A Heart Untroubled

We often create misunderstandings about things as Christians. For example, we talk about eternal life, and the suggestion is that eternal life means living forever.  But in this verse (John 17:3) Jesus tells us that eternal life is about knowing him and God the Father.  Now we can talking about 'knowing' something like French or algebra, but this KNOW is the Greek word Ginosko/Gnosis and it is a euphemism for sexual relationships.  It is the equivalent of the Hebrew word used in Genesis 4 which says that Adam KNEW his wife and she bore a son.  In English, the best way to translate it would probably be: to personally, intimately and experientially know something. It is different from other words translated 'know'; Eido                     knowledge by perception or recognition Epignosis         precise and correct knowledge (factual) This 'knowing' is so personal that for each of us it will look different.     I once heard someone define intimacy as 'IN TO ME

I've noticed that people don’t take time to invest in themselves.  We are just too busy.  We rush around doing this and that, and this often leads us to finding our identity in what we do or what job we have, who we are married to or other things, but we have to find our fulfillment in the Lord. We have to root our character in the Lord, find our purpose and place in him alone.   We cannot approach our relationship with God from a performance based mentality.  We can see from the Hall of Faith (Hebrews 11) that God did not call the polished or professionals to be his representatives, and those that were naturally qualified (like the Apostle Paul) soon realized that all the qualifications were rubbish! The only place to seek acceptance and find fulfilment, is in the Lord.    We often look outside of our relationship with God for our validation and worth. God wants us to look only to him for our identity and value.  Jesus was willing to go to the cross and die for you; that should be

Last week I spoke about doing things consistently.   There are just some  things we have to keep doing if we want to see results, but there are other things that we do, that simply take time and there's no shortcut.   For example if a 5 year old says they want to drive your car, nobody in their right mind would agree to that! It is right, that a child grows up, develops, matures and learns before they can be trusted behind the wheel of a car.  In spiritual terms, we are told in Ephesians 4:15 that we need to ". ..grow up in every way to Christ... ".  There are some things that we just need to grow up into, in the Kingdom of God.   There are things that the Spirit of God deposits in us when we get born again and we have immediate access to; there is authority that he gives us that is ours from the moment we become a Christian, but there are some things that just TAKE TIME! You're not going to be called to pastor a church of 50,000, starting the day after you get saved.

I bought a new lip-balm recently and I love it.  I have really dry lips and it was amazing.  Didn't have to use very much and it lasted a lot longer than anything else I've ever tried and I'm going to buy it again. But, what has this got to do with a spiritual blog, I hear you ask! As I was applying my lip balm, thinking about what to say today, I realised that there are just some things you just need to keep doing.  In order to benefit from certain things, I must do them over and over, consistently.  Even with a great lip balm I need to keep applying it during the day.  I need to keep exercising on a regular basis; I need to keep eating right;  I need to keep going into work each day if I want to get paid - you get the idea Sometimes we think about things in our spiritual life as a one-time deal, a check-list of things we do once in a while, but that don't become habitual parts of our life.  Reading the word, prayer, praying in tongues, worshipping, encouraging and exh

The New Year is often a point in time where we consider new beginnings. We make new year's resolutions and wipe the slate clean and start over, and while goal-setting and change isn't bad, in spiritual terms, will-power alone isn't enough to effect change.   Real and lasting change begins on the inside of us. It begins with seeing on the inside with the eyes of faith before we ever see something with our natural eyes on the outside.  What do I mean by that?  Well, think about Joseph.   Joseph had a dream that he would one day see his family bowing before him.  He had to walk through rejection from his family, slavery, false accusations and prison before he saw that with his physical eyes!  He had a dream and I believe he held on to that dream every single day. If Joseph had seen himself to be helpless, forsaken and lost he would have had the opportunity to fall into despair and do nothing.  The chances are, that would have kept him a slave or a prisoner until he died.  What