Poppy, Why didn't You Tell Me About Jesus

We were in a prayer meeting and I was shocked by a mental image of one of my grand-children holding their hand up from a depth and saying “Poppy, why didn’t you tell me about Jesus?” I am not an emotional person but, as I am writing this post, there are tears in my eyes and a sinking feeling in my stomach.

My wife and I took our children to church and as they grew older they made their choice of whether they would continue to go to church. Unfortunately, like far too many young families, they are not regular church attenders, however; we continue to pray for them. The sad reality is that, our day of worship, has become a day of recreation and shopping for many people.

I guess the question that should be asked is, dad/mom, you have given me everything, taught me everything and took me everywhere but you didn’t take me to church to learn about Jesus.

My prayer is, Lord help me to tell my grown adult children, my grand-children and others about your love and the need of their having a relationship with you.

Please pray that God would give me, give us the wisdom and love to reach or families and extended families.

This has not been edited.

From the heart

Steve

Righteousness is one of the most important themes in the bible. This video answers the question, how to be righteous in God’s eyes and not in ourselves.

What does it mean to be self righteous?

Being self-righteous means being convinced of one’s own righteousness or moral superiority, often to the point of being intolerant of the views and beliefs of others. It involves a strong belief in one’s own correctness or morality, which can sometimes come across as arrogant or condescending.

I don’t know this pastor but he got it right.

What does it mean being self righteous?

Definitions

Having or characterized by a certainty, especially an unfounded one, that one is totally correct or morally superior:  An adjective that describes someone who is strongly convinced of their own righteousness and moral superiority.

Psalm 98, 9.. let them sing before the Lord, for he comes o judge the earth. He will judge the world in righteousness
 and the peoples with equity.

In progress

In my lifetime, I have had many friends. Some were friends for a short period of time and others have stood the test of time. About 50 years ago I made the biggest decision of my life and that decision was to live my life as a practicing Christian with Jesus at the center of my life. It was a decision that gave me peace, hope, a reason for living and a promise that He will never leave me or forsake me. He hs been and still is my Saviour, my friend and some day my coming king.

¹⁵ I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you John 15, 15

1. A friend of Jesus! Oh, what bliss
   That one so weak as I
   Should ever have a Friend like this
   To lead me to the sky!
   • Refrain:
     Friendship with Jesus!
     Fellowship divine!
     Oh, what blessed, sweet communion!
     Jesus is a Friend of mine.
2. A Friend when other friendships cease,
   A Friend when others fail,
   A Friend who gives me joy and peace,
   A Friend when foes assail!
3. A Friend when sickness lays me low,
   A Friend when death draws near,
   A Friend as through the vale I go,
   A Friend to help and cheer!
4. A Friend when life’s short race is o’er
   A Friend when earth is past,
   A Friend to meet on Heaven’s shore,
   A Friend when home at last!
5. 
   Joseph C. Ludgate,

Many of us are familiar with the words of 1 Peter 5-7…cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you. I have dealt with anxiety, within my own life, with family members, friends and acauaintances. For many, it holds a tight grip on their everyday existence. 

My healing began when I visited  a doctor and he perscribed a nerve medicine. But the best perscription he gave me  was as I was leaving his office.  He asked me, ” Steve, do you believe in God? I don’t recall how I answered but I went home and poured the pills down the drain and spent my spare time reading the bible and other religiously oriented material. By the way some of it was new age but I kept returning to the bible and eventually I made the decision to become a believer in Jesus.  I was raised in a Christian home but church attendanve ended when I was 9 years old. I was 22 years old when I accepted Christ as my Saviour. 

As a side note, I had been praying that I would meet that doctor again and thank him for his life saving perscription. It was around 48 years later that I had the prayer answered and when I told him my story, he said ” Steve, you are giving me goose bumps.” I could see that he was touched by my story. 

But what does it mean to cast all your anxiety on him? The last part of this verse says, Because he cares for you. This he is Jesus. This is written to christians. I am going to be very blunt. Jesus cares about and loves intimately only those who believe on him and in him.  How do you love someone intimately? You have to spend time with them, you have to care about them, you have to love them unconditionally. Do you have an intimate relationship with Jesus? I have inserted links to other websites which describe intimacy with Jesus.

Intimacy With God, The Way To Fulfilment

Practical ways to grow intimate with Jesus

Intimate With Jesus

 

Romans 10:9; that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved;

The blessing begins with a relationship with Jesus. Have you started that relationship? If not, why not? Why not start that intimate relationship, with Jesus, right now. 

Prayer for forgiveness to begin your relationship with Jesus.

Lord Jesus, forgive me because I am a sinner. I believe that you are the son of God, that you died and rose again and because you paid the penalty for my sins and for who ever will believe, I am forgiven and ready to start a new life. Thank you Jesus.

Read your bible and study. This is one of my favorite resources.

Got Questions Ministry...click here 

Anxiety has our world in a tight grip and we struggle with it in so many different areas of our daily living. Was it meant to be like that? If we are bible believing it was not what God intended. The unthinkable happened. Sin entered and what was made perfect became broken by sin.

