Believe, because you can!

Faith is merely taking God at His word and then acting upon it.

The first step is to recognise that God is truly faithful. If He has promised, then we can be absolutely certain that He will fulfil all that He has said He would do. If you need another reason to consider why it is essential to both read and understand His Word; there it is! Our capacity to accept divine revelation in our lives is shaped by our understanding of His revealed will. I yu want to know God and his will better, get stuck into His Word and apply it to your own life.

Once that barrier has been broken down, when we can see God's individual promises from His Word applying to our specific circumstances, then we can act.

If God has revealed his will about our situation, then we have not only comfort that it will all work out to the best, but we can speak and live from the perspective that our problems have already been dealt with. Not from a viewpoint that we hope to change the external problems we have encountered by pretening they are not there or wishing them away; but from a view that has already seen them dealt with in order to further God's purpose.

We can believe, not because we're hiding from reality, but because we have experienced for ourselves th inexorable reality that is forcing itself into our lives in order to bring about God's perfect will.

It may not always be pleasant, it may be frustrating - but it is guaranteed for us.

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Faith is...

Actually. I could just leave the sentence there. Faith is.

As an eternal reality that invades our temporal universe. Faith is more real than what we can touch, see, taste or smell. These are not false illusions. It's just that they're only one part of the bigger picture.

Without faith, we miss the full reality of what is going on. We miss the detail that matters.

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Lifting Your Morale

It is an uplifting experience to realise that you are on the winning side. The disciples must have caught that excitement first when Jesus sent them out in pairs to practise what He had modelled for them.

To find that your experience of Gd's faithfulness matches your theology is far more than serendipity. It is the goal of your Bible study, your ultimate destiny.

It is this positive attitude, of confidence that the promises God has made will be fulfilled, that is at the heart of faith. A hope that relies not on external evidence, but on the testimony of the spirit.

With that unshakeable conviction, it is possible to lift the morale of those around you, to speak peace into hearts in turmoil.

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Looking forward to Pentecost

Easter is over. The chocolate is eaten. We have celebrated the death and resurrection of Christ. The central event of world history breaks down the barrier between us and our creator. Through Jesus' sacrifice - once for all - we now have unbroken fellowship with the Father.

But one thing remains. Jesus' promise - that we would be clothed with power from on high.

This is the message of Pentecost - this is what we will look at over the coming weeks.

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Exercising faith in your daily routine

Whether we like to admit it or not, we all eercise faith in one way or another throughout the day. I'm not necessarily talking about faith in God here. Just the everyday assumptions we need to make about the world around us in order to function. Will this chair stand my weight? Will the power stay on long enough to get this report typed? Will I have nough time to prepare myself for the net meeting? Will my assistant not let me down?

Eercising faith in God in the same way assumes the same degree of familiarity with the spiritual dimension of live so that we are put at ease and are confident of what God is going to perform through us because we now the promises He has made and are conviced that He will act, because we know and trust Him.

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Renewing Faith

Feeling discouraged? Worn down by the relentless pressure to conform to the image presented by the rest of the world?

This is the time to remind yourself of the truth of Psalm 103.

In it we see a pattern, set down fo us fro be fore time. In order to experience renewal we need to enounter the One who made us, heals us, supplies all our needs.

Then, when we have this deep desire for real spirituality met, we will find ourselves renewed in spirit and able to soar over all our circumstances.


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Faith in the One who Can...

"Welcome to the church. We're just a bunch of sinners and hypocrites here, so you should feel right at home. And I'm the biggest one of the lot." It was an interesting greeting from the new pastor. He went on to point out that this wasn't an idle boast, nor was it something he was proud of. But it was a fact. Without God's saving power at work in us to transform us, we were nothing but a club of self-righteous wishful thinkers.

"The Christian faith is nothing more than one beggar telling another where to find food," he would say. A no-nonsense apprach, stripped of triumphalism. There was no way we could save ourselves or sustain our spirits by our own feeble efforts. We were totally dependent on the One who Can. With Him, we could raise our aspirationsbeyond the gutter, pulling ourselves out and helping others to do the same. Without Him, we were absolutely lost in a mess of our own making.

"See, I am giving you a choice," the preacher quoted. "And look, the Good Lord even goes so far as to tell you which of the two to choose - choose life!"

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