2021-02-02
Acts 19:18 NCV
Speaking about the church at Ephesus, Paul writes: “Many of the believers began to confess openly and tell all the evil things they had done…. So in a powerful way the word of the Lord kept spreading and growing” (vv. 18-20 NCV). Spiritual healing happens in churches like this one. So if you find yourself trapped in a pattern of repeated sin and failure, seek out mature, committed Christians who aren’t shocked by your problem, who won’t divulge your confidence, and who know how to pray for you and with you.
Jesus gave His followers the authority to hear confessions and proclaim grace. “If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained” (John 20:23 NKJV). A spiritual catharsis takes place when someone looks you in the face and says, “God forgives you, I forgive you, now forgive yourself and walk in God’s forgiveness!” Forgiveness is such a powerful force that it can actually facilitate healing.
James writes: “Is anyone among you sick? Let them call the elders of the church to pray over them and anoint them with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well; the Lord will raise them up. If they have sinned, they will be forgiven. Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective” (James 5:14-16 NIV). And if you’re not sure who you should talk to, or who you can trust, start with your pastor.
Soul food: Isa 58-62; Matt 12:22-37; Ps 108; Prov 3:31-32
2021-02-01
Romeine 8:31 NLV
Sommige van die wêreld se bekendste mense het die grootste uitdagings ervaar, maar hulle het dit oorkom. Hier volg ‘n paar voorbeelde: kreupel: sir Walter Scott. In die tronk: John Bunyan. In volslae armoede grootgeword: Abraham Lincoln. Bittere godsdienstige veroordeling: Benjamin Disraeli. Verlam: Franklin Roosevelt. Grootgemaak in ‘n gemeenskap vol rasse-diskriminasie: Booker T. Washington, Harriet Tubman, Marian Anderson en George Washington Carver. Die eerste kind uit ‘n arm Italiaanse familie van agtien lede om te oorleef: Enrico Caruso. Ouers wat die Nazi konsentrasiekampe oorleef het, verlam vanaf die middel ondertoe vanaf sy vierde jaar: die onvergelykbare violis, Itzhak Perlman. ‘n Stadige leerder, verstandelik gestrem en ononderrigbaar: Albert Einstein. Helen Keller is blind en doof gebore, maar tog het sy haar Universiteitopleiding met die hoogste eer geslaag en ‘n impak op die wêreld gehad. Margaret Thatcher, Engeland se eerste vroulike Eerste Minister, het bo haar pa se kruidenierswinkel gewoon. Vir ‘n tydperk het hulle huis geen lopende water of binnenshuise loodgieterswerk gehad nie. Golda Meier, Israel se eerste en enigste vroulike Eerste Minister, was ‘n geskeide ouma van Milwaukee.
Wat kan ons uit hierdie mense se lewens leer? Dat sukses nie van ons omstandighede afhang nie, maar van ons vermoë om ons omstandighede te oorkom! Met God aan ons kant, kan ons dit doen! Paulus, wat voor groot struikelblokke in sy lewe te staan gekom het, het geskryf: ‘…As God aan ons kant is, wie kan ooit téén ons wees?’
Sielskos: Jes 45-48; Matt 11:20-30; Ps 107:23-32; Spr 3:25-26
Romans 8:31 NKJV
Challenges are an unavoidable part of life. Whether we’re talking big world-changing events, or a day gone slightly wrong, our lives with God don’t often go exactly how we think they might. Being a Christian doesn’t mean that everything is suddenly smooth sailing.
Our world, and each one of us, is still imperfect because of millions of choices that have shifted us away from the ideal that God created back in Genesis. But the great news is that we get to invite God into all of our challenges. Jesus promised to be ‘with you always, to the very end of the age’ (Matthew 28:20 NIV), and that includes the most difficult moments.
When we invite God into our lives, He’s there for it all – every moment of joy, every challenge, and even every mundane Monday morning. When Paul wrote, ‘If God is for us, who can be against us?’ (Romans 8:31 NIV), he probably didn’t mean that no-one would ever disagree with God’s people or cause problems for them. He’d experienced his fair share of challenges, so he knew that wasn’t true. It seems more likely that Paul knew that whoever tried to stand up against Him, God had made a way for him to persevere regardless.
Even when difficult circumstances arise, God is there with us, and working for us. He will make sure that no-one can derail His plan. Life can be difficult, but we can count on the fact that successfully living out God’s plan doesn’t depend on us or our circumstances, but on God. And He is always for us.
Isa 45-48; Matt 11:20-30; Ps 107:23-32; Prov 3:25-26
Romans 8:31 NKJV
Some of the world’s greatest people faced the world’s greatest challenges, but they overcame them. Cripple a man, and you have Sir Walter Scott. Lock him in prison, and you have John Bunyan. Raise him in abject poverty, and you have Abraham Lincoln. Subject him to bitter religious prejudice, and you have Benjamin Disraeli. Strike him down with paralysis, and you have Franklin Roosevelt. Have them born black in the society filled with racial discrimination, and you have Booker T. Washington, Harriet Tubman, Marian Anderson and George Washington Carver. Make a man the first child to survive in a poor Italian family of eighteen, and you have Enrico Caruso. Have him born to parents who survived a Nazi concentration camp, paralyze him from the waist down when he’s aged four, and you have the incomparable violinist, Itzhak Perlman. Call a man a slow learner, mentally challenged, and write him off as un-educatable, and you have Albert Einstein. Helen Keller was born blind and deaf, yet she graduated college with highest honors and impacted the world. Margaret Thatcher, England’s first woman Prime Minister, lived upstairs over her father’s grocery store. For a while her childhood home had no running water and no indoor plumbing. Golda Meier, Israel’s first and only woman Prime Minister was a divorced grandmother from Milwaukee.
What do these people teach us? That success doesn’t depend on our circumstances, but on overcoming our circumstances! And with God on our side we can do it! Paul, one of the world’s great over-comers wrote, “If God be for us, who can be against us?”
Soul food: Isa 45-48; Matt 11:20-30; Ps 107:23-32; Prov 3:25-26
