Showing posts with label purpose. Show all posts
Showing posts with label purpose. Show all posts

Friday, December 22, 2006

Why did Jesus come?

Maybe you have asked this question before or maybe someone has asked you this question. 1 John is not often a book we might hear preached about it in this season of advent. But yet it for me has alot to say about the son of God who came in flesh.
So let me ask myself that question again:
Why did Jesus come?
1 John 3:8b gives us this answer:

"The son of God appeared appeared for this purpose to destroy all the works of the devil"
This is a really cool verse to remind ourselves as we approach the Lord in prayer.
We know this to be true and really give us a clue that the birth of Jesus is only a part of purpose. God is purposes continued to be revealed through his son after the birth. Right throughout his earthly ministry he continued to destroy the work of the devil. The final enemy to be defeated was death. Christ arose!

I came accross these verses within Luke within Zacharius' song, (John's father). It says:

Luke 1:74-75
"To grant that us that we being rescued from the hand of our enemies. might serve him with fear, in holiness and righteousness before him all our days"

Zacharius came to praise the God who had a taste of salvation.

Saturday, December 09, 2006

Gods purposes seen throughout Advent

In number times in this blog, I have reflected that God's purposes work out! Long time before Jesus was born, he was being prohesied about. People were living in real anticipation a messiah who was coming. He came and in new Testament we often see OT scripture quoted to show that God's purposes were being revealed in their midst.
Hopeful Imagination has a post on this theme:

"How good are you at planning ahead? I am not a last minute person. I like to be organised but I have learnedthat carefully laid plans can be altered in a minute by unforeseen circumstances or pressure of work.

This isn't true of God, however, His plans have been laid since before the beginning of the world. His plans are eternal and will come to pass. " to read more click here

Monday, November 06, 2006

God's purposes and answered prayer

Proverbs 16:9 (New International Version)
In his heart a man plans his course, but the LORD determines his steps.

Since June I keep being drawn back to these verses in proverbs which speak about God's purpose. Not only that I know it as a reality as God works out his purpose in my life. In June my wife, accepted a post and I have now during this past week accepted a postition which will mean my wife will be staying at home and I will be going back to work.
In the answered prayer (you will see a link to post below) I noted that we continued to seek to keep our ears open to what the Lord would say to us. We do not want to be in the path of least resistance but hopefully trying to actively hear what the Lord has to say to us.
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Brian Robertson has a post on the theme of The path of least resistance

Other posts on purposes:
Purposes, Purposes, Purposes (October 24th)
God's purpose will prevail (June 30th) details the verses in Proverbs about God's purpose.
Answered Prayer (June 22nd)