Christianity without limits

For a long time now I have limited ministry to Sunday meetings. Prophesy, healings, words of encouragement, preaching/ teaching the Word into peoples' lives have all been boxed up and put into the Sunday morning compartment. The box whereby I give to the church. The box where the only beneficiaries are church people.

Is this what Jesus intended?

He said ''you are the light of the world''

and also ''Go into all the world and make disciples.''

Jesus' intention, it appears, is for all people to be beneficiaries of the Spirit inside me. In fact whereas the mentality often has been 'invite people to church so that they can connect with God' we can connect people to Jesus ourselves as we go out into the world.

Consider this.

God is love. So when we love people with the love of God we give people an experience of Him.

Jesus is the Word. So when we speak the word into peoples' lives (speak words of truth, of encouragement) we connect people to God.

Jesus is the light of the world inside of us so as we allow our light to shine onto them we give people a taste of His overwhelming light.

A Christianity like this means there are no limits. That God wants us to take His light into a dark world and that this is where the emphasis should be. Going out and bringing life where there was none, hope, light, grace, love, peace, joy into a world that desperately needs God.

So let us expand our horizons and see beyond what is right in front of ourselves.

A life of love, or a life of tasks?

The greatest two commands in the Bible are to love. Firstly God, then others. Yet I'm finding that the busyness of life, the huge number of tasks that need to be accomplished try to crowd in and dampen the love in me. In these times I adopt a task based mentality. It is an inwardly focussed mindset. The goal of my life changes from loving and giving to a survivalist goal of trying to make it through the day. My only thought is getting all the tasks finished for the day. I rush through the day and finish it exhausted, cramming as many activities as possible into every waking second. Multi-tasking, working whilst out with the family just to get as much done as possible. And getting stressed in the process.

Jesus did not live this way. He prioritised love over stuff that needs to be done, and by doing so His life had a massive impact on those He came into contact with.

Application? - people are more important than tasks. Take every available opportunity to give, to bless, to impart God, to love. Prioritise people. And know that one of the subtlest enemies of living a life of love is living a life of tasks. It is often our agendas and lists that prevent us from seeing the real needs.

Even so there will still be essential tasks that need to be done each day.

So, how do we do these tasks without losing a giving, loving attitude.

For me, I need to learn to refuse the voice that demands I rush through as many activities as possible. To slow down and make the purpose of the essential tasks about love. For example, only today I was making the evening meal for everyone but instead of treating it as a chore to be done I reflected on the people that were to be blessed because of it. And thus my heart motive changed from doing a task to one of giving out love. And weird as it sounds I much more enjoyed doing the cooking! It really is more blessed to give than it is to receive as long as our motive is of love and not chore.

The right perspective of God - the key to enriching our relationship with Him.

Relationship with God is the most important thing we can have. It is God's number one priority with us and it is to be ours with Him. However, to make sure that this relationship is the most rewarding and the most fulfilling it is essential to have the right perspective of God. Here I will talk about just a couple of important attributes:

 John 8 v 2 - 11

God is always seeking to remove every barrier that stands between us and God. God's grace breaks through every barrier, every obstacle in order to break into our lives.Whether it is barriers that we ourselves are putting up or barriers that other people are putting up God's grace is sufficient to break through. In this story the barrier was condemnation. But then as now Jesus stands up to every voice that accuses and brings grace and offers restoration and hope. God's grace is always pouring out on us, His arms are always stretched out toward us. Intimate loving relationship with us is the most important thing to Him. God's grace meets us exactly where we are. We don't have to perform any better to meet Him, we don't have to pretend we are, somewhere that we are not. He knows us completely and He accepts us completely. His grace is stronger than any force that seeks to disconnect.

Furthremore, God is faithful. He will never leave us nor forsake us. He will always fight for us, He will never give up on us, even when we give up on ourselves.

Video - Footprints in the sand  - Leona Lewis

To get a better perspective of God we must look only to his word to see who He is and not let our experience of dealing with people taint this view. God is holy. God is pure. He is totally trustworthy.Totally good. The more we meditate on these truths the better our perspective of God will be and hence the better our relationship with Him will be.

Pride - a deluded opinion of who we are.

John 5:44 How can you believe, you who receive honor from one another, and seek not the honor that comes from the only God?(KJ2000)

Receiving honour and praise from each other and not seeking it from God seems to be one of the biggest hindrances to belief. But why? Belief is in the heart. So how can receiving honour, affect our hearts?

Is it that by doing so our egos get massaged into such a state that we believe we are better than we are, more important than others, that we think too highly of ourselves. Is it that by doing so we let pride into our hearts? 

Pride is most dangerous. Usually we concern ourselves with low self-esteem. But pride is worse. Pride is an over-inflated view of ourselves. Pride is a state of our hearts that says "I don't need God, I can do this on my own." Pride stops us relying on God and puts a huge barrier between us and God. Pride says "I have no need to pray, I can do this just as well myself."

Humility leads us toward God. It reminds us that we have need of God. A humble heart is a healthy heart. Humility is the true perspective on ourselves and our abilities. Pride is a deluded opinion.

And in this verse, tucked away, is one of the biggest sources of pride. Seeking and receiving the honour, the praises of people, seeking popularity, reflecting on just how important others' may view us. All of these things feed our hearts with pride.

The opposite of this is to reflect on how God views us. He is the truth, after all, and by seeing things through His eyes we will remain humble.

John 15v 5 "Apart from Me, you can do nothing (of eternal significance)"

Phil 4v13 "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me."

 

The truth is we are incredibly important and  incredibly valuable because Christ died for us. We are incredibly able because Christ lives in us. (Gal 2v20)  

So let us feed our hearts with nutrition by reflecting on God's view of us and our relationships with Him with prosper. Let us be wary of believing others opinions.

John G Lake quote

'We may never get 1 half or 1 quarter of the way towards the ideal. But never try to degrade God's purpose and bring it down to your level. But by the grace of God put the standard up there where Jesus put it and then get as near to it as you can.'

So let us never get discouraged by times when we fail, let us never lose heart when we take risks and step out and don't see the success we wished for. Rather keep believing, keep expecting for by so doing we will achieve great things for God's kingdom.

Pursuing righteousness

'blessed are those that hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.'
Matt 5 v 6

There is a holy satisfaction that comes from a pursuit of living the way God wants us to. As we listen to the promptings of the Holy Spirit and are obedient to Him we are filled with a joy and a peace that comes only from walking His path. Jesus described doing the will of God like eating food in John 4. So let us listen, obey and may our souls be delighted.

Love changes the world - forever!

Love endures all things 1 cor 13

Ever wondered why Jesus said loving God & loving others were the top 2 commands?

Many reasons probably but one that struck me today was that love is eternal. Love spreads and lasts.

E.g. As I love someone with the love of God that love is transmitted into their heart and they then love out themselves. One act of love could last for eternity -  as I love someone, they love someone else and that love is passed to a younger generation and so on. The love that I give out can last far longer than my lifetime. When I have left this life and am in heaven, the love that I have given out can still be living on in peoples' hearts- people that I have never even met.

Indeed there may well be love living in my heart that originated from a person's initial loving out centuries ago.

Remember, it all starts with allowing God to fill my heart with His love, then seeking opportunities to spread it out.

The purpose of life: to connect ppl to the love of God. Amazingly, I can still be having an effect here beyond the grave!