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Acts 10:4 Cornelius stared at him in fear. “What is it, Lord?” he asked. The angel answered, “Your prayers and gifts to the poor have come up as a memorial offering before God.”
Cornelius was a man who gave to those in need and prayed for those in need regularly; now was the time God was going to answer him in a special way.
How many times do you lift up your prayers and wonder whether God is listening – I know I have been guilty of that in the past, but I know now God is always listening!
God send an angel in a vision to Cornelius to reach out to the apostles; and at the same time God gave visions to Peter to reach out to the Gentiles/Romans.
Don’t doubt God’s abilities; prayer in faith.
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Mark 12:1 Jesus then began to speak to them in parables: “A man planted a vineyard. He put a wall around it, dug a pit for the wine press and built a watchtower. Then he rented the vineyard to some farmers and moved to another place.
What would you do if you were leased a vineyard? Would you just take a holiday and enjoy the weather, or would you work hard to make the vineyard produce as much as possible?
Our bodies could be seen as being on loan from God – how are you treating your body, how are you looking after God’s body?
We do not have a long time here on earth in comparison to the age of the world and even less in comparison to the time we will spend in heaven – are you doing your best?
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John 15:1 I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener.
The Holy Trinity is something many of us struggle with because we try to understand it fully; what Christ offers us is simple words to understand things.
If Christ is the vine who is growing and spreading producing the best fruit, then God is the one behind the scenes keeping things going.
Without a carer we would falter and probably fade away, but with the best carer looking out for us, we can thrive and share the wonderful relationship we have with God, Christ and the Holy Spirit without fully understanding how it all works!
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Matthew 20:1 For the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire workers for his vineyard.
Heaven has open doors – open to anyone and everyone who is willing to accept Christ!
No matter how late you choose, or have chosen to follow Christ, you still get the same amazing gift of eternal life because God has offered it to us.
It is not based on how long we have been a Christian or how good you have been. This is a gift from God, through Christ and assisted by The Holy Spirit, for you!
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Acts 12:13 Peter knocked at the outer entrance, and a servant named Rhoda came to answer the door.
After the Lord released Peter from the prison he wondered around a bit before realising he should be with the people who were praying for him.
But when he went to the house where they were praying, a servant girl came to the door to see who was knocking – being so surprised to see Peter, whom they were praying for, she ran inside without letting him in!
Sometimes in our lives we get too caught up in the things we are doing for God that we lose sight of the simple things we should also be doing for Him. Open the door and invite people in!
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Daniel 5:11 There is a man in your kingdom who has the spirit of the holy gods in him. In the time of your father he was found to have insight and intelligence and wisdom like that of the gods. Your father, King Nebuchadnezzar, appointed him chief of the magicians, enchanters, astrologers and diviners.
I wonder what sort of introduction you would be given by the people you live close to…
We are called to be witnesses of God and of Jesus Christ. If we do not portray that to the people around us, then we are falling short of the mark.
Daniel had built up quite a name because he did not step away from God no matter what. He continued to be God’s light is a very corrupt society.
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Ephesians 1:17 I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better.
I love the way the apostle lifts up the Ephesians in prayer asking God may give them wisdom and revelation of the gospel message.
If you want to bless someone else, what better way that to have God open up their eyes and heart to the gospel so they too can share the wonderful news of Jesus Christ!
Jesus left us with the Holy Spirit for this exact reason – to open our eyes to the gospel and encourage us to uphold it giving all the glory and honor to God in heaven!
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Ephesians 6:14 Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place,
The truth is more precious and more powerful than you can imagine. When people have doubts or come up against the unknown, having the truth in front of them will give them strength and encouragement.
God wants us to take the gospel with us and allow others to see just how wonderful the truth is.
Through us telling others about the truth, the Holy Spirit will be able to work much easier in their hearts knowing the seeds of truth have already been planted.
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Romans 9:1 I speak the truth in Christ - I am not lying, my conscience confirms it through the Holy Spirit -
What do you say when you really want someone to believe what you are about to tell them is the truth? Do you swear on a parent’s life or other strange thing?
The apostle wanted the people to believe in the birth, death and resurrection of Christ and backed it up with a confirmation the Holy Spirit was guiding him.
He was not just saying what someone else wanted him to say; he believed what he was saying was the truth and his conscience knew it to be true.
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Acts 24:16 This will take place on the day when God judges people’s secrets through Jesus Christ, as my gospel declares.
What sort of person do you think you are? Do you go out of your way to keep out of trouble? Do you try to separate yourself from people who are not Christians?
