There is nothing like a good crisis to increase my energy and remind me how much I need God.- Anne Christian Buchanan
“fear not” is the most repeated command in all of Scripture. Of everything commanded by God, the prophets, the apostles, angels, and others, “fear not” shows up more often than anything else. This communicates at least two very important things. First, the most common human condition is something like fear and anxiety. And second, it is the emotion or reaction to life that is least warranted for we belong to him.
Is there a more compelling and powerful verse than "I have called the by thy name and thou art mine"?
God created us in our mother's womb and he loves us with an "evelasting love"
God is the most powerful entity ever what have we to fear?
God just does not give us the command without any support behind it, He tells us why we should not be afraid. He says in verse 11, “For I am with you to save you.” “I am with you”:
those have to be the four most encouraging words in Scripture.
A few verses..
Isiah 43:1
Fear not.for I have redeemed thee..I have called thee by thy name, thou art mine.
Jeremiah 31:3
Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love; therefore with loving kindness have I drawn thee
Jeremiah 18:16
Behold as the clay is in the potters hand so are ye in mine
Isiah 49: 16
Behold I have inscribed thee in the palms of my hand
Isiah 44:2
Thou art my servant I have formed thee ... thou shalt not be forgotten of me
Isiah43:10
Ye are my witness saith the Lord and my servant whom I have chosen that ye may know and believe in me and understand that I am he.
Isiah43: 11
I,even I am the Lord and beside me there is no savior
Isiah 43:2
When thou passeth through they shall not overflow thee,when thou walkest through the fire thou shalt not be burned neither shall the flame be kindled upon thee.
Isiah 43:5
Fear not for I am with thee
Isiah 44:
Thus saith the Lord that made thee and formed thee from the womb which shall help thee.Fear not
Jeremiah 30:11
Therefore fear not thou neither be dismayed
Rev 2:10 fear none of these things that thou shalt suffer
Jeremiah 30:11
for I am with thee to save thee
Isiah 51:16
Deuteronomy 31:6
Be strong and of good courage,fear not nor be afraid..for the Lord thy God he that go with thee he will not fail the nor forsake thee
Gen 26:10
fear not for I am with thee I will bless thee...
Sunday, February 15, 2009
Friday, February 13, 2009
Faith
Faith sees the invisible, believes the unbelievable and receives the impossible - Corrie ten Boom
The strange thing about faith that I discovered is that it is derived from the grace of God and not so much by our own devices.
It can be lost and regained.
There was a time when I lost my faith.
Being a Lawyer, by nature I'm drawn to logic based on evidence and hard facts.
Based on logic and proven fact, I came to the conclusion that most of what is in the Bible is hearsay, created after the event and consequently, inherently unreliable
The day I made that conclusion ( January 2005) ,my life changed completely. There was an unexplainable void an emptiness, a blank.
The next day,things happened that completely changed my perfect life up to then for the worse.
Events beyond my control dictated that I would lose everything that mattered to me, a perfect disaster, a life in shambles, a cul de sac of horror.
I felt a fear that I had never felt before.
It took a while, lots of prayer by loved ones before I started believing again. Eventually the miracle happened the unbelievable an incident, where irrefutable divine intervention saved the day.
With a thankful heart I returned to the Lord.
I then realised....( about my conclusion of the Bible )
That God is almighty, If he wanted to, he could talk to me through a cookbook.So it really was irrelevant whether the Bible is factually corrector not, If God wanted to speak to me through it he was going to anyway.
What is important is that God has chosen this book, the Bible, to speak to us regardless of its perceived lack of evidential factual reliability.It is up to us to chose to believe.
The same can be said of God.That is faith.
Just look around us, one can't fail to notice the hand of God, his grace, his goodness.
People say there is no God for there is hunger war and cruelty.
The facts speak for themselves. The earth was created perfect and self sustainable to provide every human need.
Hunger? Poverty? The USA and Europe just set out stimulus packages in excess of 5 trillion USD. Divide that sum with the approximately 5 billion human beings on earth, you eradicate poverty.Besides, 90% of famine is the result of war self inflicted by humans.
Drought, pestilence, natural disasters? try climate change due to pollution.
sickness? 99.99 % of all illnesses are attributable to the environment that we have polluted and what we have physically consumed directly or indirectly through a genetic pass through.
cruelty? that's entirely down to us, not God.
The solution to all of the above is very simple.
"Love thy neighbour as thyself".
If every body did that, we would have no hunger because everyone would share,
There would be no war as we would settle our differences by understanding each other, etc.
I rest my case my Lord
Thus the simple commandment of God is the solution of all problems premised first on loving God with all our heart mind and soul.
The solution to your problem? ..... an impossible? unbelievable? invisible.....
Have faith.you have nothing to lose.
Romans 10 ;17 "So then faith cometh by hearing,and hearing by the Word of GOD"
1st Corinthians 2:9 "your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men but in the POWER OF GOD!"
Galatians 5.6 "...Faith ...worketh by LOVE "
Mathew 17:20"...If you have faith the size of a mustard seed...NOTHING SHALL BE IMPOSSIBLE TO YOU"
Amen, all glory and honour be to God.
The strange thing about faith that I discovered is that it is derived from the grace of God and not so much by our own devices.
It can be lost and regained.
There was a time when I lost my faith.
Being a Lawyer, by nature I'm drawn to logic based on evidence and hard facts.
