Month: October 2023

Follow Jesus

October 31, 2023

Matthew 16:24-27 NLT – Then Jesus said to his disciples, “If any of you wants to be my follower, you must give up your own way, take up your cross, and follow me. [25] If you try to hang on to your life, you will lose it. But if you give up your life for my sake, you will save it. [26] And what do you benefit if you gain the whole world but lose your own soul? Is anything worth more than your soul? [27] For the Son of Man will come with his angels in the glory of his Father and will judge all people according to their deeds.”

When Jesus called His first followers He simply said, “Come, follow Me” (Mark 1:17-18). It was a few simple words, but a big call to leave everything behind to commit to a new way of life. History tells us that those fishermen did answer the call and left everything behind.

In the above passage Jesus offers the same call to His followers today. But He adds to be a true follower we have to give up our own way and take on His way and His direction. To be a true follower of Jesus we give up our worldly hopes, dreams, plans and wisdom and take on His goals, plans and dreams for us. We need to take up our cross and follow Him.

I believe this is about changing kingdoms – from the worldly kingdom and it’s ways to God’s Kingdom and His eternal ways. It also means not being king or ruler of our own lives and handing complete and total control to Jesus. We need to accept His Lordship.

I know from my own experience it is easier to accept Jesus as our Saviour, than our Lord. To accept that He died on the cross for our sins and to accept Him as the only way to salvation happens when we understand who He is and what He has done. But Lordship is another matter. Giving up control of our lives is much harder.

The passage above tells us that if we do give up our lives for Jesus and service in His Kingdom, we actually find true life. We find true life because this is how it is meant to be. God made us all for His purpose. We all have a divine call, purpose and destiny. When we come in to line with this, we find our true place in this world and in God’s Kingdom.

How about you? Have you accepted Jesus as your saviour? Have you handed your life over to Him to be Your Lord? It is my hope and prayer that you have done both.

Prayer

Dear Lord Jesus, I thank You that You died on the cross for my sin. Right now I confess all the wrong things I have done in my life and ask for Your forgiveness. I accept You as my Saviour. Jesus, I also want to accept You as my Lord. I want You to be the ruler of my life. I lay down my life to You. Please use me in the way You created me to be. Please use me for Your Kingdom purposes. Help me to take up my cross each day and truly follow You. I ask this in Your name, Amen.

We do not lose heart

October 24, 2023

2 Corinthians 4:16-18 NLT says, “That is why we never give up. Though our bodies are dying, our spirits are being renewed every day. [17] For our present troubles are small and won’t last very long. Yet they produce for us a glory that vastly outweighs them and will last forever! [18] So we don’t look at the troubles we can see now; rather, we fix our gaze on things that cannot be seen. For the things we see now will soon be gone, but the things we cannot see will last forever.”

As Christians we should not lose heart. We have so much hope. Our faith and hope in Jesus should draw us along life’s highway towards our eternal home.

This life is not not all there is. We have an eternal home waiting for us. And Jesus Himself is waiting at the door to welcome us home!

We know in this life we have troubles and pain, but they are nothing compared to what awaits us in eternity. The Bible says the glory of heaven vastly outweighs our earthly problems and pain.

I believe as followers of Jesus we need to live today in light of eternity. To go about our days with hope in our hearts that one day we will see Jesus face to face. In His glorious presence all our troubles will melt away in an instant. They will all be gone forever.

The key for us is to fix our spiritual eyes on what is unseen. To imagine what it will be like to see Jesus face to face. To look into His eyes and feel His loving embrace. And to hear those eternal words, “Well done good and faithful servant”.

This is what keeps me going. This is what inspires me to press on towards the goal. How can I lose heart when this is my focus?

Prayer

Dear Jesus, thank You for the eternal home you have prepared for me. Thank You for the hope this gives me. Help me to focus on the eternal unseen things. Help me to live my life in light of eternity each and every day. In Your name, Amen.

House church facination

October 22, 2023

I have always been interested in house churches. I attended one several times as a newish Christian and I just loved how relaxed and informal it was. There was a meal, singing, prayer, Bible reading and a lot of times to ask questions and talk about life following Jesus. I really enjoyed it a lot.

I recently found an article on smallgroups.com about Starting a House Church by Larry Kreider and Floyd McClung. It is an excerpt of their book by the same name. It is one I recommended here.

In the article they list five things to consider when starting a house church. These are…

1. Pray first

2. Know whom you are called to reach

3. The size of the house church matters

4. Meeting frequency

5. Meeting components

All of these make really good points and suggestions to think about from two very experienced leaders in house church circles.

The one that really jumped out at me was point 2 – Know who you are called to reach. They talk about having a vision to reach new Christians or people who are genuinely seeking God. But they found people who were Christians for a long time came along and that shaped the group.

I find the whole idea of house churches really fascinating. If you are interested in reading the full article, you can find it here.

God Bless,

Dave