pastors-blog

5 Dangers of the “Complainer”

Tue, 28 Aug 2012 09:57:23 +0100

You know a complainer? The guy that, no matter what happens, no matter how good a situation, he’s going to find a way to be upset about something. The girl that is constantly down on whatever you, or anyone else, does.

They’re good at tearing people down, discouraging an entire team, and slowing growth. Here’s the reality: there is always something to complain about.

Life is often exceedingly difficult. Organizations are often in decline. Things seemingly couldn’t get worse.

If we’re honest with ourselves, “complainers” put words to the thoughts racing through our heads. But there’s a difference in having a thought and acting on it. A difference in having a thought and fleshing that out for everyone to join in with you. A difference in keeping a thought to yourself and recruiting others to moan with you. *

No matter where you are in life, you’ll find complainers.

At family gatherings.
At church.
At conferences.
On vacation.
On Facebook.
By text message
By email
By phone calls
By twitter updates.

Complainers need a hug. They need to be told that it’s going to be okay. They need to be reminded that God is in control, and that he’s a good, loving, kind God. But they don’t need to be put in the role of director/leader, no matter the size or structure of your organization. In fact, it’s incredibly dangerous for your organization if these people are put into director/leader roles.

5 Dangers of a Complaining Team Member

1. They’ll drag the whole team down with them.

Before you know it, your organization will be full of doubting, complaining naysayers who see nothing but doom and gloom. Complainers are great recruiters.

2. They compromise your vision.

They ratchet up the negative aspect of the vision God’s placed in your heart, and if you’re not careful, you are pulled into the vortex of their negativity, and your once-clear vision becomes muddied.

3. They’ll not perform their job well.

They’ll be focused on the difficult parts of their job, and be distracted from the good, positive aspects.

4. They’ll not help your organization move forward.

Stuck on past failures and current challenges, they’ll not be challenged to press forward and find new, innovative solutions.

5. They’re never satisfied.

As soon as something goes their way, they’ve found another situation to complain about. They’re toxic even in the best of times. Nothing you can do will satiate their desire for more complaints. Everything you do fuels their fire.

Nip complaining in the bud. It’s a heart issue, reflective of a heart that doesn’t rest soundly in the goodness and power of God. And it’ll rot your team from the inside out.

Don’t let complainers be directors.

Do everything without grumbling or arguing, so that you may become blameless and pure, “children of God without fault in a warped and crooked generation.” – Philippians 2:14-15

* I’m not naive. I can be honest when personal, and organizational, change needs to happen. I’m not contending that you should mask all problems with a smile. I’m making the argument that constant complainers are toxic.

Source: Life and Theology

January 20, 2012 By Ben Reed

John C. Maxwell: Climb Out of That Rut. If you're treading water, these five steps will help ...

Thu, 12 Jul 2012 17:32:19 +0100

Have you ever felt stuck? Like you couldn’t get where you wanted to go? That you couldn’t break free of the confines of your current situation? When you couldn’t move up to the next level? Maybe you were in a rut, and maybe you feel like you’re in one now.

If that’s the case, you need to be willing to do something about it. Why? Because as writer Ellen Glasgow said, “The only difference between a rut and a grave is their dimensions.” If you allow yourself to stay in a rut too long, it could mean the slow death of your dreams. Nobody wants that.

If you’re in a rut and you want to break out of it, then I encourage you to take the following advice:

1. Accept responsibility for your own life.

I believe it is human nature to look elsewhere for the source of our difficulties, but the truth is that the older you are, the more responsible you are for your circumstances. True, many things are out of our control, and bad things do happen to good people. But we also make choices every day that contribute to our conditions.

Michael Korda, former Simon & Schuster editor in chief, observed, “Success on any major scale requires you to accept responsibility.… In the final analysis, the one quality that all successful people have… is the ability to take on responsibility.”

Think about your life; where are you shirking responsibility or playing the victim? Have you blamed others for bad choices you made? Are you failing to follow through on anything that you know you should be doing? Are you doing things that you should never have agreed to do?

Take time to examine your life and how you’re spending it. Where can you take responsibility to make changes—even if your past choices haven’t led to your present predicaments? Getting out of a rut begins with the acknowledgement you must make the choices to do so.

2. Know where you want to be.

I have known a lot of people who hoped and dreamed of being successful, but their goals never become more specific than that. Hope is not a strategy. To quote baseball great Yogi Berra, “If you don’t know where you want to go, you might end up someplace else.”

You must define where you want to go in life; it’s not a guarantee you will reach your goals or achieve your dreams, but if you don’t define them, it’s almost guaranteed that you won’t.

You’re going to spend your life doing something. It might as well be what you really want to do. Have you given yourself a target? Have you written out your goals and described your dreams? If not, you need to.

3. Divide your dream into manageable parts.

One thing that often paralyzes people is having a dream or even a big goal with no realistic way of achieving it. How do you solve that? By breaking it down into bite-sized pieces that you accomplish with focused effort.

Motivational expert Tom Hopkins advised, “Take it in steps. If you’ve never made more than the minimum wage, don’t aim for a half-a-million-dollar goal the first year in selling or with a new company. Always aim for the earnings level that excites you a lot and only scares you a little.” And figure out the smaller steps necessary to get there. Break it down from your dream, to major goals, to intermediate steps, to annual goals, to monthly or weekly steps, and on down to what you need to do today.

4. Take action today.

Now you’ve arrived at the next step: taking action. As Benjamin Franklin said, “Well done is better than well said.” All the dreaming, hoping, planning and goal-setting in the world won’t do a thing for you if you never follow through.

Says producer-director Brandon McCormick, who owns the Atlanta-based boutique film company Whitestone Motion Pictures: “I meet artists all the time who learn about Whitestone and say, ‘I’m a director’ or ‘I’m a writer’ or ‘I’m a composer,’ but they don’t actually make anything. It’s very frustrating. At Whitestone, we’re a community of artists and artisans who actually make things.”

McCormick and team follow through. They take action. They make films, starting small and getting better as they go. As I write this, McCormick has 19 producer credits and 15 director credits on IMDb.com. And he’s only 28 years old!

What kind of action can you take today that will start moving you out of your rut and take you one small step closer to your dream? It doesn’t have to be a big step. It doesn’t even necessarily have to be a significant step. It just needs to be a step in the right direction.

5. Grow into your tomorrow.

While the steps you take today don’t need to be earth-shattering, you don’t want every step forward to be small and insignificant. You want your steps to be progressively bigger, smarter and more strategic. The only way I know to make that happen is to be intentional about getting better every day.

In my new book The 15 Invaluable Laws of Growth: Live Them and Reach Your Potential (in bookstores the first week of October), the last law, the Law of Expansion, says, “Growth always increases your capacity.” Tenure won’t make you better. Experience isn’t any guarantee of success. Having the best resources doesn’t automatically help you improve. The only thing that guarantees that you will be better tomorrow is growing today.

If you don’t have a highly intentional plan for personal growth, you might get out of today’s rut and dig yourself a new one tomorrow. Don’t do it. If you keep getting better, keep climbing higher, you’ll never find yourself stuck—at least, not for long.

