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1 Timothy 3:3 not given to drunkenness, not violent but gentle, not quarrelsome, not a lover of money.
The apostle writes down some good advice to people wanting to be in overseer positions within the church; some may say bishops.
In reality, we are all in an overseer position within the church. Some of us may not be overseeing much, but God has entrusted us with the people around us!
Being a good example to the people around us is paramount in trying to show them a new life in Christ.
This does not mean taking the fun out of life or the church, but being respectful and not doing things in excess.
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1 Timothy 5:23 Stop drinking only water, and use a little wine because of your stomach and your frequent illnesses.
Do you do things in excess? How often do you allow yourself to do things in excess?
God has always tried to encourage mankind to take car of our bodies and not to do things in excess; rather we should be doing more but never in excess.
Our bodies are complex systems which need regular nutrients to balance what they can do – having a little wine or other foods we think of as being bad is sometimes good for us.
Nowadays we have a daily recommended amount for many things which is given to us by scientists and doctors – following such advice is actually good for the body and hence good for the soul; it makes you feel better!
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Acts 27:34 Now I urge you to take some food. You need it to survive. Not one of you will lose a single hair from his head.”
How many times have you actually depended on God and allow Him to do things in your life – and how many times have you ‘helped’ Him along the way by doing things you would expect God to do?
We all do like to think we know what God wants and do things we think He should do. And when things go wrong we get ourselves in a pickle and stop doing anything in case we get something else wrong.
That is not really allowing God to work in our lives. We need to look after our physical bodies so God can work with us and help us do the right thing.
Work with God and not against Him!
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Matthew 10:30 And even the very hairs of your head are all numbered.
Have you ever read through your bible and wondered why they said the things they did back then? I challenge you to look at any passage and then try and find links back to the Old Testament.
This would have been a scholastic challenge a few years ago, but the internet has any online tools to help you out.
People would say that “not a hair on their head” would be pulled out or damaged to signify how nobody was allowed to do harm to others back in the Old Testament.
God continues to know exactly how many hairs are on our heads – because He loves every aspect of us and wants us to be safe from every eventuality!
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1 King 1:52 Solomon replied, “If he shows himself to be worthy, not a hair of his head will fall to the ground; but if evil is found in him, he will die.”
Adonijah set himself up to be king, thinking he had the birth-right to do so because David was getting old and ready to retire.
David only heard of this through Nathan and Bathsheba! But as soon as he did, he got together the right people and dedicated Solomon as the next and rightful King.
No matter how far you go, how much you get it wrong, when you are faced with the truth like Adonijah was, stop and admit your mistake and ask forgiveness.
God is willing to forgive anything so long as we do come to ask for that forgiveness – just like Adonijah did in front of a very wise King Solomon.
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Ephesians 5:33 However, each one of you also must love his wife as he loves himself, and the wife must respect her husband.
When God says we should give up everything for the church, He does not mean giving up on the core things which He shows us – love.
To do Gods work effectively means being able to love those around you just as much as you love God and yourself.
If we do not extend the same full and effectual love toward those around us, people will ask how we can say one thing and do another.
Jesus showed love to family, friends, church and community; a full and effectual love!
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Ephesians 5:30 for we are members of his body.
The more we depend on the people around us in mutual living arrangements, the closer we become as a community and the easier we find things get.
If we all do work together we find things work out quicker and very often cheaper too – which I like!
God wants us to be as a single body – the church as one body, working together, supporting each other, depending on each other.
Selfishness, pride, greed and lust break apart communities and groups of people quicker than anything else – and they go as far as causing wars and obliterating communities!
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Ephesians 4:25 Therefore each of you must put off falsehood and speak truthfully to your neighbour, for we are all members of one body.
Living in close proximity to lots of people tends to give you a different look on life to living out in the country.
When you are one of very few people you tend to try and get on with everyone to make life a bit easier to live. But living with many people bring out distrust and all manner of other bad sides!
God wants us to be able to live with hope and love and in communion with the people close to us; that means putting aside lies and distrust and living like our lives depend on each other.
God wants that sort of close relationship with us even more!
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Galatians 6:15 Neither circumcision nor uncircumcision means anything; what counts is the new creation.
How many people go to the local church? Do you go to the local church?
The apostle writes here to the people of Galatia, telling them not to get all tied up about religious laws but to focus on Christ instead!
When we start comparing things in worldly ways we get caught up in those worldly comparisons and lose sight of the real object of our worship; Jesus Christ.
When I go to be part of our local church service, I go to do the best I can to give people the best opportunity to be blessed by God through the service.
It’s not all about where you go, but how you go…
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Romans 7:6 But now, by dying to what once bound us, we have been released from the law so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit, and not in the old way of the written code.
