Conviction

"When He comes, He will convict the world about sin, righteousness, and judgment"

                                                              John 16:8   CSB 

The Holy Spirit is the No 1 evangelist in the kingdom of God. He is also the Agent of Conviction. He convicts unbelievers of their sin and, if believers are also in error, He convicts them too. 

William Barclay wrote: 'It was Alcibiades, the brilliant but, spoiled darling of Athens, who used to say to Socrates, "Socrates, I hate you, because every time I meet you, you make me see what I am" 

The first essential is to compel a man to see himself as he is.' Conviction means to convince or reprove; 

it gives an awareness of one's sin and guilt (John 8:9) which leads to confession and repentance.

Each believer knows when they have sinned; it's impossible to pretend that nothing has happened. The Holy Spirit knows. But thanks to Jesus, when we confess our sin, we are forgiven. Thank goodness for that. An example of conviction in play, can be seen in John 8 where Jesus meets with a woman caught in the act of adultery. The Scribes and the Pharisees had brought a woman to Jesus. They kept pressing Jesus to decide what punishment she should receive because, they wanted to test Him. All Jesus said was 'The one without sin among you should be the first to throw a stone at her. Jesus would have made an excellent chess player because He missed nothing and could always see a way through any problem. Here, He noticed that the so called leaders of the day, left one by one. They were under conviction by their conscience.

No one can hoodwink Jesus, He will always speak the truth in all situations. This is why, whenever we have sinned (which we will do), the first port of call should be to present ourself to Jesus and confess this sin and receive His forgiveness. It doesn't 

matter if we go to Him dozens of time per day, He will always forgive us, because of His blood that was shed on the cross for us at Calvary.

It's also essential that we walk in the Holy Spirit because, He will always leads us in the way of truth. And be open to the fact, that the Holy Spirit may convict you of any wrong doing and, He may also, use someone else to do this job. So live the life for Jesus.

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

Lord Jesus, I have sinned   

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

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Are you a sinner?

"I have been crucified with Christ, and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me."                                         Galatians 2:20  CSB

Jesus gave us the answer to the way we easily fall into sin, each and everyday. We are sinners, saved by grace. The Apostle John, wrote the Gospel of John and Revelation, but, it is argued that he may not have written 1,2,3 John, and in most bibles, the introduction may state that the author is anonymous. This has been the thought of many apologists over the years. However, many other theologians find that there are many characteristics within these epistles that point to John being the author. So, I'm with John.

John writes in 1 John 1:8-10: 'If we say, “We have no sin,” we are deceiving ourselves, and the truth is not in us. 9If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgivea us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. 10If we say, “We have not sinned,” we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us.'  In 1 John, he is speaking to fellow Christians and this letter was passed around the local churches in the area. 

These verses are encouraging because, no matter how hard we may try not to, we sin each day. Without God's grace, we would never make it. This is why the Apostle Paul makes the confession of faith that 'I have been crucified with Christ, and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me."  Paul is stating that he belongs to Jesus Christ, he no longer lives but Christ lives in Him. 

It drives home the fact to us when we confess this statement, possibly on a daily basis. No 1 we are confessing Jesus as our Saviour, No 2 We are letting the world around us, know that we are different and so could they be as well. And No 3, the devil does not like this confession at all.

So why not make it your aim to spread this word around wherever you are, on a daily basis. You will certainly receive a few whispers from people behind your back, but, you will also receive a blessing from Jesus. And that is worth everything.

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

Lord Jesus, I have sinned   

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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FRI From a Somebody to a Nobody

"My heart is breaking as I remember how it used to be: I walked among the crowds of worshipers, leading a great procession to the house of God, singing for joy and giving thanks amid the sound of a great celebration!"   Psalm 42:4   NLT

Are you longing for how things used to be? What happened too change the way you were? You may have been divorced, now you're on your own. You may have had a nice house, top job and a hefty bank balance, then  bankruptcy came and you lost everything. In other words, you were a 'Somebody' now, life has turned you into a 'Nobody.' 

Moses was a somebody in Egypt. He had been born there, in slavery and, his mother, fearing he would be killed because of him being another male child, had placed him in a basket and let him float down the river to a better life. Pharaoh's daughter had seen him and, taken him unto herself and he had lived in Pharaoh's house. He grew up there and one day, he saw an Egyptian badly treating a fellow Jew, so Moses killed the Egyptian and hid his body. However, someone had noticed this and so, Moses had fled to his own country. (Exodus 2). He became a shepherd and a 'Nobody" for 40 years.

 

Joseph at 17 years old was an arrogant dreamer who was his father, Jacob's favourite child. 

Because of his brothers jealousy, he ended up being sold into slavery in Egypt; He was given a job in the house of Potiphar, a high Egyptian official. Potiphar's adulterous wife, accused Joseph of rape and he ended up in prison (Genesis 39). However, through God's leading of Joseph's dreams, he was able to interpret Pharaoh's dreams and he was made Prime Minister of the Egypt. From a 'Somebody to a 'Nobody' and back to a 'Somebody,' Joseph's life was forever changed, and he reigned there until his death and his bones were carried back to his own country.