My one final piece of advice is to tell you to get help. Too often we are so embarrassed about where we are that we become afraid of admitting to someone else that we’re stuck. That shouldn’t be. There’s no shame in getting stuck—only in staying that way when you have a choice to change.

There have been times that I’ve had to ask others to give me a hand to move forward when I couldn’t figure out how to do it. And there have been times when others have asked for my help. That’s the way it ought to be. I believe that God put us on this earth to help one another.

Reference: Success Magazine

http://www.success.com/articles/1866-climb-out-of-that-rut

More churches praying earnestly for revival

Thu, 12 Apr 2012 20:40:37 +0100

Since last September 28 Cape Town churches and 24/7 prayer watches have been engaging in earnestly seeking God for a spiritual awakening in Cape Town, reports Daniel Brink of Jericho Walls International Prayer Network.

Every church took one or more weeks to spend the whole week seeking God day and night. Most of these churches covered at least 12 hours per day, mostly in physical prayer rooms, he says in a newsletter update.

In one community three churches have done two cycles of 21 days. When you ask them why, they simply respond with deep desire for God to touch their community. This hunger for revival is increasing all over the country, says Brink.

One of the 24/7 leaders testifies: “In our community people never talked about God in public. Even five years ago this seemed very strange. Today you sit in a coffee shop with people all around you sharing with one another of what God is doing in their lives.”

A spokesman for a Cape Town church doing its second 24/7 week since September reports: “
People from our congregation responded in a positive way as well as believers from other denominations. There was a slight decrease in attendance this time, but the spiritual atmosphere was high.

“God confirmed His presence again and refreshed, revived, and strengthened His people in a definite way. About 16 hours per day were covered in prayer and worship. Frequent testimonies were that God stirred a hunger and a thirst for Himself in our hearts. So much so that some would come back every day for more of His presence and revelation of Himself in their lives.

“The result of this week of day and night prayer led to the leadership’s decision to establish a permanent 24/7 prayer room in the existing building. Today we can say with confidence, that our God is good and able and our prayer room is up and running. All are welcome to seek the Lord in this place whether in the day or the night.”

Jericho Walls encourages churches in all areas to join the movement to pray continuously for revial in South Africa. You can register your local church by sending an e-mail to Liezel at cape@jwipn.com , requesting more information and practical guidelines.

A people-centred National Budget

Mon, 27 Feb 2012 22:46:38 +0100

February 27 2012 at 09:00am

By Ray McCauley

For some, the 2012 Budget, delivered by Minister Pravin Gordhan on Wednesday, marked the end of the State of the Nation address period that was opened by President Jacob Zuma on February 9. I would argue to the contrary. It marks the beginning of the work.

Two weeks ago, Zuma outlined a bold and ambitious programme to, among other things, develop infrastructure across the country that will deal with the triple challenge of unemployment, inequality and poverty.

The president was very clear, simple and yet profound in the vision he put on the table: “We want to see cranes, we want to see workers on every corner, we want to see dams, bridges, roads, railway lines mushrooming around the country.

“We want to see infrastructure that enables the rural areas to have water, electricity and roads. We want to see an improved quality of life for all.”

While we appreciate the president’s transformative plan, it is its implementation, more that the articulation thereof, that will impact on the lives of ordinary people and change the landscape of the country and economy. Hence, I say the work has just begun. The real test is going to be in the implementation, lest we reduce the State of the Nation to a hollow national ritual, during which promises are made but never implemented.

Over the years we have seen our government come up with good policies, programmes and plans, but it has failed badly to implement those plans.

It was with this in mind that I listened to Minister Gordhan’s Budget speech on Wednesday. Many of us were waiting to hear where the money was going to come from to realise the country’s ambitious infrastructure plans.

The minister outlined various ways in which the country’s major infrastructure projects will be funded. These will include the fiscus and internally generated surpluses and borrowing by our state-owned enterprises.

It was a stroke of genius that the burden of funding these infrastructure projects was not passed on to citizens directly through higher taxes.

Of course, public entities like Eskom may need to increase tariffs to generate revenue to repay their debts over time – the president’s request to Eskom in this regard notwithstanding.

But where I would like to particularly welcome the Budget is in its continued people-centred approach. Out of a national expenditure of R1.06 trillion, about R615.7 billion will go towards social services – education, health, social protection, housing and community amenities. This should be welcomed.

The national Budget should be used as an instrument to alleviate poverty and encourage a more balanced growth through strengthening our social security system, increasing and improving housing and community amenities, implementing a basic national health-care system and enhancing food security.

Indeed, the Budget should cushion the vulnerable among us against harsh socio-economic conditions. That would establish a firm foundation for human development.

Our people need shelter, education, health and food for them to fully realise their potential. SA has lost many potential doctors, engineers, accountants, lawyers and skilled workers because the majority of its children were deprived these basic social rights.

Full points to the minister for continuing to target those areas with the greatest social and, in the long run, economic return. While I appreciate the big spending on big projects, it was the Budget’s focus on the “softer” areas that particularly appealed to me.

This includes the R105bn to social grants paid out to about 16 million South Africans.

The critics will argue that we are encouraging a nanny state.

I will counter by saying this is the price we are paying for apartheid policies. Had people been given education opportunities and skills, we would not have an army of able-bodied young men and women who depend on the state for survival. Yes, in the long run, we must get them off the welfare system by equipping them with skills so that they can fend for themselves. But, for now, they are our collective responsibility.

I was also particularly pleased with the priority Gordhan placed on early childhood development. The R1.4bn allocated over the next three years for early childhood development through an in-house and community-based programme should mainly be welcomed by the religious community, for there lies an opportunity to partner with the government in assisting orphans and child-headed families. About 10 000 youth workers will be employed in this programme.

Talking about the youth, I observed how emphatic the minister was every time he touched on the plight of our young people.

I fully agree with him when he says: “We cannot view the fact that 42 percent of young people between the ages of 18 and 29 are unemployed as merely a statistic.

“Young men and women in cities, informal settlements, towns and villages may not have jobs, but have skills in life. They possess the awareness and the ability to learn, they drive fashion and inspire with their music, yet they know their local traditions. And they have hope, and look to us to give meaning to that hope.”

In this regard, the issue of the R5bn youth employment subsidy must be finalised by the partners at Nedlac. We cannot have the employed standing in the way of hundreds of thousands of unemployed youth. And the youth themselves, not just the unions and business, must be heard on this matter.

On the whole, a good State of the Nation address by the president and a good Budget by the minister, but the proof of the pudding will be in the implementation.

Therefore, we call upon all government spheres to ensure that the work starts now – the time for promises and talking has long passed. Our people can no longer wait for services to be provided to them. People have being waiting for too long and it is time to deliver the services to our people.

Ref: http://www.iol.co.za/the-star/a-people-centred-national-budget-1.1243002

The True Sign of Leadership

Sat, 01 Oct 2011 10:50:38 +0100

To be a leader, you must first learn how to serve. Servanthood is a true sign of discipleship. Getting yourself prepared for the role of a servant is easy. To begin, you must surrender and submit, starting with God first, giving Him your all. He can then teach you the fundamentals of servanthood.

