I was thinking about posting yesterday about the 17th anniversary of the untimely death one of my favourite all time F1 drivers, Ayrton Senna, but decided against it.
Since then, we have probably all heard the news about the death of Osama Bin Laden. What is strange is that both his and Hitler's death were announced on 1st May, 66 years apart (although Hitler actually died on the 30th April).
When I first heard the news I was shocked but pleased, as we all knew what an evil man he was and there is a strong feeling that he deserved it for what he did. I saw the pictures of the Americans celebrating in New York and Washington and understood.
But then a great friend of mine (who I just realised in getting the link, didn't blog once in April :P) posted this on Facebook and I have changed my stance:-
Proverbs 24:17
"Do not gloat when your enemy falls;
when they stumble, do not let your heart rejoice,"
We cannot rejoice in this as the Lord has commanded otherwise. I believe it is because we should not focus our mind on celebrating death. Let's make it a challenge of ours today not to celebrate death but to celebrate the good things we have in our lives, let's celebrate life and remember how blessed we are to be alive. Let's thank God for such things :)
Some will say that justice or revenge has been done and we should celebrate that. But revenge is never something to be celebrated as we are just going down to their level, and justice hasn't been done and never will be done for the people on this earth for those who died that terrible day on 11/09/01. Justice WILL be done however when Bin Laden and those responsible met God and had to account for their actions. God punishes people justly for what they have done (unless you are in Christ and your sin is paid for already :D). God is so passionate about justice that He sent His Son Christ to die so that we can go to Heaven.
If all you want to say to God to account for life is, 'I messed up tonnes but Christ paid for it all' then let Jesus into your life today :)
Romans 14:12
It is written:
“‘As surely as I live,’ says the Lord,
‘every knee will bow before me;
every tongue will acknowledge God.’”
So then, each of us will give an account of ourselves to God.
Showing posts with label How can I be Saved. Show all posts
Showing posts with label How can I be Saved. Show all posts
Monday, 2 May 2011
Tuesday, 1 February 2011
A Special Time
This week is a special time in my life. On Sunday I took some of the young people to a marvellous event called Ignite. It's in Cardiff every so often and about 500 young Christians meet and worship together and hear a message.
On 5 February five years ago I committed my life to Christ at a Ignite event. It was really special to be there on sunday night and remember the amazing things God has done for me since I made that brave decision. It was also incredible to see two of the guys we brought go up and make commitments at the end and I treasure all of these things in my heart.
It is very brave to stand up and walk to the front in front of five hundred contemporaries to make such a big commitment. It's even harder to then live out this decision in front of your friends & family.
If this is something you struggle with then do something about it, don't just lull around because you will never make a decision either way. I think there are people reading this that want to make the same choice I did but feel restricted by what people might think or by the size of the decision it is. Please speak to me and please pray to God who can do so much more than what we ask for. He is always there for us and is always a great help.
Also, He knows our hearts already!
Psalm 139:1-4 (read the whole Psalm this morning, love it so much!)
You have searched me, LORD,
and you know me.
You know when I sit and when I rise;
you perceive my thoughts from afar.
You discern my going out and my lying down;
you are familiar with all my ways.
Before a word is on my tongue
you, LORD, know it completely
If it's any help, it is the greatest decision I ever made (my story is here) and the moment I achieved the real goal in a human being's life. To meet their maker.
Psalm 139:13-16
For you created my inmost being;
you knit me together in my mother’s womb.
I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
your works are wonderful,
I know that full well.
My frame was not hidden from you
when I was made in the secret place,
when I was woven together in the depths of the earth.
Your eyes saw my unformed body;
all the days ordained for me were written in your book
before one of them came to be.
I am on facebook (Michael Woodington), Twitter (mjw6150) or formspring (www.formspring.me/mjw6150) if you want to speak to me, formspring is anonymous as well ;)
Tuesday, 25 January 2011
Birds In A Bush
'A bird in the hand is worth two birds in a bush'
I never knew what this statement meant...until today!
In my third lecture at University, Financial Management, the tutor explained it in the sense of business dividends. Some businessmen feel it is better to have a cash inflow every year in the form of dividends rather than wait on the company growing and getting a better price for their shares when they sell them.
