Prayer

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I wonder what you think prayer is and how much of it you have experienced? Is your vision and experience of prayer too small? Let us find out together, a small part of prayer!

Prayer is to be at the centre of the relationship between God and the Christian. It is the major interaction and fellowship between God and humans, and of humans communicating with God, both in talking and listening. Prayer is allowing God to be consciously in to all aspects of Christian's life and enjoying God's companionship.

John Calvin, said that part of praying was asking for "what we have learned to be available" in God's love and of His being the infinitesimal good giver. He goes on to say our "only security" is achieved by calling on the Father for His providence out of His infinite mercy.

Prayer is ultimately what humans were made for: conversing with God. Regardless of status or maturity or any other man-made barrier, God is always accessible, through prayer, to all those seeking Him with a contrite heart and a humble spirit. This dynamic relationship enables the Christian to engage in prayer that is both personal and relational.

All prayer consists of a desire or longing to know God better, and that is to be the prime motivation: to know God better and more intimately. Prayer's function is to a constant yearning for God's assistance! It is to be a strengthening of desire towards eternal happiness, holiness and worship and knowledge of God.

God Himself assists us as we pray! Did you know that? He does this by correcting and strengthening the yearning we express. Prayers express desires and thoughts in a contributory way to the journey of the Christian Disciple. Prayer emits our words from ourselves to the God we seek to know, as a response to His reaching out to us.

Through prayer, God is able to comprehend the Christian Disciple regardless of language, grammar or oratory skill as long as the Christian Disciple approaches with a correct attitude. Words however, are not just to be a mental action but also an emotive act, conveying emotions and feeling. Prayer is to convey deep emotions to God, regardless of our language skills. The words spoken in prayer portray our innermost feeling to Him. Because God is personal, He values language and expects His people to talk to Him. Prayer is intimacy with God!

If for some reason, the Christian Disciple is unable to convey their words in prayer, then Romans 8v26, intimates that the Holy Spirit intercedes. Prayer epitomises the Father-child relationship symbolized in the Christian Disciple's relationship with God. It further symbolizes the freedom and peace in prayer, advocated by Jesus to communicate His deepest desires, as in the Lords Prayer (Matthew 6v9-13) and in John 17.

Don't just have your prayer time in the morning or evening and leave it at that. Pray throughout the day as well, asking God for His assistance as you go about your daily life! Go! Pray!

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Words in Scripture Explored

Spiritual Armour

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Faith

People always say that faith is blind! However the Bible says that faith is a total confidence in God’s faithfulness, which leads to reliance, trust and total obedience to Him (Hebrews 11v6). We see this faith in the Godly obedience of those around us and from the Bible and church history.

Faith in Salvation

For salvation, faith is a voluntary change of mind and heart in the sinner in which the person turns to God, relying on and accepting His offer of salvation through Jesus Christ.

1. Mind - recognition of your need of salvation. Acknowledging Christ’s death on your behalf and your need of forgiveness.
2. Emotional (Heart) – your personal assent to the gospel. You ask yourself, “What must I do to be saved?” and then you agree to make salvation a part of your life.
3. Will - Personal trust in Jesus Christ.

Now as a follower of Jesus, you are to continue having faith in Him. Four things at least you are to have faith in Him for:

By faith - He is praying for you

Jesus Christ is making intercessions for His followers (Romans 8:34). He knew the disciples troubles (Mark 6:48), just as He knows your troubles now. He feels your cares and knows what you are going through (Hebrews 4:14-16).

By faith - He will come to you

Ever felt like God is far away? Well you aren’t alone! King David often felt God was far away and unconcerned. However he also knew God would ultimately rescue him. Jesus always comes to you through difficult times, although He may not come in the time you think He should come, because He knows when you need Him most.

