Erling Thu

Beautiful words

There are many ugly words around. Hateful words are very ugly, they are destroying the soul. Therefore we need to lay aside bitter words. We should never use temper tantrums. We should not speak bad words of revenge. There is no room for profanity in the mouth of a Christian. Our words should not insult others.

Instead we must let our words become beautiful gift that encourage others. We do this by speaking words of grace to help people. There are so many beautiful words to use. Kindness is a very beautiful word. Love and goodness are filled with beauty. Words of affection always creates beauty in the recipient and in the giver. Words of encouragement bring out the best in people. Respectful and honouring words of affirmation are always beautiful.

Words are powerful. They may bring healing or they may hurt deep down in the heart. I would like you to share with me some of your beautiful words and what they mean to you. 

The fruit of the Spirit

By faith in Jesus we have been born again by the Holy Spirit. Ever since that day the power of the Holy Spirit has been at work in our lives. As we yield freely and fully to the dynamic life and power of the Holy Spirit, we will abandon the cravings of our self-life, and the Spirit will produce fruit in our lives.

The Holy Spirit hinders our old self-life from dominating us. The self-life of our flesh and the new life of the Spirit are two incompatible and conflicting forces with in us. When we are brought into the full freedom of the Spirit of grace, we will no longer be living under the legalistic domination of the law. The cravings of the self-life are obvious and those who use their freedom for these impurities will not inherit the kingdom of God.

But the fruit produced by the Holy Spirit within us is divine love in all its varied expressions:

joy that overflows

peace that subdues

patience that endures

kindness in action

faith that prevails

gentleness of heart

strength of spirit

Everything connected with our self-life was put to death on the cross and crucified with Christ. Now we can live in the Holy Spirit and follow after him.

Excel

When the apostle Paul is writing to the church in Corinth (2 Cor 8:7), he is commending them: "You do well and excel in every respect." He is naming five areas in which they excel before he tells them to make suer that they excel in a sixth area. Even when he says that they excel in every respect, he is kind of saying that they can excel in more areas. There is always room for improvement. There is always the possibility of growing and maturing. If you excel, you have laid the foundation on which you may excel even more!

Excel in unstoppable faith, nourished by the Word of God.

Excel in powerful preaching, anointed by the Spirit of grace.

Excel in revelation knowledge, filled with the Spirit of wisdom and truth.

Excel in your passionate devotion, being zealous and single-hearted for the Lord.

Excel in sharing love, overflowing with the pure love of Christ.

Excel in being generous, by loving commitment to God and his people.

 

Help in life

O God, we ask you to help us never to allow the great things of life go wrong.

Help us to never allow

Caution to become cowardice,

or courage to become recklessness.

Carefulness to become meanness,

or spending to become squandering.

Honesty to become discourtesy,

or politeness to become evasion of truth.

Liberty to become licence,

or pleasure to become sin.

Help us never selfishly to make use of our friends,

never thoughtlessly take our loved ones for granted,

never to make love an excuse for thinking we can do what we like.

Help us always to remember how we have been loved

and try to be more worthy of it:

through the love of Jesus Christ our Lord, Amen!

My bodyguard

Bad things happen  to good and godly people. That is part of life in this fallen world. All of us have a inbuilt desire to feel good, be free from pain and have a comfortable life. Sooner og later we realise that life can be very difficult, and often not comfortable at all. We face pain and hardships. Sometimes we have to go through sufferings and tough struggles. Often life is not easy, but very challenging.

A man who is more powerful

When John the Baptist spoke about Jesus Christ who was coming after him, he proclaimed that he would be a man more powerful than him. John was only baptising people in water. It was a baptism of repentance. The one who was more powerful than him, Jesus the Messiah, would submerge people into union with the Spirit of Holiness and with a raging fire.

In these words John is summarising the goal of the ministry of Jesus. His ministry would be completed when he had carried away the sins of the world, broken the power of sin and death. After the resurrection Jesus showed himself alive many time to his disciples. He told them to wait for the gift the Father had promised. At that day they would be baptised in the Holy Spirit.

The coming of the Spirit on the day of Pentecost is the ultimate proof that Jesus has been glorified and exalted to the right hand of God Almighty on the throne. From now on we can all see that Jesus is the Man who is more powerful than anyone else. Even today he submerges people into union with the Holy Spirit, giving them power to be his witnesses.

God's inner sanctuary

The apostle Paul is saying that the church is God's inner sanctuary. Most translations are saying that the church is the temple of God, but the Passion Translation is using a different expression. It is the many different ways of saying things that excite me with this translation. A few days ago I came across this verse: "Don't you realise that together you have become God's inner sanctuary and that the Spirit of God makes his permanent home in you?" (1 Cor 3:16)

It is the plural you (you all) that shows that the apostle is referring to the body of believers who is the church. Together we have become the inner sanctuary of God, his very dwelling place on the earth. The covenant community is the most holy place in the universe. It is the dwelling place of the most holy God on earth. The inner sanctuary is the place of the ark of the covenant that contains the Law of God and the budding rod of Aron. It is a place of revelation and life. 

Later Paul is saying that the human body of the individual believer is a temple and a dwelling place of God (1 Cor 6:19. We have become living stones built together into the living house of God. Individually and collectively we are carrying with us the very presence of God. The Holy Spirit has made his permanent home inside us and among us. We need to hold these two truths about our individual and our corporate identity in Christ together in balance.  

I trust in the all-sufficient cross of Christ alone

I have started to read Paul's First Letter to the Corinthians again. This is a letter filled with divine revelation and insight. Paul is starting by telling that he has been divinely appointed according to the plan of God. The letter is addressed to the community of God throughout the city of Corinth, and to the people of God everywhere. He is writing that we have been made pure and set apart in the Anointed One. We have been invited to be God’s devoted and holy people.

Seeing and caring for people

To be somebody

Is caring for other people,

Seeing the needs of old friends

And people you never met before.

It is seeing people and giving them attention,

Discovering obvious needs

And acting to meet the secret ones.

It is touching people with your hands,

Praying for the blessing of God to come upon them,

When others would say they only need a doctor,

Knowing that love and care can do more the medicine.

 

To be somebody

Is identifying with the pain of strangers,

Pouring the healing love of God into their loneliness,

Refreshing them by simple care,

Relieving their hurts through the power of God,

Encouraging them by blessing them in the name of the Lord

Covenant duties

The issue of covenant was forced on me a short time ago. There are so many misunderstandings about being a covenant person. Even many Christians have very little understanding of what covenant is all about. They question the idea of covenant duties or covenant obligations. Therefore I have chosen to share something I wrote some years back on being a covenant keeper, on being a person who understands the implication of covenant living. Covenant is love put into practice!

What is faith?

I was reading Romans 10 this morning in the Passion Translation. Vers 17 contains a very interesting definition of faith. When we try to explain what faith is, we normally quote from the eleventh chapter of the Letter to the Hebrews. But the definition of faith found in Romans 10, caught my heart this morning. Therefore I like to share it with you. Faith is actually a gift given to us by God, for it was only because of his wonderful grace that we believed in Jesus Christ in the first place (Eph 2:8). 

Resurrection changes everything

Easter Day is full of joy and excitement. Resurrection Day changed history. It was the beginning of the recreation of this world. Ever since Jesus rose from the death, the life changing message of the Good News has permeated society. It began with a few disciples in Jerusalem, and today you will find millions of his followers all over the world.