THE ANSWER :
WHOEVER YOU THINK YOU ARE! – Wasn’t that an easier answer than you first thought!

Now some of you may think that I stole that piece of wisdom from Tony Robbins – I didn’t!

I stole it from the Bible.

Proverbs 23:7 “For as a man(he) thinks in his heart, so is he….”

Proverbs says whatever I think – I am. If I think I’m a loser – then I’ll most likely be a loser, If I think I’m a winner in life – then I’m most likely to be a  winner in life.  If I think about happy things – I’ll be a happy person, If I think about being generous all the time – I’ll be a generous person…..whatever I think in my heart, so I am.

There’s a reason the Bible says so many positive things about you (E.G. YOU are blessed, YOU are an over comer, YOU are born of God, YOU are Righteous, YOU are a child of God, Whatever YOU ask for in prayer will be given to YOU, When YOU draw near to God He draws near to you, YOU will prosper in everything YOU do etc.) It’s because God is wanting you to THINK  about these things in order for you to BECOME one of these things.

You maybe slightly offended by what I’m saying because it sounds too much like the  modern motivational theme of “Power of Positive thinking” – I just want to say one thing: THE BIBLE TALKS OF THE POWER OF POSITIVE THINKING!

The Bible may not use the exact term; POSITIVE THINKING – But it does use the Biblical phrases like  MEDITATE ON THE LAW or MEDITATE ON YOUR WORD – which really – is old speak for positive thinking.

In order to become an overcomer – you need to think like an overcomer

Romans 12:2
….be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.

And when other thoughts jump into your head saying you are a loser, a sinner, a two-faced hypocrite (sound familiar?) – You need to assert your authority over those thoughts and think about how God sees you.

2 Corinthians 10:5
casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ,

Romans  8:1
There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.

Condemnation is a horrible thing. To live this life walking around with shame,guilt, poor self esteem or even a sense of you are not good enough is a horrible way way to live your life.

Even God knows this is a horrible way for people to live out their lives – Which is why He sent His son into the world; top pay the penalty for our sin; our shame; our shortcomings.

When the Bible says there is no condemnation in Christ Jesus – it means there is no condemnation in Christ Jesus. If you are carrying around condemnation you never got it from God! You got it from somewhere else!

You might have sinned the same sin for 1,000,003rd time – You feel so frustrated that you feel the need to walk around with a sense a shame! Don’t do it!  As long as you repent and ask for forgiveness there is no condemnation! Some christians know this scripture but still feel the need to walk around with shame as a form humility – Don’t do this! This is a false humility – and whenever you feel the need to wallow in self condemnation you are saying that the blood of Jesus was not enough to deal with your of sin!

Jesus never came into the world so we could take on a life that makes us feel bad because we constantly fail high moral standards! Far from it – He came into the world that we might be free from that very existence!!  In  John 10:10 He  said that reason He came into the world was that so we may have LIFE and have it more ABUNDANTLY!!

If you are wallowing in shame about something then repent and then get over it! If you still feel bad after that  then repent for feeling bad because Jesus already paid the highest price so that you can live life abundantly!!

“Therefore I say to you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink; nor about your body, what you will put on.
Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing?

“Look at the birds of the air, for they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them.
Are you not of more value than they?

“Which of you by worrying can add one cubit to his stature??

At the moment my 3- year old son  is going through a funny phase with his favourite foods, where he hasn’t realised that I can provide him with more of this food if something goes wrong.

I can give my toddler son an ice cream cone or a bit of chocolate as a treat. He goes outside to savour his treat when all of a sudden we will hear a deafening scream followed by tears, screams and sobbing. My son has dropped his ice cream/chocolate and our ever entrepreneural family dog has scored big time.

We rush to our son. We calm him down. We tell him there is more ice cream/chocolate available so that he stops crying – Only he doesn’t stop, he gets worked up even more. We run to the fridge grab another ice cream and put it in his hand – Only then does he begins to calm down. There have been times when we haven’t been as fortunate – There were no more ice creams/chocolate in the fridge to give him. So I have had to try to make him understand I will be going to the shop later on and I can buy and even bigger ice cream so he can can stop crying…….but he doesn’t.

