Holy Spirit or Moses?

“I say it again. Every man who has the religious act of becoming a Jew done on him must obey every Law. If you expect to be made right with God by obeying the Law, then you have turned away from Christ and His loving-favor. We are waiting for the hope of being made right with God. This will come through the Holy Spirit and by faith. If we belong to Jesus Christ, it means nothing to have or not to have gone through the religious act of becoming a Jew. But faith working through love is important.” Galatians 5:3-6. And then “But when you are directed by the Spirit, you are not under obligation to the Law of Moses.” Galatians 5:18.

As a believer of the Holy Spirit, this suggests that I should follow the word of just the New Testament. But alas, although I know that we should follow Jesus’ message, Jesus quoted from the Old Testament at every opportunity. The Old Testament is a great way to build the foundation of our knowledge and to ensure that we can promote this way of life in a confident way. We shouldn’t neglect the Old Testament because it might be ‘heavy going’. Nobody ever said life would be easy and without doubt nobody ever said being a Christian would be easy!

To me as a new Christian, this kind of scripture allows me to answer many questions. I remember in the early days discussing this kind of thing with Teresa, is circumcision a requirement or not and how certain parts of Numbers is quite hard hitting and surely goes against modern day beliefs, such as genocide. Thankfully the answer lies with the Holy Spirit!

Control that tongue!

“Their tongues sting like a snake; the venom of a viper drips from their lips”. Psalm 140:3

It is said that our tongue is lead by our brain and with it the first line of defence, or attack  depending in which way you view it. But is it possible that our heart can also control the output of our precious tongue?

I don’t know about you, but I have learnt the hard way. In the past I probably put my foot in it at least once a day and would often require a shovel to dig further away from the subject I had created (just ask Teresa!). To ensure I reduce my ability to offend, I find myself often taking the diplomatic route in which I seem to explain myself before I even make the comment.  Peer pressure is a key indicator to how we manage our tongue. For example you would not contemplate getting stressed or swearing in a Cell group. So why then do we see it ok to lower our standards when at work or down the pub ?

The need to blaspheme or say crude and rude words are sometimes inbuilt into the vocabulary and it is probably harder to educate non-Christians of this than it is to try and curb, but as a Christian it is an area of life that we should all be more determined to refine.  Having said this, how do we know that when someone uses ‘JC’ in every other word that they are not using this term from the heart, rather than from the brain in a blasphemous manner.  Is it passion or is it love? Either way we should always be careful not to judge as everybody’s relationship with God is different.

“For if we could control our tongues, we would be perfect and control ourselves in every other way” James 3:2

Amen!

Pro-active atheists – if that’s possible!

I found this on another blog and had a wee chuckle.

Forget the Jehovah’s, meet the new door to door salesperson in your area!

Getting the message

About four months ago we planned the weekend of the 3^rd November to go up for a long weekend in Cambridge. The maps have been out, time booked off from work sorted, music rota for the CD player scheduled and sweet selection policy has been made. It’s half-term week, so an opportunity to take the kids to see the grandparents. I also need to go up at that time to collect my IDM Diploma certificate in central London. Our plan is to come back on Sunday.

To put a slight spanner in the works, I have been keen to get baptised as soon as possible as I am aware that I want to clean my sins away. And would you believe it, Matt from the NCC let me know today that the next baptism service will be on the 4^th November. The problem is that I will be some 300 miles away at the time!

Is this the devil attempting to put barriers in my way or is it just a coincidence?

It looks like the next opportunity at this church will be sometime in January. Anybody got any suggestions on what I should do?

False Prophets

John3 V13 (NLT) – “No one has ever gone to heaven and returned. But the Son of Man”. How true this is!

Teresa was searching the Eden.co.uk website earlier and stumbled across ‘23 minutes in Hell’ by Bill Weise and then found ‘90 minutes in Heaven’ by Don Piper. What value has society got on these types of publications? Surely they belong in the bargain bin straight from print? It got me thinking; surely this is all just emotional marketing by publishing houses. Wouldn’t it be great to think that you could take a sneak preview at the next level but then return to tell everyone about it? Evangelical I hear you shout! I think not, more like an over active brain working overtime. Once you go through those gates, your soul has left your body and it’s a one way ticket to the sacred Kingdom.

As for the ‘23 minutes in Hell’ publication, what do we learn from this? We have already been taught whilst growing up that Hell is a hot place full of fire, the devil sitting on a red throne and slaves being whipped by laughing Demons. As expected this book discusses all of this and really does not cover new ground. Surely publications like this are the work of the devil as they are out to make a quick buck or two at the expense of information craving Christians!

Rant over – not judging, just observing. God Bless!