Monday, April 30, 2012

What am I worth?

What am I worth?

... And God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, after Our likeness...”
Genesis 1:26, NKJV

As human beings we have both intrinsic value and added value.

The Bible makes it very clear that every individual has significant value simply by virtue of being a creation of God, made in His likeness. In addition to this innate value which exists from conception we are called by God to spend our lives growing in His character and pursuing God-given gifts which, in our relationship with one another, empower the Body of Christ.

This added value develops as a consequence of the activity of the Holy Spirit in our lives as we follow the commands of Jesus. At the fall man’s value was not lost but defiled through separation from our Creator. Jesus came to earth and died on a cross to bring reconciliation between Father God and His children, so we might once again know the full value of our God-created identity and destiny.

The world is not so sure about the intrinsic value of human life and has largely rejected the concept of sin and the damage this has caused. The Bible truths about innate human sin are increasingly replaced by the philosophy of innate human rights, and an assessment of value is based on celebrity.

Jesus loved His disciples simply because they were precious and therefore worth His death on a cross, but He also told them (in John 15:16) that He had chosen them in order that they would go and bear fruit, in other words that they would display the added value of His character growing in their lives. We are each a priceless work of divine creation, immensely valuable, but God wants to give us added value, if we are willing, by restoring us from the damage that sin has caused.

Prayer: Father God, I believe that I am extraordinarily precious but needing much repair. I choose today to lay my life afresh before You, in order that Your Spirit can grow the fruit of the character of Jesus within me and therefore glorify God in my body. Amen.

Today's Writer : David Cross David Cross is now the Western Europe Director of Ellel Ministries. He trained as an engineer, built bridges in Hong Kong and ran a ski school in Scotland before he and his wife Denise joined Ellel Ministries in 1993. His recent books on Soul-Ties and Covering are already best-sellers.

Wednesday, April 25, 2012

Where Do Your Roots Go?

Where Do Your Roots Go?

"So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live your lives in him, rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness. See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the elemental spiritual forces of this world rather than on Christ."
Colossians 2:6-8, NIV.

Where do your roots go? This is an important question for everyone who seeks to gain maturity in Christ. It’s key. Because, no matter how good the food (teaching and ministry) you personally receive, unless you’re rooted in good ground you still won’t be able to grow to significant depth.

What do I mean by roots? Your roots are what you stand on - the place where you get your stability, the ideas or policies on which you’ve built your personal strength. In this difficult world it’s so easy for us to root ourselves in wrong things. Things like our skills or ability to produce money, our assets or family inheritance, our reputation or qualification, our past successes, relationships or contacts, or maybe an ability to manipulate. There are countless things waiting for us to lean on them for strength, and an enemy waiting in the wings to encourage us to do so.

In order to move on as a disciple of Jesus however, trust in these worldly things has to go - not just in a surface decision, but in the depths of our hearts. Trust instead must be put in Christ Jesus who has promised to be our provider - "And my God will meet all your needs according to his glorious riches in Christ Jesus" (Philippians 4:19), our strength - "I can do everything through him who gives me strength" (Philippians 4:13) and our help in times of trouble - "The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour" (Luke 4:18-19). That doesn’t usually happen in five minutes, as deep choices often take time to commit to wholeheartedly; but what a joy when the day comes that your heart no longer looks to the things of this world for strength, stability or identity.

When rooted in Christ we’re no longer blown around by the winds of this world. Not becoming some kind of heartless machine immune to the difficulties of life, but instead having an inner strength which isn’t based on circumstance and therefore cannot be stolen or broken by the enemy.

Where are you at on this journey today? Don’t receive condemnation if you know deep in your heart you still lean on the things of this world, but look to God to lead you on to fullness in Christ and ask Him to reveal and ‘unroot’ your bad roots in His timing. As He reveals them to you and you agree with Him, dealing with any sin as you’re convicted, your roots will begin to move to the good ground that is Christ Jesus.

Prayer: Thank You, Lord, that You are my Saviour, my Redeemer, my Lord and my King. Thank You that it’s possible for me to be rooted in You and that You are trustworthy to hold such a position. Lord, I long to live my life in You and I ask that You break down every wrong root in my life that gives me wrong strength. Let me be built up in You to be a strong (man or woman) of God. Thank You for loving me so deeply, in Jesus’ name, Amen.