Jesus was a great example of a servant. He submitted Himself to God as a servant. He led the disciples into a lifestyle of a servant and He then told them to teach all He had taught them (Matthew 28:19-20). He served many who were sick. He served many that were hungry. He served! (Mark 10:42-45).

Today, look for opportunities to be used by God. Do as your Lord Jesus and serve in your community. Look for every moment to be used to help build The Kingdom of God. This is a new day and a great opportunity to hear God say, “I am pleased.”

The laborers are few (Luke 10:2) but, there is plenty going on in the vineyard; it’s harvest time! Find your place and give it your all. God will train you and build you up for the task. Your gift will make room for you (Proverbs 18:16). If you take the first step by faith, He will guide you the rest of the way. Don’t allow fear and mistrust to stop you from moving forward. Put all of your trust in God and He will connect you to the right people at the right time. Remember, there are more for you than against you (2Kings 6:16). Serve your Father to the utmost!

Scripture Of The Day: “For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” – Mark 10:45 (NIV)

from;

Many Are Called By Apostle Gina Prince

Topic: Serving Others

http://www.streamingfaith.com/index.php/prayer/devotionals/many-are-called/

Soul Winning: The Great Commission

Mon, 29 Aug 2011 20:59:52 +0100

Expanding the kingdom of God is the Lord’s number-one priority, and this happens when Christians embrace the call to win souls. The kingdom is comprised of Believers who take over territories and reclaim what the devil has stolen—human lives. The more people we have in the kingdom of God, the greater the impact we will make on this world. Jesus has commissioned every Believer to preach the kingdom of God to people and win lost souls. We should look for opportunities to fulfill this call every day.

In Luke 4:43, Jesus tells us exactly why He came to the earth, “I must preach the kingdom of God…for therefore am I sent.” He came to share the good news of God’s way of doing and being right so people could have access to a system that supersedes the world. In Luke 19:10, He says: “For the son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost.” Jesus came to save the lost! As Christians, we should have a desire to see people get saved and be willing to share the Gospel whenever we have the chance.

A lot of people are nervous about witnessing to people because they are afraid of what the person’s reaction may be. Nobody wants to be rejected, but the reaction of the person God wants you to minister to should not be your concern. Many times, the people God leads you to already want to receive Jesus, and some are not. Regardless of the response, you can be confident that sharing God with people is a seed that will be watered by someone else. At the end of the day, God is the one who gives the increase. You never know how your obedience could be the catalyst for change in someone’s life.

I often think of the people who spoke to me along the way in my life, prior to becoming a pastor. I am eternally grateful for the guy who took the time to share Jesus with me. We should all be thankful for those who were bold enough to share the Gospel with us. Where would we be right now if others had not allowed themselves to be used by God to speak into our lives?

Proverbs 11:30 (The Amplified Bible) says something so powerful about soul winning, “The fruit of the [uncompromisingly] righteous is a tree of life, and he who is wise captures human lives [for God, as a fisher of men—he gathers and receives them for eternity].” The Bible says that not only is the soul winner wise, but he also has an eternal reward for capturing lives for the kingdom. Daniel 12:3 also paints a beautiful picture of the soul winner: “And they that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament; and they that turn many to righteousness as the stars for ever and ever.”

Every time we initiate the assignment to preach the Gospel, we enlist the forces of heaven to work with us. We can be confident that the Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit, and the angels are moving on our behalf when we purpose to share Jesus with the people with whom we come in contact. Many times, the soul winning God calls us to do is in everyday situations. It could be the waitress who serves you in your favorite restaurant or the person sitting next to you on an airplane flight. You may have family and friends whom God will give you the opportunity to minister to. Remain alert to opportunities you see to share the good news. Don’t be afraid to step out on faith, knowing that when it comes to winning souls, God is always with you.

Witnessing to people about Jesus is not an option for the Christian who is committed to the kingdom of God; it is a mandatory assignment from God. We possess the love of God, which is His power. When others see and perceive that love flowing from our lives, they will want to know more about the God we serve. Let Him use you for His purposes by winning souls into the kingdom!

By Dr. Crefflo A. Dollar

Be Done With Sin

Sat, 18 Jun 2011 14:28:59 +0100

Answering the call to Christ requires a willingness to lay aside the sin in our lives for the sake of having a thriving relationship with the Lord. Many times Christians try to hold onto areas of their lives they know God wants them to be done with because they enjoy the pleasure of sin. However, refusing to get the sin out of our lives blocks the flow of God’s blessing and gives the enemy free reign in our circumstances. We cannot operate in our true authority when we’re in sin, nor can we please God. For this reason, we must make a quality decision to choose to obey God rather than indulge our flesh.

Sin is damaging to our lives on so many levels. Romans 6:23 says, “For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.” Sin inevitably leads to death. It is not a question of if, but when. Even though physical death doesn’t immediately take place, when we get into sin and don’t repent, something in our lives begins to die, beginning with our relationship with God. When fellowship with God is disrupted, we’re cut off from the power we need to be victorious.

Matthew 5:8 reads, “Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God.” Being pure in heart means having an inward spiritual condition free from the pollution of this world, and is governed by the Word of God. It is being holy, which means being of one mind with God. Purity is the character of Jesus, and as His disciples we are to exhibit purity in thought, word, and deed. Holiness is imperative if we want to have uninterrupted fellowship with the Father and be tools by which He can flow His power to impact others’ lives. Here are seven reasons why we should eradicate sin from our lives:

If we want to make it to heaven, we must get rid of sin.
If we want to see God, we must not sin.
If we want to be a vessel of honor in the hands of God, we must not sin.
If we want to enjoy complete dominion over Satan, we must not sin.
If we want to enjoy peace with God, we must not sin.
If we want to enjoy all the blessings of redemption, we must not sin.
If we want to be under the mighty anointing of the Holy Spirit, we must not sin.

So how do we root sin out of our lives as Christians? We do this by embracing sanctification. Sanctification is the act of being set apart for God’s purposes. It’s something that we must actively pursue in our everyday lives. When we pursue sanctification it means we make choices in line with the Word when faced with temptation. It also involves developing the spiritual disciplines necessary to keep ourselves free from sin such as prayer and meditating on God’s Word.

Second Corinthians 7:1 says, “Having therefore these promises, dearly beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God.” We must cleanse ourselves of filthiness of flesh and spirit, which means actively using the Word of God to root out sinful behavior and thoughts. According to Hebrews 4:12, the Word is quick and powerful and has the power to eradicate sin when we apply it on a regular basis.

First Thessalonians 5:23 says, “And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.” God wants us to be sanctified in all three levels of our being—spirit, soul, and body. When we consecrate and dedicate our lives to the Lord, giving Him every part of us, we please Him and position ourselves to be used mightily by Him.

Sometimes people aren’t delivered from sin because they don’t want to be. However, if we truly want to please God, we must hate sin and desire to root it out of our lives no matter what. If you haven’t already, ask God to reveal areas of your life where a particular sin has gotten a foothold. God is committed to your deliverance! Trust Him to help you overcome temptation and live a pure, holy life before Him. Apply the blood of Jesus and the Word of God to strongholds and tempting situations and have faith that sin can’t stand up to power of the Word working in you. You have the power to win over sin!

