littlelaughalot
Sunday, February 18, 2007
The future looks bright!Today's meetings were really great, and helped in some ways to amend a not so nice weekend. Alec posed a question in the morning service..." What is it that made you believe in the first instance that Jesus could help you? " Some of the replies were through seeing what he had done for others...just feeling his presence and being fully aware of him.....of just believing on God's promises..etc and he used the story about the Roman Official who asked Jesus to help his dying son. He had heard how Jesus had helped others, and so had went to Him and asked for help. He also finished with posing another question....When you come before Jesus, are you coming simply just for what you can get....or are you coming out of an act of devotion, to the Son of God who loves you, and died for you?
(if you want to download and listen to Alec's full sermon then look out for it at www.councilofwar.co.uk)
We were all given the miniature edition of "The purpose driven life", with the plan that for the next 40 days we would each take time to go through the thoughts and devotions within this book. In the evening service Andrea said something that really jumped out..and I probably won't be able to word it exactly, but she was asking us what we thought the difference was between a good person and a Christian? What is it that makes us different? She then went on to say that a good person has been shaped by their past...but a Christian is shaped by their future...a future that has been planned for them by God... a future that includes a glorious and wonderful future in heaven that he has already prepared for us.This got me thinking. So many times we allow things in our past to creep into our lives today. We carry around guilt and shame about things that God has already forgiven us for. Instead of claiming his wonderful forgiveness we continue to punish ourselves. We keep letting it get in the way of our todays as well as in the way of our relationship with God. We can't allow ourselves to be shaped by our past.
I think it's wonderful to know that I can never wander so far away that I can never be brought back into God's loving care. There is nothing that I can do to stop God loving me. What a hope...what a promise! I thank God that he has a purpose for me and that my future shapes who I am, as long as I simply trust and allow Him to be part of my life... today!
There is a familiar saying from the phone company Orange.....
"The future looks bright, the future's Orange".....but I can say for sure...that my future looks bright..after all...my future is in God's hands!
Thanks to our officers Alec and Andrea for another challenging day!