By faith - He will help you grow

When the disciples were in the storm and Jesus came to them walking on the water (Matthew 14:22-33), the purpose of this incident was to show that Jesus would be leaving them soon, so they had to learn to trust in Him when He wasn’t physically present. Peter wrote later on in his life, “for the eyes of the Lord are over the righteous, and his ears are open to their prayers” (1 Peter 3v12).

By faith, He will see you through

At the same event, Jesus said “Come” and Peter went with Him. This must have encouraged the other disciples, for upon seeing Jesus’ power they worshipped him. Whatever troubles you are undergoing are temporary, and Jesus will see you through.

By faith, you have salvation. By faith Jesus is praying, will come to you, grow you and help you through troubles. By being obedient to God, you are showing others your salvation and showing that faith, is not blind, but active!

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Words in Scripture Explored - Partaker

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To partake, or to be a partaker of something, can mean at least three things! Firstly, it means having the qualities or attributes of something. Secondly it can mean having, giving or receiving something. Finally, to partake of something, means to consume!

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Jesus was, and is, a Partaker!

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Jesus Christ was a Partaker! Did you know that? He was a Partaker, in so much as that when He became human, He adorned human flesh and blood Hebrews 2:14-18.

As a Christian Disciple, you also are a Partaker, for you are to hunger and thirst for righteousness or in other words, be Partakers of righteousness. In this pursuit of partaking after righteousness, the New Testament has a lot to say about what Christian Disciples are to be Partakers of.

Here is a list of other things the Bible says that Christian Disciples are Partakers of:

• When you became a Christian, you became a Partaker of the Gospel - 1 Corinthians 9:19-23.
• When you take communion, you are a Partaker of the Lord's Table - 1 Corinthians 10:14-33.

Additionally as a Christian Disciple, you are a: ~

• Partaker of spiritual things Romans 15:25-27
• Partaker of the material benefits of one's labour 1 Corinthians 9:1-23
• Partaker of suffering and consolation 2 Corinthians 1:6-7
• Partaker of the promises in Christ Ephesians 3
• Partaker of Grace Philippians 1:3-7
• Partaker of the crops that are sown 2 Timothy 2:6
• Partaker of His holiness Hebrews 12:10-11
• Partaker of Christ's suffering 1 Peter 4:12-13
• Partaker of the glory that will be revealed 1 Peter 5:1-4
• Partaker of the divine nature through God's promises 2 Peter 1:1-4

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These things that you are to partake of, which lead to a full experience of the Christian life. Lets go, as Partakers of Jesus Christ, to show the world that He is alive through us. ~

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A God Of Love

We live in a world that is in love with love.  Love, according to some people, is what makes the world go around.  In the Bible, God’s love is revealed. The Apostle John in 1 John 4 does not simply say that God loves, but rather that God is love.  Remember that God is the Holy Trinity, three persons in one. The Trinity is a living, vibrant community of love, and every activity of the Trinity, is an expression of love.  God loves because that is His very nature. Throughout the Bible, God’s love is described as an unfailing, everlasting, intimate, sacrificial, unbreakable, conquering, immeasurable and all-knowing.  How is God’s love seen?  It is seen in two ways.

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Firstly, it is shown supremely in that He has given His Son to be the Saviour of the world, so that if a person takes up that opportunity, they can know and enjoy God in a personal relationship.  God had only one Son, Jesus Christ, and He sent Him on a rescue mission to seek the lost and to reconcile people to God.  This is love in action.  The lover dying for the ones He loves.

Secondly, God’s love is shown when Christians love. As a Christian, you are a child of God, so you should want to be like your Heavenly Father, by showing the world your love for others and your transformed character.  The Christian Church should be a community of love, for this is how the world sees God

If people see Christians that are not loving and kind, rightly or wrongly, the whole Church is branded as a bunch of fakes and hypocrites.  Worse still, God is seen at best as nothing more than a distant uncaring irrelevant figure.  The love between Christians is seen as a visible showing of the invisible God.  The very character of the church should always be to reflect God in all aspects.  The ultimate example of showing people God, is for you as a Christian, to love and be love.  People should be seeing God’s love, through your love.  For as Jesus said, “All men will know that you are my disciples if you have love one for another” (John 13:35).

