opposition – Godinterest

March 25, 2022March 25, 2022

Be Brave Like Christ

The enemy is behind most of our fears. He loves to instil fear into us so we will stay stuck, unable to move forward in the promises God has for us. The devil doesn’t want us to live out our God-given calling. For our enemy roams the earth, “prowling around like a roaring lion just seeking someone to devour” (I Peter 5:8).

Today’s verse reminds us that we will be hated as we are “set apart and chosen” and as we are called to be his disciples. But Jesus shows us what bravery looks like. We can persevere through our fears, the attacks of the enemy, and opposition from anyone who hates us and denies us just, as Jesus persevered.

It takes bravery to recognize your fears and continue moving where God is leading you. Jesus was brave. He had to face adversity, accusation, and affliction as he shared the truth of the Gospel. He left his family to spread the good news of the Kingdom of God. He was brave when everyone around him hated him, leaving him, and betraying him.

Today be encouraged by 1 John 4:4 “greater is He who is in me than he who is of the world.” The world may hate you. The world may spit on you for your faith, judge you for your values, and criticize you for your decisions in following Christ. But we know that a man in the flesh, our Saviour was brave enough to walk this earth before you. And the same Spirit He had, you have inside you, so that you too, can be brave like Christ. Step out, despite fear on every hand, trusting that God has gone before you. Follow in His footsteps and be brave just as He was.

“If the world hated you, keep in mind that it hated me first.” – John 15:18

Let’s Pray

Yahweh, thank you for leaving me with your word, which is “God-breathed” and directed by you. Father, thank you for being brave against the devil and devil inspired people. God, thank you for sending your Son, who led the way as our greatest example of what it means to be brave in the face of fear and advance the Kingdom even if we are hated for it.

Lord, we need you and can’t do this without you. In Jesus’ Name, Amen

October 20, 2021January 15, 2024

Black History

If It Had Not Been For The Lord Where Would You Be?

In the UK it’s black history month. As I look back at where God has bought us from, like the Lord says, “through many dangers’ toils and snares…,” all I can say looking back and reflecting is “if it had not been for the goodness of God, where would we be?” Some wouldn’t be alive today. Some would still be mentally messed up. If it had not been for God’s favour and love, some would still be struggling, barely making it. You may say, “we haven’t made it very far, we’ve got a long way to go.” And that may be true, but black or not, I want you to take a moment and look back over your life and realise how far you’ve come. The same God that brought you this far, the same God that has kept you alive, is going to carry you through any difficulty you may be facing.

Today, just start praising and thanking God for what He is doing and what He has done. Thank Him for His love and favour and blessings upon you. Praise precedes the victory. Praise brings the walls of opposition down. Praise is the invitation for God to intervene on your behalf! Friend, I declare that the goodness of God is all over you! He is directing your steps, and you are following His leading. I declare that your best days are ahead, and as you praise Him and thank Him, you will move forward into the victory and blessing He has prepared for you!

“If your law had not been my delight, I would have perished in my affliction.” (Psalm 119:92, ESV)

Let’s Pray

Yahweh, thank You so much for Your consistent goodness and faithfulness in my life, and the lives of my forefathers. I don’t know where we would have been without You. We were mistreated beaten and abused, but what the devil meant for bad, You have used it to make us stronger. Hallelujah! Father, I know that Your hand of favour is upon me. I know that You are leading me and guiding me in victory. I won’t give up, please keep me close to You, as I surrender every area of my heart and mind to You, in Christ’ Name! Amen.
…

April 2, 2021April 2, 2021

Good Friday

Where Feelings Are Not Facts

On Good Friday some 2000 years ago Christ was overwhelmed, the pressure of the world was on His shoulders, it was going to be a hard day. He was weak but he had to push through. On good Friday Christ teaches us how to handle being overwhelmed and feeling weak. We all have seasons in life when we feel overwhelmed. When unexpected things happen, we can be tempted to get discouraged. We may feel like we don’t have what it takes, or we may feel weak. Anytime you feel this way, you have to realise that feelings aren’t facts. Hallelujah!

