Pray, Listen, Do.

Read Matthew 26:31-75

Now Peter sat outside in the courtyard.  And a servant girl came to him, saying, 

“You also were with Jesus of Galilee.”

But he denied it before them all, saying, 

“I do not know what you are saying/”

And when he had gone out to the gateway, another girl saw him and said to those who 

were there, “This fellow also was with Jesus of Nazareth.”

But agin he denied with an oath,

 “I do not know the Man!”

And a little later those who stood by came up and said to Peter,

 “Surely you also are one of them, for your speech betrays you.”

Then he began to curse and swear, saying,

 “I do not know the Man!”  

Immediately a rooster crowed.

And Peter remembered the word of Jesus who had said to him, 

“Before the rooster crows, you will deny Me three times.”  

So he went out and wept bitterly.

                                                                                                   Matthew 26:69-75
We all let Christ down from time to time.  Here Peter who said he would not deny Jesus, denies Him three times.  Peter was as they say, “only human”.  He tried to do things in his own power.
Contrast this, with the Peter of the Day of  Pentecost, when he stood on the rooftop and proclaimed the Gospel.
Peter had grown, he’d been in the Upper Room, in a prayer meeting, for a number of days.  Into that room had come the Holy Spirit as a sign to the believers gathered, filling them with power from on high.
These men and women would go out from that place and quite literally change the world.  They would not go out in their own strength, but with the power of God.
After the death of Jesus, these men and women turned to God.  After the resurrection and ascension of Christ, they were obedient to Christ’s command “to go and wait in Jerusalem.”  Then upon receiving the power from on high, they were obedient in “going out to preach the Gospel to every creature.”
Each of us must remember that God understands.
We must remember that we need to occasionally go into our Upper Room, and wait as the apostles did after the ascension, the guidance of God.
All to many, try to go out in their own strength doing what they think is God’s will, only to fail.
All of us need to get on our knees before God and seek His guidance and direction for our lives.
Prior to the crucifixion, Peter and the others were doing things under their own strength.  All except one left Jesus alone at the cross.
After Pentecost, after waiting on God and seeking His face, they went out and created a dynamic change in the world.  We can do the same.
The apostles and the others in that Upper Room, on the Day of Pentecost were ordinary men and women, who became part of an extraordinary event.  The start of the church.
We are very much a part of that event. That event is still happening today.  We can change the world.   It may only be one person at a time, but by doing God’s will, we can changing the world.
From time to time, we may fail our LORD, but we, like Peter must pick ourselves up, seek out the will of the Father, and continue on.
Something to think about:
I believe those who succeed for Christ are those who admit their human frailties, go into their Upper Room, go to their knees, seek the will and power of God, then get off their knees and do what God has told them to do.

Unifying Love

Read John 17

I do not pray for these alone, but also for those who will believe in Me 

through their word;

“that they all may be one

 as You Father, are in Me,

 and I in You; 

that they also maybe one in Us,

 that the world may believe that

 You sent Me....

“I in them, and You I Me that they maybe made perfect in one, 

and that the world may know that You have sent Me, 

and have loved them as You have loved Me.

“And I have declared to them Your name,

 and will declare it,

 that the love with which You loved Me

 maybe in them,

 and I in them.”

                                                                       John 17:20, 21-23, 26
Here in Chapter 17 of John, Jesus prays for Himself, the disciples and in verse 20 to 26 for all believers.
He prays for their unity in love.  That the love of God, be in them, as it was in Christ.
We, as individual Christians, must first of all know what we believe and why we believe it.  That is why we must study the Word of God, and sit under a good teacher, we trust.
Then, it is absolutely, imperative, that we find a church congregation that believes as we do or as close as we can find.  A congregation where we feel God would have us work.  And we must submit ourselves to that group.
In order to do this, we must think, and pray.
A Bible School teacher once said to me, “most Christians think with their heart and forget God gave them a brain for that purpose.
They think their hands are only to use to pick things up with, not put together in prayer, and that their ears are the only thing they hear with.”
What he meant was, many Christians go to where they feel good, not necessarily, where God wants them.  That they never pray and seek God’s guidance about which church they should attend or what they should do.  They listen to others and what comes in through their ears, not what God is telling their heart.
Here Jesus talks about the unity of the believers, about them being one.  And He asks:
“that the love with which You loved Me  maybe in them,  and I in them.”
Something to think about:
I go back to the words of the Apostle Paul in 1 Corinthinas 13:4-8a
“Love suffers long and is kind: love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up; does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil. does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails.”
This is what Jesus prayed for, for all Christians. This is the kind of love we must show to both our brothers and sisters in Christ and the whole world.

What Really Matters

“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.... 

                                                                          Genesis 1:1

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, 

and the Word was God.  

He was with God in the beginning. 

Through him all things were made; 

without him nothing was made that has been made...

The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. 

We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, 

full of grace and truth. 

                                                                                       John 1:1-3, 14

Perhaps one of the most controversial parts of the Bible is the Genesis chapter one, the creations chapter.
Non Christians point to it and say how could the world be made in six twenty-four hour days. They claim it took aeons.
Frankly I could care less. It doesn’t make any difference to my faith if the world was made in a hundred forty-four hours or a hundred forty-four billion years.
I believe the universe and everything in it was created by God. AND more importantly I believe that Jesus is God.
That he came to earth to live among His creation, to point mankind to heaven.
Jesus said of himself,

“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.  

