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Ephesians 4:7 But to each one of us grace was given according to the measure of Christ’s gift.
It may seem hard to believe a statement like this after you have just had someone shout down your neck or turn round and say they hate you, but Christ has given each of us an amazing gift of grace.
It is not just the grace that Christ show us but the gift of grace that He has given to us. He has shown us grace beyond measure, beyond what we can imagine…
But He has also given us the ability to show others grace. That needs to come from deep inside of us where He has planted it and not a shallow gesture we think is good enough!
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Ephesians 4:27 nor give place to the devil.
Don’t take it too personally, but you probably do give place to the devil! We all give in to temptations and we all do things that are not always the best things to do…
God’s grace goes beyond what we can do to work against Him and beyond our failings, so don’t get too worked up about failing or giving in!
Yes we do need to try and we should try as hard as we can, but we will still make mistakes and we will still fall and get hurt.
Reach out to ask God for a hand!
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Colossians 3:9 Do not lie to one another, since you have put off the old man with his deeds
Part of our human side is that we lie in various ways. It may not seem like a blatant lie to us but when we withhold the truth we are not telling the truth…
Leaving our human nature aside and moving forward with The Spirit is what God would like of us so that we can show others more of His nature.
God shows us grace and mercy every day by forgiving the many things we do wrong in our lives. Living with that forgiveness allows us to bask in God’s great love.
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1 Corinthians 15:46 However, the spiritual is not first, but the natural, and afterward the spiritual.
Our physical bodies have to have life breathed into them to start us going. God created us so that when we are born the body starts into motion and does not stop until the physical body dies.
Our spiritual bodies have to grow as well, being given life through our accepting Christ into our lives.
We can use our physical bodies to gather spiritual food so that when we do die, our spiritual selves can take on the meaning of life for us and live with God.
We need to make sure our spiritual bodies are fed enough whilst we can because we will be living that spiritual life for a long time.
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2 Corinthians 5:1 For we know that if our earthly house, this tent, is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.
We can marvel all we like at the complexity of our bodies and glorify God for all that He has created us to be, but if we just look at these earthly bodies then we are limiting our outlook!
We know we have a better place than just to live inside these earthly bodies because God shows us this and tells us this. Whether we look at this as the time we will have when we get to heaven or before that should not matter.
God gave us an eternal soul into which he wants to bring love, joy, peace and all the other fruits of The Spirit.
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1 John 5:19 We know that we are of God, and the whole world lies under the sway of the wicked one.
We do know deep inside that we have been created by God; but whether those thoughts come to the surface or not depends on how we spend our lives.
If we focus on the world and all the evil within, we will keep our eyes and hearts on all of that evil; when goodness starts to surface it will be drowned by that evil.
Satan is the master of cover because he will cover our good and righteous thoughts with all manner of evil so that we do not focus on those good and righteous things.
Unless we leave behind those evil things, we will never rise above them.
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Genesis 8:21 And the Lord smelled a soothing aroma. Then the Lord said in His heart, “I will never again curse the ground for man’s sake, although the imagination of man’s heart is evil from his youth; nor will I again destroy every living thing as I have done.
This is one of these places in my bible where I marvel at the faith and trust of a human being toward God.
Noah may well have just witnessed the greatest destruction on earth, but now he was facing loss of everything if he were to burn all of his food.
His dependence would be totally on God from this point on because everything was destroyed and now he was sacrificing a whole lot of provision.
But he trusted God and glorified God. What do we do?
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Amos 5:21 “I hate, I despise your feast days, and I do not savour your sacred assemblies.
I used to hate coming home and smelling tripe being cooked; to me it was a smell that turned my stomach and not one that encouraged me to eat!
Just as we really do hate some smells, God does not like what we bring to Him unless we are bringing it from our hearts.
If we do it just because that is what has been done before, we may as well offer tripe instead of a nice joint.
God would rather we gave less, but more quality and with more love and feeling than give bucket loads of rubbish!
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Ephesians 5:2 And walk in love, as Christ also has loved us and given Himself for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling aroma.
Children copy us. Don’t ever think that children don’t see what we do, hear what we say and take it all in. If there is one thing that I have learned as a youth leader is that children imitate!
God wants us to be more like children in that respect, picking up the righteous things He has shown us and copying them; not picking up what the world does but what He does.
Being imitators of the world will only get us into trouble and not into Christ’s arms. Be more of a sweet aroma and a sour stink to the people around you!
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John 13:15 For I have given you an example, that you should do as I have done to you.
When you get yourself settled into a position of authority or power, one of the hardest things to do is to throw all of that authority and power away and become like a servant again.
