Or why approaching prayer with the right attitude is important if we want to see them answered…

Taken from the book Prayer That Gets Answers, by Colin Dye

It has been said that in prayer it is always our attitude that determines our altitude! In other words, we will never rise higher than our understanding of God’s willingness to bless us. Prayer which breaks into God’s presence and grabs his attention is prayer with an expectant attitude.

Those who come to God with little expectation of his blessing are defeated before they even start. A person who doesn’t believe that God loves them, wants to bless them and answer their prayers, does not know his will for them. Effective prayer flows from a living relationship with God and an understanding that his desire is to bless us. Prayer is personal, not mechanical. It is relational, not functional. It is a two-way conversation between a needy child and their generous, loving, all-powerful parent. Understanding this will radically change our perspective of prayer. But with this thought in mind, we must remember that prayer is not some selfish exercise in wish fulfilment.

God always wants to hear us and answer us with provision for our needs.

God always wants to hear us and answer us with provision for our needs. He is also prepared to fulfil the desires of our heart. But we must not treat him like a divine slot machine or a ‘Father Christmas’ type of God to whom we come with our shopping list. Jesus never said, “Come to me and tell me all your wants…” he instructed us to focus on God’s will and the priorities of his kingdom. When we do that, God is committed to providing for our needs. Prayer has much more to do with asking our Father to provide us with everything we need to carry out his will than it is about getting what we want.

Do you know who you are praying to?

Because effective prayer flows out of understanding God’s character and his heart towards us, it is vital that we really know him. This seems obvious, but we have to ask ourselves honestly: how well do we know God? So much false information about him has been spread about over the years that even the most balanced, biblically-aware of believers may have picked up a few wrong ideas.

One of the devil’s key strategies is to slander God’s character and integrity and coerce us into questioning him.

Satan’s campaign of lying and deceit is one of the main reasons why so many people pray from a position of doubt rather than faith and expectancy. When the apostle Paul wrote, “The weapons of our warfare are not carnal but are mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, casting down arguments, and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ.” (2 Corinthians 10:4-5), he revealed that it is the devil’s misinformation campaign that seeks to confuse us and prevent us from simply knowing God. Because the devil has been a liar from the beginning of time, false attitudes, ungodly beliefs and lies are deeply rooted in men and women.

The Lord who protects The devil’s most successful lie is that God does not really love us or have our best interests at heart. This was the basis of his argument when he launched his first attack against mankind, seeking to deceive Eve in the Garden of Eden.

We read in Genesis chapter three how Satan tried to convince Eve (and has been trying to convince us ever since) that God is cold, loveless and remote. He would like us to believe that we are the last person on earth in whom God would ever be interested. He would like us to agree with his suggestion that God is harsh and restrictive, someone who just wants to prevent us from doing things and having fun. Unfortunately, our experience as fallen human beings often appears to bear this out. Because such ungodly ideas are ingrained in our thinking we often seem to gravitate towards those things which are forbidden by God and we feel restricted when he denies something to us. We forget that God has given us many better things to enjoy!

Eve’s response to the serpent was, “We can eat of all the trees except the one in the middle. If we eat from that one, we’ll die.” “No you won’t!” the devil countered. “God doesn’t want you to eat that fruit because he doesn’t want you to become like him. God won’t let you have something good!”

This was a terrible lie and a dreadful slur on God’s character when, in fact, God was protecting men and women from something that would devastate them. Eating the fruit meant that humanity experienced evil and lost its innocence. The act of eating the forbidden fruit opened the door to all the suffering and misery which has ever been known in the world.

We must never forget this truth: God is good! He gives good gifts to his children and he only withholds from us that which is harmful.

The Lord who is trustworthy The devil’s second lie is to contend that it is God who is the liar and that his Word is untrustworthy. In Genesis 3:4 the devil directly contradicts what God has said, “You will surely not die …” This is even worse than the first lie! The devil doesn’t just throw doubt on God’s Word, he flatly denies it. Every thought and word which causes us to doubt or disbelieve God’s Word comes from the devil. His greatest goal is to smear God’s integrity and he tries to achieve this by attacking God’s Word. The devil said to Eve, in effect, “Don’t believe God! He’s lying to you. You won’t die.” It is a tragedy that men and women everywhere have believed this same lie ever since. People are indifferent to God today to the extent that they think they can safely ignore him. But ultimately we cannot ignore God and we cannot ignore his Word. What God says does come to pass. What he promises is fulfilled. All our actions have consequences and we will reap either good things or bad things from them depending on how we live our lives (see Galatians 6:7).

What God says comes to pass. What he promises is fulfilled.

This is also the reason why our life of faith is so important and why our praying should constitute much more than presenting selfish requests to God.

A lifestyle of prayer Prayer was never intended as an afterthought to the Christian life or something we do only when we are in trouble or great need. Prayer is a lifestyle – an ongoing, real time, interactive conversation with our Father in Heaven that covers every aspect of our lives. Prayer is instrumental in producing right living which flows from right thinking. Our heart attitudes shape us as a person; they affect what we think, how we act, the choices we make. Most importantly, they determine how we pray. “Keep your heart with all diligence, for out of it spring the issues of life.” (Proverbs 4:23)

Many years ago, I was seeking God for something that was really important to me. At that time, I’d seen God touch others through me in ministry and yet I still didn’t truly know God’s love for me personally. Because of this, I wasn’t sure whether God would answer my prayers. Suddenly, the Holy Spirit spoke to me in my mind and said, “You don’t really believe that I love you, do you?” It was true, I was convinced that God loved other people and wanted to bless them, but I wasn’t certain about his love for me, and this heart attitude was spoiling my praying.

Are you like this? Do you think that God is more keen to bless other people than he is to pour his goodness into your life? Do you find it easier to believe that God loves someone else, than to grasp the fact that he deeply loves you? Allow the Holy Spirit to touch your heart and minister God’s love to you – his personal, intimate love, just for you. This is God’s desire.

God really does love you We may ask ourselves, “Does God really love me?” but a better question would be to ask, “Why would God not love me?” because the Bible teaches us that God is love. In other words, God doesn’t just “love” – He is love. God is the personification of love – it is an inextricable part of his nature – and his love for us is everlasting and infinite.

The ultimate expression of God’s love for us was sacrificing his own Son to die for our sins. In this he demolished the barrier between us and him and nothing can re-erect it.