For God did not send his Son into the world 

to condemn the world,

 but to save the world through him.  

Whoever believes in him is not condemned, 

but whoever does not believe stands condemned already 

because he has not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son. "

                                                                                                     John 3:16-18
God gives us a free will but he makes it clear that we have only two choices in this life.
To either accept Jesus for who he says he is. The very Son of God the Saviour of the world, or to reject him as a liar who has perpetuated the most monumental lie in human history.
The choice dear reader is yours.
Do you believe Jesus is Lord and God. The creator of the universe who came to earth to pay the price for your sins?
If you believe, then the question is, if you were to die tonight are you certain you would get to haven?
If not hear is a prayer you may want to pray.
Dear Heavenly Father
I know that I am a sinner. That I fall short of what you want for me in my life. 
I recognize that Jesus is your One and Only Son. That he came to die to take away my sins.
Please forgive me of my sins.
Please Lord Jesus come into my heart and life this day. Lead me and guide me from this day forward.
Amen

If you prayed this prayer and really meant it then Jesus will come into your life. I urge you to read the Bible. Start with the New Testament and read through the whole Bible.
Pray before you read each chapter that God will reveal Himself to you and that He will reveal what you are reading means to you personally.
The next thing is to pray and find a good church in your area.
I personally would recommend a good Baptist church as I have found their teachings to be very well balanced and in line with the word of God.
But above all of this Pray, Pray, Pray, that God would lead you to the right church or group of believers that can help you grow in Christ.
And remember always that with God in your life, if you let Him, He will change your life in a wonderful way.

Blessed is the Man

“Blessed is the man who does not fall away on account of me.” 

                                                                                                    Matthew 11:6

John who is now in prison hears of Jesus ministry. He then sends his disciples to Jesus to ask if He is indeed the Christ.
Jesus in essence tells him to look at the signs. The blind receive sight, the lame walk, the leper is cured, the deaf hear, the dead raised and the good news is preached to the poor.
Then Jesus adds “Blessed is the man who does not fall away on account of me.”
It is so easy to fall away from Christ especially in our day and age. We are and have been waiting for Christ’s return for over two millennium.
It takes a lot to wait that long.
Jesus is the only founder of a religious group that said he will return. This is something we must hold onto as a true statement.
We are called to follow Jesus by faith.
We must have faith that the Bible is true. That the miracles spoken of in the Bible are true.
We must have faith in the words of the apostle Paul when he says in Ephesians that we are saved through our faith not our works.
Christianity is very much a walk of faith. We are presented the truth about Jesus in the Bible and are asked to make a decision as to wether we believe it or not. There is no middle ground.
Moreover we must live our faith openly before those around us.
We must not be ashamed of what the Bible tells us about Jesus no matter what those around us say.
Jesus performed miracles, something that in the twenty first century or for that matter in any century can seem far fetched. Yet the Bible asks us to believe them.
And through the ages the words Jesus said to John the Baptist calls out to us, “Blessed is the man who does not fall away on account of me.”  

Something to think about.

Do you truly believe that Jesus is the Son of God and that he did indeed perform all the miraculous things spoken of in the Bible?

Trust

Read Matthew 17:1-18:5

At that time the disciple came to Jesus, saying, 

“Who then is greatest in the kingdom of heaven?”

Then Jesus called a little child to Him, set him in the midst of them, and said, 

“Assuredly, I say to you, unless you are converted

 and become as little children, 

you will  by no means enter the kingdom of heaven.

“Therefore whoever humbles himself as this little child

 is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.

                                                                         Matthew 18:1-4
Look at this statement carefully:
1. unless you are converted and become as little children, you will
by no means enter the kingdom of heaven
2. “Therefore whoever humbles himself as this little child
is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.
Someone told me, that this means, we have complete trust in God and not question.  I agree with the that statement.  BUT it must be emphasized that the complete trust must be in God. Not in an individual preacher, teacher or evangelist.
We must have child like trust in Christ simply because there are things that we will not fully understand this side of eternity. That is the nature of faith,
Hebrews 11:1 tell us, "Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see. "
Still that doesn’t mean we don’t question anything we are taught.  If that were the case why would God gave us a brain and a curious nature that asks questions.
 A Bible collage professor once said to me, “God gave us a brain and common sense to use and we should.”
I’ve worked with children for a long time, as a Sunday School Teacher and as professional clown and the one thing I know is children question everything.
I perform different acts of illusion making things appear and disappear, seemingly, into thin air.
Every time, I do the act, kids question.  They’re not dumb, they know there’s something going on, some trick, but they don’t know what. They question me all the time.
Occasionally, I do the tricks for my Sunday School class.  I use it as a way of telling them, how easily, we can be fooled if we are not careful.  I emphasize to them that they should question things if they aren’t sure of it.
Most children are curious and want to know more, they want to learn.
They trust their teachers, but still question, until they are satisfied they have the right answer.

Something to think about

We as Christians, should never be afraid to question because a true teacher of the Word won’t be afraid to answer with specifics from the Word of God.
We should never be afraid to ask God questions. To ask God to show us the