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If we begin with the fact that all of us have sinned and come short of the glory of God, then we would realize that we have much work to do on ourselves and that God also has much work to do in us. There is no doubting the the huge amount of changes to ensue when we receive God in our hearts. Sadly, however, the change we should realize either happens very slowly or not at all because we resist God.

When we receive Jesus Christ as our Lord and Saviour, we begin to look for and adopt Godly principles, even though we could have had some of them before our born again experience. God then uses the Holy Spirit to bring revelations to us or speak through other persons to make us aware of our sins. Our job then is to act upon this new awareness, making every effort to change our wrong or bad ways. Through all of this process we should never cease to go to God in prayer, asking for strength and courage to make these changes or to overcome in some other way . If we fail to invite God into the process then it means that we might not have the change(s) we desire or that in fact we did not really want to change at all .

Many Christians are out there functioning with portions of their Christian life, that need changing, firmly stuck where it is. This is like trying to push back a drawer in place that has a broken guide and therefore gets stuck every time. Like myself, who suffer from impatience and anger issues, there are persons out there suffering from a myriad of issues.

The problem is not the problems themselves, but that we fail to deal with them or in some cases we fail to deal with them effectively. Probably the greatest inhibitors to fixing our issues are pride and the flesh! The flesh says,”curse louder, say the worst things so it will hurt”, then the pride says,”although I am wrong I will not say I am sorry and as a matter of fact I will not speak to that person anymore”. Humility would say, “I know I am wrong so I will apologize and I will repent”. It benefits the Kingdom of Heaven and ourselves when we are humble.

By being unforgiving, we walk around with plenty baggage and instead of pulling persons to us and to God, we drive them away. Many young people have dropped out of learning institutions over the years. Some because of financial problems, some because they have run ins with the law, others give up for no proper reason, while some have been left to languish, unable to complete their education because their parent(s) or guardian have withdrawn their support as chastisement for some error the child may have committed. Young children and young people in general need all the parental support they can get in order to survive. The support we give as a parent should never be to condone wrong doing, but rather to give them enough chance to correct their mistakes and to find a firm footing in life.

If we stop to think, listen and to hear we can all become better persons, better Christians. It is time we start to embrace Godly principles more and make the effort to change.

B.C.

The Israelites or Jews were God’s chosen people and remain that way. The Gentiles would be inclusive of all the other races and nationalities put together.

In Isaiah 5:1-7, God spoke through Isaiah the prophet suggesting that the Israelite nation was His vineyard and that the Jewish people was His choicest vines. So in this text we see where God gave to His people the very best, expecting them to bring forth good grapes, but instead they brought forth wild grapes. God’s action therefore was, and will be to remove the hedge (protection) from around the vineyard (His people) and allow it to be eaten up and trampled down.

Jesus tells us in St.John 15:1-8 that He is the true vine and that God the Father is the Husbandman (farmer). Verse 2 says that God purgeth (prune) every branch that beareth fruit that it may bring forth more fruit and in verses 6-8 Jesus tells us that if we are a non producing branch, we are cut off and burnt.

Paul explains in Romans 11:16-24 that some of the branches (Jews) were broken off the olive tree so that the wild olive tree (Gentiles) could be grafted in amongst them. So it is because of the unbelief of some Jews why the Gentiles was presented with the glorious opportunity of redemption. The Jews however will be grafted in again, if they remain not in unbelief (verse 23). Also see Zechariah 13:1, Romans 11:25-27.

To put things in a little better perspective I will explain basically how grafting is done. a) Rootstock:- it is important to select a proper rootstock (tree to be grafted onto) which has to be sturdy, disease free and from the same family of plants. So for example, orange, tangerine, lime etc. can be grafted on each other. You could also graft one or more different varity of citrus on the same rootstock. b) a bud(s) is then selected to be grafted onto the rootstock. These buds are to be healthy and just at the point where new growth is about to take place. The new buds will grow and bear fruit of the same kind as the tree where it was taken from. The rootstock is there primarily to support the growth of the new buds. New branches will sometimes appear from below where the bud has been grafted on. These must be cut off so as to avoid them crowding out the grafted buds and causing them to die. These branches that grow from the rootstock are called gormandisers.

Jesus is therefore the rootstock (the vine or the olive tree) with the Jews and Gentiles being grafted unto Him. Both Jews and Gentiles are expected to produce for the kingdom of God but after there own kind. None of these should really try to be the other and I don’t believe there is a need to. It is possible for both Jews and Gentiles to become joint heirs of Jesus Christ.

B.C. 28-12-2018.

A sacrifice is an act of giving up something you value for the sake of something that is more important or valuable. This is like Abraham who was willing to sacrifice his only son Isaac because he wanted to be obedient to God, Gen.22:1-12 or like God sacrificing His only Son Jesus Christ so He could have power over sin and death and be glorified. The prophets also sacrificed a lot. Ezekiel ate cakes baked with cow’s dung while lying on his side for over a year to bear the iniquity of Israel and Judah. (Ezekiel 4).

