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Renew the Inside

I confused my wife, just recently.
She said to me, “You need some more “Brand 1″ shower gel.” To which I replied, “No I don’t, I need some “Brand 2″ shower gel.”
(No, we didn’t say “Brand 1” and “Brand 2”, but the shower gel brand that I use is a secret, of the Highest Magnitude! …???… 🙂 )

She just looked at me, with a confused expression and replied, but you’ve got “Brand 1″ shower gel?”

This is where I might confuse you too. 🙂

I did indeed have a “Brand 1” bottle, but it was filled with “Brand 2” shower gel.

I had wanted to try a different Brand of shower gel, and as such, I had bought “Brand 2” shower gel. But I didn’t like the “Brand 2” bottle.
The “Brand 1” bottle can be stored upside down, so it is easier to empty the bottle. But the “Brand 2” bottle will just fall over, if you tried to store it upside down.

So, my simple solution to this was to just rinse the old bottle out, once it was finished, and then refill it with the new shower gel.
So now I had the better old style bottle, with the new shower gel. Which ended up confusing my wife. 🙂 (and possibly anyone else who is reading this???)

As I was looking at the bottle, I kind of got I sense of, “You can do this, with the vessel, that is yourself, you can empty yourself of all the stuff that does you no good, and then be refilled with the good stuff. The good stuff that brings life, in abundance.”

How many negative thoughts do we carry around with us?
Thoughts along the lines of, you’re no good, who are you to do that, you can’t make a difference and many other wrong thoughts that can leave us thinking, “Who am I, to think that I could do ……. .”

Broadly speaking, I think that these kind of thoughts can be called, “lies from the enemy”, who wants to stop us from being the best version of ourselves that we should be. The version of ourselves that we were made to be.

Just like the shower bottle, we can actually try to empty out the old stuff, (lies of the enemy) and instead be filled with the good stuff (The Truth that God speaks about us).

Romans 12:2
2 Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.

2 Corinthians 5:17
17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here!

God’s words to us, are words that speak life to us.
Words that say, “You are Loved, You matter, You are important.”

Sometimes, we might not like what Our God speaks to us, if they come in the form of a rebuke, but if God is trying to correct our wrong thinking, it will be for our Good, if we will follow His correction.

Revelation 3:19-20
19 Those whom I love I rebuke and discipline. So be earnest and repent. 20 Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with that person, and they with me.

God does indeed want to renew us in the here and now, but we do need to let Him in, to do it, as He waits for us to say, “Yes” to Him. As we say “Yes” to Our Lord God, He will then transform us into what we were meant to be all along. We will still be ourselves, but a better version of ourselves, that then can expect to be with Him, for all time.

As we say “Yes” to Our Lord God, we will then be able to resist the enemy that much better, and all the thoughts of condemnation that the enemy tries to bring. Instead we can walk into the truth, and light, that Our Lord God brings to us.

John 3:16-21
16 For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. 18 Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son. 19 This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but people loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. 20 Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that their deeds will be exposed. 21 But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what they have done has been done in the sight of God.

So the choice remains before you.
Will you say “Yes” to Our Lord God?
Will you say “Yes” to the renewing of your mind, with the truth, that Our Lord God speaks to us?

If you do want to say “Yes” to Him, then just saying “Yes”, could be the starting point. If it helps, you could even echo the words below, in your heart, to Our Lord God.

I want to say “Yes” to You God.
I want to say “Yes” to the renewing of my mind, by You.
I want to continue to say “Yes” to You.
Please help me to do this.
I’m sorry for not saying “Yes” to You before now, but here and now, I’m opening the door to You and asking You to help me.
To know the better way that I can go.
Please help me to know Your truth and to follow Your path that leads to Life.
Amen.

If you have just said “Yes” to God for the first time, then I do encourage you to tell someone. If you do know someone who is a Christian, then tell that person.
If you don’t know who to tell, that you have said “Yes” to God, then you could put an “I’ve just said “Yes” to God” in the comments.

______________________________

Link to, Posts, with an Outreach feel.

How do you Pray, when you feel that you just can’t do anything?
A post with some advice about how to pray. (Talk to God)

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Forgiveness is Key

Forgiveness is key is hopefully something which we can all agree on, after all Jesus did say to us (in the Lords prayer) forgive us our sins as we forgive those who sin against us.

Sometimes this is not an easy thing to do though, and all the more so if we think that the one who has wronged us, doesn’t deserve our forgiveness.

The world will tell us that we should only forgive those who deserve it, but that is not Fathers way.
Father tells us to forgive unconditionally.

If someone has wronged us badly or is continually hurting us then how are we to follow this command?

It helps to know that forgiving someone is for our own good.

It releases us from the pain, hurt and bitterness which unforgiveness causes us.

I think of the hurt, as a hammer that keeps coming down on a hand that is under it.

If you are able to remove your hand from under the blows of the hammer then you should do so.
It’s much easier to forgive if the hammer blows are taken away

But what if you can’t take your hand out of the way of the hammer Blows? Do we still forgive?
Yes I believe I the answer is.

