The link to my book - Destroy and Deliver (Autobiography)

Wednesday 26 October 2016

Humility

By now it should be obvious that humility is a requirement needed in the Christian’s armoury which needs to be drawn upon regularly, for it pleases our heavenly Father when we are humble. But we must not mistake humility for weakness; it is strength in faith. It drives us towards our dependency upon our God and Father and away for our independence where we rely on our own abilities to get it done. The part which needs working out is God’s stamp of approval on what should or shouldn’t be done. We need to prove what is acceptable before our Holy Father, its through trial and error where this will be realized. But a good place to start would be to follow David’s example throughout his lifetime, whether he was tending the sheep, fighting off lions and bears, hiding in caves or sitting on his throne, his life was habitually about the will of God. He also had his weaknesses but who hasn’t got flaws; our failings teach us a lot about ourselves. When we stumble and fall we learn to appreciate the value of mercy in our lives. It’s God alone who has the power to forgive our transgressions which will keep us out of hell. But we need to learn this lesson well in every area of our lives. We need God’s mercy and He has offered it to us in and through the Lord Jesus Christ, His only begotten Son.

If our focus is anything outside of the finished work of the cross it will be hard to find approval in what we do, we may be praised by men but not by God. Everything we are is because of our Saviours sacrifice and when we move from that mind-set we begin to skirt on the edge of that dark precipice which we could fall from. There are many lures which parole the gaping mouth of that abyss. And the attraction named “pride” has trapped many. But it can be avoided if we know what we need to be done. For example, we must first seek God’s will for our lives and the rest will follow the way it should. But when our eyes shift from our Saviours sacrifice and onto our own merits, we now open the trap door to pride and if not corrected we are not far from a fall. It then becomes our story and not HIS. God was “well pleased” with Christ’s obedience; let us never forget that in lieu of anyone of our achievements.  

Miraculously as I now reach the age of 51 and I flip through the chapters of my life, this is what I have learnt. Many proverbs now ring true to my ear; “a dog returning to its vomit”, although this obviously speaks of my sin concerning the obvious, things like wine, women and song; repeatedly erring in those areas of my life, with many other things interwoven into that equation whilst growing up. In hindsight, a journey I needed, to see the wood from the trees but not with Pride as my brother, but rather learning to understand Grace as she taught me a better way, God using His unmerited favour to shape my understanding. Pride does not acknowledge Grace but pats oneself on the back as it blows its own trumpet, crying out, “look at me, I was like that but now I am like this.” Pride is impossible to avoid when our gaze shifts from God’s mercy onto ourselves. The more I give this thought and the longer I look into the mirror the more I am convinced about this truth; “But he gives more grace. Therefore it says, "God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble.(James 4:6)

Signing off

Tyrone


Sunday 16 October 2016

The goodness of Jesus

When I consider the goodness of Jesus and what He has done for me in light of the failures throughout my lifetime as I sit and contemplate why it is that I am still loved by Him, I am blown away. But why am I still loved by God even though I don’t deserve to be? It’s the Christ in me, the hope which consistently drives me towards repentance and humility when it is needed to find favour from God as the Spirit of God leads me into His truth. It’s not my natural abilities that drive me to be humble before an awesome God. This type of understanding that some may be driven by, is the lie of pseudo-religions.

Humility must be a priority when approaching the throne of God which must always be accompanied with repentance, with the echo of one of the greatest songs ever written and with the melody of “Amazing grace” ringing in our ears. Pride drives us to a place of self-worth, with a mind-set that wills us to believe that we can outdo the next, and if we don’t we have failed and we must be better next time. But God requires a person to be humble and to own their sin without blaming someone or something else. And yet with this said; it is always the goodness of God that leads a person to a place of repentance. Without the Spirit’s intervention in our lives we will never find true repentance. It’s God who initiated our rescue in sending the Lord Jesus to die in our place. But this must be realised if we are to find forgiveness.

