The Mercy of God

 Death is a reality that haunts all of us. If you believe that death is the final end, the day the lights go out for ever, you may live in fear, or you many persuade yourself that you have a limited time to enjoy yourself or achieve great things, and that is all.

But then you find that life is not all happiness. You find pain, disappointments, traumas. There must be something more!

The closer we come to then end of our lives, the more the certainty of death creeps into our thoughts.

If you have a Christian background, you hope you might go to heaven, but God is far away, up there somewhere. How do you know how God will judge you when you meet your maker face to face?
You might think you have been a good person, but if you are honest, you will know you have not been a real saint.

Then you read the Bible and you come to the Sermon on the Mount, where Jesus explains what God is looking for in your character.

Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God. Mt 5:8 NIV

You know you look at bad stuff on TV and the internet. You don't qualify.

Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy. Mt 5:7 NIV

You have been bullied by your family, at school or in your workplace, but if you are honest, you know you have also treated other people badly. You have often not been merciful.

I talked to an elderly lady who was a devout Catholic, but she had suffered much in her family life and her marriage had been terrible. She was chronically traumatised and very bitter, in spite of her efforts to be a good Catholic.

At the mention of death, she responded with dread. I spoke to her about forgiveness, about mercy. About hope, about heaven, about a better life to come.

Her heart began to soften. Her rage faded away little by little.

I visited her and we talked on the phone. I kept talking to her about our heavenly hope. There is only one way to heaven, and that is through faith in Jesus.

If you cry out to Jesus for mercy, he will hear you.

Anyone can reach God. If you are not sure about God or Jesus, you can simply cry out from your heart.

“Jesus, if you are real, if you are really the Son of God, show me who you are, help me out of my desperate situation.

Jesus, if you are real, come into my life and change me. Have mercy on me.”

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 

No One Is Always Right

Bible knowledge and spiritual gifts are from God and they are good, but knowledge and gifts come with dangers. A gifted leader with excellent knowledge can become overconfident, self righteous, convinced that he is always right.

I knew a preacher with amazing bible knowledge, healing gifts and a wonderful evangelistic ministry. He was zealously devoted to sound doctrine, but this became an obsession which alienated him from other preachers who had different beliefs, even small differences of opinion.

He tried to pastor a local church, which was a mistake, because his primary gifting and calling was evangelism. His local church failed dismally, with membership declining until there was only a tiny home group left. Still he persisted, burning himself out to earn a living and missing his calling to be a full time travelling evangelist.

If you are in a church where the pastor has wonderful bible knowledge and spiritual gifts, that can be good or it can be bad.

• If the pastor believes he is always right, that is dangerous.

• If the pastor believes he knows better than everyone else, everyone in his church or even better than other ministers, that is dangerous.

• If the pastor believes he is entitled to make every decision for every ministry in the church, that is dangerous.

If you are in a church like this, there are several dangers.

• You can become overly submissive, so that you let the pastor dictate all your personal decisions.

• You can zealously adopt all the ideas of your pastor, so your pastor takes the place of God in your life.

• You can become like your pastor, believing you are always right.

• You can rebel against control, which is good, but then you construct your own understanding of truth in such a way that you disagree with your pastor, but you are infected by his wrong attitude, so that you believe you are always right.

• You can attach yourself to another prominent church member with a legitimate grievance but also with a personal agenda. This can lead to church splits.

• You can search the internet or christian bookshops for alternative points of view, which is good, but it can lead to being led astray in wrong directions.

So what should you do?
Seek out good teaching from different sources but be careful to be personally connected to Jesus.
Read you bible for yourself, not just to find confirmation for this or that teaching, but with an open mind and a questioning heart.
Ask God to show you what He wants to say to you.

Find a better church, where the pastor is not convinced he always knows better, because this is a delusion. No one is always right about everything. No one.

And if you faithfully apply all these things, you will still not always be right. You will make mistakes. No one is perfect. You are not perfect and I am not perfect.

Those who think they know something do not yet know as they ought to know. 
But whoever loves God is known by God. 1 Cor 8:2–3 NIV

 

A Better Future with Jesus

 Let’s make Bible truth really simple.

There is no condemnation now for those who live in union with Christ Jesus. Rom 8:1 GNB

Now that we have been put right with God through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Rom 5:1 GNB

God says I am OK with Him because Jesus paid the price for my sin. I was not OK but God put things right and now I am OK with God and I can be OK with myself.

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

I am OK with God and He wants me to be with him from now on. Death is only a transition to a better life, a better world, a better place.