Today's Writer : Richard Fila Richard Fila has a background in IT Consultancy and Accountancy Practice. He first came to know Ellel Ministries at Ellel Grange in 2006 and has since attended the NETS school at Ellel Pierrepont. He now works for the Corporate Support Team based at Pierrepont which supports the Ellel centres located around the world.

Monday, April 2, 2012

LESSONS FROM THE TITANIC

LESSONS FROM THE TITANIC

Morning Devotions with Chris Witts

One of the memorable movies I’ve seen is “Titanic” – the 1997 film based on the story of the tragic sinking of the “unsinkable ship”, RMS Titanic ..April 14, 1912, when the biggest maritime disaster of all time happened at 11.40pm. I guess we all know basically what happened when the ship hit an iceberg . The iceberg glanced the side of the ship causing her plates to buckle and rivets to pop below the water line 300 feet in length. And the Titanic was doomed .. there was a total of 2,206 people on board this magnificent ocean liner .. It broke in two and only 705 passengers and crew were rescued. What a tragedy. There’s a lot to this story .. but it was said back then that this ship could never sink, and people boasted “not even God Himself could sink the Titanic”. What a strange statement .. it seems that they felt they were in charge of their own destiny. How wrong were they. They had no fear of the elements, or the deep ocean. It was believed man’s intelligence and wisdom could conquer the universe.

The passengers ( many of whom were very wealthy and well known) had every confidence in this world class ship that everything was under control ..they thought everything had been provided. On that disastrous night, they were ordered to put on life jackets, but some refused saying they didn't want to get dirty and mess up their evening gowns. Some were urged to get into the boats and they said, "Why should we get into the boats and go out into the cold night, when we'll just be coming back on board in a few minutes? Many of them laughed when the porters and stewards tried to warn them that the ship was going to go down. An absolute tragedy.
This movie reminded me that life is unpredictable ..indeed James Cameron, the film’s producer and director himself said “the lesson of this story is – life is uncertain, the future unknowable, the unthinkable possible”. No-one on board RMS Titanic that day believed they were in deep trouble and in risk of losing their life. It couldn’t happen.. The loss of the Titanic left a shaken world in disbelief and made people stop and think ..but I found Psalm 108: 12 helpful. It says “Give us help from trouble, for no-one else can rescue us”. How true that was for these poor people – a nearby ship ignored the distress call and was too late to save most of the passengers and crew. Many drowned in the terrible icy waters of the ocean. God is in charge of our world and He alone has the power to help us. Nothing else can protect us.

In Ecclesiastes 9, Solomon says “as long as we are alive we still have hope..life is short.. the fastest runners and the greatest heroes don’t always win races and battles. Wisdom, intelligence and skill don’t always make you healthy, rich or popular. We each have our share of bad luck. V12 – “none of us know when we might fall victim to a sudden disaster and find ourselves like fish in a net or birds in a trap”. So this wise man urges us to make the most of life while we can .. We live as if we are the master of our own fate, the captain of our soul. How foolish we are!
James 4:14, “How do you know what is going to happen tomorrow? For the length of your lives is as uncertain as the morning fog - now you see it, soon it is gone.” (Living Bible). This verse is quite a shock, but it’s absolutely true. How long will you live? The passengers on board the Titanic had no idea of what was to happen on 14 April 1912. They were having a good time ( well many of them were depending on their social status and privilege I guess) and enjoying the best of everything, with no inkling of tragedy looming .. so what lesson is there out of this? Simply
Celebrate every day of your life to the fullest. Don‟t get so involved in planning for tomorrow that you fail to appreciate today. “What is your life?” Tomorrow can be an enemy because your life isn’t lived out tomorrow. It’s lived out in today. A study years ago asked 3,000 people, “What do you have to live for?” Psychologists were shocked that 94% said they were simply enduring the present waiting for something exciting to happen tomorrow. The reality is we don’t know what tomorrow is like. The passengers had no idea of that iceberg.

