We Need God in our Lives

 So I say, let the Holy Spirit guide your lives. Then you won’t be doing what your sinful nature craves. Gal 5:16 NLT

What are the works of the sinful nature? The original Greek New Testament calls these the works of the flesh. 

There is nothing wrong with your natural flesh and blood, the organs of your body. God created your body and he does not make bad things. But when we let our flesh and blood direct our lives, things go wrong.

If you are a good driver, your car is a blessing, but if your car engine runs without direction from a driver, it can do untold damage.

God has given you a soul and a spirit, designed to direct your mind and body. If your soul and spirit are closely connected to God’s Spirit, and you are guided by the love and goodness of God, your mind and body will be a blessing.

I have recently listened to sermons about repenting of sin. We need that from time to time, but I had the feeling that something was missing. 

Repenting is not just about not doing bad things. It is not enough to avoid rage, hate and malice. God wants us to love, care and help, not just with outward deeds but moved by genuine concern for others. 

It is not enough to avoid revenge. God wants us to forgive people who hurt or threaten us. It is not enough to avoid bearing grudges. God wants us to love and bless our enemies.

When Jesus was dying on the cross, suffering unspeakable agony, tormented by vile verbal abuse, he cried out to the Father to forgive his tormentors. 

Then Jesus said, “Father, forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing.” … Lk 23:34 NRSV

God wants us to stop doing bad things, but He also wants us to be perfectly pure, kind and loving like Jesus. If we think we can do all of this, we are sadly mistaken. Jesus was the perfect Son of God, God in human form. We are very faulty, flawed human beings. We learned what we know from faulty parents, faulty friends and faulty teachers. 

We can change some of our behaviour with human will power but we need fixing and rebuilding from the inside. 

Jesus died on the cross to pay the penalty for our sins. If we confess our sins, He will forgive us, but we do not have the power to be like Jesus on the inside.

When Jesus was executed, his natural body died, but his spirit lived on. Three days later her returned to this world with a supernatural immortal body. He appeared to his friends and disciples and spent 40 days with them before he returned to heaven. 

A week later the Spirit of God came upon 120 of His followers and changed them from the inside.

Now you and I can have the same blessing, the Spirit of God living inside us and rebuilding our human nature, so we can be more like God on the inside.
If you really want to put your life in God’s hands, just ask Him. He will not turn you away.

Jesus invites us today to come to him to be changed and to have a new life with himself.

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

“So I say to you: Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. 
For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened. 
“Which of you fathers, if your son asks for a fish, will give him a snake instead? 
Or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? 
If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!” Lk 11:9–13 NIV

Spiritual Pregnancy. New Life in the Spirit

 If you grew up in an English-speaking country, you may remember a conversation like this.

“Mummy, where do babies come from?”
“Babies come from mummy’s tummy.”

Of course, we know that the tummy or stomach is for digesting food and babies grow in the womb, or uterus, a totally different thing. 

But in all three languages of the Bible, Hebrew, Greek and Aramaic, there is an interesting word which can be correctly translated as stomach, belly or womb.

In the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried, saying, If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink. He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water. John 7:37-38 (KJV)

But this He spoke concerning the Spirit, whom those believing in Him would receive; for the Holy Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified. John 7:39 (NKJV)

The word BELLY is the translation of the Greek KOILIA. 

The equivalent Hebrew word is BETEN. When Jesus spoke these words in the temple, He may have been speaking Aramaic. 

The Aramaic Bible uses the word: K'aRSeH, which can also mean BELLY or WOMB. These words are often interpreted figuratively as HEART or INMOST BEING.

In the flesh, the womb and the stomach are quite distinct and only a woman has a womb. 
But in the spiritual realm it is a different story.

Jonah went down into the belly of the great fish or whale. When he came out of the fish’s belly, it was like a resurrection. The belly of the fish was like the womb giving birth to a new man.

The satisfaction of hunger and thirst sustains life. This is the function of the belly, to convert food and drink into life, to keep us alive and refresh us.

But the function of the womb goes further. The womb is the place where a seed sown grows into new life until a new person emerges. The stomach sustains life but the womb reproduces and multiplies life.

The inmost being of every born again Christian believer is potentially both a spiritual stomach and a spiritual womb. 

In this spiritual dimension, there is no male or female. God desires to fill us with the Living Water of His Spirit to nourish, sustain and refresh us but He desires more. God fervently desires to satisfy our thirst but then to take us further, to make us bearers of new life for others.