God’s love is not abstract, it is real, tangible and focused upon us. God has fixed his love firmly upon us, his children, and nothing can ever change that. God never does anything in half measures, so we can be certain that he loves us fully and completely with every bit of his being. The ultimate expression of his love for us was sacrificing his own Son to die for our sins. In Christ he has given us everything we could possibly need (Romans 5:6-8).

God is holy. He cannot tolerate sin and hates it completely. Because of our sin we were at odds with God and separated from him. But at the cross, Christ dealt once and for all with the sin and condemnation that plagues our lives. When we put our life into his hands, we are set free. “There is now therefore no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus.” (Romans 8:1)

This means that God has demolished the barrier between us and him and nothing can re-erect it. Those who put their trust in Jesus are now the beneficiaries of God’s love. His love is ours and nothing will ever separate us from him again. Whatever our circumstances and failings, whatever our shortcomings and problems, God still loves us and we need never doubt it. God always has our best interests at heart. Whenever he thinks of us, his thoughts are full of love. Every time he touches us, it is a touch of love. All his words and actions to us are packed with love.

God is good, the devil is bad! This truth can lead us to only one conclusion – one which we must hold on to at all times – God is very good and the devil is very bad! This may not be much of a revelation, but, to what extent do we really believe it? Is this the absolute and fundamental conviction of your heart? And if you believe it, what difference does it make to your praying, to your life?

The truth that God is good towards us, all the time, must dwell in our hearts to the extent that it constantly governs our outlook and attitudes. God is always good. He wills good, not evil. He promises good, not evil. He does good, not evil. This is the attitude with which we can come to him in prayer. “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning.” (James 1:17)

Whenever anything bad happens in the world, people immediately cry, “If there was a God, he wouldn’t let this happen!” This is a tragic misdirection of our frustration because the Bible is clear about the fact that God is not responsible for evil. He didn’t create it and he didn’t bring it into the world. In fact, he sent Jesus to undo it. God hates evil and he wants to put an end to it.

The word “destroy” means “to untie” or “unloose”. In other words, Jesus came to undo what the devil had done. He came from God to do good and to break the devil’s grip on your life, to break it forever. As Luke wrote in the book of Acts, “God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power, who went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with Him.” (Acts 10:38)

Satan is the enemy and the destroyer. He is the author of evil. But God’s will for us is good. He never brings bad things upon us – that is the devil’s work. God wants to remove and undo the works of the enemy.

Don’t doubt God’s goodness Never let doubt creep into your praying. The Bible warns us against having what it refers to as a “doubleminded” attitude. The apostle James, who has a blunt, direct style of teaching, tells us that we won’t receive any answers to our prayers if we do, “Let him ask in faith, with no doubting … For let not that man suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord: he is a double-minded man.” (James 1:6-8)

God gives us good gifts, promises us good things, and keeps every promise that he has made to us in his Word.

Remember, God is 100% good, 100% of the time. He doesn’t bring us evil, and he doesn’t send us affliction or sickness. Instead, he gives us good gifts, promises us good things, and keeps every promise that he has made to us in his Word. He sent Jesus to satisfy his holiness and reveal his love, and because of that we have full and free access to his presence. We are in the position where God can bless us abundantly because he has smashed every barrier between us and him and swept all the pieces away.

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These are the kinds of heart attitudes which get God’s attention. When we approach him, full of these heartfelt convictions, we can pray with absolute confidence and God will surely answer us.

Holy Communion, or the Lord’s Supper, is the ‘communion’ or ‘fellowship meal’, instituted by Christ for the benefit of his church. He intended it to be a central feature of church life. Communion is one of the two sacraments or ordinances that Jesus gave us as signs and seals of his grace in our lives as believers.

Holy Communion, or the Lord’s Supper, is the ‘communion’ or ‘fellowship meal’, instituted by Christ for the benefit of his church

The water of baptism represents the washing and cleansing of Christ and the removal of our sins. The bread and wine of communion represent the continuing life of Christ in the Christian community. We can think of baptism as ‘the sacrament of Christian initiation’ and of communion as ‘the sacrament of Christian participation’. We are not only baptised into new life, we must also continue to participate in that life: communion is a gift from God which gives us that opportunity.

As a sacrament, communion is no mere memorial service; it is a living encounter with the risen Lord. All that Christ has done for us at the cross, and all that we have received from him by faith, is powerfully confirmed and continually sealed as we faithfully participate in communion.

The Lord’s Supper is based on the last meal that Jesus ate with his apostles before the cross; and it soon became the centrepoint of fellowship and worship in the early church, where it was called ‘the breaking of bread’.

Passover meal

Jesus instituted the communion meal during the last supper he shared with his disciples. It was part of the Passover festival. He took aspects of the Jewish Passover meal and invested it with new significance for his followers.

The Passover meal was rooted in the deliverance of Israel from Egypt. In Jesus’ day, the meal involved four principle aspects.

• The people looked back – they remembered God’s mercy in delivering them from slavery in Egypt.
• The people looked in – they purified themselves and their homes from anything which was evil or dirty.
• The people looked around – the feast was not a private affair, it was thoroughly corporate. The whole family took part in the meal.
• The people looked forward – they looked forward to the Messiah and his new age and prayed for his coming. It is obvious that the church’s fellowship meal has been greatly shaped by the Passover. All these four elements are present in Communion.

Looking back – a memorial

In Luke 22:19, Jesus told us to ‘do this in remembrance of me’. We are called to remember with thanksgiving God’s grace and mercy in delivering us from the slavery of sin through the once-and-for-all death of Jesus – the true Passover lamb.

Just as the Passover meal was a continuing memorial of God’s saving work in the Exodus, and as the rainbow is a continuing sign of God’s saving work in the Flood, so communion is both a sign and an abiding memorial of God’s saving work on the cross.

But that is not all, for we also re-live our personal application of the cross. The bread and the wine are not empty signs, they are God’s ‘solemn oath’ – the pledge or confirmation of God’s mercy and forgiveness. In a similar way, when we take part in communion, we remember the presence and power of Christ among his people, we celebrate his victory over sin and death, and we claim our part in that activity.

A memorial is also an equally important reminder to God. This means that when we take communion, God is present to fulfil every promise signified by the memorial. Because communion is a memorial, whatever the bread and wine symbolises is available by faith to all who receive it.

At communion, we do not just remember Christ’s sacrifice on the cross, we claim it for ourselves, we ‘fellowship’ or share in it. Our physical receiving of the bread and wine emphasises this important truth.

Looking in – preparing yourself

1 Corinthians 11:17-34 underlines the importance of preparing ourselves before communion. Before receiving the bread and the wine, we should examine ourselves, confess what we know to be wrong, and ask God to forgive and cleanse us.