All his mind understands is that he wants an ice cream and he wants it now. He does not have the maturity or patience to understand that if he has lost his ice cream I will replace it as soon as possible because I’m a cool Dad and that’s what cool Dads do  - He does not have the ice cream in his hand so he screams.

As he gets older he will realise that I could walk into any shop and buy every ice cream available for him  if I wanted to. There is no need to cry, scream or worry about where the next ice cream will come from.He  just needs  to chill out and know his Dad is cool.

Sometimes we can get ourselves into all sorts of states by worrying, and being anxious about money, bills, food and clothing etc. Jesus said worrying doesn’t add anything to your stature. If God is your father – Understand that He is a good father who will provide for all your needs. You might be crying out in desperation to God with tears “GOD WHERE ARE YOU!” And all the time God has just gone to the fridge to get you another ice cream!

Maybe all you understand is that you want a new house/car/cash/holiday and you want it  now – God’s bringing all that in good timing so don’t stress about it. The Bible says it is God who gives the power to create wealth – so why do we get stressed about about money.

Worry is a waste of time – Instead we just need to relax and know that our Spiritual Father is the coolest Dad of all.

The Bible is filled with many promises and blessings for the righteous – The only problem is we never think of ourselves as the “righteous”.

We think of ourselves as “not that special” – or “forgiven” – or just as “christians” – anything but “righteous”. In doing so we have confused the word “righteous” with the word “holy”.

Being righteous is your position – not your lifestyle. Being righteous means being “In right Standing with”.

2 Cor 5:21
“For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.”

Being righteous simply means being in right standing with God – and when we follow Jesus we are made righteous because what JESUS DID – Not what we do.

We may fall again and again and again……. All we need to to do is rise again….Because that’s what righteous people do.

I’m not sure about you – but I find it annoying that whenever some great disaster, tragedy or terrorist attack occurs – that for days afterwards news stations always fill the airwaves with interviews and opions from every expert under the sun who tell us why it happened and how it could have been prevented. It always seems like too little, too late.

The days following the death of Steve Irwin I learnt so much about sting rays….This is largely due to the fact the news stations constantly showed interviews with stingray experts who talked about sting ray behaviour and what Steve could have done to prevent his death. Unfortunately it did nothing to bring Steve back from the dead.

In the scripture above Jesus sees a blind man which causes the disciples to turn into CNN newsreaders – All of a sudden they begin interviewing Jesus on why this man was born blind. But Jesus does not play the role of interviewee – nor does he satisfy the curiousity on what is really a very good question. Instead He is already talking about the positive impact of the solution.

God is not a negative problem God – He is a positive solution God.

We – His people – are not negative problem people – We are positive solution people.

When we encounter people who are tied up or bound up with problems or misfortune we can judge, criticise and analyze why they are in this mess. Or we can bring the solution by the power of God – and God can be glorified!

If we ouselves encounter a massive problem – we can also blame other people (our parents, our teachers etc.) Or we can thank God that we are Solution People and that He has given us the power to deal with this problem! Then we can thank God that we have another testimony to glorify God with!!

God is good!

In all things give thanks!

1 Timothy 6:6
Now godliness with contentment is great gain

It’s good to know that God wants us to be blessed. It’s great to hear that the power to gain financial increase comes from God. It’s even more amazing that that Jesus died on the cross in order for me receive ALL the blessings of Abraham (And boy there some amazing blessings there).

But just as amazing is that the apostle Paul tells us that godliness with contentment IS GREAT GAIN.

Contentment is an amazingly underestimated attribute.

The man who is not content and who is always in the pursuit of riches is usually never happy enough yet. He is always waiting for that better car/house/income to arrive before he can fully enjoy life. His life perspective is skewed because he thinks the world revolves around him. He is insecure because he values himself by his material posessions. Never grateful because he is always wanting more.

When we are content with what we have we tend to have a better perspective on life. We are grateful for what we do have, and tend to be more thankful for all the good things in our life. We tend to be more secure in who we are and have a more positive outlook on life.

A man who is content with his with what he has is usually the “glass half full kind of guy” whilst the man without contentment tends to be the “glass half empty kind of guy”.

There is nothing wrong with material wealth in itself – It is just wrong when we set our lives up for the pursuit of it. That is why contentment can bring such great gain becuase wealth across all areas of life then comes without pursuing it.

