Moving Closer To God!

On Sunday we spoke about fasting.

For someone like me who likes food, not an easy subject!

Fasting in the Bible has three implications:

- As a sign of mourning for our spiritual poverty
- As a sign of mourning a loved one
- To move us closer to God

Let's look at the last one.

Fasting can move us closer to God but it needs to done with care:
- If we are going to fast, we need to get advice from people with medical expertise
- Fasting should not be done whilst we still have to go to work etc
- Fasting should centre on the Cross

There are other ways to get closer to God as well. Reading our Bibles and setting aside time with God will also be helpful.

Bless you as you move closer to God!

History or a living reality

I am almost tempted to start with the words: Another year another Easter!

Whilst this may be true, it sounds rather blase! At least to me.

Easter, whilst celebrated every year by most Christians, is also a reminder that we serve a Living God. In other words, God is active in our lives and in the world around us. Jesus died and rose again two thousand years ago or the very purpose of being active in the world and in our lives.

Awesome!

My prayer is that you would allow Jesus to be active in your day to day life.

Don't just leave Him for Sundays!

God Calls Ordinary People...

At NR we had members of the Christian Motorcycle Association sharing with us.

The testimonies were very powerful and it's amazing how God calls ordinary people like you and me to do extra-ordinary things.

Awesome!

God can use your story to draw someone closer. God can use your faithfulness to witness to others in their times of trial. God can use your life and experiences to move others to know that no matter where we are, He wants to forgive and prosper us!

I can't say more that that: GOD IS GOOD - ALL THE TIME!

Our Part Two

At NR we completed our Stewardship Series on Sunday.

We spoke about some things which can prevent and help us from fulfilling our duties to God:

- Debt

We are not to have unless its for a car, house or starting a business.
This debt we are to repay as quickly possible.

- Counsel:
One the best ways of ensuring that all our decisions, including our financial ones, are in line with what God wants from us, is to use a three fold system: Prayer, Scripture and Talking to other mature Christians

So, to sum up: Stewardship has two parts: God's part and Our Part:
God gives us all we need to live as He intended. We are born to care for His creation and therefore need to be good stewards. Being faithful in our management of our finances is one way in which we honour God.

My prayer is that you will become/continue to be a good steward.

Our Part

At North Rand, we are still busy with our stewardship series:


We spoke on Sunday about the second part of good stewardship, namely: Our Part:


Three things of Our Part:


Giving helps us to:

- Grow Christian Character
- Deepen Our Spiritual Life (Luke 16:10-11)
- Get Our House in order (Daniel 6:4)

In other words, when we give our lives to Jesus, we then need to put on a new character and as we do so, our spiritual lives will deepen. In order to do so, we need to get our house in order as far as our giving and other area's of our lives go!

My prayer is that you will become all that you can as a Christian!

Bless you

God is...

At North Rand, we are busy with our annual stewardship campaign.

Biblically, stewardship has two parts:

God's part

Our Part

On Sunday, we spoke about God's part:

- Ownership - God owns everything (Psalm24:1-2)
- Control - God has everything in His control (Daniel 2:20-21)
- Provision - God is our provider (Luke 12: 29-31)

Awesome!!

Next week we'll talk about our part.

Life Through Christ

(Apologies for missing the blog last week - our modem was hit by lightning)

Most of us struggle with the thought of original sin.

How come I'm being punished for something Adam did?

There is no simple answer to this question, however, it may suffice to say, that while one man (Adam) brought sin and death into the world, one man (Jesus) brought redemption and salvation.

You choose who you want to focus on!

Thank you Lord, for saving me from sin and death through your Son, Jesus Christ. Amen!