blogspot.com  

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 

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Jonah Part 4

"But it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he became angry."   Jonah 4:1  NKJV 

Jonah had problems that he had internalised and, when we fail to vent our feelings, they become like a cancer within us and lead us to being hard-hearted and lacking in love and compassion. This showed in the way he felt about other people, especially the Ninevites, whom he felt should be destroyed. When he couldn't have his own way, he wished death upon himself.

Here we find him having a good old whinge to God v1-3. God listens and asks him if he has any right to feel anger. Jonah decides to ignore this and goes outside to sulk and look over at Nineveh with the hope that God might change His mind and destroy the place. He was feeling very sorry for himself and his lack of love and compassion could not be hidden. He was seething. You may not think this but, people can tell when you are angry. It is in your body language.

God had used Jonah mightily, this could not be disputed and, one would have thought that his evangelistic heart would have been on fire because of the success of his preaching. But, not so, he wanted nothing to do with it all and probably deep down, wished he hadn't accepted God's call. Whereas, God's heart melts when people repent from their sinful life, Jonah was totally opposite, he hated the fact that this wicked people would share in God's kingdom.

Are there people in your life that make you feel this way? They have repented and received God's forgiveness but, you still have a few remarks in your Record of Wrongs book. If there is, God doesn't make mistakes so, as you are going to share heaven with these people, perhaps it is a good idea to change your thinking and find some grace.  If not, Jesus' words can come back at you 'Judge not, that you be not judged. 2 For with what judgement you judge, you will be judged'  (Matt 7:1-2). 

God prepared a plant for Jonah so that he had some shade from the burning sun. There's no record that he thanked God for this, only that he was very pleased. Sadly, overnight, a worm completely destroyed the plant and Jonah turned to his child ego with threats of anger and ending his life again. God gave him both barrels saying that he had pity for the plant that had been killed and yet, he had no compassion on the thousands who would die without repentance. It was almost like God was saying, 'You need to get your values right Jonah.' 

How can we be heartless to sinners when we know where we have come from before we were saved? Without compassion we will never make it. What happened to Jonah is unknown. Perhaps he did eventually turn from his hard-heartedness, perhaps he didn't'. We will find out one day. 

Conclusion

The thing that has come through loud and clear to me is, we need to forgive people, we need to stop judging them and we need to show them the love and peace of God. We may be tempted to point the finger at times but remember, when we do, that finger will point back at us. We need to sow love and compassion wherever we may go.

If you don't know Jesus or, have fallen away, why not say this prayer right now:

'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 2024 Grahame Howard.                                

dailylifewithjesusbygrahamehoward.blogspot.com  

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 

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Jonah Part 3

"So Jonah arose and went to Nineveh, according to the Word of the LORD."  

                                                                 Jonah 3:3. NKJV 

God called Jonah again and, this time Jonah obeyed. It would be easy to say, 'If he had gone the first time, all of this time wouldn't have been wasted'. This is true, however, the sailors would not have been saved. So, from one point of view, Jonah's refusal to go to Nineveh, was used to God's glory. Had Jonah learned his lesson? He chose to go this time so, it's possible that his thinking was a little more positive. But, there were still some deep-rooted problems within Jonah's life that needed attention and they would soon re-surface after the Nineveh trip.

When God calls you to service, He is not going to change, you must. He has nothing to change because, 'Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever' (Heb 13:8). There are things that you will need to alter in your life so that the Holy Spirit has a clear channel to flow through. Therefore, it is best to get these things sorted right from the start. If Jonah had spoken with the LORD about his feelings towards Nineveh, God may have helped him to have a better understanding of love and forgiveness, Sadly, he didn't and internalised his bad feelings.

The typical hallmark of an evangelist came through when Jonah cried out, 'Yet, forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown' v3:4. With power like dynamite, this statement put the fear of God into the whole city. There was panic all around and the king declared a fast on the whole city with people in sackcloth and ashes calling on Almighty God. The king's words were, 'Who can tell if God will turn and relent, and turn away from His fierce anger, so that we may not perish' v3:9. God did relent and gave them a second chance and lived up to His Word 'For whoever calls on the name of the LORD shall be saved' (Joel 2:32 & Rom 10:13).

There were two parts to Jonah's word that day (1) Nineveh would be judged for its sin. 

(2) The people had forty days to fix the problem. God was offering grace and would not bring this judgement if they would repent. This is how God works with us too. There is still sin in our lives but, as we work towards changing this, He meets us halfway and helps us. If there is one flicker of repentance within someone, God will offer them another chance. Let us be so grateful that He is so loving and gracious towards us.

As we've seen. God never changes but, He can adjust to the changes that we make until we are walking in His steps. He gave grace to the sailors; grace to Jonah and grace to some of the wickedest people on the planet - Nineveh. We may give up on some people we have been ministering to but, God never gives up!

If you don't know Jesus or, have fallen away, why not say this prayer right now:

'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 2024 Grahame Howard.                                

dailylifewithjesusbygrahamehoward.blogspot.com  

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 

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Jonah Part 2

"I cried out to the LORD because of my affliction, and He answered me."  

