Repent

Today in church I was reading my Bible and there were a few scriptures that really stood out and I felt God telling my that this is His message to the Church. It’s a call to repentance and to turn back to God and away from the things of this world which we have allowed to come first in our lives instead of God. I think that it is highly important to remember that while God demands righteousness, He is at His very essence Love, perfect, complete love. God loves us no matter what.

For some time now I have felt quite strongly that God has been saying that the Church, or at least a part of the Church, has strayed and grown cold. The Church has become more focused on material things and pleasures of this world and less focused on seeking God and His Kingdom. A lot of legalism has crept into the Church. The thing is, we are saved by grace. And the main principle about grace is that we are so bad that there isn’t anything that we can do on our own to save ourselves, God had to save us. Grace is not earned, it is freely given.

While there is an ocean of grace for us to fall into when we repent for our sins, the point is that we have to repent and turn back to seeking God with a full heart. I feel this is what God is specifically saying to the Church today.

“‘If you will return, O Israel, return to me,’ declares the Lord. ‘If you put your detestable idols out of my sight and no longer go astray, and if in a truthful, just and righteous way you swear, “As surely as the Lord lives,” then the nations will be blessed by Him and in Him they will glory.” Jeremiah 4:1-2

‘”I myself said, ‘How gladly would I treat you like sons and give you desirable land, the most beautiful inheritance of any nation.’ I though you would call me ‘Father’ and not turn away from following Me. But like a woman unfaithful to her husband so you have been unfaithful to Me, O house of Israel,” declares the Lord.’ Jeremiah 3:19-20

What is maybe important to recognise here is that the Church has been adopted into God’s family, so we are effectively spiritually a part of Israel. It is therefore, possible to insert the Church into wherever you see ‘Israel’.

I also read the letters to the Churches in the beginning of Revelation and for the first time something stood out for me in the letter to the Church in Sardis.

“I know your deeds; you have a reputation for being alive, but you are dead. Wake up! Strengthen what remains and is about to die, for I have not found your deeds complete in the sight of my God. Remember  therefore, what you have received and heard, obey it, and repent. But if you do not repent I will come like a thief and you will not know at what time I will come to you.” Revelation 3:1b-3

I hope that this gives you encouragement to turn back to God and repent and fall into His ocean of grace.

Daily Grace

When God told Paul that His grace was sufficient for him for His power is made perfect in weakness, He wasn’t only saying that to Paul, it’s true for each and everyone of us. The older I become and the more life experiences I gain the more I realise just how true this is. This past week I have been especially reminded of God’s grace in my own life and just how desperately I need it. I am currently working as an au pair for a family with three little girls five years and younger. And they can get quite cranky, as all little children can get, thus resulting in a lot of screaming and crying. Now I am a person who tends to enjoy my peace and quite interspersed with some evening of jovial shouting and laughter. Under normal circumstances screaming and crying kids would have left me rather irritated, however God in His mercy has granted me bountiful amounts of divine grace, so that I only feel love and compassion towards these three girls. Then God knowing my spiritual loneliness/isolation sent me a gift this weekend in the form of a worship service that led me into God’s throne room of grace where He could just fill my dry cup until it was  bubbling over.

If God can pour out His grace over my life, one of the least of His servants, then He can do the same in your life. This proves that God’s grace is for all of us, not just a few righteous men in the Bible who seem to have had way more faith then some of us ‘normal’ people in these modern days. God’s grace is not reserved for the most righteous of people, but is freely available for everyone who asks Him for it. When it comes to God’s grace for us on a daily basis, all you need to do to receive it is ask God for the grace you need to get you through the day and he will give it to you. He will freely give you the grace you need for that day and He will make sure that it is not too much or too little, but rather just the exact amount you need. Worship to me is the best way to draw near to God, come into His presence and receive an outpouring of His love for you. In that way you too will receive God’s strength and His grace for you, so that you can continue to shine your light in a dark world.

God’s grace is for everyone and it’s available everyday.

I Will Never Leave You

This past week I’ve been feeling really rubbish, coming down with a cold which ended with me being sick twice yesterday evening and feeling physically the worst I have felt in a very long time. Through the whole experience of wondering if and when I will feel better and whether or not I will be able to keep down the next mouthful of food I have been reminded that God will never leave my side. In fact it’s when the storm is billowing at its strongest that He carries us. The one thing that Jesus never promised His followers was that He would take the storms of life away for us, but what He did promise is that He would carry us through them. His love and support are what we can count on to get us through every trial. Because God loves us He didn’t remove the trials of our lives, because He knows that we are able to grow so much more by having to walk through the trials and so we are then capable of being able to help others when they are faced with similar trials. We are, thus more able to be His hands and feet. God does not desire perfect people how have it all together all the time, but rather the imperfect how rely on His strength, as He says in 2 Corinthians 12:9, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.”

Feeling rubbish for a few days, because of a cold is not the hardest trial, I know. Earlier this year I really did have to trust God and lean not on my own understanding, but on Him. I had been planning on taking a gap year overseas for several years and at the start of this year there was only one thing stopping me from going, my driver’s license.This ended up being a much greater battle than I ever had or could have anticipated. It took me four months and five attempts, along with a lot crying, early morning and practise. Through it all God never left me. He had designed it as a period of time to teach me valuable lessons, like perseverance, He had to get me to wait so that He could put me in the places that He wanted me to be in to be His hands and feet to the people I meet. So I am grateful to God for the trials that I have faced and for the trials I am going to face, for they bring me closer to God and His plan/purpose for my life. God gives and takes away, may His name be praised. Praise God in the storms!