Article by Dr. Creflo Dollar

Ref: http://www.creflodollarministries.org/BibleStudy/Articles.aspx?id=410

7 Things To Do To Boost Your Metabolic Rate and Burn Your Body Fat Naturally

Fri, 06 May 2011 14:20:22 +0100

What are the best ways to burn fat? If you’ve been wondering how to burn fat fast, you’ve probably noticed that there’s plenty of conflicting advice out there, and in truth, there is no one single best method that will work for everyone, since we all have different body types. That said, the following steps form the core of a good fat burning program, and should be followed if you want to burn fat fast:

Build Muscle Mass Strength - Training builds lean muscle tissue, which burns more calories at work or at rest, 24 hours a day, seven days a week. The more lean muscle you have, the faster your metabolism will be. How do you start strength training? Try some push-ups, or a few squats or lunges. Use 5 lb. free weights to perform simple biceps curls or triceps pulls. Do these exercises three to four times per week, and you'll soon see a boost in your metabolism as well as an improvement in your physique.
Do Not Skip Meals or Drastically Reduce Your Caloric Intake - If your body senses that food is in short supply, it will slow your metabolism to conserve energy. Over time, the result is that when you do eat (even if you consume the same foods as always) your body will be slower to use the calories as fuel, thus creating a backlog of unwanted pounds. A good strategy is to cut your caloric intake by no more than 500 calories per day and never less than 1200 calories total each day. Once you determine your goal for calorie consumption, divide those calories into 6 different small meals/snacks through out the day.
Increase the Amount of Protein in your Diet - Most researchers agree that protein helps to stabilize the secretion of insulin into your blood stream, a process that can affect metabolism. The average person would benefit from protein intake at a minimum of 70 grams or higher each day.
Aerobic Workout 3 Days a Week - Even though exercise doesn't affect your RMR, the extra calories you burn could add up to an additional 1-2 pounds of weight loss per month.
Increase Movement in Daily Lifestyle - The more you move, the more you burn! You can actually make a significant addition to the number of calories you burn each day by relatively minor changes in lifestyle. This can be as simple as taking the stairs instead of the elevator; park a distance from the mall or office; window-shop with your best friend rather than sit over coffee; walk the dog instead of just let him out; do a little gardening or clean house while you talk on the phone. Making these types of changes for just 20 minutes of your day will cause you to burn an additional 100 calories per day or an additional pound per month. Making more of these changes can help you burn as much as an additional 1,000 calories per day!
Go For an Evening Walk - Although exercising any time is good for you, evening activity may be particularly beneficial. Many people's metabolism slows down toward the end of the day. Thirty minutes of aerobic activity before dinner increases your metabolic rate and may keep it elevated for another two or three hours. What that means for you: those dinner calories have less of a chance to take up permanent residence on your hips!
Get Adequate Sleep - As funny as it sounds, sleep deprivation may make you fat and not just because you're susceptible to cases of the late-night munchies. According to researchers at the University of Chicago, women who got less than four hours of sleep per night had a slower metabolism than those who slept for a full eight hours.

What about supplements? Diet supplements that claim to increase your metabolism have flooded the marketplace. Our advice is to beware. Stimulants (such as caffeine, ephedrine, nicotine, and others) have not been clinically proven to increase metabolic rates. It may be that they stimulate a person to simply be more active, which then burns more calories. Some of these products can be harmful and we do not recommend their use. Hot peppers (specifically jalapeno and cayenne) may increase your body's release of stress hormones such as adrenaline, and may stimulate you to burn more calories. Green tea drinkers were shown to burn an extra 70 calories per day in a recent study. Researchers believe the increase is caused by antioxidants known as catechins.

Reference:

http://www.korr.com/solutions/metabolic_boost7.htm

Other References:

Our facebook page

More References:

http://www.annecollins.com/raise-metabolism.htm

http://www.fatlosschoices.com/75/how-to-raise-your-metabolism-7-easy-tips/

http://www.fatlosschoices.com/504/how-to-repair-a-damaged-metabolism/

EXPLORING CHRISTIANITY

Wed, 27 Apr 2011 08:52:20 +0100

INTRODUCTION

I have posted this article mainly because of the subject i have been requested to address or deal with as a guest speaker in our monthly Mamelodi Inter-denomination Fellowship coming on the 1st of May 2011 at 2pm.

Due to the vastness or depth of this subject, i realise it will be hard for me to exhaust the the subject in an hour on the pulpit, therefore, here, i am providing the reader with in-depth study and some useful links at the bottom that will take you through sites that deal more with such a topic. This subject deals mainly with Christianity Vs other Beliefs or religions. On Sunday, I will be focusing more on Christianity Vs Alternative lifestyles, thus covering all about Why Christianity. All the best and i am looking forward to the upcoming service on the 1st of May. Pray for me and for the organisors of this due fellowship in Mamelodi.

With so many Religions, why Christianity?

The story is told of a social worker in Nigeria who once visited a youth in one of the back streets of Lagos. On his bedside table he found the following books: the Book of Common Prayer (of the Anglican Church), the Muslim Koran, three copies of Watchtower (the magazine of the Jehovah's Witnesses), a biography of Karl Marx, a book of yoga exercises, and - maybe what he needed most - a popular paperback entitled How to Stop Worrying!

When faced with the multitude of religions in the world today, all claiming to believe the truth, it is no wonder that many people are confused. The number of followers of each of the four major religions (Christianity, Islam, Hinduism and Buddhism) run into hundreds of millions. Only about sixteen percent of the world's population is classed as "non-religious". So if we want to know the truth about God, where do we start?

There are various ways of approaching this problem. One way is to retreat into indifference: "How can we possibly know anyway? Maybe they have all got it wrong! Let's wait until death to find out who was right - that is, if there is indeed anything on the other side." Another approach is to assume that all religions are equally valid. It doesn't really matter which we believe as long as we believe in something (or Someone). A cynical historian once said that, to the populace all religions were equally true; to the philosopher all were equally false; to the politician all were equally useful!

The problem with both these approaches is simply that they are assumptions. They are not based on any factual evidence, and assumptions have a nasty habit of proving to be wrong. Maybe all religions do not all lead to God, or heaven, any more than all roads lead to Rome. After all some roads lead to London, or New York, or Timbuktu. Even a superficial study of the world's religions will reveal that they not only teach very different things about God (or gods) but also about how you get on side with him (or her, or whatever) - or whether it is even necessary to get on side with him! Sincerity in our search is essential, but it is possible to be sincerely wrong.

The purpose of this booklet is to assist those who wish to take a third approach, which I suggest is a better one. That is, to start with another assumption, that if God does exist then he would want us to know the truth and has given us ways of finding it out. It is a fundamental doctrine of Christianity that God is longing to reveal himself to us and wants to enter into a loving relationship with us. He also gave us minds to be used. If you start with these assumptions and do some sincere inquiring and still don't find this God, than at least you are no worse off. However, I am hopeful that you will be pleasantly surprised.

Beginning the search

A very good starting point in searching for the truth, if you can do so honestly, is to pray a prayer something like this:

God, I don't know much about you, but if you are really there I would like to get to know you. I am sincerely prepared to do some honest thinking about you and I want you to guide me in my search for the truth. I am prepared to follow wherever that truth might lead.

