In Perfect Sync With God’s Spirit

Galatians 5:13-26 (VOICE)

Brothers and sisters, God has called you to freedom! Hear the call, and do not spoil this gift by using your liberty to engage in what your flesh desires; instead, use it to serve each other as Jesus taught through love. For the whole law comes down to this one instruction: “Love your neighbor as yourself,” so why all this vicious gnawing on each other? If you are not careful, you will find you’ve eaten each other alive!

Here’s my instruction: walk in the Spirit, and let the Spirit bring order to your life. If you do, you will never give in to your selfish and sinful cravings. For everything the flesh desires goes against the Spirit, and everything the Spirit desires goes against the flesh. There is a constant battle raging between them that prevents you from doing the good you want to do. But when you are led by the Spirit, you are no longer subject to the law.

It’s clear that our flesh entices us into practicing some of its most heinous acts: participating in corrupt sexual relationships, impurity, unbridled lust, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, arguing, jealousy, anger, selfishness, contentiousness, division, envy of others’ good fortune, drunkenness, drunken revelry, and other shameful vices that plague humankind. I told you this clearly before, and I only tell you again so there is no room for confusion: those who give in to these ways will not inherit the kingdom of God.

Paul has been preaching about the call of God to freedom, and so he now spells it out: we are done with the demands of the law; now we are free to live in the Spirit and to be truly right with God. As free people, the Spirit gives us the characteristics of Jesus; we, too, can freely love in joy and peace. We can have patience along with kindness and faithfulness that can only come from the Father. We can reflect the goodness of God while being gentle in operating with self-control. For those who follow Him and live in the Spirit, these characteristics or fruits are a gift from God. As we grow in the faith, we find that we belong to God and can walk daily in the Spirit.

The Holy Spirit produces a different kind of fruit: unconditional love, joy, peace, patience, kindheartedness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. You won’t find any law opposed to fruit like this. Those of us who belong to the Anointed One have crucified our old lives and put to death the flesh and all the lusts and desires that plague us.

Now since we have chosen to walk with the Spirit, let’s keep each step in perfect sync with God’s Spirit. This will happen when we set aside our self-interests and work together to create true community instead of a culture consumed by provocation, pride, and envy.

Real Rebellion

'Drinking beer is easy. Trashing your hotel room is easy. But being a Christian, that's a tough call. That's real rebellion.'
Alice Cooper

Prayer For Unity

Lord Jesus we prayed that your people would be one, forgive us Lord and take away the pride and arrogance which divides your church. Break down the walls that separate us; unite us by your spirit ant teach us how to love each other.

Help us to humbly kneel before you and surrender all, Please guide us to be transformed by the renewing of our minds as we seek to find your good and pleasing will, Amen.

My Thoughts 💭 

The church I attend on sunday mornings has been without a pastor for well over a year now, so I post this prayer to try and help the body of believers unite and stay faithful to our awesome God.

I'd also love prayers from all of my amazing sisters and brothers here for this church as we seek to find a spirit filled, mature and wise pastor.

Ask God For It!

James 1:2-11 (VOICE)
Don’t run from tests and hardships, brothers and sisters. As difficult as they are, you will ultimately find joy in them; if you embrace them, your faith will blossom under pressure and teach you true patience as you endure. And true patience brought on by endurance will equip you to complete the long journey and cross the finish line—mature, complete, and wanting nothing. If you don’t have all the wisdom needed for this journey, then all you have to do is ask God for it; and God will grant all that you need. He gives lavishly and never scolds you for asking.

Wisdom, as James understands it, is the ability to live life well and make good decisions. Wisdom doesn’t come from old age or hard knocks. Wisdom begins with knowing and depending absolutely on God, who is never stingy when it comes to wisdom for those who seek it. He supplies all the wisdom we need when we ask. But when we try to go it alone—without God—trouble is around the corner.

The key is that your request be anchored by your single-minded commitment to God. Those who depend only on their own judgment are like those lost on the seas, carried away by any wave or picked up by any wind. Those adrift on their own wisdom shouldn’t assume the Lord will rescue them or bring them anything. The splinter of divided loyalty shatters your compass and leaves you dizzy and confused.