There are also some other types of sacrifices as follows:-

1) The sacrifice of praise – Heb.13:15, “By Him (Jesus Christ) therefore let us offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually, that is, the fruit of our lips giving thanks to His name”. Also Ps.116:17, “I shall not die, but live, and declare the works of the Lord”.

2) The sacrifice of joy – James 1:2, “My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptation”. Ps.27:6, “And now shall mine head be lifted up above mine enemies round about me: therefore will I offer in his tabernacle sacrifices of joy; I will sing, yea, I will sing praises unto the Lord”.

3) The sacrifice of thanksgiving – Ps.100:4, “Enter into his gates with thanksgiving and into His courts with praise: be thankful unto Him and bless His name”.

Anything that we have in our lives that we are unwilling to give up, has great value to us. If they are good things, then by all means hang on to them but if they are bad we must endeavour to get rid of them. Whatever the sin, if we love it enough we will keep it but if we hate it enough we will get rid of it. Having made up our minds to give it up, then it becomes easier to get rid of. After we have given up or gotten rid of a particular sin, it becomes a sacrifice and we get more of God.

It was after the woman in 1Kings 17:12-16 obediently sacrificed her last meal to Elijah, that the miracles started happening in her cupboard. So a sacrifice is when we dare to defy the devil to find joy, praise and thanksgiving to give to God in spite of what our circumstances are saying to us.

Bruce, 12-11-13.

WHILE WE ARE STILL ALIVE, ALL THE PAIN, STRESS AND EMOTIONAL AFFLICTIONS, STILL DOES AFFECT US……………. THOU WE DIE DAILY.

Ezekiel 3:14 states, “So the Spirit lifted me (Ezekiel) up, and took me away, and I went in bitterness, in the heat of my spirit; BUT THE HAND OF THE LORD WAS STRONG UPON ME”. The Spirit of God physically lifted Ezekiel up and took him to the river Chebar where God’s people were being held captive. Ezekiel sat with them seven days, at the end of which God spoke to him the following:- (1) that He had made him a watchman unto the house of Israel, and (2) that He will speak to him and Ezekiel is to warn the people on His behalf. So whether you are watching over a church, people, a city or a country, you need to speak up about what you have seen or heard that has gone wrong, because that is exactly what God wants. The river Chebar represents both a place of captivity and a place where God will speak to you.

Essentially, God wants us to warn the wicked, to warn sinners, to warn His people (Christians) who have turned from righteousness before we pronounce His destruction or cursings upon them. Please spend some time and read Ezekiel 3:18-21. Verse 18 begins “When I (God) say unto the wicked, Thou shall surely die; and thou (Ezekiel) givest him not warning…..”, and it goes on to say that God will hold us responsible when the man dies in his iniquity and was not warned. If however, the man dies in his iniquity and was warned, God will not hold us accountable (verse 19).

Verses 20-21 of Ezekiel 3 suggest that when a righteous man (Pastor, Priest, Prophet or any person of God ) turns from his righteousness and this is seen by the watchman and he says nothing to warn the person, then the persons righteousness shall not be remembered when he dies and the watchman shall be held accountable. If the person is warned however, then the watchman will not be held accountable at the person’s death.

There are too many church leaders out there who consider themselves beyond reproach or rebuke so they have not and probably will not return to righteousness in spite of repeated warnings. God will ultimately consider them reprobates and in the end say to them depart from me, I know you not.

I will summarize Ezekiel chapter 4 on how God used Ezekiel tremendously as a sign to Israel and Judah, and although it must have been extremely difficult, Ezekiel obediently acceded to his Master.

1. God told Ezekiel to take a tile (large flat stone) and to build a miniature (small) version of the city of Jerusalem. He was then to lay siege against it (attack it). This included building a fort against it, casting a mount against it, camping against it, setting battering rams against it, taking an iron pan and setting it between the miniature Jerusalem and himself. All this was to be done as a sign to the house of Israel (in full view of them). This was like a dress rehearsal.
2. God told Ezekiel to bear the iniquity of Israel and Judah as a sign to them. So he was made to lie on his left side 390 days for the 390 years of iniquity for the house of Israel. He then had to lie 40 days on his right side for the 40 years of iniquity of Judah. Ezekiel had to suffer a day for each year of iniquity of both Israel and Judah.
3. Ezekiel then had to besiege Jerusalem by facing it with his arm uncovered while prophesying against it. For the amount of days during which he lay the siege, he could not move from side to side as God had banded him in one position.
4. During the 390 days that he would lie on his side for Israel’s iniquity, he would eat specific amounts of cake baked with cow’s dung and drink specific amounts of water as a sign of how polluted and scarce the food would be while they were among the Gentiles. All this happened because of disobedience, stubborness, idol worshipping, wickedness, rebelliousness, etc. These are some serious precepts of God.