You may be struggling here; you may have been a 'Somebody,' now you're a 'Nobody.' But you need to remember that in Jesus' eyes you are better than a 'Somebody,' you are 'Everything He wants you to be.' He's not looking for 'Somebody's,' He works with 'Nobody's' and builds them up from there. 

Listen, the sun shall once again shine for you. It may be when the next tide comes in, or may take a little longer. But be of good cheer. Jesus has you on His calendar.

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

Lord Jesus, I have sinned   

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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You are under construction

 2Dear friends, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet been revealed. We know that when He appears, we will be like Him because we will see Him as He is. 3And everyone who has this hope in Him purifies himself just as He is pure.

                                          1 John 3:2-3   CSB

Do you realise that you will be transformed into the likeness of Christ? It's happening now, little by little transformation is beginning to take shape. When 

this transformation is completed; we're not sure when that will be, but one thing is for sure, we will 

be like Jesus. It's a joint effort between us and Jesus; when we're serious about being like Him 

and, begin this process, God will meet us halfway v3.

At this time, we are under construction - a work in progress but, according to Philippians 1:6 we read: 

'I am sure of this, that He who started a good work 

in you, will carry it on to completion until the day of Jesus Christ.' At the moment, your progress at 

being like Jesus is rather hit and miss. Have you noticed that, one day you can be flying high praising Jesus and then next, it seems like you are lifeless. 

It can seem like you are like a human YoYo, one moment up and the next down. There doesn't appear to be a satisfactory point where you are stable. We are all like this.

But we don't have to stay down. Life events can knock us to the floor, robbing us of all the joy that 

we had. We feel like we're running on empty. This is not the time to give up, not at all. It's the time to look up into Jesus' face who will always say, 'You can do this, Buddy. Just take My hand.' And as we do, we get that second wind.

When Moses was standing at the burning bush, 

God spoke to him and said, 'Do not come closer,' 

He said, 'Remove the sandals from your feet, for the place where you are standing is holy ground.' Exodus 3:5. In contrast, the Armour of God says, 'and your feet sandalled with readiness for the gospel of peace.' Ephesians 6:15. This is where the Armour is more understandable. Moses was 

wearing grubby old sandals standing on holy ground, so as he removed them, he came into the holy presence of God. Likewise, as you put on the sandals with the readiness for the gospel of peace, you are more capable of standing on holy ground, and because of this, you can make much more progress. 

God wants us holy: '15But as the one who called 

you is holy, you also are to be holy in all your conduct; 16for it is written, Be holy, because I am holy.'  1 Peter 1:15-16 CSB. Therefore, don't become frustrated with your efforts to please God. Instead, receive the holiness that He is offering to you. You can do this!

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

Lord Jesus, I have sinned 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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Determination to see Jesus

 5When Jesus came to the place, he looked up and said to him, “Zacchaeus, hurry and come down because today it is necessary for me to stay at your house.”  Luke 19:1-10. CSB

Jesus was passing through Jericho, and as usual, the crowds were lining the streets to see Him. Zacchaeus  though, was a very small man so he had to plan ahead. He had a strong determination to see Jesus so, when he heard that He was on His way, he ran ahead and climbed a Sycamore tree. These trees are sturdy with very low limbs making it easy to climb. Having done this, he had a good viewing point.

When Jesus stood below his tree, He stopped and called out to Zacchaeus, asking him to come down because He needed to stay at his house v5. This points to the fact that He may have known this Chief Tax Collector because He spoke to him by name. It worked; much to the onlookers disgust. He quickly climbed down the tree and stood before Jesus. This angered the crowd even more because they wanted to know why Jesus associated Himself with a Tax Collector, a sinner.

Before Jesus could say anything to him, Zacchaeus said he would give half of his possessions to the poor and pay back people he had exploited four times as much. I believe that Zacchaeus had come under conviction standing before Jesus, and had a major sense of guilt. He didn't have to do this; Jesus had said nothing at this point. What Jesus did say after Zacchaeus' comments was, 'Today salvation has come to this house - for the Son of Man has come to seek and to save the lost.' v9. 

The Apologetics Study Bible comes to the defence of a twisted version of v10. that is going around. In defence of the following comments 'The Church of Christ, Scientist understands the mission of Jesus to be that of a sage, teaching humans that matter is evil and all sickness is illusory. According to this verse, the mission of Jesus is to seek and save those who are lost.'    

                                      The Apologetics Study Bible, CSB, Luke 19:10  Holman Publishers

The truth is, Zacchaeus was not saved because he promised to do good works. He was saved because he responded by faith to Christ's gracious word to him. Having trusted Jesus, he then gave evidence of his faith by promising to make restitution to those he had wronged. Salvation cannot be purchased. It is a free gift from Jesus as we ask Him to be our Lord and Saviour.

One thing that jumps out of today's scripture is, Zaccaeus' determination and faith. We don't know if he knew Jesus before this event, we can assume he did. If he didn't, he had a strong faith and trust in Jesus to allow Him and His disciples to enter his house. When we have this type of determination to get our lives sorted out, Jesus helps us to do this. It may not be easy as, there are things that we need to cast away because of new life. But it is well worth it

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

Lord Jesus, I have sinned 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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There is a hell

"16For God loved the world in this way: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.17For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.