Based on logic and proven fact, I came to the conclusion that most of what is in the Bible is hearsay, created after the event and consequently, inherently unreliable
The day I made that conclusion ( January 2005) ,my life changed completely. There was an unexplainable void an emptiness, a blank.
The next day,things happened that completely changed my perfect life up to then for the worse.
Events beyond my control dictated that I would lose everything that mattered to me, a perfect disaster, a life in shambles, a cul de sac of horror.
I felt a fear that I had never felt before.
It took a while, lots of prayer by loved ones before I started believing again. Eventually the miracle happened the unbelievable an incident, where irrefutable divine intervention saved the day.
With a thankful heart I returned to the Lord.
I then realised....( about my conclusion of the Bible )
That God is almighty, If he wanted to, he could talk to me through a cookbook.So it really was irrelevant whether the Bible is factually corrector not, If God wanted to speak to me through it he was going to anyway.
What is important is that God has chosen this book, the Bible, to speak to us regardless of its perceived lack of evidential factual reliability.It is up to us to chose to believe.
The same can be said of God.That is faith.
Just look around us, one can't fail to notice the hand of God, his grace, his goodness.
People say there is no God for there is hunger war and cruelty.
The facts speak for themselves. The earth was created perfect and self sustainable to provide every human need.
Hunger? Poverty? The USA and Europe just set out stimulus packages in excess of 5 trillion USD. Divide that sum with the approximately 5 billion human beings on earth, you eradicate poverty.Besides, 90% of famine is the result of war self inflicted by humans.
Drought, pestilence, natural disasters? try climate change due to pollution.
sickness? 99.99 % of all illnesses are attributable to the environment that we have polluted and what we have physically consumed directly or indirectly through a genetic pass through.
cruelty? that's entirely down to us, not God.
The solution to all of the above is very simple.
"Love thy neighbour as thyself".
If every body did that, we would have no hunger because everyone would share,
There would be no war as we would settle our differences by understanding each other, etc.
I rest my case my Lord
Thus the simple commandment of God is the solution of all problems premised first on loving God with all our heart mind and soul.
The solution to your problem? ..... an impossible? unbelievable? invisible.....
Have faith.you have nothing to lose.
Romans 10 ;17 "So then faith cometh by hearing,and hearing by the Word of GOD"
1st Corinthians 2:9 "your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men but in the POWER OF GOD!"
Galatians 5.6 "...Faith ...worketh by LOVE "
Mathew 17:20"...If you have faith the size of a mustard seed...NOTHING SHALL BE IMPOSSIBLE TO YOU"
Amen, all glory and honour be to God.
Thursday, February 12, 2009
typo, apologies
Reference was made to the book of second Samuel and not second chapter of Samuel in the prior blog.
Thank you
Thank you
Being Human
Being human, being ourselves shouldn't mean that we are prima facie sinners.
We were built this way. Anger, jealousy, covetousness etc are inbuilt. Proof? Take two babies, put them in a room, give one a lollipop and see what the other does.Inevitably, the other child will exhibit these traits.
People call it original sin. I'd like to think that they were in built mechanisms to protect the human race from each other and from outside threats.
Does it mean that God will have nothing to do with us? Quite the contrary,By his grace Jesus Christ has saved us from ourselves. Just because we consider ourselves to be sinners of varying degree shouldn't mean that we should shy away from God or the church or be afraid to share our views on God.
God cares for and loves us just the same.Just because we are prone to screwing up doesn't mean God will or has abandoned us.
If one reads the second chapter of the book of Samuel in the Bible,one will note that King David screwed up on many an occasion to the extent that it was written that "God was displeased" yet throughout, he was faithful to God and acknowledged him in everything.
Through his many "screw ups" God showed King David his Divine purpose, to bring peace to his people,which eventually David accomplished. At the end,God praised David as his beloved servant.
Footnote:I did not feel qualified to write this but was urged to do so by the spirit.
All glory and honour to God.
We were built this way. Anger, jealousy, covetousness etc are inbuilt. Proof? Take two babies, put them in a room, give one a lollipop and see what the other does.Inevitably, the other child will exhibit these traits.
People call it original sin. I'd like to think that they were in built mechanisms to protect the human race from each other and from outside threats.
Does it mean that God will have nothing to do with us? Quite the contrary,By his grace Jesus Christ has saved us from ourselves. Just because we consider ourselves to be sinners of varying degree shouldn't mean that we should shy away from God or the church or be afraid to share our views on God.
God cares for and loves us just the same.Just because we are prone to screwing up doesn't mean God will or has abandoned us.
If one reads the second chapter of the book of Samuel in the Bible,one will note that King David screwed up on many an occasion to the extent that it was written that "God was displeased" yet throughout, he was faithful to God and acknowledged him in everything.
Through his many "screw ups" God showed King David his Divine purpose, to bring peace to his people,which eventually David accomplished. At the end,God praised David as his beloved servant.
GOD LOVES US for being who we are. God's plan for us is PERFECT even though, right now,we don't know what it is or believe ourselves incapable. Yes, we're only human, Yet we are an important piece in the heavenly scheme of things. God knows and believes that we can suceed because he has given us his grace, now its all up to us...we only need to believe.
Footnote:I did not feel qualified to write this but was urged to do so by the spirit.
All glory and honour to God.
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