Faith is an essential ingredient which we need in order to believe in the only true God, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Which in turn gives us the ability to trust our God and Father to get us through whatever is needed alone life’s journey. A crucial tutor which lead us and prepares us for our hope in Christ which will at the end of our journey here on earth be objectified with heaven as our eternal home. Faith then will no longer be needed for we will see God in person and understand the fullness of who He is, praise God and Amen!

I do believe the law with all its instructions proves to us that there is much to consider when arriving at a verdict. However to cut through the lies and the trickery of our own minds is an obstacle that needs overcoming. The deeper the realisation of a person’s predicament becomes the more desperate they will be to find rescue from themselves. Until we reach this place in our lives sin holds us in bondage with its ability to disguise our wickedness as acceptable, with thoughts and statements like these; “I’m a good person and I am not as bad as that individual.” With so many saving the planet but ignoring the brilliance of the creator; as the World Powers gain momentum in their unity but ignores the true purpose of God. Strip what I say down and it will soon be easy to understand, the majority of the worlds population serves the creature (creation) and not the creator. God will have the final say!          

We can learn from a man like John Newton. Here was a man who penned words to a song from personal experience. A former slave trader penned the stanzas to a hymn that is estimated to be sung more than ten million times annually and has appeared on over eleven thousand albums. “Amazing grace how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me”, is this your understanding of yourself outside of Christ or do you feel that you had or have some merit within yourself to warrant His consideration to save you? Until we arrive at a place of absolute worthlessness as we stand before almighty God we may very well miss that chance encounter to find the true meaning of life.

Signing off


Tyrone  

Sunday 9 October 2016

Questions that need to be answered

Here is a question for you, is it sheer determination and will power that will get us to heaven or is it simply Christ in us, the hope of glory? Some radicals believe that if they strap a bomb to themselves and blow up others in the name of Allah that they will have a grand entrance into heaven, their entrance shall be remarkable but it won’t be into paradise. Whilst other religious fanatics have agendas that determine where they will end up depending on how faithful they have been to a set of ordinances, a life filled with work based obligations in order to enjoy a rich reward in heaven; theologically this is simply known as “dead works”. But in order to understand this we need to have the mind of Christ, if not, it will be missed. What of the evolutionists that state categorically that the big bang is indeed a fact and can be scientifically proved? Creation must have been a remarkable exploit as God spoke it into being, was there a big bag, an explosion? There could well of been, I cannot say with any certainty, but one thing I am sure of, God spoke and it happened.

I see a similar tend with science as I do with the endeavour of those looking to save the planet; both schools look to creation for their answers, with many discounting their creator. Then we have the hypo-charismatic, the one who comes to Christ looking for “faith- handouts”. Those who believe that Christianity is the vessel which will transport them from rags to riches and I am not making reference to the spiritual reality of that truth which will be ours when we get to heaven, but rather in the precise sense, receiving gain here and now; with this type of mentality; all one needs is enough faith, or rather sheer determination dressed as faith; a lot of mumbo-jumbo ruling their world.

There are many schools of thought which governs individual’s lives. It is impossible to be neutral in this regard. So the crunch question I have is why are there some who understand and not others? Is it what we do or what God does for us? Without rehashing sin and its origin, all I need to say is it sin which keeps us from freeing our understanding. No matter how you dress it, it blinds us to the truth and until the scales from our eyes are removed we will continue to grope in the dark. Without God’s mercy in our lives we would all be lost in a world of pain, grappling at straws, running around like chickens without heads.

The wisdom of this world is laughed at by God and he will not tolerate fools. And yet we have all been fools somewhere along life’s journey, blind to God’s truth, “Jesus in my place” and then God has mercy on our souls and opened our eyes to the meaning of it all. The Lord Jesus the first of many sons, wow! With this understanding our minds must shift gears, it has too. If not, we haven’t really understood anything.