To hunger and thirst for new life and refreshment in your own soul is not selfish. It is essential. But it is not enough. God wants his people to be like healthy young mothers, reproducing, multiplying, bringing newborn again believers into the world.

The conversion of unbelievers is the birthing of new life. Nothing is more wonderful than the restoration of a sinner to the heart of the Father in Heaven.

But evangelism is not the only way to birth a work of God’s Spirit. 
To sing an inspired song, write a book or paint a picture with God requires a joining together of the Spirit of God with the human spirit in an intimate connection like a husband and wife producing a new person. 

Every work of faith involves the bearing of living fruit, like giving birth to a child.
Have you been feeling tired and heavy lately? Maybe you need to stop struggling in your own strength. Get filled with the Spirit who can produce new life in you and then through you.
Or can it be that you are heavily pregnant in the Spirit?

Do you have a vision for a ministry, a mission, a book, a business, a child, a family revived and restored, a move of the Spirit in your city?

You may feel heavy because the baby is nearly due.
Be encouraged!

Some of you are in labour now and your dream or vision is about to be transformed from faith into sight.

Your New Life with Jesus

 This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun! This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun! 2 Cor 5:17 NLT

You are no longer the same person. You are a son or daughter of the Heavenly Father. You have eternal life.

 Your eternal life has already begun and will have no end. 

 You are already a citizen of the eternal Kingdom of Heaven, the Kingdom of God. 

Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life. 1 John 5:12 

Jesus is the eternal Son of God. His life is yours and your life is His.

 You have an eternal love relationship with God. 

 You are IN Christ and the Spirit of God is in you.

Because Jesus died on the cross for your sins, you no longer need to die for your sins.

The Spirit of God, who raised Jesus from the dead, lives in you. And just as God raised Christ Jesus from the dead, he will give life to your mortal bodies by this same Spirit living within you. Rom 8:11 NLT

What shall we say about such wonderful things as these? If God is for us, who can ever be against us? 
Since he did not spare even his own Son but gave him up for us all, won’t he also give us everything else? Rom 8:31–32 NLT

But God's abundant grace is not given to us so that we may live selfishly like spoiled children.
God gives us His heavenly power, wisdom, healing and love to save the world, to bless our fellow human beings, to rescue people from darkness and hell.

“For this is how God loved the world: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. 

God sent his Son into the world not to judge the world, but to save the world through him.
Jesus rose bodily from the dead, but he did not remain on earth; he returned to his Father in heaven. Jn 3:16–17 NLT

Now we are his representatives on earth.
 
Jesus has no hands on earth except yours. 

A man with leprosy came and knelt in front of Jesus, begging to be healed. “If you are willing, you can heal me and make me clean,” he said. 

Moved with compassion, Jesus reached out and touched him. “I am willing,” he said. “Be healed!” 
Instantly the leprosy disappeared, and the man was healed. Mk 1:40–42 NLT

What Jesus began, we must now continue.

And these signs will accompany those who believe: In my name they will drive out demons; they will speak in new tongues; 

they will pick up snakes with their hands; and when they drink deadly poison, it will not hurt them at all; they will place their hands on sick people, and they will get well.” Mk 16:17–18 NIV

Jesus' wounded feet are now healed, but we will see the scars in heaven. Jesus now walks on golden streets.

Jesus now has no feet on this earth except yours. Will you now go to those who need eternal life?

Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptising them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 

and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.” Mt 28:19–20 NIV

Jesus Died to Set you Free

Jesus died to set you free.

Jesus died to save you from eternal death, to free you from despair and endless hopelessness, without God, without friendship, without comfort.

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. Jn 3:16 NIV

Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, Rom 8:1 NIV

Jesus died to set you free from your twisted, selfish human nature.

So if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation: everything old has passed away; see, everything has become new! 2 Cor 5:17 NRSV

Jesus died to free you from loneliness.

The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit, be with you all. 2 Cor 13:14 NASB95

But if we are living in the light, as God is in the light, then we have fellowship with each other, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, cleanses us from all sin. 1 Jn 1:7 NLT

Jesus died to free you from sickness.

Jesus healed all who asked for healing.

 “He took our infirmities and bore our diseases.” Mt 8:17 NRSV

Jesus died to free you from legalism.

