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- Written by: DJ Dave
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Matthew 7:8 For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.
If you wanted to delivery a parcel to another house, would you simply walk up to the door and wait, or would you knock or ring the doorbell?
Unless we request some sort of response, we are probably not going to get any response. Knock and find out what the answer is!
We need to take the steps to go forward and find out what Christ has in store for us – we need to knock, and we need to look around and find out things.
Don’t wait for God to do everything for you; He is already waiting for you to knock!
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Hebrews 4:11 Let us, therefore, make every effort to enter that rest, so that no one will perish by following their example of disobedience.
If we are laying down a law which does not offer people the opportunity for physical and spiritual rest – we are working against God!
Yes, sometimes we do go above and beyond to get things done, but when we dictate that others should do this, we are working against God’s teaching.
Being a Christian also means sticking to God’s Word, following His examples and upholding righteousness as given to us through our bibles.
Don’t undermine what God is trying to teach us!
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Hebrews 4:3 Now we who have believed enter that rest, just as God has said, “So I declared on oath in my anger, ‘They shall never enter my rest.’” And yet his works have been finished since the creation of the world.
As Christians we should be setting aside one day of the week to rest from our work – to rest and recuperate and be ready for the week ahead.
It is Christ alone who has the power to give us eternal rest, but whilst we are still here on earth we have to face the earthly battles. Putting aside that one day a week for physical rest is not enough.
We need to have spiritual rest for one day a week too or we will become spiritually weak!
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Matthew 11:29 Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.
Even in the Old Testament we are told of our Messiah who is meek and humble; and yet He is the one offering us rest and more love.
Jesus made sure we would always have a place to come, a place where we could find spiritual rest.
We go to bed to recover physically – where do we go to recover spiritually?
Take Jesus up on His offer!
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Matthew 11:28 Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.
It sounds so easy – come here and I can help you; come here and I will allow you to get some rest…
But as humans, for some reason, we just don’t like to go to others just so we can rest… or is it just me… no, I know it is not just me!
Christ said these words so we can approach Him and ask for the love and support only He can give. It is unconditional and everlasting.
But, we do need to make the move to come to Him!
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Galatians 3:25 Now that this faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian.
There is a time when we do have to put our faith and trust in Christ and not in the world; that point in time should be life changing and one we should not want to back-step from.
It can be difficult because it is the point where we step out in faith, no longer hanging on to the things we know (even if they fail us terribly!)
We are allowed to let go of our pasts and live for the future; a new future with Christ by our sides.
It is a leap of faith into what may seem like the unknown, but we do know what is there because we read about it in God’s Word!
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Galatians 4:3 So also, when we were underage, we were in slavery under the elemental spiritual forces of the world.
We have the written word of God which shows us how much we can depend on the world and what will happen when we do depend entirely on the world! We lose!
The Jews, about which this is written, showed how much they could lose by trusting in their won laws and their own ways instead of in Christ.
We are like children, with little understanding, when it comes to our early lives with Christ. Don’t be fooled back into your earthly ways just because someone looks back and tells you how it should have been!
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Colossians 2:8 See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the elemental spiritual forces of this world rather than on Christ.
One of the worst things in life is to have all you love taken away from you whether it be a person or material things; it’s terrible!
Sometimes being tricked out of something through what other people say to you seems as bad because they have managed to convince you of something false.
It does happen, and we will face it daily as people try to show their own way of life is better than our way as Christians.
Never let anyone convince you there is anything better than Christ in your life!
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Mark 7:3 The Pharisees and all the Jews do not eat unless they give their hands a ceremonial washing, holding to the tradition of the elders.
The disciples started to see a difference in people when they were living with Jesus and being taught by Him. Jesus would not hold on to the traditions of the Jews just because they had been done for years… He did things with a purpose!
When we are living in our communities, we should not be doing things just because it is a habit, has been done for years or because our religion says so – we should be doing things for a purpose; to show people the gospel.
Living the life the disciples lived would be a profound statement in any time, not just their time. Isn’t it time we lived for Christ and not for society?
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Luke 5:30 But the Pharisees and the teachers of the law who belonged to their sect complained to his disciples, “Why do you eat and drink with tax collectors and sinners?”
Just as we try to keep it simple and tell others about the gospel story, about Christ, about God; we will get those who murmur behind our backs because of what we are doing.