Anxiety and worry was introduced into the world because of sin. But my question is can what was once broken be healed?  This is one verse that, in my opinion, contains a biblical principle for dealing with sin and sin’s destruction in our lives.

Proverbs 28:13. ”Whoever conceals their sins does not prosper, but the one who confesses and renounces them finds mercy.” Please scroll down for a prayer to pray to renounce anxiety and worry

The following are some bible verses on anxiety and worry.

1.  “When I am afraid, I put my trust in you.”  ~ Psalm 56:3

2.  Do not be anxious about anything, But in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.  And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” ~ Philippians 4:6-7

3.  “Peace is what I leave with you; it is my own peace that I give you. I do not give it as the world does. Do not be worried and upset; do not be afraid.” ~ John 14:27

4.  “For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.” ~ 2 Timothy 1:7

5.  “There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love.” ~ 1 John 4:18

6.  “When anxiety was great within me, your consolation brought joy to my soul.” ~ Psalm 94:19

7.  “But now, this is what the Lord says…Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have summoned you by name; you are mine.” ~ Isaiah 43:1

8.  “An anxious heart weighs a man down, but a kind word cheers him up.” ~ Proverbs 12:25

9. “Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be terrified; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go.” ~ Joshua 1:9

10. “Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.” ~ Matthew 6:34

11. “Humble yourselves, then, under God’s mighty hand, so that he will lift you up in his own good time.  Leave all your worries with him, because he cares for you.” ~ 1 Peter 5:6-7

12. “Tell everyone who is discouraged, Be strong and don’t be afraid! God is coming to your rescue…” ~ Isaiah 35:4

13. “Do not worry about your life, what you will eat; or about your body, what you will wear.  Life is more than food, and the body more than clothes.  Consider the ravens: They do not sow or reap, they have no storeroom or barn; yet God feeds them. And how much more valuable you are than birds!  Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life?  Since you cannot do this very little thing, why do you worry about the rest?” ~ Luke 12:22-26

14. “The Lord is my light and my salvation—whom shall I fear?  The Lord is the stronghold of my life—of whom shall I be afraid?” ~ Psalm 27:1

15. “Cast your cares on the Lord and he will sustain you; he will never let the righteous fall.” ~ Psalm 55:22

16. “Immediately he spoke to them and said, ‘Take courage! It is I. Don’t be afraid.’” ~ Mark 6:50

17. “Be strong and courageous.  Do not be afraid or terrified because of them, for the Lord your God goes with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you.” ~ Deuteronomy 31:6

18. “‘For I am the Lord, your God, who takes hold of your right hand and says to you, Do not fear; I will help you.  Do not be afraid, for I myself will help you,’ declares the Lord, your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel.” ~ Isaiah 41:13-14

19. “God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble.” ~ Psalm 46:1

20. “The Lord is with me; I will not be afraid.  What can man do to me?  The Lord is with me; he is my helper.” ~ Psalm 118:6-7

21. “Fear of man will prove to be a snare, but whoever trusts in the Lord is kept safe.” ~ Proverbs 29:25

God made each of us special. Yes, we may have been born with a physical or other health issues but no matter our birth  disabilities, we are loved by God.  Recognizing that you are loved by God and that You have received Jesus as your saviour,  pray the following prayer and learn to love yourself for who you are. I will be writing an article about my daily victory over anxiety.  I say daily because I have to daily commit my life to living a Christ centered life. Blessings in your life journey.

Renouncing anxiety… Lord, I come into your presence through Jesus my Lord and Saviour. Lord you are well aware that I have a problem with anxiety and many times it controls my life. My anxiety has caused depression and many people do not understand what I am going through. Lord, Anxiety controls my life. In Jesus’ name, I recognize that I need to deal with the root cause of anxiety so I renounce the sin of anxiety and bind it so that anxiety will not control my life. Thank you Lord for listening to my prayer  and binding this sin from my life. In Jesus’ name  I pray, Amen.

PSA thoughts. PSA Positive Spiritual Attitude

We were made in God’s image. Gen; 1;27 So God created mankind in his own image,   in the image of God he created them;   male and female he created them.  James 5;9  With it we bless our Lord and Father, and with it we curse people who are made in the likeness of God. Link for further study…https://www.focusonthefamily.com/family-qa/what-it-means-to-be-made-in-the-image-of-god/   

Jesus is my Saviour.

Jesus loves me  I have cast all my cares and anxieties on Jesus.

I want the mind of Christ. Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus:  link    https://www.gotquestions.org/let-this-mind-be-in-you.html

Links to other websites that deal with anxiety and worry.

A link to renouncing anxiety

Holistic Healing For Anxiety

A Worrier’s Guide To Peace Catholic writer

How I Cured My Anxiety a non biblical perspective  Charlie Hoehn

Recently, while leading a bible study I came across a word that I had not paid attention to in my over 40 years studying and teaching scripture. The word is renounce and the particular bible verse is Proverbs 28:13. ”Whoever conceals their sins does not prosper, but the one who confesses and renounces them finds mercy.” 

