A True Friend is Trustworthy. God is Trustworthy

 God places a very high value on friendship.

A friend loves at all times, And a brother is born for adversity. Proverbs 17:17 (NKJV)

Most of us want to be loved. We want to have true friends. We want our friends to be there for us, but sometimes we forget that friendship is also a responsibility. If you want to have good friends, be a good friend.

A man who has friends must himself be friendly, But there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother. Proverbs 18:24 (NKJV)

Friendship is so important but you will sometimes be disappointed or even deeply hurt when friends misunderstand you, let you down or even turn against you. But there is someone who will never let you down. God is always faithful.

Do not forsake your own friend or your father's friend, Nor go to your brother's house in the day of your calamity; Better is a neighbour nearby than a brother far away. Proverbs 27:10 (NKJV)

The Bible makes it clear that friendship is a very good thing, a gift from God and an extremely important part of life.

And the Scripture was fulfilled which says, "Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness." And he was called the friend of God. James 2:23 (NKJV)

Jesus Himself valued friendship very highly.

He said these very important words to His disciples shortly before He died on the cross. 

No longer do I call you servants, for a servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things that I heard from My Father I have made known to you. John 15:15 (NKJV) 

A true friend can be trusted. Are you trustworthy? Can your friends trust you? Can God trust you? A true friend can be trusted with secrets. Can you keep secrets? 

True friends share interests. Do you value what God values? God is interested in what concerns you. 

Hear from God and Share the Message

 "Woe to him who gives drink to his neighbour, Pressing him to your bottle, Even to make him drunk, That you may look on his (or her) nakedness! Habakkuk 2:15 (NKJV)

In this chapter we also see the most horrible sin dominating the world in the darkest of times.

    It speaks of evil men using violent coercion and alcohol (or drugs) to sexually abuse powerless victims (male or female). 
        In today’s world rape, kidnapping and trading slaves for prostitution is out of control. It is a huge global industry.

Liberal humanist governments have legalised prostitution in many countries, hoping this will prevent and help control violent criminal sexual abuse but such laws has often have often produced the opposite result.

The democratic freedom we rightly value comes from Western Europe, Britain and former British colonies. These are the countries where the Bible once had a profound influence on culture.

Liberal democracy is only fully effective when there is a measure of respect for Biblical truth and moral goodness.

    When the God of the Bible is ignored or despised, Western Society, once known as Christendom, falls to pieces. That is what we are seeing today.
    All Western Countries are sinking under a mountain of debt and moral confusion.

Habakkuk Chapter 2 vividly describes this chaos. However, in this chapter we also find the solution to the problem.

 I will stand my watch And set myself on the rampart, And watch to see what He will say to me, And what I will answer when I am corrected.  

    Then the LORD answered me and said: "Write the vision And make it plain on tablets, That he may run who reads it.

    For the vision is yet for an appointed time; But at the end it will speak, and it will not lie. Though it tarries, wait for it; Because it will surely come, It will not tarry.

"Behold the proud, His soul is not upright in him; But the just shall live by his faith. Hab 2:1-4 (NKJV)


In the traumatic End Times, faithful believers will seek personal encounters with the Living God of Israel and He will not disappoint us. 

    God will share profound and powerful truths with those who love Him and listen to Him.

When God gives you a message to share, don’t wait until your pastor invites you to preach on Sunday because it probably won’t happen. 

    God calls you to share His messages with the people around you, at home, at work, on the bus and on the Internet.
    But don’t just preach. Live by faith. In these difficult times, only a profoundly personal faith in God will get you through. 
    However, the End Time is not only a time of darkness.

    God will answer our heart cry for His presence in a way we have not yet seen or understood, although many of us are beginning to experience fresh revelations of His glory.

 For the earth will be filled With the knowledge of the glory of the LORD, As the waters cover the sea. Hab 2:14 (NKJV) 

We see a similar message in Isaiah.

Arise, shine; For your light has come! And the glory of the LORD is risen upon you. For behold, the darkness shall cover the earth, And deep darkness the people; But the LORD will arise over you, And His glory will be seen upon you. Isa 60:1 (NKJV)  

It is time for us to begin to see the glory of God in more dramatic abundance than ever before. 

