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WHY DO WE COMPLAIN SO MUCH?

(September 4, 2021) Carol Round challenges us about grumbling…

Most people probably aren’t aware of how much they grumble!

James had something to say about complaining – ‘Friends, don’t complain about each other. A far greater complaint could be lodged against you, you know. The Judge is standing just around the corner’ (James 5:9Mge).

I used to laugh when my dad used that expression, which originated, according to some sources back to medieval times when people had to be hung with a new rope to ensure it didn’t break. The idiom became a satirical way of chastising those who tend to complain even about the most trivial things.

Thus, the irony of complaining about the roughness of new rope around the neck when one should be really worrying about the much more important matter of being executed.

Without realising it, griping can become a habit, leading to overlooking the good in life and in others.

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FINISHING WELL

(September 2, 2021) Brian Bell encourages finishing the race of life…

Exciting and yet in the current climate, challenging as the 2020 rescheduled Olympic Games in Japan may have proved, they may not have been your favourite ‘must watch’ event of 2021 to date.

In 1 Timothy 4:8, Paul tells Timothy that ‘Bodily exercise is of some benefit, but godliness with contentment is of greater gain.’

While I believe the apostle’s words about bodily exercise were specifically directed to Timothy’s situation, as with all scripture we too may benefit from its general exhortation.

Paul’s words remind us about priority (a common theme in scripture) our aim as believers is for ‘God likeness’ in our attitudes and daily living but if we are able to take physical exercise, it is good to do so within our limitations.

Keep going
At the 1968 Olympic Games held in Mexico City, Tanzania was represented in the marathon by John Stephen Akhwari. Part way through the race, Akhwari fell and was injured. He decided to get bandaged up and continue, which he did, finishing in last place over an hour behind the other runners.

 When interviewed later Akhwari was asked, ‘Why did you bother to get up and finish the race’ to which his reply was ‘My country didn’t send me to Mexico to start the race, they sent me to finish.’

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MEDICAL EMERGENCY: VISION OF HEAVEN AND HELL

Mark Ellis shares a good news story…

As a self-made man focused on providing an abundant lifestyle for his family, Jim Woodford had no place for God in his life.

However, Jim is married to a strong Christian, Lorraine, who prayed for him diligently, according to a report by CBN. ‘God please change his heart,’ she prayed. ‘Bring him to know Jesus Christ and just make a change in him and deal with this materialistic way.’

‘Break him or remake him’
Jim was diagnosed with Guillain-Barre syndrome at age 61, a rare, incurable autoimmune disorder in which the body’s immune system erroneously attacks the peripheral nerves and damages their myelin insulation.

The syndrome results in ‘unremitting, electrical current pain in every part of my body, accompanied with paralysing inability to move,’ Jim (right. Photo: CBN screenshot) told CBN. Lorraine saw changes in his personality as the condition worsened. ‘He was just getting to be a very angry person. The pain was just consuming him.’

Despite the ordeal, Jim refused to turn to God. At a certain point, Lorraine began to get impatient. She said, ‘God, I’ve been praying, but I haven’t seen any change. Maybe you just have to break him to remake him.’

In April 2014, Jim went to inspect a field he wanted to sell. To manage his pain that day, he had taken four times the normal dosage for his medication. As he sat in his truck, he felt a burning sensation in his legs.

‘Forgive me, God’

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‘MANY CLAIM TO HAVE UNFAILING LOVE BUT…

(August 8, 2021) Geri B brings an insightful challenge…

… a faithful man who can find?’ asks the wise Solomon in Proverbs 20:6.

The Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines ‘faithful’ as ‘steadfast in affection or allegiance, firm in adherence to promises or in observance of duty, full of faith.’

In James’ epistle faith is intrinsically linked to deeds…  ‘What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if someone claims to have faith but has no deeds?  Can such faith save them?  In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.  But someone will say, “You have faith; I have deeds.”  Show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by my deeds’ (James 2:14, 17-18). 

Hebrews 11 mentions those who lived their lives in faith by their deeds and we are exhorted to live in the same manner – whatever the circumstances we find ourselves in and the outcome.

However there is someone not mentioned in that chapter who also epitomises a life of faith… but he is often overlooked because of the woman he married.  However I would like to briefly examine his life to gain a little insight into what it can mean to live a faithful, full-of-faith life.  The ‘faith-ful’ life he lived was one of having the fear of God, being obedient and evidencing humility.

1. Fear
I speak of Joseph, a godly and righteous man, a descendant of King David, introduced in the book of Matthew as the fiancé of Mary, the mother of Jesus.  He was also a kind and gracious man who did not want to expose Mary to public disgrace by breaking their engagement due to her pregnancy, even though by the law he had every right to do so.

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WALKING THE TALK

(August 8, 2021) Carol Round challenges us to ask God’s will for our lives…

Our pastor often asks the congregation the following question: ‘Do you know who you are and to whom you belong?’

In other words, do we belong to the world, or do we belong to Jesus Christ?

Belonging to the world means we’re not following the example of our Saviour and Lord. If we claim to be a Christian, yet let ourselves be swayed by the world’s values, we can’t walk the talk. While none of us is perfect, it requires us to walk in love to follow Jesus’s example.

In 2020, contemporary Christian artist, Josh Wilson released a song called Revolutionary.  I love the lyrics. In part, he sings about our differences and that we don’t always agree on everything. He says that doesn’t mean we have to be enemies. Maybe we need be brave, take a leap of faith, call a truce, and find a better way, he adds.