We share the communion meal recognising that it is a sign of God’s grace. We come trusting in Christ’s righteousness and not in our own worthiness. We come in humble repentance, seeking mercy and forgiveness for our wrong thoughts and actions.

This self-examination is not to prevent us from taking part; rather it is to bring us to the meal ready to meet the Lord with clean hands and a pure heart – we can think of it like washing hands before eating.

The nature of communion means that we are encouraged to come with our needs. If the communion is a memorial and participation in the benefits of the cross, we can come expecting our needs to be met. We should expect to be forgiven and restored in our hearts, strengthened and nourished in our faith, renewed in our spiritual experience and healed in our body.

Looking around – ministering to others

Communion is not a private matter, it is ‘the’ expression of the church’s koinonia. All God’s family – the men, women and children of the ‘household’, and any guests and visitors – assemble together to celebrate their communion with each other and God.

We know that the church is a family, and this is the family meal. It is tragic, therefore, that some churches have formalised the fellowship meal into some sort of ritual, that others have lost the sense of festive joy which characterised the Passover, and that many have removed the sense of community.

It is a joy to celebrate communion during an extended fellowship meal in which Christ is central and fellowship with one another is at the heart of the gathering. It offers an ideal opportunity to minister to one another according to 1 Corinthians 14:26. Each person comes prepared to bless and strengthen their brothers and sisters in Christ through a word of encouragement, a prayer or the impartation of a spiritual gift.

Looking forward – expecting Jesus’ return

1 Corinthians 11:26 states that communion is ‘until he comes’. In communion, we look forward, full of hope, to the coming of the Bridegroom, to the ‘marriage feast of the lamb’.

Unlike the Jews, we believe that the Messiah has come, and that his reign has begun. But we know that his kingdom has not yet come in all its fullness, that we are ‘living in the overlap’. This means that we should always be alert and attentive for the return of our saviour. Again, Paul makes this clear when in 1 Corinthians 11:26 that in the communion, we ‘proclaim the Lord’s death till he comes.’

Spiritual food

At communion, the Anglican liturgy encourages believers to ‘feed on him in your hearts by faith with thanksgiving’. This stresses that communion is food for our spiritual life. In some mysterious way that we do not fully understand, Christ communicates his life to us as we receive the bread and wine. And so we fellowship with him, feeding on him by faith.

The imagery of flesh and blood occurs throughout John 6, and this seems to be pointing towards communion and to the ‘Word of God’ as the fulfilment of the ‘Wisdom of God’ in Proverbs 8:1 – 9:12 who cries, ‘Come, eat of my bread and drink of the wine I have mixed. Forsake foolishness and live.’

While we are right to reject any foolish literal interpretation of physically eating Christ’s flesh and drinking his blood, John 6, especially in verses 47-57, Jesus shows how central communion is to the Christian life. It is a feeding and fellowshipping in his body and blood; and, by it, Jesus confirms to us his life, his indwelling presence and his provision of spiritual nourishment. This is confirmed by 1 Corinthians 10 where Paul compares communion with the spiritual food and drink that Israel was given in the wilderness.

Covenant promises

Jesus stated that the wine represents the blood of the new covenant. In the Scriptures, God’s relationship with his people is often expressed in the form of blood covenants, whereby the blood indicates the binding nature of the covenant: blood is both the pledge and the sign of the covenant.

The New Covenant supersedes the Old Covenant, and communion is the meal at which we renew our participation in the covenant: we renew our commitment to covenant obedience and pledge again our loyalty to the Lord. But it is also the occasion when the Lord seals in our hearts the benefits of the covenant and works in our lives to fulfil the covenant promises. We can say that the covenant promises are not just exhibited in communion, they are also executed through communion; and that they are not just modelled in communion, they are also manifested through communion.

As we take the bread and wine we take hold of the covenant promises, we thank God for them, and we enter into everything that the blood has purchased for us.

Unity of the body

Communion also enhances our oneness in Christ. As we share communion, we are drawn together as members of our local fellowship, and we also experience our union with all God’s people in the universal church. We can say that, by participating in communion, we both demonstrate and develop our oneness in Christ: communion is much, much more than a visual aid or symbolic act of unity.

Paul puts this in tremendously strong language when he says in 1 Corinthians 10:17 that we are ‘one body because we eat one bread’, that is, the bread of communion. This means sharing in the church’s fellowship meal is one of the most effective ways we have of developing our cross-forged oneness. This means that communion is as much about fellowship with each other as it is fellowship with God. 1 Corinthians 11 stresses the importance of honouring relationships among believers as part of our preparation for communion. This is what Paul meant by ‘discerning the Lord’s body.’ When we take communion we should consider each other, put away anything which hinders fellowship, and ensure that broken relationships are mended in a godly spirit of forgiveness and reconciliation.

Thanksgiving

Some sections of the church call the Lord’s Supper, ‘The Eucharist’. This comes from the Greek word eucharisteo, which means ‘to thank’, and refers to Jesus’ prayer of thanksgiving or blessing over the bread and wine at the last supper.

Too many communion services are morbid memorials riddled by dry ritual rather than glorious celebrations throbbing with thanksgiving.

When we begin to grasp the true sacramental nature of communion – when we realise all that God pledges and confirms in communion, and appreciate all that we can receive by faith at communion – it naturally becomes an occasion for great thanksgiving in the church.

Central

We must never overlook the significance of Paul’s teaching in 1 Corinthians 11 – 14. In these chapters, he weaves together worship, communion, the gifts of the Spirit and the primacy of love. This suggests that those churches which stress the gifts should also make much of communion, and that the gifts should be an important part of communion.

We have seen that the ‘breaking of bread’, the Lord’s Supper, is central in the life of the New Testament church: it is ‘the’ expression of koinonia – of sharing together with Christ and with each other, and so should be more central in our church life today.

In the communion meal, we gather together to be with each other and the Lord: we remember, we give thanks, we love, we look to the future with confidence, we receive from God, we are strengthened for service, and we build one another up in the love of Christ.

UNDERSTANDING THE SACRAMENTS

Some branches of the Christian Church refer to the sacraments as ‘the ordinances’ of Christ, but they use the phrase in the same way that many Bible teachers throughout history have used the English word ‘sacrament’. This word is derived from the Latin word sacramentum, which literally means ‘dedicated or set apart’. From the 3rd Century, sacramentum was used to translate the Greek word musterion (mystery) which referred to any spiritually symbolic act or object. Whether we use the word ‘sacrament’, ‘ordinance’ or ‘mystery’, the meaning is essentially the same.