God Rescues

 So many times God has stepped in to my life when I most needed help.

God is our shelter and strength,
always ready to help in times of trouble. Ps 46:1 GNB

I was recovering from a very serious mental breakdown and I was teaching a class  when I was still not very well. Without warning I had a panic attack in front of my class. The students saw the distress on my face and burst out laughing. I remember one young man doubled over and laughing hilariously as he left the room. I quickly recovered my composure and told the class to take a 15 minute break.

I went into the next room and cried out to God for help. I asked Him for inspiration to teach a good lesson after the break. I immediately had a good idea and went on to teach an excellent lesson. The students calmed down and responded as if nothing had happened. At the end of the course the students showed enthusiastic appreciation.

When I met my wife, I knew that I wanted to marry her. But only a few weeks later I was made redundant and lost my job. I had no job and no income. Then I got some casual work for a few hours a week. That increased and increased and by the end of the year I was working full time again.

Two years later the teachers’ union won a court case for the teachers who had been laid off and I received $20,000 in back pay.

Then I applied for a promotion. I didn’t think I had a chance but a colleague encouraged me to apply. I spent two sleepless nights writing my application and took my draft to a secretarial service. The application was faxed at 4.55 pm, just before 5 pm, the rigid deadline. I was amazed when I got the promotion and the pay rise.

Some colleagues said my application was late but I checked at the office. The fax arrived less than one minute before the deadline.

God says, “I will save those who love me
and will protect those who acknowledge me as LORD.
When they call to me, I will answer them;
when they are in trouble, I will be with them.
I will rescue them and honour them. Ps 91:14-15 GNB

Everyone is Important to God

For if anyone thinks himself to be something, when he is nothing, he deceives himself. Gal 6:3 NKJV

This verse is difficult to understand. How can a son or daughter of God be nothing?

 When I was a new Christian, a pastor tried to correct my tendency to pride. He told me I was “nothing”.. Of course, he exercised so much power to judge and control me, that he seemed to be saying he was super important, but I was quite literally “nothing”. This is not Christlike ministry at all. It was spiritual abuse.

Paul was a Jews, as was Jesus. In Hebrew thinking we often find extreme black and white statements which are really shocking if we take them literally.

“If anyone comes to Me and does not hate his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and his own life also, he cannot be My disciple. Lk 14:26 NKJV

Jesus also tells us to love on another. Paul tells husbands to love their wives. Parents who hate their children are the worst sinners on earth. So Jesus is not telling us to hate people, but rather to love God more then we love our families.

Likewise, in Galatians, Paul is telling us not to be self important but to consider other people to be at least as important as ourselves.

Do nothing from selfish ambition or empty conceit, but in humility regard others as better than yourselves. Php 2:3 NRSVue

Here again, Paul is not telling me I should go around feeling inferior to everyone. That is sick.

No. I see an insane man pulling faces and talking to himself. He is just as important to God as I am.

Years ago I was a language teacher. A young woman in my class was dressing and acting like a prostitute and I think she was. She was as important to God as myself.

So many churches teach women that their husbands are more important than they are, because men as supposedly wiser than women. The bible talks about doctrines of demons and I am convinced this is one of them.

I look around church meetings and I almost always see more women than men. Women who love God often find it hard to find a husband who is spiritually strong enough to be their married partner, and yet people rip bible texts out of context and tell us that the husband should always be the spiritual leader.

Clear eyed observation tells me this is dangerous nonsense.

Jesus tells you that you are dearly loved by the Heavenly Father. If you believe that Jesus suffered the punishment for your sins on the cross, if you accept the forgiveness that Jesus offers, you have eternal life.

You are a son or daughter of God for ever and ever. You cannot be a nobody. You are a very important somebody in God’s eyes, but you are not more important than anyone else. Why? Because God loves everyone without exception.

“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

Faithfulness in Small Things

 Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children, 
and walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God. Eph 5:1–2 NRSVue

“Walking in love” is a very meaningful concept. Loving God and loving other people is a daily, hourly, minute by minute way of life. When I go shopping or walk in the park, I often see someone who looks sad or broken and I spontaneously offer a prayer for him or her.

When I pay for groceries at the supermarket checkout, I try to be friendly and take a personal interest in the cashier.

When I walk in the park, I often start friendly conversations with strangers. This can lead to meaningful spiritual communication, although I don’t usually preach to everyone.

I usually get up before my wife and I make a cup of coffee for her. A lifestyle of love may involve intense urgent prayer for people in trouble but if your whole life revolves around spiritual drama and you neglect the little things, you are not “walking in love.”