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READY TO HANG MYSELF, BIBLE APPEARS IN MY CELL

(July 22, 2021) Scott Bailey (prison I.D. left) shares his testimony…

‘I’m not going to survive this. There’s nothing left to live for. I give up!’

Through tears I fashioned a noose from the bed sheet, eyeing the light fixture at the top of my cell. It should hold me I thought. What was there left to live for? I had failed in every area of my life, withdrawal from drug addictions would probably kill me anyway. I prepared to end my life. I had become a prisoner of my own making.

Cancer death sentence
Years earlier, I had received a blow that changed my life forever… My doctor told me, ‘Scott, you have a rare cancer called Mucadermal Carcinoma. Due to the rapid growth of the tumour in your lymph nodes, you have one to three years maximum to live.’

He had removed a large tumour located near my brain, nerves had been nicked and the right side of my face was paralysed. All I could hear echoing in my ears was the death sentence. Reeling from shock, I recounted the beginning of my drug addiction 15 years earlier.

What was once a ‘party addiction’ of heroin, cocaine and pills now became a way of life, massive amounts. It didn’t matter; I was going to die anyway. I pushed away those who loved me. I became so strung-out that I kept a syringe of heroin in the drawer waiting for me so that when I woke up in cold sweats in the middle of the night.

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LORD, WHAT DO YOU WANT ME TO DO?

(July 20, 2021) Carol Round challenges us to ask God’s will for our lives…

Most of us are familiar with the story of Saul, the persecutor of the early Christians, how he was struck down struck down on the road to Damascus.

Acts 9:3-6 NKJV records that ‘Suddenly a light shone around him from heaven. Then he fell to the ground, and heard a voice saying to him, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?” And he said, “Who are you, Lord? …What do you want me to do?’

After being struck down on the road to Damascus, he was used by God and eventually became the apostle, Paul.
 
Paul discovered God’s gospel truth and God’s will for his life. He then spent the rest of his days spreading the message of the good news and planting churches throughout the Mediterranean world.  
 
The apostle determined God’s will for his life with one important question: ‘What do You want me to do, Lord?’

It’s the question every one of Christ’s followers should be asking.

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ABIDING IN THE VINE

(July 19, 2021) Geri B shares from her heart graciously on a vital issue…

Jesus made it clear in John 15: 1-2,4-5 that the Father wants his children to be fruitful… ‘I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful… Remain in me, and I will remain in you.  Just as no branch can bear fruit by itself unless it remains in the vine, neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me.  I am the vine and you are the branches.  The one who remains in me, and I in him, will bear much fruit. For apart from me you can do nothing.’

We tend to skip over ‘while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes …’! But three things are outstandingly clear –

  • If we remain (abide, an action verb!) in him, we will bear fruit.
  • Although bearing fruit, the Father will prune us so we’ll be even more fruitful. 
  • A twice-mentioned warning… remain in him otherwise we cannot bear fruit, do nothing!

More abundant than before
Have you ever seen a pruned grape vine? It is quite brutally cut back to the main trunk so that it would appear there are no branches at all remaining, just the main trunk.  You would be forgiven for thinking the pruning was too much, the vine dresser had gone too far and there would be no fruit for the coming hasrvest season.

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GOD’S PRESENCE MELTED HUSTLER’S HEART

(June 11, 2021) Ryan Zepeda, studying at the Lighthouse Christian Academy in Los Angeles, CA, brings an encouraging testimony about actor Mark Wahlberg’s brother…

Jim Wahlberg was the consummate hustler. In prison for hustling, he hustled the prison system –  leading a 12-step program under the pretense of being reformed – just to earn an early release for good behaviour.

‘I was always a hustler, was always manipulative, just to get what I wanted, and I did whatever I had to get it,’ Jim observes on a CBN video.

The older brother of Mark Wahlberg (see Mark’s testimony) actually had no intention of changing his substance-abusing, robbery-financed lifestyle once he was out.

Fear of not being good enough
The fifth of nine kids born to a delivery driver dad and a bank clerk mom, Jim was shaped by the mean streets of Boston’s Irish working-class neighborhood of Dorchester. When he realised that middle class kids had more things than he did, he began stealing to even the score.

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‘WHAT ABOUT THE 144,000?’
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(June 4, 2021) Brian Bell recalls an incident from long ago that led (and still leads) to a reminder that we must continue to serve Christ in whatever we’re called to…

When I was in my late teen years, I spent some weeks in the UK summer months serving with a beach mission team. I remember one year on the Isle of Wight. The outreach program for each day concluded with an evening event, very often an open-air witness on the promenade. Some team members would sing, some testify, and the team leader would usually bring a gospel message.

As the event was taking place, team members would form a rough semi-circle around the platform, not obstructing the passage of passers-by and we would look for folk who may stop and seem interested in the message so that we may approach them on conclusion.

On a particular evening I saw a couple stop to listen and at the conclusion of the message which had included a reference to heaven, I approached them to ask what they thought about what they’d heard… but I was not prepared for the gentleman’s response when he said to me, ‘What about the 144,000?’

Young and inexperienced as I was, I knew this was a reference to the book of Revelation and surmised these folks were Jehovah’s Witnesses.

Reflection leads to Revelation
I use that memory to take you to the apostle John’s book of Revelation.

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