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Exodus 23:2 Do not follow the crowd in doing wrong. When you give testimony in a lawsuit, do not pervert justice by siding with the crowd,
When God got Moses to write down all of the laws (not the 10 Commandment which God wrote on tablets) He made sure they would be understood.
Yes, many of the laws seem hard to keep, but so many of them make sense when we read them now and we see how our modern societies are built on such laws.
You do not have to follow the crowd, you can stand up and say no – that is what God wanted right from the start!
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3 John 1:11 Dear friend, do not imitate what is evil but what is good. Anyone who does what is good is from God. Anyone who does what is evil has not seen God.
Much of the time in our lives it is easier to mimic the evil and bad things in life because they just seem easier to do or we see many people doing them.
But where does doing evil lead us? It stops us from doing good. It stops us from showing God’s love and light. It takes us further away from God!
God wants us to walk close to Him and do the things Jesus has taught us to do; following and obeying Him is a good first step to take. People will see the difference and follow on.
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John 3:19 This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but people loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil.
We may look at various things as being the light of our world – the central focus from which we can see all things; but in reality, the only true light of this world is God.
Jesus came into the world to spread this light, to inform people of God, to encourage people to believe, and to love and support them in their decisions.
We tend to hide in the darkness when light comes in because we want to hide our sins and mistakes, but Jesus wanted to show people how to forgive and move on with Him.
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Romans 13:12 The night is nearly over; the day is almost here. So let us put aside the deeds of darkness and put on the armour of light.
To the Jews, we are living in the time of the night. This is the time when we are faced with dangers we do not see and fears which are unfounded.
Soon we will be coming to the dawning of day, the time when we are delivered from darkness and no longer need to fear.
We do not have to keep hold of the fears and things of the dark because we have salvation through Christ, giving us the hope we find in daybreak and the pleasure of living a day with Christ!
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Isaiah 59:17 He put on righteousness as his breastplate, and the helmet of salvation on his head; he put on the garments of vengeance and wrapped himself in zeal as in a cloak.
In these words we don’t have a description of man putting on the right stuff to go to war, but of The Lord doing so to fight evil.
When Christ comes forward to defend us. He does not come forward as a simple man but as a warrior, ready to fight for everything and against anything.
God is our protector and our shield, He has also given us all we need to know in order to fight with Him to bring people to know more of Him.
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Ephesians 6:17 Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.
Once we accept Christ into our lives and allow Him control rather than fighting Him every step, we will find what it is like to want to share the Gospel as Jesus did.
When a warrior goes out to war, they make sure they have the right clothes and equipment to give them the best chance at staying safe on the battle field.
We too need to make sure we have the best chance on our battlefield by making sure we are prepared too.
God does not want us to lose, He wants us to win!
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Isaiah 49:2 He made my mouth like a sharpened sword, in the shadow of his hand he hid me; he made me into a polished arrow and concealed me in his quiver.
Do you back off from sharing God’s word because you don’t know what to say or are worried about what you will say when asked a difficult question?
Isaiah found out just how much God is willing to help because he knew God was putting words in his mouth; he knew he could not speak that well.
If you are willing to trust in God and willing to give Him control of your mouth, you will be amazed at what comes out of it too!
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Hebrews 4:12 For the word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.
The bible is one book which I don’t have much difficulty reading – most other books I either do not finish or take so long to finish I cannot remember what the start was about!
But God’s word continues to work in your heart and mind long after you have read it once; hence reading it over again gives you so much more.
Many books may make you cry or very emotional, but you soon forget what it’s about. God’s word continues in your heart.
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James 1:6 But when you ask, you must believe and not doubt, because the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind.
What happens when we doubt? We always look for the failure point and never reach for what is possible.
Does this mean we must all be optimists all of the time? No, actually we do need to take life seriously and know the limits, but through God everything is possible!
Don’t let life toss you about just because you doubt God can make the difference! Step up and ask God for the help He is offering. Step up and know He is going to make a difference!
Just do it!
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Matthew 21:21 Jesus replied, “Truly I tell you, if you have faith and do not doubt, not only can you do what was done to the fig tree, but also you can say to this mountain, ‘Go, throw yourself into the sea,’ and it will be done.
Doubt is something which is holding every one of us back from a fulfilling relationship with Christ. It is the doubt which trips us up at the last hurdle, the doubt which stops us asking for the final step.
Jesus wants us to know He is always here for us and wants us to walk by His side every day knowing we just have to ask for things.
I know it is one thing to stand up and talk about not having doubt but another thing entirely to actually have no doubt – I am as guilty as anyone…
But when we do manage to put our doubt aside, we will find out just how much we can do with Christ!
