Why do I keep on Sinning???!!!

At the time of our accepting Jesus as our Lord and Saviour - we were given the gift of the Holy Spirit.

God replaced our old hearts and our old longings which were always rebelling against Him and put inside of us a new heart and a new longing with new desires which enabled us to follow and obey Him.

Although through all of this amazing new birth there is a BIG question that I would pose and try to answer and that is:-

How can we as believers keep from sinning?

This question has been posed to me a few times by Christians - some who have are brand new in their faith and some surprisingly that have been on the road with Jesus a long time and yet struggle with sin, struggle with the uncertainty of being saved at all and struggle with the fact that no matter how hard they strive they just can't seem to get away from the sin which so easily invades their lives and in so doing separates them from God.

I  have also heard of others wanting to become Christians but questioning their own ability to "hold on" to that faith and not being sure if they can live the Christian life at all.

Well, I certainly don't pretend to know all the answers but can only go on what I have learnt from this perplexing question from experiences in  my own life and of course my personal life walk with Jesus.

The last thing I want to project to anyone is the "Well, we are all going to sin, what of it? Sin, sin sin - go ahead - just confess it and that's all there is to it".

In Galatians 5:17 Paul tells us "For the flesh desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the flesh. They are in conflict with each other, so that you are not to do whatever you want"

So here we have Paul telling us straight out that we as human beings, saved by grace through the sacrifice of Jesus, have this war thing going on inside of us.

All of us have "in-built" sin inside of us - even though we have been washed and God sees us as pure and clean (when he looks at us He sees what Jesus did for us) we still have the residue, if you like, of sin still lurking around inside just waiting for an opportunity to trip us up.

We shouldn't try to deny the fact that we have this 'in-dwelling' sin inside - we shouldn't try to explain it away or act like it isn't there - or tell ourselves that we shouldn't have it. BUT the thing is that we do have the Holy Spirit as well WOOHOO!! and THAT is what makes a huge difference from us to the world at large.

That is the very thing that makes us different to people who are unsaved and are enemies to God

There is this inner-war thing going on inside all believers. The very moment we accepted Jesus and the Holy Spirit moved in, our old sin-life became so angry that the warfare began!

Unbelievers don't have these feelings of warfare because sin holds no guilt for them - just like we were before the Holy Spirit took up residence and decided to 'clean-house' in our souls and gave us a longing and a desire to do Gods will.

BUT, we also have our humanity inside of us as well - and humanity on it's own is naturally hostile to God and so our human spirit and the Holy Spirit is as it were rivals for 1st place in our lives.

Unfortunately, sometimes, if we don't keep our eyes on Jesus and we are not walking with him in the Spirit then we can easily fall for Satan's old tricks and stumble.

That's why it is so important to 'walk by the Spirit" with our Lord which literally means we do what we do each day by the Spirit of God - we live each day as it comes with all of it's details, trials, joys, triumphs and disappointments, always being lead by the Holy Spirit.

Well, that's fine but how do we "walk by the Spirit?"

What human nature tries to do in our lives is the exact opposite of what the Spirit is doing in our lives. Our human or flesh lives gets it's satisfaction from our independence, other peoples praise, wealth, power and a host of other things while the Spirit is never ever controlled by any of these things.

That is what Galatians 5:17 means  - Our human nature produces desires and the Spirit produces the opposite desires.

So, when we walk by the Spirit we are walking each day with desires that are stronger than those produced by our humanity. And so we are enabled as it were by the Holy Spirit to knock those desires over the head each and every time they try to bubble up the surface.

God's amazing Holy Spirit is the only one who can produce in us desires for God and His way which are going to be stronger than our human desires

To keep walking by the Spirit - we need to pray - Psalm 51:10 says "Create in me a clean heart O God and put a right spirit within me" and that 'right' spirit is the on-going work of the Holy Spirit gifted to us on our conversion.

To keep walking by the Spirit - we need to Trust God  - Faith in Him should not depend upon 'feelings' or emotion - rather than that, God desires us to simply place our faith in His trustworthiness and above all the Promises of His word.
Faith in God is believing His word over anything we may see, feel, hear or experience!!

To keep walking by the Spirit - We need to honour God by our lives - simply doing!! Doing things out of a grateful and thankful heart - things which probably you never thought you would ever do before you became a Christian.
Jesus Himself not only acted but lived by "Walking by the Spirit" - everything He did was done through the Holy Spirit.

Yes, because we live in this world and we still have our basic humanity - we will still sin! - That is a given. But we no longer have to be ruled by that sin.

Jesus came to earth, died and rose again to smash the chains of sin in our lives - we are free from the shackles we no longer have to dwell in the past.

We desperately need to walk by the Spirit - the very Spirit of God! We need to surrender our will to the Holy Spirit and trust that still small voice that directs our wills and our motives.

Simply put, we are to to walk in total submission to the Holy Spirit just like Jesus did while He was here.

So, we will sin while we are here - but to keep on sinning and feeling no shame, no guilt is impossible!

Come to Jesus when we do make mistakes and we will! - He is so ready to forgive - then rest on His amazing and awesome promises that our sins are far removed and that they have no real hold on us anymore.


Friends, like Jesus we can walk by the Spirit - we can act by the Spirit, we can LIVE by the Spirit. We need, like it says in Col. 3 & 2 Cor. 12 - "I can do ALL things through Christ who strengthens me; for He is both my life and my strength."

Motives

We all have motives!

Some good - some bad - What is your motive for following Jesus?

I would like to think that my motive was all about love, obedience and gratefulness!

We were reading in Phillipians yesterday about how Paul was concerned that some of the "followers" motives were all about self  - they wanted what Paul had - and even though they were preaching and talking about Christ in the correct and right way - their motives were wrong!

It certainly made me think!  - Motives can make us do some strange things - sometimes to the betterment of others sometimes not.

God knows our motives - He understands why we do the things we do - He also knows the very depths of our hearts and the place that He holds there!

God has said through His Word that He wants, actually demands, to be No 1 in our lives and if He is not then we had better re-think where we stand with Him.