    I believe we will see extreme miracles which will surpass the miracles of Moses and the Miracles worked by Jesus when He lived as a man.

Never before in history has the earth been FILLED with the KNOWLEDGE of the Glory of God but it will happen. 

    And it will happen in the midst of darkness and strife before Jesus returns.

Christian nationalists try to fix this by seizing political power and imposing a legalistic form of Christianity on nations, but I don’t see this in the bible. The revival to come must be from God alone, and not from moral compromises to gain power.

Kept by the Power of God

 We also pray that you will be strengthened with all his glorious power so you will have all the endurance and patience you need. May you be filled with joy … Colossians 1:11 (NLT) 

If you entrust your life into the loving hands of Jesus, you belong to God. You have chosen to use the faith God gave you to put your daily life and eternal destiny in the hands of the Father.

When you belong to the Son of God, you know you are forgiven. You know you have eternal life. You know you have been taken out of the darkness and transferred to the Kingdom of Light.

God is almighty, and that is very powerful. He uses His power to give strength to His children.
The Greek word for Power is DYNAMIS. The English word Dynamite comes from this Greek word. It makes you think of dramatic miracles, of sudden breakthroughs, of instant healings.

All of this is true.  In the Bible we see Jesus performing miracle after miracle, healing the sick, raising dead bodies to life, walking on water, multiplying bread a thousandfold.

But the Power of God is not only for instant miracles. There is another English word which comes from the Greek word DYNAMIS. That is Dynamo. A dynamo is a device for generating a constant flow of electric power.

From New Age to Jesus

 So many people long for love, to be deeply loved, but they don't find it in their families or even in Christian churches. They feel their must be a God. If God exists, He must be supernatural in some way, in another dimension beyond our physical senses.

They have not found real love or any meaningful experience in churches or even in their churchgoing family.

So they start searching. They look online or in bookshops and they start with Yoga or some kind of meditation. They get some relief from stress but not the personal love they long for.

They crave for a loving relationship, so they go from one sexual relationship to another. They might find some fulfilment there or they might even be hurt and abused. So they keep searching.

They read more books on spirituality. They go to fortune tellers, faith healers, Hindu gurus New Age meetings. Some even go on a pilgrimage to India. They have many spiritual experiences, which may be real and they think this is a way of connecting to God, but they still don't find the deep unconditional personal love they long for.

They are open to any form of spirituality, but they shy away from biblical Christianity. They have seen lifeless Christian religion and they don't want it. Or they may have been badly hurt by Christians, even perhaps sexually abused by a preacher or priest.

Walter Heidenreich was a young German man who was brought up in a Christian churchgoing family, but he did not find the inspiration he longed for in church. He became a hippy, searching for profound emotional and spiritual experiences with drugs and New Age culture.

One day he and his girlfriend experimented with an extremely strong dose of LSD. They had a terrifying out of body experience. They were in outer darkness, and they felt they were in the presence of the Devil Himself.

Then they saw a glorious light, and they knew that it was a manifestation of the God of the Bible. God rescued them and restored them to normal consciousness. They compared notes, and they had both had identical experiences.

They then began searching for the God of the Bible. They learned to pray and God answered. They began journey of discovery which led to a strong personal connection to Jesus, a deep understanding of the Bible and a new life with God.

If you search the internet, you will find many stories like this, interviews with Christians who searched for God in New Age and spirituality of many kinds, but then they encountered Jesus and found a whole new life with God.

In the Bible, you see Jesus is the eternal Son of God, the Good Shepherd who pursues wandering souls like a shepherd searching for lost sheep.

“I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep. Jn 10:11 NRSVue

“For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life. Jn 3:16 NRSVue

Jesus said to him, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. Jn 14:6 NRSVue

Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Those who believe in me, even though they die, will live, 
and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?” Jn 11:25–26 NRSVue

Trust in the Mercy of Jesus

 Jesus loves you as you are. If you are an alcoholic, he does not love your addiction, but he loves you.

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. 
For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. Jn 3:16–17 NIV

God created the human race. He loves what he created and he is grieved and angry with what we have done with his creation, but although he is horrified by what we have done, he never stopped loving us.

