How are you so influenced by the gospel, that your ‘walk in the Spirit’ demonstrates your thankfulness?
Category Archives: Ken Noakes
Love that surpasses Knowledge!?
‘to know this love that surpasses knowledge’ – what a strange expression.
The Apostle Paul in closing his argument in Ephesian 3:19 makes this statement. I can understand how wonderful it is to ‘know love’, but how can you know something that ‘surpasses knowledge’?
Standing in the midst of Battle
Ephesians closes with the very colourful passage – a battle between the spiritual forces of evil and the Christian soldier who has put on the full armour of God (Ephesians 6).
In Ephesians, Christians have been told to sit, walk and stand!
Salvation by God
This week I was reading Exodus 14 with one of my kids. It recounts the passage of the Israelites from Egypt through the crossing of the Red Sea.
The Lord, hearing the cries of the Israelites secured their release (by way of several plagues) from slavery. They flee into the desert guided by the Lord (a pillar of cloud in the day and fire in the night). Arriving at the shores of the Red Sea they turn to see the Egyptian army in pursuit. Despite all that God had done they are terrified and cry out again ‘It would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the desert!’. The answer is glorious. Moses says to the people ‘Stand firm and you will see the deliverance the Lord will bring you today…the Lord will fight for you; you need only be still’ (Ex 14:12-14). As you probably know, God then parted the waters and they safely crossed the Rea Sea on dry land.
Predestination
How awesome it is when you are given a gift!
What makes a gift so awesome is that it comes to you free and comes to you when someone has put thought into a gift that would best suit you.
Let’s think though the topic of ‘Predestination’.
Fruit of the Spirit – Faithfulness
Fruit of the Spirit – Faithfulness (Gal 5:22).
Have you considered that faith is the mark of being human! We all live by faith. What is important about faith is not that you have it, but that you place it!
Fruit of the Spirit – Goodness.
Fruit of the Spirit – Goodness!
What good things might fill your mind this week? While contemplating that question, I add another – Why?
Living Patiently as a Christian
How do you live patiently as a Christian…
- when it comes to being mistreated for your faith?
- when it comes to being provoked in small or great ways?
- when it comes to quite simply getting annoyed at people or life?
Question: A ‘fruit of the Spirit’ is ‘peace’ yet sometimes even Christians experience personal conflict – where is peace when engaged in conflict??
The second characteristic of the fruit of the Spirit (Gal 5:22) is ‘peace’ and for Christians it may be helpful to consider the idea of ‘letting go and letting God!’ Often the reason why we are not ‘at peace’ in situations is because we are holding the reigns too tightly as if that was the way to ensure we get our own way. Whether you get your own way or not is secondary to the attitude which we bring to any conflict situation. What we need to ensure we do in all circumstances is honour God and so ‘letting go and letting God’ is a good rule of thumb.
Three questions you may find helpful to ask yourself:
- In conflict – have you thought about why the conflict has arisen?
- How do you approach conflict – avoid it, embrace it or treat it as a godly challenge?
- Above all, in whatever you do, do you honour God – in the home, in church, in the world?
Question: Is the ‘fruit of the Spirit’ (Galatians 5) all personal characteristics?
A good question.
Two quick comments. First, do you notice that (in Gal 5:22-26) it is not the ‘fruits of..’ (plural) but the ‘fruit of..’ (singular)?
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