Only the weak need support!! Don't they?

Don't know what has got into the world at large out there!!

The new word is "accountability" and everyone is on the bandwagon.

You need to be accountable for this and accountable for that - even churches have gone completely bonkers with the whole 'accountability' thing.

From men's meetings to morning tea rosters we need to hold each other accountable. We need to talk about our lives and keep tabs on each other.

So, methinks, why do we need programs like this? Do I need to be reminded to do the obvious things?

We get the car serviced, we mow lawns, we brush our teeth, we take the dog out for walkies, get the dinner on the table in fact we do all the right stuff and never go to meetings about it and hold each other 'accountable', just in case we don't remember!!

NO! I don't reckon we need people to keep telling us "Hey! don't forget.....it's wrong to cheat on your wife or steal from your company!  Don't do things like that"

C'mon guys!! isn't that pretty obvious!!

So I don't get it. Aren't we all accountable to God? Aren't we supposed to look out for our own souls? Watch over our own lives?

LET'S JUST THINK ABOUT THIS!

All of the above is absolutely right and correct: we are all accountable to God. One day each of us will have an appointment with Jesus to discuss the way in which we've lived.

We have to get over the very modern and 'in' thing to do and I may add the very Western World idea that we are independent, autonomous entities.

We are linked eternally to Jesus Christ and in so doing we are also linked to other believers.

We are told in Hebrews and Thessalonians that we need to 'encourage' one another in the faith - doesn't that also imply some sort of 'accountability"?

As Christians we need to hold each other accountable - someone with whom we can confide in our battle to overcome sin and temptation.

If David had had an accountability partner - His adultery with Bathsheba and the resulting murder of Uriah would never have happened.

An accountability partner can be there to encourage us; rebuke us; teach us; grieve with us and to share our happiness and sadness. A shoulder to cry on and to confide our inmost secrets.

An accountability partner also is there to warn of impending dangers as they see it - them to you and you to them.

If Solomon of the thousand wives had had an accountability partner he or she would have seen impending danger and warned Solomon of his folly.

Many years ago my Sister and her friend learned a poem about the "Ambulance in the Valley" about how the cliff edge of this town was so slippery and how many many people had fallen to their doom.

The cry went up "a fence at the top or an ambulance in the valley" - the ambulance won the day and every day the rescuers picked folk up from the valley floor and scuttled them off to hospital.

Until the idea hit them " If the cliff we will fence, we might also dispense with the ambulance down in the valley."

Phew! they got it - the moral of the story: Prevention is better than cure.

So it is with our Accountability partners - both partners are responsible and hold each other accountable to keep our eyes focused on our Lord and not on ourselves.

Accountability partners can keep us looking forward to prevent the consequences of our bad choices and not just being there to pick up the pieces as we fall into a heap at the bottom of a valley of our own making.

We all will give an account to God one day and that thought alone should sober even the most hard-hearted among us into living right.

Unfortunately, the prospect of standing before God later doesn't always motivate us to live now in a way that honours God, nor does it deter us from wrong choices.

We need each others help in our walk along this rocky road - don't let your pride dictate the terms.

Be prepared to share your aspirations; dreams; secrets; and on-going temptations with someone with whom you can talk and trust.

Romans 12:10 commands Christians to be devoted to one another in love. Can we really do this from a distance, as strangers?

How to avoid a torpedo attack!

Hmmmm! Torpedo attacks are instant destruction.

Torpedoes can't be angled downwards - they are designed to do as much damage as possible on the surface - completely obliterating the target.

And if that wasn't bad enough; torpedoes now have gyro angles.

With the old fashioned straight running torpedoes it was necessary to aim at the target or where you estimated the target was going to be by the time the torpedo reached it but by setting GYRO angles the torpedo turns onto the proper track after it is fired.

Thus it hits the target every time - sort of like a homing device - BANG straight into the target causing maximum damage.

So it is with us - there are all sorts of torpedoes aiming at us most days. These torpedoes can come from work, sport, friends, family and even in church. They can come from the most unexpected sources and can blow us out of the water every time.

Some of the most amazing torpedo attacks come from sources that we thought were the most truest and trustworthy.

Satan is out there as well - fuelling any sort of troubles with his cunning and making it harder and harder to avoid being hurt even devastated when things or people rock our boat so badly that we literally sink beneath the waves and, in some cases, never to rise again.

Have you ever got to the stage where you ever feel like you must have a target painted on your back? Do you ever get bombarded with unfair accusations, unrealistic expectations or unmanageable situations?