Accept the one whose faith is weak, without quarrelling over disputable matters.
One person’s faith allows them to eat anything, but another, whose faith is weak, eats only vegetables.
The one who eats everything must not treat with contempt the one who does not, and the one who does not eat everything must not judge the one who does, for God has accepted them.

Who are you to judge someone else’s servant? To their own master, servants stand or fall. And they will stand, for the Lord is able to make them stand.

One person considers one day more sacred than another; another considers every day alike. Each of them should be fully convinced in their own mind.
Whoever regards one day as special does so to the Lord. Whoever eats meat does so to the Lord, for they give thanks to God; and whoever abstains does so to the Lord and gives thanks to God. Rom 14:1–6 NIV

Jesus died to free us from authoritarian leadership.

Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ. Eph 5:21 NIV

Submission is mutual. We must not submit to leaders to demand unconditional obedience to themselves.

You gladly put up with fools since you are so wise!
In fact, you even put up with anyone who enslaves you or exploits you or takes advantage of you or puts on airs or slaps you in the face. 2 Cor 11:19–20 NIV

Here Paul teaches through the Holy Spirit that Christians have the right or even the duty to resist arrogant, authoritarian or cruel church leaders.  

God sacrificed Jesus to free women from the arrogant rule of men.

The extreme subordination of women was not God's intention in creation. After the fall of man, God sadly predicted that women would be enslaved by men because of sin.

To the woman He said: “I will greatly multiply your sorrow and your conception; In pain you shall bring forth children; Your desire shall be for your husband, And he shall rule over you.” Gen 3:16 NKJV

But in the new covenant, the woman is liberated.

There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus. Gal 3:28 NKJV

It is wonderful that Jesus wants to give us freedom, but we do not receive freedom automatically.

There are people everywhere who do not believe in freedom, even in the church.

There are many people who do not want to allow you to be free.

But Paul says:

It was for freedom that Christ set us free; therefore keep standing firm and do not be subject again to a yoke of slavery. Gal 5:1 NASB95

Delivered from Demons

 God created you. Your birth was planned and willed by God because he saw and loved you even before the creation of the world.

Regardless of whether the circumstances of your birth were favourable or not. God simply loves you.
No matter what you have done or what has been done to you. God simply loves you.

This creation is corrupted, but not completely ruined.

God has a cruel enemy who wants to poison and destroy all of God's works, and he has done a lot of damage, perhaps in your life as well.

No matter what has happened in your life, God has a plan to give you a good future.

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

I once saw a preacher from Brazil in a video recording. She told how she was dedicated to demons from birth because her whole family worshipped the devil.

As a small child, she was tormented by demons. She could not sleep without terrible nightmares.

At the age of twelve, she was possessed by demons that drove her to live on the streets as a prostitute. Gradually, she learnt to live her life as a witch with magical powers. She became known as a witch and Christians prayed for her.

She herself was cruel, but also terribly tormented. The devil is very cruel, even with his slaves. Her suffering became unbearable until she desperately sought help. She didn't know which spirit was stronger, the devil or God, but she prayed for help.

Jesus then visited her and she experienced a revelation, like in a video. She saw Jesus suffer and die on the cross, taking the punishment for her sin upon himself.

She converted to Jesus, but then her little daughter fell ill. The devils sought revenge and her daughter died, but she herself was forgiven and set free by Jesus.

Then God raised her up to give her testimony. Many prostitutes and occultists were converted. As a witch she was very dangerous, but as a Christian preacher she became a powerful weapon in God's hands.

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. Jn 3:16 NIV

For if, while we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life! Rom 5:10 NIV

Healed from AIDS. New life from Jesus.

 A boy in South America was the eldest child in his family. He had no brothers, only a younger sister. His mother died.

His father had to work hard and always came home tired. The boy had to take over his mother's work and he fulfilled the role of a capable housewife and mother.

As a teenager, he felt no male instincts. His identity was more feminine. He looked beautiful and for gay men he was very desirable. He became involved with men as a feminine homosexual and then he became a homosexual prostitute.

Then he was infected with AIDS. It got worse and worse until he was hospitalised. He was dying, but he experienced no human compassion. Cruel people visited the AIDS ward, not to comfort but to laugh at the dying gay men.

But then a very different kind of  woman came to him. She went to the boy and spoke with God's love.

‘Jesus loves you. You will soon get your last blood transfusion. Jesus will heal you and forgive everything.’