My Fortress

Psalm 18:1-3 (VOICE)

I love You, Eternal One, source of my power.
The Eternal is my rock, my fortress, and my salvation;
He is my True God, the stronghold in which I hide,
my strong shield, the horn that calls forth help, and my tall-walled tower.
I call out to the Eternal, who is worthy to be praised—
that’s how I will be rescued from my enemies.

Daily Prompt: A Friend In Need

Finish this sentence: “My closest friend is…” 

My lovely wife Sarah!!!

Daily Post ~ Photographers, artists, poets: show us FRIENDSHIP. 

⇧ Me & Sarah at Friday Street, Surrey, UK ⇧

A Book That Understands Me

Father, I thank You for giving me a book that understands me." By the power of your Spirit in me, stir up these words of yours in my mind and heart so that my life might naturally reflect who I am in you and who you are in me. Amen.

Blessed Is The One Who…..

Psalm 1:1-6 (NIV) 

Blessed is the one who does not walk in step with the wicked
or stand in the way that sinners take or sit in the company of mockers,
but whose delight is in the law of the Lord, and who meditates on his law day and night.
That person is like a tree planted by streams of water,
which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither—
whatever they do prospers.

Not so the wicked! They are like chaff that the wind blows away.
Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the assembly of the righteous.

For the Lord watches over the way of the righteous,
but the way of the wicked leads to destruction.

Blessed Is The One Who…..

Psalms 1:1-6 (NIV) 

Blessed is the one who does not walk in step with the wicked
or stand in the way that sinners take or sit in the company of mockers,
but whose delight is in the law of the Lord, and who meditates on his law day and night.
That person is like a tree planted by streams of water,
which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither—
whatever they do prospers.

Not so the wicked! They are like chaff that the wind blows away.
Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the assembly of the righteous.

For the Lord watches over the way of the righteous,
but the way of the wicked leads to destruction.

The Bridge Of Forgiveness

He who doesn't forgive another, Breaks down the bridge over which he must cross himself!

Are You Paying Interest?

Worry does not empty tomorrow of its sorrow, it empties today of its strength. It does not enable us to escape evil. It makes us unfit to face evil when it comes. It is the interest you pay on trouble before it comes.
Corrie ten Boom

"The way to worry about nothing is to pray about everything"

The Person You Made Me To Be

Father, we both know that the selfish pleasures of the world will spoil and ruin the body You've given me. Help me to stop choosing things that will wear me down. Give me strength to choose the things that will build me up so that I can be the person you made me to be. Amen.

Spiritual Fullness In Christ

Colossians 2:6-7 (NIVUK)

So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live your lives in him, rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness.

The Person You Made Me To Be

Father, we both know that the selfish pleasures of the world will spoil and ruin the body You've given me. Help me to stop choosing things that will wear me down. Give me strength to choose the things that will build me up so that I can be the person you made me to be. Amen.

A WORD A WEEK CHALLENGE - Curve

A WORD A WEEK CHALLENGE - Curve

Blog: A WORD IN YOUR EAR

Happy 1st Anniversary To iChristian

This feels weird to me as I registered on WordPress July 2012 and spent the next several months messing about with themes and trying to figure out the interface. I didn't have any friends/community as I didn't post anything worth reading.

Then I posted this in September 2012:

"If you speak to God in private, He will speak through you in public"

This Quote really helped me when Phil at Church asked me to share my Testimony to the congragation. I was terrified as i'd never spoke in front of anyone before, and i'd not shared my story at all, and as I hadn't been at this church a year yet not many people knew me. After Praying lots i checked my twitter feed just before church and the quote above was waiting for me.

I only just managed to get through my talk without breaking down and it was received well too. They wanted me to get "My Testimony" written down so they can share it in the local magazine. I also hope to share it on here too with a separate 'About' page.

