Cleanse

P 2477 No, we may not be excused …

/ DVH

There are 3237 characters mentioned by name in the bible – in a cast of tens of thousands. In the New Testament, Peter; James; John; Andrew; Philip; Judas Iscariot; Matthew; Thomas; James, the son of Alpheus; Bartholomew; Judas Thaddeus; and Simon Zelotes — all of these men were named disciples of Jesus. These men He handpicked – yet the last four are relatively unknown. My point is – we don’t have to have a public face, to obey what Jesus said…

All the books in the New Testament were written by only 9 different men. Sadly we’d rather argue about who wrote what, than talk to someone else about Jesus! BTW, FYI, 13 of the books in the New Testament are accredited to Paul. Matthew, Mark, Luke and John wrote the gospels and Luke and John also wrote books that were included in the Epistles. Well now, isn’t that a nice bunch of figures??!! What did I put all those in there for? Hang on the point is coming …you definitely don’t have to be famous to live for Jesus!! 😂 Anybody can do it. It’s the way you think, not eloquence or importance. People have been getting this backward for years. We left reaching the lost to the evangelists, and forgot our part. 

70 million Christians have died or been martyred since Jesus left this earth to go back to heaven. More than half of those have been martyred in the past 130 years. Population-wise, approximately 109,000,000,000 people, have died since Jesus’ time. Yes that is a lot of noughts and, no, I did not make a mistake – 109 billion people! Unfortunately Christianity is not growing at the same rate the world’s population is growing. So, to my next point for today … it doesn’t look like we are winning does it??

Of the approximately 8 billion people on the earth, right now, 3.40 billion of them live in unreached people groups with little or no access to the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Nobody has gone and preached the gospel to them! Brother Everybody-in-church-knows-my-name the famous evangelist, would have to be cloned to reach that many people. So what on earth is going on? Why is this so?? Here’s my little hypothesis…

John and Betty are a typical Christian couple who raised 2.5 kids and they go their local church, every single Sunday. They also go to bible study, and prayer groups during the week. Betty helps care for the poor every other week. Sadly when they prayed for John’s mum, she died — which kind of dented their faith a little but they know Jesus and keep on keeping on. Their faith is wobbly but not gone. Unfortunately, John does not make enough money to raise their standard of living. He feels bad about that. He feels like he is ‘letting the team down.’ After all, isn’t it a Christian’s job to set a good example of what Christianity can do for someone’s life? 😳 ???

Well, Jesus Himself seems to have had quite a different opinion – He just said go, and He wasn’t specific about WHO should go! “As you go, proclaim this message: ‘The kingdom of heaven has come near.’ Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse those who have leprosy, drive out demons. Freely you have received; freely give.” Matthew 10:7-8. The words AS YOU GO… are a big clue to what He wants! “And He (Jesus)said to them (His disciples – aren’t WE disciples?), “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature.”Mark 16:15; Luke 14:23;  Matthew 28:19-20;  and Acts 1:7-8. If repetition counts then Jesus was extremely serious about this instruction.

As you can see from all those facts and figures I’ve jotted down above, there are very few people in recorded history, in the bible that we know by NAME. Which is the best clue we are ever going to get that God intends for John and Betty … as well as the rest of us … to simply obey what we were told. Hubby has had a specific instance of being called, I go because Jesus said to do it in the book!

I’ve been ‘going’ for 50 years one way or another. Even when I was backslidden I was still witnessing. We are to ‘go’ simply because HE said it. Where do we go?? To the shops, to the supermarket, on your holidays, in the schools, visiting the elderly or the sick, and sometimes even at your church. Because even there, people may not know that Jesus saved them from a life of sin and death!! 

Before I was saved, I went to a church for 3 months and people thought I was saved because I could pray out loud. That’s a personality thing, not a salvation thing – I didn’t have a clue about Jesus saving me! We don’t have to be famous to preach the gospel … all we need to be is willing! If we say we are His disciples then we have no excuse! Simply carry His Presence with you, and the Holy Spirit will do the work for you. It is scary but it ain’t rocket science. Bye 👋🏻

“Those who cling to their lives will give up true life. But those who let go of their lives for My sake and surrender it all to Me will discover true life!” Matthew 10:39.

