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- J M Sandbrook. |
Written by James M Sandbrook of Tokoroa, New Zealand.
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1 John Chapter 4, verse 16 And we have known and believed the love that God hath to us. God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him. God is love, we see this in the above verse. I like to see it this way
and I tell this to people:
This message is about God's Love for us, and Our Walk With God. I want to say here that God loves you. When you go to church God is very pleased that you are there and that you have taken the time out in your busy day to worship in the building that has been set aside for you and the congregation to gather together in harmony sharing Gods love with one another. You please God by gathering in His name. I would add, that the soft approach (Love, kindness, empathy) gets one further than the hard (anger or hatred) approach. If we let our love flow, understand that others suffer pain just as we do, we would all deal with one another so much better and easier, and we would understand each others feelings. Speak from the heart, let your love flow in kindness and feelings. Jesus did this, it is one of the reasons that He was so popular. You cannot heal a person unless you love that person. Jesus loved all. Imagine in your mind what kind of person Jesus was - imagine how Jesus dealt with people. Can you deal with people the same way that Christ did? Of course you can. You may need to change some of your habits and characteristics but if you work on this and try you can change and believe me if you do it will be noticed and it will encourage other s to do the same. You will also be loved so much more for it. The gentle approach, Jesus used it, many others have, try it yourself and watch your life change. We say a prayer when we first come to Christ. For us this is a joy, but we are all so confused as well. We can be eager to learn to try to understand Gods ways for us and the world. Some may ask what does it mean to Walk With God? It is to have Him at our side... And learn His ways. First we must repent, this should be done first, before we even call on Christ. We must see what we had done in the past life that was ungodly as wrong. And of course we will try to change our ways, at least the ways that we know are wrong. Later on as we grow as Christians we can change other things about ourselves, as we come to realize that there are other problems in our lives. such as addictions like smoking, alcohol etc. Be aware that bad habits like a bad-temper can be an addiction of sorts - people copy their parents and can grow up and do the same as Mum & Dad did. Mark Chapter 10, verse 18 And Jesus said unto him, Why callest thou me good? there is none good but one, that is, God. God is good, God is love. Mark Chapter 10, verse 27 And Jesus looking upon them saith, With men it is impossible, but not with God: for with God all things are possible. Keep this in mind at all times. Religions of the time of Jesus' ministry: I have read in various historical books of the many people claiming to be leaders of new religions or faiths, trying to show and convince people to follow them. This happens in our day now and it also happened in the days of Jesus. Some people thought that Jesus was just another one - after all they all made claims, religious claims which often would have seemed far-fetched and hard to believe or understand. Then there were the religious groups (sects) like the Pharisees, the Sadducees, the Essenes, and the Scribes of the day. Jesus walked amongst these religious groups and had to deal with their beliefs, traditions, thoughts and accusations while also teaching the public. But it wouldn't be hard to imagine all the people going to hear Jesus because they wanted to hear something new, they wanted new hope, new lives and they were not getting satisfaction in the spiritual religious sense off the religious leaders, and country leaders of the day. You can also get a feel from the Gospels that the public could "sense" that there was something special by what they heard from Jesus and saw when another miracle was shown to them by the true love of Jesus the Christ. Jesus taught hope and belief... A preacher today is to preach the same... We all need hope, we all need to believe... The preacher is the servant of the people... The world looks at ministers out of the pulpit,
to know what they mean when in it - Cecil.
The duties of home are a discipline for the ministries of heaven - Manning. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ The first and worst of all fraud is to cheat oneself. All sin is easy after that - Baily. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Do no make evil gains, evil gains are equal to losses - Hesiod. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ The distinguishing sign of slavery is to have a price, and to be bought for it - Ruskin. Hope: Not the hope of the non-believer who is lost and knows not what the feeling of knowing that God is there, the true living God. The non-believer has a hope in themself, and when that falls through a hope in Luck, a fear of Fate, which all learn to dread and the false hope of the Fluke, accidental events bringing them through the day, week, and year. We believers have the hope of a expectant desire which comes after being a Believer for a while. A new Believer shouldn't think that they will get immediate complete hope (few do immediately) but wait and look around them and see the hope of other believers. We can have a joyful hope in the future and in death. Not the miserable and deeply sad feelings of complete lostness in the death of the non-believers. For their feelings are of all being lost with the death of the human body. True Believer know there is more to come. The believer has a hope in the coming and teaching of Jesus the Christ. We believe that Jesus was who He said that He was. We believe in Jesus and the words that He spoke. For the believer hope is a wonderful thing. Our hope in the Lord Jesus is joyful, our hope in God complete.
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