Weekly words of encouragement

He Will Guide Us – Weekly Words Of Encouragement

Posted on by

He will guide us forever Psalms 48:14 God wants to guide our lives like a good Father. And like a good father he does not want to make us into puppets and predetermine everything we do. He wants to give his children room to grow in their wisdom and exercise their will in submission to Christ. At the same time, if we abide in Christ’s commandments, pray, and seek counsel then we can expect God’s direction. He promises in James 1:5 “If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you” (ESV). This doesn’t mean that we will usually receive a clear strong impression from God on all our important decisions. Once we have fulfilled our responsibility to seek his guidance then we make a decision according to the best wisdom we know. After that, Continue Reading →

honest talk with friend

Being A Friend By Being Honest With Others

Posted on by

With respect to honesty with others, Scripture teaches that we are to “put off falsehood and speak truthfully to your neighbor” (Eph. 4:25, NIV). At deacon-level maturity (1 Timothy 3; Titus 1) we should be able to avoid speaking anything that is plainly false. But we should also avoid all forms of deception, including misleading people by omitting information, and misleading people through silence. Honesty is a greater challenge when it comes to pointing out an uncomfortable truth that others are ignoring, which is important for moving towards elder-level maturity. For example, if someone we are close to or have responsibility for is harming others or themselves with attitudes, words or actions then do we not have a duty before God to say something? “Faithful are the wounds of a friend” (Prov. 27:6, ESV). If someone is turning away from God then we follow the wisdom in James 5:19-20: “If Continue Reading →

Weekly words of encouragement

God Rules All Governments – Weekly Words Of Encouragement

Posted on by

God reigns over the nations;God sits on his holy throne. Psalms 47:8 (ESV) It is easy to forget that God really does reign over the earth. We are heavily influenced by our natural eyes which see all the actions of humans, all the power of governments, and all the might of armies. We elect Presidents and Prime Ministers and we pray they will wisely rule us; and this is good. But “the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal” (2 Cor. 4:18). God is unseen but he rules over the nations. He allows people to harm and destroy one another and so it seems that God is inactive. But in this age he is only letting us choose to love him or reject him. Yet he still has ultimate control and so we do not need to fear. If politicians let us down, Continue Reading →

shame and self-rejection

How Shame & Self-Rejection Sabotage Our Lives

Posted on by

It is inevitable that we will do or experience things that contradict what we believe to be good or valuable, whether these beliefs come from our conscience or somewhere else. When this happens we have a sense of guilt, although this sense can be dim or even completely buried. This guilt – from the contradiction or violation – then produces an inner sense of dishonor, disgrace or inadequacy. This is shame. In a sense, most shame is a sense of sinfulness, since it is awareness of a lack of what is good. We all have shame because we all have standards that we violate. We also commonly violate the standards of those whom our specific culture respects as people of character. We also have shame thrust upon us by people who harm us in degrading ways; corruption is inflicted on us. Much of our shame is left over from childhood. Continue Reading →

Weekly words of encouragement

God Gives Us Victory Over All Enemies – Weekly Words Of Encouragement

Posted on by

You are my King and my God,who decrees victories for Jacob.Through you we push back our enemies;through your name we trample our foes. Psalms 44:4-5 (NIV) God is our King so who will defeat him? He makes decrees for his people, “Jacob”, so that we will have victory. When our enemy is our circumstances then he makes all things work together for good because we love him (Rom. 8:28). When our enemy is our own flesh we walk in the Spirit and defeat the desires of the flesh (Gal. 5:16). When our enemy is other people we win victory by loving our enemies (Matt. 5:11-12). When our enemy is Satan then we stand in victory wearing the armor of God and wielding the sword of the Spirit. Ultimately we do not wrestle against flesh and blood but against dark spiritual powers, and we succeed. (Eph. 6:10-17). Our weapons have divine Continue Reading →