Our motives can dictate to us how we react, what we say and where we go.

In Matthew 5:20 Jesus says that we must have "righteousness" exceeding that of the scribes and Pharisees and if we don't we will in no way enter heaven. WOOO pretty strong words there but Jesus was not one to mince words - He never did pussyfoot around with what He said.

Jesus was saying quite plainly that if we are going to be His disciples we must be 'spot-on' with not only our actions but also our motives which drive those actions!

Our very motives must be so pure that when under the microscope of the eternal light of God He will find nothing about which to rebuke us.

Now, I hear you say, "Who can stand having the eternal light of God shining on them and finding all their motives, actions and thoughts pure"?

My answer?

No-one, only the very Son of God - Jesus Christ.

Jesus' amazing claims that because of His beautiful/terrible sacrifice on Calvary He and He alone can place inside of us His very own nature.

The very "purity" which God demands would be impossible without accepting what Jesus did for us on that day - Only by accepting His perfect gift can we be 're-made' as it were so that when God looks at us in our sinful state - He actually sees Jesus!

That way even though our humanity per se does not change - He changes our heritage - our parentage - and our very nature and in so doing changes our motives as well.

How are your motives? - Good deeds/actions are not enough on their own.

Wonderful things good deeds! - without them this sad old world would be in an even worse state than it is now - And good deeds are a product of a changed life in Christ and indeed marks that person as being one with Him.

That is of course if that person's motives are right and pure - that their hearts have actually been changed and their lives controlled by the Holy Spirit.


One question we should ask ourselves in all of this:- Will what I am about to do or where I am about to go, glorify God and bless others?

If the Holy Spirit is guiding you then you will know straight away what you should do.

If not, then the answer must be unfortunately that what you are doing is only self-satisfying and will not bring lasting happiness to you or glory to God.

Think about our motives in everything we do this week - where we go - what we watch - who we spend time with and our conversations.

A Spirit filled life is a fulfilled life - a self-satisfying life is temporary happiness at best.

Hold On - Press on - Hang on tight!

"Sometimes life just seems to get the better of me." Probably we have all heard that statement many times and in many situations.

You may have even said it or felt it yourself a number of times as well.

Life IS hard - Life can be VERY hard - We can have things thrown at us that can send us completely off the rails if we let it and even cause us to go into deep depression.

Australian statistics are pretty alarming as to the number of people suffering from a myriad of differing depressive illnesses - from very mild to very severe, depressive illness can rob people of their self esteem, their jobs and often sadly their very lives.

www.beyondblue.org.au  describes it like this "Depression is one the most common of all mental problems. One in five people (here in Australia) experience depression at some stage of their lives"

One in five!! WOW that's pretty startling - statistically one in every five people we meet, in theory, have some sort of depressive problem - worry, stress, anxiety, phobias and fear.

Christians certainly aren't exempt from suffering trials, tribulations and worries - there are hundreds of different reasons why we are thrown a curved ball in life and they all have serious potential.

Worry is so debilitating - it steals the joy from living and we can become so preoccupied with whatever the problem is that there is little else left over.

We can feel that we are overwhelmed by the sheer magnitude of the problem we are facing - we feel alone, helpless, weak and vulnerable.

Worry can rob us of peace, sleep and communication. It can affect our marriage, our jobs and worst of all it can cause separation from God.

Worry can rob us of our prayer life and study of God's Word - we can feel God is not there or that he doesn't care about our problems.

Worry and stress can lead us away from God - lead us to a dark place in our lives and lead us to a point where we take our minds and hearts off Jesus.

Some days we feel we can't possibly make it through - there is nothing absolutely nothing going right - everything has gone pear-shaped - our lives have been shattered.

It is in those dark places of our lives that, as strange as it sounds, is the very time we have to place our utmost faith in God - where we have to praise Him for what we DO have in our lives and look at the blessings that He has given to us.

When the days ahead look their blackest - when there is seemingly no answer to an on-going problem that is the very time we, in faith, have to reach out to God and hold tight and hold on to His promises.

Annie Hawks and Robert Lowr wrote a song which I feel spells out pretty plainly what I'm talking about, it goes like this:-

"When I think I'm going under, part the waters Lord.
When I feel the waves around me, calm the sea.
When I cry for help, O hear me, Lord and hold out your hand.
Touch my life, still the raging storm in me."

Knowing that God loves us is pretty amazing - we are never alone - we never have to face our trials, no matter how huge they are, alone.

He is the one who wants to take our burdens and even in the darkest place imaginable - He is there to shed amazing light and the promise of a better future - all we have to do is hold on tight to Him - he will show us the way.

Jesus has promised us a prize - an amazing prize - an awesome prize, but we need to press on, hold on and with God's help we will have the strength. 

Even though we are battered and scarred in the process, even though we may stumble and bumble along, God's perfect plan is for us all to reach His goal.

When we are sad and worried we can a huge tendency to look on our worries and trials in the most depressive way - everything takes a mammoth amount of trouble - everything looks like it is working against us.

To every dark side - every sadness - every worrying time, there is often a brighter side - we as Christians need to hang on tight to those 'bright' sides of our problems.

As Charles Spurgeon once said "Even the darkest underground mine often yields a vein on pure gold" and again "Samson's lion yielded honey, and so will our adversities, if rightly considered."

Faith's way of walking is to cast all of our cares on the Lord and then anticipate good results from even the worst of calamities.

Even in the face of death itself - we Christians can look beyond the grave to the amazing light of the resurrection - sure and steadfast in the knowledge that Jesus' sacrifice knocked death on the head - killed and forgotten - death will have no hold on those whose hope and faith is in the Lord.

Christians need to hold on tight to Jesus no matter where we are in our lives - whether on the mountain peak or down in the deep dark valley.

Living close to Jesus we are covered with the very wings of God himself - His wings of protection - his wings of peace and underneath us are His everlasting arms.

We have all had difficult roads travelled in the past and we are sure to have more in the future - whatever the case - whatever condition we are in, we will need Jesus.