We tend to keep hold of the blessing we gain and not share them with others. We tend to take and not give back.
But when we acts as a servant, following how Christ was willing to wash His disciples’ feet, we then give the love back into the world that we take out.
Love is two way, but must start from you to be effective.
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Matthew 20:28 just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many.”
It is amazing to think that Christ came here to teach us about God and not to come and be served and revered as a king.
When I see the amazing cavalcades that some leaders in third world countries demand just because they are in power and compare that with Jesus coming into Jerusalem on a donkey… lost for words!
Jesus Christ is the Son of God and yet came as a mere human being not seeking praise as human leaders demand it, but to give His own life for us so that we can live eternally in heaven!
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1 Thessalonians 5:10 who died for us, that whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with Him.
We do not have to reach certain goals in order for Christ to be with us. We do not have to be awake 24-7 in order to make sure the Holy Spirit can use us.
God is with us always and can use us in all circumstances in our lives. We don’t have to be willing, but it does help!
God would like us to be willing to do His will and to live by His Word. Christ came to die for us so that we could understand that He is already willing.
Are you ready to turn and allow Christ to work in your life for others?
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Psalm 4:8 I will both lie down in peace, and sleep; for You alone, O Lord, make me dwell in safety.
No matter how much other people may promise you, it is The Lord that is looking out for your soul.
We may have very good friends who love us to bits and care for us deeply, but God alone is the one who cares for your soul.
I love my dear ones more than anything and give all I have for them and to them, but God alone looks after their souls.
It is God we need to look up to because He reaches down to us wherever we are!
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Psalm 139:2 You know my sitting down and my rising up; You understand my thought afar off.
No matter how far we get away from God or run in the opposite direction, God is able to see us and to know us.
This does not mean that God wants to hang around people that are sinning all the time; but it does mean that he knows exactly what is going on.
God knows when we need help before we do and may well be the one setting things in motion before we ask.
This should never stop us from asking…
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Psalm 19:12 Who can understand his errors? Cleanse me from secret faults.
Sometimes it is hard for us to accept things as being sinful. Other times we may be doing things without realising they are sinful ways.
How can we ever hope to be aware of all of our sins unless there is someone watching us always and telling us of every sin; I fear that stress would be too much for any of us and we would fail.
God wants us to be aware that we have sin in our life and that we can bring everything to Him. Allow Him greater freedom in your life to show you His ways before they become sinful habits.
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Galatians 5:17 For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary to one another, so that you do not do the things that you wish.
We have ways in which we like to work and ways in which we like to play; these ways do not always line up with God’s ways!
Our ways are probably more in line with the desires that we have in our lives rather than the needs we have in our lives. If we allow those desires to have their way instead of our needs then we allow the worldly ways to come first.
God wants us to follow His ways which He teaches us through love and through the Holy Spirit as He guides us through His Word.
Allow God greater freedom in your life!
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Titus 3:9 But avoid foolish disputes, genealogies, contentions, and strivings about the law; for they are unprofitable and useless.
How many times have you turned to various things like horoscopes, palm reading, looking back on family patterns, the position of the moon and the like?
So many of these things do directly affect our lives and can be proven to do so, but God is able to change people over and above these things!
God is in control and He can change your life more than any physical intervention can because He will change it from the inside and not the outside like these will.
Trust God more than you trust man!
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Titus 3:8 This is a faithful saying, and these things I want you to affirm constantly, that those who have believed in God should be careful to maintain good works. These things are good and profitable to men.
What would you do if you saw someone who said they worked for animal welfare beating a dog? I know that sounds a bit extreme but when we say we are Christians, we really should act like it!
Acting like a hooligan is not going to encourage people to become Christians. Acting like you don’t care about God is not going to win people!
God would like us to be good examples for Him so we can shine in this dark world, not hide in it!
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Titus 2:11 For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men,
How do you feel when you are left out of some sort of event or meeting just because you are in the wrong class, building, country or other classification?
God started with the Jews to focus the minds of the people and to make sure they knew He was God of everything.
When Jesus gave His life it was given for everyone, more specifically given for the purpose of forgiveness to everyone who believes it so.
That does mean anyone can accept this free gift from Christ!
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Acts 15:11 Now therefore, why do you test God by putting a yoke on the neck of the disciples which neither our fathers nor we were able to bear?
Going against church leaders is nothing new; it is something that has happened throughout history and continues to happen with many people being hurt along the way.
God does not distinguish between various races, sexes, countries or even our pasts; He is looking at our hearts and wanting us to believe from our hearts.
Christ died for all sinners and as long as our leaders are bringing us the Gospel according to Christ, then we should listen to them as well.