Give your burden to Jesus!

Some years ago I heard a wonderful story of a poor potato farmer who was on his way to market carrying a sack of potatoes on his shoulders to sell that day. As he walked down the road a man on a wagon stopped and offered him a lift, which he gladly accepted. When he had climbed aboard however, he continued to carry the sack of potatoes. The kind stranger told him that he was welcome to lay down the sack of potatoes in the bottom of the wagon but the simple farmer replied, “you are most kind dear sir to offer me a ride on your wagon, but I cannot expect you to carry my potatoes as well so I will keep ahold of them.”

We are quick to see the absurdity of the potato farmers logic and rapid to judge him as being a little ignorant, and yet we Christians are just as guilty of this same flawed logic on a regular basis!

Jesus says in Matthew 11:28, “Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.”, and Psalm 55:22 says, “Turn your burdens over to the LORD, and he will take care of you.” He extends us the generous offer of being able to turn our earthly burdens over to Him and He will take them upon Himself so that we do not need to carry them any longer while on our journey to our final destination, and yet we still insist on carrying them with us, labouring under the strain of weights that wear us down instead of taking Him up on the offer He has freely given us.

This journey that we all undertake on Earth towards our final destination, the Holy City, New Jerusalem, Heaven, can be significantly lightened if we learn the ridiculousness of getting on the Gospel Train that Jesus freely offers us and then continue to carry our sack of burdens on our shoulders.

Do you have troubles? Give them all to Jesus and He will lighten your load and make your journey a wonder and a joy, to be lived and experienced to the full!

“Blessed be the Lord, who daily carries our burden; the God of our salvation.”

(Psalm 68:19)

Atheist logic.

I am faced with a disturbing but recurring problem on a regular basis where militant atheists are saying that “religion” should be banned because it always leads to conflict, war and killing. They say these things as fact, and for people that don't have a firm grasp of history, and real facts, it is easy to get misled into believing this partial and blatantly misleading semi-truth. It certainly is true that people have done awful things in the name of religion, and continue to do so, but is it really religion that is to blame?

I am able to address what the Bible says here because I have a working knowledge of it, but I will refrain from delving into the religious texts of other religions simply because I am not so well versed in their contents.

Jesus came to give us a new and better way to live our lives as humans on this beautiful planet and His message was consistent and clear:
- “You shall love your neighbour as yourself.” (Matthew 22:39)
- “So whatever you wish that others would do to you, do also to them." (Matthew 7:12)
- "Love does no wrong to a neighbour;" (Romans 13:10)
- "Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you" (Luke 6:27)
- “Blessed are the peacemakers" (Matthew 5:9)

So we can conclusively say that any Christian/religious leader that calls for violence in any way against our fellow human beings, regardless of the target of their hatred's personal practices, perceived sins, gender, race, religion, geographic area, ideology or any other reason whatsoever, is just simply 100% wrong! This same principle extends to every individual living on Earth. Without exception.

As far as I know most other religious texts have a similar message of love and tolerance.

So now lets get back to the assertion that religion leads to conflicts and wars. Well all I can say is that it has nothing to do with religion and everything to do with people that are ignorant of what their religion teaches and requires of them. It also has a lot to do with power hungry leaders willing to exploit that ignorance to their own advantage in their quest to expand their power and wealth. People of all religions are mislead into committing all sorts of atrocities against other people including their fellow practitioners. This can all be solved by everybody simply reading and studying their Bible, or whichever religious book they use, and making sure that they are so well versed in it's message that when someone comes to them with a false/fake/misleading message they can see it for the fraud it is and ignore them.

Finally, lets take this one step further and use the same logic the militant atheists use and see where that sort of logic actually gets us.

