Archive for December 2010
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Rom 6:23 The gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. (KJV)
At this time of year we all look forward to giving and receiving gifts; We would all agree that the greatest gift ever given was when God gave His only Son as a sacrifice for us on the cross at Calvary. God always wants us to imitate Him so I would like to suggest 3 principles to govern our gift giving at this time:
1) God gave His gift with no strings attached. Let us not give with an ulterior motive such as: because we feel we should, to control a person, to curry favour or to show our gift trumps everyone else’s. These kind of motives are all dead works and count for nothing in God’s eyes.
2) God gave His gift to His enemies (you and I) in order to demonstrate His love for us. Is there someone like that in your life that you can demonstrate God’s love to and reach out with a gift to bridge the divide.
Rom 5:7-8 Finding someone who would die for a godly person is rare. Maybe someone would have the courage to die for a good person. Christ died for us while we were still sinners. This demonstrates God’s love for us. (GWB)
3) God gave His gift to people who were barren and in lack (you and I). Is there someone you know who is in need, who is lacking the essentials of life (food, clothing etc) at this time of year. May I suggest that you pray and ask God for Jesus sake what and who you can give to.
2 Sam 9:1 David asked, “Is there anyone still left of the house of Saul to whom I can show kindness for Jonathan’s sake?”
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Phil 3:13-14 But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining towards what is ahead, I press on towards the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenwards in Christ Jesus.
OK – we are looking at those areas of life where we are living under the law which is bondage instead of living under grace which sets us free.
Today I want to look at the past. Everybody has a past of making mistakes, failures, broken relationships, under achievement and sin. When Jesus died on the cross He took the punishment of the judgement of God for all our sin – past, present and future; thus His blood washes away all our sin and cleanses us from all unrighteousness. Jesus exchanged His righteousness for our righteousness so we are now the righteousness of God in Christ: 2 Cor 5:21.
As far as God is concerned all our sinful past no longer exists, not because He’s forgotten it but because He chooses not to remember it, yet many Christians still harbour thoughts of guilt, condemnation, fear and shame over past behaviour. Why is this? It’s because although we have asked God to forgive us for those things, we are still allowing them to remain on our conscience, and instead of looking towards the cross where Christ set us free which is to be righteous conscious and releases peace and joy, we constantly look inward at the things we have done wrong making us sin conscious and stirring up guilt and condemnation etc.
Under the Old Covenant on the Day of Atonement which took place once a year, the nation of Israel would gather at the door of the tabernacle. The high priest then performed the ceremony that assured the nation there sins would be forgiven for one more year. This took place in 2 stages:
First: a goat was brought for a sin offering; The priest would lay his hands on the goats head and confess over it the nations sins for that year, thus transferring their sins onto the goat. The goat was offered as a sacrifice for death and when God saw the blood it was a reminder to him that the punishment for their sins had been taken out on the goat. God was now able to release His mercy upon the nation in forgiveness.
Second: another goat was brought and the priest laid hands on the goats head and confessed the sins of the nation again, transferring their sins onto the goat; but this goat wasn’t sacrificed, it was set free to escape into the wilderness never to return. It was named,’ The Escape Goat’, or as we would call it, ‘The scapegoat’. In this , God was saying that not only had He forgiven their sin but He had also taken it away never to recall it again. Here we see the 2 fold stage of God’s forgiveness. First He forgave their sin and second He took it away never to recall it again.
When we come to understand this 2 fold stage of forgiveness we see that Jesus not only forgave our past sin; as our scapegoat He has carried our sin away never to recall it again. It’s not that God forgets our sin it’s that He chooses not to recall it. It’s the same for us. We must receive God’s forgiveness for our past sin and allow Christ to take it away to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Then if perchance these past sins come to remembrance, we to must forget them, we must choose not to remember them by putting them back on Christ again and as our scapegoat allow Him to carry them away. We can do this as many times as is needed until such time we find release from them and at long last experience a clean conscience leading to freedom from guilt, condemnation, shame and fear. It was for freedom that Christ has set us free.
Meditation point: My sins past, present and future have not only been cleansed by the blood of Jesus; Jesus as my scapegoat has also carried them away never to recall them for all eternity.
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Playing For Change|Song Around The World| ‘Stand by Me’
No comments · Posted by Peter Wilson in Playing For Change|Song Around The World| 'Stand by Me'.
Even Ben.E.King & The Drifters will appreciate This version of, ‘Stand by Me’. TURN IT UP & ENJOY.
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Gal 5:1 It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery. (NIV)
Although many of us know we are saved by grace, if we don’t come into a full revelation of grace, we will live a life of mixture of law and grace; consequently we will not experience the total freedom that grace brings to our lives.
This is why Paul wrote his letter to the Galatian Church. They started out under grace but slipped back under law and were living in the mixture between the two. Gal 3:3 Are ye so foolish? having begun in the Spirit, are you now made perfect by the flesh? (NKJV)
Paul describes law and grace like wearing a yoke around our necks like oxen are yoked to pull a plough. There were two types of yoke, a wooden yoke or an iron yoke. The wooden yoke was light, sat easily on the neck allowing the oxen to pull the plough all day long. The iron yoke was heavy and ill fitting, the skin would chafe and break exposing the flesh and bruising the neck; and by the end of the day the oxen was worn out, exhausted and weak.
It’s easy to see that the wooden yoke represents grace; grace is light and frees us to live a life of joy and peace, a life that ploughs a furrow of good works not dead works.The iron yoke represents the law; the law is oppressive, it highlights sin in our life leading to guilt and condemnation. We become bowed down and exhausted through living a life of defeat, hopelessness and shame.
In subsequent blogs I will be applying grace to these areas of bondage bringing the freedom that Jesus sacrifice won for us on the cross.
Meditation point: Prayer – ” Holy Spirit, reveal to me areas of my life where I am living by law not grace and show me the way to freedom”.
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Listen To This And Say You’re Not Moved.
No comments · Posted by Peter Wilson in The FlashMob/Hallelujah Chorus.
The Flashmob in a supermarket mall. Suggestion – Turn Up The Volume.
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