Whilst we should know the scriptures and understand what is written, we are no longer bound by the ancient laws of Moses as they were written for times past.
We are now bound by what Christ has done for us and what that means to us; God knew we would not be capable of keeping the laws – but we had to understand that first!
Live with Christ. Live for Christ. Thank Christ!
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Romans 8:3 For what the law was powerless to do because it was weakened by the flesh, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh to be a sin offering. And so he condemned sin in the flesh
No matter how good we make the laws of the land, they are only as good as the people who keep them. There will seemingly be flaws in all our laws because we are not able to keep them.
Not so with God’s Laws. Jesus was able to keep them all, the uphold them and the recount them; it is mankind who got it all wrong again.
But God does not hold it against us because Jesus, who actually kept all the laws, gave His life for us, the ones who actually break the laws!
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Hebrews 7:19 (for the law made nothing perfect), and a better hope is introduced, by which we draw near to God.
No person, be they a priest, bishop or any other person, ever made things perfect other than Jesus Christ Himself.
It was our Lord and Saviour who ushered in a new era where the debt for our sin would be paid for by someone else – Himself.
That gives all of mankind hope for an eternal future with God; a future where we can live together forever, not as mortal humans, but as immortal people with Jesus.
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James 4:8 Come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.
We all have doubts and we all make wrong choices at times. That does not exclude us from God. Keeping it to ourselves and continuing to follow those bad choices leads us away from God – that keeps us from God!
Admitting to mistakes and asking for forgiveness is the sure way of coming back to God because He is waiting for us to do so.
He knows we do things wrong and He knows we will continue to do so; but His love never stops and His welcome is always there, waiting for us to return!
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James 4:7 Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.
If you do not actively try to resist the devil, you will be surprised how easily he does get into your life…
Just going along as if nothing is going to happen will allow him to step into your path and tempt you off in many directions before you realise it.
We do face a battle every day, and unless we engage in it every day by submitting to God’s ways, we will find out there is already a winner for that day.
Start your day today on the right foot by submitting to God first of all!
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Romans 12:21 Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.
There are far too many evil things happening in this world for us to ignore the fact there is evil present; but that does not mean we have to give in to it and follow its ways!
Christ first commanded us to not get caught up in evil but to try and spread good instead; the apostle echoes those words reminding us not to be overcome by it but to put it in its place with good acts.
If we try to ward back evil with good; God will continue to back us up in our endeavours to do so. He wants good to shine through so people can have hope and see there is a better way than evil!
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Acts 7:60 Then he fell on his knees and cried out, “Lord, do not hold this sin against them.” When he had said this, he fell asleep.
I’m not saying we should all allow ourselves to be stoned to death – far from it – Christ has called us to be effective witnesses to Him.
But when we are berated, shouted at, called names, or whatever, we should stand firm in God’s Word, stand firm in showing others the love of Christ in the face of all that is going wrong in our lives!
Be different. Be the change. Be more like Stephen!
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Matthew 5:44 But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you;
What does this world teach you about your enemies? To hate them, curse them, ignore them, do bad things to them… The opposite of what Christ teaches us!
Christ wants us to be different to the world otherwise the world will see no difference between Christians and the rest of the hateful world!
Don’t teach people to hate others but rather teach them to reach out to others and show them Christ’s love toward them!
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Leviticus 19:34 The foreigner residing among you must be treated as your native-born. Love them as yourself, for you were foreigners in Egypt. I am the Lord your God.
We do not all have strangers living in our homes, but we do have people from all around the world living in places together nowadays.
Right from the beginning God has made sure we know we have to treat all people the same, no matter what part of the world they are from or what persuasion they are of, in any way!
God simply says, “love all people!” Yes, that can be hard, He did not say it was an easy task – but He does want us to do our best to love all people!
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Luke 10:29 But he wanted to justify himself, so he asked Jesus, “And who is my neighbour?”
When the Good Samaritan asked Jesus how to inherit eternal life, He did not get the response he may have hoped for.
Christ does not give us eternal life because of anything we have done or can do; He gives us eternal life because we believe He will give it to us when we come to Him and ask His forgiveness for the things we do wrong.
If we want to do what Christ has asked of us, then we need to step out of our comfort zones and head for the people who need our help rather than those we wish to help out.
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Jeremiah 9:15 Therefore this is what the Lord Almighty, the God of Israel, says: “See, I will make this people eat bitter food and drink poisoned water.
God does not sit back and watch as people go about denying Him and going after other gods instead; He will do something about it!
What He does, may not fall in line with what we think God should do for us as the all loving God; He may well make us stop and think about what we are doing.
If He has to go to extremes to attract out attention before we totally lose our way, then we should not be surprised when He allows bad things to encroach in our lives… Be prepared for an honest and just response from God!