Preaching with a purpose

It may seem an innocuous thing to read your horoscope.  They are so general and vague that it is possible to link them with the happenings of your week.  If you are a christian your trust should be entirely in God.  You should realize that He is the only One who truly knows your future.  We get anxious and want to know what lies ahead, but it is best for us to find out as it unfolds.  There is some knowledge we are best not to know about, ahead of time, because we could not cope with that knowledge.  We need to develop trust in God for everything and let Him hold our hand and guide into the future and through it.  His will is being done each step of the way and His will is best.So stop behaving like a child feeling and shaking its Christmas presents to discover what is inside and leave the future in God's capable hands.

As a christian man you are required to love your wife as Christ loves the church.  Now that, I'm sure you will agree is a very tall order.  Similarly wives should love their husbands and children.  However it is possible to love your family too much.  This happens when you worship them.  Worship is for God alone and He must always come first in our lives. Those teenage crushes consist of worship and should be pushed out of our lives in order that we can put God first. A crush manifests itself in spending long hours thinking about the object of our crush. This is time we should spend worshipping God. I have had problems with "falling in love" all my life and it is only within the last few years that I have realized the truth, that I was worshipping the wrong person.  Now God helps me see these problems coming and I ask for His help to keep my attention on Him.

My God is Almighty, all powerful.  He is absolutely in charge of everything that happens in this universe.  He is not a god who is taken by surprise by anything that happens to us.  If we are trusting in Him everything that happens to us is in His control and is for our good and His glory. He is not caught off guard by random happenings, everything is desired by Him.  Although He sympathizes with us in our difficulties He does not weep with us because He knows all will be well."Like a father pities his children so the Lord pities those that fear Him."If we fear Him we will have nothing else to fear. We pray,"Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven." And indeed His will is being done.  If you are going through hard times hold on to the knowledge that God's will is being done. you may have health issues, trust in God He will bring you through.  You may be bereaved.  trust in God He will sustain you.Our God made heaven and earth and everything in it ...

Every now and then Christians fall out.  But we are told to love one another.  You have to do your part in this even if the other party persists in being difficult.  However it doesn't say that it will be an enjoyable experience to  love the difficult person.  This is agape love, the self sacrificing sort. Sometimes this love may mean standing up for yourself and not just accepting bad behaviour.  The person behaving badly is not doing themselves any good.  Love never was easy.

If we have put our trust in Jesus and know that He is the only way back to God then He promises never to leave us or forsake us, but He does not promise an easy life, but that He will be with us through all the problems and pain. Although life can go smoothly and easily at times , there will always be the difficult times too.  In James chapter one we are told to "count it all joy" when we fall into problems because coping with them are the way that we become stronger spiritually. With some problems we can get the help of friends and family, but sometimes you will feel you are on your own.  Humanly speaking you are, but always Jesus is right beside you leading you along the difficult path and through the problems into His sunshine.  One day He will lead you through our problems and straight to heaven where there is no more sorrow or crying.  That will be a wonderful day.