Hang on tight to His hand - Hold on to His promises and press on to the Goal.

Falling away

Hmm falling away - can we fall away from God?

This has been the probably one of the most debated questions of all time and one which I guess each of us has our own definition.

From what I have read and gleaned out of Gods Word there are two main thoughts on this subject (probably there are heaps more when you think about it).

It is certainly not my intention to try to convince anyone either one way or the other - rather just to give a few thoughts about both ways of thinking.

I will say though that if you are thinking you  have 'gone beyond' what God is willing to forgive and that you have committed sins so grievous there is absolutely no hope for you - then that is a pretty good  pointer that the Holy Spirit isn't finished working in your life yet.

The Holy Spirit is so long suffering, He will not give up easily. So if you are so concerned about your sins and feel you are falling away yet you still have that desire to repent and live all out for Jesus then  I implore you to come back without delay.  For no one can can draw us to Jesus except the Holy Spirit.

Is falling away from our faith a danger to Christians?

Hebrews 6: 4-6 says "It is impossible for those who have once been enlightened who have tasted the heavenly gift, who have shared in the Holy Spirit who have tasted of the goodness of the Word of God and the powers of the coming age, if they fall away to be brought back to repentance, because to their loss they are crucifying the Son of God all over again and subject Him to public disgrace."

Throughout the entire book of Hebrews we are warned that falling away from or abandoning our faith in a dangerous possibility.

So, can people drop out of their faith where there is no possibility of returning?

Some believe that you can very much lose your faith and turn your back on Jesus. They support their view by observing that these people had indeed a relationship with Christ - they had escaped sin's consequences and the desolation of a life without Him.

Then, they have returned to a life of total sin entanglement and end up worse than they were before being converted in the 1st place.

In Matthew 7: 22-23 Jesus spoke and said "On the Judgement Day many will say to me 'Lord Lord! In your name we spoke God's message by Your name we drove out demons and performed many miracles.' Then I will say to them "Depart from me I never knew you - get away from me you wicked people".

They believe that these people are those who genuinely joined themselves with Jesus for the benefits of salvation and purely out of a motive of personal  gain.

They also point out that God in His holy just way is the only one who knows when enough is enough and that their total disobedience will come to the point where there is no hope for their salvation.

On the other hand other Christians point out that when you come to Christ - you are eternally secure and cannot fall away from God's awesome grace and all of the above are aimed fairly and squarely at those who have merely dabbled in the Word and have never taken it seriously enough to commit to it full time.

They see salvation as an irrevocable gift and can't be taken away - they believe that these people who "fall away" just appear to be saved - they know 'about' Jesus and their lifestyles change but such changes are only cosmetic and superficial.

God's Promises and assurances such as Hebrews 13:5 where the writer states "I will never leave you or forsake you" and again John 10: 29 "My father, who has given them to me, is greater than all: no one can snatch then out of my Father's hand."

God's promises and assurances are there - Contradictory? certainly not - these are given to us to warn us about falling away.

Whichever way you wish to interpret, those of us who do 'fall away' are not those who stumble. We all have times of weakness and lapses in faith and doubt the very saving grace of Christ.

But then it is that very same grace that brings us back time and time again and each time we can get closer and closer to God our Heavenly Father.

Those who do 'fall away' and if I can put here "permanently'  are those who remain unrepentant and persist in open rebellion against God - knowing they are deliberately sinning and yet have no desire or intention of coming back to God.

They are likened to the very ones who crucified our Lord and are indeed crucifying Him again and again.

So Did you come to Christ because of your love for Him or because of personal gain?

Are you living contrary to what pleases God, overlooking it, justifying it and just getting on with life.

Are you using the name of Jesus but not really having any other association with Him?

If we really love God we promptly obey Him - Give Him everything, show Him absolute reverence and show humble gratefulness for his myriad blessings.

Also loving Jesus would mean that you would lay your life down for Him no longer living for yourself but living only for Him.

Groans and Moans

WOOHOO - what did we do without all of our modern gadgets - How did we manage??

Its so hard to imagine our world fitting into the world of the late 18th and early 19th centuries - without all of our communication aids - How did those people manage? - it must have been an extraordinary world, no mobile phones, iPods, iPhones,and computers - not even a Fax machine - amazing.

Our incredible God speaks to us so directly - and He has been doing that since creation - no need for any sort of technology - His voice can be strong, caring, sensitive, disciplinary or even a gentle whisper - all we have to do is to listen.

It is so interesting and as pointed out by the none other than Charles Spurgeon himself that in Matthew 11:25 the verse starts by saying "And Jesus answered" BUT it doesn't say who He was answering??

Jesus had such a close Communion with His Father God that he answered Him - and what did He answer "I thank you O Father" .

No one else heard anything - suddenly Jesus says "I thank you O Father" which just goes to show that He had constant and close fellowship and Communion with God His heavenly Father.

Jesus was born as a helpless baby - human - just like us - bone and flesh and blood - and yet here He is being so close to God that He answers Him as if He were having a face-to-face D&M.

So this simple statement in Matthew can teach us something - what?

We can have the same close relationship with our heavenly Father as we can have with other people.

Sometimes when God speaks it will be to convict us of something not right in our lives - we may need to confess whatever it is that God's Holy Spirit have convicted us of and in so doing to re-open the communication pathway.

God is so willing to speak to us - and we need to be willing to speak to Him.

Once we have accepted Jesus as Lord - confessed our past to Him and asked Him to rule our lives then by prayer we have an instant communication line to the Father - it is truly amazing!

Romans 8: 26-27 says "That in our weakness, the Spirit of God helps us because we don't know how to pray as we ought, and so the Spirit intercedes for us with wordless groanings."

The passage goes on "God the father - the one who searched our hearts - knows the mind of the Spirit because the Spirit prays for us according to God's will."

That's a pretty amazing verse - God, through the Holy Spirit knows what we need before we ask - and even when we don't know how or what to pray for - The Holy Spirit knows our hearts and motives and intercedes for us to God.