It is important to respect each person's right to formulate their own beliefs, even if those beliefs may be wrong. For that reason I do not wish to criticise any other religion. However, in order to make a choice we must be clear about the differences. Each religion has certain things that are distinctive to that particular religion. In this booklet I have chosen six areas which are distinctive to Christianity. As we go through I will point out some differences with other religions. You, the reader, must decide where you go from there. The six areas I will be looking at concern:

The character of its founder, Jesus
Its analysis of our real problem
Its answer to our problems
The way by which we receive forgiveness
The victory it offers over death and evil
The kind of commitment it asks of us as followers

The character of its founder, Jesus

Sundar Singh came to Christianity from the Sikh religion. He travelled around India and overseas, preaching the gospel. The story is told how, at a youth conference, he was questioned by some young people who wanted to know why he had turned to Christianity. What was it that made him change? He said, "My reason for changing was Jesus Christ." They then asked what Christianity offered that his mother's religion did not offer. His simple answer was, "Jesus Christ." They tried another direction and asked what the central doctrine of Christianity was. Again he answered, "Jesus Christ."

What is unique about Jesus Christ? One of the best short summaries about Jesus in the New Testament is found in the first three verses of the letter to Hebrews: "Long ago in many ways and at many times God's prophets spoke his message to our ancestors. But now at last God sent his Son to bring his message to us. God created the universe by his Son, and everything will someday belong to the Son. God's Son has all the brightness of God's own glory and is like him in every way. By his own mighty word he holds the universe together. After the Son had washed away our sins, he sat down at the right side of the glorious God in heaven."

This passage tells us that God is distinct from his creation and yet has chosen to communicate with us, his created beings. Sanatan Dharma, orthodox Hinduism, believes that the ultimate reality is essentially unknowable and that all religions of the world are mere guesses at truth. This is a common view. The celebrated agnostic, Herbert Spencer, maintained that no one has ever been known to penetrate the veil which hides the mind of the Infinite. The Infinite could not be known by finite minds, therefore his agnosticism was secure. (The word "agnostic" comes from a Greek word meaning "not to know" - the Latin equivalent is "ignoramus"!)

All this sounds perfectly reasonable. However, it ignores the question of whether God may choose to make himself known to us. This is exactly what Christianity claims he has done. Christianity is therefore a revealed religion. It is about God revealing himself to us in historical acts, through chosen people, and supremely in the person of Jesus Christ. It is the story of God's search for us, not our search for God. A Japanese, Susuma Uda, says:

Whenever sight is lost of the Biblical revelation, people's religious imagination will end up eventually blending either God and nature (Shinto) or God and self (Buddhism).

The blending of God and self is also very apparent in New Age teaching.

The above passage from Hebrews also tells us that God's most complete revelation of himself is through a historical person, Jesus Christ. He is often spoken of as the "Son of God" in the New Testament. This Jesus is not only the one through whom God created the universe and who now sustains it; he is also described as "like him in every way". This is just one of a number of places in the New Testament which emphasise that Jesus shares the very nature of God, who exists as the three Persons of Father, Son and Holy Spirit. In other words, in the person of Jesus, God himself has visited this planet. As John puts it, he "became a human being and lived here with us" (John 1:14)*.

In entering into our experience Jesus became fully human. In the New Testament, the four Gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John tell us the story of his life on earth. A good starting point in our search for the truth is to read one of these gospels through and see the picture they give of Jesus. We see there a wide range of both his divine and human qualities. He grew up normally from a child to adulthood. He attended the wedding feast in Cana and mingled with the guests, rejoicing with those who rejoiced. At that same feast he turned the water to wine revealing his divine glory (John 2). As a tired and thirsty traveller he rested by the well in Samaria, but as the divine Saviour he told the Samaritan woman the secret sins of her life (John 4). He wept at the tomb of Lazarus, but then declared his authority as the Giver of Life by raising Lazarus from the dead. He suffered desertion, betrayal and an agonising death, but was proved to be the divine Lord by his resurrection from the dead.

This appearance of the Creator God in history, as one who is both fully human and fully divine, is unique to Christianity. Jesus is a very different figure from the Buddhist bodhisattvas, enlightened beings who have postponed their own ultimate escape from suffering after many reincarnations, and have chosen rebirth to serve humanity. The Dalai Lama believes that Jesus Christ is the highest bodhisattva. However, the Bible presents him as the creator of the universe and the one to whom all authority in heaven and earth is given.

Jesus is also very different from Hindu avatars. These are beings who are said to have appeared at various times in human history. The most important, in terms of devotion accorded to them, are Krishna and Rama. They are incarnations of the god Vishnu, one of the most prominent of the many named gods of Hinduism. The Christian claim, however, is that God has revealed his true character fully and finally in the person of Jesus Christ. "For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form" Colossians 2:9). "We know that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding, so that we may know him who is true...He is the true God and eternal life" (I John 5:20).

If this is true, then it presents a problem in relation to other religions. This is highlighted in the ministry of a well-known missionary in India, Dr. E. Stanley Jones. Jones often lectured to Hindu audiences having Hindus as chairmen of the meetings. On one such occasion the chairman was a chief minister of state. During his introduction he said, "I shall reserve my remarks for the close of the address, for no matter what the speaker says, I will find parallel things in our own sacred books." At the close of the meeting he was at a loss for words. Dr. Jones had not presented "things"; he had presented a person, Jesus Christ; and that person was not found in their sacred books. As someone has put it, "Christ is the crisis of all religion."

The analysis of our real problem

What is the greatest problem we face? The Buddhist would say that it is our suffering, and Buddhist teaching is primarily a response to this. The Bible does have a great deal to say about suffering. However, it tells us that we have a greater problem still, the problem of our wrongdoing. The common word for this in the Bible is "sin". Indeed, it is sin which is one of the major causes of our suffering. For this reason, Buddhism becomes a religion of enlightenment, whereas Christianity is a religion of salvation.

To come up with the right answers we must ask the right questions. The fundamental question which the Bible asks (and answers) is, "How do you reconcile sinful human beings with a holy and a righteous God?" Humans were created in the "image" and "likeness" of God. We were given God-like qualities of a spiritual nature which enable us to enjoy a loving relationship with him. In this respect we are radically different from the animal world. Hinduism, Buddhism and New Age teaching blur this distinction.

Love must always involve freedom to choose and we have abused that freedom. "We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to their own way" (Isaiah 53:6). As a result of our rebellion and stubborn independence from God we have all become morally flawed. As Jesus put it, "Out of your heart come evil thoughts, vulgar deeds, stealing, murder, unfaithfulness in marriage, greed, meanness, deceit, indecency, envy, insults, pride, and foolishness. All of these come from your heart, and they are what make you unfit to worship God" (Mark 7:21-23).

All religions and cultures have their ethical codes. There is a built-in consciousness in humanity of right and wrong which points to our origin as beings created in the image of God. The problem is that none of us fully live up to what we believe. C. S. Lewis, professor of Medieval and Renaissance Literature at the University of Cambridge, illustrating the point from Greek, Roman, Chinese, Babylonian, ancient Egyptian and Old Norse sources, demonstrated that there was a "massive and immemorial agreement about moral law." The problem, he said, was that there was also a "massive and immemorial inability to obey it."

