Lifelong Journey Once a solid spiritual foundation has been set in place, we are able to grow into the

new life God has promised us. The Bible calls this maturing in Christ. As I can readily attest, it is a lifelong process. Gods intent is that as new believers, we become different people. We are under construction. Were being transformed from the inside out. The chief architect of these changes is God himself. As a loving father, he comes alongside to personally direct our growth. From my experience, and in observing others, some dramatic new patterns emerge. Harmful habits change. Attitudes, thinking and language move to a new level. Motives come under scrutiny. We ask, Why on earth did I do that! God shows us how to behave differently and we move on. The process continues. Selfishness gives way to service. Relationships with others are restored. Bitterness, envy, jealousy and hatred diminish as love increases. We experience a new dimension of joy. Not overnight, but steadily, progressively. Profound adjustments are underway. We realize it is true we really are new creations because Christ is living in us! These inward changes soon become visible. The new believer wants to get together with others who also have a faith in Christ. Were not alone! Fresh bonds of trust, love and mutual respect are forged. The Bible, Gods own inspired word to us, becomes a newfound friend, now more relevant and understandable. We encounter the Holy Spirit, the indwelling presence of Jesus himself. We discover he is an incredible guide if we give him access. But our new relationship brings needed constraints. It is not anything goes, for we see that our God is a holy God. He is to be honored, revered and obeyed. As we embrace the high standards he has set for us, we realize even they are for our benefit. In fact, everything he provides us and does for us is for our good. Our new life in Christ is not one of unbroken success. There are fresh challenges. Old habits and old associations dont change easily. Conflicts arise. There are even spiritual forces that oppose us. We doubt. We become discouraged. Yet its different. Were not on our own. We have entered a new and living bond with Jesus Christ. He leads. We follow. Our faith is set on a new foundation and that foundation is Christ. How wonderful and reassuring are his words to us: Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you. In time, the transformed life impacts everything we are and do. Recall the relationship Adam experienced with God before the fall. Would not the Lord want to see that kind of fellowship restored, even in our work? As one business owner commented in an interview with the Harvard Business Review, I would love to get the workplace as close to the Garden as possible, knowing we cant. But I shouldnt stop trying.

We all have our troubles and many of us are going through terrible trials right now. No-one I know likes going through tough times, least of all me. How many of us put hand up and ask for trials in our life? Of course none of us because we all know that life on earth brings its constant share of these things our way often enough without us having to seek them out. Sometimes i even wonder if maybe it's the other way around and that troubles seek me out. There are days when I feel like they are deliberately put in my way on purpose. Trials and troubles are interesting things. No-one wants them, many of us go to great lenghts to avoid them and when they come we all run for cover. Whilst we are in the midst of them we groan, we suffer and often complain. I know I do! I like the Israelites of Moses' time make a good "whiner'. I must sound like my own kids in the ears of the Lord. Why me? It's not fair! Who's to blame! Sometimes I even go 'demon hunting' thinking that every woe must come from the 'enemy of the saints'. Whilst some troubles may come from this source many are just the result of living in a fallen, sin-filled world and sad to say the rest are probably of my own making. Whilst we may not always know why they come we can be certain of the response we as christians should have, and no it is not whining or complaining or even trying to 'walk around or away from them. I remember a Pastor once sharing this thought. God did not promise to remove trouble from our lives or to even remove us from all of our troubles. He did promise however to walk through them with us. When Jesus was on earth he did not avoid pain, persecution, troubles or testing. He victoriously walked through them and He praised God through it all. That thought does not sit too well in the West does it. We try to invent ways to avoid pain. We have painkillers, anti-depressants and even assisted suicide so that we wont suffer. Not that I am against taking some pain relief but I am a little suspicious of a culture that can't deal with pain. We even try to drug people when they are going through natural grief because we can't handle that emotion. Like it or not though the Apostles and Epistle writers tell us to face our trials and troubles with an attitude that lacks bitterness, denial and whining. The book of James deals intensly with this topic. He is writing to Jewish believers who have been scattered from Jerusalem. These people are undergoing immense persecution and trials. Does James prescibe pain-killers, does he advocate casting out of 'demons of trouble'? Does James pat them on the shoulder and say 'oh I am so sorry? No he tells ua the opposite of what our culture believes. James has the audacity to tell us to "Count it all joy! chapter 1 verse 2 "What? I should be joyful because of trouble? No-way, trials suck - don't they?" Well according to James trials should bring us joy because of the fruit that comes from going

