(by pastor Jean)
God wants us to know Him, “I want you to know Me more than I want burnt offerings” Hosea 6:6). When Paul wrote to the church at Philippi, he said that he viewed everything as rubbish compared with knowing Christ. His great aim was to, “know Him and the power of His resurrection” (Phil 3:10). The word used for “know” doesn’t mean just knowing about someone but actually knowing them closely. Paul prayed for the Ephesians in chapter 1:17, “I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know Him better” (NIV). Paul also prays for the Colossian church that they too would, “learn to know God better and better” (Col 1:10; NLT). Jesus Himself states that eternal life involves knowing God the Father and God the Son (John 17:3). John the apostle adds that if we know God, we will keep His commandments (1 John 2:3,4). John also said that if we do not love we do not know God (1 John 4:8), so living a life of love will help us in our quest to know God better. How do we get to know God in this intimate way? Just like getting to know someone in a human relationship, it is by spending time with them. Sharing from the heart, talking and listening, asking and believing. Spending time in the word is God talking to you. Don’t rush, read it slowly and then mull it over. The more time you invest the more you will get out of it.
(by pastor Jean)
If you are at all familiar with the Bible you know that God spoke this world into existence. In Genesis chapter 1 the words, “God said” are repeated 9 times (See also Heb 11:3, Ps 33:6). In Psalm 138:2 we read that God has declared His word to be even higher than His name. God is a speaking God and His words are extremely powerful. God also spoke through prophets in the Old Testament. Then in the New Testament the apostle John tells us that Jesus is the Word and He was actually with God at creation (John 1:1-3). Later in this same gospel Jesus said that His words are light and life (John 8:12), and that God’s words will never pass away (Mark 13:31). God expects us to speak life with our words too, “Death and life are in the power of the tongue” (Prov 18:21) and to, “call things that be not as though they were” (Rom 4:17). Jesus specifically told us to speak to the mountains in our life (Matt 21:21, Mark 11:23) and so our words become very much connected to our faith. Jesus admired the faith of a centurion who said, “speak the word only and my servant will be healed” (Matt 8:8). The woman with the hemorrhage also powerfully used her words in faith, “For she kept saying, if I only touch His garments, I shall be restored to health” (Mark 5:28 AMP). We can either speak what we see, hear or feel – “this pain is killing me” or we can speak words of faith, “By His stripes I am healed”. We can speak life or death; the choice is ours!
Pic: Rural England.
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www.onthewayinlove.com (by pastor Norman)
As Christians we are to live by faith, “The just shall live by faith” (Gal 3:11b; NKJV). This isn’t natural faith that everyone has such as believing the sun will rise every day, my car will start or someone will do what they promised. We are called to have faith in God (Mark 11:22) or the God-kind of faith. The Bible is full of directions, commands and promises and we can only walk in them by using our God-given faith (Heb 4:2). What is this God-given faith? Well for me I love the definition in 2 Timothy 3:15 b in the Amplified Bible, “Through the leaning of the entire human personality on God in Christ Jesus in absolute trust and confidence in His power, wisdom and goodness.” Faith is not just head knowledge but a knowing that we know, that we know, that we know deep down in our inner being, our spirit. God has given all of us faith (Rom 12:3b) but we need to grow that faith. The bible shows us that we can grow our faith by hearing the word, “Consequently faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word about Christ” (Rom 10:17; NIV). Our natural and spiritual ears need to hear God’s word preached and our spirit also receives the word as we study and meditate in our Bibles. Our faith is also increased as we pray in the Holy Spirit (tongues) (Jude 20). God desires to bless us and use us all mightily in our Christian lives (John 10:10b, Rom 8:28). We must approach God in faith, with no doubting (James 1:6a; NKJV).