His love releases us from the things that so easilyentangle our daily walk with Him.  The more you hold onto His love, the more you will desire it and the more it will be revealed in your daily life.  Your love in action today, reflects God’s love in action on the cross.  Go and love - to the glory of God!  Maranatha!

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The word for today is Almighty God! Throughout the Bible, God is called Almighty. But how is God, almighty? God being Almighty, can be summed up in 3 words.

Omnipresent – That is God is wholly present everywhere. fills the universe in all its parts without division (Psalm 139v7-12; Jeremiah 23v23-24). For example in Ezekiel 1, Israel is in exile in Babylon and they thought God was left in the Temple in Jerusalem. Yet God appears to Ezekiel in order to show that God was also in Babylon with His people!

Omnipotent – That means God has unlimited power to do all things that are the object of power. With Almighty God nothing is impossible, yet there are things God cannot do such as He cannot do anything that is contrary to His own nature. For instance, He cannot declare something infinite if that something is finite. Omnipotence is an essential quality of God for if God were not all-powerful then He would not be God and would not be worthy of worship. Remember, He stopped the sun during Joshua’s time! Amazing power! God created the universe with His eternal and infinite power! God made everything out of nothing and He sustains it and gives all of it life!

Omniscient - God has perfect knowledge of all things. The Psalmist writes: O Lord, you have searched me and you know me, You know when I sit and when I rise…You discern my going out and my lying down; you are familiar with all my ways (Ps. 139:1-2a & 3). God knows all things, past, present, and future and all possible circumstances and outcomes. Therefore He knows all that we do (which includes the remembrance of all that we have done), all that we think (and the record of those thoughts), and all that we do say and all that we could say.

So God is Almighty in presence, power and knowledge and He is mighty to save. As we seek to live holy lives, let us remember that whatever we do, Almighty God is watching. Watching not to condemn us, but watching in order to love us as any good father does to his children.

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Heaven

What is heaven like? People, both believers and non-believers have an opinion about Heaven! To some its where everybody will meet up after death providing they weren't too bad in this earthly life! The caricature of the comedians is that heaven will be floating around on clouds and playing a harp! So what does the Bible, the foundation for all serious Christian thought, have to say about heaven?

Physical Place:

The first thing to say is that Heaven is a physical place! The Bible describes Heaven as a House (John 14:2); a Kingdom (Matthew 25:34); Paradise (2 Corinthians 12:2-4); Holy City (Revelation 21:2)!. These are all descriptions of Heaven's physical properties!

Characteristics:

Now, look & listen at all these characteristics the Bible offers about heaven! Joy (Luke 15v7-10); Rest (Revelation 14:13); Peace (Luke 16:19-25); Righteousness (2 Peter 3:12); Service (Revelation 7:15); Reward (Matthew 5:11-12); Inheritance (1 Peter 1:4); Glory (Romans 8:17-18). No sitting around on clouds there - for instance: service implies working!

Who is it for and who can enter?

Who is it prepared for and who can enter Heaven? It is for all those recorded in the Book of Life (Malachi 3:16-18; Philippians 4:3); the Righteous (Matthew 5:20); the obedient (Revelation 22:14) and those who are declared holy (Revelation 19v8). People enter heaven through giant gates of pearl (Revelation 21:21). A pearl is formed as an oyster suffers, covering a grain of irritating sand, until the irritation ceases. Now what do you think the suffering was that created these giant pearls that are the gates? It can only be the cross and the incredible suffering and pain that Jesus endured upon it. It is only through the death of Jesus on the cross that you can be declared holy and righteous! Only those who have been declared holy will be able to stand in the presence of Almighty God!