The boy believed and was healed and saved.

His healing astonished patients, nurses and doctors. Many were converted to Jesus and the newly converted Christians in the clinic became a new church.

I heard this testimony from the young man himself about twenty years ago on a cassette tape.

He told how he became strong in his faith, how his testimony had awakened new hope, faith and healing in many homosexuals and prostitutes.

He told how he had come to realise that God had gradually changed his feelings and his identity. He began to see himself as a man, and he fell in love with a Christian woman and they got married.

His voice was still sweet and gentle and not at all masculine, but gender stereotypes are not important to God. God loves you just as you are, not as others understand or misunderstand you.

Here are some Bible passages that might encourage you.

He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds. Ps 147:3 NIV

“The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon Me, Because the LORD has anointed Me To preach good tidings to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, To proclaim liberty to the captives, And the opening of the prison to those who are bound; Is 61:1 NKJV

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new. 2 Cor 5:17 NKJV

God's Mysteries

 Are you a child of God? Are you a beloved son or daughter of the great Creator?
Or are you a lost orphan in a confusing world? Are you not sure where you will end up after you die?

God has a secret that he wants to share with you. It is well known and by no means hidden, but it is a secret because it is only revealed to those who want to love God with childlike trust.

However, as it is written: “What no eye has seen, what no ear has heard, and what no human mind has conceived”— the things God has prepared for those who love him—

these are the things God has revealed to us by his Spirit. The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God. 1 Cor 2:9–10 NIV

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. Jn 3:16 NIV

If you respond to the sacrificial death of the Son of God is given a whole new spiritual life, with the ability to perceive and receive the spiritual gifts of God.

Does this world need saving? Environmental activists warn us that our planet is perishing. We are like children who soil our own bed.

God will restore this planet in the end.

Then I saw “a new heaven and a new earth,” for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. Rev 21:1 NIV

But God doesn't just want to restore his creation. He has a plan to save you and me, to give us an imperishable future.

“Very truly I tell you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be judged but has crossed over from death to life. Jn 5:24 NIV

The key to God's new world is faith, but what is faith?

You may have been taught Biblical doctrines as a child, but faith is not just agreeing with facts. It is personally trusting in God and experiencing God’s presence in your life.

Father God did not send his eternal Son into this world just to start a religion.

When Jesus was 30 years old, he began to proclaim the love of the heavenly Father, but not just to preach, but to save people from impossible problems.

And you know that God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power. Then Jesus went around doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with him. Acts 10:38 NLT

Yes, there is a devil. The cruel horrors in this world do not come from God. We have an enemy, an invisible enemy, who makes us sick, who wants to deceive us so that we blame God for our sickness.
But then sceptical thoughts arise. This is too radical, too extreme. It's too good to be true?

Where do these thoughts come from? Perhaps from the no longer Christian world, but perhaps from the religious Christian tradition, from a watered-down version of the gospel.

Are you perhaps not sure what to believe? Why don't you ask God himself? He is not deaf and not dumb.

“Ask, and it will be given you; search, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened for you.

For everyone who asks receives, and everyone who searches finds, and for everyone who knocks, the door will be opened. Mt 7:7–8 NRSV

‘Call to me and I will answer you and tell you great and unsearchable things you do not know.’ Jer 33:3 NIV

God Wants to Give you a New Life

 Religious duty can be a slavery. Religious guilt can lead to madness.

Fifty years ago I was a student. In my summer holidays I worked for a few weeks as an unqualified assistant in an old-fashioned psychiatric hospital. In those days, many patients were in permanent care in large hospitals.

One day I accompanied a group of chronically ill patients on a walk with a nurse. I struck up a conversation with a man who would probably stay in the institution for the rest of his life.

He told me how, as a devout Catholic, he felt obliged to pray almost all the time. This devotion to prayer had become an addiction for him. He was good for nothing other than repeatedly falling to his knees and praying in all kinds of situations.

Religious duty can be a slavery. Religious guilt can lead to madness.

There are feelings of guilt that lead to insanity, but there are also real feelings of guilt that come because of our sin. They don't need to destroy you, because God gave his only eternal Son as an atoning sacrifice for you on the cross.

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. Jn 3:16 NIV

What does it mean to believe? Fulfilling religious duties like slaves? Jesus did not die on the cross in terrible pain just to found a religion.

