cycles

I was teaching scripture today and we are working thru some of the Old Testament and how there is a cycle the runs thru it with the Israelite nation.

Disobedience

Judgement

Cry out for Help

Rescue

Peace

this cycle goes round and round and God is faithful every time they call out for Help. When they have done nothing to deserve His love He shows them unconditional love.
Reflecting over this, this arvo, i can see we do this today! When things are going well we try live for ourselves (disobedience to God) then judgment comes along and life gets hard and we struggle to the point of seeing our failure and cry out for Help.
God, being Faithful as He is, comes along and gives us what we need to get out of the hole, and we go into times of 'peace' and then we go back to doing it on our own strength. The cycle begins again!

I truly believe God will one day say enough is enough and call the world to an end. were are we going to be standing at that time?

What is your Heart Focused on?

This is note a whinge or a 'bashing' of any of the programs that are running or about to run. So don't read this note with that sitting at the back of your mind.

Q. how many people do you know that are non- Christians? hopefully there is a number especially if you are not in fultime Christian ministry.
Q. how many groups or organizations are you part of?
Q. do you know your Neighbours?
these are ll questions that these programs are asking and wanting to promote activity in. this is a good thing. they want us to go into our community and talk about our faith.
Q. what is you main topic of conversation at the moment?
Q. What is your focus in life?
Why do i ask these Questions? well about 10 years ago my focus in life revolved around cars. I read about cars, i worked on cars, i watched cars in racing, I talked cars with mates. If you asked someone what my life revolved around they would say Cars.

I went to a Mens conference a few months ago and the speaker was talking about promoting the Gospel (some might say evangelism, pre- evangelism). He talked about the fact that there was so many "programs" "training sessions" to help us tell the gospel and talk to others about Jesus. the speaker made the point that it did not make any difference to us if our heart was not focused on God. As I said, 10 years ago all i talked was cars, today i want to talk about Jesus, not because i am paid to as a Minister but because that is the focus of my heart. Talking about cars came easy to me back then because i was passionate about it, today i naturally want to talk about Jesus because it comes naturally.
if our churches took Jesus seriously and had Him as our focus then 'connect 09' would not need to be run. the money could be spent elsewhere.

I believe that unless we have a heart attitude change then 'connect 09' won't be the success that it could be.

Take notice of the conversations you have with your christian friends. think of what they are focused on and see if there is a balanced view with Christ and the world. If the balance is not leaning to God then we need to adjust it.

Jesus called the disciples to follow Him. they stopped talking about Fishing and started Talking about Jesus. they were Fishermen focused on catching fish, they became men that focused on catching people to Jesus. I am sure their conversations did not always focus on Jesus but the heart change would have been evident through their conversation.
Knowing Jesus changed their lives from the heart. Has He truly changed our hearts? those Christians that God has blessed us with to minister to have they allowed Jesus to truly change their hearts.

We need to get the focus of our hearts right before we head into any 'outreach program'.
what our heart focus is what naturally comes out of mouth. what is coming out of yours?