The Good News of the Gospel of Jesus-Christ!

Thank you Jesus!

    My friend Flo and I we were coming back from the Margelle, a place near the Mairie in Civray where people are vaccinated for the Covid. 

    As we were walking home, we were wondering why some people think they are better than others and it is so obvious in their manners and attitude that they despise others. Causing lots of heartache and worry for those people who are now out of the circle of friends. 😭

As I am into reading Romans, I 'bumped' into Romans chapter 3. It seems this is appropriate to understand all sort of traumatic relationships. 'Their tongues practice deceit' 

9 What shall we conclude then? Do we have any advantage? Not at all! For we have already made the charge that Jews and Gentiles alike are all under the power of sin. 10 As it is written:

“There is no one righteous, not even one;
11     there is no one who understands;
    there is no one who seeks God.
12 All have turned away,
    they have together become worthless;
there is no one who does good,
    not even one.”[b]
13 “Their throats are open graves;
    their tongues practice deceit.”[c]
“The poison of vipers is on their lips.”[d]
14     “Their mouths are full of cursing and bitterness.”[e]
15 “Their feet are swift to shed blood;
16     ruin and misery mark their ways,
17 and the way of peace they do not know.”[f]
18     “There is no fear of God before their eyes.”[g]

19 Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be silenced and the whole world held accountable to God. 20 Therefore no one will be declared righteous in God’s sight by the works of the law; rather, through the law we become conscious of our sin.

So what to do?

 Let's read the following, the good news of the gospel of Jesus-Christ!

Righteousness Through Faith

21 But now apart from the law the righteousness of God has been made known, to which the Law and the Prophets testify. 22 This righteousness is given through faith in[h] Jesus Christ to all who believe. There is no difference between Jew and Gentile, 23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24 and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. 25 God presented Christ as a sacrifice of atonement,[i] through the shedding of his blood—to be received by faith. He did this to demonstrate his righteousness, because in his forbearance he had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished— 26 he did it to demonstrate his righteousness at the present time, so as to be just and the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus.

My friends, have you considered that we are all sinners and that we are justified freely by the Lord's grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus? 

What does this mean? As we are all sinners, we deserve to be punished however when we have faith in Jesus, that He died for our sins and that He resurrected, His righteousness is ours now.  

What is the sinner's prayer?

The sinner's prayer is a Christian term for a prayer that is said when someone wants to repent of their sin, ask God for forgiveness, and state belief in the life, death, and saving resurrection of Jesus Christ. 

Romans 10:9-10 says that “if you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.  For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you profess your faith and are saved.” 

The Sinner's Prayer 

Lord Jesus, for too long I’ve kept you out of my life. I know that I am a sinner and that I cannot save myself. No longer will I close the door when I hear you knocking. By faith I gratefully receive your gift of salvation. I am ready to trust you as my Lord and Savior. Thank you, Lord Jesus, for coming to earth. I believe you are the Son of God who died on the cross for my sins and rose from the dead on the third day. Thank you for bearing my sins and giving me the gift of eternal life. I believe your words are true. Come into my heart, Lord Jesus, and be my Savior. Amen.

Amen! Welcome in God's family. It is said that there is a party in Heaven every time someone is saved so here you are! 

Against child trafficking? support TEARFUND

No more child trafficking

SPIRITUAL PASSION

At TEARFUND, we’re Christians committed to following Jesus where the need is greatest. God has called us to serve those living in poverty, regardless of race, gender, nationality or religious belief.

We know the gospel has the power to transform lives and heal communities, we see this truth in our work every day. God isn’t giving up on the poor, neither are we.
Trafficking is the fastest growing crime in the world, ravaging the lives of 1.2 million children across the world every year. That number is set to rise, unless we stop it in its tracks. The good news is: we can.

