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Matthew 6:7 And when you pray, do not use vain repetitions as the heathen do. For they think that they will be heard for their many words.
We do like to have things repeated at times. We do like to repeat things at times. But do we like listening to people who are repeating themselves over and over again?
When we want to take our prayers to God we need to be honest with Him and we need to focus on what we actually are praying for.
When we are very young we tend to ask for things over and over again – our parents could tell us of all the times we have made them mad by asking for the same things time and time again.
Treating God as if He is nothing more than someone we just want to get something out of not treating Him in a right and proper manner. Let us do it properly and with thought!
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Mark 7:7 And in vain they worship Me, Teaching as doctrines the commandments of men.’
It is a very easy thing to tell others about something that sounds so good and promises so much. It is not such an easy thing to admit you got it wrong when it does go wrong.
God does not want us to say things because they sound good. He does not want us to say things because people want to hear them.
God wants us to tell people the truth, the real Gospel story.
We should go to our services to learn more about God and not to hear the latest gossip or sing the latest song. This is God we are worshipping!
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Acts 5:29 But Peter and the other apostles answered and said: “We ought to obey God rather than men.”
This is one of those places in the New Testament where we are commanded to obey God totally. It may not seem like it to us but the original language is quite strong.
I think the wording could have been more like “we MUST obey God exclusively” but that may have given people a way of disobeying authorities.
Man does not always think of everything, but God does. Man may have hidden agendas, God has an exclusive goal.
Trust God and continue to try and do everything for His glory and according to His will. It is profitable for all!
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John 3:4 Nicodemus said to Him, “How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born?”
Some of the things Jesus said to His disciples and followers must have seemed a bit farfetched and impossible to follow at the time; but when we look back on them knowing the interpretation we see what was meant.
Taking words out of context is a very dangerous game and can lead to many things including war!
Jesus would always offer an insight into what He said to allow some people to comprehend what was being said, but many times He did not make it plain to all.
Take what God says and discuss it with the people around you – all will benefit from what you find out!
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John 6:52 The Jews therefore quarrelled among themselves, saying, “How can this Man give us His flesh to eat?”
When we take the word of Jesus literally we miss the point all together!
Jesus did not come as a scientific text book to give us the exact answers of life, the universe and everything; we should not expect to gain that from our Bibles.
What Jesus did give us is hope through promises of what is to come in our futures. If we want to live with Him we have to study His words and gain insight into what they mean, not take them all literally!
Jesus gave His body so we could have life afterward; no matter which way we look at it, it is an enormous promise to get into our heads!
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John 6:40 And this is the will of Him who sent Me, that everyone who sees the Son and believes in Him may have everlasting life; and I will raise him up at the last day.
When Jesus tried to tell the people He was the Messiah they took offense that any man should say such a thing even though they knew their Messiah would come at some stage!
Are we ready to accept Christ in whatever form He comes to us? Are we ready to drop our own work so we can pick up what Christ gives us to do?
The door is open wide and we are invited in – but we do need to go through the door.
That door is Jesus Christ – accept Him now as your Lord and Saviour!
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Numbers 21:9 So Moses made a bronze serpent, and put it on a pole; and so it was, if a serpent had bitten anyone, when he looked at the bronze serpent, he lived.
I love the fact that God used a sign of the evil to take away that evil from the Israelite camp.
God wanted people to realise they would be healed just by listening to Him and obeying His command; and not through any physical thing they could do.
A bronze snake can do nothing! It cannot even do harm like a real snake. Yet that is what God chose for the people to look up to.
God wants us to listen to Him and not worry about all the things in this world around us because He is bigger than big!
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Isaiah 45:22 Look to Me, and be saved, All you ends of the earth! For I am God, and there is no other.
We need to look to God in faith and in prayer; don’t try and seek Him through various other things or through causes because our relationship is through Christ and nothing else.
We must not look at the people who make the most noise or the best noises but look to God.
The Holy Spirit will guide us in our walk with Him, so trusting in Him rather than in other people who talk the talk.
Walk the walk and trust Christ to save you.
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John 3:17 For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.
Let us never forget why God came into the world as a human being!
We may not be able to forgive as quickly or totally as God can because we carry all sorts of baggage with us all the time, but Christ has and does forgive totally.
Christ came to make sure we can join Him in heaven and has opened the door for everybody to join Him; everyone who will trust in Him.
Christ has paid it all, and He paid it with love. Go out and serve Him with love.
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John 12:47 And if anyone hears My words and does not believe, I do not judge him; for I did not come to judge the world but to save the world.
There are times when I struggle to think of the right words to say to others when they have no idea who Christ is.
We can talk about a man going to the cross and being crucified and those words may not convince anybody. We could talk about the miracles and that may confuse others instead of bringing light into their lives.
We do not know how other people think and all we can do is to try and tell them what we know and how we see it. God will work in their hearts to bring the understanding and love.
Let God do what He is best at because He understands how others think; we just guess…
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Isaiah 28:9 Whom will he teach knowledge? And whom will he make to understand the message? Those just weaned from milk? Those just drawn from the breasts?