- About 1 000 000 people were killed during the Crusades, which is 1 000 000 too many and while carried out in the name of Christianity falls under the category of an organisation and various governments using religion for gain. Same again for the 30 years war which had about 3 000 000 casualties.
- Under the communist and atheist rule of Pol Pot in Cambodia approximately 3 000 000 people died out of a population of 8 000 000. That equates to more than a third of the population of Cambodia at the time!
- About 5 000 000 died during the Russian Communist revolution alone. The communists were (and still are) atheist.
- Many sources have approximately 45 000 000 Christians, Jews, Gypsies, ethnic minorities, political dissidents, etc. died under avowed atheist Josef Stalin’s rule. The Russian communists killed many more after Stalin's time too.
- Around 56 000 000 Jews, Christians, Gypsies, homosexuals, political opponents, Allied troops, German troops, and other civilians from many countries were killed because of Hitler waging World War 2. Hitler was an evolution believing pagan/atheist who used Christian terminology to mislead people when it suited him but dabbled in the occult for most of his life.
- Under the communist/atheist rule of Mao Zedong in China the figure is estimated to be as high as 100 000 000! The killing there went on for many years after Mao and in fact it is still quite common for political dissenters and Christians to suffer horrible cruelty and death under communist/atheist rule.

(There is more but these are just the main events.)

So then lets tally this up and see where that gets us:
- Religious/”Christian” caused death toll – 4 000 000 (please note that I have the word Christian in parentheses here simply because I do not believe that the perpetrators of those wars were in fact really Christian at all but simply used and abused Christianity to gain wealth and power)
- Atheist caused death toll – 209 000 000

Conclusion? Using the same logic that “religion” should be banned because it leads to conflict, war and death it becomes very clear that actually atheism should be banned because it leads to and causes significantly more war and death.

Next time an atheist presents this argument to you simply quote these figures and use the same logic on them, but please do it in a spirit of humility and love and also present the message of love, tolerance and mutual respect that Jesus taught us.

Just for the record, I do not believe that atheism should be banned, just as I do not believe any type of religion should be banned. God gave us free will to determine our own destiny on Earth (and eternity) and as such it is impossible and also very wrong to try and legislate righteousness. Rather concentrate on winning the world in the best way possible, which is through being an incredible living, talking, walking example of the love of God, a disciple that has been transformed through the power of Jesus and no longer conforms to the ways of this world!

Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven.

Matthew 5:16 (NKJV)

How can we know if someone is a Christian?

There are many people in this world who proclaim to be Christians and go on to do some very un-Christian like things, much to the consternation of genuine seekers after truth and much to the delight of the militant atheists. There are scores of folks who attend Sunday church services religiously and then from Monday to Saturday proceed to live the exact opposite of what they were taught during the 9am sermon, treating other people in a spirit of pride, beating their wives or engaging in morally questionable practices. There are leaders of countries who proclaim their Christian faith but then go to war at the slightest pretext, allow their security forces to engage in terrible practices, lie about it, and then try to justify those actions when uncovered by the media. There are church leaders who spend years committing adultery (or worse) and seem to have no problem with continuing to preach in the pulpit on Sunday, advising their congregation on issues pertaining to morality. Business owners or MD's who regularly cheat their customers or fuddle their tax returns and yet arrive dutifully every Sunday to the mid morning family service with a WWJD bumper sticker on the rear of their car. And we all know of opposing Christian groups who take up arms against each other and seem to have no problem slaughtering their brethren in Christ to defend their particular favourite doctrine. Or how about Christians killing non Christians or people from other religions simply because they disagree with them? Sadly the list of this kind of terrible behaviour that Christians have perpetrated over the past 2000 years is extensive.

With all of this kind of behaviour happening so often these days it is no wonder that many people today simply do not want to become Christians, they have seen the hypocrisy and want no part of it. Reportedly Mahatma Gandhi said: “I like your Christ, I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ.” What a sad indictment that we Christians have become our own worst enemy, unravelling the work of our Saviour, Jesus Christ, by our words and actions.