P 2372 Confess your faults.

/ DVH

I’ve been reading in Leviticus … 27 chapters. Man that’s some hard core stuff to try to remember right in there. So, I’m reading and reading, and rolling my eyes, and I said to the Lord: “This stuff is he-avy.” To be utterly honest with you I was kind of reading and skimming, I was not actually reading word for word – some of that stuff is hard to read! The things human beings do to each other. 😱  Then the Lord said this to me: “Rote obedience, and enforced obedience will not change a heart – it simply changes the person’s actions. The heart needs to be changed.”

So I prayed for a bit, and then I remembered God’s criteria for holiness was totally met in the Person of Jesus Christ  a-n-d … He lived and breathed on the hard side of these commandments. Yay Jesus! The bible tells us He was tempted to sin just like we are … but He didn’t. Hallelujah! Because He didn’t, I have another way to choose to live… thank God He didn’t fail! That’s why He is the perfect Saviour. Listen to this and get happy!! “God has UNITED you with Christ Jesus. For our benefit God made Him to be wisdom itself. Christ made us right with God; HE made us pure and holy, and HE freed us from sin.” 1 Corinthians 1:30 NLT. We are joined to Christ, so now Almighty God sees us like He sees Jesus.

Repentance is brilliant, it’s goof-proof. But the whole thing entirely rests on one of my much advertised little words. “IF (if if, IF!!) we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us.” 1 John 1:9-10. We desperately need His word IN us.  Sin happens. People treat each other badly … it’s what we do about it that matters. Pretending we never sin is telling Jesus He’s a liar – why on earth would we want to do that? He’s not only faithful — He’s fair!

Everything Jesus did, was for our benefit. We don’t have to be afraid anymore – we’ve been set free from the system that forced others to remember and keep hundreds of rules and regs. “For He (the Father) has rescued us and has drawn us to Himself from the dominion of darkness, and has transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son, …”Colossians 1:13. In short – we don’t have to live hiding our sins, or putting up with them anymore, because we are in a new kingdom where light prevails… Jesus Christ prevailed. Feel free to do a little dance .. 🕺 Somebody paid. We just have to own up!

“You are clean because of the Words I have spoken to you.” John 15:3. Jesus said this to His disciples, this shows how powerful His word IS. It cleaned the disciples as they listened – the bible will clean us as we pay attention to it! Accepting and acting on what He says changes everything. Ephesians 5:26 “Christ did this so He could set the church apart for Himself. He made it clean by the washing of water with the Word.” That phrase the washing of the water of the word applies to us, the church. In other words we need to take an intentional bath and get clean all over by reading the bible and let it convince and convict us of sin, and the things we must walk away from.  

There are people in my life who would never ever confess their faults to anyone else – they hide them instead. That’s called PRIDE. Instead of excusing or covering up this bit of dirt and that bit of nasty goo on you, repent!  It is so simple, don’t deny your faults own them — we’ve all got them! Get rid of pride with confession and repentance. Confess them to one another. The very act of confession includes a huge bonus buy – you confess your sin and you get to humble yourself all at the same time! Win, win! We simply agree with God’s assessment of our actions, repent and repair.

I do that one a lot with my hubby and he smiles discreetly and nods – that’s because he knows exactly what I’m  talking about – he’s been living with it!!  But I don’t have to be ashamed of my sin, I simply need to repent – then actively go on to pray that the Holy Spirit will help me. The things that cause me to sin are rarely other people – it’s ME!! Blame is a total waste of time – my response to your stinky attitude is still my response. If I give into the temptation to speak my mind, I weaken my spiritual muscles when I do it.

I have a bad time with other drivers. I don’t drive, but people who drive like mindless numpties really get my goat. What I am thinking often comes out of my mouth. All those bad drivers aren’t to blame … it’s my impatience and anger. They are simply giving me an opportunity to diagnose what’s already in my heart. What comes out of our mouth tells us what’s inside our heart. That’s why the bible is essential. We need to be washed by it all the time. Take a bath, read the book! The answer is so simple – humble yourself, then confess your fault, pray to be healed – and practice listening to the Holy Spirit for answers. 👋🏻