The idea is it is better to have money in your hand than to wait on something happening that will make your investment even more worthwhile in the future.
You are probably losing interest now but I will try and win you back with a thought I had.
Heaven is a bird in the hand. God GUARANTEES Salvation for all of those who confess Christ and believe in what He has done, asking for forgiveness of sins. (Christianity is the only faith to know they are going to Heaven)
Acts 10:43
All the prophets testify about him that everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name.”
Romans 10:9
I never knew what this statement meant...until today!
In my third lecture at University, Financial Management, the tutor explained it in the sense of business dividends. Some businessmen feel it is better to have a cash inflow every year in the form of dividends rather than wait on the company growing and getting a better price for their shares when they sell them.
The idea is it is better to have money in your hand than to wait on something happening that will make your investment even more worthwhile in the future.
You are probably losing interest now but I will try and win you back with a thought I had.
Heaven is a bird in the hand. God GUARANTEES Salvation for all of those who confess Christ and believe in what He has done, asking for forgiveness of sins. (Christianity is the only faith to know they are going to Heaven)
Acts 10:43
All the prophets testify about him that everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name.”
Romans 10:9
That if you confess with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.
I think there are lots people counting on the birds in the bush, maybe thinking that if they wait something better will happen than what will happen if they do it the Jesus way.
Jesus dispels this by saying that HE is the only way to the Father in John 14:6:-
Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.
I encourage everyone to stop waiting for something else to happen and do something about it now. God Loves you no matter what you have done or where you are at and He is delighted to receive all who come to Him.
Ironically, in this case, the bird in the hand can't actually be bettered. I can testify to it. If you have any questions or want to talk about this, don't hesitate to facebook me, formspring me (the link is below) or comment on here, you can be anonymous if you want.
I think there are lots people counting on the birds in the bush, maybe thinking that if they wait something better will happen than what will happen if they do it the Jesus way.
Jesus dispels this by saying that HE is the only way to the Father in John 14:6:-
Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.
I encourage everyone to stop waiting for something else to happen and do something about it now. God Loves you no matter what you have done or where you are at and He is delighted to receive all who come to Him.
Ironically, in this case, the bird in the hand can't actually be bettered. I can testify to it. If you have any questions or want to talk about this, don't hesitate to facebook me, formspring me (the link is below) or comment on here, you can be anonymous if you want.
Friday, 7 January 2011
Testimony Friday
This is a wonderful testimony I found online by a woman called Victoria. It moved me and I hope it blesses you as well :)
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Jesus Always Loved Me” I have died, but Christ lives in me. And I now live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave his life for me. “
[Galatians 2:20 CEV]
I wanted to share with you my story I was born again 19 years ago, you may use my story how you wish or just read and delete.
Adopted at 12 months old, to parents who were more dysfunctional then most. My father was a career drug addict and my mom would tell me how much she didn’t like me. My father did love me till I was about 7 then he delved more and more into his drug cocoon to escape the wife he did not love. There was a lot of emotional, mental and physical abuse. They adopted another child a boy and a year later she gave birth to a son. I ran away the first time when I was 11 years old.
At 12 I was taken away and put in a foster home, at 13 I ran away and lived on the streets of Oceanside California, where at 13 I was raped by 7 men, became a drug addict and drank whenever possible. At 16 I tried to commit suicide, at 17 I got married to get off the streets we moved to Maine. Unfortunately he was an abusive madman, so again I ran away. I joined a traveling carnival to escape certain death.
At 19 I was strangled and left for dead, at 20 I was locked up in the house of a drug dealer who striped me of any self esteem I ever had……I wanted to die………..at 22 I ran off with a man and found myself in Washington where again I was surrounded by drugs. The mother of my boyfriend at that time invited me to go to church with her, I agreed to go, I can’t tell you what the singers sang nor what the sermon was about but I remember as soon as the preacher started preaching I started uncontrollably crying and I didn’t know why. In my life I had tried everything from white Magic, Buddhism, and Jehovah Witness. In Washington I met a man named John, who like me was just as lost, but boy was he the most handsome man I ever met.
