Faith for life

This third post of my 'God is' series will be looking at the love of God. I want to emphasize that my aim is to explore the biblical observation that a part of God's personality is that He is loving, not that God is only loving. I hear a lot, from many, many people, that 'God is love'. They declare this happily, joyfully and... finally. And, of course, one way of looking at that statement is that God created love and love comes from God. Which I completely agree with. God's love is an awesome, amazing, miraculous part of Him. What worries me, however, is that a lot of people fall into the trap of believing that God is only loving and then they disregard all of God's other personality traits. I think that a lot of people do this, because they believe that it will make their lives easier; that their relationships with God will be stronger and more enjoyable if they accept this part of who He is, without searching for anything else from Him. This is a dang

The scriptures are very confident of this, simple, fact: God is wise. Throughout both the old and new testaments, God's wisdom is glorified and exalted. And because He is wise, we also read of His understanding, sympathy, kindness, righteousness and that He is all-knowing.  Desiring wisdom is something that all people strive for. In fact, many people sacrifice a great deal in order to gain wisdom; even if the wisdom they are pursuing is foolishness in the eyes of God. Many people desire wisdom, because they desire everything that normally comes with worldly wisdom: power, money, authority, control, love etc. Yet, they do not see what they are missing. In fact, they do not know that they are missing anything at all... And what they are missing is the most precious of human possessions; Jesus. Therefore, not only are they without true wisdom but they are also without salvation. That's a scary thought. The scriptures below highlight a variety of the characteristics o

If you want to know yourself, why you have the gifts you do, why you are where you are and what your purpose is then you need to get to know who God is, first. Who Jesus is. Get to know His personality and through that He will, in turn, reveal who He has made you to be. This is the beginning of my 'God is' series. Over the next month, each one of my blog posts will be exploring a different element of God's majestic personality. Each post will reveal what the scriptures have to say about God and WHO He is. With these revelations, not only will we come to know our heavenly Father better, but we will also come to know ourselves better as we strive to look more like Jesus.  The first personality trait I will be exploring, is the 'fire' of God. The fire of God appears in many different forms, in the Bible. And below, I have listed what those forms are and the scriptures that explore them. In many ways, the fire of God is a joyful, beautiful spectacle to behold.

Security. Whether it’s the lock on your front door, the key to your safety deposit box, the wedding ring on your finger or the password protection on your laptop, we all crave security and stability. And why do we crave it so much? What does security provide us with? I believe the fundamental reason we crave the feeling of security so much, is because we long for protection. We want to protect our families, loved ones, property, money etc. We want the things we care for to be safe. And whilst there are more and more measures being introduced every single day to protect the things we love, accidents always happen, evil happens. Thieves break into houses. Keys go missing. Marriages break up. Laptops get hacked. There is only so much security we can put into our lives today. One of the hardest things, I think we as humans go through, is the pain of losing the ones we love. This is one of the things that reminds us that we are not in control. And, ultimately, what happens to all of the

Some of you reading this, will be in a season of waiting. As I wrote, in a previous post, waiting can be extremely difficult and a particularly emotional time. You may be asking God some of these kinds of questions: Where should I be living? What job should I be doing? Who do you want me to marry? Should I have children? What should I do with my finances? Should I be buying a house? Should I stop doing this? Should I change direction? Wow, big big questions! There are so many questions God is asked every single day, and the good news is that he hears each and every single one of us and has prepared the answers to our questions since the beginning of time.  “But certainly God has heard me; he has attended to the voice of my prayer.”  Psalm 66:19 Waiting is not particularly enjoyable, no matter what situation you find yourself in. But it produces in us perseverance and trust in God, which then leads to hope.  ‘Not only so, but we also glory in our su

