iChristian

Our God is a God of War (not that He want’s to be)

But, tell me, what do you think it is that He is fighting?

We all think (and rightly so) that He is coming to save us; but from what exactly?

Perhaps we think:

He is coming to save us from our circumstances, bad neighbours, outstanding grievances that need settling, people that upset us, people that don’t see things in the same way as we do.

He is coming to save us from everybody else; they are clearly always in the wrong.

I am sure that it is easy to think like that – even if only subconsciously.

Think about this:

Our God is a God of war but not a war against people. We are certainly in the war too but most of us aren’t aware of it; and many of the ones that are have been…

You could be fast
Usain Bolt could envy you
It won’t last
You can’t run past God into the after-life

You could be so beautiful
A super-model if you like
You’d never be truly full
Just that hollow pull leaving you always empty

You could be the hardest geezer
A gangster or the next Mohammed Ali
But would that make you a God pleaser
Here’s a teaser: there’s only been one Real Man

You could be really smart
Einstein they might call you
But what about your heart
Only Jesus can start to change that thing

You could be so many things
The world is your oyster
But only one way brings
You life: If you’ve never sought God then Do it

Why do we look to money to solve our problems?

We think:

If I had money I would be able to sort things out
If I got rich I would be able to do good in the world
If I had enough cash things would be easy

In reality:

People behave badly when poor, trying to get rich & rich
Money doesn’t even exist unless we say it does
And all money does do is give us control over other people

Someone once said:

If I had all God’s power I would change things
But…
If I had his wisdom too, then I would leave things to Him

The Truth is:

We barely know what we are doing with our own lives let alone with everyone else’s.

If we want to sort things out then the best thing that we can do
Is trust God and keep trusting Him –…

We have gone from people walking around naked to a world laced with culture and tradition

We have so many fashions, rites, festivals and delicacies; what culture
We are a people of intelligence, wisdom and enlightenment; we are civilised
We have amazing technology, medicine and scientific discovery; how advanced we are

But what actually means anything; what is important?

What about life; things that give life and things that save life; rather than the things which simply make this place a bit more ‘interesting’

What am I saying?

THIS:

There is so much that we could do that would save so many lives

But we don’t manage to do it – and people keeping on suffering and dying

There are so many things that we don’t need to do, that don’t really help anyone at a fundamental level of life and death

But that is what most of us spend our lives doing

It seems like…

The only reason that we struggle
With giving ourselves completely
To our perfect God
Is because of our imperfections

Perfection wants to embrace us
And totally envelope us
But we hold on to our impurities
For dear life
But that ‘life’
Is nothing more than death itself
What a twisted world

Please, we must let go
We must reject the nonsense
That we all seem to love so much
Move away from the dark side
And change this place for good
Will you accept Him

What has Hope got to say?

Check this out

Listen friend, that Hope we mentioned when you questioned me
That place you ventured to and walked a bit before things tensioned
It’s still there, still here, still given by God and still shared
By so many who listened and doubted but stilled dared
To go there, to trust Him, even when life seemed bare

Please, let me give you some truth to lift your heart
That hope, that life you want; it’s there, set apart – for you
So take it, you’re smart – use your mind, choose God; get a head start – This is
Not some abstract art but real life, ready for you to play your part

It’s never gonna be easy; not every move; that’s a cliché but it’s true
How could it be simple to change the likes of me and you
Into different people; the same but new; altered from the past we…

What is hope; is it good or is it neutral
Or even sometimes bad or if not, perhaps misguided
But how could there be false hope; why would we create that

Can it be any positive idea
Or does it need to be based in hard fact
Or is it just some kind of medical condition;
The opposite of depression

Is it whatever happens to work for you
If you can manage to find anything that works
Or is there really some way of life that is good
And a means to get there; even if we only have some vague sense of it
Some semi-subconscious inkling of what a perfect life could be
Would that create hope; something that drives us to push on
Something that makes us want to get things sorted
Even if just for ourselves; even if we are selfish about it

We certainly have some…

Where’s my tow-rope on this uphill slope
Day to day I lope around; try to cope
But life is there, just waiting to slit my hope
So I continue to grope around in the dark and mope
Around cos again my hope fell to the ground: eloped
With everything else good that I tried to control
Too often this life seems hope-less; You secure a guy-rope
To give your scope foundation but it’s cut by rogues
I thought there was hope but the strobe
That flashes so fast: this world; this globe
It confused my mind and stole my hearts desire
So I ask you, friend: can you define
Where’s this hope that you said was mine

This is one of the hardest things to do but it yields amazing, purifying, sin shattering, peace bringing results.