This verse appears to be saying that we are to confess and renounce our sins. Most of us are familar with confessing our sins but what does it mean to renounce sins. Is there a difference? Some translations use the word forsaking but in my opinion this does not do justice to the word renounce.I like the word surrender. 

Romans 6; 12-14…  Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires. 13 Do not offer any part of yourself to sin as an instrument of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer every part of yourself to him as an instrument of righteousness. 14 For sin shall no longer be your master, because you are not under the law, but under grace.

Read the above verse over a number of times and note verse 14a  For sin shall no longer be your master…

We go to God in prayer and confess our sins.. eg.

I have a problem with anger and basically I pray the following prayer..”‘Lord, I come into your presence through Jesus and I need to confess that I have a problem with anger. Today, as you are aware I becaame angry with my wife and I acted in a way that was sinful by saying things that were unkind and hurtful. Forgive me in Jesus’s name, Amen.” Oh yes, I need to go and apologie to my wife. In another few days or weeks, the same thing happens and I repeat the process.

We have not treated or processed the root cause, in this scenario, which is the sin of anger. Anger is my master.

How do we deal with the root cause. Yes, we have confessed but we haven’t renounced the sin. How do we do that?

After confessing and asking for forgiveness we should call out the root of our sin. Anger!

This is the most important part of our prayer if you have a desire to deal with whatever is causing you to sin. For me it is anger and at times lust. You know the sin or sins that control your life and keep you from  being the Christian that God calls you to be. . To be like Jesus.

Romans 8:5-9

For those who are according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who are according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit. For the mind set on the flesh is death, but the mind set on the Spirit is life and peace, because the mind set on the flesh is hostile toward God; for it does not subject itself to the law of God, for it is not even able to do so and those who are in the flesh cannot please God. However, you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. But if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Him.

Galatians 5:22-23
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.

If we desire to be like Jesus we must renounce those sinful desires or actions that are not like Jesus.

Renouncing Anger… Lord, I come into your presence through Jesus my Lord and Saviour. Lord you are well aware tht I have a problem with anger and many times it controls my actions and reactions. My anger has caused hurt to my wife and family and to me. Lord, I am guilty of letting anger control my life  . In Jesus’ name, I recognize that I need to deal with the root cause of anger so I renounce the sin of anger and bind it so that anger will not control my life. Thank you Lord for listening to my prayer  and binding this sin from my life. In Jesus’ name  I pray, Amen.

You can pray this or a similar prayer of renouncement for any sin issue in your life.

Anxiety 

  A link to renouncing anxiety

Holistic Healing For Anxiety

Additional resources will be added.

Be Blessed In Your walk with Jesus

Steve

 

 

 

The Christmas display in London is very impressive.

Jer 29:11

“For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” ( Jeremiah 29:11)

This was the promise of hope that our daughter claimed for her twin boys who were born premature, at 26 weeks. The doctors gave very little hope with many possible medical issues. They are now 14 years old. One is healthy, with a hearing disability and the other child has heart issues but otherwise they are fine.

I was listening to an aquaintance and he said that we should pay attention to what we should be paying attention to. Can we control our thoughts so that we pay attention to what we should be paying attention to. This is the you tube link https://youtu.be/GsP6w6DiN8M .

There is a scripture verse that has become one of my favorites. It speaks about taking our thoughts caprtive, 2 cor 10:5  We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.

Can we control our thoughts by using the instructions found in this verse? How do we take our thoughts captive and make them obedient to Christ? I had been using the term, censoring our thoughts, as we live the Christian life. We are told not to sin in thought word or deed. There is an article by Michelle Freeman that discusses the idea of taking thoughts captive. You can read it here.

In my own daily living, there are thoughts that invade my mind and many of them can be very entertaining. Especially those that are of a sexual nature or those that make me a dominate figure in different situations. I dream just about evary night and some of those dreams are frightening, however; many of them are invigorating, Years ago, before I began a relationship with Jesus and recognized the person that God had intended for me to be, I would be held captive by my thoughts and dreams.

However; as I studied the bible and understood that Jesus’s desire for me, as a Christian, was to be Christlike. How is this possible?  There are many verse that tell us that we should have the mind of Christ.

1 Corinthians 2:16 – For who hath known the mind of the Lord, that he may instruct him? But we have the mind of Christ.

Romans 12:2 – And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what [is] that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.

1 Corinthians 2:14-16 – But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know [them], because they are spiritually discerned.

Philippians 2:5 – Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus:

The only way for me or you to have the mind of Christ and to take our thoughts captive is to get our hearts right and allow the Holy Spirit to censor what goes into our minds. We must pray, read and meditate on the word and when thoughts come into our minds, that we know not to be Christlike, let them be captured by Jesus. This is my method, I pray,” Lord this is a thought that is unacceptable to you so I’m asking you to weed this thought from my mind and if it resurfaces I will again let it be captured by you. Thank you Lord because you know my thoughts even before they become a thought in my mind and you are aware of the evil that they can cause in my life. Lord take those sexual, immoral thoughts captive. Thank you Lord for giving me a clean heart and a clean mind.  Amen