Today, just like that Friday when Christ was crucified, let’s not forget God has equipped you just like Christ was, and He already has a plan for you to come out of that difficulty. Scripture says, when you feel weak, that’s when God’s strength rises in you. His strength will overcome any opposition you may face. Anytime you feel weak, that’s when God is strong in You! Keep praying, keep believing, keep pressing forward and rise up in the victory He has in store for you!

“That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.” (2 Corinthians 12:10, NIV)

Let’s Pray

Yahweh, thank You for going through the pain of good Friday for me, this gives me strength for any adversity I face in this life. Father, I know that with You, I will overcome. God, please help me to keep my heart and mind focused on You as I move forward in victory. In Christ’s Name! Amen.

January 7, 2021January 7, 2021

Stand!

In these times people are standing up for all kinds of reasons – against racism, against the vaccine, against voter fraud and the list goes on. One of the reasons people take a stand is because of poor choices others have made but other times, people have to take a stand to protect what is right.

As you become convicted and you’re determined to fulfil your God-given destiny, and you’re taking steps to improve your life or make a difference in your family or community, don’t be surprised if you face opposition. The devil isn’t going to just roll out the red carpet and watch you fulfil your God-given destiny. He’ll do everything in his power to keep you from moving forward. The apostle Paul said this, “A wide door of opportunity is open for me and there are many adversaries.” I’ve found that anytime you try to go forward in life, anytime you try to make progress, there will be opposition.

Today, with God on your side, you can stand your ground against the adversary! For greater is He that is in you than he that is in the world. So when you face opposition today and throughout this year, keep standing on God’s Word, keep believing in God’s promises, keep hoping in a brighter future. Don’t stop fighting the good fight of faith until you see the victory God has promised you!

“Therefore put on the full armour of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand.” (Ephesians 6:13, NIV)

Let’s Pray

Yahweh, thank You for Your promise of victory. Father, I have decided to take my eyes off my challenges and focus on You. God, thank You for equipping me with Your armour so that I can stand strong in this new year and beyond. Help me to keep on fighting, keep on hoping, and to stay in faith, in Christ’s Name! Amen.

March 14, 2019May 6, 2022

You Don’t Control The Outcomes Of Your Life, Principles Do.

Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you; not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.
John 14:27

There always have been and always will be two classes on the earth to the end of time–the believers in Jesus, and those who reject Him.

Sinners, however wicked, sinful, evil, abominable, and corrupt, by faith in Jesus Christ will be purified and made clean, through the doing of His word. and the blood of Jesus Christ which was shed on calvary.

Those who reject Christ and refuse to believe the truth will be filled with bitterness against those who accept Jesus as a personal Saviour. But those who receive Christ are melted and subdued by the manifestation of His love and His humiliation, suffering, and death in their behalf.

The peace that Jesus Christ gave to His disciples, and for which we pray, is the peace that is born of truth, a peace that is not to be quenched because of division. Without may be wars and fightings, jealousies, envies, hatred, strife; but the peace of Christ is not that which the world giveth or taketh away. It could endure amid the hunting of spies and the fiercest opposition of His enemies…. Christ did not for an instant seek to purchase peace by a betrayal of sacred trusts. Peace could not be made by a compromise of principles.

It is a grave mistake on the part of those who are children of God to seek to bridge the gulf that separates the children of light from the children of darkness by yielding principle, by compromising the truth. It would be surrendering the peace of Christ in order to make peace or fraternize with the world. The sacrifice is too costly to be made by the children of God to make peace with the world by giving up the principles of truth…. Then let the followers of Christ settle it in their minds that they will never compromise truth, never yield one iota of principle for the favor of the world. Let them hold to the peace of Christ.

March 24, 2018January 15, 2024

24 of Bonhoeffer’s Most Challenging Quotes

Dietrich Bonhoeffer was a German pastor, theologian, spy, anti-Nazi dissident, key founding member of the Confessing Church as well as one of the most influential spiritual voices across the globe for decades. It’s a good thing for the modern Church that Bonhoeffer was determined in his course.