They are going to be murmuring because they do not know the truth and feel like we are undermining them in some way – keeping it simple will allow those whom we speak with to tell others in their own words, maybe words they will understand more easily.
Don’t give up just because someone is talking about you – think of it as free advertising… Make sure your advertising is on point!
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Luke 15:3 Then Jesus told them this parable:
How do you go about telling others about Jesus or relating the gospel to them? Jesus chose to talk to people in parables, simple stories with meaning which had a gospel context.
We don’t have to be extraordinary speakers or orators in order to tell others about Christ – most often the simple stories you can relate to will come over as having more meaning than the complex words parts of the bible are written in.
Don’t forget the bible has been written down by scholars and scribes and people trying to express as much in their words as possible.
Don’t leave out the simple parables – Jesus did not!
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John 15:11 I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete.
Jesus continued to give the disciples the truth from God and how much God was in control of everything.
All the words He gave to the disciples, and hence to us, are from God to show us His love for us; this is the gospel story which we have to continue to pass on to others.
He did not give us these words as propaganda or for other strange reasons; just simply so we can know how much He loves us and can live with that hope and truth every day.
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John 15:10 If you keep my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commands and remain in his love.
None of us can ever hope to understand all Christ had to go through to cater for all of our sins; but we do have the results written down in our bibles.
Jesus kept His Father’s commandments because He loved Him. We ought to keep His commandments for the same reasons – because we love Him.
We remain safe in His arms as long as we trust Him and stay close to Him; if we wander off, we wander away from that safety.
Stay close. Stay Safe!
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Hebrews 5:8 Son though he was, he learned obedience from what he suffered
Sometimes it is hard for us to obey others, especially when we believe we are in the right and they in the wrong; but obedience needs to be cultivated in all of us.
God alone knows the whole picture and He continues to try and make sure we get to see as much as we need to cope with life and all it throws at us.
But if we choose not to listen to His guidance, then we choose a path of our own; one which will probably end in destruction because of the unseen pitfalls!
Trust in Christ just as He trusted in God!
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Matthew 20:28 just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.
When Jesus came to minister to the world, it was not as a huge god who would not dare to be seen with mere mortals, but as a human being Himself!
He did not come to listen to those who would tell Him what to do, but rather to give out the actual truth straight from God the Father.
And then, after doing so much to spread the gospel, He fulfilled the gospel by laying down His own life so we would not have to!
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Galatians 2:20 I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.
When we become Christians, we have declared we want to give up our old lives and live a new life with Christ.
This does not mean we have literally gone to hang on the cross with Christ, but have accepted that He has done that for us.
He gave us the Holy Spirit to live within us at that moment we accepted these ways; a spirit who will guide us every step of the way is we listen!
Leave the wants of the physical world behind and focus on the spiritual requests from God!
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Philippians 3:9 and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ—the righteousness that comes from God on the basis of faith.
The apostle may well have concluded that everything of the world was of the same worth as dung in comparison to what God can give us, but he knew who the supplier was of his worth.
It is because of what Christ has done we have the gift of eternal life and not because of us following the law or keeping things righteous!
Christ gave it all so we could live with Him. Christ gave His life so we would not have to give our own. It is because of Christ and not because that is what people say…
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Romans 4:5 However, to the one who does not work but trusts God who justifies the ungodly, their faith is credited as righteousness.
Don’t take this part of the chapter out of context – as Christians we are not called to do no work, but the opposite!
The work we do, though, should not be focused on earthly reward but on how we can do things for God – not just for renumeration from Him, but because we love Him!
God wants to give us many things and show how much He loves us, but, equally, does not want us to work only because He is going to give us things – that is not really about love…
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Romans 4:4 Now to the one who works, wages are not credited as a gift but as an obligation.
Have you noticed the people who try to work through life by doing it all themselves are the people who think it is a debt owed to them?
The more we lose focus on God and focus on the world, the more we will think the world owes us because of the work we are doing; or worse still, the more we think society owes us!
When we try to do it all on our own term we should not expect any reward other than what we can gain – not forgetting there are more people out there not following the same rules as us!
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Galatians 3:12 The law is not based on faith; on the contrary, it says, “The person who does these things will live by them.”
The law is not the law just because we believe it is; it is the law because that is what is written down and was set out in the beginning.
If we agree to abide by the law, then we agree to live by those rules; it is our choice, but it does not change the law!
If we do have faith in what is written down we will live by those laws written down, or at least try to because we do have hope in what will come out of them.
The law is still the law…