No Returns Allowed

Roman 8: 38-39

“For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the Love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

I wonder how many people out there are waiting for God to throw them away. There is a verse in the Bible about us being branches of the vine and that if we do not produce fruit, we will be cut off and thrown into the fire.

How many Christians believe that and live in the wrong kind of fear of God? This is the scary kind of fear. This is the fear that is instilled by the devil and not from the Holy Spirit. The Bible also tells us that all Good things come from our Father in heaven who knows how to give good things to His children! If we ordinary, sometimes angry, sometime short tempered people know how to give good gifts, how much more then out Father in heaven who IS love?!

One day when I was worshipping with my cell group of ladies, being lead by the Spirit of God, I saw a box there. I have used that pic as the header for this issue.

I received the revelation that in Christ there is NO RETURNS ALLOWED!

No matter what lies the devil tells you and how bad you think you are, there are just NO RETURNS ALLOWED. You have been bought and paid for by the Blood of Jesus. He knew you before the formation of the world, the things you do NOT surprise God at all. He is all-knowing, all-perceiving, omnipresent (and that includes time). God is before and after and right now! He has the PVR of your life. What you are still about to go through, He has already seen! There are NO surprises. And even knowing all the rotten, stinky things you have done, are doing and will do, He has already decided to keep you!

After all, He paid the debts for your sin. Go and sin no more. You are in credit in heaven. The devil can only lie to you, but he has NO power to separate you from the love of God. That you do all by yourself.

STOP! God loves you. He will never love you any more or any less than He does RIGHT NOW. The same he loved you when you received His Holy Spirit.

Amen.

Who Are you? WHO WHO?

The Holy Spirit is a gentleman.

He comes and manifests in your life when you invite Him to. He doesn’t just assume that because He lives in you, He has free reign. Like some friends who assume that just because you’ve invited them to your home that they can wear your shoes or scratch in your fridge!

No, He waits patiently, sitting on the couch EVERY DAY. He just sits there, waiting for you to acknowledge Him and then invite Him to be a part of your life in every aspect. After all, patience is a fruit of the Spirit of God! And He watches us and is grieved by us and is hurt by us and is in pain watching us suffer over and over again as you forget the Power of God and what He has done for you.

When you rediscover the truth, He is there, ever faithful. When you call on Him again, He listens, hears your call and then He is there again, right at your side. To teach, comfort, Love, to be your best friend.

How AWESOME God, is your love for us. When we KNOW we don’t deserve it, you shower us with ALL The goodness that should be reserved for your Son Jesus alone! Only by your grace and righteousness are we known as your children. By nothing else, because we fall so short of the Glory of God.

The shining Awesome Wonder and GLORY that makes me fall down on my face and never want to look at heaven again because I know I am not worthy!

YET, even though I know THAT, I also know that I have been redeemed, saved, uplifted by Your righteous right hand! Washed by the Blood of the Lamb, that makes me clean and whole! Able to BOLDLY and CONFIDENTLY approach the Throne of ALMIGHTY GOD!

Because of your Son JESUS. JESUS! JESUS! YESHUA!

I submit to you my God

I yield to You Holy Spirit and I praise Your Glorious name, Jesus!

Amen.

Titus 3: 3-7

“For we ourselves were also once foolish, disobedient,  deceived...”

As saves souls & Christ containers we must never forget where we came from. We must never forget where we once were. We must never adopt a ‘Holier than thou’ religious attitude. We can never boast of our own righteousness. How much righteousness do you have? I will go so far as to say – NONE! We rely heavily on the righteousness of Jesus to save us. Every day we rely on it. We know that the bible says that God gave to each of us a measure of faith, but it does not say He gave to us each a measure of goodness.

We are saved only by the Mercy of God and not by our own good works or any other thing. Not because we prayed harder, or lived cleaner or were better. Not because we lived in a better neighbourhood, came from a better family or any THING that the world places value on. The world will LIE to you about your own goodness, because it is ruled by the father of all lies – Satan.

God will not lie, He will not even allow you to feel inadequate by using your own measuring stick, rather the measuring stick He gives us is His only Son. The true righteousness, the truth, the way and the life. Neither does He give Jesus on the proviso that you will only receive Him if you’re good enough. NO! He gives us His Son KNOWING that we are putrid, so far from the ideal that we are not even worthy to look to heaven.

Yet, in HIS infinite Mercy and Grace and Love and Kindness and Patience and all that is God, He offers us a chance not just to aim for being as good as His son, but HE offers us a chance to BE His Sons. When Jesus came to live in you and you put Him on every day, God sees Him only. Not your unrighteousness, your failing and your weakness/inadequacy. He only sees perfection. Absolute faithfulness and righteousness.

The world still sees you and will try to convince you that Jesus is not covering you. But always remember, the world is governed by a liar. He is only allowed to whisper in your ear. He is not allowed to remove you from Christ. So you can be secure in your salvation. He is only allowed to try to convince us of the lies in your own doubts, and the people around us. He is not allowed to change the way you look to God.

And who cares what anyone else thinks of how we look? I try not to. As long as my God sees Jesus in me and I am going to see HIS face one day, I don’t care what the world thinks of me at all.

PRAISE GOD THAT I LOOK LIKE JESUS TO HIM!

AMEN.

The Good Wife

Ruth – The Book

In between Judges and Samuel is a book about 2 women. The book i see is about faithfulness and obedience to the Word of God. When a woman leaves her home to become a wife, she leaves her parents and is joined to a new family. He becomes one with her husband and so cannot be separated from his family. As we are in the world, join the church of God, we become the Bride of Christ and so cannot be removed from His family to cleave to ours. We obey His father in heaven and leave behind the world that we come from. This is a very IMPORTANT lesson to modern couples. Too often the women are sheltered and protected by their families to the extent that they never really leave and cleave to their husbands. They always have a safety net available to be there for them when things are too difficult and they do not WANT to biblically submit to their husbands.

