Proverbs 17:24
Wisdom is the focus of the perceptive, but a fool's eyes roam to the ends of the earth.

My dearest grandpa, affectionately known as Pa has just recently needed to wear hearing-aids. Was chatting to him yesterday about them (they were obviously working) and he was saying that it has really taken some getting used to. They apparently adjust them digitally every couple weeks when he visits the doctor through a computer program to set the right levels and frequencies so he can hear the right noises and sounds.

There is a setting though if he double touches a button on the back of the hearing-aid that allows him to isolate all outside noises in order to help him focus just on the person that is speaking in front of him. If he didn't have this feature all sorts of sounds, depending on the frequency of the sound, is picked up and can be quite grating and obviously distracting.

Got me thinking firstly about how much I should value my ear drums and the ability to hear and listen. Its amazing the simple blessings in life we take for granted.

Was thinking though that we all need this feature in our life.

Giving full focus to the person in front of us at that point of time can be difficult in a world full of many noises vying for our attention.

It seems the invisible people on our phone are more important than the people sitting across from us at the dinner table, in our office, at church, etc.

The person across the room that we could be talking to who holds more status, all of the sudden becomes way more important than the person in front of us.

The outside noise will always be there but we have the ability to put down our phone, shut off from the other potential people we could talk to, the other opportunities and just simply enjoy the conversation of the individual right in front of us.

I'm no better than you on this but what a great church community we could be if we just gave everyone we met our full attention in that moment.

I have found though true focus comes from spending time with Jesus. It clears out the insecurities, distractions and helps me to be about others. Its like the doctor tweaking my Grandpa's hear-aids, fine tuning them to do what they are designed to do.

How much more should we spend time with the Holy Spirit to fine tune our ears to listen to the needs of others and be a blessing wherever we go?

& I pray the thought would not run through our mind..."Your mouth is moving but I can't hear you..."

Let people leave our presence feeling they have been heard, encouraged & helped.

FOCUS.

+jk

CHANGE IS COMING...13/7/11

Isaiah 7:14

¹⁴ Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel.

Spoke to a lovely lady yesterday about Christ on my prayer walk.  She said she is an ex-anglican, ex-catholic now Budhist among other things.

I asked her how she got to that view.

She said it was just too hard for her to believe in a virgin Mary giving birth to Jesus.

I asked her why she could not believe that.

She said she is very pragmatic and it was too much of a fable like story with no hard evidence.

She said you probably won't like my view on Jesus but I think he was just a good man and prophet.

I said you can't offend me, I have heard many views on Jesus but I do find it difficult to understand why people would find it difficult to believe that God could cause Mary to be pregnant.

I said if you look at all of creation around us, you see a beautiful sunrise in the morning, it becomes very easy for me to believe that the God that created all of this and all of humanity can cause a young woman to be pregnant in Bethlehem.

Many people have forgotten or don't realise why God caused Mary to be pregnant as a virgin. Jesus Christ was fully divine and fully human in order that His sacrifice and death on the cross would be sufficient for our sins so that we could all receive forgiveness.  People have missed the message in amongst the religious views and confusion that all we need to do is receive what He did on the cross, receive His grace freely. 

We continued to talk about Jesus and who He is and who He was while on earth.

We talked about how she didn't believe in miracles. We talked about extremists.  We talked about Church.  We talked about family.  We talked about community.

By the end she started saying things like I guess life itself, and the kids and grandkids that I have are a miracle and we should be thankful and grateful for that.

That was the end of the conversation.  But we did share a great moment talking about Jesus.

It did get me thinking about the virgin birth.

If Mary or Joseph had anything to do with the pregnancy humanity could take credit for the supernatural entry of Christ into the earth.

As Isaiah prophesied the virgin birth was a sign.

A sign that from the start this was all about grace.  Not about human effort.

Although Mary carried Jesus inside her, it was the spirit of God inside her that formed Jesus.

It was God coming to us.

It was God wanting to be with us.

It was God giving us Himself.

The great Creator of all things put Himself inside His creation.

The Lord Himself gave us the sign...

Oh! the humility Oh! the wonder

God with us.

When all of us did not deserve any of Him He gave all of Himself to all of us.

The verse before Isaiah 7:14 the prophet says is it not enough to try the patience of man.  Will you also try the patience of my God also?

This Christmas I pray we would not try His patience but embrace His free gift of grace.

Unto us a child is born.

Unto us a King is given.

What a gift!

What a King!

What a God!

Let us receive Him freely, for He has freely given Himself.

Bring Glory to Him by enjoying Him this Christmas.

Merry Christmas & Happy New Year.

+jk

Romans 8:¹ Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus...

New Years eve is usually for many a big let down.  Plans of fun and excitement can end in apathy and frustration as another year ticks over and the realisation that there is nothing different between this year and last's.

This is just a micro picture of a truly macro problem.  For true fun and excitement can only come from a change within and not from coming up with a greater scheme and plan to gain some pleasure in life.

Although planning and pleasure are not bad in themselves they tend to poor cousins of a greater plan and pleasure that is available through no work of our own.

For the greater plan to be experienced we must acknowledge the greater problem.

This problem is not limited to a new years party or relationship problem we are facing or financial issues in our world, it is far deeper and wider than we know.

The reality is we are condemned.  The human condition is one of separation from God, or sin.  We could have all the gadgets, money, know the right people, live in a mansion and still feel condemned or wrong.

So when Paul the Apostle writes 'Therefore there is now no condemnation...' this is no light statement.  He is talking about the end of the human condition that plagues every heart and mind on the planet.

Paul describes in the previous chapters the terrible state of man apart from God.  That although there is reflections of God's goodness in us and around us ultimately we have no glory and no light of our own.