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1 Timothy 2:8 Therefore I want the men everywhere to pray, lifting up holy hands without anger or disputing.
How many times have you arrived at a church service all wound up inside because of an argument or other matter where you got cross with other people?
God wants us to come to Him without all the baggage. Jesus told us to bring all of our burdens to Him and not to try and carry them around with us.
This reminder here is Timothy’s letter should make us stop and think about how we conduct our own lives. Give situations up to Jesus before they consume you. Give your burdens away before you try and worship God – they will only hold you back!
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Matthew 18:22 Jesus answered, “I tell you, not seven times, but seventy-seven times.
I am pretty sure none of us want to hear these words from Jesus… Peter asked Jesus how many time they should forgive people and the answer was a whole lot more than expected!
Jesus forgave people of some of the vilest sins possible and still continues to do so when people come to Him with an open and humble heart.
When God asks us to be more like Jesus, it is in ways like this where we should be willing to continue forgiving until the person realises their mistakes – it is not up to us to judge when to stop!
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Matthew 6:14 For if you forgive other people when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you.
Mercy and forgiveness are some of the hardest things to give in life when you are surrounded by people who are taking everything!
God has called us to be more like Jesus in our actions, the love, walk humbly, show mercy and give people hope in an otherwise hopeless situation.
God does not call us to judge the world and put it to right! God does not say we need to go out and correct everyone. God says we need to learn to forgive just as much as He has to forgive us of our sins.
Start at home…
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Matthew 10:1 Jesus called his twelve disciples to him and gave them authority to drive out impure spirits and to heal every disease and sickness.
What did Jesus do to the twelve disciples? He sent them to go and tell people about the gospel, not just any people but their own people, the Jews.
This was before the great commission where He sent everyone to help spread the gospel; this was the message to try and gather the Jews together to show them the Messiah had come!
How often do we miss the simple calling of telling out neighbours about God? How often do we look for the complicated instead of the easy? Love the people around you and shine Jesus’ light!
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Mark 3:14 He appointed twelve that they might be with him and that he might send them out to preach
When Jesus chose the twelve disciples it was not a random choice of twelve people but a specific calling of those twelve men to do an appointed task.
When He says He has chosen us, as in yesterdays verse, it is not a random choice but a specific calling for us to do a chosen task!
Yes, God has already chosen us to do something and if we are willing to listen we will get to know what it is – but we need to listen!
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John 15:16 You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit—fruit that will last—and so that whatever you ask in my name the Father will give you.
We did not choose Christ to be our Saviour… You may be saying “but I thought I did” and you would be correct. What is being said is that we did not pick Christ out from a line-up of potential candidates, so to speak.
Christ is God and chose us to be His people and not the other way round. Just because we live in a real world and face real decisions does not mean we are in control of the whole real world!
Jesus wants us to take this truth and tell others so they are not trapped by the limitations of this world. Be more like Christ and free your faith!
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Ephesians 5:20 always giving thanks to God the Father for everything, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.
How often do you thank God for things in your life? Do you thank Him for the good things? Do you thank Him when times get tough?
We do like to thank God when we have a good time or when things go right, but when things do not go according to plan we should be thanking God for continuing to be with us and look out for us!
Think of what may have happened and how we have been kept for a reason. Thank God, always!
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Colossians 3:17 And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.
How much of your life reflects what you have learned about Christ? How much of your life reflects Jesus’ ways of living?
Jesus spent His whole life on earth giving glory to God the Father and making sure everything He did was for God and with God.
It may well be a very hard thing for us to emulate because of the sin in our lives, but we should at least try to aim to something more like His life than our old lives.
Do a bit more for Jesus Christ today!
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Colossians 1:10 so that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and please him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God,
Paul knew God had told him to go out and tell many different people about God; and so he did so, willingly.
His prayers for the people he met and taught were not that they would give up everything and come to him to be taught, but he would be able to go out to them and God would fill them with the right knowledge and wisdom.
Sometimes we have to trust others to do what we know has to be done because we cannot be in all places at the same time – that is God’s realm and what He is going to do as long as we sow the seeds.
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Romans 8:8 Those who are in the realm of the flesh cannot please God.
Whilst we continue to do the same things the people around us are doing and continue to live a life without Christ, we continue to find it very hard to please God.
If we want to please our God then we need to do things which are closer to what He wants in our lives.
He is probably not asking you to give everything up and live in a local church – He is probably asking you to take on board all He is trying to teach you and share it with others to let them know what you now know.
We may live in this world but we do not have to live for the world!