Windows On The Soul

"The longer I live, the more I realise the impact of attitude on life. Attitude to me is more important than facts. It is more important than the past, than education, than money, than circumstances, than failures, than successes, than what other people think or say or do.  It is more important than appearance, giftedness, or skill. It will make or break a company...a church...a home. The remarkable thing is we have a choice every day regarding the attitude we will embrace for that day. We cannot change our past...we cannot change the fact that people will act in a certain way. We cannot change the inevitable. The only thing we can do is play on the one string we have, and that is our attitude" Dr.Charles Swindoll, "Strengthening Your Grip" ----xxxXxxx---- Matt.5:3,5 "Blessed are those who have a humble and meek attitude, for the Kingdom of God is given them" Pr.16:19 "It is better to be humble and stay poor, than to be one of the ...

A ffective - our personal relationship with God the Father, involving feelings and emotions in worship. Often the starting point of our discipleship as we recognise our need of God as prodigal children. B ehavioural - faith without works is dead. The relationship is also two way - God's works in history and our works in stewardship, compassion and justice. This aspect is the domain of the Holy Spirit - the dynamic of the trinity. C ognitive - the traditional strong point of evangelicals. God expressed Himself and communicated with His creation: the word became flesh. Jesus the teacher addresses our reason. Whilst we can never understand God, we are (generally) rational beings and have a need to communicate and comprehend. ----xxxXxxx---- Jhn.1:1 "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God and the Word was God" Jhn.1:14 "and the Word became flesh and dwelt among us" Matt.5:2-3 "and He opened His mouth and taught them. Bless...

Among the many miracles of construction of the human body, is the wonderful structure of bones, muscles, flesh and skin. Without bones, we would be mere blobs of flesh, unable to stand or move. Without flesh and muscles, the bones would collapse into a heap. Although each individual bone is rigid, the skeleton being a jointed structure, is not rigid. It relies on pairs of muscles and sinews connecting pairs of jointed bones, with opposing muscles maintaining perfectly balanced tension. Further, the flesh and skin cover the harsh, hard bones, with the soft, flexible, cuddly exterior to the world. Paul's analogy of the body to the church, in many ways also applies to our individual spiritual "bodies". We must have a skeleton of doctrine, rigid in part, but jointed and movable, kept strong and in balance by the paradoxes of Righteousness and Mercy. Then our doctrine must be clothed with the warm, soft, tender "flesh" of love as our face to the external world. --...

Whilst the choice of sinning or not is the basic question of human free will, the divine answer is "I will forgive you when you do sin, if you repent". This is the very core of Christianity; an absolutely holy righteous God, who is also absolutely lovingly merciful. In prayer, I sometimes find it better to ask God " What's the question? ". Then I am in a better position to hear the answer that I need, rather than restricting God to answering my very human, sometimes selfish, sometimes silly (in hind-sight) questions. If we ask, we get what we need; if we don't ask, then we simply get what we deserve. ----xxxXxxx---- Mt.6:8 "Your father already knows what you need before you ask Him.  This then is how you should pray..." Jas.4:2 "You have not because you ask not" Lk.11:9 "Ask and it will be given you; seek and you will find" Ac.8:22 "Repent of this evil plan...pray to God to forgive you" 1 Jn.1:9 ...

In reading last week, I was reminded of the difference between " accepting " Christ, and making a " decision " for Christ. " Acceptance " does not have the sense of completeness as does " decision ", which implies a cut-off point, a turn around, of burning one's bridges.  A favourite hymn states " I have decided to follow Jesus, No turning back ". A man recently came to the Lord later in life. He felt convicted about a criminal act in his past and sought to confess and make amends. Though he has forgiveness from the Lord, the law of the land did not, and he is now serving a prison sentence. For him, taking up his cross to follow Jesus has had an enormous price. Please pray for him, his family and church, and remember the prison ministries and other prisoners who have come to the Lord through them and are still serving their time. ----xxxXxxx---- Lk.9:23 "If any man would come after me, let him deny himself and take up ...

Of necessity, theology uses many picture phrases to try to describe the eternal indescribable. But the image is not the real thing. Illustrations are easily distorted beyond their original intent. So it was a serendipitous discovery of the above phrase - the image of God ladling His love by His Holy Spirit over us as He the master chef sees fit by His grace. The sweetness and aroma best brought out in the oven of life. " Justice is when we get what we deserve. Mercy is when we don't get what we deserve, But Grace is when we get what we don't deserve. " Barbara Johnson, "Splashes of Joy in the Cesspool of Life" ----xxxXxxx---- 1 Tim.1:14 "The grace of our Lord over-flowed me with the faith and love that are in Christ" Dan.9:18 "We pray to you because you are merciful not because we have done right" Rom.9:16 "God's compassion is not dependent on man's will or exertion, but on God's mercy" 2...

Have you ever considered that God Himself has a constant personal struggle? It could even be called an enigma on the horns of a dilemma. Martin Luther, the proponent of " Justification by Faith " was once challenged as to the true basis of Christianity, faith or righteousness. He responded " Righteousness " - our faith simply appropriates the redemptive work of Jesus in dying on the cross in our stead to satisfy God's basic righteousness - " The wages of sin is death ". Here then is God's dilemma in being both perfectly righteous and holy, and also infinitely gracious and lovingly forgiving. This is why prayer can be effective, why it is possible to ask God to turn away his righteous anger in favour of His grace. Thus the enigma of Christianity is that it is both but neither legalistically (self)righteous, and unconditionally forgiving (all you need is love)! ---xxxXxxx--- Ps.85:10 "Mercy & truth are met together; righteousness ...