Watch this film to find out how Christians are turning the tide of trafficking in one Lao village. There is a road that leads to Thailand. To the desperate girls in this small village in Laos it can look like a tempting prospect. The idea of a better life, just over the mountains, can seem like a dream come true. But for many, it’s the beginning of a nightmare.
Nang lives with her parents and three sisters in a small village in Laos on the border of Thailand. She’s 12 years old. She has one year of school left. Even though she enjoys school, life is hard. She wants to be a nurse when she grows up but the reality is that staying in education isn’t an option for her. Her parents can’t afford it. There are some things Nang doesn’t want. She says, ‘I don’t want to be poor. Now we are very poor. I just want to stop being poor and have many things.’

Asked what her hopes are for the future, she laughs. The interpreter tells us that’s a very hard question for Laos people. Here most people have so few prospects that the possibility of something else for their lives is beyond them. They have no real hope.

And this lack of hope puts girls like Nang in serious danger.

To support TEARFUND, click on this link TEARFUND, Have a blessed week-end. 

Who is this Jesus?

Jesus called God ‘Father’, but that was not unusual in itself.  All Jews rejoiced to see themselves as God’s children.  But Jesus talked about a unique relationship with God.  On one occasion in Jerusalem he declared, ‘I and the Father are one.’  The Jews were incensed by this apparent blasphemy, and would have killed him on the spot had he not been a quick thinker and a quick runner.

Jesus did not announce to people, ‘I am God.’ Instead he roused their curiosity until the point at which they were forced to think about whether he might be divine. It was contrary to Jewish thinking even to entertain that possibility. So when Jesus’ followers came to believe that Jesus was God they were thinking the unthinkable. But the evidence so overwhelmed them that they had no choice. Worshipping the risen Jesus was the only way they could make sense of what they had witnessed.

One of the accounts of Jesus’ life tells the story of a paralysed man being lowered through a ceiling to come to rest at his feet. The house was so packed with people who wanted to hear Jesus speak that it was the only way to attract his attention. The expectation was that Jesus would heal the man. Instead Jesus said to him, ‘Your sins are forgiven.’

The Jews were shocked because their belief was that only God could forgive sins. Jesus pointed out that to say those words was easy. It was working miracles that was difficult. He was implying that if he was able to heal the man in front of their eyes, they should have no difficulty believing that he was able to forgive him. At Jesus’ command, the man stood up and walked. Without saying as much, Jesus had challenged those who saw the event to believe that he was God, the only forgiver of sins.

Jesus never shied away from provocative statements. He called for absolute loyalty to him – the kind of loyalty that God demanded. ‘I am the way, the truth and the life,’ he declared. ‘No one comes to the Father except through me.’ But his call was not burdensome. He invited people to come to him for rest, and to go through their lives with him as a companion – not only in life but throughout eternity.

The claims of Jesus repeatedly pushed people to a point of decision. The Jewish leaders responded by seeking to stamp out his ideas. The followers of Jesus responded by rethinking everything they knew about the Jewish religion. When his resurrection put their beliefs beyond doubt, they became the first leaders of Christianity.
Do you want to find out more? visit this website, click here. Blessings.

The Lord will fight for you!

The Lord will fight for you, you need only to be still!

Exodus 14:14

I have been really busy these last weeks, not only with school work but also family business.  In the evenings, various problems have come up from nowhere, and after the tempest, I was left wondering why on earth was all this turmoil about? Peter himself warns us:  Be alert and of sober mind. Your enemy the devil prowls around  like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.  Resist him, standing firm in the faith, because you know that the family of believers throughout the world is undergoing the same kind of sufferings.  (1 Peter 5: 8-9) When a lion is injured, he becomes furious and is called 'a roaring lion', thus he will kill anything that is in contact with him. On Easter Sunday, when Jesus-Christ came out of the tomb and won victory over satan, at that very moment, he crushed satan's head and defeated him, giving back man's right to life, authority, and dominion. Thank you Jesus. I praise the Lord as He has brought solutions to one of my major headaches and surely He is working out on the rest.  In the midst of trials, I like to think of  the above verse and I cast my burdens onto Jesus. Nothing is impossible for our God!  

