Deano

Endure your suffering as discipline; God is treating you as sons. For what son is there that a father does not discipline? But if you do not experience discipline, something all sons have shared in, then you are illegitimate and are not sons. (Hebrews 12:7, 8 NET) The writer of Hebrews makes an assumption that parents are active in disciplining and training their children. Discipline and. training are duties of parents. In fact children who are not disciplined are considered not illegitimate children. The writers point here is that just as parents train their children, God disciplines his people. God trains those he loves. Discipline includes hard times. When hard times come, God's people are to push through. God trains because He wants His children to share in His holiness. Part of the lesson of faithfulness is to remain no matter the circumstances or outcome. Our response is to accept God's discipline and training and understand that He uses hard times to train us f...

In a large house there are articles not only of gold and silver, but also of wood and clay; some are for special purposes and some for common use. Those who cleanse themselves from the latter will be instruments for special purposes, made holy, useful to the Master and prepared to do any good work. (2 Timothy 2:20, 21 NIV) When God created all things He looked over creation and saw that it was very good (Gen 1:31). That included humanity. You and I have been created good. Today when we look, we can see that not all things are good. If you are like me, there would be times when you would not consider yourself to be good. However the Bible shows that we were made for good, for honourable purposes. Being made for honourable purposes is not determined by your family line or place of birth (nor your state of origin). It is not about your social class nor physical or mental abilities. We are all created for honourable purposes. To be used for good, is as simple as staying away from w...

  We live by faith, not by sight. 2 Corinthians 5: 7, TNIV While we are in these bodies of clay, and not with the Lord, we live by faith. We live believing that Christ will return. We live believing He is building us a home. We live believing that we will live forever with Him. We haven’t seen this yet. So everything we do, life here on earth, comes out of what we believe about our hope in Christ Jesus. What do you believe? Do your actions line up with your faith? Right living and right faith is faithfulness. Doing things that are in line with your faith is faithfulness. How do we know what to do? God has given us the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is a deposit guaranteeing what is to come (2 Cor 5:5). This deposit helps us know how to live by faithfulness. This faithfulness what we will be judged by when we stand before Christ (2 Cor 5:10). Stand firm knowing that the Holy Spirit is empowering you to live by faithfulness, and God will reward you for your fai...

Then he got on the bed and lay on the boy, mouth to mouth, eyes to eyes, hands to hands. As he stretched himself out on him, the boy's body grew warm. (2 Kings 4:34 NIV) This is a remarkable story about Elisha bringing back to life the boy of the Shunammite woman. I believe there are some lessons here for us today to help bring back to life the next generation. There are four things Elisha did that will help us to restore life. 1. Words of Life Elisha touched the boys mouth with his mouth. This presents speaking words of life. This generation have been told from birth they ate nothing. "You're a monkey who got lucky." "You're an accident." No life! We need to speak life into the next generation. Our words are powerful, there is the power of life and death in the tongue (Pr 18:21). Speak words of life! 2. Vision Elisha places his eyes on the boys eyes. There is a need to sow vision. Pr 29:18 warns us that where there is no vision people cast off ...

  For you granted him authority over all people that he might give eternal life to all those you have given him. Now this is eternal life: that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent . John 17:2-3, TNIV. One of the most famous passages in the Bible tells us that eternal life is available to all who believe (John 3:16). So what is eternal life? I grew up thinking of this as going to heaven. Eternal life was life in heaven with God. It was something we received in the future. Although there is truth in this, my understanding fell way short of what eternal life actually is. In this passage, eternal life is defined as knowing “the only true God, and Jesus Christ.” That being said, eternal life begins when one knows God. Eternal life is for today! When we know God, we start living eternally. We are connected to the eternal one. Our desires and goals all take on an eternal perspective. It must be said here that we should not confuse this ...