Jesus told us not to worry about what we will eat or wear (because all these things the godless people chase after) – but to SEEK FIRST the kingdom of God and then ALL THESE THINGS WILL BE ADDED UNTO US.

1 Timothy 6:9
But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and [into] many foolish and harmful lusts which drown men in destruction and perdition.

Gal 5:22
“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,”

I know nothing about about horticulture. I know even less about gardening, trees or plants. I couldn’t name a single plant variety from the the top of my head if I tried. So I am constantly amazed at people who can take a quick glance at a garden or backyard and name all the plants and trees they can see.

My backyard has many trees and plants. What’s amazing is I actually planted them myself many years ago…..yet I’d be hard pressed to tell you the name of any of these trees or plant varieties if you asked me. However there is one tree I know. When people come over I actually point it out and tell them what it is.

Why do I know this tree you ask? The reason why I know this one tree is because it is a plum tree. And the reason I know it is a plum tree is because….(I’d love to tell you it’s because of the leaf colour or branch structure or something smart like that)………….but every summer we have bumper crop of big red delicous plums from this tree. Not rocket science by any means – Tree makes plums = Plum tree.

When the spirit of God is inside of us, it too produces fruit. The Bible says that particlar fruit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness.

If I wanted to grow my own apples I would need to plant an apple tree in my backyard. Likewise if I want more love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness in my life I need to need to plant more of the spirit of God (His Word) deep inside of me.

When the spirit of God resides in us we cannot help but produce love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness – It is what we will produce. When it’s not inside of us we will produce something else – something non-productive.

Make sure you are filled with God’s Spirit. Don’t falll into the trap of thinking you must already have faith, love, joy before you can be filled with the Spirit. Nobody expects apples to come before a tree is planted – In the same way you should not expect love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness to be in our lives until the Spirit of God is inside of us. Just be filled with the Spirit of God first – the fruit will come.

Luke 7:16-17
You will know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes from thornbushes or figs from thistles? Even so, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit.

]]> http://justinchristian.wordpress.com/2009/11/04/fruit-trees/feed/ 1 justinchristian http://justinchristian.wordpress.com/2009/10/22/new-wine-bottles-for-new-wine/ http://justinchristian.wordpress.com/2009/10/22/new-wine-bottles-for-new-wine/#comments Thu, 22 Oct 2009 06:12:14 +0000 justinchristian http://justinchristian.wordpress.com/?p=90 ]]>

Luke 5:38
But new wine must be put into new wineskins, and both are preserved.

This maybe stating the obvious but Coca Cola make new coke bottles to put Coca-Cola in. Penfolds get new Penfolds wine bottles to put Penfolds wine into. Gatorade will get new plastic gatorade botles to put new Gatorade drink into. The bottles are made for a purpose – storing the liquid they were made store. After using the bottles people may re-use them for water, for arts and crafts or for gardening decorations – but they were not made for this pupose. A Fosters beer bottle was made to store Fosters beer.

In the Bible the outpouring of the Holy Spirit in the New Testament is often refferred to as the “New Wine” and in the above scripture Jesus is saying that the “New Wine” must be put into “New Bottles” (Okay he didn’t say the word “bottles” – He said “wineskins” – that’s because glass – or bottles had not been invented yet – animal skins was how liquid was stored…but for the sake of cultral relevancy….you get what I mean).

When you and I become born again – the Bible says we become “new creations” – all things become new. We become the “new wineskins”. We are no longer “old wineskins” but “new wineskins” that require that “new wine”(Holy Spirit).

Some new christians never follow up on the second half of being a “new wineskin”. They become “new wineskins” but fail to be filled with the “new wine”.

Cocal Cola do not make coke bottles as a product unto itself- they make bottles to BE FILLED with Cocoa Cola. Penfold Wines do not make wine bottles to sell to the public – They make them to BE FILLED with Penfold Wines. Likewise God did not make you into a new wineskin to be empty – He made you to filled with new wine.

IN OTHER WORDS……GOD DID NOT MAKE YOU A NEW VESSEL TO BE FILLED WITH OLD STUFF – HE MADE A NEW VESSEL SO YOU CAN BE FILLED WITH HIS HOLY SPIRIT(New WIne).