                                                              Jonah 2:2  NKJV 

What a situation Jonah had caused because of his disobedience and rebellion. He had caused grief to the sailors he had been travelling with. He had walked away from God and flatly refused to relent. When the chips are down and we are in dire straits, we nearly always call on God, have you noticed this. The sailors were no different, they called on their own gods 1:5 but alas, there was no change. This brought further panic and eventually Jonah confessed that he was on the run from Almighty God. This panicked them further but notice what happened here, 'Therefore, they cried out to the LORD and said, "We pray, O LORD, please do not let us perish for this man's life" 1:14. What a difference this made. As Jonah had requested, they threw him into the sea and there was peace all around. God had used Jonah's disobedience to encourage the sailors to call out to Him and He saved them. They would never forget this. Joseph said something very similar in Genesis 50:20. Talking to his brothers he said 'But as for you, you meant evil against me; but God meant it for good.' God will always bring good out of evil.

In his terror, God also provided for Jonah - he was swallowed by a large fish and banished from God's sight 2:4. He was out of fellowship with God and in the pit 2:6. Now the pit is not a bad place to be if it gets you back into the will of God. It can bring us to our senses and help us realise that we can't do everything that we feel we should. God must have the first choice. While in the body of this smelly, slimy awful stomach of this fish, Jonah remembered the LORD. 'I cried out to the LORD because of my affliction, and He answered me' v 2:2. Jonah called on God and his prayer was heard, so the LORD spoke to the fish and it vomited Jonah onto dry land. There has been a lot of debate over the years from theologians about whether the fish was real? - was it a whale? There are large fish in the ocean that are capable of swallowing a man. The thing is, I believe God and His Word, and if it is in the bible, no scholarly conversation is going to change my mind. It was a fish and it was a miracle!

One thing is for sure, things were not going to get any better until Jonah came to his senses and repented and called on God. Yes, he had been driven to this decision; like a game of chess, he was in check and if he didn't change his ways, it would be checkmate. Remember, God didn't have to answer him. It is called grace.

If you don't know Jesus or, have fallen away, why not say this prayer right now:

'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 2024 Grahame Howard.                                

dailylifewithjesusbygrahamehoward.blogspot.com  

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

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Jonah Part 1

"Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city and cry out against it; for their wickedness has come up before Me. 3 But Jonah arose to flee to Tarshish from the presence of the LORD."  Jonah 1:2-3  NKJV

Over the coming week, let's explore the book of Jonah and dig our way through the chapters and see what we find.

The book of Jonah is about the will of God and how we respond to it. It is also a book about the love of God and how we share it with others. God gave Jonah a direct order,"Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city and cry out against it; for their wickedness has come up before Me." Jonah's response is classic, he totally refused and fled to Tarshish. When you think about it, Jonah's response is unbelievable and yet, we may have done this from time to time. Many's the time when God is wanting us to change a particular thing in our lives but, we refuse. Something's in life, we don't want to change so we disobey. I remember when myself and Hazel, my wife, were at a particular bible college. We met a guy there who told us that God had wanted him to go into prisons and preach Jesus. However, he had refused. Following a holiday abroad, somebody had placed some drugs in his luggage and customs found it. He was arrested and spent a little time in prison. He was eventually cleared of this. But the fact was, God had had His way, the guy had begun preaching in the prison. He went on to have a prison ministry. Amazing. So before we judge Jonah, let us consider this.

Nineveh was a great and powerful city in the Assyrian Empire full of evil people with evil practices who thought nothing about torturing and eventually killing someone. Possibly the thought of preaching there brought a fear for his life, so the rebellious Jonah went the opposite way to God's direction. Alternatively, may be he didn't want to preach to the Ninevites because they may repent and get saved. Jonah felt that they needed to be punished for their behaviour and possibly destroyed. 

What about you? We've probably all had a 'Nineveh' type of thing in our lives at some stage. It may have been in the style of being bullied. Perhaps you were humiliated by this bully and suffered a great deal. How would you feel initially, about praying for this person/s and telling them about Jesus? You may be ok about it but then again, the thought of it may provoke a feeling of revenge. Think about the atrocities of WW2. How did they feel towards the torture, pain and killings that they had to suffer through. Would they have liked to go to their very own 'Nineveh' and preach to them. One can see Jonah's point. However, it was still disobedience to God.

The thing is, when we disobey God, it's possible that He will send something along the way to get us to change our minds. With Jonah, it was a great wind (v4). With the chap we met, it was a spell in prison. Jonah had checked on a boat trip to get away from the LORD. Surely He knew this was impossible. The storm threatened to sink the vessel and the crew were very scared. Eventually, Jonah was honest with them, he knew this great wind was from God. Therefore, he told the crew about his disobedience and suggested that they throw him overboard and the sea would remain calm. Reluctantly, they did this and peace came to their situation. More tomorrow!

If you don't know Jesus or, have fallen away, why not say this prayer right now:

'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 2024 Grahame Howard.                                

dailylifewithjesusbygrahamehoward.blogspot.com  

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

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