"I AM with you"

"Om inte min fars Gud hade varit med mig-Abrahams Gud som också Isak fruktar - så hade du säkert låtit mig fara med tomma händer. Men Gud såg mitt lidande och min möda, och han fällde domen i natt." - Första Moseboken 31.42

I love what Jacob says to Laban:

"If God had not been with me....but God saw...and He judged." - Genesis 31.42

He begins with "If God had not been with me..." saying that His success was FULLY dependent on God's presence alone.

God being with us makes ALL the difference because God ALWAYS has the last word. The bible calls Jesus the 'author and finisher' of our faith (Hebrews 12.2). He started it and He decides how it finishes at the end and He assures us that we have already won with Him. He makes the difference. He fights our battles.

There's a song I love called 'Defender' by Chris McClarney, the lyrics to the chorus are;

"You're my defender,

I put my trust in you,

You are the open arms

My broken heart can run to.

And I remember,

That there is nothing you can't do,

'Cause you are God

And you are good

So I surrender,

You're my defender".

There is no need to fight a battle He has already won for us.

Faith

I'm reading through Hebrews at the moment and just hit Hebrews 11 which has to be probably my favourite chapter in the whole bible (I say probably because there are so many awesome chapters that that is likely inaccurate!).

Hebrews 11 begins with an amazing explanation of what faith is...

"Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen." (Hebrews 11.1)

It is a beautiful verse even before you grasp all that it means...but I'll do my best to explain.

Faith comes from trust, and trust comes from knowing someone really well.

Think about it like this...you wouldn't tell your secrets to just anyone. You would wait to get to know someone, see them actively demonstrate an ability to keep schtum when it comes to important information, and then when you'd seen it enough times, you would entrust them with your secret, having faith that they will keep their word to you and not tell anyone.

It's the same in faith with God. God is personal; as in He knows us inside and out and wants us to know Him and have a relationship with Him and be ourselves with Him. As with any relationship, it takes time to build up that kind of familiarity and trust and such a deep friendship only comes from spending time with Him; reading His word (the bible) and talking to Him (prayer) and hearing what others who know Him personally have to say about Him and what He's done in their lives (the testimonies of other Christians). The more you hear and see of Him the more you trust Him!

That's what Hebrews 11 is all about. It's about what happens when you take the leap of faith and get to know God and trust Him with your heart and hopes and future. Hebrews 11 is all about the amazing miracles that happened when people took the step of faith to trust God.

The thing about a relationship with God is that the faith it produces is extraordinary. It starts small. Maybe you trust God with something you feel you have no real control over anyway, like friends at a new school...and then when God blesses you with good friends you trust Him with something bigger, and so on until you're trusting God with everything, you put all your eggs in His hand and wait to see what He does with them.

What makes trusting God even better than just empty hope is the fact that in a world where nothing is certain - people are corrupt, sickness and death are everywhere, wars and famines abound everywhere - God is certain.

He is the same yesterday today and forever (Hebrews 13.8). He never leaves us (Deuteronomy 31.6). He always holds our hands (Psalm 37.24). He has good plans for us (Jeremiah 29.11). He is not a man that He could lie (Numbers 23.19). He promises that even though we see trouble in this life He has overcome and we are with Him (John 16.33).

So our hope for the future isn't an empty one. It's not this empty wish we have that maybe if we are good people, or maybe if we work hard,or maybe if we are lucky, maybe everything will work out.

The hope we have anchors us because it is certain. It is rooted in something, in someone; Jesus Christ; the author and finisher of our faith, the Saviour, the Messiah, the King, God's final word, Emmanuel - God with us!

Faith in God and His word saved the human race when the earth flooded, faith in God and His word led Abraham into the promise land, faith in God and His word gave the Israelites Jericho and that isn't even all of it, there is so much more!

Faith requires nothing more than trusting God. You don't have to be sure of yourself, you just have to be sure of Him.

If I'd moved to this country just because it's nice, the moment it got tough (a week in) I would have packed up and gone back home. BUT because I knew without a shadow of doubt that Stockholm was where God wanted me right now, even after three months of unemployment, I knew I'd made the right decision and I was in the right place.

Our feelings and emotions are about as certain and sure as on-time buses or hospital waiting times...they aren't at all!!! But God is certain. You know that if He says He'll do something He will for sure do it, and not only will He do it, He'll do it better than you could have ever imagined, over and above your expectation (Isaiah 55.9, Ephesians 3.20).

Such is the God of the bible. If you put your life in His hands, He will do far better things with it than you EVER could have.