Those things that are weighing you down. The things that make you think that your situation is worse than everyone else’s; God knows and He wants you to get them off your chest. He also insists that we help each other through this; we are all in the same boat, remember.

James said this:

“Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed.”
James5:16 (NIV)

• We all have issues. We need to talk to, forgive, help and pray for each other.

And John said this:

“If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.”
1John1:9 (NIV)

• God is not the issue, it’s us. He has forgiven us; Let’s get…

Why do we hide from Him
In hours spent
Not even thinking
About what we are doing

Why do we avoid Him
By hiding in Facebook
Or losing ourselves in Twitter
We love to be immersed in nonsense

Why do we stand Him up
To spend time with Hollywood
Giving our hours to those
Who love to do the things He hates

Why do we listen
To the voices of people
Singing about all kinds of sin
When there’s a Perfect voice that wants to talk

Why do we choose to be busy
With things that can wait
When we could spend time
With the Creator of the Universe

Why do we prefer anything
To the silent thought
Which is an amazing place
Where He loves to meet us

Why don’t we take our fear and doubt
Our worries about what other people think
Put them in a big old…

On the journey that we are on, being transformed back into the image of God, there is another aspect that we can mention: In the first place, mankind ran away from God and away from relationship with Him; away from good behaviour and away from stable life. Now we are in a place where no one really trusts anyone and it can be pretty hard to know what to do; even when you are in a relationship with the Maker of the universe.

We were free, in the beginning, to leave God and we are free now to return to Him. Freewill was given to us in the start and we still have it now; we can do whatever we want!

That is an amazing and rather serious aspect to this world. It is ours to manage, ours to explore, ours to repair and ours to cover with loving, honest…

After yesterday’s post, I think that it is relevant to share some more on this subject. Let’s go a bit deeper.

Moses said this:

“So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.”
Gen1:27 (NIV)

• We were made in the image of God and He is flawless.

But then Moses also said this:

“When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it.”
Gen3:6 (NIV)

• We took wisdom and ran off with it.

You know the story: we got wisdom and look what we have done with it; we have gone astray. We were created to be perfect and to…

Jesus said:

“Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.”
Mat 5:48 (NIV)

What does that mean? Doesn’t every Christian always say “we can never be perfect – not yet anyway”

So, how can flawed people ‘be perfect’ now?

Here are a couple of thoughts:

1. God is perfect in nature. i.e. He has no wrong in Him and no reason to do anything wrong. Nothing to gain or lose, nothing to fear and nothing to hide. So, that’s great for Him, but luckily for us He is our Father and does not want to leave is in this mess. He has promised to fill us with some of His Perfect Spirit which, when received, will mesh with our spirit, talk to us and help us to move in the right direction. If you haven’t done that yet; got that Spirit, then just ask, it’s free.

Giving your life…

Jesus is not a lie, friend.

If you knew Him then you would know; READ THIS.

Why should we follow Jesus?

Who is He that I should worry about Him?!

Just read this for a start; unless you are scared!

You can lead a man to water

But you cannot make him walk on it

So, just how do you get a faith?

It comes to different people in different ways (we are a differing bunch):

All roads do not lead to God but God will come down any road to meet you

Let me just repeat something that my friend said yesterday:

‘I dare you to put your trust in Jesus – I DARE YOU’

I have and He changed my life

Once you do you will see just how incredibly Real He Is

Tell me about this trek that we are on
Where we have caused so much damage
And become so scarred
Travelling through time; whatever time is
Although it’s surely just the fact that we continue to exist
And that we are able to move
Which is itself only a neutral aspect of life
But how is it that we can move in good and also bad directions
That must be another dimension outside of time
Time doesn’t tell you what is wrong
It is only part of the arena
In which good and bad are played out

They say that with your life
You ‘write a story’ or ‘paint a picture’
We are certainly painting a picture
But time is not the canvass or the paint or the artist
It is merely the fact that we are able to move the brush
There is another question, a much more important…

I have some time on my hands
So I starving my tiredness
Hopefully to death
But he’s a resilient beast
On his varied diet
He seems to have adapted
To feed on all kinds of things
Including sleep; so just be careful
He tricked me into lying-in too long
And it just made him stronger
What a crafty animal
I have discovered
That he feeds on rest
More than on work or play
He thinks he’s so clever
Television; he drinks it in
His brain-take power-shake
But exercise kills him
A silver bullet
He’d do anything to stop it
So watch out tiredness
Your days are numbered
Maybe I will beat you into a coma
With my tennis racket

So, let us discuss all of these crazy feelings
They’re causing us problems and pain to the ceiling
We have to stop doing things that are wrong
That is what Jesus has said all along!