The word ‘sacrament’ has been absorbed into English as a technical word for a ‘sign of God’s grace’. It carries the idea of an act that is regarded as ‘an outward and visible sign of inward and spiritual grace’.

The medieval church identified seven acts as sacraments: baptism, confirmation, the Lord’s Supper, penance, anointing the dying with oil, ordination and marriage. Eastern Orthodox Churches and Roman Catholics still believe that these acts are sacraments, but Protestant churches maintain that Christ ordained or instituted only two: baptism and the Lord’s Supper.

Baptism and the Lord’s Supper are ‘sacraments’ or ‘mysteries’ because they are ‘outward, visible signs’ of the blessing of the gospel. They are ‘ordinances’ which Christ gave to the Church as powerful demonstrations of his grace and life in the body. We participate in them by faith, and they are central to the life of most churches. In fact, there can be no real expression of a biblical church without them.

He’s become an online star, by sharing stunning photos and videos of the Earth from space during his five-month stay on the International Space Station.

But after handing over command of the station to Russian cosmonaut Pavel Vinogradov ahead of his return to Earth on Monday, the Canadian astronaut Commander Chris Hadfield had one more treat for his fans down below: a cover version of David Bowie’s “Space Oddity.”

In the clip, believed to be the first music video filmed in space, Hadfield floats around the space station singing the 1969 track (with modified lyrics such as, “Ground control to Major Tom, lock your Soyuz hatch and put your helmet on,” referencing how his spacecraft will land him in Kazakhstan) and playing an acoustic guitar while gazing at the Earth 230 miles below.

He tweeted:

Chris Hadfield tweeted ‘With deference to the genius of David Bowie, here’s Space Oddity, recorded on Station. A last glimpse of the World. ‘

Read more

International Space Station Commander, Chris Hadfield, performs a revised version of David Bowie’s Space Oddity.

Below is the original description as posted by Chris himself on his YouTube channel…

A revised version of David Bowie’s Space Oddity, recorded by Commander Chris Hadfield on board the International Space Station.

The video, which has already been viewed over half a million times, has even moved Bowie himself to show his appreciation, tweeting: CHRIS HADFIELD SINGS SPACE ODDITY IN SPACE! “Hallo Spaceboy…”

When the Day of Pentecost had fully come, they were all with one accord in one place. And suddenly there came a sound from heaven, as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting. Then there appeared to them divided tongues, as of fire, and one sat upon each of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance. (Acts 2:1-4)

Whatever the disciples where expecting as they obeyed Jesus’ command to wait in Jerusalem for the Holy Spirit to come upon them, I am sure that the sights, sounds and sensations of that first Pentecost must have taken them by surprise.

Whatever the disciples where expecting as they obeyed Jesus’ command to wait in Jerusalem for the Holy Spirit to come upon them, I am sure that the sights, sounds and sensations of that first Pentecost must have taken them by surprise. But surprised or not, they were ready when the ‘power from on high’ came to walk out of the room and immediately begin their ministry.

It was the Baptism of the Holy Spirit that changed them from waiting disciples into the mighty men of God we see in the book of Acts. On that day Peter was able to stand up and boldly present the Gospel at the first ever evangelistic rally and see 3,000 added to their number.

As Pentecostals today we know that we do not have to wait for Pentecost Sunday to pray for people to be baptised in the Holy Spirit but we take time to ensure that all new believers understand that he is Jesus’ promised Helper to release each one of us to stand up and speak for him wherever we are – our schools, colleges, workplaces, homes and communities. We will be praying for everyone at the services on Pentecost Sunday to be filled or refilled with the Holy Spirit.

We know also as part of the discipleship cell vision that we need training to help each one to rise up in the calling that the Lord has given them to make disciples of all nations. From Living Free! to full-time IBIOL there is something for everyone! And this month we are introducing a new initiative to give everyone the tools to form relationships with the intention of sharing the gospel, it is called Share Life and details can be found on page 13. As the first disciples heard that they were to be witnesses for Jesus in “Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth” (Acts 1:8) so may we live our lives immersed in the Holy Spirit as we reach out to London and the World for Christ!

Today I want to  challenge you to allow the oil of God’s encouragement to be poured into you so you can rise above negative thinking and prepare to fulfill God’s plan and purpose for your life!

Today I want to challenge you to allow the oil of God’s encouragement to be poured into you so you can rise above negative thinking and prepare to fulfill God’s plan and purpose for your life

The following day Jesus wanted to go to Galilee, and he found Philip and said to him, “Follow me”. Now Philip was from Bethsaida, the city of Andrew and Peter. Philip found Nathanael and said to him, “We have found Him of whom Moses in the law, and also the prophets, wrote – Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph!’ And Nathanael said to him, “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” John 1:43-46

Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” That was the cynical, piercing remark of a man who probably lived in Bethsaida, a colourful, cosmopolitan, attractive place. Nathaniel, along with others, had nothing good to say about Nazareth.

Is that how others talk about you? More importantly, is that how you talk about yourself? God is more interested in what you say about yourself, than what others say about you. Many people are influenced by a form of negative thinking which is destructive and inhibits them in everything they seek to do. You may have a bold exterior, but you know that on the inside you are plagued by self-doubt that comes out of negative experiences. And the enemy, of course, puts his spin on it all so that God’s will for our lives is frustrated through the negativism that I call “Nazareth thinking”!

Nazareth was a remote, tiny Galilean town, high up on the hills. It was inaccessible, insignificant and wasn’t even included in the census lists of the period. It didn’t count! Nothing great or particularly important ever happened there. Nazareth was a byword for insignificance itself.

Are you suffering from ‘Nazareth negativism’?

Now, this deep seated negativism surrounding Nazareth is a problem that we can all face. You may say, “None of my family ever amounted to much” and therefore you have a very low expectation of yourself. You may be suffering from Nazareth negativism. It’s like a weight that presses you down and holds you back – an inferiority that chokes your self-confidence. You keep saying to yourself over and over again, “I can’t! I can’t!.” But it is time to learn to say, “I can! I can! I can!”

It is not just a question of positive thinking. We are walking with Jesus, so Christians ought to be the most positive people on the earth. But sadly, we’re often the most negative people because the enemy has a vested interest in accusing us and tearing us down. We become slaves to the opinion of others as we strive to show them that we’re not really as bad as we think we really are! And then we’re trapped in an encircling gloom of depression and hopelessness. You wake up morning by morning to the daily realisation that you are living in Nazareth!