Christian Attitude

As a Christian Disciple, your current attitude towards heaven should be to desire (2 Corinthians 5:2-8), eagerly keep watch for (2 Peter 3:12) and to put your treasure there (Luke 12:32)!

We also see from the Bible that Heaven is prepared, and a pure place!

Prepared: Jesus promised us "I am going to build a place for you" (John 14:1-4). Jesus has been working on heaven for almost 2000 years!! Jesus has prepared a place for those who love Him, trust Him and obey Him as King. He is expecting us, wanting to lavish His love upon us.

Pure: Heaven is also a pure place (Revelation 21:1-4). Today we all suffer in some way. When our King returns, no more will man's inhumanity to man be allowed. No more pain. No more death. No more suffering. No more sin. Perfection attained and it is to the glory of an Almighty and merciful God, that this will occur.

What does this mean now?

All this doesn't mean you are not to be so heavenly minded, that you are of no earthly use. Rather, you are not to be so earth bound, that you are not tied to Jesus in your eternal home - heaven! Won't you tell somebody today, about heaven and how they can get there with you?

Q1. Read Luke 10:20. How can I help others to have their names written in Heaven?

Q2. Read 2 Peter 3:12. How am I looking forward to Heaven?

Q3. Read Revelation 2:7-11. What do I need to in order to be an “overcomer?”

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Words In Scripture Explored

Peace

The world we live in, wants peace! The world is unified around the concept of peace! However, the peace the world wants requires the manipulation of circumstances. God's peace, however, comes regardless of circumstances.

Peace Definition: 'Shalom' was the Hebrew word used in the Old Testament. It means a wholeness of well-being & mind; the total absence of conflict and turmoil evidenced by an untroubled mind and a heart that does not fear! It is total harmony with God, man, circumstances & self. That is true peace!

History of Peace

The end of peace was when Adam sinned and fellowship was broken with God and between humans. God is a God of peace (1 Thessalonians 5:23). and the Kingdom of God is about peace in the Holy Spirit (Romans 14:17). Jesus is referred to as the Prince of Peace (Isaiah 9v6). As a Christian Disciples, you have peace with God through Jesus Christ’s death and resurrection! There are three scopes of peace.

Peace with God.

As a Christian Disciple, you have peace with God because you are justified by faith. This peace gives you access into God's grace and blessings (Romans 5:1-2). Jesus Christ is your bridge of peace between God & yourself. Jesus is also the peace between other people and you, and all hostility has been removed (Romans 2:13-18).

Peace with Others

You are to live at peace with everyone and not to be proud or vengeful (Romans 12vv17-20). You are to do what is right in the eyes of other people and exhibit positive goodness. You are to make every effort to do what leads to peace & mutual edification Romans 14:13-19, and not place stumbling blocks in front of others!

Peace within

As a Christian Disciple, you have the gift of peace with God, from the God of peace (Philippians 4:4-9) given to you by Jesus Christ who is the Prince of Peace! (John 14:27). You are to be a peacemaker, by having internal peace, this shows the fruit of the Spirit. When faced with troubled times & a troubled world, you can have peace through an untroubled, unfearful heart & mind (John 16:33).

How do you gain peace within?

As you live a life in obedience to Jesus, you bear the fruit of righteousness, which is peace, quietness and confidence (Isaiah 32:17). A mind controlled by the Holy Spirit of peace gives a life of peace and total trust in God! (Isaiah 26v3; Romans 8v6). Lastly, when you are content whatever the situation , this enables the peace of God to guard your heart & mind (Philippians 4v11-12). Go, and be at peace with God, others and yourself!

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Words in Scripture Explored - Doctrine

Paul writes in Titus 2v1: "You must teach what is in accord with sound doctrine. " The word ‘doctrine' in a lot of places is unfashionable. They say that doctrine belongs to a time gone by, and that new experiences of God and miracles from God are all that matters. Some churches teach only what they think people want to hear, tickling the ears instead of exposing them to biblical truth led by the Holy Spirit and therefore stirring them into living transformed lives for Jesus Christ.