But he can't just leave us hanging there with such a terrible gloomy view of the human mind in the previous paragraphs, there has to be a solution.

And he doesn't just make a positive statement of motivation, saying that even though we are in a bad state as humans it is okay because there is no condemnation!

No he goes beyond this revealing and showing us that the only reason we are no longer condemned is because of Jesus Christ.

His atonement and sacrifice on the cross has paid the penalty for our sins!  Because we were condemned we were meant to pay a price but we didn't have to because of our God, Jesus Christ.

Paul makes it very specific though, he says we are no longer condemned if we are IN Christ Jesus.

Once we see the state of our mess, the state of separation from our beautiful Father and creator maybe this will humble us to see the amazing love and grace that Jesus has poured out for us, that even though we are just like dust in comparison to Him, He would humble Himself to the point of death for us, why?  So we would no longer be condemned, but have freedom IN Him.

I don't know about you but this humbles me, this excites me, this softens me, this changes me, this changes everything!  Humanity is healed, the world is set free because of this ultimate truth!

It is not bad news at all, it is only bad news if we are too blind or too proud too admit that by ourselves we have made a real mess of things down here on earth and we need someone who knows what to do and how to live and how to love to show us the way up and through and out of this mess.

And although we will have to walk through some more mess we know that we are heading the right direction, and as surely as the sun rises in the morning and sets in the night we can be sure Jesus Christ is leading us home.

This is now a great opportunity for us to recommit or reconnect with Christ, don't let another year pass by without knowing Jesus more and letting Him heal your heart so it is regenerated by His Holy Spirit to live a pure, right and blameless life so that all will know this love that has saved us.

Why don't you stop and pray for His grace to fill you as you repent and turn back to Him today...

May it be a truly Happy New Year for you in 2010 because you are IN Christ Jesus.

Hebrews 12 ⁷Endure hardship as discipline; God is treating you as sons. For what son is not disciplined by his father? ⁸If you are not disciplined (and everyone undergoes discipline), then you are illegitimate children and not true sons. ⁹Moreover, we have all had human fathers who disciplined us and we respected them for it. How much more should we submit to the Father of our spirits and live! ¹⁰Our fathers disciplined us for a little while as they thought best; but God disciplines us for our good, that we may share in his holiness. ¹¹No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it.


When things get tough, whether it be physically, in our emotions, relationships, mistakes, finances, or other areas we must have a greater understanding of God then the western world around us.

When we as believers face trouble, whatever it may be, we must look to the scriptures to see that trouble does not mean God has left us or God is against us but rather He is loving us through this hardship.

The writer of Hebrews shows us that we should endure hardship as discipline, that it is a sign that you are part of the family of God and what kind of Father would God be if he did not discipline His sons and daughters.

God is the perfect Father so we believe what we are going through is perfect for us.

That is why we should as David did, compare our lives only to the Love of God not the life of someone else.

We now have an even greater comparison then David for although the spirit of God spoke the coming of Christ through him he never saw the fulfillment of that word as we have now seen it and know it to be true through scripture and our hearts.

Let us compare our current troubles to that of which Jesus Christ humbled himself...to very death itself, even when he lived the only flawless life that has ever been lived.

Perfect love drives out all fear.

When we see that God is Love and that He has shown us this and truly lived it out to the point of death we can be set free of the fear of failure and of suffering and of every other kind of fear this life brings.  God does not drive away suffering he drives out the fear of it.

Compare your life to His love and great joy will fill your heart by grace through faith.

Not only will we see that the hardship (if you can call it hardship living on the northern beaches) is God's way of disciplining us but we will see that without pain it is impossible to truly become the chosen people of God's Kingdom, for it is pain and suffering and our response to it in this life that reveals whether the grace of Jesus Christ is truly in us and completing its work in our hearts and lives.

Now don't be discouraged if you haven't responded well to trouble lately or in the past, but just as I have to consistently, let's as followers of Christ fix our eyes again not on the things of this world but on Christ who is seated far above this world and that we also by His grace through the work of the cross and the power of the resurrection have been seated in heavenly realms with Him.

Our joy is not reliant on us but on the completed work of Jesus Christ.

This I pray will set us free to be the hands and feet of a lost generation that need this good news preached through action, word and lifestyle.

As we see the perfect love of Christ I believe we can stop worrying about the little hardships we are facing in this life, that Paul describes as light and momentary and begin to reveal the joy that is beyond all joys in Jesus Christ.

This is your salt, this is your light.

With no suffering there is no discipline, with no discipline there is no growth, with no growth there is no righteousness and peace. 

Righteousness and Peace is what Jesus came to bring, right relationships with God, people and within ourselves and peace between God, people and within ourselves.

Be encouraged today the Father must love you.  Don't skip out of the race there are many who have gone before you and they are cheering you on from the stands of heaven. 

+jk

Luke 24:45
He said, "You can see now how it is written that the Messiah suffers, rises from the dead on the third day, and then a total life-change through the forgiveness of sins is proclaimed in his name to all nations—starting from here, from Jerusalem! You're the first to hear and see it. You're the witnesses. What comes next is very important: I am sending what my Father promised to you, so stay here in the city until he arrives, until you're equipped with power from on high."

Jesus died for a total life-change
Partial life change is not what he desired
He did not die so that half of our life would change
He did not rise again so we would sometimes be bold
He did not give us the Holy Spirit so we would sometimes rely on Him.

Jesus thank you for total forgiveness
Jesus change us today
We will stay in the city until you arrive and fill us with power

A power from on high
A power that is perfected in weakness
A power that serves
A power that loves
A power that breaks chains
A power like no other

A total change in our city starts with a total life change in us.

Believe, wait, move, love.

+jk