Jesus is at your address!

Jesus is forever known as ‘Jesus of Nazareth’. That is what made Nathaniel jump in and say, “This is ridiculous. The one who is supposed to fulfil the law and the prophets is from… Nazareth?” God had a purpose in raising Jesus in Nazareth! First of all, it was a means of protection. He came up out of Egypt and was raised in Nazareth – a place of security, a place remote and out of view – where Jesus could be kept secure and where he wouldn’t be noticed for a period of time. But also it was a fulfilment of prophecy. It was God’s way of doing things!

God caused Jesus to arise out of the obscurity of Nazareth because he specialises in picking up the lonely, the despised, the rejected, the forgotten and the forsaken and giving them a place in his kingdom. If you are living in Nazareth today – God is on your side. Look at the marvellous way the apostle Paul puts this:

For you see your calling, brethren, that not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called. But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the things which are mighty; and the base things of the world and the things which are despised God has chosen, and the things which are not, to bring to nothing the things that are, that no flesh should glory in His presence.

1 Corinthians 1: 26-29

Because we serve the God of Nazareth we’ve been delivered from everything that makes us insignificant including the accusations of the enemy. God will bypass the complacent and the arrogant, the mighty and noble, and put his Spirit upon the hungry hearts of the lowly people who say, “Lord I may not have much to give you, but such as I have I give it to you.” You are a brand snatched from the fire. In Zechariah 3 we read the story of Joshua the high priest who was clothed in filthy garments. Standing next to him was Satan, the adversary, accusing him constantly.

And the Lord said to Satan, “The Lord rebuke you, Satan. The Lord who has chosen Jerusalem rebuke you. Is this not a brand plucked from the fire?” Zechariah 3:2

And then the Lord commanded that Joshua’s filthy clothes be removed and that he be given the beautiful, dignified, spotless garments of the high priestly ministry. And so God silenced forever the accusations of the enemy!

You count before God!

God has set you free, given you new clothes and has silenced forever the accusations of the enemy. Jesus Christ God’s Son cleanses from every sin! The accusations of the enemy have no more power over you. No weapon formed against you shall prosper and you shall refute every tongue that accuses you. This is your heritage because you belong to him! He raises the poor out of the dust, and lifts the needy out of the ash heap, that he may seat him with princes · with the princes of his people. Psalm 113:7-8

We are a kingdom of priests

The Lord Jesus raised us out of the dung hill and he’s set us among princes. And now the stench of the dung hill is no longer around us. Instead there is a fragrance of heaven, the sweet perfume of the kingdom resting upon us. It speaks not of who we were but of who we are. We sit now in a dignified place among the other nobles in the kingdom of God. We are a kingdom of priests, a royal priesthood. That’s what he’s made us because he’s the God of Nazareth! Another reason why Jesus is identified with Nazareth is because God takes the devil on his own grounds.

God doesn’t do his battles in the safety and security of heaven – he goes into enemy territory! He doesn’t play at home, he goes and plays in enemy territory. Because that’s where it counts, and that’s where he wins! He’s the God of Nazareth. God has no fear of the devil. He defeats him on his own ground. Where is the devil’s ground? What is the devil’s territory? Sin, sickness, demonisation and death – and Jesus met each one and defeated them at the cross!

Isaiah 53 tells us this so clearly: For He was despised and rejected hy men, a Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. And we hid, as it were, our faces from Him; He was despised and we did not esteem Him. Surely He has borne our griefs, And carried our sorrows. Yet we esteemed Him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement for our peace was upon Him, and by His stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned, every one, to his own way; and the Lord has laid on Him the iniquity of us all. Isaiah 53:3-6

That’s what it means to be a Christian! You acknowledge that Jesus Christ has carried your sins on the cross and that by believing in him you are set free! Jesus had no fear – he went straight into sin’s territory itself and broke the power of the enemy.

He still calls himself ‘Jesus Christ of Nazareth’

After Jesus had emerged from the grave as the victorious, resurrected Lord, he still called himself “Jesus Christ of Nazareth”! Forever he is recognised as Jesus of Nazareth – not Jesus Christ of Bethlehem, the place of his birth, nor Jesus Christ of Jerusalem, the place of his death, but Jesus Christ of Nazareth, the place of his obscurity! And it’s that name he’s pleased to honour.

Throughout the book of Acts, starting in chapter 3:1-10, when the beggar outside the Temple is healed, disease, demons and death itself are challenged by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth. It’s that name that the Father is pleased to honour and it’s that name that Jesus is pleased to give credit to!

But what about Nazareth and you? You say, “Well, the world doesn’t recognise me! It doesn’t even notice me!” But that may be part of God’s plan. The world and mankind in general look on the outside but God looks on the inside – otherwise David would never have been chosen to kill Goliath or to become King. When Samuel the prophet was called to anoint one of Jesse’s sons, he went through all of the sons – the finest, the oldest, right through all the way down to the shepherd boy tucked away in the hills (see 1 Samuel l6:1-l3). God said to the prophet Samuel, “You anoint him.” And there was an argument going on. The others where strong and attractive but it’s what’s going on in the inside that counts. If the world looks on from the outside and discounts you, know that you count before God!

Jesus’ hidden period, the period of his obscurity in Nazareth was an essential time for him. Before Jesus was to be revealed publicly he had to first satisfy the Father privately. That’s why, after those years of obscurity, he had this testimony from the Father: “This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased!” Before you ever set foot in the public arena to be noticed you need to know what it is to please God in the private place. It is far more important to get commendation from heaven than to yearn after the approval of men which is short-lived.

The world may not notice you but God is watching! And when the time is right he will tell the world about you! That’s what Nazareth living is all about!

You need to change how you see yourself

God can take your negative Nazareth and make it his glorious Nazareth! It’s time to stop empowering the enemy with your weakness and to start giving God an opportunity to show his strength through your weakness. You can allow the enemy to beat you and manipulate you and bring you down so that you are forever imprisoned by Nazareth thinking, or you can yield your life to God and say, “God, come and take my weaknesses and make them an occasion for your strength!”

It doesn’t matter what you’ve done, or how much you feel you still have to learn. It doesn’t matter how much you feel you’ve failed, the God of Nazareth is with you! Jesus is living on the inside of you!