Before coming to Sweden I had heard that Swedes were very atheist and that the majority of them had no interest in hearing about God or spiritual matters. However having been here for almost two and a half years I have come to the conclusion that the majority simply dislike the church and “Christianity” (and other religions) while in fact many of them do indeed believe in the spiritual dimension and a higher creative being, but because of the terrible atrocities committed in Europe by the so called “Christian Church” they are very disillusioned and unreceptive to mainstream Christianity. Yet many people here are searching for truth, and when you take it (very) slow with them and get to know them on a personal level I have found that they are nowhere close to being as atheist as is claimed. Actual atheists, as in the rest of the world, are in the minority.

The time has come to show the world the true face of Christianity, to proclaim the true message that Jesus came to deliver by living that message in our daily lives and interactions with others. When Jesus walked this Earth His message and sample was simple, clear and concise: “You shall love your neighbour as yourself”, “Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you”, “whatever you want men to do to you, do also to them”. This message reverberates throughout His teachings and lays the basic groundwork for our lives as Christians. (Matthew 22:39, Matthew 5:44, Matthew 7:12)

Of course Jesus didn't just preach it, He lived it as well by actively seeking out the sinners, the weak in spirit and the outcasts of society, engaging them and winning them to the Kingdom through His acts of all embracing non-judgemental pure unselfish Godly love!

He then took this one step further and said: “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another.” (John 13:34)

How then can we know if someone is a Christian? Well certainly not by whether they attend church or not, and certainly not by whether they tell you that they are Christians or not, and not if they are wearing a large crucifix around their necks and have a cool Christian bumper sticker on the back of their motor vehicle either. No, the only way to tell if someone is the genuine article, the “real deal”, is by their actions! The Cambridge Online Dictionary describes a disciple as “a person who believes in the ideas and principles of someone famous and tries to live the way they do or did:” The time to be cultural Christians, the time to be Christians on Sundays, the time for “playing” Christian, the time for giving our Christianity lip-service only is past. Now is the time to become DISCIPLES, followers of Christ who believe the message and deeds of our incredible leader Jesus and attempt to live it out in our everyday lives!

This will be no easy task to accomplish and when you make that kind of commitment I can guarantee that every conceivable obstacle to reaching that goal will suddenly appear to hinder you in every way possible and cause you to slip and sometimes fall. But I can also guarantee that if you do what you can do with an open and willing heart then God will do the part you cannot do and you will change the world within your sphere of influence. It will take time and you will have to “take up that cross” daily, but the end result will be people who will know that Christianity works because they have seen it with their very own eyes!

My children, our love should not be just words and talk; it must be true love, which shows itself in action.
1 John 3:18 (GNT)

The difference between the Old and the New Testament:

I am sometimes approached by people and asked about the Old Testament and why everything was so brutal, forceful and unloving. Many times people, including some practising Christians, also seem to have a poor understanding of God’s intention during Old Testament times, why would a God of love destroy whole cities, including women and children? Did God change His mind and then ushered in the dawn of the New Testament? Why would God destroy his enemies with plagues, fire and brimstone, and floods in the Old Testament but tell us to love our enemies in the New Testament? These are all very valid questions that deserve an answer because as the Bible itself instructs us we should “be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you…” (1 Peter 3:15)

I have the belief that in these matters one should always keep everything as simple as possible, avoiding long complicated answers with complex doctrine that will lose your intended audience within the first few minutes, so here is my condensed version.

Right from the beginning God had a very different plan for mankind. He created the World and everything in it for our enjoyment and benefit. Within this newly created environment He wanted to live in harmony with the people and they would live within a beautiful relationship of love and harmony with Him in return, and in balance with the Earth and all it contains. Unfortunately due to the influence of a fallen angel, Lucifer, the humans disobeyed God and it went all downhill from that time forwards.