Tonight, I heard extremely pleasant news, the orphanage school built in Uganda by Give Hope Ministries  is taking shape. It will open in December and host 150 orphans. (See previous video clip) Alleluia! 

Brothers and sisters, keep us in your prayers as I will pray for you too. Have a blessed week-end. 

Not ashamed of the cross

Last week, I received three postcards to support Shirley. I will send them to David Cameron, the House of Lords and the House of Commons. I think that we should have total freedom to wear a cross if we wish to therefore I support Not ashamed of the cross, an initiative led by Christian Concern..for the benefit of church and nation.
If you want to find out more, click here. http://notashamed.org.uk/.
I quote:
The high visibility of the campaign should also give rise to many opportunities to explain to others why Jesus is such good news for individuals and for our society. We hope that wearing the distinctive Not Ashamed logo, backed by the national profile will help in this. We’d love to hear encouraging stories – contact us here
Also on the same website, you can read, listen and watch Christians who are hugely involved in serving their communities, fuelled by their faith in Jesus Christ. Listen to Jonathan Bellamy who founded Cross Rhythms, a local radio.

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May the Lord bless you. Yours in Christ. N.

The King's problem

Jeff Reynold tells us about the King's problem. 

In His death is my birth

Hallelujah, my Father

For giving us Your Son

Sending Him into the world

To be given up for men

Knowing we would bruise Him

And smite Him from the earth

Hallelujah, my Father

In His death is my birth

Hallelujah, my Father

In His life is my life

When I heard this worship song for the first time, I thought that it was so powerful as it contained the whole message of the Good News about Jesus. We praise our Father who is in heaven, we are part of His family, adopted sons and daughters. Why? We praise Him because He sent His only Son, Jesus through whom he revealed Himself. The apostle John talks about this. John 1: 1. And also. John 1:14. Jesus knows that He is going to die and tells his disciples who are not very impressed. Nobody wants to hear that your best friend, the one who has transformed their life personally, in their community and beyond, the one who healed so many, the one who talked with authority in front of various rabbi, the one who agreed that he was the Messiah:  Mark 14: 61-63 'But Jesus remained silent and gave no answer. Again the high priest asked him, “Are you the Messiah, the Son of the Blessed One?” 62 “I am,” said Jesus. “And you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of the Mighty One and coming on the clouds of heaven.”, the one whom they had waiting for as the prophets had announced for thousands years was going to die. Peter dared to contradict Jesus, in Mark 8  31 He then began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests and the teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and after three days rise again. 32 He spoke plainly about this, and Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. 33 But when Jesus turned and looked at his disciples, he rebuked Peter. “Get behind me, Satan!” he said....” Jesus who is sinless dies for us, sinners so that whoever believes in Him, can be reconciled with our Father and be blessed abundantly 2 Corinthians 9:7-9  and ultimately, when we die, we are saved from the wrath of our Father by his grace and live with him in a new creation, new Heaven and Earth...where there won't be any tears.

Have a blessed evening. N.

belief in God makes you happier and healthier...

this is what Tom Knox claims in the Daily Mail. Last Tuesday, when our group met up for the 4th part of the preparation  of the Start course , Joan told us that she'd stapled the article in Hixon church entrance. So I decided to check it on the website. Mr Knox has discovered that '.. a growing yet largely unnoticed body of scientific work, amassed over the past 30 years, shows religious belief is medically, socially and psychologically beneficial.

In 2006, the American Society of Hypertension established that church-goers have lower blood pressure than the non-faithful. 

Likewise, in 2004, scholars at the University of California, Los Angeles, suggested that college students involved in religious activities are more likely to have better mental and emotional health than those who do not. 

Meanwhile, in 2006, population researchers at the University of Texas discovered that the more often you go to church, the longer you live.'

I must say that he also has a sense of humour, I quote: 'All of which means that, contrary to expectation, it is the atheists who are eccentric, flawed and maladaptive, and it’s the devout who are healthy, well-adjusted and normal. 