through them. He isn't saying trouble is joyous, he is saying rejoice because this trial will make you strong, build up your faith and bring maturity to your life. (I think James wants us to view trials as our testing ground.) I remember a time when God lead me to shift campus within the Bible college I was attending. I felt him say that my time with him at the new capus would bring me a closer walk with him. I went with the expectation of a very 'spiritual time' . A time of peace and contemplation of the Lord. Did I get it? It was one of the worst experiences of my life. I was accused of some things that I simply did not do - more than once. A person who presented themself as a friend was in secret jealous of me and caused no end of strife. I felt betrayed, abused, misunderstood and falsely accused. I was penalized, disciplined and the house I was renting was taken from my friends and I under false premises. Was I joyful? No I was so belwildered at the time, I couldn't understand how all of this could bring me a 'close walk with Jesus'. Looking back now however I understand. That time in my life I would not be without. I grew up, matured as a believer. My faith grew stronger not weaker as I learned to lean on Jesus in a whole new way. I learned a little of what it means to suffer for righteousness sake. Jesus was falsely accused, misunderstood and betrayed by the religous majority of His day. Yes I walked closer and now I do consider it Joy to have had these trials in my life. So how do I fair today when trials and troubles come. I would love to say that I don't whinge at all, but I can't. However I can say after the intial grumps I can move more quickly into the praise of God and now I look for joy in the midst of the pain. I don't praise God because of the trials, I praise Him inspite of them. God is still good even if times are tough. God is still faithfull when others let me down. God still heals when others hurt me. There is always a reason to praise Him! Yes I hurt, if someone betrays me, yes I cry when the pain becomes intense, but I know that I have God to help me through. I know I can trust him and that out of this 'firey furnace" out of this time of testing God will produce a 'diamond' in my life. No we don't think pain is good, we don't go looking for trials and we don't deliberately cause them to come but when they do come we can rejoice because the one who has overcome will walk with us.

Mechanical Christianity Do you remember the first few months or years of your Christian life? You were full of the joy of living water. You exuded peace and laughter. You had dreams and visions of the things you were going to do for God. Fast forward to today. Are you still full of the joy of living water or have you mastered the art of professional Christian living? Put simply, where is your walk with God leading you? As believers we all have seasons when our walk with God becomes routine. Caught up in the daily grind, we relegate God into a box and then try to mould him to suit our purposes. And then of course, there are those situations when we simply get tired of struggling and lets be frank, of the whole Christianity thing. In the midst of believers we talk the talk but the Lord alone knows our hearts. He sees our tears of frustration as we cry out for release from the challenges that threaten to bind us. He also sees the walls we erect around our hearts, walls that shut Him out of those places that needs His healing touch. The apostle Paul reminds us that, God is not unjust to forget [our] work and labour of love which [we] have shown towards His name, (Hebrews 6:10). Those challenges we face might seem designed to destroy us, to hold us bound to the situations we face but in actual fact they are used by God to perfect that which He has already started in us. How is your wineskin? Has it been replaced anew and bursting forth with the fresh wine the Holy Spirit readily gives, or is it just plain tired? So often in our Christian walk we get apathetic, burdened and weary. In our weariness, we get a jaundiced view of the Lord. We become convinced He is setting us up for failure and condemnation, all the while forgetting His cry, Come to me, all you who labour and are heavy laden and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls (Matthew 11:28-29, italics mine). Jesus yearns for us to fully understand what it means to be free in Him and so often we hold onto those things that stand in the way of the full revelation of Him. I pray that you will be given the spirit of wisdom and understanding in the knowledge of Christ that you may know what is the hope of His calling. But Lord, l am tired! Walking with the Lord requires trust and determination. A determination to trust Him come what may. However, this is not something the Lord expects us to do in our own strength. But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all things that l said to you (John 14:26). Indeed, We have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might know the things that have been freely given to us by God (1 Corinthians 2:12). It is also worth mentioning that "God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind" (2 Timothy 1:7, italics mine). I believe professional Christian living originates from those seasons when our walk with God becomes a religious routine. God did not intend for us to remain at a certain spiritual level all our lives. He wants us to grow in our knowledge of Him. This invariably means that we will be faced with challenges. And through those challenges, our faith is stretched and we grow in our knowledge of God. When we play it safe, we are saying to God, l am fine now, dont rock the boat. Jesus did not intend our walk with Him to be a religious rite of rules, regulations and principles. And yet it seems that way. So many times I have asked myself, Surely Jesus did not intend for it to be this difficult? Where is the joy in serving the Lord? Why am I so confused and so resentful of the One I profess to love? When this happens, I realise that I have become so involved with the situations I find myself that I have stayed at the foot of the cross instead of looking up and beholding His glory. Serving the Lord is simple. Jesus made it simple. He did not say it was going to be easy but we have an everlasting promise, I will not leave you as orphans, I will come to you. God designed for us to walk in a relationship with Him. A trusting relationship. This means that when we are burdened or in need of refreshment, He expects us to come to Him. He longs for us to know Him as He knows us. He says, But you have not called upon Me, O Jacob; And you have been weary of Me, O Israel (Isaiah 43:22). Sometimes, we get so familiar with God we hide our true self underneath a veneer of religion. Instead of doing that today, why dont you just simply have a one to one with Jesus? Not a practised run of prayers, not a rite of practised Bible verses, just simply a conversation between Father and child. God says, Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name; you are Mine. Since you were precious in My sight, you have been honoured. And I have loved you (Isaiah 43:1, 4). What are you waiting for? Hearken to His voice for He calls you. One of the facts of human experience is the changes we go through during the course of our time on earth. At one point, Job complained: "changes and war are against me" (Job 10:17). We lose a job or a loved one. Our health deteriorates. We move. All of these and many more changes are some of the great challenges we face in life. Often these changes seem to work against us (as mentioned by Job), but they also give us heavenly perspective and cause us to fear God. David said of the wicked, "Because they have no changes, therefore they fear not God" (Psalm 55:19). Since we often