Over time man became more and more “religious” and yet further and further from God. They needed all kinds of laws to try and keep them in check and they still failed. It finally got to the point that for the last 400 years before the arrival of our saviour Jesus Christ no prophets had any meaningful contact with God and there is a silent period where “God’s people” just followed along religiously, observing customs and traditions but were to all intents and purposes spiritually blind.

Then along comes the most wonderful miracle of all, the birth of Jesus who turned all the traditions upside down and proclaimed a new way, a way that was totally foreign to the people who had been in darkness for so many years. He showed them (and us) a way that was closer to the way it had been in the Garden of Eden where we could once more walk with God and have a personal relationship with Him. He proclaimed that now instead of doing it the old way that didn't actually work we should do things a new way where we use love as our guide in all our interactions with God and our fellow human beings. He even went so far as to say that from that time forwards we should love our enemies and pray for them!

This didn't sit well with the religious people who had Him killed at Golgotha to try and stop Him from destroying their religious ways and traditions. But soon after another miracle with His resurrection and the promise of eternal life, followed by His ascension to the right hand of God and the arrival of the Holy Spirit who would be with us, lead and guide us, and complete our new relationship with God!

In a nutshell, the Old Testament showed us that the ways, laws and traditions that man valued so highly simply don’t work and the New Testament shows us a way that does work, the way of love for God and our fellow inhabitants of this glorious planet that God created for us! It even shows us how to treat the people that like us the least.

The unbelievers of our modern world do not believe that Christianity is a real and viable option because they have not seen Christians living the way God intended when ushering in the New Testament of Jesus Christ. Supposed Christian churches have been fighting, bickering and even killing their enemies for so long that the average “wordling” sees only the bad example and not the sample of love that Jesus intended for them to see: “By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another.” (John 13:35)

Dwight L. Moody once said "The only Bible the world reads is the one bound in shoe leather: you and me!" He was so right, and until people see a living breathing sample of a New Testament Christian living the way God intended they will never believe any of what we tell them.

Paul said to the Galatians when he discovered they were trying to go back to Old Testament ways: “Are ye so foolish? Having begun in the Spirit, are you now made perfect by the flesh?” (Galatians 3:3)

So in conclusion, embrace the new ways of the New Testament and use the Old only as a handy reference for seeing how far God has brought us to a better way and relationship with Him and others!

Religion vs. the Grace of God

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth (Genesis 1:1), then over the next few days God made everything that fills our Earth today, including humans. And God looked at everything He had made and saw that it was very good (Genesis 1:31), and He was pleased!

Then God took the humans He had created and put them in a very special place, the Garden of Eden (Genesis 2:8), and He “walked” with them. Life was very good indeed for Adam and Eve, the first humans, and they had an idyllic life in a beautiful paradise.

Their relationship with God was a very personal one. They had first hand access to Him and communed with Him on a “one on one” level. He gave them very few instructions, they had to simply look after the garden, and also not eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil (Genesis 2:15-17). 

Meanwhile, in Heaven there was a very special angel, Lucifer the "son of the morning" (Isaiah 14:12), who it seems was very special indeed, seeing as he was the “anointed cherub”, he also walked in the Garden of Eden and he was considered “perfect” in his ways from when God created him (Ezekiel 28:12-15). Unfortunately he was eventually lifted up in pride (Ezekiel 28:17) and he decided that he wanted to be in charge.

He managed to mislead a third of the angels (Revelations 12:4) into following him in his rebellion against God, but it didn't last long before he was defeated, in fact Jesus said He saw Satan fall as lightning from heaven (Luke 10:18).

It was at some point after this event that Satan then approached Eve in the Garden of Eden and asked her a question. “Has God truly said that you may not take of the fruit of every tree in the garden?” Eve answered that this was true and they could eat of any tree except the tree in the middle of the garden. (Genesis 3:1-3) He employed a very common technique here which is frequently used by salesmen the world over, which is to start with a question that you know the answer to knowing that the respondent will answer in the positive! It’s called a hook.