Sometimes when you are christian you can be tempted into sin, tempted into judging other, tempted into telling everyone how far society is fallen – but you were only ever recreated for one purpose: To be filled with the spirit of God.

Ephesians 5:18
And do not be drunk with wine, in which is dissipation; but be filled with the Spirit,

]]> http://justinchristian.wordpress.com/2009/10/22/new-wine-bottles-for-new-wine/feed/ 0 justinchristian http://justinchristian.wordpress.com/2009/10/15/hope-is-a-good-thing/ http://justinchristian.wordpress.com/2009/10/15/hope-is-a-good-thing/#comments Thu, 15 Oct 2009 07:13:27 +0000 justinchristian http://justinchristian.wordpress.com/?p=85 ]]> There is an expression that many of us hear and believe. It goes something like; “Don’t get your hopes up”.

Sometimes we may refrain telling someone potential good news – but later on when everything works out we say things like ” I didn’t tell you because I didn’t want to get your hopes up”.

And to a degree – there is an element of truth to it – putting your hope in something and then losing it does hurt. It’s like as an element of self preservation; we “don’t get out hopes up” because it can hurt so much when we come crashing down. (just watch Australian Idol/American Idol/Project Runway etc. to see how hurt people can be when they are voted out – this was not what they hoped for)

But the Bible says something different. The Bible says that FAITH is the substance of things HOPED for.

This is intresting because FAITH is PARAMOUNT IN THE BIBLE. The Bible says that by FAITH all things are possible. It actually says that the just shall LIVE by FAITH (we are suppose to live our life this way). By faith man can obtain his eternal salvation, his physical healing or the vey house that he sleeps in. It also says FAITH is the substance of things HOPED for.

WHEN I AM ACTUALLY HOPING FOR SOMETHING – MY FAITH IS IN ACTION – The power of faith is released. This is exciting because the Bible says with faith nothing is impossible.

However when I lose hope – I cease to release the power of faith – then my life is restricted and limited. I am cut off from the power of God. Everything is impossible and I begin to live by what I see.

You see real hope requires patience. Sometimes it hurts when we are wanting something today but it doesn’t come until two more years. Patience is vital when you live by faith.

James 1:4 says:
But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing.

Never underestimate the power of hope. Always live with hope. Never let the fear of failure rob you from the power that is HOPE. Remeber that HOPE belongs with the power trio.

1 Corinthians 13:13
There are three things that will endure–faith, hope, and love

]]> http://justinchristian.wordpress.com/2009/10/15/hope-is-a-good-thing/feed/ 1 justinchristian http://justinchristian.wordpress.com/2009/10/01/why-so-fearful/ http://justinchristian.wordpress.com/2009/10/01/why-so-fearful/#comments Thu, 01 Oct 2009 09:13:27 +0000 justinchristian http://justinchristian.wordpress.com/?p=79 ]]>

Matthew 8:26(NKJV)
But He said to them, “Why are you fearful, O you of little faith?” Then He arose and rebuked the winds and the sea, and there was a great calm.

Fear is one of those funny things that pops it’s head up every now and then in our lives. For some of us it comes late at night when we cannot sleep, for some of us it comes when we don’t have enough money, while for others it can come when we have a decision to make that will often take us into the unknown. All of us are different as to when fear may come but we are similar in the fact that it DOES come.

In the scripture above Jesus makes an insightful statement. He asks his disciple as to why they are fearful, and then tells them they have very little faith. In doing so he highlights the fact that faith and fear are opposing forces.

If the Bible tells us we “LIVE BY FAITH” – How much room does that allow for fear to be a part of our lives?

Fear can restrict us in so many ways:

Fears can prevent us from doing so much in life. And the funny thing with all the above examples is that often we don’t acknowledge the fear – We come up up with a philosiphy that excuses our fear, something like:”If God wants it to happen , HE will make it happen”.Unfortunately it doesn’t work like that.

We are a people who are called to live by faith.

The Bible says that God has NOT given us a spirit of fear – but of love, power and a sound mind.

After Jesus rebuked the disciples for their lack of faith he spoke to the storm – something the disciples should have done.

If you’re going through a storm at the moment maybe it’s time to stop being fearful. Maybe it’s time to step out in faith and speak to the storm.

Why be fearful and do nothing. Be a person of faith and take action.