If you are a person of faith and you have given your will and life completely over to God then Satan hates you; in fact he hates all things that even smack of God.

He hates your job, your family, your marriage, your spouse in fact everything about you is, in his mind, fair game and he will try to torpedo you as much as possible.

Satan comes to steal and kill so if you see anything that resembles, stealing, killing and destroying in your life - you can rest assured that Satan is behind it.

If Satan thinks he can torpedo anything in your life he will have a go at it. If he can undermine your faith, he will; if he can beset your marriage with problems, he will; if he can use the sin of offence in your life, he will.

Maybe you feel emotionally strong and just maybe you can handle a lot of pressure, maybe you are the anchor of your family - you feel you can withstand any torpedoes coming your way - well that's great!

But... there are many kinds of strength and the most important strength we have is our need of God - He is the one who gives you strength. True Christian strength is of the spirit and God is Spirit and He wants us to be strong; strong in Him.

We can all fall - no matter who we are, David fell; Solomon fell; Samson fell - Yes we can all fall into Satan's traps.  None of us are immune; none of us are strong on our own - we need the full armour of God to protect us; even if we have been Christians for years and years.

It is Satan who apposes us; he is the one who wants us to join him in eternal separation from God; yet it is the very sacrifice of Jesus on Calvary that guarantees our deliverance from that awful end.

You know, God is our protector. he is a divine shield to guard against the slings and arrows and yes! even torpedoes fired at us on a daily basis.

Arm yourselves with his armour; His truths; His promises. Staying close to Jesus is the ONLY way to avoid torpedoes.

Filling our lives with him on a daily basis; asking Him to re-fill us with the awareness of His holy Spirit living inside of us on a daily basis; being aware of his guiding and drawing on His strength daily is the only possible way to avoid being blown away by torpedoes of every kind.

First one to blink loses!

Most of us here on earth like to win! We are the ones that have to end up being the one who was right!

I grew up in an extremely competitive family - A Dad who could sing like Pavarotti, play cricket and others sports like a pro; a Mum who was so organised it would make your head spin and siblings with talents and confidence galore.

I tended to be the odd one out, lacking in the social graces, unable to make myself heard or even make a point, but nevertheless with a goal in mind to WIN!

Whether its fighting for promotion, jockeying for position in traffic or playing video games with a friend, most of us have a strong desire to come out on top.

AND... that's what makes CONFLICT such an explosive issue. We treat it like a competition - the first one to blink loses!!

Conflict at work, with individuals, with your partner and/or children can put us well and truly in the back seat when it comes to 'winning'. We then feel left-out, mad, vengeful, surly and offended.


So the conflict can grow; If we feel we have 'won' the conflict, we feel proud, sure of ourselves and successful - at least in the short term.

One of the most important skills you can learn and develop is how to deal successfully with conflict, and I can tell you right here and now without the workings of our great God and Saviour; conflict will keep on reappearing in our lives over and over again.

Being in the business world for 38 years of my working life I learned to manage conflict from text books, seminars and the like and YES! I achieved a measure of success and worked through heaps of conflicts in the Industrial arena, dealing with unions, employees and equal opportunity problems.

All of these 'conflicts' I felt were managed well by the team and myself and I prided myself that I was the one to be called on if something need resolving! How wrong could I be.

When I fully handed my life over to God; holding nothing back; and stopped being a "Sunday" Christian, one of the first lessons I learned was that God views life differently and so did I after His amazing Holy Spirit entered my life.

God understands that not every 'conflict' has a winner and loser.

What God does care about more than winning or losing conflicts is our attitudes toward other people.

God changed my 'winning at all costs' attitude! Now when I look back I shudder at some of the things I did and said to win a conflict or how I put people at such a disadvantage that they had no option other than give in. Very strategic; very professional AND very wrong!

God put a new attitude in my heart - It is far better to lose a conflict to gain peace with a person.

So now! Even if I lose a conflict I have actually won if by doing so has restored peace to the situation.

Saying all of that I have also learned that conflict for a Christian is well to put it bluntly inevitable!

Paul tells us that "all who desire to live a godly life in Jesus will be persecuted" (2 Timothy 3:12). So to those of us who see conflict as a sin I would suggest strongly that as Jesus taught us 'conflict is exactly what we should and will expect'.

Conflict as a Christian is inevitable because our accuser, Satan, engineers all conflict whenever and wherever possible, especially among our Christian brothers and sisters. Sowing discord and discontent, causing offence and conflict with each other and our God.