He then moved to step number two and stated that instead of being a bad thing and leading to death, eating the fruit would in fact be harmless to Eve, and of course to Adam! (Genesis 3:4) He then took it another step further and said that in fact it would be good for them! He played to their pride by telling her that they would become “as gods, and having knowledge” just like God. (Genesis 3:5)

Right here is where “religion” was born!

Since that very day there was a steady decline in the relationship humans have with God. God cast them out of the Garden and into a far less idyllic state and they lost their previous privileged life. (Genesis 3:15-24)

For the next 4000 years humans gradually developed a more and more religious method of regulating their relationship with God, introducing all kinds of laws and traditions. The previous close personal relationship was relegated to only the head priests of the new religious order, making everybody dependent on them and their organisation for all matters of faith in God.

But God had a great plan to restore our relationship with Him by breaking down the barriers that had been put into place and opening up a direct channel to Him once again! He sent Jesus, His Son, who was there with Him from the beginning (John 1:1-3), to defeat the Satan inspired religious order of the day and replace it with something better, something closer to what His original plan called for, so that humans could once again be in a personal relationship with Him!

Because of Jesus and the price He paid for us on the cross we have regained direct access to the wonderful grace of God! Because He paid the price that ensured our freedom we can have the kind of faith that relies directly on God and His Holy Spirit, and we are empowered through His Spirit to teach others about this wonderful good news of the Gospel of Christ, and we can live in wonderful fellowship with other believers!

But that liar and betrayer, Satan, is still around, trying desperately to twist and pervert God’s Word, with the intention of leading as many astray from the mighty Truth of God as he possibly can! And he still uses the same methods, trying to deceive us into falling back into the law filled religious state we were before Jesus supreme rescue mission. He still questions and lies, dividing the church against itself through his deceptions.

The apostle Paul ran into this problem early on and in one account he asks the religious Galatians “O foolish Galatians, who bewitched you not to obey the truth,... Did you receive the Spirit by works of the law, or by the hearing of faith? Are you so foolish? Having begun in the Spirit, do you now perfect yourself in the flesh?” (Galatians 3:1-5)

I have seen so many Christians over the years that start off in the red hot fire of faith, freedom and the Holy Spirit only to end up falling back into the tiresome religious laws that Paul calls a curse. (Galatians 3:10) 

Jesus Himself, when asked which is the greatest law proceeded to sum it all up for us beautifully! He said that we should love God with all our heart, soul and mind. He called this the first and great commandment. (Matthew 22:36-38) Then He said that the second is “like unto” the first, or in other words it’s basically the same as the first, that we should love our neighbours as ourselves. (Matthew 22:39)

He then took the whole thing one step further and struck the final blow against religion when He proclaimed “On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.” (Matthew 22:40)

In this short passage Jesus sums up how He wants us to live our entire lives as Christians, a life dedicated to loving God and others without the restraints of the old obsolete religious order. He truly was the ultimate revolutionary, which is why the religious leaders of the day felt they had to have Him killed in a vain attempt to silence Him and His message of salvation by grace alone.

Romans 13:8 says: "...he who loves another has fulfilled the Law." And Romans 13:10 says: “Love works no ill to its neighbour, therefore love is the fulfilling of the Law.” This all sounds very easy and simple to implement, but I have to say it is a very difficult law to practice! But when we do strive to practice it, I guarantee we will fulfil every one of God’s commandments because if we do all things in love then we will do no harm to others, or ourselves and we will be better fathers, husbands, neighbours and citizens!