Buddha, Mohammed and the Hindu gurus founded religions. In these religions, their followers must strive to attain some kind of holiness, but they are constantly plagued by insecurity.

A Buddhist or a Hindu hopes to have a better destiny in his next life. A woman in these religions can hope to return as a man in her next life. A Hindu woman must serve her husband well to earn this supposed promotion.

Muslims hope to escape the flames of hell, but they are never sure if their virtue is enough to outweigh their sins.

Jesus said God's salvation is a free gift that we cannot earn. Those who surrender their lives into God's hands are forgiven and have eternal life.

Paul knew he could never make up for his offence against Jesus. He knew that Jesus had died for his sins.

For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. Rom 6:23 NIV

For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—
not by works, so that no one can boast. Eph 2:8–9 NIV

We can't earn this new life, but that doesn't mean we don't have a purpose in life.

A well known preacher once said:

‘Jesus did not accomplish everything, so that you could accomplish nothing.’

For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do. Eph 2:10 NIV

When we receive the New Life from Jesus, prayer is no longer a religious duty, but a communication with the kind God who loves you from the heart.

Finding New Strength

 Sometimes you get exhausted. You are overwhelmed. It's just too much. You've run out of energy. You can no longer find your drive.

He gives power to the weak and strength to the powerless.
Even youths will become weak and tired, and young men will fall in exhaustion. Is 40:29–30 NLT

The eagle is unique. Eagles can live up to a hundred years. Over the years, their feathers become old and worn. They can no longer fly well.

They withdraw and perch on a mountain top. Then they moult. They lose their old feathers and gain new ones. Without feathers, they can be vulnerable, but they find a safe remote place and wait until they are strong again.

But those who trust in the LORD will find new strength. They will soar high on wings like eagles. They will run and not grow weary. They will walk and not faint. Is 40:31 NLT

With new feathers they are strong again, but even then they do not fly like other birds. They often glide like a glider.

Jesus said that the source of our strength is the Holy Spirit. Jesus is God, but as a man on earth he relied on the Holy Spirit.

Humans can reproduce only human life, but the Holy Spirit gives birth to spiritual life.

So don’t be surprised when I say, ‘You must be born again.’

The wind blows wherever it wants. Just as you can hear the wind but can’t tell where it comes from or where it is going, so you can’t explain how people are born of the Spirit.” Jn 3:6–8 NLT

A truly converted Christian receives a completely new life through the Holy Spirit, but it is not enough to be born again by the Spirit of God. The Holy Spirit is not just there to save us. He is our companion, our guide and our strength, just like in the life of Jesus on earth.

Are you so overwhelmed that you can't find time for a day of rest?

Withdraw for a time, a few days, a few hours or if that is just not possible, for a few minutes. Focus your thoughts on the presence of God around you and also within you. Perhaps you can place your hand on your chest. This is not only your chest, but also the dwelling place of the Holy Spirit, who loves you immeasurably.

If you have problems sleeping, pray for help and don't be afraid to seek medical help. Lack of sleep can do terrible damage.

Look at your routine. Are you just trying to do too much? Are you trying to please other people? What apparent duties are just not absolutely necessary?

You are called to do what God calls you to do, not what other people want you to do. Learn to say no.

See yourself as God sees you.

 Before the creation of the world, God already had an image of you in his mind. He saw in you a reflection of the beautiful humanity of Jesus.

Of course, I don't mean that you should be an itinerant Jewish preacher in Israel. You may be a woman. You may be an introverted academic. We are all different and unique, but we are to reveal the glory of God in different ways.

But almost everything has gone wrong with God's plan. The first humans rejected God's plan and were disobedient. Since then we have seen murder and war, lies and deceit, selfishness and perversion time and time again.

We are all born with shortcomings, with negative tendencies and character flaws. But God has never given up.

God can turn a run-down car into a Formula One machine.
But humanity needed a new beginning.

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. Jn 3:16 NIV

Jesus took the punishment for all the sins of all people on the cross. He died so that we could have a new beginning, freed from guilt, because God's Son bore the guilt on his innocent soul.

Your guilt is taken away if you gratefully accept God's sacrifice and want to make a new start with Jesus.

We can have a new life with Jesus because Jesus not only died for us, but also rose again. Jesus is no longer a humiliated man on earth, but the eternal King of mankind in heaven.

Jesus wants to assure you.