At the age of 23 I hated the life I was living and I knew there had to be more to this life then what I was living! So John and I set out with nothing but the clothes on our backs…We bid farewell to the lies, the drugs, the pit of emptiness that we lived in, and we had a plan we were going to hitch hike to California then to New York and start a new life…………Well we made our way to a lil town in Northern California by Redding, and while waiting for our next ride we noticed an elderly couple sitting in a car marked “Caution Wide Load” we thought nothing of it.
The old man got out of the car came over to us and asked us if we knew Jesus. I told him “I’m cool with Jesus” and John said “I’m mad at God for letting my father die in my arms.” He told us God loves us and cares about us, the old man introduced himself as Russell Mc Connell and his wife he told us was named Carol. We told him our story and our plans, he asked us to come to his house for a home cooked meal before we left town (John wanted to visit his Grandpa that lived not to far from where we were at) We told him we may do that. Russell gave us some money to eat so we went to the dinner near by ate then caught our next ride.
Things did not go well with John’s grandpa, so we left and slept under a bridge and the next day decided to call Russell and Carole, they took us in and fed us, they shared the gospel with us and that night we went to church with them. I was so into what I heard, like my heart was drinking in all that was said, but John was not comfortable he walked out and I noticed that 3 or 4 of the young men about our age followed John out of the church, later I found out they talked to John and prayed with him and ministered to him. The next thing I knew both John and I were kneeling and asking God to forgive us of our sins and to accept us as His own. I totally believed that Jesus was who they said He was.
Two days later John and I were married and then we were baptized. We were like little sponges soaking up Gods word. Three months later Johns’ bronchiolar tube clasped and he went into cardiac arrest, John was 23 years old. He was rushed to the hospital were he was D.O.A., but they revived him and he was on life support where he laid for 3 days. On the third day they stopped the machine and I watched him die for the last time, as he breathed his last breath, a peace flooded me and I knew he was in the arms of the Savior.
Later I spoke to Russell and as we looked back on everything we could see God’s hand everywhere, Russell told me that the day he met us he was called out for a job that’s why he was there, but the load never showed at the meeting area, and the night before he met us he was at church where he heard the Pastor preach on reaching out to strangers…….I am a child of the Living God washed and cleaned by the shed blood of Jesus and set apart. God is so amazing and He loved me before I ever knew Him. I am now part of a family that will never let me go or turn their back on me. I am so thankful to be part of God’s amazing saving grace.
[Galatians 2:20 CEV]
I wanted to share with you my story I was born again 19 years ago, you may use my story how you wish or just read and delete.
Adopted at 12 months old, to parents who were more dysfunctional then most. My father was a career drug addict and my mom would tell me how much she didn’t like me. My father did love me till I was about 7 then he delved more and more into his drug cocoon to escape the wife he did not love. There was a lot of emotional, mental and physical abuse. They adopted another child a boy and a year later she gave birth to a son. I ran away the first time when I was 11 years old.
At 12 I was taken away and put in a foster home, at 13 I ran away and lived on the streets of Oceanside California, where at 13 I was raped by 7 men, became a drug addict and drank whenever possible. At 16 I tried to commit suicide, at 17 I got married to get off the streets we moved to Maine. Unfortunately he was an abusive madman, so again I ran away. I joined a traveling carnival to escape certain death.
At 19 I was strangled and left for dead, at 20 I was locked up in the house of a drug dealer who striped me of any self esteem I ever had……I wanted to die………..at 22 I ran off with a man and found myself in Washington where again I was surrounded by drugs. The mother of my boyfriend at that time invited me to go to church with her, I agreed to go, I can’t tell you what the singers sang nor what the sermon was about but I remember as soon as the preacher started preaching I started uncontrollably crying and I didn’t know why. In my life I had tried everything from white Magic, Buddhism, and Jehovah Witness. In Washington I met a man named John, who like me was just as lost, but boy was he the most handsome man I ever met.
At the age of 23 I hated the life I was living and I knew there had to be more to this life then what I was living! So John and I set out with nothing but the clothes on our backs…We bid farewell to the lies, the drugs, the pit of emptiness that we lived in, and we had a plan we were going to hitch hike to California then to New York and start a new life…………Well we made our way to a lil town in Northern California by Redding, and while waiting for our next ride we noticed an elderly couple sitting in a car marked “Caution Wide Load” we thought nothing of it.