struggle with these changes, we need God to help us through them. We need Him to show us how to use them as stepping stones and not as stumbling blocks. Yet, how can an unchangeable God ("I am the LORD, I change not" Malachi 3:6) understand our changes? He does this through Jesus Christ who is both God and man. As God, He is unchanging ("the same yesterday, and to day, and for ever" - Hebrews 13:8). As man, He experienced the changes of life and can help us through them when we have our own changes (Hebrews 2:18). Notice the three great changes experienced by Christ in this lesson and compare them to the changes in our lives. Truly, Jesus is able to help those who are going through great changes.

Why do we, as Christians, face so many challenges and hardships? Many of us have wondered why God allows pain and suffering in our lives. I will read a short, a very short story that maybe will help us to answer this question. A man went to a barbershop to have his hair cut and his beard trimmed. As the barber began to work, they began to have a good conversation. They talked about so many things and various subjects. When they eventually touched on the subject of God, the barber said: "I don't believe that God exists." "Why do you say that?" Asked the customer. "Well, you just have to go out in the street to realize that God doesn't exist. Tell me, if God exists, would there be so many sick people? Would there be abandoned children? If God existed, there would be neither suffering nor pain. I can't imagine loving a God who would allow all of these things." The customer thought for a moment, but didn't respond because he didn't want to start an argument. The barber finished his job and the customer left the shop. Just after he left the barbershop, he saw a man in the street with long, stringy, dirty hair and an untrimmed beard. He looked dirty and un-kept. The customer turned back and entered the barber shop again and he said to the barber: "You know what? Barbers do not exist." "How can you say that?" Asked the surprised barber. "I am here, and I am a barber and I just cut and trimmed your hair. "No!" the customer exclaimed. "Barbers don't exist because if they did, there would be no People with dirty long hair and untrimmed beards, like that man outside." "Ah, but barbers DO exist! What happens is, people do not come to me." "Exactly!" affirmed the customer. "That's the point! God, too, DOES exist! What happens, is, people don't go to Him nor do they obey Him. That's why there's so much pain and suffering in the world."

Life is filled with all kinds of troubles that find their way into our lives. Sometimes they come upon us because of a bad decision but many times we experience troubles simply because we live in a world filled with troubles. And it seems like the more committed we are to doing God's work and will and the more we are growing in our walk with God, the more we experience the hardships and troubles that we would rather not have. So, it doesn't matter how strong or stable we are, trials and troubles will find us.

Remain strong in the face of calamity and plant your feet firmly on the road God set before you with the
knowledge that He still is and always will be in control of each and every situation, and nothing that happens He does not know about or allow. Through all lifes hardships and difficulties, hang on with trust to the hem of Jesus garment, knowing that He will never forsake you and that He is always by our side.

GOD IS ALWAYS AVAILABLE I admit that there are times That I am tempted to despair. Then God speaks in all His mercy To let me know He's there. He took care of yesterday for me. Tomorrow is in His care. Today He will walk beside me In answer to my prayer. He brings constant joy and comfort To ease my concerns away. I could not go on without Him To be my companion through each day. I would just like to remind you To lean hard upon His breast. Release each trial to Him. Wait for Him to do the rest.

This is one of the best explanations of why God allows pain and suffering That I have seen. It's an explanation Other people will understand. A man went to a barbershop to have his hair cut and his beard trimmed.As the barber began to work, they began to have a good conversation. They talked about so many things and various subjects. When they eventually touched on the subject of God, the barber said: "I don't believe that God exists." "Why do you say that?" Asked the customer. "Well, you just have to go out in the street to realize that God doesn't exist. Tell me, if God exists, would there be so many sick people? Would there be abandoned children? If God existed, there would be neither suffering nor pain. I can't imagine loving a God who would allow all of these things." The customer thought for a moment, but didn't respond because he didn't want to start an argument. The barber finished his job and the customer left the shop. Just after he left the barbershop, he saw a man in the street with long, stringy, dirty hair and an untrimmed beard. He looked dirty and un-kept. The customer turned back and entered the barber shop again and he said to the barber: "You know what? Barbers do not exist." "How can you say that?" Asked the surprised barber. "I am here, and I am a barber and I just worked on you!" "No!" the customer exclaimed. "Barbers don't exist because If they did, there would be no People with dirty long hair and untrimmed beards,like that man outside." "Ah, but barbers DO exist! What happens is, people do not come to me." "Exactly!"- affirmed the customer."That's the point! God, too, DOES exist! What happens, is, people don't go to Him and do not look for Him, nor obey Him. That's why there's so much pain and suffering in the world."