What could I do more of…?

What could you do more of?

I would like more the Holy Spirit in my life. I would like to be empowered to live like Jesus and display more of the fruit of the Spirit in the world around me.

But in truth it is not about me getting more of the Holy Spirit, it is about the Holy Spirit getting more of me!

Paul Little in his book “Know What You Believe” said,“To be filled with the Spirit means we allow Him to occupy, guide, and control every area of our lives. His power can then work through us, making us effectively fruitful for God and flooding our hearts with His joy” (p. 78).

When we come to accept Jesus as our Lord and Saviour we become born again by the Holy Spirit. He then takes up residence in us to empower us and make us more like Christ. So as Christians we all have the same Holy Spirit, in the same measure, the same Spirit that raised Christ from the dead (Romans 8:9-11).

As Paul Little says in his book, it is about allowing the Holy Spirit free reign in our lives. It is allowing Him to have all of us in complete surrender. Then He can live in and through us.

If I am honest, this sounds really scary and really exciting at the same time! But what a journey it would be if we surrendered fully to the Holy Spirit. Imagine the difference we could make in this world.

Fight for your faith

1 Timothy 6:11-12 NLT – But you, Timothy, are a man of God; so run from all these evil things. Pursue righteousness and a godly life, along with faith, love, perseverance, and gentleness. [12] Fight the good fight for the true faith. Hold tightly to the eternal life to which God has called you, which you have declared so well before many witnesses.

I love the words Paul uses in this passage to Timothy. He uses words like run, pursue, fight, and hold tightly. They are all active words that are actions.

Some times we need to sit and wait on God to act on our behalf. At other times we need to be active in our faith and press on and do what only we can do.

In this passage Paul tells Timothy to run from all evils things. Paul knows that evil things can shipwreck our faith. Running from them reminds us that we need to turn our back on evil and get away from it.

Next he gives Timothy the antidote for evil things – pursue righteousness and a godly life. How do we do this? By crowding out the bad things with good. Read the Bible, pray, serve in church.

Finally Paul tells Timothy to hold tightly to eternal life. We must hold on to our hope in Christ. Have faith in God, believe in His promises and look forward expectantly to Jesus coming back. He is our eternal hope.

Life without music?

What would your life be like without music?

I could not imagine what life would be life with music. It would certainly be different.

I love all types of music and I love singing along to my favourite songs, especially in the car where no one else can hear me! Although my wife assures me I have a good singing voice, I am not a confident singer.

Music is also tied in to worship for me. Some of my favourite songs are worship songs. I love to sing and worship God alone, but I also love worshipping with others in church.

So I think my life would be very different without music, especially worship music.

Prayer to the Risen Christ

Heavenly Father and God of mercy,
we no longer look for Jesus among the dead,
for He is alive and has become the Lord of Life.
From the waters of death,
you raise us with Him and
renew your gift of life within us.

Increase in our minds and hearts
the risen life we share with Christ
and help us to grow as your people
toward the fullness of eternal life with you.
We ask this through Christ our Lord.

Amen.