Remember that line from Kipling‟s poem: “If you can dream and not let dreams become your master then you‟ll be a man, my son.” A lot of us allow our dreams to master us. “We’re going to enjoy life someday, when we get more secure and get our problems solved.”. 1,500 men, women and children were killed in the early hours of that April morning.

Source: Chris Witts

SET FREE

SET FREE

Morning Devotions with Chris Witts

I wonder if you can remember back to October 1987 when a little 18 month old girl named Jessica McClure had fallen into a well shaft in Midland, Texas. She had only been left alone for a few moments in her aunt's back yard. She had playfully dangled her feet over a very innocent looking eight inch wide hole in the ground. But when Jessica tried to stand up, she slipped into the hole, one leg up and one leg down, and found herself wedged in the pipe 22 feet below the surface. Rescuers drilled a 29 foot shaft parallel to the well and then bored a five foot horizontal tunnel through solid rock in an attempt to reach Jessica. All the while, medical people were worried that dehydration and shock would take her life before the rescuers could get there. The rescue took far longer than anyone expected. The solid rock, plus equipment failure, meant that it took 58 hours before they could reach little Jessica. But they finally bored through and reached her, but the way she was wedged in the pipe, they couldn't move her! Medical personnel hooked up monitors to her and they discovered the worst - that she didn't have any time left - that critical point between life and death had arrived. The medical personnel conferred and they told the rescuers pull hard - she has no time left- you may have to break her to save her! And they pulled! And miraculously, little Jessica popped free without any serious injuries. It was an amazing rescue and many thousands of people watched this unfold on TV news around the world, and had prayed for her recovery. She had been rescued from overwhelming odds.

Life is sometimes like that – a desperate effort to overcome difficulties or the odds we may face, whatever they are. No matter how bad it looks, no matter how hopeless and helpless we feel, there is God. And God can and often does make a way. We learn that this God is none other than the God that made heaven and earth, this is the God who was Lord over history who weaves every event of history into his perfect plan of salvation for his people. This is a God who is Lord over every cell in your body and mine. This is a God who cannot be handcuffed. This is a God who is omnipotent. This is a God who can deliver. God is on our side. This God is for us always, even when you and I are against Him, even when we sin and turn our backs on Him. He still is for us, and my friends, that is the awesomeness of grace. That this God loves you and me so unconditionally and infinitely in Jesus Christ, that this God by the power of his Holy Spirit is for us and can make a way for you and me no matter what we are up against. This God is for us, this God can deliver. I can think of a song that says “God can make a way when there is no other way”. Written by Don Moen on an airplane as he travelled to attend his nephew’s funeral. His nephew had been killed in a car accident and these words came to him. “God will make a way where there seems to be no way. He works in ways we cannot see He will make a way for me., He will be my guide, hold me closely to His side, with love and strength for each new day He will make a way. By a roadway in the wilderness, He’ll lead me and rivers in the desert will I see. Heaven and earth will fade but His Word will still remain, He will do something new today”.
Psalm 50:15 “Call upon me in the day of trouble and I will deliver you, and you shall glorify me”.
The story is told of an only survivor of a wreck who was thrown on an uninhabited island. After a while he managed to build himself a hut, in which he placed the little that he had saved from the wreck. He prayed to God for deliverance, and anxiously scanned the horizon each day to hail any passing ship. One day on returning from a hunt for food he was horrified to find his hut in flames—all he had had gone up in smoke. The worst had happened it seemed. But that which seemed to have happened for the worst was in reality for the best. The next day a ship arrived. “We saw your smoke signal,” the captain said. If our lives are in God’s hands “all things work together for good” (Romans 8:28).

Wallace Johnson, builder of numerous Holiday Inn motels and convalescent hospitals, said, “When I was forty years old. I worked in a sawmill. One morning the boss told me. ‘You’re fired!’ Depressed and discouraged, I felt like the world had caved in on me. It was during the depression, and my wife and I greatly needed the small wages I had been earning.” When I went home, I told my wife what had happened. She asked, ‘What are you going to do now?’“ I replied, ‘I’m going to mortgage our little home, and go into the building business.’ “My first venture was the construction of two small buildings. Within five years, I was a multi-millionaire! “Today, if I could locate the man who fired me, I would sincerely thank him for what he did. At the time it happened, I didn’t understand why I was fired. Later, I saw that it was God’s unerring and wondrous plan to get me into the way of His choosing!”