So understand this: we knowingly enter into conflict and dare I say even 'initiate' it whenever we proclaim the gospel of holiness, kindness and forgiveness. The world will not it kindly and Satan will use every opportunity to make us cease and desist, undermine and intimidate.

Conflict for the Christian is here to stay I'm afraid to say and we must learn to identify and manage it until that final day when our Lord will return and all questions will be answered and all conflict will fly straight out of the window!

So how do we as Christians manage this impossible-to-avoid conflict? Well firstly I have learned that to take offence is probably the very worst thing we can do. My beautiful daughter gave me a book by John Bevere called "The Bait of Satan" - well worth the read.

In this book Bevere describes in detail just how subtle Satan can be and how he uses offense to drive us away from God and our fellow believers.

The next thing I have learned is to grab hold of the truth that our God is bigger than the problem we are facing. Pray heaps about it and certainly don't say or do anything on the spur of the moment without first taking it to God.

The third thing I would do is to 'act in the opposite'. Example: if a person is mean be generous; if aggressive then you be passive; and so on....

God showed us amazing, stunning and incredible love when He sent Jesus to die on that beautiful/terrible/gruesome day.

This unique kind of love endures rejection and misunderstanding to bring about peace, healing and reconciliation.

This is the kind of love and respect Jesus commands even DEMANDS of us.

So conflict is to be expected - it's how we handle it through Jesus' love that will see us true to Him and ourselves.

A Beautiful Terrible Day

Jesus was only 33 when He died.

He was condemned to die by execution on a cross - Crucifixion.

At that time Crucifixion was reserved for the very 'worst' of criminals.

I will say at the outset that every time without fail that I think of the death of Jesus and how He died it literally brings me to tears; a fact of which I am not ashamed.

Jesus' death on Calvary on that terrible/beautiful day is a bracing slap in the face to any believer who has been lulled into taking their salvation for granted.

We should never underestimate what it cost for our salvation to be available.

The false accusations; the rigged trial; the flesh-gouging flogging; The vicious punches to His face; His beard pulled out by the handful;  the irate crowds mocking, spitting and throwing rocks; the vicious outrage of the Sanhedrin; the excruciating two kilometre journey to Golgotha carrying the huge weight of the wooden cross; the nails in His hands and feet; the crown of thorns; the crushing weight of hanging on the cross.

And worst of all the sheer horror of being abandoned by his Father God.

Jesus: impaled on that monstrous tree; man's very worst creation of human suffering - bleeding and in abject agony.

He hung there tortured with the crown of thorns pressed into His scalp and down on His brow; more than likely piercing through his eyebrows. His flogged back rasping against the rough wooden cross as he gasped for breath heaving His pain racked body and pushing up by his nailed pinned feet. The whole picture of it overwhelms me.

It took three hours for him to die! YES: three hours hanging there torturously speared in the side, naked, crying out to His father in His pain and suffering as the mocking crowds spat on him and even gambled over His clothes.

The human body holds around three and half litres of blood and Jesus poured it all out for us. He could bleed no more. Towards the end of the three hours and just before he died he was simply pouring out water from His wounds - he gave everything for us to the very last drop.

Jesus had to die to open the gates of Heaven so that you and I can have access to God. So that our sins can be washed away.

It was our sins that nailed Jesus to the cross; our mocking voices screaming obscenities to Him that day; our hand that held those nails. All of us are guilty, none can escape judgement.

God knew that without punishment none can ever even hope to see Him - all of us have sinned and fallen short of his standard.

God knew that by the death of Jesus, the holy and spotless one, was our only hope of redemption; our only hope of forgiveness and acceptance into heaven.

All of us will have to give an account of our sins either by accepting what Jesus did on that terrible/beautiful day, falling at the foot of the cross and asking forgiveness and accepting Jesus' sacrifice as our own and claiming it as full payment for our own sins or....

At the very throne of God himself when it will be too late for forgiveness; mercy or excuses!

It is just so easy for us to go along with the world - pass jokes about the Holy one of God; ridicule Him, and pass him off as some sort of lunatic! Atheists do it all the time - you just have to turn on the television to cop an eyeful of the what the world thinks of Jesus. Using his holy name as blasphemy and profanity.

BUT what do you think of Him?

I know what I think! - each and every time I sin I come back to the cross; I see him hanging there for me; His blood washing me clean and I can claim that forgiveness again - so amazing so awesome!

Come to Him or maybe come BACK to him without delay - His nailed pierced hands are waiting just for you in welcome.