Accepting the Gift

"FOR GOD SO LOVED THE WORLD THAT HE GAVE HIS ONLY BEGOTTEN SON..."

John 3:16

"...God so loved ...that He gave..." This was the first Christmas Gift. It is good to remember this every day but especially during this Christmas season. God loves us, and He gave His all to us, His Son. But knowing He loves us and actually accepting His love are two different things.

When I was growing up, in Chattanooga, Tennessee during the 1950's, my parents would always try to make Christmas special for us. I attempted the same thing with my children forty years later. The gift that my children truly wanted and talked about all year, that I couldn't afford, I would save up my money and sacrifice, so that they could have it on Christmas morning. I remember that there were times that I worked a second job to provide for them at this time of year. To see their joy as they walked into the living room and saw their presents, made me just as happy. But what if they kicked and trashed those gifts, and were ungrateful after my sacrifice to provide it for them?

Not accepting God's gift of Love can be a similar situation. But accepting His love means that we will trust Him. We realize that He does not mean to harm us. He only wants our good. He expects us to love Him, worship Him and be thankful in return.

Accept His love. Take a moment this Christmas season, and meditate on His Love for you. Feel His Love. Expect good things from Him.

Accept God's Gift - His Only Begotten Son - Jesus Christ - Emmanuel - God with us.

FAITH

I BELIEVE THAT THIS A GOOD REMINDER ON FAITH... I HAVE HAD MY ISSUES LATELY, BUT THIS REALLY BRINGS IT HOME... DO I TRUST JESUS? DO I REALLY LOVE HIM?

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Discipleship Journal Archives
Converting Your Fears To Faith
Helene Ashker
Issues: With your eyes on the Lord and with all you have at his disposal, every situation in life will be a faith-stretcher.

WE ALL STRUGGLE with fears and anxieties. Will I be successful? Will I marry? Will I stay married? Will I always have adequate finances? Will my retirement be secure? Will I be able to avoid sickness and disability? Will I always be wanted and needed?
Such fears cripple.

In Matthew 14:22–31, we read that the disciples saw Jesus walking on the water. Peter loved Jesus so much that he made a rather bizarre request "Lord, if it's you, tell me to come to you on the water."

Peter's request was impulsive-but Jesus said to him, "Come."
Confidently, Peter jumped out of the boat and walked on the water. His eyes were on Jesus. But what began as an exciting, impulsive adventure almost cost him his life.
Suddenly he looked around. What am I doing? How stormy it is, and how deep the water! Panic! Then Peter began to sink into the circumstances.
Why? Had Jesus changed his mind, or run out of power, or lost interest in Peter?
Once the circumstances were over Peter's head, his attention turned quickly back to Jesus: "Lord, save me!" Jesus could have let him drown to teach the others a lesson on crippling fear but his eye never left Peter for a moment. Peter shifted his focus, but Jesus never did. How wonderful it was for Peter to feel Jesus' hand rescue him!
Then Jesus said, "You of little faith, why did you doubt?"

REAL SEEING
Have you made decisions by faith, believing God has led you, but then doubted this guidance in the midst of trying circumstances? Have you started by faith only to end with fear? Have you wondered if God really led you into this marriage, or this occupation, or this financial situation, or this friendship, or this location?
Things are not going well, we think. Will God see me through? I've made mistakes-will he still help me? Will God finish what he started?
Our faith runs out before we experience God's graciousness. Our doubts turn to unbelief, and what started as a faith venture becomes instead a detriment to our growth as we begin questioning God.
But Jesus used every situation with his disciples to increase their faith, and even when we blow it he cares enough for us to teach us to trust him.

The psalmist wrote,

As the eyes of slaves look to the hand of their master, as the eyes of a maid look to the hand of her mistress, so our eyes look to the Lord our God, till he shows us his mercy.(Psalm 123:2)
So "let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith" (Hebrews 12:2). "When we lift our eyes to God," wrote A. W. Tozer, "we are sure to find friendly eyes looking back at us."
What is faith? Faith apprehends as a real fact what is not revealed to the senses. Faith rests on that fact acts upon it and is upheld by it in the face of all that seems to contradict it. It is not a feeling-it is based on fact. Faith is real seeing. It is the firm grasp of the unseen fact. "Faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see" (Hebrews 11:1).