February 2013

I really didn't want to share my story to everyone as even my family and friends didn't know how dark my world had become. But in February 2013 (7 months after registering) I added my testimony, and I wasn't prepared for the explosion of love, fellowship and a vast amount of people who could relate to some of my feelings. I never dreamt that God could use my little story to inspire and encourage others swell as help grow and uplift me. This still blows my mind! :)

July 2013

Today i'm so blessed to have so many amazing sisters, brothers & friends who have walked alongside me, encouraged, inspired and continue to teach me the word of God and how to apply it day to day! I jump out of bed each morning to spend time with your posts and I always pray individually as my screenreader reads them out.

So i'd like to end with a massive THANK YOU to all of you!!! :D

Are You Paying Interest?

Worry does not empty tomorrow of its sorrow, it empties today of its strength. It does not enable us to escape evil. It makes us unfit to face evil when it comes. It is the interest you pay on trouble before it comes.
Corrie ten Boom

"The way to worry about nothing is to pray about everything"

Experience

Experience: that most brutal of teachers. But you learn, my God do you learn. C S Lewis

Weekly Photo Challenge: Fresh

 FRESH!!!

⇧ Sarah loved her FRESH strawberries on toast whilst on holiday! ⇧

⇧ FRESH waterfall in the HOT 'Rainforest Biome" at the Eden Project ⇧

⇧ A pigs idea of FRESH!! ⇧

Daily Prompt: Fly on the Wall

Photographers, artists, poets: show us SNEAKY

📖 Verse 4 2day!  

Proverbs 5:21 (NIVUK)
For your ways are in full view of the Lord,
and he examines all your paths.

This daily prompt instantly reminded me of how alert Bruce used to be. If you tried to sneak anywhere, as soon as you look up, he is stood watching you! :D

Sarah also sneaks photos of me and my camera too!

⇧ Bruce catching me sneaking up the stairs! ⇧

⇧ And I thought I was the one taking the photos! ⇧

Daily Prompt: Fly on the Wall

Photographers, artists, poets: show us SNEAKY

📖 Verse 4 2day!  

Proverbs 5:21 (NIVUK)
For your ways are in full view of the Lord,
and he examines all your paths.

This daily prompt instantly reminded me of how alert Bruce used to be. If you tried to sneak anywhere, as soon as you look up, he is stood watching you! :D

Sarah also sneaks photos of me and my camera too!

⇧ Bruce catching me sneaking up the stairs! ⇧

⇧ And I thought I was the one taking the photos! ⇧

Blessed Is The One Who…..

Psalms 1:1-6 (NIV)

 

Blessed is the one who does not walk in step with the wicked
or stand in the way that sinners take or sit in the company of mockers,
but whose delight is in the law of the Lord, and who meditates on his law day and night.
That person is like a tree planted by streams of water,
which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither—
whatever they do prospers.

Not so the wicked! They are like chaff that the wind blows away.
Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the assembly of the righteous.

For the Lord watches over the way of the righteous,
but the way of the wicked leads to destruction.

An Atheist & God

An atheist can't find God for the same reason a thief can't find a policeman.
Adrian Rogers

Are You Being Robbed Of The Truth

1 Timothy 6:3-10

False Teachers and the Love of Money

These are the things you are to teach and insist on. If anyone teaches otherwise and does not agree to the sound instruction of our Lord Jesus Christ and to godly teaching, they are conceited and understand nothing. They have an unhealthy interest in controversies and quarrels about words that result in envy, strife, malicious talk, evil suspicions and constant friction between people of corrupt mind, who have been robbed of the truth and who think that godliness is a means to financial gain.

But godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out of it. But if we have food and clothing, we will be content with that. Those who want to get rich fall into temptation and a trap and into many foolish and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.

Are You Being Robbed Of The Truth

2 Timothy 6:3-10

False Teachers and the Love of Money

These are the things you are to teach and insist on. If anyone teaches otherwise and does not agree to the sound instruction of our Lord Jesus Christ and to godly teaching, they are conceited and understand nothing. They have an unhealthy interest in controversies and quarrels about words that result in envy, strife, malicious talk, evil suspicions and constant friction between people of corrupt mind, who have been robbed of the truth and who think that godliness is a means to financial gain.

But godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out of it. But if we have food and clothing, we will be content with that. Those who want to get rich fall into temptation and a trap and into many foolish and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs.

Find Worth

God, thank You SO much for holding us to a different standard than the world. Releasing me from the constantly changing expectations that are unachievable is relieving. Help me to focus on Your gift, a salvation I cannot earn, and find worth in that above anything else! Amen.

Blesson: A Blessing In A Painful Lesson

My new word: "Blesson." It's when you're able to view painful lessons as blessings. A blesson is what happens when you see the blessing in the lesson that your challenge taught you.
Karen Salmansohn

Weekly Photo Challenge: The Golden Hour

The Golden Hour 

⇧ The Golden Doughnut ⇧

⇧ The Sun on the cross ⇧

We Must Be Watchful

We must be watchful, especially in the beginning of the temptation. The enemy is then more easily overcome, if he is not permitted in any wise to enter the door of our hearts, but is resisted without the gate at his first knock...First there comes to the mind a bare thought of evil, then a strong imagination thereof, afterward delight, and an evil motion, and then consent. And so little by little our wicked enemy gets complete entrance, because he is not resisted in the beginning. And the longer a man is slow to resist, so much the weaker does he become daily in himself, and the enemy stronger against him.

Thomas a Kempis

Flesh V's Spirit: Which One Is Winning In Your Life?

Galatians 5:13-26 (NIV)

Life by the Spirit

You, my brothers and sisters, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the flesh; rather, serve one another humbly in love. For the entire law is fulfilled in keeping this one command: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” If you bite and devour each other, watch out or you will be destroyed by each other.

So I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. 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. 18 But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.

The acts of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God.

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit. Let us not become conceited, provoking and envying each other.

Is Your Church Showing Unity?

John 17:20-26  (NIV)
Jesus Prays for All Believers

“My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one— I in them and you in me—so that they may be brought to complete unity. Then the world will know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.

“Father, I want those you have given me to be with me where I am, and to see my glory, the glory you have given me because you loved me before the creation of the world.

“Righteous Father, though the world does not know you, I know you, and they know that you have sent me. I have made you[a] known to them, and will continue to make you known in order that the love you have for me may be in them and that I myself may be in them.”

My Thoughts 💭 

How united is your church body?

Unity Is vital for us to carry out God's will to be one united body. The world is watching us, so lets make known the unity and love of Jesus and show the world that they have a saviour and he loves them.

Helpless & Weak

Sometimes I feel so helpless and weak. I think that is why God uses me'. – Mother Teresa

Are Your Fruits Growing?

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit. - Galatians 5:22-25

 

Are Your Fruits Growing?

ut the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit. - Galatians 5:22-25

 

Become The Right Person!

The first command in Ephesians 5 tells us to be imitators of God by reflecting the way he loves us. Our love for others flows out of our sense of being deeply loved. Instead of constantly looking for the right person, God tells us to become the right person. Instead of looking for love, God tells us to realise that love has already found us! God loves as no one else ever can.
Chip Ingram

Daily Prompt: From the Gut

Today's Daily Prompt ~ "Photographers, artists, poets: show us JOYFUL"

Psalm 118:24 (NASB)
This is the day which the Lord has made;
Let us rejoice and be glad in it.

⇧ Sarah's joy overflowing on our wedding day ⇧ 

⇧ Joyful on our honeymoon too! ⇧

⇧ Joy in our marriage as best friends ⇧

⇧ Joy in the everyday ⇧

⇧ Sarah's joyful Gran ⇧

⇧ Sarah's joyful Dad ⇧

⇧ Bruce finding joy on an empty beach ⇧

⇧ Bruce jumping for joy! ⇧

Joy cannot be pursued. It comes from within. It is a state of being. It does not depend on circumstances, but triumphs over circumstances. It produces a gentleness of spirit and a magnetic personality.
Billy Graham

Check out "Steve & Sarah" on the "Weddings"  page