"Commit your way to the Lord, Trust also in Him, And He shall bring it to pass." Psalm 37.5

Hope in Jesus Christ, the Cornerstone

"...God did this so that we would be encouraged. God cannot lie when He takes an oath or makes a promise. These two things can never be changed. Those of us who have taken refuge in Him hold on to the hope we have been given. We have this hope as a sure and strong anchor for our lives. This hope goes into the holy place behind the curtain where Jesus went before us on our behalf. He has become the chief priest forever in the way Melchizedek was a priest."

Hebrews 6.18-20 NKJV/God's Word Translation

Jesus opened the way for us to take refuge and have hope when He became the High Priest (the one who pleaded to God on behalf of the people for their sin) forever in the same way as Melchizedek. Jesus is the last intermediary. We no longer need anyone to talk to God for us, as we talk to Jesus, who is God the son, and He pleads our case, being the final atonement for all our sins because He paid the penalty for sin (those committed and those yet to be committed) in dying on the cross (Romans 6.23).

The hope we now have in Jesus Christ is an anchor for our souls. All our hope is in Him.

♪My hope is built on nothing less, than Jesus blood and righteousness...♪

Doubt hinders, faith in God opens doors

Hebreerbrevet 3.19/Hebrews 3.19 > After the exodus from Egypt, the Israelites who had witnessed probably one of the greatest miracles of the Old Testament were unable to walk into the fullness of what God had for them because of their lack of faith in who God was and what He could do. God proves Himself again and again to us, but when we allow ourselves to be paralysed by fear and doubt Him and His power like the Israelites (4 Moseboken 13/ Numbers 13) and Elijah (Första Kungaboken 19/ 1 Kings 19) we miss out on our 'promise land'; the abundant and exciting life God has planned for us.

God is more than able to do what He has promised you will He will do. Hold on to Him and see the miracle.

Psaltaren 31.5/ Psalm 31.5 " I entrust my spirit into your hand. Rescue me, LORD, for you are a faithful God "

Why there is power in the name of Jesus

If you are a Christian, you have probably heard the phrase 'there is power in the name of Jesus' many times. As a non-christian, this probably makes no sense. I think I finally understood it a bit more today, and I wanted to try to explain to you why Christians say there is power in the name of Jesus.

In the old testament of the bible (the first half of the bible if you will, before Jesus coming to earth as a man), we read in Genesis (or 1 Moseböken, if you're Swedish) that God created the heavens and the earth. If you read the first chapter, you'll see that God created through His word. He spoke things into being and they happened. The power of His word brought things into being.

In the Old Testament you see many times that God spoke to people, sometimes directly, other times through prophets, or happenings, such as the burning bush.

In the New Testament, the phrase 'God said' appears only once, in a parable Jesus uses to simplify a lesson He is teaching. Aside from that, the phrase never appears, quite strange compared to the forty-five times it appears in the Old Testament.

You have to wonder why after speaking so much to people in the time before Jesus came to earth, God suddenly seems to stop communicating with them. Or does He stop?

In John 1 (New Testament) verses 1-14 we have an another, slightly brief note on creation. 'In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made. In Him was life and the life was the light of all men.'

The Word being spoken about is the powerful word that God used to create the world in the beginning. The word God used brought the earth into existence and created life simply by saying so.

The writer continues in verse 14, 'And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us...' This verse says that the powerful word God used that created life itself in the beginning, became human just as we are, and lived humanly like the rest of us.

The Word is Jesus. And when Jesus came to earth, He said all that God had been saying in the Old Testament simply by living and dying and rising again as He did.

Jesus is all God has ever said and will ever say. He is the the final word. The curtain closer if you will. So that, where in the Old Testament God spoke, as it says in Hebrews chapter 1 (New Testament) 'by the prophets' (verse 1), He has 'spoken to us by His son...through whom also He made all the worlds.' (Verse 2).

Now try to understand all of this. The power that God used to create the world was harnessed if you will, in Jesus, who was sent to the earth, being life itself, and that life being a light which was so powerful that darkness could not overcome it (John 1.5), which is why when life (=Light=Jesus) was crucified on the cross and put to death (=darkness), death couldn't overcome it.

You see the life and light that Jesus is, is so powerful that no death, no darkness, no sin, no curse, no emotion or situation of any kind, is any match for it.

When we say Jesus name, we aren't just saying a name, we're declaring power over all things. There is power in the name of Jesus because Jesus is power itself. He is the very Word by which all things came into being.

A beautiful an amazing force to be reckoned with.