The result is that we are spiritually dead (Ephesians 2:1), separated from God (Isaiah 59:2) and are his enemies (Romans 5:10). In contrast, God is morally perfect, described in the Bible as being "holy". He is so pure that no sin can dwell in his presence (Habakkuk 1:13). The moral gulf between us and God is such that we cannot bridge it simply by trying to be good (Ephesians 2:8,9; Titus 3:5). Such a deep problem demands a more radical solution. Before we can consider a satisfactory cure to our basic problem we must have an accurate diagnosis.

The answer to our problems

Islam recognises the problem caused by our sins in our relationship to God, but comes up with a different solution that depends on our own moral efforts. However, the Bible declares that the problem is too great for that. It could only be solved by God's action, not ours. And God has resolved it in a most wonderful way. He came in the person of Jesus Christ to take upon himself the penalty for our sins through his death on the cross. In other words, Jesus came not merely to reveal God's character, and teach us his truth, but to reconcile us to God. "Christ died once for our sins. An innocent person died for those who are guilty. Christ did this to bring you to God" (1 Peter 3:18). "But God showed how much he loved us by having Christ die for us, even though we were sinful" (Romans 5:8). "For if, when we were God's enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his risen life" (Romans 5:10). Christianity is not the story of our search for God. It is the story of God's search for us and the depths to which he was prepared to go to bring us back to himself.

Because this was the main purpose of his coming, the New Testament letters give far more attention to the death and resurrection of Jesus than they do to the manner of his coming into the world or the wonderful life that he lived. It is God's love, demonstrated so powerfully in the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross, that makes forgiveness a possibility. It is here that the uniqueness of Christianity becomes most clear. Other religions either deny the need for forgiveness or give inadequate attention to how it may be achieved. This is one of the reasons that music and singing are prominent in Christian worship. It flows out of the gratitude of hearts that know they are forgiven.

The attraction of the cross

Dr. Michael Green, writer, evangelist and adviser to the Archbishop of Canterbury, asks a pertinent question:

Where else in the religions of the world do you hear of a God who undertakes salvation for his people by personally bearing responsibility for their wickedness, and allowing it to crush him?

Themes of the suffering, wounded god do appear in some pagan literature, but in the cross of Jesus we have it in reality.

Jesus, in referring to his coming death, said, "I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself" (John 12:32). As this is such a significant point in Christianity, I would like to give some examples of its effect on the lives of three people from differing religious backgrounds.

Dr. Kali Charan Chatterjee wrote:

It has often been asked of me why I renounced Hinduism and became a disciple of Christ. My answer is that I was drawn almost unconsciously to Christ by his holy and blameless life...The excellence of his precepts as given in the Sermon on the Mount and his love for sinners won the admiration of my heart...But the doctrine which decided me to embrace the Christian religion and make a public profession of my faith was the doctrine of the vicarious death and sufferings of Christ. I felt myself a sinner and found in Christ one who had died for my sins - paid the penalty due my sins...this was the burden of the thought of my heart, Christ has died, and in doing so, paid the debt which we could never pay.

Toyohiko Kagawa, a Japanese Christian leader and dedicated social worker who was imprisoned for his Christian principles during World War II, said:

I am grateful for Shinto, for Buddhism, and for Confucianism. I owe much to these faiths...Yet these three faiths utterly failed to minister to my heart's deepest needs. I was a pilgrim journeying upon a long road that had no turning. I was weary. I was footsore. I wandered through a dark and dismal world where tragedies were thick...Buddhism teaches great compassion...but since the beginning of time, who has declared, 'this is my blood of the covenant which is poured out for many for remission of sins?'

Dr. David Rahbar, a Muslim scholar, wrote a letter to Muslim and Christian friends to explain why he had become a Christian. After some discussion about the justice and mercy of God, and whether it is consistent for a God of love merely to sit in heaven and be our judge, he says, with considerable insight:

Only in love does justice transcend itself and become loving sacrifice: giving what is due and then giving more...In our search for the truly worshipable, we must therefore look in human history for a man who loved, who loved humbly like the poorest, who was perfectly innocent and sinless, who was tortured and humiliated in literally the worst manner, and who declared his continued transparent love for those who had inflicted the worst of injuries on him. If we do find such a man, He must be the Creator-God Himself. For if the Creator-God Himself is not that Supremely suffering and Loving Man, then the Creator God is provenly inferior to that Man. And this cannot be...

Such a man did live on earth nearly two thousand years ago. His name was Jesus...When I read the New Testament and discovered how Jesus loved and forgave His killers from the Cross, I could not fail to recognise that the love He had for men is the only kind of love worthy of the Eternal God...

The Creator-God and Jesus are one and the same being. May all people know that truly divine love.

A missionary friend has shared the following story with me. A Chinese teacher invited her to his home for lunch so that they could talk about life after death. "I believe there is life after death," he said. "If we have lived a good life we are rewarded by being reincarnated into a happy and prosperous situation. If we have done wrong we are punished by having to come back as a dog or some other low form of life." "But what," my friend asked, "if sins could be forgiven?" The teacher replied quietly, "If sins could be forgiven, that would make all the difference in the world!"

The way by which we receive forgiveness

If forgiveness is possible through God's action in sending his Son to die for us, then how do we receive it? The first step is simply to admit our need of it. This is the point at which pride often becomes the biggest stumbling block to true conversion, even to some who take the name of "Christian". As theologian Emil Brunner put it, in all other religions:

...people are spared the final humiliation of knowing that the Mediator [Jesus Christ] must bear the punishment instead of them...They are not stripped absolutely naked.

Anglican scholar, John Stott, adds:

But the gospel does strip us naked (we have no clothing in which to appear before God), and declares us bankrupt (we have no currency with which to buy the favour of heaven).

The New Testament speaks of the "grace" of God. This is a wonderful word that means his undeserved goodness and favour. It cannot be merited or earned. It can only be received by faith as a gift. "You were saved by faith in God's kindness. This is God's gift to you, and not anything you have done on your own. It isn't something you have earned, so there is nothing you can brag about" (Ephesians 2:8,9). Though there are glimmers of some understanding of grace in other religions it is only fully developed in Christianity. Elsewhere there is always the emphasis that it is only by human effort, in keeping the required standards of that particular religion, that one can be saved, or reborn, or achieve fulfillment.

A Buddhist story which starts off like the parable of the Prodigal Son, spells out this contrast very clearly. The boy comes home and is met by the father, and then has to work off the penalty for his past misdeeds by years of servitude to his father. However, in the New Testament the father sees his son coming in the distance, runs to meet him, flings his arms around him and then throws a party. There is great rejoicing (see Luke 15).

The Buddhist and Hindu principle of karma (cause and effect, paying off our guilt through countless cycles of rebirth), or the Muslim belief that our good deeds are weighed up against our bad deeds, are poles apart from grace (the free forgiveness that Jesus offers through his death), which we don't deserve at all and can never earn. Bishop Stephen Neill summed it up in a wonderfully succinct quotation: "In Hinduism, the doctrine of karma says 'You sin, you pay'. In the gospel, God says 'You sin, I pay.'"

