Choose Life & Prosperity

On Sunday there was no sermon - we simply allowed Scripture to speak to us:

Deuteronomy 30:11-20:

Now what I am commanding you today is not too difficult for you or beyond your reach.

It is not up in heaven, so that you have to ask, "Who will ascend into heaven to get it and proclaim it to us so we may obey it?" Nor is it beyond the sea, so that you have to ask, "Who will cross the sea to get it and proclaim it to us so we may obey it?"

No, the word is very near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart so you may obey it.

See, I set before you today life and prosperity, death and destruction. For I command you today to love the LORD your God, to walk in his ways, and to keep his commands, decrees and laws; then you will live and increase, and the LORD your God will bless you in the land you are entering to possess.

But if your heart turns away and you are not obedient, and if you are drawn away to bow down to other gods and worship them, I declare to you this day that you will certainly be destroyed. You will not live long in the land you are crossing the Jordan to enter and possess.

This day I call heaven and earth as witnesses against you that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life, so that you and your children may live and that you may love the LORD your God, listen to his voice, and hold fast to him.

For the LORD is your life, and he will give you many years in the land he swore to give to your fathers, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.

He is Coming Again

On Sunday we shared from Luke 12:49-53.

Like the wind that sometimes promises rain but waits and then finally delivers, so the return of Jesus is signed and we wait for His return.

So:
- Jesus promises to return
- We rationalise His return in our thinking
- Should we not accept Him or His return, we will have to account for our choice

And:
The best we can do is to make sure our choices allow us to stand before God one day in the best possible way.

My prayer is that we will be able to do so.

Storing

On Sunday we shared around storing in Matthew 6:19-24:

Storing is a natural human endeavour
- Traditionally those who didn't, would die.

However, we have come to understand storing differently.

We store more than we need.
In other words, we sometimes store for the sake of storing.

So some important lessons from the passage:

- Store only what you need
- Store important things like relationships
- Focus on Jesus to provide all our needs

Awesome!

Yes or No!

On Sunday we shared from Matthew 5:33-37.

In this passage, Jesus encourages His disciples to stay away from good intentions and to simply say Yes to fulfilling God's will and work in their lives.

For us, this means not saying: "I promise to do this or that.." or "I meant do do this or that.."

Rather, it means simply committing wholeheartedly to Christ and allowing the Holy Spirit to lead us to change to:

- Become the people God wants us to be
- To do what He calls us to do

My prayer is that you will say Yes to Him!

Facing Temptation

On Sunday we spoke about facing temptation in Luke 4:1-13:


We all face many temptations.


Bottom line: Jesus expects us not only to face but to have victory over temptation on our lives.



How can we do this:

- Believe in Jesus and receive the Holy Spirit(John14:15-17)
- Turn to Scripture when confronted by temptation (Isaiah55:10-12)
- Know you will be tempted again (Ephesians4:25-28)

The Penny Drops

On Sunday we shared from Mark 6:45-52 - Jesus walking out on the water to His disciples.



A couple of things emerged:

- He walked to them because they misunderstood His feeding of the 5000 (Mark 6:30-44)
- He wanted them to know He will never stop performing miracles
- He wanted them to understand that God feeds His people

So, for us this means:
- God is our provider
- Jesus will never stop working in our lives
- The Holy Spirit will help us to discover/remember all of this

Awesome!

Talents

On Sunday we shared about using our talents from Matthew 25:14-30

A couple of things emerged:
- We all have talents - abilities and opportunities
- We need to use them to God's glory
- When we do, the Kingdom of God is advanced in us and in our world

So, bottom line:
- Christians need to work hard, ethically and with integrity

It is a huge challenge for us but one which Christ lays down.