"But now the righteousness of God apart from the law is revealed..." - Romans 3.21

When Jesus Christ came to earth, it was the culmination of years of planning and hard work. The Jewish people up until then had been governed by law (See Exodus 20). Law that told them not to take God's name in vain, not to covet, to rest on the Sabbath, to honour their parents and so on. The ultimate purpose of the law was to show the Jews what was right in the eyes of God, and how to live in a way pleasing to Him.

The problem with the law was that it made it impossible for the Jews to live in a way pleasing to God. No matter how carefully they watched themselves and tried to do no wrong. All it took was one sin...and they'd stepped out of God's will and into judgement.

To escape the judgement that resulted from sin, sin offerings were given to God to make atonement. God would look at the offering and not make them pay the penalty for the sin, but it still didn't really deal with the problem. The offerings didn't deal with the sin, they covered it. On the outside, it looked as if there had been a change, but the real root of the sin, originating in mankind's heart remained.


Paul talked about the strange condition of the human heart in Romans 7.15, saying 'that I will to do, that I do not practise; but what I hate, that I do.'


So there were two problems that needed to be resolved;

1. No matter how hard everyone tried to do the right thing, they couldn't.
2. Even though God forgave the sins, the root of the problem remained; the sinful nature of man's heart.

So God created Jesus; fully God and fully man.When God created Jesus, He created Him to be the final sin offering. This meant that after Him, no-one, ever, would have to offer a sin offering. Jesus came to earth, blameless and sinless; perfect.


You see Jesus role as the final sin offering was to personally take on all the sins ever committed and ever to be committed and call them His own (2 Corinthians 5.21). Taking them on, Jesus would have to pay the penalty for sin that was not his own. Romans 6.23 tells us what the penalty for sin is; it's death.


Death in the physical sense, (if you look at Genesis and the record of the fall, it tells us that as a result of the fall sin and thus death entered the world), but not only that, death to God, and separation from all that pertains from Him, all that is good, all that is love, all that is hope, all that is faith; Hell, in short.


So when Jesus cried out on the cross ' elohi elohi, lama shavakhtani?' (Mark 15.34 - HNIV) He was experiencing Hell.


On our behalf.


But it was not the end. Jesus had been a willing sacrifice, fully God and fully man. He had descended into the very depths of Hell to account for all our sins, committed and to be committed, and then He rose again to overcome death, and show that the power that was in Him was stronger than sin, and stronger than death.


He did it so that every time we sin, we are rescued from our rightful punishment; eternal separation from God. So when God looks at us, where he should see sin, darkness, and evil, He sees the face of His son, who took all our punishment on His own back so that we would no longer have to be enslaved by sin, always doing the wrong thing and constantly falling short of God's standard, but instead could be righteous, relying on a power greater than our own.


God sent Jesus so that we would be free to achieve our full potential.

This was problem one dealt with, but God was still not finished.

Romans 10.9 tells us that everyone who believes God loves them and as a result sent His son to die for them is saved. When Jesus was on earth He spent time talking to people, He spent time showing them His character; what was important to Him and good in His sight. He spent time with all kinds of people, tax collectors, women that were having affairs...nobody was too low for Him. You see in doing this, Jesus was tapping in to people's hearts.

By nature, God is relational. He loves us, He talks to us. When Jesus was on earth He wanted us to get to know Him, so that we would in turn tell others about Him. He wanted us to get to know Him so that the more we got to know Him, the more we wanted to be like Him. He wanted to instigate a change of heart, so that instead of our inclination being to do things our way, and therefore sin against Him, our most earnest desire would be to behave in a way that would please Him.


And of course, even if our desire was to please Him, He knew, as I mentioned earlier, how hard it was for us to do the right thing without help from someone outside of us and more powerful than us to do so. So when Jesus left earth for heaven, He left us the Spirit of God (sometimes called the Holy Spirit), the third member of the trinity, so that we would be able to call out to God and receive help in time of need (Hebrews 4.16) and be able to do God's will.

'For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are the sons of God.' - Romans 8.14

Allow yourself to get to know Jesus, fall in love with Him and He will transform your life. It won't happen overnight, but you'll notice it. You'll no longer measure yourself by what you have done, can do, or what others tell you that you are, but instead will see yourself as God sees you; perfect and blameless in His sight. Your outlook on the world will change; you'll understand more clearly God's grace and what it means to be forgiven and forgive others. You'll be able to discern between what is good (of God) and evil (not of God), and you'll be able to love others as Christ has loved you.

God bless x

Jeremiah 17.7 and Psalm 125.1

Yesterday the sermon in church was about hearing God; whether or not we understand Him to still be speaking today and if so how. There were many ways; the bible itself, things around us, a confidence 'I just know', other people, sometimes even an audible voice.

