Romans 12:20

Romans 12:20 

"Therefore if your enemy is hungry feed him; if he is thirsty give him a drink; for in so doing you will heap coals of fire on his head"
In Bible times people carried objects on their heads eg jars of water, food etc. People also had for warmth and light cooking, braziers. If fire ran out, they would simply go to their neighbors to get fire. Then place the brazier back on their heads. If the neighbor was generous he would also add coals. Therefore feeding and giving drink to our enemy are acts of generosity. Source: Strange scripture that perplex the Western mind by Barbara M Bowen

ARISE!

“Preparation for a life of usefulness is a partnership between you and God. You provide the faithfulness to follow His Word, and He will provide everything else. You show the Lord consistency and commitment, and in time He will give you a calling, specific assignments, and a purpose for living that will give you greater joy than you ever thought imaginable”

“Every Christian’s life is like a journey. But what kind of journey will your Christian life be? You can let the years fly by and do nothing of eternal significance, or you can become useful to the leadings of the  Holy Spirit. He longs to have you busy with His work –a vessel of honor, fit for the Master’s use. That can be you!”

Excerpts from “Do You Love Me?... Feed My Sheep” Rick Tunis

Discipleship in Essence

Note

Discipleship in Essence

Breathe on me breath of God

Fill me with life anew

That I may love what thou dost love

And do what thou wouldst do

Edwin Hatch

Arise!

Leave Him to be the source of all your dreams and joys and delights and go out and obey what He has said. If you are in love you do not sit down and dream about the one you love all the time, you go out and do something for Him and that is what Jesus Christ expects us to do. Dreaming after God has spoken is an indication that we do not trust Him.

Part of entry from my Utmost from His Highest 20/2/2014 Oswald Chambers

Go forward

Read our bibles, materials, books etc with a focus to how we may  go forward with Yeshua. We want to grow and mature in our faith. We want to start taking solid foods. We do not seek to look for materials with the focus on how much we can get away with!

 The heart

"Love The Lord with all your heart" means we are to use our thoughts as well as our emotions to love The Lord.  The Greek interpretation added " and mind" to emphasize this. But a Hebrew reader would not have needed this emphasis and would have understood that the heart meant all our mind, our emotions, our thought. The Hebrew uses physical things to describe the abstract. Hence the heart for thoughts and emotions. Loving Him, worshipping Him therefore includes studying scripture. In Yeshua's time, the study of scripture was the highest form of worship. (Studying the Torah). He expects us to know our scripture well.

All our mental activity should be dedicated to Him. Every thought to be held captive so it  be obedient to The Lord. 2 Corinthians 10:5

( Kidneys: inmost being. Blood: life)

Examine, examine

Examine, examine

"Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you hypocrites; as it is written: 'These people honor Me (the LORD) with their lips, but their hearts are far from Me. They worship Me in vain; their teachings are but rules taught by men'" (Mark 7:6-7).

We may be in church. We may have our own ideas and our own interpretation of the Bible. But we have to ask are we truly following the Bible? Is this what the Bible is really saying? Are we reading into the Bible what church tradition tells us, what we have been told by church? Do we check on the Word? Do we make it a point to familiarize ourselves with the Bible? Let us not become like the Pharisees in this passage honoring Him only with our lips, our hearts far from Him, worshipping in vain ( useless worship ) and following the teachings of men (thinking it is God's or due to lack of effort to seek and learn more, not realising we are actually following teachings of men!).

Disobedience - the opposite of faith & believe 

"He who believes in the Son has eternal life; he who DOES NOT OBEY the Son shall not see life but the wrath of God abides in him"

John 3:36

God's righteous judgement will one day come upon those 1. Who do not know God and 2. Who DO NOT OBEY the gospel of our Lord Jesus . 2 Thess 1:8. Read on to verse 9.

So what then establishes our believe - that we may have eternal life? Our obedience . This means carrying out works of faith i.e acts of obedience. It is no use calling out Lord Lord when there is no obedience. Non obedience shows non belief. "Believe" is an active word. Eg. Can we truly say we believe if we act in the manner that shows we do not believe He will take care of us? Can we say we believe when we seek not His kingdom but ours first? Can we say we believe if we sit in our comfort zones and not adhere to the great commission to make disciples? 

To practice

I hear I forget

I see I remember

I do I understand

Let's act out our faith to understand our faith.

Evangelism

As long as we "play" at evangelism with no risk to ourselves and no price to pay we shall make little or no impact to our society.

We have become too comfortable.  Evangelism has become Sunday sport, a Sunday past time, something we do if convenient for us or easy for us. We will not be rocking any boats no matter how much we convince ourselves. And we call ourselves sons and daughters of the mighty one who sacrificed much for us! What shame?!

