My Agenda?

What’s my agenda and what is my motive in writing this blog? In fact, what is my agenda and my motive for anything I do?

The human nature and the flesh naturally  wants to self-promote and to self-glorify, to compete and there is an eagerness and desire to be remembered. The reason I write this blog is because I love to write, I love the gospel more and I am comfortable with this media. Indeed, that is why I have my own blog and I opt to write about Jesus and the gospel. The reality is I have to keep myself in check because of the flesh. It wants to do all of the above and Satan is delighted when I act in that manner. God is pleased by our faith and obedience to his word. (I thought it would be good to end the paragraph with God!)

I don’t want to create an agenda that will upsurb Jesus and remove the focus from him. I want him to always be number one. He obviously is, whether we acknowledge it or not, but we must strive to portray him as such; we need to give God the glory that is due him.

Now what was Jesus’s agenda and what is it today? I will start with what was his agenda in the past. The Bible states:

• Isaiah 61:1

 1 The Spirit of the Sovereign LORD is on me,
       because the LORD has anointed me
       to preach good news to the poor.
       He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted,
       to proclaim freedom for the captives
       and release from darkness for the prisoners,

The next topic will be to observe what Jesus’ agenda is today.

 

Hope for the Helpless; Help for the Hopeless

Why is immorality so rampant in the Church and more so among the unmarried youth? The boundaries are pushed again and again, until sin is not sin anymore, it’s culturally acceptable. They will be vibrant Christians, sing their hearts out at church services and meetings. They will hold leadership positions in church and know how to teach and preach the word of God. In private it’s another story. People are desperately trapped in sexual impurity and sexual gratification.

What does scripture actually say about this?

• Romans 13:13-14

13 Let us walk properly as in the daytime, not in orgies and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and sensuality, not in quarreling and jealousy.

14But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires.

If you struggle with conducting yourself properly in the daytime (and nighttime), drunkenness, sexual impurity and immorality, self-control of the tongue and the flesh, then I can recommend a godly, caring organisation and its website where you can enrol for courses on-line and for free.  There, you will get the truths on how to crucify the flesh and to die to sin. They are non-denominational and pro-Jesus Christ.

http://www.settingcaptivesfree.com/home/

• Romans 6:6-7 

6For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin— 7because anyone who has died has been freed from sin.

God bless you and keep you safe.

 

Love First – First Love

This is serious stuff and not mushy stuff.  Love is serious business. Jesus is commending Christians in years past for working hard and enduring hardship for his name’s sake. What does he tell them next? They still need to repent because they have lost their first love!

• Revelations 2:3-5

3You have persevered and have endured hardships for my name, and have not grown weary. 4Yet I hold this against you: You have forsaken your first love. 5Remember the height from which you have fallen! Repent and do the things you did at first. If you do not repent, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place.

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Then the word of God states that perfect love is so powerful, it casts away fear! It also states that it is God who first loved us. We learn from God how to love.

• 1 John 4:18-20

18There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love.

 19We love because he first loved us. 20If anyone says, “I love God,” yet hates his brother, he is a liar. For anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen. 

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So we started with Jesus rebuking a church for not holding on to their first love, despite their hard word and endurance. In this final verse, it shows that these two attributes ought to go together.

• Revelations 2:19

19I know your deeds, your love and faith, your service and perseverance, and that you are now doing more than you did at first.

So, love first and hold on to first love.

N.B. The next topic should start with however…because Jesus still demands more than this! He wants righteousness and holiness and an intolerance for sexual immorality.

• Revelations 2:20

20Nevertheless, I have this against you: You tolerate that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess. By her teaching she misleads my servants into sexual immorality and the eating of food sacrificed to idols.

That’s for the next topic or post!

 

Faithful Wounds

I have never been to war, never experienced one and hopefully that will remain the status quo. There is, indeed, another realm of war and this occurs in the spiritual dimension.  The battle for man’s life and commitment between God and the fallen angel Satan.

This is not the focus of this post though. The wounds alluded to in the title are not from a physical war, but from something else. The Bible talks about iron sharpening iron.  It ofetn takes another to lead us in the right direction. Ultimately, it is the Lord that has the best oversight over our lives. After all, he knows our coming in and going out, he knew us from birth and even before birth, our times are in his hands, meaning he has numbered our days, he knows how many hairs on our heads and he knows us better than our parents and spouses.

God has made other provisions for us to grow,to learn and to be corrected – friends. In the book of Proverbs it says:

• Proverbs 27:5-6

5 Better is open rebuke
       than hidden love.

 6 Wounds from a friend can be trusted,
       but an enemy multiplies kisses.

God allows friends to speak into our lives so that we may be enriched and may turn away from sin. There is a friend who is close that a brother we can depend on infinitely and that is Jesus Christ.

• Proverbs 18:24 

24 A man of many companions may come to ruin,
       but there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother.

Amen.