Every talent that you have comes from God, use it for His glory.
Archive for May, 2009
This movie speaks for itself.
God has everything under control, His power has no limits.
“Our shield and defender the ancient of days”
Old and young can work in harmony to glorify God.
I was visiting a church this afternoon as part of one of the trips I am going on whilst on holiday. After spending some time looking around the church itself, I was looking around the graveyard surrounding it with another lady from our group. We had been discussing different things throughout the day and we both like looking at the churches in different places and looking at the different graves. As we got further around the graveyard the graves were getting older and the stones were more and more faded and worn with age. There was one particular stone that we were looking at as we had noticed that a whole row of graves belonged to one family, but it was so worn that we were having trouble making it out. We both looked at each other and almost at the same time said “I can’t quite make it out. Can you?”. As soon as we said it, the sun shone brighter and we could then read it clearly.
I had felt the presence of God there inside the church building, and the way that the sun shone more brightly perfectly as we spoke could not possibly have been anything other than God hearing us and responding.
A little later we were discussing what had happened, and said that a lot of people look only for the big signs that God both exists and answers prayer. The little things like what had happened would be ignored by people who either don’t believe or have strong doubts and yet it is these little things that happen to everyone that remind us that God is always with us and listens to us as well as answering our prayers.
Had I been with someone else, maybe it would have still happened, but the discussions that we had afterwards over a cup of coffee wouldn’t have done. Not only was it a sign that God is there but it also sparked that conversation about faith means to us.
Have you ever had something similar happen to you that has opened up an opportunity to speak openly to someone that you either don’t know or is a new aquaintence about God?
So the Lord said to Satan,
“All right, he is in your power,
But you are not to kill him.”
Job 2:6 GNB
“All right, he is in your power,
But you are not to kill him.”
Job 2:6 GNB
What do you consider to be power?
Do you think that you have power?
Would you like to have power?
There are many questions about power that I could ask and I have been to and led training seminars on this very subject, but in the business world.
What is power?
Who has power?
How do you gain power?
How do you use power?
My favourite story about someone who said that they had power was the lion keeper who thought he had power because he had a badge that said “Lion Keeper”. He had a badge that gave him some authority, but did he have power over the lions?
You decide.
Power is the ability to make people think that they have power. They have that because you allow them to have it.
In the Christian faith there are a number of people who have power. There is, however, only one person who has the ultimate power that is God Himself.
In our reading, we see that God allows the devil to put Job in his power. Let me just repeat that in case you missed the significance of the sentence.
God allows the devil to put Job in his power.
Who has the real power?
You decide.
The three people in this verse are God, the devil and Job.
Does Job have power?
Well, yes he does because he has the power of faith. He believes in God so much that he will not waiver from that faith no matter what is thrown at him. He looses everything, except his faith.
In the letter to the Romans, Paul writes these words, “Who, then, can separate us from the love of Christ? Can trouble do it, or hardship or persecution or hunger or poverty or danger or death?”
Does this remind you of Job?
It certainly reminds me of him, but Job never faltered. Would you have had that amount of faith?
Does the devil have power?
Well I think that we would all agree that the devil has power because we can see it everywhere in the world today. It is not just a power from the past; it is an up-to-date, in your face power that people are seduced by. He can make the worst things look good for a while. He can persuade us that greed, envy, jealousy, pride, and much more, are ok, just part of life, don’t worry about it.
We should know better.
Does God have power?
The answer to this is a definite yes. He is the one with the real power. He is the one that has already defeated death. He has defeated the devil when he tempted God’s Son, Jesus, in the wilderness. He has sent His Holy Spirit to help and guide us everyday. He shows us the devils powers and helps us to overcome them.
In our reading, God allowed the devil to have power over Job. Just to repeat that, God allowed the devil to have power over Job. He did, however, set limits on what the devil could do. He was allowed to through every sort of evil and wickedness at Job. He was allowed to kill his family, friends and ruin his business. He was allowed to make him ill, BUT he was not allowed to kill him.
This goes back to my point of, who has the power? God does because He has the power over life and death. He conquered death and has given us the hope of life eternal. The devil may promise this but only God can give it.
Who has real power?
Only God.
Pardon, Peace and Power
Three attributes of a Triune God.
God is Spirit, and only by the power of his Spirit can people worship him as he really is.”
John 4:24 GNB
Faith and power go hand in hand with each other.
Believers will be given the power to perform miracles: they will drive out demons in my name; they will speak in strange tongues;
Matthew 16:17 GNB