Though Jesus asks for high moral standards from his followers, and a commitment to him as Lord of their lives, neither good works nor commitment can contribute anything at all to our forgiveness and our reconciliation to God. We are reconciled to God by coming in simple trust to Jesus, confessing our unworthiness and humbly and gratefully accepting what he has done on our behalf. In gratitude we offer our lives to him in return. This is what the New Testament understands by faith. It provides the basis for a new relationship based on love and total acceptance. The motivation for loving and serving God and others then becomes the outflow of a grateful heart for what has already been received.

A victory over evil & death which has already been won

After a Muslim in Africa was converted to Christ, his friends asked him why he became a Christian. He answered, "Well, it's like this. Suppose you were going down the road and suddenly the road forked in two directions, and you didn't know which way to go; and there at the fork were two men, one dead and one alive. Which one would you ask the way to go?" The fact that Christ was alive attracted him to Christianity. Of the four major world religions that are based on a personality, rather than on a philosophical system, only Christianity claims that its founder came back to life after death.

The resurrection of Christ from the dead is at the heart of Christianity and is referred to repeatedly in the New Testament. Paul declares, "If Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins" (1 Corinthians 15:17). Both the death and the resurrection of Christ are presented as a complete victory over evil. His sufferings on our behalf make our escape from the condemnation of sin possible. "If you belong to Christ Jesus, you won't be punished" because God "set you free when he sent his own Son to be like us sinners and to be a sacrifice for our sin" (Romans 8:1,3). His resurrection is proof of his claims to be the divine Son of God. It is also proof of his victory over the powers of evil, which are the cause of death. He is "declared with power to be the Son of God by his resurrection from the dead" (Romans 1:4). It is also the guarantee of his final victory when he will return to judge the world. God "has set a day when he will judge the world with justice by the man he has appointed. He has given proof of this to all men by raising him from the dead" (Acts 17:31).

If we trust the risen Christ as our Saviour and yield our lives to him as Lord, then we become "co-heirs with Christ" of his kingdom (Romans 8:17). His resurrection will be the guarantee of ours. "God did this so that in the future world he could show how truly good and kind he is to us because of what Christ Jesus has done" (Ephesians 2:7). The future he longs for us to be part of is one of personal fulfilment, relationships with God and others, service and joy. This is in marked contrast to the Buddhist Nirvana which implies the loss of individuality. The word nirvana comes from a Sanskrit word nirva which literally means "to extinguish", though Buddha himself never affirmed this.

If we reject the reconciliation which Jesus won, at tremendous cost to himself, then we are left to our own resources. We must endeavour to work out our own salvation by good deeds, either over innumerable lifetimes, as some religions declare, or in this one short life. Both of these, according to the Bible, are impossible. The Bible also warns us that, "We die only once, and then we are judged" (Hebrews 9:27)*.

The kind of commitment it asks of its members

C. S. Lewis once said:

The moment a man seriously accepts a deity, his interest in "religion" is at an end. He's got something else to think about.

The "something else" that Lewis is referring to is actually encountering this God, and all that this implies, rather than merely adopting certain religious practices. This is certainly true of Christianity when rightly understood. The ultimate question we face in dealing with the God that Christians proclaim is not whether we can believe the truths about him, or live by the standards he demands, or want to practise certain religious observances, but whether or not we want to get involved with him - to really meet him. Christianity has its doctrines and code of ethics, but basically being a Christian means living in a relationship with the risen Lord.

When we accept Jesus as our Saviour and Lord, then the Holy Spirit, the third Person of the Godhead,* literally comes to live in our human bodies. As Paul puts it, "your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit" (I Corinthians 6:19). One of the ways this is described in the New Testament is being "born again" or "born of the Spirit". Without this we can neither enter nor see the kingdom of God (John 3:3,5). Sometimes this is spoken of as receiving Christ ((John 1:12), opening the door of our lives to Christ (Revelation 3:20), or as Christ coming to live in us (Colossians 1:27).

In this relationship he is the Lord or Senior Partner and he asks for unconditional surrender to his leadership. To grow in the relationship we must continue to exercise trust and obedience. Jesus said, "If any of you want to be my followers, you must forget about yourself. You must take up your cross each day and follow me" (Luke 9:23). In other words, because he died for us, he asks us to die to our own selfish desires and ambitions and to give him the central place in our lives. In response to his love for us, shown supremely through his death on the cross, we offer our lives in humble gratitude to him.

Sadly, it is possible to adopt Christian beliefs, seek to live by Christian standards, take part in Christian religious observances, and still not be really Christian! The heart of Christianity is commitment to a Person and enjoying a living relationship with that Person. If we took Buddha out of Buddhism, or Mohammed out of Islam, or the founder of any other religion out of that religion, and could still receive their teaching from some other source, little would be changed. But if we took Christ out of Christianity there would be nothing left because Christianity begins by entering into a relationship with the living Christ and receiving the gift of eternal life from him.

*I have sought to explain the Christian understanding of the Trinity - God as Father, Son and Holy Spirit - in the booklet, Understanding the Trinity: A Look At the God Revealed in Jesus Christ.

Conclusion

Michael Green, drawing on his considerable experience as an evangelist, and the resources of much recent writing on the relation between Christianity and other religions, says in Evangelism Through the Local Church:

No faith would enjoy wide currency if it did not contain much that was true. Other faiths therefore constitute a preparation for the gospel, and Christ comes not so much to destroy as to fulfill. The convert will not feel that he has lost his background, but that he has discovered that to which, at its best, it pointed. That is certainly the attitude I have found among friends converted to Christ from Hinduism, Islam and Buddhism. They are profoundly grateful for what they have learned in those cultures, but are thrilled beyond words to have discovered a God who has stooped to their condition in coming as the man of Nazareth, and who has rescued them from guilt and alienation by his cross and resurrection.

In the book of Revelation, John has a glorious vision of the future in the kingdom of God. "After this I looked, and there before me was a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and in front of the Lamb. They were wearing white robes and were holding palm branches in their hands. And they cried out in a loud voice: 'Salvation belongs to our God, who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb.'...For the Lamb at the centre of the throne will be their shepherd; he will lead them to springs of living water. And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes." (Revelation 7:9-17).

Throughout the Bible the lamb is the animal of sacrifice. Lambs were offered daily in the temple for the sins of the people. In Revelation, the book that looks forward to the final consummation of God's plans for his people, Jesus is spoken of as "the Lamb" 27 times. It is because he loved us and sacrificed himself for us, that we will have the right to enjoy the blessings of his kingdom, in which he will share the worship that is given to God the Father. In this present world he longs to do many things: forgive our sins; enable us to grow into the sort of people he wants us to be; give us strength to face whatever life may bring; give us a purpose to live for; accompany us on the journey with the sense of his loving presence; to grant us experiences of joy and the assurance of glory to come.

If this is the kind of "religion" you are looking for, then I suggest you get alone with God and pray. If the following prayer echoes the thoughts of your heart then use it as a guide:

God, I want to know you. I acknowledge that I am a sinner. I have broken your moral laws and I do not deserve your love.