That, after all, was the great strength of the apostle Paul. On one occasion he put his finger on it when he testified how he asked God to remove a certain weakness from him and God said to him, “My grace is sufficient for you. My strength is made perfect in weakness”. It wasn’t just Paul’s evaluation of himself. It was God’s way for his life and Paul knew it: “When I am weak, then I am strong”. The anointing of God was upon him! And so he said, “Now you know that when I preach, you’re not believing me because I’m good-looking. You’re not believing me because I’ve learnt how to polish my diction. You’re believing me because the anointing of God is upon me and you see in my weakness God’s strength made perfect! So I would rather glory in weaknesses than to try and boast in some supposed strength that I don’t have anyway.”

God himself… was living in Nazareth!

No-one noticed Jesus when he lived in Nazareth and the very first public announcement linking Jesus’ name with the town met with scepticism and cynicism: “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” But God himself, in the person of Jesus Christ, was living in Nazareth!

Be ready to believe that God lives in your Nazareth and be ready to live your Nazareth unto him! Make it your aim to please God no matter what your circumstances and despite your weaknesses. If you are going to wait before you get completely healed of everything before you do anything, you’re going to end up doing nothing! You have to accept the fact that you are surrounded by weaknesses, but you need to know that you can please God despite such things.

God cares for you and he’s willing to bind you up if you’ve been damaged in some way. If you felt that you’ve been isolated in some ghetto of Nazareth thinking, he says, “It’s time to change your thinking!”. You’ve got to stop saying, “I’ll never amount to anything.” You’ve got to say, rather, “I am his workmanship in Christ Jesus. He’s making something beautiful out of my life! God is always working in me to do his will and his good pleasure.” You can also stop saying, “I’m no good” and you can start learning to say, “God has chosen me for good!”

You’ve got to see yourself as God sees you!

This is not arrogant boasting – it’s boasting in Christ and in what he has made you. Turn your back on the things that hold you. And say, “Lord, I am now living in the new identity you have given me. I am no longer dominated by, ‘I can’t! It’ll never work! I won’t be able to do it!’” That’s why so many people fail to serve God as well as they could, because they don’t think God is interested in them. They don’t think God can do anything with what they’ve got. No, God can use you and will use you!

You’ve got to change your thinking. Stop being so down on yourself. You’ve got to see yourself as God sees you! From now onwards when you think of Jesus of Nazareth, say, “YES, Lord! That’s me! That’s me!”

Think about this then allow the Holy Spirit to bring these words into your heart, deep into your spirit. The devil has a vested interest in bringing you into self-condemnation – don’t do his work for him – neither in your own life nor in the lives of other people! You must see yourself as God sees you! Secure in Jesus Christ. Don’t let accusation or criticism, coming from outside or coming from within, hinder you. Show the devil who you are in Christ by your attitude, your words and by your actions.

Be set free in Jesus’ name from anything that holds you back. You can do what God has called you to do. God loves you, God wants to lift you up. God wants to bless you and use you. You are a royal person! You’ve been made in the image of God! You’ve been redeemed by Jesus Christ! You are part of his body on the earth, and the Spirit of God lives in YOU!

Yes, good things do come from Nazareth!

Whether we speak of giants, dragons or institutions of our society, Britain is certainly in need of spiritual warriors! Legend has it that St George, the Patron Saint of England, was a champion dragon slayer!

The image of the teenage David, single-handedly slaying Goliath and rescuing the nation from the Philistine invasion, is one hundred per cent applicable to our situation. We are facing a battle where the odds are impossibly stacked against us.

We can actively engage with the major areas of influence within our society. However, we are thinking so much about mythological dragons but the real giants that do exist in Britain today. David, the shepherd boy, will be our model.

The image of the teenage David, single-handedly slaying Goliath and rescuing the nation from the Philistine invasion, is one hundred per cent applicable to our situation. We are facing a battle where the odds are impossibly stacked against us. Christians are a minority group in Britain and the battle is being fought on slanted ground. The Media, generally speaking, is biased against Christianity, especially evangelical Christianity. Our lawmakers are more concerned with pushing back the boundaries of traditional values than they are keen to conserve the Christian consensus present in British culture and history. Big business is selling our birthright for a mess of economic pottage. The children of Esau are still with us today.

The effects of the economical crisis look to be with us for the immediate future and the nation may have to wait a full decade before its economy fully recovers. Without a doubt, the national landscape will be decidedly different when we do finally emerge from the financial crisis. The foreign financial backers who are propping up our economy with loans and investments do not do so merely out of the goodness of their hearts. There will be a religious and spiritual price to pay, and the Christian faith will be the sacrificial lamb.

How then do we fight? Not with the weapons of the world, for sure. The battle is spiritual and ideological, not physical. Love remains the strongest force in the universe, for God himself is love. Compassion, faith, good works and the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ are the only means by which the true enemy will be identified, unmasked and overthrown. Nothing short of a fully mobilized and faith-filled church can ever bring about the much needed reformation of our society.

Hyped-up rhetoric is never enough. We must act. We must engage our world through the love of Christ. We must become the Davids of our generation. After all, if God is with us, who can be against us?

Have you ever realised just how supernatural it is to believe in Jesus Christ? We do not see him, but we know him; we cannot touch him and yet we hold him; we are utterly incapable of ourselves to live for him, but we do so every day. Of course, we owe all this to the Holy Spirit, who enables us to lay hold of God’s truths by faith.

Never underestimate the revelatory power of spiritual vision. By faith you see the invisible. That enables you to believe the unusual and to do the impossible

People of our generation generally look only at the things that are seen, the things that are perceptible through the data coming through our five senses. For them, faith is irrational – a leap into the unknown, a clutching after the straws of wishful thinking. But for us, faith is far more than that. It is reaching out into the invisible realm of God’s revealed truths and holding onto them as the substance of our faith, until them become a reality in our lives. Hebrews chapter 11 verse one says that faith is ‘the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen.’

The apostle Peter declares that we have ‘obtained a like precious faith’ along with the apostles of the first century (2 Peter 1:1). This means we share the same confidence in what we believe that the early apostles had who were eyewitnesses to the events of the Gospels. Peter is very clear about the historical reality of the Christian faith:

“ We did not follow cleverly invented stories when we told you about the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty.” 2 Peter 1:16

The foundation of apostolic faith is the testimony of the power of God manifested in history and evident in our lives as modern day disciples of Jesus. But do we really connect with the truths of the Gospel? It is one thing to hold fast to the faith ‘entrusted once for all to the God’s holy people’ (Jude 1:3). Evangelical and Charismatic believers are good at declaring what they believe. However, we need to see this historic faith take apostolic shape in our lives and in our society today.

“Our faith is not make-believe but connects to spiritual realities proven in the world of time and space.”