HOW MUCH WILL GOD DO
How much do we believe God is willing to do for us? How much do we believe God is capable of doing for us? Isn't it easier to believe God can and will do something good for someone else but not for me?

Are we honoring or insulting God when we pray? Do we approach him as the King who has unlimited power, unlimited resources, unlimited love?
In 1972 I was asked to pray about traveling around the world to minister to women in several countries. My immediate thought was, God wouldn't do that for me. I didn't have enough money. I don't have that much to offer in ministry. I yearned for the experience, but I didn't think God would do it for me.

Left to my own resources I would never have gone. But God provided everything for the trip because it was his will, and it was the highlight of my life.
When you're faced with a problem or need, do you think of meeting it with your own resources and talents, or with the Lord's? He "is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine" (Ephesians 3:20).

Even though Jesus had already done all manner of miracles in the presence of his disciples when, in John 6, he raises the issue of feeding the five thousand hungry people, it never occurs to the disciples that Jesus himself would feed them. Faith, however, begins when we come to the end of our resources.

What did the young boy lose that day by bringing his little lunch to Jesus? Nothing. He ate till he was satisfied, as did more than five thousand others. If the boy had kept it to himself, that lunch would have met only his needs; but offered to Jesus it ministered to multitudes.
If I offer what I love to the Lord, he may indeed take it away-my husband, my children, my home, my career, my talents, my possessions. But God gave us everything we have anyway-not to exploit for ourselves, but to put at his disposal and use for his glory.

THE WAITING, THE SUFFERING
Our fears reveal our view of God. Wrong concepts about his concern for me or about his power are reflected in whatever I find difficult to believe God for.
That doesn't mean that if I have the right concept he will answer my prayers exactly the way I want him to. But he does always answer. The real issue is whether I trust him to answer by doing the right thing the right way at the right time.
While we wait for his answer, do we see the waiting and the suffering as his means of perfecting our character and fulfilling his purposes for us-not only his purposes for us personally, but also those regarding our part in fulfilling the Great Commission? Will we be like Job, who cried, "Though he slay me, yet will I hope in him" (Job 13:15)?

For many of us, our ability to wait on God through suffering is questionable. In an article entitled "A Salvation of Suffering" in Christianity Today (July 16, 1982), Anita and Peter Deyneka, Jr., included these quoted observations:

There is nothing like the happiness of the early Christians, not despite, but because of their acceptance of suffering for the sake of Christ. As far as the capacity of godly suffering is concerned, we are the poorest and least advanced. We want comforts; we do not want to be destitute and suffer for the sake of Christ." (Lebanese statesman Charles Malik)

A fact which cannot be disputed is the weakening of human beings in the West while in the East they are becoming firmer and stronger . . . We have been through a training far in advance of Western experience." (from Alexander Solzhenitsyn's 1978 Harvard address)

"You Western Christians often seem to consider material prosperity to be the only sign of God's blessing. On the other hand, you often seem to perceive poverty, discomfort, and suffering as signs of God's disfavor. In some ways we in the East understand suffering from the opposite perspective. We believe that suffering may be a sign of God's favor and trust in the Christian to whom the trial is permitted to come. . . . Knowing this, of course, does not mean that our sufferings are not agonizing. But it does provide healing and redemption in our sufferings." (an East European Christian)

We who are preoccupied with personal happiness and comfort are missing out on discovering the greatness of God's power to overcome circumstances. Instead of offering ourselves to the Lord for his purposes, we try to manipulate him so that he will help us be successful, comfortable, or popular. When God doesn't perform accordingly, we doubt his goodness and power.

How can we convert our fears to faith? If you want increased, creative faith, try offering yourself with no mental reservations to the will of God. You'll get answers to prayer beyond your wildest imaginations.

What are you more concerned about getting what you want in life, or fulfilling God's purpose? Instead of asking God to release you from situations that bring pressure and suffering, ask him to complete in your character whatever is necessary for you to become more like Jesus Christ. Ask him to develop in you the fruit of the Holy Spirit. Ask him to accomplish great things through your life for the fulfillment of the Great Commission.