Bonhoeffer grew up amid the academic circles of the University of Berlin, where his father, Karl Bonhoeffer, was a professor of psychiatry and neurology and was awarded a doctorate in 1927 at the age of only 21. He also studied at Union Theological Seminary in New York from 1930–1931. During that time he attended Abyssinian Baptist Church in Harlem and became deeply interested in the issue of racial injustice.

Bonhoeffer’s involvement in a plot to overthrow Adolf Hitler led to his imprisonment and execution on the 9th April 1945.

More than seventy years after his death, Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s writings on faith, the Church, ethics and the nature of God serve as a touchstone for all of us who seek to understand a Christian’s responsibility in the face of injustice and have gone on to have a profound influence on Western Culture and the legions of Christian thinkers who’ve encountered them ever since. He also remains an important symbol of opposition to Hitler.

Here’s a look back at some of Bonhoeffer’s most powerful quotes.

ON GRACE

“Cheap grace is preaching forgiveness without requiring repentance, baptism without church discipline, Communion without confession. Cheap grace is grace without discipleship, grace without the cross, grace without Jesus Christ, living and incarnate.”

ON JUDGING OTHERS

“Judging others makes us blind, whereas love is illuminating. By judging others we blind ourselves to our own evil and to the grace which others are just as entitled to as we are.”

ON LIFE

“Christianity preaches the infinite worth of that which is seemingly worthless and the infinite worthlessness of that which is seemingly so valued.”

ON SIN

“May we be enabled to say ‘No’ to sin and ‘Yes’ to the sinner.”

ON JUDGING

“Judging others makes us blind, whereas love is illuminating. By judging others we blind ourselves to our own evil and to the grace which others are just as entitled to as we are.”

ON SERVING GOD

“We must be ready to allow ourselves to be interrupted by God.”

ON GOD’S LOVE

“God does not love some ideal person, but rather human beings just as we are, not some ideal world, but rather the real world.”

ON GOD’S WILL

“Being a Christian is less about cautiously avoiding sin than about courageously and actively doing God’s will.”

ON SERVING OTHERS

“The Church is the Church only when it exists for others, not dominating, but helping and serving. It must tell men of every calling what it means to live for Christ, to exist for others.”

ON OBEDIENCE

“One act of obedience is worth a hundred sermons.”

ON EVIL

“Silence in the face of evil is itself evil: God will not hold us guiltless. Not to speak is to speak. Not to act is to act.”

ON AFFIRMATIVE ACTION

“We are not to simply bandage the wounds of victims beneath the wheels of injustice, we are to drive a spoke into the wheel itself.”

ON STANDING UP FOR INJUSTICE

“If I sit next to a madman as he drives a car into a group of innocent bystanders, I can’t, as a Christian, simply wait for the catastrophe, then comfort the wounded and bury the dead. I must try to wrestle the steering wheel out of the hands of the driver.”

ON GRATITUDE

“In normal life we hardly realize how much more we receive than we give, and life cannot be rich without such gratitude. It is so easy to overestimate the importance of our own achievements compared with what we owe to the help of others.”

ON FOLLOWING CHRIST

“When Christ calls a man, he bids him come and die.”

ON INJUSTICE

“We are not to simply bandage the wounds of victims beneath the wheels of injustice, we are to drive a spoke into the wheel itself.”

ON PEACE

“There is no way to peace along the way of safety. For peace must be dared, it is itself the great venture and can never be safe. Peace is the opposite of security. To demand guarantees is to want to protect oneself. Peace means giving oneself completely to God’s commandment, wanting no security, but in faith and obedience laying the destiny of the nations in the hand of Almighty God, not trying to direct it for selfish purposes. Battles are won, not with weapons, but with God. They are won when the way leads to the cross.”