Jesus did not come to only be with those who were Christians; He came to talk to everyone and to encourage others to become Christians…
This does not mean He joined in with what others were doing; He lived His life according to what God asked of Him. We have our bibles which tell us how we ought to live… try follow those words!
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Acts 24:16 So I strive always to keep my conscience clear before God and man.
Because of his past and the way he lived as a zealous Jew, Paul was all the more willing to spread the true gospel message to everyone who was willing to listen!
He also began to realise he could no longer be zealous in the way of religious acts but rather should express his love for Christ and give people the chance of doing the same.
We cannot force people to believe otherwise we are no better than Paul was as a zealous Jew.
How far will you go to express your beliefs?
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Acts 22:4 I persecuted the followers of this Way to their death, arresting both men and women and throwing them into prison
Just how far is too far? How far are you willing to go to keep your habits going? How far do you go to make sure people see things your way?
Paul did not see how far he had gone down the zealous route until God pointed out the truth to him! He thought he was doing the right thing by sending people to prison or to their death just because they wanted to believe in Jesus.
I am truly thankful I live in a country which allows me to express my beliefs – long may it continue this way; we need to make sure people have the choice of following Christ by giving them the truth which Jesus gave us...
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Galatians 1:14 I was advancing in Judaism beyond many of my own age among my people and was extremely zealous for the traditions of my fathers.
It does not matter how far you think you are away from God or how bad you think you are – God is always ready and waiting to take you under His arms!
The apostle was well and truly engaged with Judaism and the traditions which it promoted; traditions which God did not ask for!
But God was faithful to take him out of this life of habits and use him to spread the gospel message to so many gentiles- Paul was called by God!
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Colossians 2:8 See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the elemental spiritual forces of this world rather than on Christ.
Not only should we be watching ourselves to make sure we are not just doing things because of habits, but we need to watch what other people are telling us.
If people are more interested in telling us how to have habits instead of a true relationship with God, then we don’t need them to run our lives for us!
Compare what you hear with what God has told us through reading His word – our bibles.
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Matthew 15:3 Jesus replied, “And why do you break the command of God for the sake of your tradition?
It is funny how we all have our own traditions: some always wash hands before eating anything, some always offer up prayers for their food, some always use their hands for eating…
Our habit may be based on what God has asked of mankind in the past, but some of them have become just that, habits.
It is those habits we have to break and draw back to God and obey Him. If those habit become more important than our relationship with God, we need to put them aside!
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Isaiah 29:13 The Lord says: “These people come near to me with their mouth and honour me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. Their worship of me is based on merely human rules they have been taught.
It is certainly not a new thing where people talk the talk but do not walk the walk – God warned people through Isaiah about how they were saying things without doing the things they talked about.
People have done this throughout the ages – and still we do not learn from other people’s mistakes.
God can see right through us when we are not genuine – we need to stop the pretence and get on and have a proper and right relationship with Christ, just as He wants us to!
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2 Timothy 3:5 having a form of godliness but denying its power. Have nothing to do with such people.
If you read the first four verses in this chapter you will find an amazing array of excuses people have in their lives so they can do what they want instead of the right thing…
But then there are also the people who will portray themselves as being good people, but they will continue to use these same ways in their lives to gain self-worth in some form or another!
We need to be aware of not falling into the trap of following such people and certainly not getting involved with what they are doing!
Continue to follow God and His ways at all times.
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2 Timothy 3:12 In fact, everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted
One of the things we don’t often get told about is reflected by Timothy in this verse: we are all going to face persecution from all fronts when we live our lives for God.
Timothy was under no illusion about the hardships he had to face, but he also knew God was there and brought him through all of those times.
Yes, we will face hard times, but we will survive because God is looking out for us – keep your faith in the one who can look after you!
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Mark 10:21 Jesus looked at him and loved him. “One thing you lack,” he said. “Go, sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.”
When Jesus looked at this man it was not a glance or a look at what he appeared to be; Jesus looked at his heart and what was important to this man.
Unfortunately for this man, Jesus picked up on the fact he was very pleased with all the belongings he had collected over the years because of his wealth he had accumulated… all earthly wonders…
Jesus wants us to focus on what is important in our futures with Him, our heavenly rewards! Do what is righteous and not what the world wants of you!
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Matthew 16:24 Then Jesus said to his disciples, “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.”
When Jesus was talking to the disciples about being disciples, He made sure they understood just what was going to be required of them!
First, they would have to be willing to follow Him. Then they should be willing to give up their sinful ways and obey Him. Then they should be willing to take on any request made of them by God.
We should be willing to follow these same steps when we put our faith and trust in Christ – not just talk about it, but do it!