He is Greater

He is greater

If I could understand all God's ways and workings, he would be no bigger than my mind and not worth believing in - he certainly would not be God.

When we do not understand but still submit ourselves to the Father's will,l we shall be profoundly aware of His love and know His peace and strength flooding in our lives again.

David Watson, Discipleship

Disobedience - the opposite of faith & believe 

"He who believes in the Son has eternal life; he who DOES NOT OBEY the Son shall not see life but the wrath of God abides in him"

John 3:36

God's righteous judgement will one day come upon those 1. Who do not know God and 2. Who DO NOT OBEY the gospel of our Lord Jesus . 2 Thess 1:8. Read on to verse 9.

So what then establishes our believe - that we may have eternal life? Our obedience . This means carrying out works of faith i.e acts of obedience. It is no use calling out Lord Lord when there is no obedience. Non obedience shows non belief. "Believe" is an active word. Eg. Can we truly say we believe if we act in the manner that shows we do not believe He will take care of us? Can we say we believe when we seek not His kingdom but ours first? Can we say we believe if we sit in our comfort zones and not adhere to the great commission to make disciples?

Discipleship in Essence

Breathe on me breath of God

Fill me with life anew

That I may love what thou dost love

And do what thou wouldst do

Edwin Hatch

Wake up

Strengthen yourselves in the time of peace is a line of a song we often sing in our church. It is essential that we prepare ourselves now in every way for the battles we shall later have to fight. We must deepen our personal knowledge and love of The Lord Jesus; we must increase our faith in our Heavenly Father; we must learn how to be continuously filled with the Holy Spirit ; above all, we must drop our differences, forgive and be forgiven, and renew our commitment to one another out of love for Christ. It was the Christian community that withstood the persecution of ghetto first century, and it is Christian communities around the world that overcome today the pressures that come increasingly upon them. It is when Christians come together in the name of Jesus that He promises to be with them with special strength and power.  It is together that we can lift up that shield of faith which can quench all the fiery darts of the evil one. Now is the time to act.

He continues with what Carlos Mantica learned from severe persecution suffered by Christians in his country Nicaragua in 1977. Mantica said:

1. In war, the most important time is preparation time. For all of us the most important time is now. When the time of real trial arrives, preparation is over:  you are either ready or unprepared. If you are not prepared you will suffer the consequences.

2. In times of trial spiritual warfare becomes twice as intense. The world, the flesh and the devil work against you very powerfully. Being as strong as usual is not enough. It is important to have some kind of fortress or stronghold.

3. This fortress is built with deep conviction, firm decisions and strong relationships... Our firm decision must be to choose God's kingdom and reject any other. To accept Jesus  as our absolute and only Lord. The Lord of our time. The owner of our money and possessions. The Lord of our thoughts, emotions and acts..."

Jesus decided that COMMUNITY should come before suffering so that we could assist each other and many others when necessity arose. Now we understand the importance of it and feel the need to strengthen our relationships. In addition to God's covenant with us, a covenant with our brothers and sisters is the best insurance we can get for times of hardship. The superficial fellowship of many church fellowships will not be enough. Personal belief in Jesus, regular devotional life, faithfulness in church attendance will not be enough. We need to see ourselves as members of one family, one body. We have been eternally united in Christ and must make that unity real now by strong loving commitment to one another.

David Watson, Discipleship.

Bearing fruit

Bearing fruit

A beautiful tree, thick green leaves, luscious looking fruit, thick branches, strong stump is the Ar 'ar tree. However in spite of its appearance of prosperity and beauty its fruit is hollow, filled with webs and a dry pit. It fails to bear good fruit. We who are newly created beings are  to bear good fruit for Him, for His kingdom. Our Lord will evaluate us from the fruit we bear.

Matthew 7:17- Even so every good tree bears good fruit but a bad tree bears bad fruit

7:18- A good tree cannot bear bad fruit nor can a bad tree bear good fruit

7:19 - Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire 

7:20 - Therefore by their fruits you will know them.

Luke 3:8 - Therefore bear fruits worthy of repentance ...

3:9 - And even now the ax is laid to the root of the trees. Therefore every tree which does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.

How do we bear good fruit? By abiding in Him. John 15: 3-6

15:3 - You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you 

(Justified - Right standing with God)

15:4 - Abide in Me and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me

15:5- ...He who abides in Me and I in him bears much fruit, for without Me you can do nothing

15:6- If anyone does not abide in Me, he is cast out as a branch and is withered and they gather them and throw them into the fire and they are burned.

Many will appear luscious and fruitful by their own effort or in reliance of others (people or thing). However without abiding in Him, the fruit, if at all produced will be a hollow, empty one. And we all know the ending of the story for that tree.