Certainly, in purely evolutionary terms, atheism is a blind alley. Across the world, religious people have more children than non-religious (go forth and multiply!), while atheist societies are the ones with the lowest birth rates.

Finally, let us pray that as this journalist is looking for key answers, he keeps knocking on the door and that he meets Jesus.  Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. Matthew 7:7 Or as the psalmist says I sought the LORD, and he answered me; he delivered me from all my fears. Psalm 34: 4 Blessings, yours in Christ. N.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-1358421/The-tantalising-proof-belief-God-makes-happier-healthier.html#ixzz1Gze9IiV0

Discovering Christianity.

Good news in Hixon.
We are getting ready to do a Start course that should start after Easter. I love the dvd and the activities. Personally, I think that Robyn and Phyllis are brillant and full of joy.
I invite you to pray for us while we are getting organised so that we utilise the resources for the best and that our group members (we are not sure who is going to come yet) discover the good news of Jesus. May the Lord give us strength and wisdom. In Jesus-Christ. Amen.

The Christian faith and other faiths

Steven and I went to a deanery synod in Doxey church. Our guest speaker was called Rev. Canon George Kovoor .We had an excellent evening.
Here are my notes.
For years, the UK has been the bastion of christianity and you sent the finest young men and women round the world to spread the gospel. They actually believed that Jesus was the Good News. There was something so important in the message of Jesus that they believed it was GOOD NEWS. So it should still be JOY in the Church. Therefore it is difficult to understand why there are too many miserable faces, constipated faces in the Church nowadays! Who wants to hang out with boring people! I train people who want to be equipped and not afraid to share our faith wherever they go.
However, if the Church itself is biblically illiterate and theologically clueless, it will find sharing the Gospel to people of other faiths difficult. Surely it is incumbent on the Church to share the Good News with everybody. If you do not know your bible and start talking to a Muslim for instance who will pick up on many apparent contradictions in the Bible, you will be stung! In the Royal Albert Hall, not long ago, an American apologist was decimated by a Muslim leader.
The Jews have had to live round the nations and they have always been a minority. They know how to engage. They consider themselves as called out people to whom God revealed his name. Abraham an Iraqui, was to be a light to the people. This always was the intention of God to reveal himself to all nations.
What is heaven like? When John is in Patmos he has a revelation, he sees that heaven is multicultural, multi-ethnic but not multifaith. In heaven the worship is super.
I am here in front of you because your grand-parents took trouble to come to our country and share the Gospel of Jesus-Christ. Brothers and sisters in Christ I am not prepared to collude with the system.
Isaiah 56:6-7 And foreigners who bind themselves to the LORD 
   to minister to him,
to love the name of the LORD,
   and to be his servants,
all who keep the Sabbath without desecrating it
   and who hold fast to my covenant—
⁷ these I will bring to my holy mountain
   and give them joy in my house of prayer. Let's think about Jesus'triumphant entry in Jerusalem, He made a beeline to the temple. Mark 11:15-17 Did Jesus have a problem with money? Let's go back to Solomon. We have a blue print of what the temple looked like, notice there was a vast court for the Gentiles. God has made a gracious place for the nations to come. Hospitality and generosity for those who do not know Him. By clearing the temple, Jesus who incarnates God, restores the hospitality and generosity of God so that the nations can behold the splendor of God.
How much more the Church must do to adjust to the world?
What preparation is there for new converts?
To be popular you mustn't compromise your faith. It seems that the Church of England is a plate of jelly, nobody knows what to believe. Engaging with people of other faith require integrity. Dialogue is better than monologue. Dialogue requires listening. Why were we created with two ears and only one mouth?
You must meet people, promote an activity where people are welcome. Take trouble to go where they are.
Dialogue requires mutual respect.
Canon Kovoor's speech was full of humour too. I am afraid that jokes do not do so well on the paper. There is more so watch this space. Blessings in Jesus-Christ. N.