And yet I believe you do love me and sent your Son to die for my sins. I ask you to forgive my sins and come into my life.

I accept Jesus as my Saviour and Lord. I accept your gift of eternal life. I do not deserve it, but I thank you for it.

In gratitude I offer my life to you. Help me to grow in my love for you and for others, and to serve you faithfully for the rest of my days.

If you have made this commitment, or wish to know more about Jesus before you do so, then I suggest you get a copy of the New Testament (part of the Christian Bible) and read through the first four books, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, which tell the story of the life, death and resurrection of Jesus. There are several good modern translations. The Good News translation is the simplest to read and was originally written for those who speak English as a second language. The New International Version and the New Revised Standard Version are very readable and are among the most accurate. Ask God to give you understanding as you read it. May God bless you in your search for truth.

For a more deeper study on this subject, click on the following links:

References:

http://www.gospeloutreach.net/whychristianity.html

http://carm.org/why-believe-christianity-over-all-other-religions

http://www.christianity.co.nz/index.html

EMBRACING THE SPIRIT OF NEHEMIAH

Thu, 21 Apr 2011 02:53:23 +0100

CELEBRATE THIS GOOD FRIDAY WITH US & BE EMPOWERED. LEARN HOW TO LIVE IN POWER & FULFILLMENT IN A WORLD SURROUNDED BY HOPELESSNESS & UNCERTAINTY - OVERCOME THE SPIRIT OF PERSIA & EMBRACE THE NEHEMIAH SPIRIT. JOIN PASTOR MIKE AS HE NARRATES THE STORY OF ONE GREAT MAN WHO MADE A GREAT IMPACT IN HIS GENERATION WHILE LIVING IN CAPTIVITY - YOUR WORLD WILL NEVER BE THE SAME AGAIN!

INTRODUCTION:

Nehemiah, book of the Old Testament. It is attributed to Nehemiah, a 5th-century bc Jewish leader. He held a position of honour in the court of the Persian king Artaxerxes I (reigned 465-425 bc) and in 444 bc was appointed by the king to the governorship of Judaea, with authorization to rebuild Jerusalem. The rebuilding of Jerusalem and the reforms made during his administration are recounted in the book that bears his name.

This book opens with an account of how Nehemiah, while serving as butler to the Persian king, learned of the distressing conditions in Jerusalem following the Babylonian captivity of the Jews from 586 bc to 538 bc. Shortly thereafter, he petitioned the king for permission to return to his ancestral home in order to help restore the city. The king granted him a limited leave of absence and sent him back to Judah as governor. In Jerusalem, Nehemiah persuaded the populace to restore the city walls, a task completed under his leadership in 52 days (6:15) despite the opposition of neighbouring peoples. Nehemiah instituted religious and social reforms.

Nehemiah : A Visionary Leader
The story of Nehemiah is an important one for Christian Leadership. Much of the model of leadership in my life is based on Nehemiah : the origin of vision through prayer, the need to share vision, and enable and empower others to become involved in making it happen, and the need to maintain leadership through periods of conflict and opposition. Nehemiah was cupbearer to the Persian emperor, Artaxerxes. This was a significant position of trust, for a member of a Jewish minority in the Persian court. Nehemiah would have established personal credibility in his character to receive such an appointment, and together with the job would come prestige and significance. Over 140 years have passed since the sacking of Jerusalem by the conquering Babylonians, and generations of Jews have been in exile.
VISION AND CALLING : Read Nehemiah 1. As Nehemiah learns of the state of Jerusalem and of the remnant of the Jewish people living there, it clearly has a profound effect, moving him to a period of fasting and prayer. Out of this prayer Nehemiah senses a clear calling and vision, identifying with the Jewish people and confessing their failure to follow God's guidance. Nehemiah is clear that he is intrinsically linked with God's answer to the prayer he has prayed.
Pause for Thought :What part has prayer played in the times of vision and calling that you have encountered? Can you think of times when God has used you as a part of the answer to prayers you have prayed. To find out more about vision development, explore the following vision building process.
SHARING VISION : Read Nehemiah 2. Nehemiah shares his vision with Artaxerxes, having carefully created an opening. Notice the immediate prayer of Nehemiah as the door of opportunity opens in verse 4. The result of sharing the vision in a non-threatening way is positive and Artaxerxes is supportive, agreeing to the requests for letters and allocating troops to go with Nehemiah. When the vision is shared with Sanballat, Tobiah and Geshem, the response is different. Nehemiah adopts a more assertive stance, yet one which is not confrontational. As Nehemiah arrives in Jerusalem he carries out a strategic analysis of the situation, before sharing the vision with the Jewish remnant, in order to have a clearer view of the task in hand. The response of the Jews is positive, aided in part no doubt, by Nehemiah's experience of God's help in the conversations with Artaxerxes.
Pause for Thought : What factors determine how flexible you are in sharing a vision with people? When are you flexible, and when are you more assertive? If you are in the process of developing or sharing a vision right now, what strategic analysis have you done?
IMPLEMENTATION : Read Nehemiah 3 The Jews divide the task up among themselves and start working. The narrative does not relate whether this was an easy task or not. For many teams, the allocation of work does not come easily, as personal agendas and uncertainty over team roles may conflict with the trust needed to share out the work of a team in the early stages.
Pause for Thought : For teams you have been involved with, can you think of instances where there has been high levels of trust within the team leading to easy sharing of work. Alternatively, are there times when the team has struggled to agree process and roles?
HANDLING OPPOSITION : Read Nehemiah 4-6.14 During these three chapters we see opposition on three levels. During Chapter 4, we see overt opposition to the task from those outside, coming with ridicule and threats. Nehemiah responds by bolstering the confidence of the builders by stationing guards behind the least exposed areas, which also signals determination to complete the task, and also reminds the Jews of God's hand of protection over them. In Chapter 5, the threat is coming internally, in the face of distractions over the culture and accepted norms of the society. Nehemiah's handling of this demonstrates openness (he called a large meeting), integrity in not demanding the rights of his predecessors, and a commitment to Godly principles. The final attack, in Chapter 6, is personal. Nehemiah discerns the motives of his opponents, and refuses to play into their hands. Again he turns to the Lord in prayer (v9) and is given the discernment necessary to avoid the traps laid for him.
Pause for Thought : Thinking about your vision, is there any opposition to it? If so, is it active hostility or passive resistance. Are there side issues which others are seeking to use to distract you from the vision you have? You might like to spend some time in prayer about this, asking for discernment, wisdom and strength.
LEADERSHIP CHARACTER : Read Chapter 13, This thirteenth chapter of the book of Nehemiah details his second time as Governor of Jerusalem.
Pause for Thought : From your reading through the book of Nehemiah, how would you describe his character? Try writing down the top characteristics that come to mind. Which of those can you associate with? Which of these would you like God to strengthen in your leadership? You might like to close this bible study by spending some more time in prayer asking God to bless you in these areas, and to further strengthen the characteristics and gifts that He has already given you.

I hope you find the above notes very useful in carrying out your God-given mandate in your pursuit of a better world! Write to us and let us know how this post has touched your life.