Abraham is the great Old Testament prototype of apostolic faith. We call him the ‘father of those that believe’ and walk in the footsteps of the faith he exercised 2,000 years before Christ (Romans 4:11-12). God’s plans have been a long time in the making and the astounding thing is how relevant Abraham’s life of faith is to God’s call upon our lives today. God’s plan in raising up Abraham as a man of faith was that he should bring the blessing of apostolic faith to all the nations of the world.

“God chose one man to reach all humanity, one nation to reach all nations. That is our spiritual inheritance.”

God called Abraham (he was called Abram at the time) when he was living in the Mesopotamian city of Ur. The book of Acts records the encounter like this: ‘The God of glory appeared to Abraham’ (Acts 7:2). I think that is remarkable, to say the least. Here is this man, totally without the knowledge of the One True God, probably sharing the same lifestyle and belief system as his contemporaries in that society – when suddenly, God appears to him. The God who created the heavens and the earth reveals himself and makes himself known to this unsuspecting individual.

That is exactly how God works – he begins with a revelation of himself. Without that, we would know nothing because we could never see the invisible God unless he first showed himself to us. Two thousand years later, God showed himself again, this time fully and definitively, not in a vision, but in a living, breathing human being – Jesus of Nazareth, the Son of God. This revelation continues today as we see Jesus through the revelation that comes to our hearts by the Holy Spirit through faith.

The revelation does not stop there. It is important to encounter the living God, but it is also crucial that we hear what he has to say. God reveals himself in order to place his call upon our lives. For Abraham it was a call to leave his country and his father’s house and go to a certain far away country, that God would eventually show him. The migratory journey from Ur in Southern Mesopotamia, to Haran on its borders in the north, and finally south into Canaan, was both epic and universally significant.

“The blessing of God is always linked with the call of God. As you obey the call, he will bless you and, like Abraham you will be blessed in all things.”

God called Abraham to be the ‘Father of many nations.’ God’s plan was to reach the world’s multitudes through him. Abraham and Sarah were to have a son (Isaac) through whom all the nations of the world would be blessed. In being an instrument of blessing to the world, Abraham was himself to be blessed in all things. In Genesis 24:1, we see the realisation of this blessing in Abraham’s life, and it also points to God’s best purposes for us who follow in Abraham’s footsteps of faith: to be blessed in all things!

It is hard to take all this in, but it is nevertheless a clear revelation of Scripture. It begins with the original Great Command of God to Adam and Eve: “Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it” (Genesis 1:28). God makes his purpose clear – he wants to see the earth full of people in loving fellowship with him. That always has been and always will be his purpose. Following the fall and disobedience of the human race, God sets up his plan of redemption. Abraham is called to bring the promised seed of Isaac who is a picture of Christ, the means of salvation for all the world. This same Jesus, crucified and now resurrected repeated the Great Command of Genesis in the terms of the New Testament Great Commission: “Go and make disciples of all nations” (Matthew 28:19), and with this commission came the all-encompassing promise of blessing: “I am with you unto the end of the age.” This is the New Testament equivalent of the blessing of Abraham. It is the absolute assurance that God is with you in all circumstances, that he will come through for you in every situation and that his blessing will be with you in everything.

One thing is absolutely clear from this: the blessing accompanies those who follow the plan of God. If Abraham had not obeyed the call of God, he would have stayed in Ur and never have inherited the blessing. But he did obey, he did live the life of faith and he did receive the promise.

You must obey the call of God upon your life if you want to enjoy the blessing that comes with the call. God told Abraham, “I will bless you and make you a blessing.” This is the purpose of apostolic faith – to be blessed and to be a blessing. Charismatic Christians are renowned the world over for being blessing-chasers. You can fill the largest auditoria of the world with eager charismatics just as long as you focus on the blessings of God – healing, deliverance, prosperity, and so on.

There is nothing wrong with seeking the blessings of God – he is a loving heavenly Father who delights in giving good things to his children. But we must realise how and why the blessings come. The promises come to us by revelation and we experience them so that we can live out God’s plan every day of our lives. There is no shortcut to enjoying the blessing. We have already been ‘blessed with every spiritual blessing in heavenly places in Christ’ (Ephesians 1:3). But in order to enjoy these blessings, we must first see them accomplished in Christ and we must also see how they apply to us in our day to day lives.

Vision connects you to the promises of God

The apostle Paul often spoke of his vision of Christ on the Damascus Road when he met the living Christ and received his call to serve God through the Gospel. But he always stressed the need to obey the call. He said, “I was not disobedient to the heavenly vision” (Acts 26:19). He saw and he obeyed. It is impossible to obey without seeing. It is true that we walk by faith and not by sight. That is, we are not led by the visible circumstances or the physical evidences of the world. We follow the Spirit of God as we are enlightened by the revelation of God. In other words, we follow the vision God gives us.

This is one of the most important principles of the spiritual realm. We connect to the promises of God through vision. We can see this principle at work even in the natural realm. Advertisers know this all too well. They get us to buy their products through the power of enticing vision.

Holiday brochures are timed to arrive through your letterbox in the dead of winter when the days are dark and the weather is miserable. The sunny picture of a sandy beach with palm trees and turquoise ocean water soon has your imagination running wild. You see yourself bronzing on the beach, swimming in the sea and sipping fruit cocktails by the pool. Straight away, you connect with the promise of an amazing summer holiday and you book it online without delay!

The same applies to your spiritual life. You will never connect with the amazing promises of God until you see these promises come to life before your very eyes. I have never seen the fulfilment of a single promise of God in my life until I have first seen that promise appear in living form before my eyes of faith. You have to first see the promises by faith before you experience them in fact. That is how God’s spiritual truths become physical facts.

Dreams and visions are the language of the Holy Spirit

We have to learn to cooperate with the Holy Spirit. He speaks to us in dreams and visions. This is at the heart of what he does when he brings God’s promises to us. He shows us what the promises look like. We get to live in them by faith before we enjoy them in actuality. This is not as difficult as it sounds. After all, in virtually every discipline of life our brain responds to concepts and ideas in picture form. We see before we act. When we plan a course of action – it may be a business plan or a holiday plan – we first picture the outcome we desire. Then we work towards that picture in our minds. No plan can succeed without a clear picture of what it is we are going for.

We do this naturally, even unconsciously. However, we must learn to do it consciously and deliberately when it comes to spiritual matters. Otherwise, we will never connect with the promises of God. God helped Abraham who was finding it difficult to connect his faith to the promise of God. The promise of an heir had not been fulfilled, time was running out and Abraham was frustrated. His faith was weak. But God gave him a powerful visual aid which connected him with the promise and launched him to a new level of faith.

