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John 15:11 I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete.
Jesus continued to give the disciples the truth from God and how much God was in control of everything.
All the words He gave to the disciples, and hence to us, are from God to show us His love for us; this is the gospel story which we have to continue to pass on to others.
He did not give us these words as propaganda or for other strange reasons; just simply so we can know how much He loves us and can live with that hope and truth every day.
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John 15:10 If you keep my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commands and remain in his love.
None of us can ever hope to understand all Christ had to go through to cater for all of our sins; but we do have the results written down in our bibles.
Jesus kept His Father’s commandments because He loved Him. We ought to keep His commandments for the same reasons – because we love Him.
We remain safe in His arms as long as we trust Him and stay close to Him; if we wander off, we wander away from that safety.
Stay close. Stay Safe!
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Hebrews 5:8 Son though he was, he learned obedience from what he suffered
Sometimes it is hard for us to obey others, especially when we believe we are in the right and they in the wrong; but obedience needs to be cultivated in all of us.
God alone knows the whole picture and He continues to try and make sure we get to see as much as we need to cope with life and all it throws at us.
But if we choose not to listen to His guidance, then we choose a path of our own; one which will probably end in destruction because of the unseen pitfalls!
Trust in Christ just as He trusted in God!
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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 as a ransom for many.
When Jesus came to minister to the world, it was not as a huge god who would not dare to be seen with mere mortals, but as a human being Himself!
He did not come to listen to those who would tell Him what to do, but rather to give out the actual truth straight from God the Father.
And then, after doing so much to spread the gospel, He fulfilled the gospel by laying down His own life so we would not have to!
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Galatians 2:20 I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.
When we become Christians, we have declared we want to give up our old lives and live a new life with Christ.
This does not mean we have literally gone to hang on the cross with Christ, but have accepted that He has done that for us.
He gave us the Holy Spirit to live within us at that moment we accepted these ways; a spirit who will guide us every step of the way is we listen!
Leave the wants of the physical world behind and focus on the spiritual requests from God!
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Philippians 3:9 and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ—the righteousness that comes from God on the basis of faith.
The apostle may well have concluded that everything of the world was of the same worth as dung in comparison to what God can give us, but he knew who the supplier was of his worth.
It is because of what Christ has done we have the gift of eternal life and not because of us following the law or keeping things righteous!
Christ gave it all so we could live with Him. Christ gave His life so we would not have to give our own. It is because of Christ and not because that is what people say…
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Romans 4:5 However, to the one who does not work but trusts God who justifies the ungodly, their faith is credited as righteousness.
Don’t take this part of the chapter out of context – as Christians we are not called to do no work, but the opposite!
The work we do, though, should not be focused on earthly reward but on how we can do things for God – not just for renumeration from Him, but because we love Him!
God wants to give us many things and show how much He loves us, but, equally, does not want us to work only because He is going to give us things – that is not really about love…
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Romans 4:4 Now to the one who works, wages are not credited as a gift but as an obligation.
Have you noticed the people who try to work through life by doing it all themselves are the people who think it is a debt owed to them?
The more we lose focus on God and focus on the world, the more we will think the world owes us because of the work we are doing; or worse still, the more we think society owes us!
When we try to do it all on our own term we should not expect any reward other than what we can gain – not forgetting there are more people out there not following the same rules as us!
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Galatians 3:12 The law is not based on faith; on the contrary, it says, “The person who does these things will live by them.”
The law is not the law just because we believe it is; it is the law because that is what is written down and was set out in the beginning.
If we agree to abide by the law, then we agree to live by those rules; it is our choice, but it does not change the law!
If we do have faith in what is written down we will live by those laws written down, or at least try to because we do have hope in what will come out of them.
The law is still the law…
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Genesis 15:6 Abram believed the Lord, and he credited it to him as righteousness.
I always think the words seem to fall short of the mark here when they describe Abrahams faith.
This is not a “OK, I will trust you if I have to” or a “if there is nothing else” kind of faith; but rather a total commitment to what God has said will happen.
It is not a “I will believe it when I see it” or “I will believe this part, but not that part”; rather a belief in all that has been promised by God.
How is your faith measuring up today?
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Genesis 15:3 And Abram said, “You have given me no children; so a servant in my household will be my heir.”
How well do you listen to God? It is very difficult to listen when He tells you something which you think is difficult to hear!