I recently heard this definition of worship: "Worship is submission-total submission to the will of God." Offer yourself unconditionally to the Lord, and be willing to become and to do whatever he asks. Accept suffering, trials, and ridicule as the norm for the committed servant of the Lord, rejoicing like the apostles that you can suffer for the sake of your beloved Jesus.

Remember impulsive Peter? Listen to his words when he was older and more mature:
In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that your faith-of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire-may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed. (1 Peter 1:6–7)

What's the most difficult thing for you to believe God for in your life now? What's the most difficult thing to believe him for in the future? Are your answers something selfish—a person or a thing to which you look to meet your need? Someone or something other than the Lord himself and what he provides? If so, beware of idolatry.

Fifty days after the disciples abandoned Jesus at the cross, they were courageously preaching the gospel to thousands. They started with little faith, but they grew to be men of outstanding faith, for they lived with and learned from Jesus. After being beaten and humiliated and imprisoned, they sang and praised God. Their whole lives were consumed with Jesus, and with spreading his good news. They were men on fire, men who turned the world upside down.

We, too, can become courageous men and women of faith, thankful Christians who believe God and claim his promises and who make a difference in our world by giving to God all we are and have.

Women Who Answered the 'Call'

I am working on a project that deals with women ministers and evangelists and their 'Call' and conversion experiences.

The women in this study, from women in the 1800s to contemporary women ministers, are women who have been forgiven much and loved much, and loved Jesus passionately, similar to women in the scripture (Luke 7:47). There is no attempt to deify these women. The purpose of the study is to examine the lives of African American women, ministers and evangelists, in light of Jesus’ redemptive power and love.

And on my servants and on my handmaidens
I will pour out in those days of my Spirit;
and they shall prophesy; Acts 2:18

In order to get a personal and accurate account of their response to their ‘Call’ - interviews, their recordings, writings, narratives and/or autobiographies, in addition to other primary and secondary sources, will be used.

“She has been called, knowing who it was who called her;
she has been committed to the task, however large or small
(Dise, page 57-58, 1989).

If you know of someone who would be interested please comment or send a email to drwilmajohnson@yahoo.com

SPIRITUALLY FIT

SPIRITUALLY FIT

The Olympics will be starting in China in a few days. Athletes have been training long and hard for this opportunity to compete. The Christian life also requires hard work, self-denial, and preparation. Prayer, Bible study, fasting, and worship help us to run the race with vigor and stamina. Spiritual progress depends upon training diligently.

"Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize. Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last; but we do it to get a crown that will last forever. Therefore I do not run like a man running aimlessly; I do not fight like a man beating the air. No, I beat my body and make it my slave so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified for the prize." (1 Corinthians 9:13-27, NIV.)

In this race, the Christian's goal is to please God, and keep our eyes on Christ. At times we should give up something good in order to do what God wants, and not become sidetracked or slowed down. Our denial is nothing compared to the eternal, imperishable, eternal reward that will be ours. When Paul talks about being disqualified for the prize, he does not mean that he could lose his salvation, but that he could lose his privilege of telling others about Christ. It may be easy to tell our children and others about Christ, but we ought to also take our own advice, and be careful to practice what we preach.

At times we must give ourselves spiritual checkups, just as we get physical checkups. This means looking for Christ's presence and power in our lives. Then we will know if we are true Christians or merely imposters.

"Examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith; test yourselves. Do you not realize that Christ Jesus is in you - unless, of course, you fail the test?"

(2 Corinthians 13:5 NIV)

Spiritual health and godliness, are even more important than physical health.

"Have nothing to do with godless myths and old wives' tales; rather, train yourself to be godly. For physical training is of some value, but godliness has value for all things, holding promise for both the present life and the life to come." (1Timothy 4:7,8 NIV)

In today's society a lot of emphasis is put on physical training, but spiritual health (godliness) is even more important. Our bodies are susceptible to disease and injury, but faith can bring us out of these tragedies. In training to be godly, we must develop our faith by using our God-given abilities in the service of the church.