So in times when we are in stress - life seems to be getting the better of us - our little boat is swamped with mountainous waves and we are all bailing for our lives - God through His Holy Spirit can interpret even our groans and is there for us.

Sometimes we can't put words to how we are feeling - that's happened heaps of times in my life!! - yet God in His mercy and grace can interpret our minds, thoughts, motives and heart aches.

Although, before we can have any communication with our Creator God we must put things right with Him and with anyone else that we have hurt or we feel have hurt us.

Unforgiveness and taking and giving offence will alienate us from Him - and there will be no communication at all, zilch, zero, none!

We need to put things right - ask forgiveness and then keep those lines open to the only one that has the answer to everything.

It just makes me amazed that our Heavenly Father - the great God of Creation, Jesus the son and God the Holy Spirit loves me so much that He is yearning to hear my prayers.

Each time my heart aches, He knows - When I grieve, He knows - and more than that He cares. He cares for me and He cares for you - He hears our groans and moans - our praises and our laughter.

He knows our hearts desires and our motives and our secret sins.

He knows that there are going to be many bad things that happen to us in life. There is going to be much suffering. There are going to be hard times but through it all He hears our "Groanings."

He knows and understands and because of that I personally have a deeper understanding of what prayer is all about.

Prayer is more than a shopping list of wishes!!

Prayer is the open communication between a puny little guy and the King of the Universe - extraordinary!

So when we are deep in the 'puzzle' of life - the ups and downs - the despair - the worry - the deep concern - the joy - the happiness - Be assured that our God does care and does listen to prayers even if we no idea what we are praying for.

Consequences

Joe Long killed a man in 1941.

The Great war was horrible, terrible and to put it bluntly a bloody slaughter for all involved.

To top it all off the 2nd World War was even more terrifying then the Great war.

In world War 1 it is estimated that 10 million people died, 21 million people were wounded and 7.7 million were missing or imprisoned.

The Great War went from 1914 to 1918

The 2nd World War, 1939 - 1945 , by comparison show that more than 55 million people both civilians and military were killed

Now those are staggering facts!

But in 1941 Joe Long killed a man!

The thing is, about Joe Long, is that he killed a man, a soldier, not in war circumstances but in the height of the Blitz - that terrible, gruesome ordeal that Britons endured through 1940/1941.

He had been out fighting fires and doing what he could to help those suffering through the nightmare - the night was long and hard - filthy work - emotionally draining and depressingly sad.

It was only fitting that a few mates got together afterwards to "debrief' with a pint or two and gather strength from each other to face the wintry prospect of yet anther nightmarish day tomorrow.

He had stayed at his friends home longer than he expected and was the last to leave - he was exhausted - he only wanted sleep as he made his way to where he hoped his home had withstood yet another tempest.

His wife of four years and their son had moved to the country where his wife's sister had lived and he knew Lois and little Raymond were safe or as safe as they could be there. He had opted to stay and 'hold the fort' in London along with a handful of his mates.

They were all pretty close - they were good blokes - and like Joe they all had families and so when he rounded the corner of his street and spied this stranger looting anything he could carry from Carol, his neighbours, home without even thinking - he sprinted after him.

Carol had lost her husband in France and both her kids in the blitz and now her home had been pretty much bombed to obscurity and where she was - was anyone's guess.

He grabbed the looter and threw him on the ground - the man screamed at Joe to let him go - he too had lost all he had to the bombs.

Something snapped inside Joe's head -  it was as if when he looked at this  man all he saw were the hostilities, the dead, the blood, the bombs - everything that had torn his world apart - all manifested in this one human being!

Before he even could think twice -  he began belting, kicking, bashing and screaming - the man's head was repeatedly smashed against the pavement but Joe kept on and on - until the man lay lifeless and bloody on the street.

Joe finally came to his senses and was horrified to see what he had done - he saw the blood - the lifeless body and he panicked. He saw the dog tags - he was soldier!! what was he doing here?? Probably a deserter! - He ripped the tags off his neck and shoved them in his pocket.

An idea quickly formed in his mind - why couldn't he be just another victim of the blitz? - he looked around - not one person in sight - most of the houses where bombed or vacant - his and two others were the only ones left, scarred but still standing in the entire street.

His idea leapt to action instantaneously - he dragged the broken and bloodied body over to the nearest shell of a house - still smoking from the countless fires and dumped it under tiles, tin and whatever he could lay his hands - done, dusted and finished.

He could so easily justify what he did in his own mind - the bloke shouldn't have been there - he was a thief - a coward - a deserter - he deserved what he got.

Joe's plan worked well - as far as he ever knew - the victim was just 'another body' pulled from the wreckage of another deserted home. After all he himself had pulled hundreds of 'unknown' people from the rubble and wreckage all night hadn't he?

Years went - nothing ever said - Lois and Raymond returned to their home after the war - 2 more children came along - the street got re-built - Carol was never found - no one ever knew what became of her - another on the list of mysteries that surrounded the survivors of that horrible time.

You know - our Lord Jesus died for all of our sin - yep the whole lot - murder, deceit, lies, theft, adultery, envy, jealousy, pride, judging others and the list goes on.

All we have to do is to come to the cross - and there at the very place Jesus gave his life for us - we can drop the huge burden we have been carting around with us - sometimes for years - and leave it there with Jesus.

He has said so plainly that WHOEVER comes to me I will never drive away. (John 6:37).

On saying all that - and praising God for His amazing forgiveness - we are still human and we still sin - none of us will ever be truly immuned from sin until the great day when Jesus will come back again.

Also...

There will be consequences for past sin in our lives - Consequences that sometimes need to be accounted for.

Consequences can be good. Like meeting the living Jesus face to face - amazing and life-giving freedom and an eternity with Him - pretty good consequences there!

But...

Some consequences can be bad - if for example we fool around with sex, being with others and sleeping around - then the consequences could be total alienation from our families - broken marriages - loss of trust - sexually transmitted diseases and so on.

Being a Christian in these circumstances won't stop the consequences of our sin! Yes we may be forgiven but we still have to bear those consequences.