Are you willing to be taught? Are you willing to listen? Do you act upon what you hear?
These are just some of the questions God would have us to think about and to answer for our own lives.
If we hear the word but do not take it in then we are not willing to learn and will never gain the wisdom Christ wants us to have.
If we stick with the limited knowledge we have, when will we ever grow up as better Christians? Listen and learn from Christ’s teaching!
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Hebrews 5:13 For everyone who partakes only of milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, for he is a babe.
If we do not study God’s Word and His will in our lives then we are going to remain young or immature Christians; the type who are easily led astray…
But when we take time out to read up about God, His Word, His ways and seek His direction, we grow stronger and more mature.
Adults are trusted with things in life because they should have learned more things from life than younger people.
Study more with God and grow in your knowledge and wisdom day by day.
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Matthew 11:28 Come to Me, all you who labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.
Riding a bicycle can be easy. Riding uphill can be difficult. Riding a bicycle with heavy paniers gets more difficult not just because of the extra weight but because of the lack of balance as well!
Things get a whole lot easier if someone can take the extra load in a car or on a train for you and you just meet them at the destination after riding the distance.
If those loads get taken away all together so we don’t even have to deal with them at the destination, things get even better!
God wants us to be able to go the distance by taking those heavy loads we seem to gather in our lives and getting rid of them all together!
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Psalm 38:4 For my iniquities have gone over my head; Like a heavy burden they are too heavy for me.
I don’t know about you but I have dreamt about drowning at least once in my life and the horrible feeling of having the water rise above your head so you cannot breathe is not nice!
If we are going to try to take care of our own sins we will get to the stage when we find we are just too weak to carry on bailing ourselves out – the water will come in over our heads.
Don’t let sin get you down – yes it is wrong and it can seem impossible to let go of it.
If we are willing to give it to God, He can help us get rid of it once and for all!
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2 Timothy 3:6 For of this sort are those who creep into households and make captives of gullible women loaded down with sins, led away by various lusts,
How many times have you been tempted into doing something against a weaker person? How many times have you given in and done something against them?
None of us like the idea of bullying but if we are honest we have been a part of something that can be looked at as being bullying in other people’s eyes!
It is the sin and temptation we give in to which ruins our lives and the lives of others; ditch it and release it!
God wants us to be better people and has made it possible for us to be free from such things – ask Him for strength to combat them!
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Matthew 23:13 But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you shut up the kingdom of heaven against men; for you neither go in yourselves, nor do you allow those who are entering to go in.
If we are going to tell someone it is safe to go out on a branch or to walk across a bridge, then we should be willing to demonstrate it is safe.
If we tell people about God and how great He is, then we should be willing to demonstrate to them we know God and we know His greatness!
Telling people one thing and doing another is one sure way of losing their trust! We need to back up our words with actions.
And this applies to everything we say about God. We need to do things just as we talk about them so others can know the truth and see it in action!
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Isaiah 50:7 For the Lord God will help Me; Therefore I will not be disgraced; Therefore I have set My face like a flint, And I know that I will not be ashamed.
Are you a person who hides their feelings behind a straight face? Are you a person who does not like to allow others to see your true feelings?
I’m pretty sure others can tell exactly what is going on in my life through my eyes and my face!
That is not the intent here. The intent here is not to be ashamed of God, and behind ashamed is something that is very easily shown to others!
Do not be ashamed of allowing others to see how much you love God and how much you depend on Him!
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2 Timothy 1:12 For this reason I also suffer these things; nevertheless I am not ashamed, for I know whom I have believed and am persuaded that He is able to keep what I have committed to Him until that Day.
Christ may have paid a terrible price in our eyes but to Him it was exactly what was required. I martyr may pay a terrible price in our eyes, but to theirs it was what had to be done.
If we really do love Christ half as much as he loves us then we should be willing to do what is needed to get others to know Him too.
When we stop short of the goal we are saying we cannot do it. When we stop before the end we say we are not strong enough.
Christ is offering us His strength and His determination to allow us to reach the goal.
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1 John 4:18 There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves torment. But he who fears has not been made perfect in love.
You may be forgiven for thinking there is fear in love and for relying on the fear we have when we first think we are in love; but true love casts out fear and everything that goes with it.
Getting to know someone can be described as being exciting or terrifying, depending on how you look at it; but it can also be a very steep learning curve for some.
To really know your love for another you need to know them and you need to know it is right to love them.
Don’t get upset about how to love someone, just love them and learn to live with them in your life in whatever capacity that is.
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Joshua 2:4 Then the woman took the two men and hid them. So she said, “Yes, the men came to me, but I did not know where they were from.
Have you ever wondered why God chose Rahab, a harlot, to protect the spies? What would you say a person like that was good at doing? Keeping secrets. Telling lies. Hiding the truth…
God knew it would take a special kind of person to hide the spies from the guards because a normal person would be found out easily!
No matter how bad we think we have been in our own lives, God will always be able to use us in a new way; as long as we are willing to submit to Him and allow Him to use us as we are!