Abraham and Sarah were well past the normal age of child bearing, and yet God was telling them they were going to have a child; what they did was try to hurry God along by helping out in their own way.
God does not need us to help Him make decisions, to help Him change things He has already said will happen or to stop things He has said will stop.
Stop and wait on God…
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Psalm 91:4 He will cover you with his feathers, and under his wings you will find refuge; his faithfulness will be your shield and rampart.
Some of the words in the Psalms are so poetic and still remain as beautiful today as they were so many years ago.
We may not have much use for bucklers and such, but the picture of a mother hen or other bird covering their chicks with their wings is beautiful.
In many parts of nature, parents take unimaginable risks against danger to keep their offspring safe; God does go to extraordinary lengths to keep us safe… when we do listen to Him!
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Psalm 18:2 The Lord is my rock, my fortress and my deliverer; my God is my rock, in whom I take refuge, my shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold.
This is one of those verses where I tend to think “oh, how Christianese!”
David knew God was not just real, but everything to Him. That did not stop him from making mistakes, but it did give him something to come back to every time he admitted to his faults.
God is that bedrock upon which everything is built. He is the place we can all return to when things fall apart. He is the place where we can hide when we are frightened of the world around us.
He is our safe place!
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Psalm 18:30 As for God, his way is perfect: The Lord’s word is flawless; he shields all who take refuge in him.
One thing many people struggle with is the fact that God is perfect; we live in a broken world where ever the most pious of people make mistakes – but God does not.
He made sure we had the truth written down for us and backed up with witnesses – more so than our judicial systems around the world!
Everyone who does trust in Him will not be disappointed in what He does and can do; but we find it hard to trust in someone, especially if we cannot see them!
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Psalm 12:6 And the words of the Lord are flawless, like silver purified in a crucible, like gold refined seven times.
God’s Word should be our standard – the thing we hold up before us and take into battle. It is God’s Word so is the truth!
We need to base our lives on truths and keeping His Word at the centre of our lives should be our daily aim.
God’s Word has not been changed for thousands of years, unlike many of our own laws and rules – keep it as your battle standard today and move forward with it.
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Proverbs 8:8 All the words of my mouth are just; none of them is crooked or perverse.
How many times can we say this about our own words? I know I do break this on regular occasions still!
We are human and we do stretch the truth or lie; but that is not what we should be doing. We should be aiming to keep the words which come out of our mouths as the truth!
Jesus set a great example and we should be following that; not just wherever we can, but always. Always try and give the truth out!
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Psalm 19:8 The precepts of the Lord are right, giving joy to the heart. The commands of the Lord are radiant, giving light to the eyes.
What happens when we break the law of the land? We are probably going to get a visit from the local authorities or police in order to sort things out!
When we go against God’s law, who should we expect a visit from? I personally would not like to get a visit from God or even an angel if I know I am doing something against God!
The law is not there to scare us into doing right, but as guidelines to show us what is right and what is wrong – we have to make the positive choice to choose right!
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Ephesians 6:1 Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right.
These words given to the Ephesians are a reminder of the commandments given through Moses to all people. But can also be seen as a slight clarification.
We should not blindly obey our parents just because they are our parents; if they are telling us to go against Christ and His teachings, then we should be following Christ instead!
When our parents or guardians are trying to teach us or show us Christ, then we need to stop and listen – because this is right in Christ’s eyes.
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Deuteronomy 5:16 “Honour your father and your mother, as the Lord your God has commanded you, so that you may live long and that it may go well with you in the land the Lord your God is giving you.
God’s commandments were carefully selected (by God, not Moses) to be easily remembered and essential to our Christian way of life. None are to grievous to follow, and yet all are broken regularly.
Christ’s reminder to the disciples was to love God and love our neighbours because all of the commandments become a whole lot easier to keep and follow when we do express our love towards others.
It’s not rocket science – it’s simple Christianity.
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Judges 7:21 While each man held his position around the camp, all the Midianites ran, crying out as they fled.
God did not require Gideon to be the strongest man or harshest ruler; just to listen to Him and obey God.
When Gideon’s army had been whittled down to virtually nothing, God then stepped in and used His powers for a hundred obedient men!
God wants us to listen to His will and to obey His requests in our lives. We don’t have to rule the world or break the world, we just have to have God on our side doing the fighting for us!