A promise is a very special, important and binding deal made between friends. When you promise to do something, believe in something or help with something you are stating emphatically that you WILL do it. Promises are so desired by all kinds of people, that even little children make promises with their friends, because they crave the security and intimacy of their friendships.  It is sad, that as the years go on promises are made much too easily and without a great deal of thought or genuine intent. Husbands and wives promise not to leave each other, friends promise to be there for one another during hard times and families promise that they will always be there. However, these promises are frequently broken, whether by choice or by circumstance. This destruction of a promise does much to harm and confuse us, where it hurts, in our heart and soul. However, when we trust in God we are putting our trust in someone that is incapable of lying, unwilling to be disloyal and unable

The Bible tells us, over 400 times, to ‘fear not’. It is the most common command given to believers in the Bible. If the word of God tells us the same thing, so many times, then we need to realise that it must be important. That we need to learn from it and obey what he has asked us to do or not to do. ‘ Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.’ Philippians 4:5-7 It is important here, that we do not confuse mere ‘fear’ with the fear of God. We are told numerous times in the Bible to fear God, because our fear leads to understanding, knowledge, wisdom, goodness, God’s protection and, ultimately, salvation. To fear God is to respect God and know that he is a God of justice. He will not let evil go unpunished. Therefore, when we fear him we respect him and keep his c

We all experience times when we feel incredibly joyous and being a believer in Jesus seems the easiest thing in the world. However, we all also experience moments of grief, hopelessness and fear. We who know God, who know his heart, know that he does not bring about the difficult times in our lives. He does not bring about our sufferings. On the contrary, he brings our hope, purpose and peace. I think, sometimes, we are all guilty of forgetting where our emotional pain more often than not comes from; the ‘heart’ of satan. Wherever he can, and whenever he can, he longs to bring about our suffering, he longs to see us in despair, beaten down by our fear. And, so often, we are beaten down by negative emotions before we even realise that he is attacking us, and from where the true source of our pain has come! Any chance he has to steal your joy he will take advantage of, and he’ll do it in a cunning way. His attack will look slightly different from last time. It will affect you sligh

No matter where you live in the world, every year, the Earth experiences four, different seasons. Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter. Spring is when the flowers start coming back into bloom, though it is still cold, the sun finds days to shine. Summer is when we see and feel the sun the most, it’s warmth bringing us feelings of comfort and joy. Autumn is the sign that Summer is almost over, the leaves start falling from the trees in their thousands. Winter brings with it the cold and the snow, and many days of staying inside. When God made the world, he also made these seasons: And God said, “Let there be lights in the expanse of the heavens to separate the day from the night. And let them be for  signs and for  seasons,   and for days and years,   and let them be lights in the expanse of the heavens to give light upon the earth.” And it was so”. Genesis 1: 14-15 One thing a lot of people know about me is that I do not love Winter. I don’t remember

Waiting is something I have never been any good at. Whether it’s waiting for dinner, my birthday or finally going to Disney world (FYI mom and dad, still waiting...) I get incredibly impatient. When I was growing up my mom always used to remind me that ‘patience is a virtue’, and it still bothers me that I find patience pretty difficult. However, the Bible talks a lot about patience and the fruit that comes from a patient believer. The word of God says multiple things to this effect: “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, PATIENCE, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control”.  Galatians 5: 22-23 Life for believers of Christ, involves a lot more practice in the art of patience. Why do we have to be more patient than everyone else? Because rather than run ahead with our own desires and dreams of the lives we want, we wait for God to direct us. That does not mean that we sit around, biting our nails, doing nothing until God majestically appears right

Why is it that so many churches today seem to fear using the word ‘repentance’? And the ones that do use it sparingly. It is one of the most important and crucial words in the whole gospel message. So, what does it mean? Repentance is not just confessing your sins and feeling remorse, it is making the decision to move away from your sin and not do it again. It is taking a stand and choosing to change the way you are living your life in order to live a life that pleases God. Repentance should, also, not be a one time thing. It shouldn’t be: “God I’m sorry for all of the sins I have committed and will commit in my life, please forgive me”. No. True repentance should be part of our daily lives. Whenever we sin, and make a mistake, we should acknowledge it to God, straight away, and ask for forgiveness, and endeavour to not commit that sin again. In order to get close to God, there are three fundamental things we need to do: to repent, get baptised in water and be baptised in the