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What is Doctrine?

The words translated as "doctrine" are found frequently in the letters written by Paul, primarily 1 & 2 Timothy and Titus. The original words are didache (the act of teaching) and didaskalia (that which is taught) used fifteen times. are translated as doctrine. Doctrine is the study of God, as revealed through the pages of the Bible. The more you as a Christian learn about the God you have chosen to follow, the more you will be able to deal with the daily pressures of living in a world who does not want to know about God.

You will continue learning and understanding the very nature of God and therefore be wise in your actions and reactions to conflict and circumstances. You will continue to develop the relationship between yourself and the God you serve.

Doctrine is for all Christians, regardless of education, time of knowing the God personally and status within your church. Indeed, everybody, Christian or not, have doctrines whether they want to have a doctrine of belief or not - that includes atheists who have a doctrine of non-belief!

Doctrine Matters

So, for all people, Christians particularly, doctrine matters. Doctrine matters because what you believe about God, ultimately affects how you will behave. If as a Christian you have solid, biblical doctrine being practised in your life, you will be living a life of total obedience to Jesus Christ. For Christians are to hunger and thirst after righteousness (Matthew 5v6) and this only comes through the continuing work of the indwelling Holy Spirit.

As the mind is renewed and transformed (Romans 12v1) with teaching about Jesus Christ, what the mind learns is put into practice, and your life is being transformed into the image of Jesus Christ. People will start asking you about the reason for the hope you hold onto. That way the Gospel and Good News of Jesus Christ is spread. This hope is also an unending hope, which will enable you to endure to the end and run the race marked out for you.

Finally, learning solid doctrine is important is so that you will be able to discern true Apostolic & biblical teaching from the false teaching of heretics and those who want to lead you astray from the truth. Experiences and miracles are important, but to base your Christian life upon them, and not on solid biblical doctrine, produces a rollercoaster effect and not the constant reliance on the indwelling Holy Spirit for direction, guidance and trust.

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Partake WISE - Serving

Serving God and others is the mark of a spiritually mature Christian Disciple and through service, we reflect the greatest servant of all, Jesus Christ. It was He, who came in order to serve and give his life for others (Mark 10:45). As Christian Disciples we are to be as Jesus Christ (Romans 8:28; Philippians 2:5) and to serve. Yet if we are honest, we sometimes feel incapable, just as Moses did (Exodus 3). An excellent example to follow is that of Stephen in the Book of Acts.

Go Serve!

As a Christian Disciple, you are called to a life of serving God and other people. You are not alone to do this however, but are part of a larger body of people, where each person is also called to perform a serving function. By serving others, it shows unity and solidarity to those outside of the church who frequently accuse the church of infighting and "devouring one another". The Christian life is not to be static or inactive. The Christian life is to be dynamic and active. The word servant is key in Scripture. It is used at least 500 times in its various derivations. Spiritual growth comes from serving rather than being served. This is because what ever is given in service of God and others, faith grows and Jesus Christ gives back even more. Jesus speaking in Matthew 25:15-30 tells of the rewards for faithful service and the penalties for being faithless. Serving others is a sign that you, as a Christian Disciple, trust God and are having faith in Him. By serving others, you fulfil the command that Jesus gave to love God and love others. Showing love and serving each other through your Spiritual Gifts and giving, achieves this aim of obedience to Jesus. As the church, we are dependent upon each other, just as one part of the human body has dependence on another part. That is why we serve each other and use the gifts generously given by God.

When you, as a disciple of Jesus Christ, serve in any capacity, then God's honour is released. This is done because service shows the beauty and glory of Jesus Christ to those being served and to those watching. That is to be our motive for service. Serving is never about what you can get out of it. When that is the motive, God is not glorified. God's glory and supremacy is the goal of all those who would call themselves a Christian Disciple. So go and serve. Ask your church leader how you may serve Jesus in your church today.

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