Category: Christian Blog

What Have You to Fear, Oh Heart of Mine?

Fear thou not; for I am with thee: be not dismayed; for I am thy God: I will strengthen thee; yea, I will help thee; yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness. For I the Lord thy God will hold thy right hand, saying unto thee, Fear not; I will help thee. Isaiah 41: 10,13

 

Fear can be that sudden sense of panic with its heightened awareness allowing us to flee danger or it can come as a deep seated dread-a weariness of soul and spirit. In this world there are many things which attack our hearts with fear. It may be a fear that we will make the wrong decision concerning a job, the fear of failure, the fear of loneliness, fear of financial distress, fearfulness for a child, illness, or fear of the unknown. We know that there are unexpected storms. We know that we live within a world where evil happens-from pipe bombs to terror. As Christians we are certainly not exempt for such evil. Indeed, we may even be the target. We lock our doors, build walls around our hearts, and prepare to stand firm against whatever force comes. Yet, there is one fear; I daresay is the one that can destroy us faster than any other. That one we cannot build walls against, no barriers can keep it out; because, it is buried within our own heart and mind. Continue reading “What Have You to Fear, Oh Heart of Mine?”

How to Really Know Joy in Love of the Forsaken

Therefore, if there is any encouragement in Christ, any comfort provided by love, any fellowship in the Spirit, any affection or mercy, 2 complete my joy and be of the same mind, by having the same love, being united in spirit, and having one purpose. Instead of being motivated by selfish ambition or vanity, each of you should, in humility, be moved to treat one another as more important than yourself. 4 Each of you should be concerned not only about your own interests, but about the interests of others as well.5 You should have the same attitude toward one another that Christ Jesus had, Philippians 2:1-5 (NET)

 

We live in a world, a society that would tell us that “happiness is found in rising to the top, fulfilling our desires for pleasure, and in gaining the applause of others. To do so, we must avoid the friendships that are hard, shun the downtrodden for fear they might pull us down, and fight against anyone who gets in the way of our success. We cannot be distracted from our own happiness by someone else’s pain. We must shun those who do not fit our image for fear of what others might think.” Yet that is NOT what the Bible teaches nor is it the example of what Jesus Christ lived before us. Jesus showed us that true joy is found in humility, kindness, and in reaching out to the downtrodden, the broken hearted, and those whom society have cast aside as deplorable or unredeemable. Continue reading “How to Really Know Joy in Love of the Forsaken”

What Is the Greatest Treasure of This Life?

Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ, Philippians 3:8

Throughout this journey of life, we meet with unexpected storms, rocky terrain, emotional upheavals, and trials that cause us to grow weary. At times we would despair of the weariness of heart and spirit, losing focus of the prize before us. Tears may stream down our face, we fall to the ground in despair and we wonder if there is any hope of joy. For most of us, our journey is an uphill climb; a race through boulders and rocks. We feel the struggle has left us bruised, bleeding and too exhausted to press on. We are overwhelmed with a deep, unrelenting weariness of heart and spirit that presses in. Continue reading “What Is the Greatest Treasure of This Life?”

How to Impact the World Turning Despair to Joy

Rejoice in the Lord always: and again I say, Rejoice. Philippians 4:4

Paul wrote this to the early church at Philippi, while he was imprisoned in Rome. It had not been the first time the Philippian Believers had seen Paul imprisoned. Indeed, when he first had come into Philippi to preach the gospel of Christ, Paul had been beaten and thrown into prison.

 

And the multitude rose up together against them (Paul and Silas): and the magistrates rent off their clothes, and commanded to beat them. And when they had laid many stripes upon them, they cast them into prison, charging the jailor to keep them safely: Who, having received such a charge, thrust them into the inner prison, and made their feet fast in the stocks. Acts 12: 22-24

There was never a time within the early church that those following Christ were not subject to ridicule, hostility, imprisonment, and even death for their belief. In many nations today, the same remains true. Continue reading “How to Impact the World Turning Despair to Joy”

What Happens When My Expectations of God Are Wrong?

Paul then stood up in the meeting of the Areopagus and said: “People of Athens! I see that in every way you are very religious. For as I walked around and looked carefully at your objects of worship, I even found an altar with this inscription: to an unknown god. So you are ignorant of the very thing you worship—and this is what I am going to proclaim to you. “The God who made the world and everything in it IS the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by human hands. And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything. Rather, he himself gives everyone life and breath and everything else. From one man he made all the nations, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he marked out their appointed times in history and the boundaries of their lands. God did this so that they would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from any one of us. ‘For in him we live and move and have our being.’ Acts 17:22-28 (NIV)

 

Everything that God has done or allowed down through the ages in the history of mankind has been so that we human beings might seek Him, search for Him, and by such perhaps reach out for Him to find Him, though He is not far from any one of us. Without Him, no one ever lives, moves or has existed. Think of this, a perfect righteous God has been willing down through the corridors of time to be mocked, criticized, beaten, denied, and spit upon by the very creatures whose life and Continue reading “What Happens When My Expectations of God Are Wrong?”