Jesus healed the sick and raised the dead, but He also washed His disciples’ feet. Husbands often see menial household tasks as the job of their wives, but Jesus was the King of Kings who came to serve. A husband should not always wait for his wife to clean the toilet.

Following Jesus means learning to be like Jesus. Pray for people and expect miracles. Tell people about the love of God, but also help people in little practical ways. Cultivate habits of kind deeds.

I get irritated when Christian casually use biblical words without any thought about the meaning. So often Christians talk about their “Christian walk” but I don’t often hear teaching about the deep meaning behind these words. This expression has sadly become a religious cliché.

Another aspect of the “Christian walk” is a willingness to make small changes in your life, to improve step by step.

If you are a talker, like me, learn to be a better listener. Start at home with your husband or wife and your children. If you are preacher, practice respectfully listening to the concerns and ideas of your church members.

You must understand this, my beloved brothers and sisters: let everyone be quick to listen, slow to speak, slow to anger,
for human anger does not produce God’s righteousness. Jas 1:19–20 NRSVue

If you are untidy, like I am, practise small improvements. Straighten your bed when you get up. Wash dishes after you use them. Learn better habits, step by step.

If you are always compulsively busy, pause from time to time, think about something to thank God for. Pray a short prayer for yourself or someone in need. Go for a short walk in the garden and relax for a few minutes. A machine that works non stop wears out more quickly. The same applies to human beings. 

Healing of the Mind

 For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the LORD, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope. Jer 29:11 NKJV

God is always thinking about you, every minute of every day and every night. His thoughts are loving because God is love. He simply loves you all the time.

You can calm your nerves by saying this to yourself often, out loud or in your mental self talk.

“God is always thinking about me, every minute of every day and every night. His thoughts are loving because God is love. He simply loves me all the time.”

But isn’t it a bit strange to talk to yourself? 

That is a complete misunderstanding of the human mind. We all think all the time. Sometimes we think clearly or even obsessively in words, but often there is a quiet murmur going on subconsciously. If we decide to listen to our own thoughts, this becomes clear.

If you feel worried or angry or afraid, there are thoughts going on in your head. Sometimes these thoughts take the form of words but often they are visual images. Sometimes our brain talks and sometimes our brain sees or imagines things.

Before he created the world, he saw what he was creating in his mind. Then he spoke and everything came into being. Everything includes you and me.

How can you learn to think positively, to think thoughts of faith, hope and love?

Reading and meditating on bible texts is a very good way. God’s thoughts are better than our thoughts.

But reciting a whole verse or a whole sentence can sometimes distract you from the business of daily living, although there are times when we must lay aside our daily activity and focus on God and his words.

Memorising and reciting Bible texts can heal your mind, but in the midst of daily activities we need to simplify biblical thoughts. Keep it short and simple.

God is thinking about me.
God loves me.
God has the answer to this.
Patience and kindness.
Mercy and peace.
Keep hoping.

When someone upsets you, “God loves (him or her).”

In the Bible, God tells us to remember his blessings.

Bless the LORD, O my soul, And forget not all His benefits: Ps 103:2 NKJV

If we don't want to forget the blessings of God, we need to think about them deliberately, to remember good things we have experienced, to see again in our minds what God has done, to thank Him in words and tell other people about them.

I will give thanks to you, LORD, with all my heart; I will tell of all your wonderful deeds. Ps 9:1 NIV

To make this work, we must be constantly reminding ourselves of God’s goodness.

Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will. Rom 12:2 NIV

Seeking and Finding God

 In some religions, the infinite God is so remote, that He becomes an abstraction, or a frightening judge.

Human nature longs for a personal spiritual experience. We long for relationships, not only at a physical and emotional level but also spiritually, so religion leads us to venerate angels, saints, gods, goddesses or to submit unconditionally to spirit guides, gurus, rabbis, priests or pastors.

But the God of the Bible is infinitely great but also intensely personal. He makes Himself small, so we can know Him and love Him personally.

Perhaps you are not sure if you believe in God, or you are confused about what God might be like.

Try talking to God personally. You have nothing to lose.

You can say, as some atheists or agnostics have done. “God, if you are real, please let me find you.”

In the bible, many Jews were confused about religion. Many prayed to the gods of other nations. The results were terrible.

But God spoke to the Prophet Jeremiah.

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

You can talk to God and if you seek him with all your heart, you will find him.

For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the LORD, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope.

