Epaggelia

I do believe that there is an area in a Christian’s life where the devil appears to hurt us most often, it is in the matter of trust. Our lives seem to say we can trust God for eternal salvation but we hesitate to trust Him to guide our life; we can trust Him for His promise that He will save our soul, but we won’t trust Him to guide us every moment of every day. That kind of doubt, can lead to a sad life filled with more pain than gain. If we try to guide our own life by our own standards and desires, we inevitably make selfish decisions that lead to cheating ourselves of God’s blessings. Are we trying to remedy our problems by our self? It is a mistake to exclude God from our decision-making. Trust Him to guide you. “He leads the humble in what is right…All the paths of the Lord are steadfast love and faithfulness, for those who keep his covenant.” (Psalm 25:9-10). Do we even know what his covenant is? It is our agreement with Him, that if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with each other, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin. (1st John 1:7). Do we believe we benefit from His blood only on Sunday in the communion? Or is His cleansing a part of our daily lifestyle? If we want to stay on the path of His love and faithfulness, then we should show our trust in his promises daily.

The Bible as a message stands alone, there never has, isn’t now, nor ever will be a message so enlightening to humanity. As there is but one sun to enlighten the earth physically, there is only one book to enlighten the human heart. Pray God’s message becomes to us a real counselor, the guide for our life’s journey, the inspiration for our thoughts and strength for our temptations and trials unto death. Prove to yourself, that “all scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for teaching, and for conviction, and for correction and for instruction in godliness” (2Tim. 3:16) You may never have all your problems solved, but you will be sure of your foundation, you will feel that your feet are planted on the only foundation that can never be shaken, Jesus Christ (1Cor. 3:11) We must place him in our hearts, the very message of God. Why? Because His Spirit uses the Bible to solve every problem with a solution that is God’s goal, not ours. We may not reach every one of them on this side of eternity, but we will in the next. As we day to day face a temptation and overcome it, we just took one step closer to being that new creation He is creating in our heart. Keep walking in faith, to see all the glory, his message is creating in you. If you are in Christ, you are a new creation, the old is passing away.(2Cor. 5:17) Get into the Message

English has some wonderful uses of words. Look at collective nouns for various groups of animals. We are all familiar with a Herd of cattle, a Flock of seagulls, a School of fish and a Gaggle of geese, and less widely known is a Pride of lions, a Murder of crows, a Crutch of lobsters, an Exaltation of doves and, I suppose because they look so wise, a Parliament of owls. Now consider a group of Monkeys. They are the loudest, most obnoxious, and least intelligent of all primates, and what is the proper collective noun for a group of monkeys? Believe it or not, a Congress! I’m not sure what lay in that name, but one thing I’m certain, they need a good leader. Christians are instructed to pray for their leaders. Which leads me to ask you. What is the proper collective noun for a group of Christians? Church. What does that say about us, it means: “people called out of the world and into assembly”. Yes that is right, you can’t be part of a church, while you worship in the fields, mountainside or forest, and certainly not the riverbank where there may be lots of fishing poles! Worship is loving God, and the way God wants us to love him on Sunday is in the Assembly, that is what is in our collective noun as Christians. Love Him with all your heart, soul, body and mind! That is the command of Jesus, not advice, but an authoritative mandate from our Master, see Mark 12:30 & Luke 10:27. Why would a Christian neglect the assembly? Especially when we consider the opporunity for love that is there?