Some of Hitler’s Nazi leadership group turned to Jesus before they were executed and God forgave them. God will not forgive just because you feel guilty, but you must be willing to change.

So if your life is rotten, do you have to give up all your sins before you be forgiven, before you can receive eternal life. There are sins that you do not even realise are sins. There are sinful addictions that you cannot overcome in your own strength.

Come to Jesus as you are. If you are sincere in trusting Jesus, he will save you first and then set about cleaning you up. Even then Jesus will not force you to stop doing bad things, but he will help you to get free.

“Come to me, all you who are weary and are carrying heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Mt 11:28 NRSVue

We all carry heavy burdens. If we don't have a guilty conscience, there are things we should feel guilty about.

But guilt for sin is not the only burden we carry. It may not even be the burden that is distressing you the most. You may be crushed by the sins others have committed against you, domestic violence, sexual abuse, workplace bullying or many other terrible things.

Come to Jesus with your burdens and let Him supernaturally relieve you of the traumas that you cannot deal with yourself.

Talk to Jesus about your burdens. He is listening. Preachers tell you you must have faith. Many people in despair have cried out to Jesus in spite of their doubts. So many have cried out to Jesus, like this.

“Jesus, if you really exist, please change me. If you are real, I want to give you my life!”

God spoke through and Old Testament prophet:

Call to me, and I will answer you and will tell you great and hidden things that you have not known. Jer 33:3 NRSVue

A grieving single mother mourned the death of her daughter. She went to church and told the pastor she wanted to invite Jesus into her life so she could see her daughter in heaven.

The pastor said that was not a sufficiently good motive to merit salvation. He sent her away. Only some time later she had a personal encounter with Jesus and received salvation.

Do you believe the pastor was right? I absolutely do not. Jesus wanted to meet her as she was. He is willing to receive you and me where we are. When we take the first step, he will lead us on from there.

Love and Justice of God

 In the Bible we see some passages where God is furiously angry. In other passages, God is full of love for everyone. Which God is real, the angry God or the loving God?
This is a problem for many people.

But have a look inside your own heart. You love your children, but you are angry if someone maliciously hurts your child.

What do you think should happen to someone who rapes your wife or your daughter and shows no remorse?

In the Bible, we see that God is love.

And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them. 1 Jn 4:16 NIV

But then we see that God is angry. But isn’t God a loving father? Yes. But could it be that God is angry because he is a loving father?

Jesus said to his disciples: “Things that cause people to stumble are bound to come, but woe to anyone through whom they come. 
It would be better for them to be thrown into the sea with a millstone tied around their neck than to cause one of these little ones to stumble. Lk 17:1–2 NIV

If someone seduces your daughter, and she becomes a prostitute, how do you think you would feel towards the man who ruined your daughter’s life? Would you easily forgive him?

But God is love. He wants to forgive, but only if the offender sincerely wants to change and be forgiven.

God is also a God of justice. Offences must be punished. God wants to save us from our own perverse character, so He sent his son Jesus to be punished and suffer death on our behalf.

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. 
For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. Jn 3:16–17 NIV

Never Give Up!

Sometimes I feel flat, grey, uninspired. Maybe you do too. Don't be discouraged. God has given you life. You have potential. You have gifts. God created you for a purpose, to help people in a way that perhaps only you can help them.

My wife is always helping people and she likes gardening. The elderly lady across the road had a rose garden and my wife helped to look after her roses.

I love writing, so I write Christian blog articles to encourage people to believe, to give people hope.
A retired man in our church is a good organiser. He helps to manage a store room in our church to supply people with food when they can’t afford to go shopping.

Suppose you want to serve God. Find some way to help people in need. Visit a sick neighbour. Drive an elderly neighbour to see the doctor. If you are friendly and talk to people, you can find out what they need and how to help them.

Suppose you are serving God and helping people, but you feel discouraged and lacking direction. Maybe you need to take a break, go for a walk, read a good book, listen to beautiful music, but don't give up. Keep on doing good. Ask God for fresh inspiration and keep going.

Perhaps you reach a dead end. Ask God to give you fresh energy to keep going, or if God closes the door, ask Him to open another door and give you a new direction.

Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up. 
Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, especially to those who belong to the family of believers. Gal 6:9–10 NIV