ON ‘DEFENDING’ THE BIBLE

“Do not try to make the Bible relevant. Its relevance is axiomatic. Do not defend God’s word, but testify to it. Trust to the Word. It is a ship loaded to the very limits of its capacity.”

ON REAL MORALITY

“The ultimate test of a moral society is the kind of world that it leaves to its children.”

ON PEOPLE

“We must learn to regard people less in light of what they do or omit to do, and more in the light of what they suffer.”

ON SPIRITUALITY

“When all is said and done, the life of faith is nothing if not an unending struggle of the spirit with every available weapon against the flesh.”

ON FELLOWSHIP

“The first service that one owes to others in the fellowship consists of listening to them. Just as love of God begins with listening to his word, so the beginning of love for our brothers and sisters is learning to listen to them.”

ON PROOF OF GOD

“A God who let us prove his existence would be an idol.”

ON THE FUTURE

“The ultimate test of a moral society is the kind of world that it leaves to its children.”

March 30, 2016July 1, 2022

Heathrow Airport Expansion – Exploring the Controversy

LONDON – The debate over the £19 billion scheme for the third runway at Heathrow airport has been a long-running row which has grown into fierce opposition within the last couple of months.

We shall not be moved, Heathrow Airport management has stuck to its original course of action, while ignoring constant protests and public discontent and insists that expanding Heathrow will provide the growth, jobs, experts, and connections to make Great Britain greater still.

Sir Richard Branson Urges Heathrow Expansion, and Says “Britain Is ‘being Held Back Massively”.

The billionaire founder of the Virgin Group has accused politicians of neglecting to back the expansion project at Heathrow because they are more concerned about their own jobs rather than doing “what is right for the UK”.

The entrepreneur, Sir Richard Branson urged the Government to be ” bold and brave on big infrastructure decisions like this”.

Hounslow Council, on the other hand, has been accused of “throwing in the towel” over the Heathrow expansion after it promoted the “opportunity of a third runway”. In response, Hounslow Council leader Steve Curran stated its stance on Heathrow had not changed but said it needed to be prepared if the government approves the recommendation for a third runway later this year.

Meanwhile, twelfth century St Mary the Virgin sits right in the middle of flight paths in the village of Harmondsworth, Middlesex and under blueprints for the expansion of the airport, most of the buildings in the village will be demolished but the 951-year-old grade II listed church will be spared. Protesters say there would no longer be anyone to use it.

Worshippers have already prayed at a Service of Hope that the Government will reject Heathrow’s expansion plans.

Amid mounting concerns and opposition from the whole community Justine Greening, the International Development Secretary predicts the government will ditch the £16bn plan for a third runway at Heathrow.

“Trying to Expand Heathrow Is like Trying to Build an Eight Bedroom Mansion on the Site of a Terraced House. It Is a Hub Airport That Is Just Simply in the Wrong Place” – Justine Greening

London Mayor Boris Johnson has been a vehement opponent of Heathrow expansion and has said
that the New Heathrow runway will negatively affect public health. In his report ‘Landing the Right Airport’ presented in March, Boris Johnson evaluated damages caused by the new runway to be between £20bn to £25bn during the next 60 years.

Both Zac Goldsmith and Sadiq Khan, respective Conservative and Labour candidates to succeed Mr. Johnson are also on the bandwagon and are campaigning against a third runway. This controversial debate has also resulted in Downing Street issuing an instruction to ministers asking them not to discuss the proposed third runway at Heathrow airport.

The North West Runway Will Be Two Miles (3,200m) Long, Making It Big Enough for Any Aircraft in the World to Use It

The commission, which was ordered by the government coalition, stated that the Heathrow expansion is ‘the best answer’ to easing the pressure on the UK’s crowded air terminals and that it will not increase noise above current levels, but will generate up to £147 billion in GDP impacts over 60 years.

Furthermore, if the plan for the third runway is approved, it will provide 740,000 flights a year, putting it on equal footing with Paris, Frankfurt, and Amsterdam.

A decision on whether to build a third runway at Heathrow Airport has been delayed until summer 2016, the government has confirmed.