The old man got out of the car came over to us and asked us if we knew Jesus. I told him “I’m cool with Jesus” and John said “I’m mad at God for letting my father die in my arms.” He told us God loves us and cares about us, the old man introduced himself as Russell Mc Connell and his wife he told us was named Carol. We told him our story and our plans, he asked us to come to his house for a home cooked meal before we left town (John wanted to visit his Grandpa that lived not to far from where we were at) We told him we may do that. Russell gave us some money to eat so we went to the dinner near by ate then caught our next ride.
Things did not go well with John’s grandpa, so we left and slept under a bridge and the next day decided to call Russell and Carole, they took us in and fed us, they shared the gospel with us and that night we went to church with them. I was so into what I heard, like my heart was drinking in all that was said, but John was not comfortable he walked out and I noticed that 3 or 4 of the young men about our age followed John out of the church, later I found out they talked to John and prayed with him and ministered to him. The next thing I knew both John and I were kneeling and asking God to forgive us of our sins and to accept us as His own. I totally believed that Jesus was who they said He was.
Two days later John and I were married and then we were baptized. We were like little sponges soaking up Gods word. Three months later Johns’ bronchiolar tube clasped and he went into cardiac arrest, John was 23 years old. He was rushed to the hospital were he was D.O.A., but they revived him and he was on life support where he laid for 3 days. On the third day they stopped the machine and I watched him die for the last time, as he breathed his last breath, a peace flooded me and I knew he was in the arms of the Savior.
Later I spoke to Russell and as we looked back on everything we could see God’s hand everywhere, Russell told me that the day he met us he was called out for a job that’s why he was there, but the load never showed at the meeting area, and the night before he met us he was at church where he heard the Pastor preach on reaching out to strangers…….I am a child of the Living God washed and cleaned by the shed blood of Jesus and set apart. God is so amazing and He loved me before I ever knew Him. I am now part of a family that will never let me go or turn their back on me. I am so thankful to be part of God’s amazing saving grace.
Wednesday, 5 January 2011
Love is Faithful!
Since starting this blog I haven't been able to write about football much but in today's post I will at last but there is a much deeper point so keep reading!
Dave Jones has been the manager of Cardiff City, my favourite team, since May 2005. He has done an admirable job keeping the club competitive in one of the top leagues in the world during times of extreme financial difficulty, which has left him having to sell his best players and constantly have to scrape around for bargains in the transfer market. He also got the club to the FA Cup Final for the first time in 81 years in 2008. Many fans regard him as the best manager the club has ever had.
However recently fans have been calling for him to be sacked from his position. Strange eh?
There were changes at the club before this seasons. New billionaire owners came in and have eased the financial constraints and enabled the signing Welsh superstar Craig Bellamy. Expectations have risen and a recent bad run of form (which the club has never dropped lower than 5th and is currently 2nd, on course for automatic promotion) has seen previous unconvinced supporters and newly unconvinced fans call for his head.
I'm constantly amazed at the fickleness & lack of loyalty by people. Not just in sport but in life. Divorce rates are higher than ever before in Britain, for example.
The description of what love is in 1 Corinthians 13 starts with 'Love is patient' and ends with 'It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails.'
Whilst many supporters of Cardiff City, husbands & wives are not faithful, God is perfectly faithful.
I amazed by His faithfulness. I mess up so often every day and He could just end my life right now and doesn't. He could have ended Creation right when Adam & Eve messed it all up but didn't. He could have wiped out the moaning & groaning Israelites time & time in the desert for their lack of faithfulness and affront to Him with their golden calve...but led them to the Promised Land eventually. What about the Pharisees, the people Jesus described as 'vipers' and 'sons of hell'. Why didn't God just give up?
I realise it is because God believes in us...even when we don't believe in Him.
2 Timothy 2:13 - if we are faithless, he remains faithful, for he cannot disown himself.
How cool is that? Even we really mess up & really lose track of our faith, God never stops believing in us.