God is so willing to forgive and YES forget - He doesn't want us to have guilty consciences and really there is no room for guilt with Jesus - and as far as He is concerned the traces of our past sins are gone BUT sometimes the consequences and results of our past can mar our lives here on earth.

Well, Joe lived a pretty good life after the war - yes things were tight - what with work and food shortage, but finally he snared a  job and things started on the up and up.

But - he never quite forgot!

Thirty years later - Joe heard of the amazing forgiveness of Jesus - he and Lois were both transformed by the power of the Holy Spirit - They both realised that they needed to hand their lives entirely over to Jesus - holding nothing back!

They joined a church where they grew in their faith - the boys could see a huge difference in their Mum and Dad - they were in awe of how much they had changed - Where dad had always been loving and supporting, now he was joyful and helpful - always willing to give to others - opening their home to strangers.

It wasn't long before the boys and their own families had given their lives to Jesus as well - all seemed so good.

BUT...

The consequences of past sin was there - Joe knew it and he also knew that he would have to put it right. He searched and found the dead mans tags - and he knew what he must do!

He must first tell the family - and then the police!

That night when he assembled all the family together - he told them his story - the blitz - the carnage - the night of terror and then the murder!

Surprisingly for Joe - they were all supportive of their Dad - Lois was in tears and couldn't help but feel betrayed - the boys, shocked and dumbfounded listened in quietness as their dad unfolded the truth to them.

Thirty years of pent-up guilt came rushing out as Joe told is story.

The very next day - The family accompanied their Dad to a solicitors office and then to the police where Joe confessed to the killing of Private fist class James Alexander Cotterill.

The body of James Cotterill was never identified and was unable to be located  - Joe was convicted of the crime of manslaughter and James Cotterill's family were informed as to what happened to their relative all those years previously.

Joe was sent to prison for an extended time but finally rejoined his family.

You know, there is no room for guilty consciences when we come and truly confess our sins to Jesus - He does forgive and He does forget - Our sins have been purged - washed away - we are clean - God looks at us and sees the sacrifice that Jesus made all those years ago on Calvary.

Jesus took the punishment for our sins - killed them on the cross - we are free from their guilt and their punishment.

Although consequences of our past can spoil relationships here on earth and sometimes we have to pay a heavy price - that will not stop the awesome love of God to transform and permanently change us.

Consequences of our past can be positive but unfortunately negative as in our story - they can enhance or mar our lives and those around us - Don't let negatives consequences in your life spoil an amazing relationship with your God and King.




All characters appearing in this work are fictitious. Any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.

The hauntings!!

Haunting - It's a strange word - these days we mainly think of something eerie - like spectres/ghosts taking over isolated, dilapidated and crumbling old houses.

The Internet tells me that the word also has other meanings like poignant or persistent memories. Even eerily evocative or enchantingly mysterious.

Unforgettable or impossible to forget or a disquieting or disturbing effect. All of these feelings summed up in one word. Haunting!!

How are you at being haunted?

Haunted by regrets, grief, bad decisions, being misunderstood, anxiety, stress, depression, temptations, doubt, habitual and on-going sin, alcohol, pornography and the list goes on ad-nauseum.

Do you want to make your life count today and for eternity - free from the Hauntings??

I know I do - most of us are haunted by something at some stage - I would go so far as to say most of us would remain being haunted by some thing or another for most of our lives!

Well, through this blog I really want to encourage you in your quest to be free of hauntings - I would love to see every Christian living victorious, vibrant, powerful, meaningful, fulfilling yet humbling lives - devoted to our amazing Lord and truly handing life's controls over to Him.

Impossible?? - Been there done that?? doesn't work for you! - Too far gone? - Too far down life's track to back out now? These old habits of mine can't be beaten now - I know I've tried hundreds of times!

I think I used every excuse in the book - so I have just an inkling of what some of you may be going through.

It often gets to the stage where we are so used to 'being haunted' that life wouldn't be the same without that old familiar feeling!

But.... I am here to tell you - that we all can be free - free of whatever it is that keeps haunting us - free to live our lives without the guilts, addictions and hang-ups.

I know - I couldn't believe it myself - because the same old same old stumbling blocks just keep on recurring over and over again.

"The hauntings", strange as it sounds, can be healthy emotions - given to us by God's Holy Spirit. Without them we would have no sense of Right or wrong.

On saying that though- lingering 'hauntings' can be a downward spiral of continual torment and spiritual bondage.

It is the Holy Spirit's job to convict us of wrongdoings - including addictions and guilt!

We can keep on with our addictions, sin, guilt, whatever, feeling worse and worse - being haunted every step of the way - day after day and that is exactly where the King of Liars - Satan wants us to be.

Let's remember this one thing:- Satan condemns - the Holy Spirit convicts - There is a HUGE difference.

Satan doesn't want our 'hauntings' to leave us - he is desperate to have us live in the dark with him - under a thick cloud of doubt and anxiousness - because then we are separated from our Lord.

Yes, that's right - with doubts in our heart we have no idea of the amazing promises given to us as disciples of Jesus or we simply don't believe those promises.

Forgiveness from God is there from the moment we accept Christ as our Lord - He has promised us a life of freedom and security.

Can we sin too much or commit a sin too many times? Will God forgive all past, present and future sins if I am a disciple of Jesus? What if I keep on committing the same sin over and over again - Can God forgive?

Of course He will - In 1 John 1:9 The Bible says "If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness."

That awesome verse assures us the if we acknowledge that sin to God and truly ask His forgiveness then he will indeed forgive us - He wipes our slate clean and he will do it again and again if necessary.

Satan will tell us that "forgiveness is never enough! - You are not worthy to be forgiven" - he will also take our guilt/addictions and twist them into accusing us in all sorts of different ways.

So how can we use God's amazing promises of forgiveness to pull ourselves out of the miry clay of our 'hauntings'?

It is certainly a hopeless exercise and indeed it is sinning to purposely give in to our hauntings/ addictions/ temptations and go on thinking that God is ultimately going to forgive us so why not give in to them anyway.