Not to become slaves or subject to abuse. But to honour their husbands, and to give them the proper respect in the God-given authority in the home. This emasculates the man and turns upside down the proper order of the home.

A husband in turn MUST love his wife as Christ loves the church. And that’s a tough job!

Not only must you take responsibility, but you must love and forgive and love and forgive and nurture and adore and show her so much affection. Just think of how Jesus treats you and this gives you an idea of how a husband is to love his wife.

In this engagement, there is no space then for anger, swearing, jealousy, violence, abuse, deceit or separation.

In this type of relationship there are blessings and joy and God – who IS love! Where God is there can be no darkness because He brings the light.

This kind of love of love is selfless, abounding in hope and everlasting Joy!

AMEN

Memorial Stones

Joshua 4

Have you set up Memorial Stones for God? So that you will remember and tell your children what God has done for you? We must all remember the times that God has come to the rescue and held back the waters for us. The remembering reminds you of HOW GREAT AND LARGE AND AMAZING GOD is when things are going well and we forget and take for granted our Lord.

I remember times when my life was at its worst – drinking, alcoholism, unnatural behaviour, how there were times of spiritual lucidity. I remember going for about 3 weeks to a little Anglican church in Maitland when times were hard. I remember crying and praying and reading a bible very randomly in the mornings when I felt I had no more reason to live, that I was worthless and nothing.

I remember crying out for help sitting all alone in a bathtub. I remember sitting on a stoep, seriously contemplating walking out on my life and never looking back.

Then I remember getting an sms to see what’s on TBN (didn’t even realise such a channel existed). I remember listening to Joyce Meyer for the first time and thinking – she doesn’t fit the profile! Hearing bit about her story made me think that maybe there’s hope for me.

I remember being saved and feeling like maybe there’s some light for me. I remember submitting ABSOLUTELY to God, not even wanting a will of my own.

I remember looking into my husband’s eyes the morning I first saw Jesus in his face.

I remember the anger and sadness I saw in my brother’s face. I remember the strength given to me to put my house in order and walk away. Sacrificing a part of my heart for God. I know that strength He gives me every time I face that anger and hurt and pain again and again and again.

My God is GREAT! He is absolute. He is everlasting, overwhelming and finite. He is my beginning and He will say when it ends. He lifted me up out of my PIT and HE has saved me. He took me from NOTHING and gave me EVERYTHING, for NOTHING.

Just to show how much He loves me.

AMEN

What do you remember?

Are we all Crazy?

Judges

This book can be an allegory of any person’s life. When reading it I was thinking, are these people sane?!! They’re given everything by God that they need to be satisfied and happy and content. And still they go away, wander off and get lost by worshipping idols. A new generation forgets about that their parents went through and how God saved them.

But these Israelites were going through hell and being mistreated and God sends them a saviour (sound familiar?).  That saviour delivers them from their oppression, idol worship and brings back God’s favour. Because God is faithful, every time the Israelites get themselves into a mess, he hears their call and delivers them. They have peace for 40 years, a new generation comes in and Voila! The same process repeats itself. God is faithful and again and again the process repeats. It goes on like this for many generations until the absolute saviour comes. He has had peace going for more or less 2000 years now.

As people we are much the same, we go to God and because He is faithful, he rescues us. He delivers us from ALL our troubles as the Psalmist writes in Psalm 34. We are grateful and promise God that we are going to be faithful - Until the next distraction arises. Thank goodness that when Jesus rescues me, He does it properly. When God looks at us, He no longer sees me, but He sees His son Jesus. God knows Jesus to be faithful, and so therefore, I am faithful. DO NOT be distracted by the Baals and Ashtoreths of this age. Call on God at ALL times. He is faithful and He will come to the aid of every one of His children. He will never leave you nor forsake you. As he never ever left the Israelites.

He was, is and always will be just a prayer away.  Always listening to the call of our hearts. Open your heart to God and let Him send you an everlasting saviour, who will cover you in Himself and protects you from all who come against you.

AMEN

It’s a New Dawn, it’s A New Day, and I’m feeling Fine!

Hello God, this morning was a nice surprise to see the stars so close and so clearly. The dawn of a new day with all its infinite possibilities. A day I have never experienced and never will again. What a unique opportunity. A time to be spent worshipping at your feet. This day that you have given me. What will we do with this day? Will we use it for fleshy things and waste the day away? Worry about tomorrow and not see the evidence of Joy around you right now? Will you while away the day and think about the day you will finally be happy when...(fill in what you’re waiting for?)

Or will you see God’s glory in your life today? Will you remember the verse in the Bible that says there is no need for the birds of the air to toil and yet they have enough food? Have you ever seen a skinny/anorexic pigeon? Find one, I dare you! Or the brilliance of the colours of the flowers and yet none of them weave to make clothing or worry about what they should wear. I dare you to find a dull weed or a lustreless wildflower.

In the Word of God we are exhorted to choose. Not once, but daily and every minute. We must choose life or death, flesh or Spirit. On this brand new day, with all the infinite possibilities, what will I do with this gift of God? Will I choose life?

Will I speak His name? Will I declare Jesus to be the Lord and Saviour of my life? Will I tell someone of His goodness to me? Or will I hide my light under a bushel and pretend not to know Him?

What do you want Him to do? If you want Jesus to acknowledge you before Abba father, recognise Him in your life today.

Praise God and worship Him in every, and ALL circumstances, be faithful to Him because He is ALWAYS faithful to us.

AMEN