1 John 2:1 - My dear children, I write this to you so that you will not sin. But if anybody does sin, we have an advocate with the Father—Jesus Christ, the Righteous One.
Just as cool, Jesus stands up for us before God when we mess up. The conclusion from this is that God doesn't want to condemn us, He wants to know us and for us to be with Him forever.
John 3:16 is a very well known verse, John 3:17 I find just as amazing and it says this:-
'For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.'
My closing question is....are you saved? I want to say that nothing is really stopping you from making that choice :)
Dave Jones has been the manager of Cardiff City, my favourite team, since May 2005. He has done an admirable job keeping the club competitive in one of the top leagues in the world during times of extreme financial difficulty, which has left him having to sell his best players and constantly have to scrape around for bargains in the transfer market. He also got the club to the FA Cup Final for the first time in 81 years in 2008. Many fans regard him as the best manager the club has ever had.
However recently fans have been calling for him to be sacked from his position. Strange eh?
There were changes at the club before this seasons. New billionaire owners came in and have eased the financial constraints and enabled the signing Welsh superstar Craig Bellamy. Expectations have risen and a recent bad run of form (which the club has never dropped lower than 5th and is currently 2nd, on course for automatic promotion) has seen previous unconvinced supporters and newly unconvinced fans call for his head.
I'm constantly amazed at the fickleness & lack of loyalty by people. Not just in sport but in life. Divorce rates are higher than ever before in Britain, for example.
The description of what love is in 1 Corinthians 13 starts with 'Love is patient' and ends with 'It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails.'
Whilst many supporters of Cardiff City, husbands & wives are not faithful, God is perfectly faithful.
I amazed by His faithfulness. I mess up so often every day and He could just end my life right now and doesn't. He could have ended Creation right when Adam & Eve messed it all up but didn't. He could have wiped out the moaning & groaning Israelites time & time in the desert for their lack of faithfulness and affront to Him with their golden calve...but led them to the Promised Land eventually. What about the Pharisees, the people Jesus described as 'vipers' and 'sons of hell'. Why didn't God just give up?
I realise it is because God believes in us...even when we don't believe in Him.
2 Timothy 2:13 - if we are faithless, he remains faithful, for he cannot disown himself.
How cool is that? Even we really mess up & really lose track of our faith, God never stops believing in us.
1 John 2:1 - My dear children, I write this to you so that you will not sin. But if anybody does sin, we have an advocate with the Father—Jesus Christ, the Righteous One.
Just as cool, Jesus stands up for us before God when we mess up. The conclusion from this is that God doesn't want to condemn us, He wants to know us and for us to be with Him forever.
John 3:16 is a very well known verse, John 3:17 I find just as amazing and it says this:-
'For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.'
My closing question is....are you saved? I want to say that nothing is really stopping you from making that choice :)
Thursday, 23 December 2010
What's in a Name?
In short, it is because of what the name means.
Michael is a Hebrew name and it means 'Who is like God'. Pretty awesome stuff!
Now I am certainly not crazed enough to think I anything close to who God is, but it is something I treasure because it reminds me of how God changes us to be more like Him and how He has changed me since I gave my life to Him.
You can check out what your name means here:- http://www.meaning-of-names.com/
At Christmas it is wonderful to think about what God did for us by giving us a Saviour in Jesus Christ. When Jesus was born to a poor family in a dirty manger over 2000 years ago, God knew what was to happen to this child even if the world hadn't guessed it yet.
The name Jesus means 'God Saves' or 'God is Generous'.
Hebrews 9:22In fact, the law requires that nearly everything be cleansed with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness.
To be Saved, we need to be forgiven of our sins. This is not possible without the shedding of blood. Jesus did that bit for us on the cross. We couldn't do it because we are not perfect sacrifices because of all our mistakes. In the Old Testament, only the best lambs etc. were acceptable as offerings before God. So only the best was acceptable to God to forgive our sins. Jesus was the best.
If you want to be forgiven and find new life in Jesus, tell God that you want to be forgiven for your sins & accept Jesus as Saviour & Lord. I wasted too much of my life before I did this myself and I haven't regretted it once since :)
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