Marching Forth!

Paul wrote in 1 Timothy 6:6 , "... godliness with contentment is great gain ."  Being content in itself is not necessarily good, for people can be content to remain in sin or feel content without knowing God.  Those who have contentment without godliness will lose all, for their lives and all they posses will be ultimately taken away from them.  The one who is made godly by grace through faith in Jesus Christ, sanctified and serving the LORD according to His leading and rejoices in God's provision and faithfulness, in all situations of life this one shall be content and be fruitful for the kingdom of God. Even after being delivered from sin and death by the Gospel we are not God, and we live in an ungodly world.  There is a tendency in all of us to drift towards covetousness and envy, to give room for feelings of discontent to grow.  Instead of taking these thoughts captive to the obedience of Christ, like the children of Israel after God brought them out of Egy...

God rewards people who exercise faith in Him, and this was often demonstrated through obedience to God's word.  The God who knows the secret thoughts and motives of the heart commanded the children of Israel in  Numbers 10:9 , " When you go to war in your land against the enemy who oppresses you, then you shall sound an alarm with the trumpets, and you will be remembered before the LORD your God, and you will be saved from your enemies ."  God was fully aware when His people were oppressed, but they were called to acknowledge their dire circumstances and sound an alarm with the silver trumpets kept in the tabernacle.  They did so because they believed God would hear and save them in battle. Upon reading this I was reminded of a situation in the life of King Saul who commanded trumpets (shofars) be blown after a battle in  1 Samuel 13:3-4 :  " And Jonathan attacked the garrison of the Philistines that was in Geba, and the Philistines heard of it. Then...

 During a prayer meeting last night I was led to read  Hebrews 12:1-3 and the exhortation to consider Jesus in verse 3 spoke to my heart:  " Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, 2 looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. 3  For consider Him who endured such hostility from sinners against Himself, lest you become weary and discouraged in your souls ."  As followers of Christ we are to lay aside weights and sin, run with endurance the race before us, looking unto Jesus who was the righteous Son of God yet maligned like none before Him or since.  The hostility He faced ended up with Him dying a brutal death on Calvary, and because...

After Jesus rode into Jerusalem on a donkey, He taught the people and preached the Gospel in the temple.  What I find compelling is how the way Jesus evangelised is quite different to many modern methods and approaches.  Never in the Gospel accounts did Jesus employ a formula to salvation.  Everyone who heard Jesus was confronted by who Jesus claimed to be and whether they believed Him or not. I was struck how the major emphasis of the gospel can be the process of how people can obtain salvation rather than primarily focusing on who Jesus is.  There is a way Christians can share the gospel as a checklist for people to tick while the identity of Jesus as the Son of God is glossed over.  The question Jesus posed to Peter is a central tenet of the Gospel:  " Who do you say that I am ?"  People had many opinions and theories about who Jesus was, and the scriptures reveal He is the Christ, the Son of God.  Jesus is the promised Messiah who did many si...