Ever since the time that Jesus gave us this “new” law there has been a great battle between those who live free from the restraints of religion/tradition/law, those who live within Jesus wonderful law of love to God and others on the one hand, and the legalistic religious order who still try and keep control of people by attempting to preserve the old laws of “sin and death” on the other hand. (Romans 8:2)

Living our lives governed by the amazing love of God is no easy task, and we are bound to stumble on this incredible journey, but Jesus opened the way for us to take a step closer to the Garden of Eden where we can walk with Him once again unfettered by man's own traditions and laws in personal fellowship with Him until we meet up with Him in person once again. (1 Thessalonians 4:16-17)

I beg you now to choose to live free, and not to try and live once again under the same laws that got us into this religious mess to start off with. Stop trying to become Scribes and Pharisees again; it didn't work out the first time, why would it work now? 

I will leave you with this quote from Paul in Galatians 2:21: “I do not frustrate the grace of God: for if righteousness come by the law, then Christ is dead in vain.” 

Quotes - Prayer

Prayer is the spontaneous response of the believing heart to God. Those truly transformed by Jesus Christ find themselves lost in wonder and joy of communion with Him. Prayer is as natural for the Christian as breathing.
- John MacArthur

Prayer assumes the sovereignty of God. If God is not sovereign, we have no assurance that He is able to answer our prayers. Our prayers would become nothing more than wishes. But while God’s sovereignty, along with his wisdom and love, is the foundation of our trust in Him, prayer is the expression of that trust.
- Jerry Bridges

When thou prayest, rather let thy heart be without words than thy words be without heart.
- John Bunyan

A man may study because his brain is hungry for knowledge, even Bible knowledge. But he prays because his soul is hungry for God.
- Leonard Ravenhill

It is not enough to begin to pray, nor to pray aright; nor is it enough to continue for a time to pray; but we must pray patiently, believing, continue in prayer until we obtain an answer.
- George Muller

Many of us cannot reach the mission fields on our feet, but we can reach them on our knees.
- T.J. Bach

What the church needs today is not more or better machinery, not new organizations, or more novel methods; but men whom the Holy Spirit can use, men of prayer, men mighty in prayer.
- E.M. Bounds

Every saint is God's temple, and he who carries His temple about him, may go to prayer when he pleaseth.
- Augustine

And I say unto you, Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you.

Luke 11:9 (KJV)

Quote - Conversion to Christianity

If conversion to Christianity makes no improvement in a man’s outward actions, if he continues to be just as snobbish or spiteful or envious or ambitious as he was before, then I think we must suspect that his “conversion” was largely imaginary.
- C.S. Lewis

God's Toolbox!

Recently we got involved in a local Church meeting on Thursday evenings to sing and share our testimonies and some Word. They cater mainly to the poor and homeless of a particularly down and out part of Malmö and attract quite a mixed group of people, from ex-druggies, to atheists, to brand new Christians and so on.

As always we started off with some simple songs about trusting the Lord and about His love for us, and it really hit home once again how God’s Spirit can really reach through all the clutter in peoples lives and touch their hearts to just show them the love and understanding that they have so little of in this World. Everybody’s faces lit up with a simple joy that transcends the Earthly and all it’s many and varied troubles. God is GREAT!

The message I shared at the first meeting was one of simplicity, of our nothingness and God’s greatness and how knowing that we are weak can bring us closer to Him and enable Him to work more fully through and in us. You can find the passage I quoted from in 1Corinthians 1:27-29 and I refer to this as “God’s Toolbox”.

Read below and see what God has in His toolbox:
“But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty;
And base things of the world, and things which are despised, hath God chosen, yea, and things which are not, to bring to nought things that are:
That no flesh should glory in his presence.”

You are God’s toolbox, and there are certain things that you need to have in that toolbox in order to be used fully by Him. I will list them here as they appear in the passage above:

1.) Foolish things.
2.) Weak things.
3.) Base/lowly things.
4.) Despised/hated things.
5.) Things which are not/non existent things.

Think on these five things that God can use in us for a while and see how it contradicts everything the World says we need in order to be successful.

- The first is “foolish things”, to confound the wise of this World. It is the simplicity of the Gospel that people have the hardest time to accept as they would rather follow after high-minded complicated theories and philosophies than just humble themselves to believe that “For God so loved the World…” (John 3:16), and that “Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself” (Romans 13:9).