… “I am the resurrection and the life. Anyone who believes in me will live, even after dying.
Everyone who lives in me and believes in me will never ever die. …” Jn 11:25–26 NLT

Are you deeply dissatisfied with life? Are you perhaps at the end? What does Jesus have to say?

Then Jesus said, “Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Mt 11:28 NLT

Jesus loves you. He is waiting for your cry for help.

‘Call to me and I will answer you and tell you great and unsearchable things you do not know.’ Jer 33:3 NIV

Healing and Forgiveness Together

 If we emphasise healing, are we thereby reducing the importance of the forgiveness of sins?
Not at all. In the Bible, they belong together.

He forgives all my sins and heals all my diseases. Ps 103:3 NLT

Are any of you sick? You should call for the elders of the church to come and pray over you, anointing you with oil in the name of the Lord.

Such a prayer offered in faith will heal the sick, and the Lord will make you well. And if you have committed any sins, you will be forgiven. Jas 5:14–15 NLT

If we diminish the healing power of God, we are left with a reduced gospel focused only on sin and forgiveness.

Jesus died on the cross to remove our guilt because he took the punishment for our sin upon himself.

Without this forgiveness, everything is in vain. Our faith would then be a hollow self-deception. 

Without God's forgiveness, we are miserable beggars in filthy rags who can only wait for God's eternal punishment.

For centuries, the Christian religion has propagated the view that we should walk around with false humility as begging sinners, forgiven but still unworthy beggars.

When we are sick, we are allowed to ask for healing, but only as beggars who cannot be sure of receiving God's favour.

But I don't find this way of thinking in the New Testament.

Let us then approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need. Heb 4:16 NIV

We must never forget that forgiveness of sins and healing are gifts of grace that we have never earned. We must not arrogantly demand, but we should also not doubt that God wants to help and save us.

When God gives us a promise, he means well with us. He is not a dishones salesman or politician who promises something he does not want to give.

God says what he means and he means what he says.

“God is not a man, that He should lie, Nor a son of man, that He should repent; Has He said, and will He not do it? Or has He spoken, and will He not make it good? Nu 23:19 NASB95

He forgives all my sins and heals all my diseases. Ps 103:3 NLT

Why can we ask for God's forgiveness with confidence?

Because Jesus died for our sins.

He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. 2 Co 5:21 NASB95

Jesus himself said:

This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins. Mt 26:28 NIV

But Jesus did not only suffer to abolish our sins, but also to free us from the consequences of sin.

Before the fall into sin, there was no sickness in the world.

When evening came, many who were demon-possessed were brought to him, and he drove out the spirits with a word and healed all the sick.

This was to fulfil what was spoken through the prophet Isaiah: “He took up our infirmities and bore our diseases.” Mt 8:16–17 NIV

Here we read in plain language in Matthew that Jesus not only bore our sins and our guilt on the cross, but also our sicknesses.

Forgiveness of sins and healing of sickness belong together.

If we only celebrate signs and wonders but do not take sin seriously, our message is distorted.

But the reverse is also true. If we only focus on sin and forgiveness and not on healing, we are not following in Jesus' footsteps.

Reaching Difficult People

 I was in a wonderful church for a few years where all kinds of people were welcome, strange looking people, prostitutes and ex-prisoners.

There was a man in the community who had spent 23 years in prison. He was probably a murderer.

He regularly visited prisons and often brought ex-prisoners to the church meetings..

This man's previous life was undoubtedly terrible, but after his conversion he was like an angel to broken men.

When Jesus was a guest of a Pharisee, a woman came in who was living a sinful life.

As she stood behind him at his feet weeping, she began to wet his feet with her tears. Then she wiped them with her hair, kissed them and poured perfume on them. Lk 7:38 NIV

The religious host was indignant.

Jesus answered him, “Simon, I have something to tell you.” “Tell me, teacher,” he said.

“Two people owed money to a certain moneylender. One owed him five hundred denarii, and the other fifty.

Neither of them had the money to pay him back, so he forgave the debts of both. Now which of them will love him more?”

Simon replied, “I suppose the one who had the bigger debt forgiven.” “You have judged correctly,” Jesus said. Lk 7:40–43 NIV

The Pharisee was probably shocked when Jesus then explained that the woman's sins had been forgiven.

The religious types said that Jesus was a friend of sinners, but in their eyes that was not a compliment. But God is very different from many religious legalists and perfectionists.

How can we apply this approach of Jesus today?

