for your light has come and the glory of the Lord rises upon you
When there is sufficient friction, a fire is started. The question is what kind of fire will the friction or trials of life create in me.
There are 2 kinds of fire that can be created in us when friction (which are the difficulties of life: sickness, loss, financial hardship, relational challenges etc.) occurs.
The devil likes to tell us that he has a legitimate claim to our lives. That we “leave doors open” and that gives him a right to come in and rob, steal and destroy our lives, our families or our friends. This is a lie, I will explain why.
If a person leaves the doors or windows of their home open and a robber comes in, steals and vandalises the house, does the fact that the person left the door open make the act of the robber legitimate? no, of course not. The person will file a complaint with the police because the action was illegal. The house did not belong to the robber so the robber had no rights over it or its contents.
Sin is slavery. Generational sin is generational slavery.
Introduction
When someone enters slavery at first, after knowing freedom, they consider it to be an abnormal state. As time goes by, they are gradually submitted to their new condition through constant oppression. They begin to accept it, to view it as inevitable, unchangeable and as their “new normal”. There may be passing thoughts of resistance but the fear of the consequences of acting on those thoughts paralyze them into passivity, submission and inaction.
The root of male/female relationship problems
There is a direct connection between how we relate to God and how we relate to each other. Simply put, the more we are in love with God, our Creator, the easier it is to love people, His creation. Our close relationships demonstrate this in our fluctuating levels of grace and compassion. This is particularly evident in the marriage relationship. Recently I realised how corrupt this relationship had become as a result of ‘The Fall’. Adam and Eve’s sin not only wrecked their relationship with God, but also dramatically changed the way they related to each other. Their actions produced divisions and negative ways of relating which have been passed down through the generations, to affect us today.
Continue reading “Just one bite!”
Firstly, what exactly is it? Most of us imagine a man or woman in a pointy hat looking at dusty old books and making up magic potions. That is not the core definition of witchcraft.
Witchcraft, above anything else, is the imposition of one being’s character, desires or opinions over another person’s free will in opposition to the latter’s complete freedom. It is the power of agreement imposed upon another person. It is coercion, manipulation or imposition of one person’s free will over another’s in order to obtain agreement on an subject, issue, opinion or action.
The premise of complete freedom was given to us by God himself when he said Christ has given us freedom for freedom itself, not to impose an agenda, opinion, doctrine or way of life, but so that we could be truely free to make our own choices and decisions in life.
So our foundation in Christ is complete freedom. Imagine being able to fly, you can go up, down, left, right, forwards or backwards; that is the spiritual position Christ puts us in when we accept Him and He says “I set you free now go for it, try something”.
There are so many different religions, so what’s the difference between Christianity and any other religion?
Most religions lay out a set of laws and rules that you need to obey to be worthy or righteous or to attain some degree of spiritual piety, prestige or position. The most holy thing in the religion is the rule book or law by which the believer abides.
With Christianity, the law or rules are not obligations that hover over you with a promise of punishment for wrongdoing; they are a foundation on which you stand.
The premise is that Christ died to make you perfect. You are born again and setup for success on a solid foundation. That foundation then is not above you, crushing you, but under you, built by those who went before you.
It’s for you build on. You stand on Christ (the Word of God), the foundation, to do greater things than He did. Everything is sustained by the Word of God, not by your own effort.
You do not begin your journey under an impossible burden of perfection, you start as a baby for whom all is provided and you grow and learn to hunt for your own food; to “build the temple” of the Holy Spirit on the foundation of The Word that is given to you at conception.
We’ve all heard the cries of scandal in the past week over a couple of parties held at No 10 and the demands from various parties for Boris Johnson’s resignation. All well and good, politicians should be held to account.
The question that arises as soon as I hear these kinds of things is; What is in the nation’s best interest?
The answer is not always self-evident as there are many parameters to consider:
Firstly, let’s talk about stability. In a context of Covid and economic uncertainty, do we need a change of leadership or would it be wiser to let those who have some experience of leading the country in the current context continue to do so? A government that changes too often does not have time to implement policies that are potentially beneficial for the country, it is also vulnerable to outside influence from other countries as it is weakened by the lack of internal support and so needs to seek allies externally, this invariably comes at a cost, there’s no such thing as a free lunch in politics.
There are two seas in the Land of Israel. One is fresh, and fish are in it. Splashes of green adorn its banks. Trees spread their branches over it, and stretch out their thirsty roots to sip of its healing waters. Along its shore children play.
The River Jordan makes this sea with sparkling water from the hills. So it laughs in the sunshine. And people build their homes near to it, and birds their nests; and every form of life is happier because it is here.
The River Jordan flows on south into another sea. Here there is no splash of fish, no fluttering leaf, no song of birds, no children’s laughter. The air hangs heavy above its waters and neither people nor animals will drink here.
What accounts for the mighty difference between these seas? Not the River Jordan. It empties the same good water into both. Not the soil in which they lie; not the country ‘round about.
This is the difference:
The Sea of Galilee receives but does not keep the Jordan’s water. For every drop that flows into it another drop flows out. The giving and receiving go on in equal measure.
The other sea is shrewder, hoarding its income jealously. It will not be tempted into any generous impulse. Every drop it gets, it keeps.
The Sea of Galilee gives and lives. This other sea cannot sustain life. It is named the Dead Sea.
There are two seas in the Land of Israel.
There are two kinds of people in the world.
Bruce Barton
I remember being a very young man when I first encountered the now cult scene from the hit series Roots, in which the unfortunate Kunta Kinte is whipped into accepting his new name “Toby” by the merciless slave owner John Waller.
He is very publicly broken, humiliated and submitted in the most appalling, yet perfectly legal manner (at that time in history).
The public nature of his torment sets and example and acts as a warning to others who would contradict the powers that be; “dissent at your peril”.
Simply put, the super power of fear is the power to blind. Here’s why.
It’s a given that it is easier to beat a blind enemy than one with 20/20 vision. Any military corps worth it’s salt knows that. Army’s around the world spend billions and work hard to use stealth to camouflage their movements or when that’s is not possible they will attempt to either blind their enemies or to render their radars or other detection equipments inoperable.