- The second is completely contrary to what is taught at every “recipe for success life skills seminar” that teaches one to be strong, independent and secure in your own abilities. Many teach of the “power that is within” each human and how we can develop that power to become successful. In stark opposition to that God simply tells us to be weak so that He can be strong through us!

- Thirdly the World longs after power, prestige and position while God simply asks that we be “lowly” or humble. He will elevate us if we choose to take His perfect path through life, but if we take the path of pride we are headed towards an uncertain and ultimately unfulfilling and unhappy life.

- Very often as Christians we are in contrast to the people around us by the way we live, the things we say and the moral standpoint we take. Hey, nobody said following Christ was going to be a short and sure route to popularity! It is more likely that folks will hate what you stand for and try to knock you down if they get the chance. When you are in that position, rest assured you are probably doing something right. Of course we should try to “live peaceably with all men” (Acts 25:24), and “have a good report of them which are without” (1Timothy 3:7), so that our lives are a testimony of love and not of judgement, pride and self-righteousness.

- And lastly, non existent things! God doesn’t need you to be a great orator to serve Him. He doesn’t need you to have a doctorate in theology to serve Him. He doesn’t need you to be a “great” person to serve Him. Get rid of all those preconceived ideas and realise that they probably just get in the way of us serving Him unreservedly and effectively. Remember what they said of Peter and John: “Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were unlearned and ignorant men, they marvelled; and they took knowledge of them, that they had been with Jesus” (Acts 4:13). The key is simply that they had been with Jesus, not because of anything of their own.

- The point of all of this is summed up in the last sentence: “That no flesh should glory in His presence.” It is God, and not us that should receive honour and glory in all things. Unfortunately that has been the great pride trap for all people since satan told Eve in the Garden of Eden that “you shall be as God” (Genesis 3:5).

Do you want to be a disciple of Jesus, a person who is surrendered to His will and doing what the Father wants of us every day? Then make sure that you are filled with the five tools that God can use in you, His toolbox!

Quotes - Good Works

We are not made righteous by doing righteous deeds; but when we have been made righteous we do righteous deeds.
- Martin Luther

As the apple is not the cause of the apple tree, but a fruit of it: even so good works are not the cause of our salvation, but a sign and a fruit of the same.
- Daniel Cawdray

Genuine faith must go beyond the mere intellectual assent concerning biblical doctrines. People must let the implications of these doctrines radically affect their hearts so that they respond positively to God with the obedience and works of faith.
- Daniel Fuller

Faith and works should travel side by side, step answering to step, like the legs of men walking. First faith, and then works; and then faith again, and then works again – until they can scarcely distinguish which is the one and which is the other.
- William Booth

A true faith in Jesus Christ will not suffer us to be idle. No, it is an active, lively, restless principle; it fills the heart, so that it cannot be easy till it is doing something for Jesus Christ.
- George Whitefield

An old boatman painted the word “faith” on one oar of his boat and “works” on the other. He was asked his reason for this. In answer, he slipped the oar with “faith” into the water and rowed. The boat, of course, made a very tight circle. Returning to the dock, the boatman then said, “Now, let’s try ‘works’ without ‘faith’ and see what happens. The oar marked “works” was put in place and the boatman began rowing with just the “works” oar. Again the boat went into a tight circle but in the opposite direction.
When the boatman again returned to the wharf, he interpreted his experiment in these strong and convincing words, “You see, to make a passage across the lake, one needs both oars working simultaneously in order to keep the boat in a straight and narrow way. If one does not have the use of both oars, he makes no progress either across the lake nor as a Christian.
- Author Unknown

Even so faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone.
James 2:17

Quote - Faith

"Faith sees the invisible, believes the unbelievable, and receives the impossible."
~ Corrie Ten Boom