I know women who visit brothels and help prostitutes with kindness, but not all Christians can do that, and many Christians should not.

I have once visited a pub and had friendly conversations with a New Age mystic. Not all Christians can or should not try this.

A man in our church told of a friend who rented a house where the neighbours made his life a living hell. He prayed regularly for the neighbours and treated them politely. Little by little, bad neighbours became human and friendly.

If you treat all kinds of people with respect and kindness, you will sometimes be amazed at how God can transform evil people.

But we also have to be careful.

There are people who only want to manipulate and exploit you. Beware of narcissists with cold hearts.

There are also self-centred criminals who go to church to find sexual victims, especially children and young women.

Not only men can be dangerous, but also some evil women.

I know a Christian couple who always wanted to be kind and help outsiders. They regularly drove a couple to church services, but it turned out that the woman was a witch who was causing great harm in the church.

Dangerous people can be outsiders who attend church services, but there are also priests or preachers who are really wolves in sheep's clothing.

Beware of preachers who want to dominate and personally control everything and everyone in the church, no matter how holy they may appear.

Your new life with Jesus

 If you have entrusted your life to Jesus, you have begun an entirely new life. .

Whoever is a believer in Christ is a new creation. The old way of living has disappeared. A new way of living has come into existence. 2 Co 5:17 GW

You are no longer the same person. You are a son or daughter of the Father in heaven. You have eternal life.

    Your eternal life has already begun and will never end.

    You are already a citizen of the eternal kingdom of heaven, the kingdom of God.

Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life. 1 Jn 5:12 NIV

Jesus is the eternal Son of God. His life belongs to you and your life belongs to him.

    You have an eternal love relationship with God.
    You are IN Christ and the Spirit of God is in you.

Because Jesus died on the cross for your sins, you no longer have to die for your sins.

And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies because of his Spirit who lives in you. Ro 8:11 NIV

Because you are in Christ, God will not only provide for your needs. He will also bless you with amazing gifts of love.

What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?

He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things? Ro 8:31–32 NKJV

God's abundant grace has not been given to us to be selfish like spoiled children.

God gives us His heavenly power, wisdom, healing and love to save the world, to bless our fellow human beings, to rescue people from darkness and hell.

For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. Jn 3:16 NKJV

Jesus rose from the dead, but he did not remain on earth, but returned to his Father in heaven.

Now we are his representatives on earth.

    Jesus has no hands on earth except your hands.   

Now a leper came to Him, imploring Him, kneeling down to Him and saying to Him, “If You are willing, You can make me clean.” 

Then Jesus, moved with compassion, stretched out His hand and touched him, and said to him, “I am willing; be cleansed.”

As soon as He had spoken, immediately the leprosy left him, and he was cleansed. Mk 1:40–42 NKJV

What Jesus began, God wants us to continue.

And these signs will follow those who believe: In My name they will cast out demons; they will speak with new tongues;

... they will lay hands on the sick, and they will recover.” Mk 16:17–18 NKJV

Jesus' wounded feet are now healed, but you can still see the scars in the sky. Jesus is now walking on streets of gold.

Jesus now has no feet on this earth but your feet. Will you go now to those who need eternal life?

Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptising them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,

teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” Amen. Mt 28:19–20 NKJV

New Start, New Life

 God has given you your life because he loves you. Whether you were born in loving marriage or not,  you are loved by God from the bottom of His heart.

God has given you talents and abilities because He loves you infinitely. God has built talents into your being, even if you have not developed your potential yet.

God designed you to have loving relationships and friendships because He loves you. You may have been so hurt that you withdraw from love and friendship, but God wants to heal your broken heart.

He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds. Ps 147:3

God has a good life planned for you, even if you have messed up your life, or people have so mistreated you, that you have not fulfilled God's good plan until now.

But in the Bible, I read how Jesus restored totally ruined people so that they could start again with God's love.

Jesus found a lonely woman at a well. She had been married five times and was now in a de facto relationship.

Did Jesus see her as a sinful woman?

How could she survive as a single woman? As a prostitute or beggar? Starving, abused and raped?

The woman said to him, “I know that the Messiah is coming” (who is called Christ). “When he comes, he will explain everything to us.”

Jesus told her, “I, the one speaking to you, am he.” Jn 4:25–26 CSB

She believed that Jesus was the Saviour from God and that He could and would save her.

She became a missionary with a whole new life.