Psalm 91:15B I will be with him in trouble; I will deliver him, and honour him.

Source: Chris Witts

MONEY MAD

MONEY MAD

Morning Devotions with Chris Witts

I recently came across the inspiring story of Bill Borden who was bought up in a very wealthy aristocratic family. There was plenty of money in this family ..his father made a fortune in real estate in Chicago and silver mining in Colorado. By 1908, Bill was worth $1 million, which in today’s standard is about $40 million. He had everything – good education and on his way to making a personal fortune. But something very dramatic happened. He heard the preacher Dwight L Moody and gave his life to Jesus Christ and became a practicing Christian. His whole life changed, and at age 25 he did the unthinkable. He gave away his entire fortune – half to the church and the other half to overseas church missions. It made headlines throughout America. His university friends thought had had gone mad ..He felt God called him to be a missionary and so at age 26 he left to work as a missionary in Egypt and then to a remote part of China. Tragically, his life was cut short because he died of spinal meningitis after arriving in Cairo. His family were deeply shocked, But after his funeral, someone found his Bible which was handed to his Mum & Dad and inside was a note that said ‘No reserves. No retreat. No regrets”. I thought this was an inspiring story. There are times when following God’s way is more valuable than amassing a fortune.

Money is not everything, in spite of what so many people think. Many of us hold money in high regard. Some of us may worship and covet it.. Money cannot buy happiness, but I guess it is indispensible for allowing you and those you love to lead a healthy and happy life ..but there’s a lot more in this topic than we first realize.

What were you taught about money as you were growing up? Something like "money doesn't grow on trees", or "money is the root of all evil", or maybe "all rich people are greedy"? Psychology Today magazine did a study back in May 1981 about the influence of money on people’s lives. The survey showed that people who are “money conscious” don’t have a satisfactory relationship with others, and they tend to be troubled by constant worry, anxiety and loneliness.

Henry Fielding said “make money your God and it will plague you like the devil”. Money is something that is with us every day. And it is used - saved - spent - scrounged and squeezed every day in our lives. People will do anything for money. And it makes you think doesn’t it? How better to find God as our rock solid foundation, instead of money. God values you more than any amount of money. He loves you for eternity. Money ends when we die.

It’s time to see what Jesus said about money, for in fact He spoke about money quite a lot. Why? Because He realized how it can trip us up in life. He knew how distracting money can be when it's out of control. And He knew the power of it and how easily it can get a strangle hold on us spiritually. Luke tells us in chapter 12 of his gospel “As thousands of people crowded around Jesus and were stepping on each other .. a man in the crowd said ‘teacher, tell my brother to give me my share of what our father left us when he died’. Jesus answered ‘who gave me the right to settle arguments between you and your brother?’ Then He said to the crowd ‘Don’t be greedy. Owning a lot of things won’t make your life safe”. (v1,13-15). Another version says "Beware! Don't be greedy for what you don't have. Real life is not measured by how much we own." (Luke 12:15) This is important teaching today because so many think that wealth equals success. But says who? God’s Word doesn’t say that. The truth is, however, that becoming the person God wants you to be on the inside and achieving the goals He sets for your life make you successful. Money or wealth or the lack of it has virtually nothing to do with you becoming the person God wants you to be... God is never impressed by monetary wealth. He is impressed by our obedience, our faith, and our reliance upon Him to guide us in all matters. Jesus simply said it like this - Be on your guard. Beware. Don't fall into the trap of being greedy for what you don't have. Be content. Your life does not consist in the abundance of your possessions.

Your life isn't about your stuff and things or what you own. Or your investment portfolio. Your life is worth so much more than that.

Jesus was saying this. Significance does not come from being worth money. Significance comes from realizing who God has made you to be and living in the daily knowledge that God values your life and that He loves you beyond measure. It is only when we get a true picture of our worth in God's eyes...that we will know true significance..

You are valuable not because of what you have, but because of who you are. Your value comes from God. He values us more than we will ever know.

Source: Chris Witts