Then you will call upon Me and go and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. 
And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart. Jer 29:11–13 NKJV

Mission in Dark Places

 How did Jesus reach people?

The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, ‘Look at him! A glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!’ Yet wisdom is justified by her deeds.” Matthew 11:19 ESV

During His earthly life Jesus of Nazareth was known as a friend of sinners. The strictest observers of the Word of God accused Him breaking God’s law by hanging around with bad people. Were they right?

As Jesus passed on from there, he saw a man called Matthew sitting at the tax booth, and he said to him, “Follow me.” And he rose and followed him. And as Jesus reclined at table in the house, behold, many tax collectors and sinners came and were reclining with Jesus and his disciples. And when the Pharisees saw this, they said to his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?” Matthew 9:9-11 (ESV)

There are many Christian ministers today who will organise missions and outreaches. Some will invite drug addicts and prostitutes to come to Christian meetings. Why? To preach the gospel and save sinners.

But Jesus went a step further, a very big step further. He accepted invitations to eat and drink with the worst sinners in their own homes. If a notorious gangland boss invited Jesus to a party with underworld people, would Jesus go?

In the New Testament, we read that Jesus not only preached to sinners. He went to their homes and their dinner parties.

Does that mean that Jesus was always available for every invitation from any crook in town? No. King Herod was impressed by the stories of the miracles of Jesus and he wanted to see this new “celebrity” but Jesus avoided him. Luke 9:9 (NKJV)

There are some major Christian leaders today who are campaigning against human trafficking for sex slavery. They are actually going to pickup bars and houses of prostitution to make friendly contact with prostitutes and even sometimes with pimps. 

There are many hard core sinners and oppressed victims who cannot be reached by preaching but only by believers who dare to do what Jesus did, seek out the lost sheep in the dark places and reach them with genuine friendliness.

In one American city an English missionary found that many of the young prostitutes were from Christian homes. After sharing the love of Jesus with them, many turned to God, perhaps for the first time, and many returned to their families.

I know Christian women in Germany who visited a brothel every week. Through their ministry of friendship, victims of human trafficking were set free and some prostitutes became Christians.

But isn’t it dangerous to mix with sinners?

Do not be deceived: "Evil company corrupts good habits." 1 Corinthians 15:33 (NKJV)

I believe this is one reason that Jesus sent out His disciples TWO BY TWO.

The Apostle Paul was single himself but he usually went on a mission with at least one partner in ministry. At various times these included Barnabas, Timothy, Silas and Luke. With the help of the grace of God, Paul penetrated dark places and planted churches in many previously unreached cities.

But there was one place where Paul’s great spiritual gifts only succeeded in winning a few converts. That was in Athens. In Athens Paul ministered alone and without a partner.

There is a new move amongst the people of God. Many are no longer looking to the priest, pastor or evangelist, the spiritual giant on the pedestal. Many are no longer waiting for the Man of God to move.

Many of us are rediscovering spiritual partnership, personal spiritual experience, spiritual community and teamwork. This is the way hundreds of millions will see that Jesus is alive in His people and many more millions will find God for themselves.

Encounter God Personally

 Many years ago a nurse I knew told me of a very old lady dying in hospital. She was very lonely because she couldn’t understand English. She was Hungarian and she also knew German well. 

I wanted to help her, so I got the permission of the Anglican Chaplain to visit her and read the Bible to her in German, a language I know well.

I visited her every day and read the German Bible to her. She listened intently, although she was demented and her eyes and her mind would wander at times.

Finally, one evening I read her the promise of Jesus to give eternal life to all who believed.

Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, 
and everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die. Do you believe this?”  John 11:25-26 ESV

Suddenly her eyes stopped wandering and she became clearly focused on the question.

“Yes, I believe!” she answered in a strong clear voice.

I never saw her again because the next day she was dead.

A nurse told me the old lady appeared to be dying six months before but she started reviving. God preserved her life until she could hear the message of life and then He took her to heaven.

There are many people out there ready to believe the message of Jesus but they just need you or me to tell them in a loving way.

This old lady was a Roman Catholic, so she knew about Jesus, heaven and hell and eternal salvation. She just needed to hear a simple clear Bible message.

But there are also people who have heard but are not ready to believe.

Many have been abused or bullied by priests, pastors or religious teachers. Others have seen loved ones torn apart by unhealthy Christian religion.

In recent years bishops, priests, pastors and preachers have been ducking for cover because the scandal has been all over the media. You can tell many people about God, but they will not believe until they encounter God personally.