The Passionate Believer

"Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers; but his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night.  He is like a tree planted by streams of water that yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither. In all that he does, he prospers.  The wicked are not so, but are like chaff that the wind drives away. Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous; for the Lord knows the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked will perish." (Psalms 1 vs 1 - 6) There is much to extract from these beautiful verses, but for today I just want to focus on a few principles concerning "Blessedness" How does one become blessed? It's a question that many ask quite so often. Sometimes it can even become controversial. It's amazing to see how many different interpretations there ar

Greetings in the wonderful Name of Jesus.  It's my joy and privilege  to share the Salvation story in our South African Flag. Black - We all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. Rom.3.23.  Sin causes us to move away from the light and drives us into a dark place.  Red - John 3.16 tells us. "For God so loved the world that He gave us eternal life that whoever believes in Him should have eternal life."  The blood of Jesus was shed to take away our sins. Cleanses us of all our wrongs. That is certainly God's gift to mankind. Rom6.23 "For the waged of sin is death but the gift of God is eternal life."  White - The blood of Jesus cleanses of all unrighteousness and makes us white than snow. Isaiah.1.18. "Come now lets settle this, says the Lord. Though your sins are like scarlet, I will make them as white as snow. Though they are red like crimson. i will make them as white as wool."   Green - Anything green represents gro

  Numbers 25:10 "Then the Lord said to Moses, Phinehas son of Eleazer and grandson of Aaron the priest has turned my anger away from the Israelites by being as zealous among them as I was." (Numbers 25 vs 10, NLT). I use the NLT because other versions of the Bible such the King James Version and The Message Bible uses one particular word, 'Zeal or 'Zealous'. Other versions would use the words 'Envy' or 'Jealousy'. And I will explain why I use the word in a short while.  Within the context of these verses, the Israelites were encamped near Moab. King Balak asked Balaam to curse the Israelites and he could not according to God's word over them. He could only end up blessing them even more. Therefore, the famous statement arises 'You annot curse what God has blessed', based on Numbers 22 vs 11 and 23 vs 8, ESV (Or any other version that you would prefer). Eventually the people are seduced into sinning against God. At the beginn

Hi everyone..today I'm posting a testimony from a dear friend. We will be posting testimonies from time to time to encourage believers to continue pressing forward. So if you have a testimony and would love to share it with other readers we encourage you to email us(email address at the bottom). Testimony shared by Sherwin Mahomed from Pietermatitzburg, South Africa. I greet you all in Jesus name. It is a wonderful privilege to share the beauty of God's work in my life. After matriculating high school back in 2004, I started a new job in the retail industry at a store. I worked under good management as the owners were believers and the store was governed by Christian principles. I had been there ten years but came to a place of bitterness as I desired more out of life.  That's when it happened, a lady approached me in the store one day and asked for my c.v. As she wanted to offer me an opportunity to train and work at a banking institution. She wasn't even C

1 Chronicles 4 vs 9-10 As I read these two verses around the life of Jabez, its amazing to see how much literature has been written around his prayer. Most people only concern themselves with 'God bless me and expand my territory.' Their only concern is that their lives are full of pain and sorrow as compared to Jabez causing his mother much pain during his birth, and because of that they believe they have a somewhat divine kind of right to pray the way Jabez prayed (I'm not against the way Jabez prayed, in fact I'm all for it). The cause of God answering his prayer wasn't because of his name or that he caused his mother so much pain during birth. It simply was as his introduction states: he was a man of Honour, "...was more honorable than any of his brothers." (1 Chronicles 4 vs 9) We could speculate as to many things as to why the Bible says he was an honorable man. He was honorable because he kept all of God's commands. He was honorable

God, His Sovereignty and Providence: Part 3 While God’s providence and all He does is for His glory [Isaiah 43:7] and for His name’s sake [Psalm 106:8, Ezekiel 20:44], it is also for our joy.  “These things I have spoken to you, that My joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full” said the Lord Jesus in John 15:11. He is intentional to give us joy. What things had he spoken to them about for the end that their joy may be full? Immediately preceding this, the Lord had spoken about bearing fruit showing that believers are branches that should have well matured and tasty fruit to be picked. But one cannot be fruitful without being pruned. In the same context He spoke about pruning which is evidently painful and may leave a scar on the tree.  “Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit He takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit He prunes, that it may bear more fruit” [John 15:2].  We saw that providence means seeing beforehand but that does not mean that he only

In Part 1 we ended by saying when used of God, the word providence takes a whole new, powerful and dynamic meaning by which God works in all events and happenings in the universe to accomplish the purpose of His mind with complete knowledge and total control of all things. In His providence, God works all things according to the counsel of His will [Ephesians 1:11]. When we look at the sovereignty of God, we find that we have questions regarding evil and Wayne Grudem says something interesting when he talks about the problem of evil in his Systematic Theology: An Introduction to Biblical Theology. He says, ‘If we were to say that God Himself does evil, we would have to conclude that He is not a good God and righteous, and therefore that He is not really God at all. On the other hand, if we maintain that God does not use evil to fulfil His purposes, then we have to admit that there is evil in the universe that God did not intend, is not under His control, and might not fulfi