18 Anyone who believes in Him, is not condemned, but anyone who does not believe is already condemned, because he has not believed in the name of the one and only Son of God."                                            John 3:16-18   CSB

Just lately, I have been thinking about hell and what it signifies for people who will not accept Jesus as their Lord. I also thought that, teaching and preaching of hell is something that is rarely preached within our churches. As I meditated on this, I felt God telling me to write about this subject, something that preachers appear to neglect talking about probably because they don't want to risk upsetting people. As I prepared for this, I felt led to look at Andrew Womacks's web page and was amazed to read that, he too, had felt this from God. He writes:

    'As I prayed about this, the Lord reminded me that faith comes by hearing the Word of God (Rom. 10:17). Then He asked me, “When is the last time you taught from Scripture about hell?” I realized I had never taught a whole message on hell. I certainly believe it exists and have mentioned it, but I have never taught on hell'.   Copyright Andrew Womack Ministries

Therefore, I took this as confirmation, so here goes:

Many people don't want to consider that there is a hell. They are happy to just concentrate on Jesus and, ignore the perils of someone going to hell because they rejected Jesus. But there is a hell and fear, prevents people from talking about it. Obviously, it is not a nice subject to talk about and, can stop a conversation at once. They may think, 'It will never happen anyway.'But it will and could be closer than we think. John 3:36 tells us: 'The one who believes in the Son has eternal life, but the one who rejects the Son will not see life; instead, the wrath of God remains on him.'

So let's get this right, All those who ask Jesus into their life, receive eternal life, not in the future, but it begins whenever they are born again. The one's who reject the Son, receive the wrath of God now and when they die and stand before Jesus, if they have still rejected Him, they will go to hell - because they were condemned when they received the wrath of God. The warning was given to them and the results of their rejecting the Son are now delivered.

Ephesians 4:9-10 says: 'But what does "He ascended" mean except He also descended to the lower parts of the earth. 10 The One who descended is also the One who ascended far above all the heavens to fill all things.'

When Jesus was crucified, He went down to hell for three days and on resurrection day, He defeated the evil over sin and death and was resurrected into glory. Jesus Christ won the battle and now the devil has to strive and prowl around doing what he can do with limited power. He knows his days are short. One day, when everyone is standing before Jesus on that last day, the devil and his demons, along with hell itself, will be thrown into the lake of fire. Please read this next bit very carefully. All those who do not believe in Jesus will be cast into the lake of fire also. There is a hell; the devil has tricked you into thinking that there isn't. This is because he is a liar and wants you to share his fate. Please take this seriously. Jesus said, 'I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.'  John 14:6. CSB

The Father's in heaven; Jesus is in heaven and they want you to be with them also. Accept Jesus today before it is too late. There is a prayer below.

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

Lord Jesus, I have sinned 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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Let go

18“Do not remember the past events; pay no attention to things of old. 19Look, I am about to do something new; even now it is coming. Do you not see it? Indeed, I will make a way in the wilderness, rivers in the desert.    Isaiah 43:18-19   CSB

There is a true story about some animal specialists who were in some jungle searching for a 

rare type of monkey. They set up a table and on it placed several, slim-necked metal jars full of delicious nuts and seed. And then they waited, and waited. Eventually some monkey's came along and two of them fitted the profile of what they were searching for. The monkey's jumped onto the table, sniffed at the jars and then, plunged their arms into the jars, grabbing a fistful of this lovely, smelling food. The problem for them, was that because their fist was full of these nuts, they couldn't get their hands back out and, the jars were fastened to the table. They were reluctant to let go of the nuts and therefore, they were caught. They refused to Let go.  

                                                                     (Sourced from some Wild life Magazine)

When we have been hurt and upset by some life event such as marital breakdown, bereavement

bankruptcy, loss of a wonderful job through no fault of your own - it is very difficult to be able to process it and move on. Some people can but not many. When we don't let go, we are trapped in that same old place with the painful memories and struggles. The pain seems enormous and that it will never go away. But it will, but it takes time and determination.

Think of it this way, God is doing a new thing. It takes God and yourself to make this work. God can help remove the pain but if you continue to hang on to it, it won't work. God wants you to do your bit and, this is where it may become difficult for you. It may seem impossible but, God can make it possible and it starts with you, slowly getting to the place where you can release the past and try and pay no attention to it. You'll never be able to forget it; it will forever be a sore spot in your life. However, God has some really good ointment that He can rub on it - The Holy Spirit.

God says 'Look, I am about to do something new; even now it is coming. Do you not see it?' In other words, 'There is life out there' You may not be able to see it now, but you will, it is coming. He wants you to conceive it in your heart, no matter what. When you can do this, you are on the way to being able to leave the past behind and move on. I must say though, during your particular loss, you have some good memories. Therefore, take them with you, they are food for yourself when you need it. The painful ones is what you must leave behind. If not, you will be like those monkeys unable to move because they refuse to Let go.

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

Lord Jesus, I have sinned   

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