Who do you need to forgive?
This is the latest poster from Outreach Media. It’s interesting given our recent series on The Costly Art of Forgiveness. I wonder how we are going at putting into practice the things we learnt?
Posts Tagged ‘outreach media’
- Articles
- posted on 14 October 2010 by
- Articles
- posted on 10 August 2010 by
Don’t just vote for them… pray for them.
This latest poster from Outreach Media reminds us that God commands us to pray for all who are in high positions (1 Tim 2:1-2). Have you decided who you’ll vote for on August 21st? Had you thought about praying for them too? Read the full article.
- Articles
- posted on 10 May 2010 by
Thankfully, God doesn’t think you’re imaginary
This is the latest poster from Outreach Media.
Thankfully God doesn’t think we’re imaginary. Imagine if He did? If He ignored us as though we didn’t exist? If He simply walked away from His creation, like a failed project, abandoned to run its course? … switching out the lights, turning off the rain, refusing to maintain the delicate ecological balance of our universe and our world…
Thankfully, even though we treat him and others so badly, He’s willing to forgive and stay committed to us. The Bible calls this grace. In grace He keeps the earth turning and preserves his creation. In love He preserves the precious conditions for life, even though we often forget and neglect Him. But sadly, some ‘imagine’ God’s not there.
Here’s the Bible’s response to this kind of pretending. ‘The fool says in his heart, there is no God’ (Psalm 14:1). Surely it’s biting the hand that feeds us if we refuse to acknowledge the existence of the one who created, sustains and will judge us. Not all imagination is good. This kind is folly!
God longs for us to do more than imagine him. He longs for us to know him. And He helps us by sending Jesus into the world so we don’t have to struggle to imagine Him. Jesus’s life on earth was recorded by the people he came amongst. Jesus said, ‘He who has seen me has seen the Father’ (John 14:9). So don’t try to imagine God in or out of existence, read the Bible and meet Jesus.
The way to know God is through Jesus, not as imaginary friend, but as Saviour and King. Don’t dismiss him as an imaginary companion of intellectually inferior Christians. Listen to his wise counsel in the Bible and revel in the comfort and assurance of being loved and known by your creator.
Prayer: Dear God, please forgive where I have gone in my imagination. Help me to trust Jesus. Amen.
- Articles
- posted on 9 April 2010 by
You can’t play hide and seek with God
Imagine playing hide and seek with God. My turn to count. 1… 2… 3… Where would He hide? What is the best hiding place ever? The God of the universe would definitely know all the best places. 8… 9… 10…
Before, when it was my turn to hide, the all-seeing Father just had to open His eyes to see me. Only He didn’t even need to open His eyes because the all-knowing Father knew where I’d hidden. Only He didn’t even need to think about it because the Father who prepared all things before creation knew where I was going to hide before I hid there. Hiding from God isn’t easy!
18… 19… 20… Here I come, ready or not!
I turn around, my eyes open wide, ears straining for the slightest sound. Where will He be? I wonder where to start. It could be a long game. What if He made himself tiny, or invisible? He could hide from me forever if he wanted to and I could look and look and never find him.
So, it turns out you can’t play hide and seek with God after all. But people try it. Hiding in their jobs and houses and in their dreams, pretending that God can’t see.
The wise person knows just how big God is. King David in the Bible spoke of God’s all powerful and all knowing presence. He wrote: ”Where can I flee from your presence? If I go up to the heavens, you are there; if I make my bed in the depths, you are there.”
King David concluded by asking God to examine him and test his heart: ”Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.”
Right now God sees us and knows us. We’re in full view. And He wants us to follow Him. Only God has the power to change us so that we’re not offensive to Him. It’s so much simpler to admit our mistakes and come into the open. If you really want to be found by God then listen for his voice. Jesus said this to his disciples: ”My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me.”
Prayer: Father in heaven, thank you for your love to us in sending Jesus, the greatest gift of all, saviour of the world and Christ the Lord. AMEN.
Written by Outreach Media. Used with permission.
- Articles
- posted on 10 March 2010 by
Pornography = despair. Jesus = hope.
Billions of dollars are spent on pornography every year. Many are enslaved in a cycle of addiction, guilt and shame. That’s why throughout March, Outreach Mediais embarking on a bold poster campaign to show the freedom and hope that Jesus offers. This poster will be displayed outside churches across Australia. Visit www.pornequalsdespair.org for more information.