That attitude is wrong and will only lead to more frustration, depression and more alienation from God.

I personally have found that to glorify God in everything is the only way to overcome the hauntings in my life.


Giving God the glory in all we do is, in my opinion, more than giving Him honour. We can honour God in holding Him in great esteem without giving Him absolute Glory.

God is the only one worthy to give Glory! He alone is our Creator, King, Redeemer. He alone is gracious and merciful, full of justice and hope. He alone is the only one that can save us and truly forgive us from our sins.


Every morning if we ask God to help us, through the incredible Holy Spirit, to guide our steps in glorifying Him in everything we do, everywhere we go, everything we say, everything we allow our eyes to see, in our work, with our family in fact everything then we will begin eventually to walk in union with God.

Once we draw close to God and He walks the way with us and we start to glorify him in everything, then it becomes increasingly difficult for us to deliberately sin.

This of course doesn't mean that we will be free of 'hauntings' in our lives - just like we won't be free of sin in our lives BUT it does mean that truly walking with God's Holy Spirit every day - Glorifying Him in EVERYTHING we do, say, everywhere we go and experience will bring us closer and closer to Him and harder and harder to deliberately fall for Satan's old tricks, temptations and addictions.

God is so willing to forgive our sins when we mess up if we are truly sorry for them - remembering that God is also a God of justice and also a God of wrath against evil!

What we have spoken about is God wanting us, desiring us to remain free from Sin and our 'hauntings'.

When we sin, we need to deal with it straight away - we also can't 'hang on' to our hauntings - So how do we do that?

By Glorifying God in everything - that should be our goal/objective - If we don't, then we are virtually saying to God "it's too hard to give you the glory and to walk with you in the spirit - I want to hang on to my hauntings and my sin."

The closer and closer we get to God the more and more we are going to be aware of his leading in our lives and the less and less of the old us will keep on surfacing.

Let's all give God the glory - Let His Spirit take control of our conversations, our viewing, our actions, our families, our transactions in fact everything.

The more we walk with him, acknowledge and glorify Him the more likely we are to steer clear from our past, present and future 'hauntings" - God bless.

Beware of the dog!

When I was out walking the other with my beautiful wife - we came across a sign on the fence of a house that said "Beware of the dog" - well they weren't wrong!

Not just one dog but two - cooped up in the small handkerchief sized front yard - both vicious and snarling and both pretty worked up because we had dared walk past their territory.

We both talked about how terrible it would be to be attacked by wild dogs and how fortunate we have been so far to avoid it - those dogs were indeed ferocious!

It made us wonder why in the world would anyone want to keep such wild animals as pets!

Somehow I just couldn't get my mind off those terrible dogs - they were just so savage - yet those people inside obviously loved them - they could see something in them that we were at a loss to explain!

Seeing those dogs and the absolute hate in their eyes for us as strolled/ran past made me think of hate in the world generally!

The world out there is full of hate unfortunately - and if you are a Christian then a lot of the time that hatred is aimed for and squarely at you.

The world hates Christ - and if you are fully committed to Jesus then it stands to reason that the world will hate you also.

James  in his letter spells it out pretty plainly that we can't be friends with the world an friend with God at the same time - God won't have it and the world will hate us.

James 4: 4 says "Do you know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God."

I wrote a further blog about this very subject in November of this year entitled:- "You can't be in two camps or play for two teams."

Charles Haddon Spurgeon wrote lines along a similar vein when he said quote:- "If you follow Christ, you shall have all the dogs in the world yelping at your heels."

That just about sums it up for me - maybe in not so graphic terms as Spurgeon puts it - but the thought is there - that we make ourselves a walking target when we stand up for and confess that Jesus is our Lord and we are committed to Him.

More than that though - Satan the arch enemy of our Father is out to get us also.

1 John 5:19 says "We know that we are from God, and the whole world lies in the power of the evil one"

WOW! the whole world! - pretty awesome when you think of it.

Then in 2 Tim 3:1 "But understand this, that in the last days there will come times of difficulty"

So again that is pretty plain- God has already told us that we will be hated by all men for His name sake - Satan is prowling around tempting us at every turn - throwing our past sins up at us - telling us we are not worthy to come to Christ - even making us believe that we have no need of forgiveness.

Anything to keep our eyes off God and onto ourselves - that is his aim - to make us backtrack - to turn away from God and to give our allegiance to him and the world.

Paul had the same worries about this very thing. He says this to the Corinthians "But I am afraid that as the serpent deceived Eve by his cunning, your thoughts will be led astray from a sincere and pure devotion to Christ." (2 Cor. 11:3).

So what do we do?  If we fully love God and make that love known to others by our actions then the world will resent our commitment for the very reason that it will show them their own sins and iniquities (if I can use that word)

In other words we will become living testimonies to the power of the Holy Spirit to change lives and the world will not like that - they won't want to hear that their lives can be changed.

We will need the bravery and steadfastness of a lion to face the world at large - we need each other for support and assistance - we need our fellow brothers and sisters in the Lord to give us the courage to fight against all the evil powers that Satan will throw at us.

We will need to be brave when we make a definite stand against Satan. We may see our very best friends become our fiercest enemies.

But for Jesus' amazing love we will be, with the awesome help of the Holy Spirit, courageous, brave and true when facing off with our enemy.

As I have mentioned before, we are only passing through here - this world is not our home - Jesus traveled this road long before us - He has won the battle - we need to uphold His standard in the fight and we desperately need to follow in His footsteps.

It is far far better to fight this brief warfare here and share in our (undeserved) reward won by Jesus Himself than to give in to the world and all the dastardly consequences that that will bring for eternity.

Fight the good fight - Jesus has won the battle - we need to hold His standard high and put on the whole armour of our Lord and Saviour.

When you wish upon a star

Disney's all time No 1 Favourite song ever is - "When You Wish Upon a Star" - WOW - magical lyrics and that tune!!!  Man it's no wonder everyone loves it.

So here we go:-

"When you wish upon a star
Makes no difference who you are
Anything your heart desires
Will come to you

If your heart is in your dream
No request is too extreme
When you wish upon a star
As dreamers do....."