You see when we forgive, even though the hammer blows keep coming down, we then welcome the gauntleted hand of God to come over our hand and absorb the greater part of the blows.
We may still feel the thumping of the hammer, but the blows can be greatly reduced by inviting Father into the situation by forgiving.

Do we remain in this situation though?

Hopefully the hammer blows will be removed, but what if they are not?

It’s at this point that we need to hear Fathers voice that much more for His direction.

You see you can attack the hammer or you can let the hammer keep raining it’s blows down. Whatever you do, it’s best to keep in step with Father.

If Father tells you to remain still, then do that and wait for the bigger hammer to come along and take out the hammer that is hitting you.
He can do it.

Or Father might tell you to turn your hand around, catch the hammer and crush it. (The source of the hurt I’m talking about, not necessarily a person. 🙂 )
If he leads you to do this then you are doing it in his gauntleted hand with his strength added to the mix.
It may well still be a tough journey but you are not alone if you invite Father into the situation….by forgiving.

I can still remember seeing a program about forgiveness.

There were two guests that I can remember.

The first was a parent of a child who had been very badly treated (tortured and killed) by a very bad abuser.
The parent couldn’t forgive the abuser.
The effect of this could clearly be seen on the parents face. She took the hurt and bitterness with her wherever she went.
The audience (the world) all agreed that she was right, not to forgive, even though the pain she was in was clear to see on her face.

The second, was a parent of a child, who had been killed by a terrorist bomb.
The parent had forgiven the bomber who had killed their child.
The audience could not understand this. They were asking, how can you do that, and stating that the bomber didn’t deserve the parents forgiveness.
You could see by looking at the parents face that he was at peace.
The parent explained that it wasn’t the easiest thing he had done but that he did it any way.

Looking at the two side by side I could see the benefit of forgiving and the consequences of not forgiving.

It is for our own good that we are called to forgive.

By forgiving we can then claim hold of Romans 12:19 Do not take revenge, my dear friends, but leave room for God’s wrath, for it is written: ‘It is mine to avenge; I will repay,’ says the Lord.

Sometimes we might need to be honest with Father and tell him that we don’t want to forgive and ask for His help with the issue of our unforgiveness.
If we come to Father and ask for his help then he will be there to help us.

We can can sometimes think that to forgive someone, we need to go and look at the person we need to forgive in the eye and then forgive them to their face.
This is not the form of forgiveness that I am talking about.
The forgiveness that I am talking about is that which is done in our heart in our Father’s presence.
If Father prompts us to go further then we do need to listen to Him, but it is the choice we make in our hearts which is the starting point that counts.

Father,
Thank you that you do care for us and that you do forgive us.
Help us to follow your ways.
Help us to forgive others when they have wronged us.
Help us to bring those things and people who hurt us to you.
Help us to work things through with you so that we can truly say, yes I do forgive unconditionally as you call us to.
Amen

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We are only meant to bring the loaves and fishes.

If you have been watching The Chosen then you might already know what I’m going to be posting this week.

In the live streams and a number of interviews Dallas has spoken about this.

He has stated several times that it’s not our place to make the miracle happen, we only need to bring the loaves and fishes.

It’s so true when you think about it.

We are not able to make any kind of miracle happen. It’s just not in us, regardless of what we might think.

The disciples were only asked to bring what they had, which turned out to be the loaves and fishes. They didn’t have to produce the miracle, that part was left to Jesus. But they were part of the miracle by bringing what they could, the loaves and fishes.

The same is still true for us today. We only need to do our part and leave the miracle to God.

The question is, will we do our bit?
Will we bring the loaves and fishes, or will we make our excuses?

If we do want to see God move in a greater way, then we need to be willing to bring the loaves and fishes.
Father wants to include us in his work and hence he asks us to bring what we can, the loaves and fishes.

Dallas also talks about, just because we bring the loaves and fishes, it doesn’t mean that the miracle will happen.

This can be a tough point for us.
After we have gone through the effort of bringing the loves and fishes, then we can tend to have this expectation that something will happen, after all, we’ve done what you asked for… didn’t we Father.

Sometimes we will feel as though, we have fallen flat onto our face, being left with the thought of, “What have I just done???”

If we have followed Fathers prompting, then we have done just what we need to. We might get to see what it was all about at a later date, or we might not, it’s all in Fathers hands.

Do we have a heart that wants to say yes to Father, just like the lady who danced in the park (one of my earlier posts)
The Lady who Danced

If we can all come to that place where we are all willing to bring our loaves and fishes, regardless of what happens, then how much more will we be helping Father to see his purpose fulfilled, not only in our lives but also in our wider communities.

Can you imagine a church were everyone is willing to bring their loaves and fishes to Father, regardless of what happens?

Wouldn’t that be a miracle all on it’s own?
Everyone doing what they are meant to be doing, when they were meant to be doing it.

That almost sounds like it could be the start of something so much bigger. Revival perhaps?

Father,
Please start with me.
Help me to be willing to bring to You my loaves and fishes.
Help me to think more of You and less about everything else.
Help me to know and trust You that much more so that I want to say yes to You that much more quickly.
Thank you that you do accept me where I am, but please continue to lead and guide me.
Amen