Christian Faith Perspectives

One of the most encouraging things about the Christian Church is the fact that it continues to expand. You may belong to a small gathering of believers that meet in a small building, or you may attend a mega church which has hundreds of worshippers. But we all make up and are a part of the worldwide Church.

People may question the existence of so many denominations but miss the point. Despite the differences in worship styles and structure we all make up the church of the Lord Jesus Christ. It is not for us to question the sincerity of people who worship differently to ourselves for God looks on the heart.

So, all believers are part of this exciting ever-expanding body… THE CHURCH! The Lord Jesus said He would build his church, and nothing will be able to stop its expansion. It is built on one premise, that Jesus is the Christ, and that we are saved by our confession and belief that God raised Him from the dead.

Today we see the Christian Church spreading out in every direction. God is challenging each of us to be a part of this world evangelization process.

Ref. Is. 54:3, Matt. 16:18, Rom. 10:9-10. NIV.

Essentially… YES!

However, there is a requirement that one should be generous to others. It is good to remember that you can’t outgive God, so be rich toward others and God will be rich toward you.

There is a principle here of reciprocity where we get back what we give out. It can be negative; it can be positive. We can demonstrate acts of goodness toward others, or we can wish them nothing by our non-actions. There is a well-known Bible verse which says… “In everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets” Matt.7:12 NIV.

We are not winning God’s favour by our actions, but what we do to others, influences what He does to us. In fact, God will make sure you get back what you give to others… Luke 6:38 NIV.

We can develop a generous heart, but that can be hard because we are not naturally programmed to be generous. We find it hard to let someone love us unconditionally and as a result we find it difficult to do it to others.

I had an incident that happened to me recently; for whatever reason I do not know but it was a sincere expression of love. This lady simply put her arm around me and gave me a hug… simple and sincere! It was an act which touched me ever so powerfully!

The whole premise of experiencing personal prosperity is entwined and dependent on an attitude of love. God is not responding to us as a payback for what we have done to others, but a response to our giving done in love.

Our giving should never be a compulsive requirement to earn points with God. Salvation doesn’t need our help, we are already rich spiritually and God wants to give us material riches too. Out of that abundance let’s be generous givers!

Focus and concentration is so important when aiming at a mark. Whilst we can be all over the shop when aiming at something, there is nothing more satisfying than hitting the mark. We all know the importance of accuracy in sport; goal scoring in soccer comes to mind, or amazing three-pointers in basketball…. the list goes on! The ability to hit the mark, separates the best from the rest.

I recall an incident when we were hosting a couple of very young Australian aboriginal girls. We were having fun throwing stones over a river, and when I suggested we aim at something, they hit the spot with total accuracy. Which reminds me of the Bible where it talks about soldiers using a slingshot. There were chosen marksmen who could sling a stone at a hair and not miss.

In our Christian lives we can lack that zeal to be the best, it is easy to take the path of least resistance rather than going into spiritual training to be better. Be it the armed services, be it elite sport or academia, intensive training and personal application is necessary to hit the mark of excellence. It is no different for Christians, for we are encouraged in the Bible to strive to be our best.

In life we should not settle for mediocrity, and we should not settle for anything less than our best as Christians. We don’t have to be a perfectionist per se but aim to be the best we can. The Lord Jesus himself encourages us to be perfect, it is that desire to develop spiritually in Him, so… AIM FOR PERFECTION!

Ref. Judges 20:16, Matt. 5:48, 2 Cor.13:11, Phil. 3:12. NIV.

As Christians we have a permanent relationship of peace with God. This is because Jesus Christ secured it when he gave his life on our behalf to reconcile us to God. We now have continual fellowship with the Father and His Son.

However, there will still be times when our feelings seem to tell us otherwise. But it is important to remember that these feelings do not affect our basic link with God. When we trusted the Lord Jesus, we entered the Kingdom of God, and we were at peace… no longer under condemnation; the barrier of sin removed.

So how do we deal with these inner feelings which seem to interfere? Firstly, we need to remind ourselves that our peace with God remains unaltered, it is only our inner feelings which lack calm. At these times we need to restore stillness.

My own experience is that when I fail to be completely open with God in prayer, confusion, turmoil and anxiety start to rule. We try to solve things ourselves, things we could share with God. So, if we acknowledge Him in ALL our ways He WILL direct our path; the stress will go, and peace will again rule our hearts.

In personal relationships we talk about the need to be open with one another. Perhaps this is the aspect of conversing with God that needs emphasis, where we share those personal areas of our life. God too has feelings and is able to respond to us. The Lord Jesus Christ walked this earth with our nature; he fully understands the way we feel so we can share those private areas. Fellowship with the Father and the Son has a purpose… to maintain our PEACE!

Prov.3:6, John 14:27, Roman 5:1, Col.3:15. NIV.

Have you ever considered that God actually purchases things. Well it’s true, and when He does He pays the purchase price. Of course you guessed it, I’m talking about God buying us back as His possession.

As a young man growing up I was fashion conscious and no different to the other guys. You had to look your best and to impress the girls of course. Now I recall buying an expensive trendy green suit and this is where the story gets interesting, for I had to pawn or sell my suit.

Guess I was that typical young person searching for identity. Part of that process was travelling, but you can’t travel for too long without working. Eventually I ran out of money and as I mentioned I had to sell the suit I loved so much. The cash in hand was but temporary help!

Because my resources were so low I had to stay with a relative. This person was very kind to me. When he found out about my pawned suit he wanted to get it back for me. Taking my pawn ticket he paid the price for getting back the suit, he was in affect redeeming my suit.

God sent Jesus into our world to redeem us. It is God’s way of buying us back to himself. He is a close relative to us all and he was willing to pay the price in order to save us. The price he paid was his own blood.

As we live our Christian lives it is reassuring to know that we are legally God’s property. Our Heavenly Father now owns us because Jesus Christ paid the purchase price when he gave his life on the cross. To be owned by our Heavenly Father means we have someone who loves us and will now look after as His own child. We are, HIS CHILDREN!

Ref. Heb. 9:12 NIV

When we become Christians there is that initial time of understanding our new found faith. But believe it or not we have immediately joined God’s work force and He has very important things for each of us to do. as we live our lives.

I clearly recall an incident when holidaying down the beach. As we walked along the waters edge one of our family group wrote in the sand with a stick. The message written, was ‘JESUS SAVES’. Now that might seem incidental, yet who knows, it may have been that one act that helped a person to find God.

When our Christian lives begin we all in a sense have that calling to go into all the world and preach the Gospel. In fact the first thing we want to do is actually tell others about our new experience. Everyone wants to share good news and it all starts with those words “have you heard ” When we find new life in Christ it is just the same, we want to tell the world the good news about Jesus Christ.

As we find a spiritual home in a local church of our choosing there will often be something we can do enabling us to be an active Christian serving the Lord. But the various froms of Christian service are numerous and diverse. The Holy Spirit is available to lead us to find if you like that niche of service that is right for us.

We are not all called to be a missionary or to be a church pastor. But we are all workers with God having an individual, essential, and important part to play.

1Cor. 12:4 NIV.