Anyway, as I go through this somewhat trialling time in my own life, I felt God drop the phrase 'but the man who trusts in the Lord is like...' in my head.

I googled it, the following two verses came up:

"Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, And whose hope is the Lord." - Jeremiah 17.7
"Those who trust in the Lord Are like Mount Zion, Which cannot be moved, but abides forever." - Psalm 125.1

My hope is in Him who cannot be shaken, therefore no matter my circumstance, I will hope and trust in Him alone.

The earth may shake, my world might change, my circumstances will always change... but He will never change. The same yesterday, today and forever (Hebrews 13.8).

♫ Jesus, You're my firm foundation, I know I can stand secure...♫

Romans 4.18

"When everything was hopeless, Abraham believed anyway, deciding to live not on the basis of what he saw he couldn't do but on what God said He would do."

- Romans 4.18 (The Message)

I love this verse SO much. Our circumstances always seem so hopeless. Let me share something with you for a second.

I believe with ALL my heart, that God wants me to go to Sweden and live there and help start a church, so that those that don't know Him yet can do. We hope to start churching from this summer, and considering the fact that Swedish summertime pretty much begins in early June, that's fairly soon.

As yet, I have no job over there, I haven't got a place of my own to live in, and I don't know the language as fluently as I wish I did (although I am making massive headway - praise God for that!).

The situation looks pretty grim. How can I still plan to move this summer with no job and nowhere to live, especially when I don't speak the language?

YET, what does the verse say? "When everything was hopeless, Abraham believed anyway." Why was Abraham's faith so big? How could he have confidence in a situation that in all human terms, was practically hopeless?

In order to have faith and hope in a hopeless situation, Abraham had to look beyond himself, and beyond his capabilities and the capabilities of his wife. Abraham looked beyond the situation, toward God.

God had made a promise to him, therefore God would make it happen.

In the same way, I know God has told me to be a part of this church in Sweden this summer. God will make it happen, despite the current circumstances. So I am going to look beyond what I see, and look to God, and all He has said and done so far in my life and in the lives of those around me, and trust Him, that even though as of right now I have no clue where I'll be working or who I'll be living with, He's got it covered. He will make it happen.

"Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen."

- Hebrews 11.1 (NKJV)

For the Gospel of the Cross is of mercy, grace and forgiveness

"Then Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they do.” And they divided His garments and cast lots."

- Luke 23.34

It amazes me to know that even as Jesus died, nailed to the cross and soldiers dividing up His clothes between them, mocking Him, He pleaded with His heavenly father to forgive them in their ignorance.

Would you? Think about it; if someone had taken away your clothes, whipped you and made fun of you, would you want to plead on their behalf? Would they even deserve to have you plead on their behalf?

The most obvious and natural response is no.

And yet, this is what Jesus did for us. He died once and for all [Hebrews 9.28, Romans 6.10] for the people that daily mock Him, ignore Him, call Him a fraud, torture Him.

While we were still sinners Christ died for us [Romans 5.8], so that in divine sacrifice, He would take our sin on His shoulders and the suffering that came with it [John 1.29], so that in exchange we could inherit the kingdom of God; mercy, grace and forgiveness, once and for all [Hebrews 4.16, Hebrews 10.10, Proverbs 8.35].

I've played the song below on the blog before, but really feel it laid on my heart again. The lyrics are beautiful and I have posted them below the video:

To bring this world to life

To heal this heart of mine

Your grace enough

Your grace enough

To mend this world in need

To break the chains in me

Your grace enough

Now this means love

The weight of all our sin upon His shoulders

That we should all be called Your sons and daughters

Father,

Let heaven and earth collide in the endless wonder

Of Your love upon the cross

We will follow

And offer this life forever to see Your love unfold

Adopted as Your own

Alive to make You known

Now this means love

This means love

For the lost and for the broken

For the slave and for the orphan

For everyone to realize Your love

From the famous to the faceless

From the beggar to the king

For everyone to realize Your love

You restore the broken hearted

You bring freedom to the captive

For one and all

Forever this means love

All Your children come together

All Your sons and all Your daughters

Your grace enough

Forever this means love

Is God A Man That He Can Lie?

"God is not a man, so He does not lie. He is not human, so He does not change His mind. Has He ever spoken and failed to act? Has He ever promised and not carried it through?"

- Numbers 23.19

I love this verse because it reminds me of God's steadfastness and strength. He is the same yesterday, today and forever (Hebrews 13.8), and if He had the power to speak the world into being, then NOTHING can be too difficult for Him (Jeremiah 32.7).