  Stop judging by mere appearances, but instead judge correctly . John 7:24(TNIV) What is judging correctly? I often hear people quote, “do not judge, or you will be judged” (Matt 7:1-2). But here Jesus distinguishes between wrong judging (judging by appearances) and correct judging. I often get frustrated by people who claim to be ‘Christian,’ and yet nothing in their life reflects the one they chose to follow. Surely to take on the ‘Christian’ name means to live a certain way. To claim to be Christian means to live a life that honours Christ. Those who claim to be someone who be judged by what they say. I propose correct judging is judging someone by their own words; their out ward words and actions line up with their inward being. Jesus spoke these words to a crowd who were accusing him of breaking the Sabbath (he healed on the Sabbath). It was fine to circumcise a baby boy on the Sabbath but apparently not to heal. Jesus was pointing out the hypocrisy of their ways....

And whoever does not carry their cross and follow me cannot be my disciple. "Suppose one of you wants to build a tower. Won't you first sit down and estimate the cost to see if you have enough money to complete it? For if you lay the foundation and are not able to finish it, everyone who sees it will ridicule you, saying, 'This person began to build and wasn't able to finish.' (Luke 14:27-30 NIV) I remember visiting Thailand and seeing hundreds of unfinished buildings. The foundations had been laid, some even had the concrete framework but the buildings were incomplete. You could see the tension steel in the concrete rusting. There no evidence of workers attempting to complete the structures. The structures remained unfinished and I asked myself why weren't they able finish? Jesus doesn't make a standard sales pitch here. To follow Him one must be prepared to carry their cross. There is a cost to follow Christ. It is always exciting when people make a...

So Joshua called together the twelve men he had appointed from the Israelites, one from each tribe, and said to them, "Go over before the ark of the Lord your God into the middle of the Jordan. Each of you is to take up a stone on his shoulder, according to the number of the tribes of the Israelites, to serve as a sign among you. In the future, when your children ask you, "What do these stones mean?" tell them that the flow of the Jordan was cut off before the ark of the covenant of the Lord. When it crossed the Jordan, the waters of the Jordan were cut off. These stones are to be a memorial to the people of Israel forever. Joshua 4:4-7 NIV I remember walking a track in the Blue Mountains with my wife for the first time. We following the directions in a book and having some trouble finding the starting place, until we saw a sign. It was a heap of rocks. Rocks? There are rocks every where, so why were these different. They were not just a pile of unorganised rocks scat...

Then the Lord opened the donkey's mouth, and it said to Balaam, "What have I done to you to make you beat me these three times?" Balaam answered the donkey, "You have made a fool of me! If only I had a sword in my hand, I would kill you right now." The donkey said to Balaam, "Am I not your own donkey, which you have always ridden, to this day? Have I been in the habit of doing this to you?" "No," he said. (Numbers 22:28-30 NIV) Would you speak back to a donkey? What amazes me the most about this story of the talking donkey (and I'm not referring to Shrek), is that Balaam answered his donkey like it was a normal conversation. Balaam conversed with his donkey, back and forth, and it appeared not to surprise Balaam. Balaam was a man who believed in the supernatural. He was known for his ability to perform magic, not the entertaining illusionists today, but real supernatural magic. Balaam lived the supernatural. The supernatural was so...

So I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature. Galatians 5:16 (TNIV)   I get on my bike to head to work this morning and I saw I needed to fill up with petrol. I decide to take a different route and fill up in a different location. As I approach the service station a car comes up beside me and I could hear the distinct sound of a flat tyre. I attempted to catch up but they realised there was a problem so they pulled over into the service station where I was heading. Riding close behind, I could plainly see that now the tyre was shredded. I parked my bike and went over to help with another young man who had just come out of the shop.  Together we changed the tyre for this mother and young kids, on their way to school for class photos. We made a good team, perhaps not record time, but worked well together. So I asked myself was this coincidence or was I walking by the Spirit? My worldview allows me to answer; I was walking by the Spirit....