‘Jesus is not ashamed to call [us] brothers and sisters.’
Hebrews 2:11 NIV
1. Every family has its secrets. A cousin with a prison record, or a dad who abandoned the family, or a grandparent who ran off with a co-worker. It may surprise you to know Jesus didn’t come from a perfect family either. The Bible records the details of Jesus’ ancestral lineage
2.. and it includes some flawed characters! There’s Tamar, who tricked her father-in-law in order to seduce him & there’s a white-collar criminal named Jacob who took advantage of his brother & his father-in-law in order to get rich. And how abt King David? One day he’s writing..
3...psalms, and the next day he’s seducing the wife of one of his army officers. The list goes on, and Scripture records it to let you know 2 important truths: 1) You are not unique. If your family tree has damaged fruit, Jesus wants you to know He’s been there! In the absence...
4...of any mention of Joseph’s involvement in Jesus’ adult life, some scholars believe Mary may have raised Him and his siblings alone. And Jesus wasn’t reluctant to call His ancestors family – which means He’s not ashamed of you either.
2) Jesus doesn’t look at your past in ..
5...order to decide your future. In His eyes, spiritual DNA trumps natural DNA! The Bible says: ‘If anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: the old has gone, the new is here! All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of..
6...reconciliation’ (2 Corinthians 5:17-18). So don’t be afraid to tell others that what Jesus did for you, He will do for them when they put their trust in Him.
‘Make full use of the gift that God gave you.’
2 Timothy 1:6 CEV
1. Unless you maintain your enthusiasm, life can wear you down. A job that once challenged you can become monotonous, a relationship that once excited you can grow stale, and a daily walk with God that once inspired you can feel like just going through the motions.
2. The word enthusiasm comes from the Greek word which means ‘possessed by or inspired by God’. But how do you stay inspired? Just as the Israelites gathered fresh manna every morning, you need a daily infusion of God’s Word & God’s Spirit. Paul challenged the Christians in Rome:
‘Look to the LORD and his strength; seek his face always.’
1 Chronicles16:11 NIV
1. To help you remember the 4 parts of prayer, think of the acrostic P-R-A-Y:
P – Praise the Lord! Not sure how? Think you’ll run out of words? Not if you use the Scriptures. David gives us a beautiful example in 1Chronicles 29:11-13. It’s one you can use: ‘Yours, Lord, is the..
2...greatness and the power and the glory and the majesty and the splendour…Yours, Lord, is the kingdom…In your hands are strength and power to exalt and give strength to all. Now, our God, we give you thanks, and praise your glorious name’ (NIVUK).
12 people initially followed Jesus. Then it was 5,000 and then the multitude. In the age of Twitter, that's equivalent to someone having more than 1M followers. The question that has always pricked my mind is - where were those multitude of followers when he was being tried?
My guess is that, some went into hiding but many were also part of those chanting "crucify him, crucify him".
The lesson here is obvious. When you look at your SM following, never think that all those people have your best interest at heart. Understand that while there are a...
....few who genuinely love you and will stick with you no matter what, there are others who are only following just so as to have a front row seat to shout "crucify him", at the time of your life trial's. They may call you master or teacher, but secretly, they're hoping you slip.
1. The words you speak will give you away every time. It happened to Peter. On the night Jesus was arrested and all His disciples scattered, Peter stayed close enough to see what was happening – but not close enough to be identified with Him. The Bible says "Those who stood by...
2...came up and said to Peter, “Surely you also are one of them, for your speech betrays you.” Then he began to curse and swear, saying, “I do not know the Man!” Immediately a rooster crowed. And Peter remembered the word of Jesus who had said to him, “Before the rooster crows,..
During the time of the slave trade between the 15th - 18th century, the enslavers who captured slaves in home raids and sold them off were not the merchant ships from Europe, they were locals who worked for rich and influential people (many of them leaders) in the community.
While the plantation owners in the South of America were the ultimate culprits, there was a value chain of oppressors starting with enslavers to merchant ships to distribution hubs. Granted that the opportunity for profit was there, but if there were no local enslavers, there...
...would not be a slave trade. It is always the tendency of human nature to search for the enemy without. To find someone else to blame for our misfortune. In Africa, what we don't understand, we mystify. So it must be the old witch in the village that is preventing my conception