Lust is a problem destroying so many
Fixation on bodies, to countless, is deadly
Prostitution and slavery are part of this song
That is what Jesus has said all along!

Greed is so terrible who could imagine
We’re feeding a monster that’s eating our children
Starvation and murder; there’s no word too strong
That is what Jesus has said all along!

Money has got us all tied up together
So many people doing things that don’t matter
We should be helping each other along
That is what Jesus has said all along!

Our pride and our vanity they must be broken
Look at our mess; consequences have spoken
We’re trapped by our feelings; it’s been…

Cutting corners and making life easy
Making our music and movies so sleazy
Taking risks with our lives with a grin
These are a few of our favourite things!

Cursing and swearing and telling rude stories
Being selfish and hogging the glory
Chasing riches and the problems it brings
These are a few of our favourite things!

Smoking and drinking; ruining lungs & livers
Doing our hair and staring in our mirrors
Doing what we want; forgetting everything
These are a few of our favourite things!

Hardcore pornos and strip clubs and ‘lad’s’ books
Half-naked women every-where you look
Lots of sex attached with no strings
These are a few of our favourite things!

Shopping on credit and filling our houses
With so many shoes and handbags and nice trousers
Buying so much that it should make us cringe
These are a few of our favorite things!

Spending our time…

“Huneeee, do you think that since we are approaching our 7 year anniversary all the debt we’ve accumulated over the years will be forgiven?”  “I don’t know.  Have you asked God for that?”  “Not exactly, I’ve been a little vague.”  “Well dear, the Bible says we have not because we ask not.”

I’ve got to hand it to my man, when he makes a point, he sure does drive it home like an iron spike straight through the heart of the matter.  As painful as it is to admit, he was right (somebody better write that down).

We go through this life filling our days with wishes:

I wish we had some freedom in our finances.

I wish my friends marriage would be restored,

I wish the cancer would stop wreaking havoc on my mother’s body.

I wish my lost family member would come to know Jesus.

Do you know…

Darkness, darkness, everywhere
In shadow and in light
Tell me friend, who can be spared
Without the gift of sight

How will we see the Way to flee
Before we are consumed
Now we’re settled with our eyes
Adapted to the gloom

The men have gone and sold their minds
To every evil vice
Instead of getting life aligned
They’d rather roll the dice

The women pander to the men
Insecurity must be stilled
Get the attention that is craved
So that they feel fulfilled

The young are given space to lose
Their lives before they start
The adults seeking wealth
Have sold the future race’s heart

Darkness, darkness, welcomed in
By all who crave this world
Why do we love to do such things
That clearly leave us doomed

Long ago
Before this age of darkness
There was a perfect place
Perhaps only in the mind of God
Or perhaps a different world
Not physical; no birth or death there
A world of pure energy; the home of the Father of Life
Only He knows; but there was Life before this brokenness
And He Was and Is that Life; everlasting and pure

There came a point when a decision was made by Him
New life was created and this life was given it’s own freedom
Responsibility was shared among these people
Choice was given and decisions were made
Many motives were circulating in their new world
Their life had many aspects and their minds became conflicted
And, so it came that the first lie was born
That was a terrible day in the history of existence
In truth, this is a story too awful to be heard
But it…

What an epic story
The history of the struggle between life and death
Rolled out in metaphors that are only understood
When you don’t try to understand them
Creation and destruction; the working of an Almighty Hand
Or are we just the difference made by a switch on the wall
How deep do you want to go

Darkness says:

Hello friend, so tell me; what do you think I am – evil
But how many times have I been just what was needed
Doesn’t a dose of me often send you back off in the right direction
Tell me; can you cure evil with evil
I am a concealer – sometimes things need to be hidden
Although, surely I’m not just ‘night’
Day certainly wouldn’t be what it is without me
But I am more than only your nap-time
Let me tell you this:
Me and light; David said: ‘to…