What an unusual day. A rainy and gloomy start with a bright finish with the dazzling sun. The picture shows a elegant tree with some gloomy clouds behind it. I apologise if I am boring you with tree pictures, they have always fascinated me, even the stories of J R Tolkien about the tree ents were fascinating as I grew up.
The gloomy clouds might threaten to overwhelm the picture, but the tree is in the foreground and is the important focus.
Many people seem overwhelmed about the problems that exist in todays society. They might be searching for the answers to life’s fundamental questions but they might never seem to arrive at the answer. They may see people hurting or hungry at the side of the road and they may stop and help, and yet they still ask themselves “what can we do?”
I think it is important to realise that doing good to others is what God wants us to do. If you can only do a small thing each day for another person, then God will not punish you for doing good (I believe God would not punish people who do good but this is just a belief and not what others in the church may think or believe).
The question remains that people are still hurting from all the pain they see and something stronger, outside their soul tugs them on to do something more. That something outside the soul I believe is God at work, “working his purposes out”.
But there is danger, for if that person does not come to a solid foundation their faith will be in danger of withering away. They may find many benefits in a faith, they may bloom for a while but they will be one day standing in front of God, and Jesus is the only one who can take away our sins and vouch for our soul in front of the Father.
There are many faiths in the world and all are attractive for various benefits – but Christianity is the only one built on the foundation stone of Jesus, it is there for the benefit of others. Jesus calls us to lead a selfless life, which is hard, but it is for the good of others in this life and for the good of your soul. Be careful what you believe for your very eternal destiny will depend on this. Is the belief biblical, for Jesus asks us to test our faith.
Having been firmly rooted and now being built up in Him and established in your faith, just as you were instructed, and overflowing with gratitude. See to it that no one takes you captive through philosophy and empty deception, according to the tradition of men, according to the elementary principles of the world, rather than according to Christ.
I recently had a series of messages from someone of another faith, but they would not engage in dialogue and discuss their faith. Christianity is not blinkered, as it actively asks us to test our faith.
I will not force any beliefs upon anyone, but I would ask that you test your faith. Does it ring true? Does the faith pressurise you into believing something? Is your loyalty to one faith or God through fear, or just through upbringing and tradition. Christianity has always grown, not through subjugation but through love and a selfless love of God and each other.
I pray if you have not accepted Jesus as your Lord and saviour, then I ask you pray to Him tonight and ask He make a change in your life this very night, as He came to me some years ago and made a momentous change that led me on a totally new direction. Jesus can take these worries and do wonders great and small and I pray that He saves you. I pray this Lent you focus on the coming tree that makes all the difference, the tree that hangs our saviour, who took on all our sin and cast it away so that we may one day be presented to the Father in heaven.
Amen
with blessings
Graham
365 Exhortations 