"Do not neglect your gift, which was given you through a prophetic message when the body of elders laid their hands on you. Be diligent in these matters; give yourself wholly to them, so that everyone may see your progress. Watch your life and doctrine closely. Persevere in them, because if you do, you will save both yourself and your hearers." (1Timothy 4:14-16 NIV)

Talented athletes lose their abilities if they do not constantly exercise their muscles, and we can also lose our spiritual gifts if we do not use them. Our talents are improved by exercise. Do not bury your talent. As Christians, as members of the body of Christ, the church, we must watch our life and persevere, in this way we save both ourselves and our children. We must be on guard against any sin in our lives that can destroy us.

I AM SANCTIFIED

I am sanctified, according to 1 Corinthians 6:11. We are all called to be Holy, Sanctified. It is not just for the Preachers, Mothers of the church or Deacons.

1 Corinthians 6:11 "Such were some of you; but you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God."

This Scripture states that this was done for us. We were washed, were sanctified, and were justified, meaning it is already done - In the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the Spirit of our God.

This is Good News, we do not have to strive and work to become Sanctified, it's already done. We just have to accept it and believe it.

Obedience to God v. Friendship with the World

"For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?"
Mark 8:36

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Jesus prayed for future believers,

"I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil. They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth." John 17:15-17


Obedience to God v. Friendship with the World

We are all confronted with temptations in this world, and the Bible states that there is nothing wrong with wanting a pleasurable life. The difference is shown in Jesus' example - Jesus was tempted, but He did not sin. God gives us good gifts, and He wants us to enjoy them. But having friendship with the world could entail seeking pleasure at other’s expense, or it could be at the expense of serving God. We must learn how to choose wisely - friendship with the world versus obedience to God. When it comes down to it - all we really need is God's approval, through obedience to Him. Once the Holy Spirit fills us, we then see that all of this world's seductive attractions are cheap substitutes for what God has to offer. (Read James 4:4)

John wrote to older people, young people, and children (1 John 2:12-14) warning them not to love the world and anything in it.

"Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life is not of the Father, but is of the world. And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever." (1 John 2:15-17)

Worldliness is not limited to external behavior either, such as the places we go, people we meet, or activities. Worldliness is also internal, because it begins in the heart. It can be characterized by three attitudes: preoccupation with physical desires; obsession with one's importance or status; and the lust of the eyes and craving and accumulating things. In contrast to these attitudes, God values self-control, commitment to humble service, and a spirit of generosity.

This is how we can be sure that we are '...not of the world'.

No Condemnation

Do not let anyone try to bring condemnation on you.

"For God sent not His Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through Him might be saved. He that believeth on him is not condemned; but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. "John 3:17, 18.

The devil is good at trying to belittle the work of God in our lives, also in bringing up past shortcomings and sins. What God has done is on God, we do not need to defend God, or justify what He has done. God can take care of Himself. And past sins, when we have asked for forgiveness, are put into the 'sea of forgetfulness', it is as if it had never happened.

If we believe in God, believe in His Word, and believe in the Name of His only Son, then we are not condemned, and no one can bring condemnation on us.

"No weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper; and every tongue that shall rise against thee in judgment thou shalt condemn. This is the heritage of the servants of the LORD, and their righteousness is of me, saith the LORD." Isaiah 54:17

We depend on God's righteousness. And so there can be no condemnation from others.

NEW BEGINNINGS

IT'S A NEW SEASON AND IT'S A NEW DAY - A SEASON OF NEW BEGINNINGS

I pray everyone reading this post had a blessed time in the LORD recently with family and friends over the Christmas Holidays.

We are now in a new Season. The year 2007 was a year of completion, which makes 2008 a year of new beginnings. Isn't this exciting!

In the Kingdom there are seasons that God takes us through as individuals and as a church.
I believe that God is calling for His Sons and Daughters to be prepared for this new season, and the best way to prepare is through prayer and fasting.

We must move from the 'ordinary' Christian attitude and lifestyle, as if we are going to live in these mortal bodies for ever, and prepare for the 'exordinary', eternal life that God has prepared for us.

This calls for us to seek His Kingdom and Kingdom purposes and principles, and turn from the world's values and ways of doing things. And in everything we do, to give Him the Glory.

God is doing a new thing, are you ready for it?