It’s time to make a decision to passionately follow Christ! It’s time to put our offensive team on the fields and to make some ground for our Lord and Saviour. We have taken stock of what God has done for us and  learn’t how to prepare our defenses against sin. Now we need to actively, with purpose, seek to extend God’s kingdom.

Isaiah 43 reminds us how precious we are to God (vs.4) and how he will be with us in every situation we find ourselves (vs.2). The passage goes on to say in verse 10 that we are God’s witnesses and servants who He has chosen, and that our task is to know Him and understand Him.

Think for a minute about why verse 10 is significant. God is asking us to witness for Him by believing in Him and understanding Him. If we as Christians focus on God and understanding Him, the side effects are so potent in our witness to others. We become people who are in tune with the one true God. We will become more discerning, more loving, more faithful, more humble, more honest and more like the people we need to be in this world.

In order to witness in this world it will take a commitment from us – a commitment to seek God above all else. To put all our resources into knowing him more.

In my personal experience I have found the following helpful in drawing near to God:

1. Daily time alone with God – find a place and time in the day when you can read God’s Word and pray without interuption;
2. Involve yourself in a Church – don’t just attend to gain, but rather choose to serve and love others with the gifts God has blessed you with;
3. Be bold – don’t be afraid to trust God! He is the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords.

My challenge to you is to trust in God, be corageous, and live each day with a love for Christ that will serve as the perfect witness to the world we live in. You will be amazed at what God can do through a willing, trusting and corageous heart.

Isaiah 43

1 But now, this is what the Lord says— 
he who created you, O Jacob, 
he who formed you, O Israel: 
“Fear not, for I have redeemed you; 
I have summoned you by name; you are mine.
2 When you pass through the waters, 
I will be with you; 
and when you pass through the rivers, 
they will not sweep over you. 
When you walk through the fire, 
you will not be burned; 
the flames will not set you ablaze.
3 For I am the Lord, your God, 
the Holy One of Israel, your Savior; 
I give Egypt for your ransom, 
Cush and Seba in your stead.
4 Since you are precious and honored in my sight, 
and because I love you, 
I will give men in exchange for you, 
and people in exchange for your life.
5 Do not be afraid, for I am with you; 
I will bring your children from the east 
and gather you from the west.
6 I will say to the north, ‘Give them up!’ 
and to the south, ‘Do not hold them back.’ 
Bring my sons from afar 
and my daughters from the ends of the earth—
7 everyone who is called by my name, 
whom I created for my glory, 
whom I formed and made.”
8 Lead out those who have eyes but are blind, 
who have ears but are deaf.
9 All the nations gather together 
and the peoples assemble. 
Which of them foretold this 
and proclaimed to us the former things? 
Let them bring in their witnesses to prove they were right, 
so that others may hear and say, “It is true.”
10 “You are my witnesses,” declares the Lord, 
“and my servant whom I have chosen, 
so that you may know and believe me 
and understand that I am he. 
Before me no god was formed, 
nor will there be one after me.
11 I, even I, am the Lord, 
and apart from me there is no savior.
12 I have revealed and saved and proclaimed— 
I, and not some foreign god among you. 
You are my witnesses,” declares the Lord, “that I am God.
13 Yes, and from ancient days I am he. 
No one can deliver out of my hand. 
When I act, who can reverse it?”

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2. Take stock of life

Sin in your life is not something that should be taken lightly. It is, plain and simple, a slap in the face of the Saviour who loves you. The saddest part is that most Christians believe that they cannot escape this sin that traps them in a lifestyle of guilt. The truth is that Christ died so that we could live in Him and not in sin.

Romans 6: 7-14

Because anyone who has died has been freed from sin.

Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. For we know that since Christ was raised from the dead, he cannot die again; death no longer has mastery over him.

The death he died, he died to sin once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God.

In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus. Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its evil desires. Do not offer the parts of your body to sin, as instruments of wickedness, but rather offer yourselves to God, as those who have been brought from death to life; and offer the parts of your body to him as instruments of righteousness.

For sin shall not be your master, because you are not under law, but under grace.

Sin has a way of blinding us from the hope that we have found in God. We need to make a decision to remind ourselves constanty that we are saved by Christ and that sin has no hold on us! When we truely believe this we will approach sin differently. Our approach will not be of shame and defeat (which leads to submission to the temptation) but rather of faith and hope in a God who has already conquered sin!

Remember that you are under grace and all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to you through Christ Jesus (Matthew 28).

In order to grow spiritually we need to be courageous enough to stand up against the sin that holds us back and see it for what is really is. Our sinful thoughts and actions keep us from living a life of JOY in Jesus Christ

Remember Jeremiah 29: 11

“For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future”

Victory over sin allows us to move forward in our relationship with our loving Father.  Knowing Jesus Christ is the key to joy, life and a new beginning.

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As Christians we are called to be the light of the world, to live like Jesus Christ lived. Paul encourages us to take continual stock of our lives in Christ, and to make sure that we are moving in the right direction.

Today’s message is a simple but tough one. Look at Philippians 2: 1-11 and take stock of your life according to the example He set. This can be a very sobering process but it is important to know why we seek to follow His example. It’s because of His amazing love for us that we are saved. Being obedient to His Word and following His example are just two ways of showing that we love Him.

Philippians 2: 1-11

If you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any fellowship with the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, then make my joy complete by being like‑minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and purpose. Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves.

Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others.
Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus:
Who, being in very nature God, 
did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, 
taking the very nature of a servant, 
being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, 
he humbled himself 
and became obedient to death– 
even death on a cross! Therefore God exalted him to the highest place 
and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, 
in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, 
to the glory of God the Father.

By placing God’s way as the central focus of our lives we will bring Him glory. This video shows a prayer that you may like to echo:



Lord, make me an instrument of peace
Where there is hatred, let me bring love
Where there is wrong, let me bring forgiveness
Where there is discord, let me bring harmony
Where there is error, let me bring truth
Where there is doubt, let me bring faith
Where there is despair, let me bring your hope
Where there are shadows, let me bring light
Where there is sadness, let me bring joy
Lord grant that I would seek
Rather to comfort, than to be comforted
To understand rather than to be understood
To love than to be loved
For it is by self-forgetting that one finds
Its is forgiving that one is forgiven
It is by dying that one awakens eternal life
AMEN

(St Francis of Assisi)

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