Lovely!!

You know - we all wish!! - we wish for this we wish for that  - and I guess there is absolutely nothing wrong in wishing!

Poor old Geppetto  the puppeteer longed so much for a little boy of his own - so he made Pinocchio. Then he wished Pinocchio would come to life - just like a 'real' boy - so he "Wished upon a star."

The rest is history - the "Blue Fairy" the "Song" the little wooden boy coming to life. How marvellous!

But it was brought home to me just recently that sometimes wishing can be dangerous.

Some people seemingly live their lives in a fantasy world - wishing and dreaming and hoping (just like another song I've heard)- happy to float along - never really committing to anything - always dreaming of a 'better' life with more money or better looks or a bigger car or winning lotto etc etc.

Wishing can lead to regrets as well - "I wish I hadn't done that" or "I wish I had said this."

Like Geppetto we look dreamily out of windows and wish upon stars in our lives not really understanding life and missing out on the biggest opportunity of all time.

There is no room for wishing, regrets and guilty consciences after we have come to Jesus  - How amazing is that?

Jesus promises us a guilt-free life, full of His awesome promises, and it's all free - price paid by Him.

But instead of accepting His awesome gift, we prefer something more ostentatious, more flimsy, more flamboyant - we prefer to put our faith and hope in temporal things - things that won't last but will give us a buzz anyway.

A new home, a new car, clothes, jewellery, furniture - all give us temporary happiness and we think - Yes! now I will be happy - My stars have come in for me.

When we do have problems or trials we prefer to consult our friends, employees, financial advisers and yes, even the stars. Anything that will make us comfortable and feeling good - even temporarily!

As long as our positive self-image is well fed and our self confidence and self assurance is at an all time high, for outward appearances anyway, we can manage.

And so we dream/stumble/claw/fantasise our way through life - making do with second best - jumping from one "high" to another - trying not to think too hard about the real issues in life.

Jesus came to do away with all that - this world is only a stop on our way to Heaven.

Peter, that disciple who denied Jesus said in his first epistle 2: 11-12 "Dear friends, I urge you, as aliens and strangers in the world, to abstain from sinful desires, which wars against your soul"

Then Paul writes in Philippians 3:20 "But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Saviour from there, the Lord Jesus Christ."

So how about our life here on earth? Well.... God made it for us to enjoy and we definitely live here - there is no denying that!

But it was through our sinful lives that has spoilt God's amazing creation. That is why Jesus had to come to earth, and die to atone, compensate or make amends, if you like, for our rebellion against God.

When we repent, turn away from, be truly sorry for our sins and accept His forgiveness as being the only way to a complete and full acceptance of Jesus being our Lord and Saviour, then we become new People.

Paul says in 2 Corinthians 5: 17 "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!"

After we have accepted this awesome gift, then we become citizens of Heaven and our new home is there rather than here on earth.

So let's get our mind off earthly things which will give us 'temporary' happiness at best. We can only find true happiness in God - we don't have to go wishing on a star - we don't have to depend on anything this world offers - we can have treasures abounding and unlimited in Heaven.

Changing in a changing world - round and round we go

Faithfulness - an amazing word!

How many times have we been faithful to someone, a project or a pledge?

How many times have we been unfaithful at the same things?

This got me thinking this week as I struggled in my faithfulness to God! - Many times we come back to Him again and again, pledging to be faithful - pledging our allegiance our undying love yet...

It only takes us a second or two to let our eyes wander from our Lord and next thing we know we are trusting on self or others to accomplish what we desire and/or to give us a hand over some trial or tribulation.

It only takes us a second for us to change -  we change our minds - we change our direction in life - we change our jobs - our Churches - and so the list goes on.

People all over the world suffer significant losses in their life and sometimes the world seems to be spinning out of control - so we change.

Sometimes we change our beliefs - things don't go our way - we find it hard to believe that if there is a God why didn't this happen the way I wanted etc. - we are always on the change!

Your know - Our Lord is always faithful - He is changeless - he never turns away from the path of truth and justice - His love and mercy never fail us no matter what we do, think or say.

Even though we don't ever really understand everything that happens in the world or in our immediate circumstances - God is still LOVE- His great love reaches us no matter where we are or what we have done.

Romans 8 tells us this amazing truth:-

"Who then shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness or danger, or sword?"

Now that's a RIPPER of a verse - how plain is that - NOTHING can separate us from His Love - because???

GOD IS CHANGELESS!

His mercies and faithfulness are eternal along with His love which makes our Heavenly father so so special - His forgiveness to our seemingly never-ending sins sometimes overwhelms me.

As God is now - that is how He was in the beginning and as He is now is how He will be for eternity.

Generation after generation - constantly the same - yesterday, today and forever.

Where we fail Him constantly - he never fails us - He loves us so much He made a plan to bring us to Him so that our sins would be forgiven - that plan 2000 years ago sent Jesus to Calvary to die as our punishment - so Jesus took our punishment so that we can live forever with Him.

When I dare think of what Jesus went through for me - when I think of those nails in His hands - it makes me weep - My sin virtually held Him there - My sins hammered in those nails - My voice can be heard among that crowd  to "crucify Him."

And yet, I can so easily turn away - turn away from the one who saved me - turn away, knowing what He did for me that day - I can be so sinful and yet...

He calls me back - which is so awesome.

Stuart Townend wrote a ripper of a song called "How Deep the Fathers Love for us" - It expresses my own question so well - How come I got to gain from Jesus' horrendous death? - to be honest I don't know but Praise God I do get to share Jesus' reward! - How awesome is that!

The song in part says this:-

"Why should I gain from His reward?
I cannot give an answer
But this I know with all my heart
His wounds have paid my ransom"

Sin died that day along with Jesus - Satan was defeated - death is dead - the clincher of course was Jesus' resurrection - when He rose again, He vanquished death, never to reign again.

Oh yes! I know - we still sin! - Of course we do - whether unwittingly or deliberately, we sin! - The thing is that we know when we do - Jesus' Holy Spirit is there prompting us and bringing us back to true repentance.