True Christianity can be easily tested; ask yourself, why have I turned to Christ? If your answer falls outside of the fact, that you are a sinner, guilty as charged and that the Lord Jesus Christ died in your place. He took the punishment that you deserved. If we are not in that category, we need God to expose the rot in our minds and turn us in repentance towards Him with no added motive, except to be forgiven for our sin and our rebellion against a HOLY God. I understand that God is far greater than any wiles of the devil or the schemes of men; at times He restrains even the greatest of schemes and turns them to His advantage; it here that we witness His majestic brilliance personified as He silences the gainsayer, saving some of them; “For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe.” (1Corinthians 1:21)   

However, even the true Christian, gifted with the mind of Christ battles to let go of this type of mental assurance, the “I” in our worlds. Everything in our lives points us towards these types of mind-sets, the harder we work the more we shall achieve and many get lost in that web of deceit; sadly these are the things we teach our children from a tender age instead of pointing them to Christ’s sacrifice for their sin. Faith on the other hand trusts God for deliverance. Not only with our daily struggles, but it is certainly the catalyst that will drive us towards heaven with all its glory. The enemy of faith is sin which in turn robs us of the assurance we have in the finished work of the cross. When we do what we believe should be done we are confident towards God and the calling which He has placed on our lives, but when we stumble and fall, what then? This is where we are weakened and where we learn the most, at the feet of Jesus.

Here is a conclusion that we cannot afford to miss; God has great compassion towards the humble, but He resists the proud. We have a natural tendency to become filled with pride when we outdo the person next to us. It is something that continuously needs to be checked in our lives.

As schooled as David was, it is obvious that he understood the work of God in his life as the most important factor throughout his lifetime. Could this have been the reason why God had this to say about him, “he is a man after my own heart”? And yet David understood that if God didn’t change him, he couldn’t change himself. David needed Gods voice to ring clear in his ears prior to entering the battles of life. How do we compare? We need to be continually reminded that we are but clay in the potter’s hands. We need to constantly cry out to the One who has the power to change us, we must cry out to our heavenly Father, “Abba Father, renew a right spirit within me”. In other words please change who I am, remove the arrogance that looks to dominate. This is a type of prayer that I believe James refers to in accordance to the will of God. It’s not about our lusts, but its all about change and conformity into the Lord Jesus’ character. God favours these types of prayers and He will grant them because it will always be in accordance to His will if we look to be changed into our Saviours character.        

The next hurdle that rears its head is “balance”; we are taught that “balance” is healthy. Too much of something causes distortion; eat too much starch and we will soon become unproportioned. Go to gym and only ever train a single muscle group and we will look odd. Our minds have been geared to believe these laws as conclusive. It’s the world we live in. Sadly we do not leave this type of reasoning behind after our eyes have been opened to heaven. But thankfully, Christianity may begin on earth but is will last into eternity, with the only true God, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob as our Father forever and ever, Amen!

Salvation begun with the mercy of God and it will remain that way for all eternity, we having nothing to boast about and yet there is so much bragging, even when played down with modesty. David understood this, because God gave him his understanding, may God teach us this lesson well and also give us understanding. He is the potter we are but clay in His hands. How does choice then play out? If we are programmed right we will chose right. It’s a virus that looks to get software to make bad choices and play up. “If God is for us who can be against us?”

Once our minds are spiritually opened to our heavenly calling, once we are born again, chaos infiltrates the things we once believed. Change becomes the order of the day. We stop drinking and swearing, just to mention the obvious. But what about a persons work ethic and many other areas of our lives? In short, when we understand that we had been destined to hell because of our sin our lifestyles begin to change. Without sound doctrine and God’s intervention in our lives, which moulds us into Christ’s image we will continue to make similar mistakes which may leave us looking different on the outside, whilst been driven to be Christian like in character and ambitious with parallel intentions without an inward change. Leaving us filled with pride as we outdo the person next to us. We forget that it is the Christ in us who has caused the change. We become knockoffs of the original and hypocrisy is our lot in life until God opens our eyes to our error, praise His name, Amen!      

It’s the goodness of God that leads a person to salvation in true repentance and let us never overlook that truth, for when we do, pride is not far from us and we know what will follow, the resistance of God in our lives. Grace is what is needed to combat the filth of this world; therefore we must be kept humble. Thank you Abba Father for you persistent work in our lives, thank you for you intercession my great Saviour and thank you Holy Spirit for your comfort and the way you constantly remind us about your truth.

Signing off

Tyrone