Why Church?

Whenever people find out I'm a Christian, one of the first questions that they ask is whether or not I go to church every Sunday. The answer is yes. And then pretty much. And then a slightly awkward silence where I go on to tell them I'm not religious about it; at which point they look at me funny and attempt to understand.

I go to church. Not to Church; as in church isn't a place, it's something that happens in a place.

Still confused? I'll try to be clearer.

The word Church in the bible is first mentioned in the New Testament (Matthew 16.15-18). Before then there was no mention of it. What you do see a lot of mention of is the Synagogue.

A Synagogue was (and still is) a building of worship for the Jews.

The church Jesus was describing was a group of people, not a place.

When I go to church, it's for the people. I can worship God anywhere. When Jesus died he removed the need for anyone else to intercede in order for me to communicate with Him. If I want to pray, I can do it on my own. What God wanted was a group of people; His people (Jeremiah 32.38, Hebrews 8.10). He wanted a group of people all in a relationship with Him.

'Churching' is just corporate Christianity; like a group of people who like to do the same thing hanging out together and doing that thing they like to do so much as a group.

The best thing about church is the fact that it is a community. It's a group of friends who are all going through the same stuff you have to go through day-to-day, who can encourage you when you need it most and help you celebrate all your victories.

Church is an opportunity to help others and for you to find help in others (Galatians 6.2, Ephesians 4.2, Ephesians 4.32). The New Testament believers were supposed to support each other, even in the day-to-day needs like food and clothing (1 Peter 4.9), so that no-one went without what they needed.

That said, God doesn't say anywhere that we HAVE to church. It's more for our own benefit that we spend time together (Acts 2.42) as friends do, and help to keep each other on the right track. So yes, I do go to church most Sundays, but it's not because I have to, it's because I want to. And I do miss church occasionally. I'm not religious about it, but when I don't go I do miss the company of my Christian friends, and when I do go I do reap the benefits of spending time with other like-minded people.

♥

The Question of Eternity

At church this evening, we looked at what the bible has to say about those of us who fall away (or make the conscious decision to go away) from the faith, having already believed.

We looked at two verses in particular; Hebrews 12.25, and James 5.19-20.

If you look at these two verses, they seem to directly oppose each other.

The verse in James implies that once a person has turned away from the faith, they can still go back, and have eternity with God.

The verse in Hebrews implies that a person who rejects God will not escape hell.

We started off thinking if it was possible that there was a difference between the 'wandering' described in the verses in James, and the 'refusing' described in Hebrews, with the refusing being the one that would give a person no escape. At this point one man said that he had friends who had decided that they no longer believed in Christ's death and resurrection, and wondered if that then meant that there was no point in praying for them any longer because they were going to hell.

Going with this argument of the difference between 'wandering' and outright 'refusal' one could argue, that someone who 'wanders' from the truth of Jesus Christ is not 'refusing' God outright; but I disagree:

When you 'wander' in the full sense of the word, you are still in complete command of where your feet are going; it is not as if they have a mind of their own. Wandering simply means that slowly but surely, one is taking small steps that slowly lead them further and further away from the 'right way'. What that means is that they are still refusing to go the 'right way', but are being less obvious about it.

This takes us back to square one.

It is only when we look closely at the passages that we notice that in fact there is no contradiction in them at all.

The passage in James is in the present continuous. It doesn't matter which version of the bible you are reading, all of them are written in the present tense. So when it says,

"My brothers and sisters, if one of you should wander from the truth and someone should bring that person back, remember this: Whoever turns a sinner from the error of their way will save them from death and cover over a multitude of sins"

It means if a person wanders (ongoing), but is brought back (ongoing) they will be fine (future-ongoing).

The passage in Hebrews, is also in the present continuous. So when it says,

"See to it that you do not refuse him who speaks. If they did not escape when they refused him who warned them on earth, how much less will we, if we turn away from him who warns us from heaven?"

It means that if someone refuses (ongoing) and doesn't turn back (ongoing) they will not escape hell (future-ongoing).

What this means when you bring the two verses together, is that provided our refusal of Jesus Christ is not a permanent one, we can still have eternity with Him. It is only if we refuse God and His sacrifice forever, that we cannot.

So for that gentleman who was worried about his friends and whether or not he should continue praying for them, he should. It isn't over, until it's over.

The bible always talks about God's mercy, I find it hard to believe that the same merciful God who sent His only son to die for all of sinful mankind; would turn away a prodigal who was truly repentant and had come home.

Hope this helps!