We need to claim the forgiveness that Jesus is offering and also be prepared to give everything to God.

Way back in the late 19th and early 20th century there was a young man called Judson W. VanDeVenter. He had given his life to Christ when he was 17 years old and he was a pretty solid musician and became quite famous.

Life for him was looking on the up and up but inside he knew things weren't quite right - He knew he hadn't handed everything over to God - his music came first.

That knowledge hit him one night when he was conducting a choir - That night he surrendered his life entirely to God and wrote the hymn "I Surrender All" - the words say it all - "All to Jesus I surrender - All to Him I freely give."

He went on to become an amazing full time evangelist and continued to hand over all of his desires to God.

God is ever Faithful - his mercies are new every morning - His love is eternal - His compassion's never fail.

He has promised that He will never leave us - (Hebrews 13.)

God is eternally, just, wise, gracious, faithful and tender.

So don't go banging your head up against a brick wall - repent of your sins - surrender all to Jesus - Yes! Satan will still come knocking sometimes with a gentle little whisper showing you all his bag of sweet temptations then sometimes he comes with a battering ram slamming into your door, regardless....

Keep your eyes on the goal, don't dwell on the past, keep looking to Jesus - and He in His grace and glory will take care of all the rest!

Unhappy Campers!! Not happy Jan!

Life is just not fair - why do the 'nice' people nearly always finish last?

Life can be a lot like that - the wicked prosper while the 'nice' people always seem to be dragging around the bottom of the list when it comes to being blessed. Or so it seems.

Jeremiah complained to God about the same things in his book chapter 12: 1-4. It is good old Jerry's plain talk to God in his prayer time.

He starts off with praise to God - admitting that God is righteous and always is so when he brings a case to Him.

God is righteous! - He is fair and just - His ways are not always our ways.  But we have to have reliance in Him and on Him if we are to trust him in the way that he commands us to.

Poor old Jeremiah starts complaining to God about the injustices of the world - -He asks the same old question that we have asked ourselves - if not to God directly - "Why do the wicked prosper?"

I guess if we are brutally honest we have all asked a similar question.

The unscrupulous always seem to prosper in the world - the drug lords, the crime bosses - the fraudsters - the corrupt politicians - the liars - the violent offenders, the welfare and compensation cheats and so the list goes on. They always seems to be able to hold the 'get-out-of-jail-free' card. They seemingly go from strength to strength.

It just doesn't seem to be fair!  Whereas the so called 'nice' people of the world pay their taxes and try to always do the right thing and what happens? They get slandered, unfairly accused, evicted from their homes, suffer illnesses, lose their jobs, have marriage break ups etc - It's just NOT FAIR!

Even Godly people seem to be downtrodden - unable to speak their minds.  If they dare try to - they are  shouted down as being bigoted, unreasonable, homophobic, racist, sexist and other horrible, untrue and hurtful names - anything to silence them in the world.

Why is it so?

Well, looking through the Bible heaps of others felt the same - way way back though the Old testament. Habakkuk was one along with Jeremiah and Daniel.  The Psalms are full of  "Why Lords?" There just doesn't seem to be answer.

I guess we can't really give an honest answer - Although God assures us, through the life of Jesus, that He does care and He keeps reminding us so.

Jesus told Pilate at his "trial" that it was no good looking for His kingdom here on earth - if they did think that and if his kingdom was here - then His servants would have fought for Him and he would not have been given over to the hostile Jews and he would not be standing before Pilate.

No! He said His Kingdom is from another place - and we know where that Kingdom is - Heaven.

So Jesus Himself didn't think of His home here on earth at all and he implores us that we should do the same.

Jesus didn't care about what other people had - He didn't hanker for their riches and homes - He said himself that he had nowhere even to lie down - amazing!

Satan is always on the lookout for others to join his band of merry men - he strolls around the earth looking to see who he can recruit.

He has his bag of temptations with him - and loves to show us how badly off we are and how good our neighbours are faring!

So it is for Satan's own benefit to encourage his followers prosper? - after all they can recruit even more people for him!

Romans chapter one has heaps to say about what will happen to the Godless - and it aint pretty - read it for yourself.

What a dark place to be YUK!

God on the other hand - keeps saying to us that there are better times ahead - and for eternity!

Our home here on earth is only temporary - Jesus himself confirms that - No He didn't want to go to Calvary - the very thought of it chills you to the bone.

Jesus died on the cruelest and evilest creation of mankind - spawned from the depths of hell itself.

Through all of His suffering He knew that His home was with God for eternity - He had an awesome Job to do and he was the only one that was able to do it.

He didn't look back and ask 'why?' - he didn't want what others had - he gladly did what He had to do and kept His eyes firmly fixed on the goal.

Let's not waste time looking and envying, asking questions and getting depressed over foolish and Godless even wicked people so-called "prospering" in this world - they are actually doomed.

We certainly have an obligation to pray for these sad lost folk - that God will give us a heart of mercy and grace - that we will be able to see that God's way even if it is hard here on earth, is actually the only way.

Satan, and I'm afraid many other prosperous people will all suffer the same fate - eternal separation from God -  ETERNAL separation - sounds pretty final to me.

Let's be content with what we have - what we have been blessed with - Look to the Saviour - Keep Him close because if we don't Satan will only be too happy to snuggle up to  us if we let him.

1 Samuel 17:47 says "For the battle is the Lord's".  God, He himself will claim the victory over everything and everyone.

 So let's not get all hot under the collar about what and who is prospering and how 'unfair' it all is.

Our God is ever faithful - He is still on His throne - we don't have to look to the world for our satisfaction.

Our God knows our needs and wants - he understands what we are going through - our trials, our troubles, our illnesses, our griefs - in fact everything.

Our job is to remain faithful to Christ who remains ever faithful to us - He is the one we must keep our eyes on - His home is going to be our home - we are only passing through here - visitors in time.

Let's keep our eyes on the goal and not on our 'prosperous' neighbours.