God told Abraham to look up at the stars and count them if he could. Then he said, “So shall your offspring be!” (Genesis 15:5). As Abraham gazed up at the heavens, he saw the promise, he understood what it looked like, and this concrete vision of the promise fulfilled enabled him to connect with God’s word – he believed God! In the same way, the promises of God must become real to you. You must have a clear vision in your spirit of God’s word to you. As Paul puts it, ‘the eyes of your heart must be enlightened’ (Ephesians 1:18).

“You must see in order to believe. You must see in order to know. You must see in order to obey.”

Never underestimate the revelatory power of spiritual vision. By faith you see the invisible. That enables you to believe the unusual and to do the impossible. Living for God in today’s world brings its own unique challenges. Society, ever more tolerant of faith in general, is becoming increasingly more intolerant of Christian faith. To meet this challenge God is raising up a new generation of apostolic believers who know how to lay hold of the vision of God. Those who know how to believe God and obey his call. Who know how to walk in his promises and do mighty exploits for him.

It is time for you to see with the eyes of faith. What has God told you to believe him for? What promises are you holding onto? How have you responded to his call to be fruitful and to multiply? What exploits do you dream of achieving for him before you die? For all these things God has a specific vision to give you – a vision of the promise fulfilled. Allow him to open the eyes of your heart and energise you to lay hold of his promise.

One could not imagine a more life-affirming person than Jesus. He lived selflessly for others and constantly reached out to them, just as the Gospels tell it: all whom he touched where made completely whole. Christians proclaim a positive message and this adds value to our society as a whole. As followers of Jesus, we do more than preach the gospel. We live it and use all our energy in order to be good news to all people.

We are living in apostolic times. The Holy Spirit is stirring the church of the 21st Century just as he moved in the 1st Century – with apostolic power. This power energises God’s people to rise up to be all that God calls them to be. The church is Christ’s agent for change in our personal lives as well society as a whole.

200 years ago, Britain was in the middle of the Great Awakening – the movement that brought about John Wesley, William Wilberforce and a group of people called the ‘Clapham Sect’ who gathered at Holy Trinity Church in Clapham, London.

200 years ago, Britain was in the middle of the Great Awakening – the movement that brought about John Wesley, William Wilberforce and a group of people called the ‘Clapham Sect’ who gathered at Holy Trinity Church in Clapham, London. This small but influential group of people are a shining example of what can happen to a nation when God’s people dedicated to the cause of Christ determine to bring positive change.

This single congregation exerted an amazing influence both in Britain and abroad. They helped abolish the slave trade and founded Freetown, Sierra Leone, a city settled by those they liberated from bondage.

They encouraged the good administration of India and established missions. They set higher standards of public morality, backed the Sunday Schools for the education of disadvantaged youth and brought social reform for exploited workers living in poverty.

All this is a model for the apostolic times in which we live. The gospel of Jesus Christ is the only hope of salvation and a force for moral good and positive social reform.

The Clapham example inspires us. Passionate for the gospel and determined to change society, we are putting our faith in action. We want to see London and the nations changed by the power of God. That does not just mean more people in churches every Sunday, but each one of us becoming agents for change right where we are.

The American pastor jailed in Iran for his faith has been placed in solitary confinement and may now be suffering organ failure, according to family members in Iran who are increasingly alarmed at his deteriorating health.

Nagameh Adedini seen here in this undated photo with husband Pastor Saeed Abedini.

Saeed Abedini, the 32-year-old Christian and American citizen who is serving an eight-year prison term in Iran, was put in solitary confinement following a “peaceful, silent protest” in an outside courtyard at Iran’s notoriously brutal Evin prison, according to family members. Conditions at the prison prompted Abedini and other prisoners to sign a petition decrying the lack of medical care and the threats and harsh treatment facing family members who come to visit.

Here’s a touching video found on YouTube, tell me what you think of it:

Transcript:

Hey there! I’m Emanuella. I’m a Christian. I have been a “good” Christian most of my life. It was my identity. I used to like to tell people how “good” I was, how I kept all the Commandments. I thought that was “Good”……

Then I realized something…I Failed!!! “Christian” was just a name I wore…kind of like a pretty coat over a dirty body…It didn’t match my heart. Here’s why:

If you were an Atheist or Agnostic or anything else…And if you didn’t agree with me…I would disdain you as a person. I feel like a hypocrite! I feel disgusting! And I can’t take it anymore! I wasn’t interested in being your “Friend”. I just wanted to change you. I thought that was my job.

A Girl’s Message To All Christians, by iEmanuella

Christianity is about being like “Christ”. Jesus loved everyone, First. If they didn’t accept what He said, He still loved them. Its not my job to change you, I can’t. But its my job to love you. That I can.

So this is an appeal to my Christian Brothers and Sisters, not all but some… stop the Damnation. Stop the Judgement. Stop the Religism. Thats not our business.

It doesn’t matter how well you can preach…How many Bible Verses you’ve memorized or How many people “think” you are all that. If you don’t have love, you’re nothing. Love is not a chore. Its a revelation. The Christ you serve revealed it in its purest form.

Gandhi said: “I like your Christ, but I do not like your Christians.”

Don’t be one of “those”. This is an invitation….
Start the LOVE…Join the movement…

American Pastor Saeed Abedini, a U.S. citizen who is suffering from serious injuries at the hands of his Iranian captors, told family members today he is praying for America in the wake of the Boston Marathon bombings.

Beaten American Pastor Saeed Prays for America in Wake of Boston Bombings as Medical Care for Him Delayed

During a brief visit with family members today, Pastor Saeed reported that he is suffering intense pain as a result  of untreated internal bleeding – injuries he sustained from repeated beatings and torture in Iran.

Iranian prison authorities have told Pastor Saeed that he will not receive any medical treatment for his injuries for another two months.

Even as his medical condition worsens, Pastor Saeed told family members he had heard about the terrorist bombings in Boston on the prison radio, expressed his concern, and told them he is praying for the victims and their families during this very challenging time for our nation.

Pastor Saeed became an American citizen on March 11, 2010, and his wife told a Congressional panel last month that becoming an American citizen was one of the proudest moments in his life.

In another example of the emotional and physiological torture Iran has imposed upon Pastor Saeed, he was recently taken to a hospital only to be turned away and returned to his prison cell untreated. He was then beaten again.

Read more here