Reflections

Christ or Circumstances

If we do not allow ourselves to be led by the Lord then we shall be driven by our circumstances, or by the people who surround us. When the Israelites rebelled against God and refused to follow Him, then God informed them that He  would not travel with them. Moffat translates Ex.33:3 in this way; 'I

will not go with you. I will send an angel in front of you'. Religion became a secondhand affair in which they were led by an angel, rather than by direct contact with God.

When we lack a living real contact with God through His Son Jesus Christ we turn to things we can see, rather than depend on the invisible but reliable  wisdom that supports the universe. Some Christians turn to the stars for guidance, but it is sheer materialism to believe your life is determined by lumps of matter floating in space. It is a sign of inner collapse when someone who professes faith in Christ draws their inspiration from a daily horoscope rather than from a vital contact with God through His Word. Instead of facing the facts of life in the spirit and power which Jesus Christ gives to all those who are His, they turn to the stars to determine their destiny, only to find that instead of being led into sure ways, they are led into a swamp.

We must regain the sense of being led for if we are not led by God, then we will allow ourselves to be led by anything that comes. We Christians must work from principles not pressures, and experience a vital daily contact  with God and the Lord Jesus Christ. I say again, we will be led either by Christ or by circumstances.

Reflections
The priority f Repentance
Repentance is the primary plank to every Christian foundation, and without this there can be no continuance in the Christian life. Repentance means a change of mind, in which a sinner changes his mind about what he believes to what  he knows what God believes. As the root of sin is self-centredness , it is from this we must turn if we are to experience the salvation of God in the way the New Testament unfolds it.
Charles Finney, the great revivalist of  a previous generation saw and witnessed the genuine conversion of thousands of souls because of his insistence on the need for a real and radical repentance. He presented the claims of Jesus Christ in a way that people had to repent in order to become Christians. His way was no slip into the Kingdom by the- side door type of evangelism but a confrontation with sinners that led them to see that the only way into the Kingdom of God was through the door of real repentance.
The word Repentance implies the conviction that God is wholly right and the sinner wholly wrong. When a person comes into the Christian life with this conviction clearly  established he discovers a significant principle at the beginning of his christian experience which enables him, in any subsequent encounters with God, to agree with the Almighty and believe that He is always wholly right and never wrong. We do not do men and women a service unless we confront them with the real issue of repentance, for without it there can be no meaningful continuance in the christian life.

Reflections

The Prod to Prayer

The question often arises in the minds of God's children: Why does God allow so many problems to crowd into my life? Why does He permit me to face such severe pressures? There are many answers to this question, such as He permits things in order that our characters might develop, or that through the irritation finer qualities might emerge in our spirits, but the main reason why God allows problems and difficulties is that they become a prod to prayer. It is so often our need that drives us to the Throne of Grace, in fervent believing prayer.

New Zealand (so  am told) is the home of more flightless birds than any other country in the world. The Kiwi, Kakapo, the Penguin and the Weka Rail. These birds , say the scholars once had wings, but they lost the use of them because of the fact that there were no dangerous animals to keep them on the alert. They had no necessity to fly and hence had no ability to fly. The cost of their immunity from fearsome and dangerous beasts was the power of their wings.

It might well be the same with us, were it not for the fact that God allows problems to crowd in upon us. The dangers we dread, and the problems we shrink from, are the invitation from heaven to expand our wings in the Spirit. If earth offered all that we need then we would be no greater that superior beasts without a thought above the clouds. But God allows difficulties to crowd our pathway and trials to come upon us to remind us that earth in itself does not contain everything we need. We need Him.