Let Go and Let God

Are you willing to let go of your past sins? Loving and serving God is a learned art and that's why we all have many failures along the way.

Allow God to forgive you, cleanse you from your sins, and fill you with the Holy Spirit. This will allow you to then serve the Lord more powerfully, so let go and let God.

Let Go Let God (Olivia Newton John)
When you can't find
your direction
And your heart won't
guide you home Let Go
Let God
When your dreams
are broken in the dust
And you've lost the
will to trust Let Go
Let God

Let the signs remind you
We are passengers
Let the signs remind you
To surrender
To surrender
Let Go and Let God

When faith's a dying fire
And there's no spark
to feed the flame
Let Go and Let God
When your courage fails you
And the well of hope runs dry
Let Go and Let God

Let the signs remind you
We are passengers
Let the signs remind you
To surrender
To surrender
Let Go and Let God

Let the signs remind you
We are passengers
Let the signs remind you
To surrender
To surrender
Let Go and Let God
Let Go and Let God Let Go
And let God.

Accept You Are Forgiven

Guilt comes in many forms, sometimes we cut ourselves up for things we've said or done that we've realised we shouldn't have done. Other times we can make ourselves feel guilty because of someone elses situation which we really have no business to feel guilty about.

Sometimes feeling guilty is good, because it confirms that we've recognised that we've done something wrong, and we need to correct it. It may be that we need to ask someone else for forgiveness and make peace with that person. Sometimes it's God we need to face up to to admit our wrong doing and seek forgiveness.

Have you ever approached God and asked Him for forgiveness, but still you've felt unforgiven? What do we do when despite God forgiving us, we still feel guilty? Well here are a few things to think about if you're still feeling unforgiven:

1. Remember God has forgiven you so there is absolutely no reason why you should still guilty. In other words, if God can forgive you, why should you forgive yourself?!
2. Realise that by refusing to accept God's forgiveness, you are saying that Christ's sacrifice on the cross, was not enough to forgive you of your sins!
3. Seek forgiveness and peace from those affected by what you said or did
4. Try to stop focusing on what you said or did that is making you still feel guilty. You've been forgiven, so move on!

Psalm 51:9-10 (NIV)
Don't' keep looking at my sins. Remove the stain of my guilt.
Create in me a clean heart, O God. Renew a right spirit within me.

Fear of Failure

Have you ever been really disappointed with yourself?

Personally I'm a bit of a perfectionist, as those who work with me will tell you. I expect perfection from myself in everything I do, work related and everything else. Realistically that is very difficult for me to ever achieve. After all there has only ever been one person on earth who has ever been perfect...and that was Jesus!

I know I put pressure on myself to achieve perfection and in so doing can make myself frightened of "getting it wrong", of failing. Do you fear failure? I know it can be scary but there is nothing wrong with wanting to be perfect, that after all is God's ultimate target for each of us...to be like Jesus.

That's an incredibly high standard to live up to, but don't worry God knows we are not perfect, and we fail Him, and that is why He has promised to forgive us of everything we do wrong, of all our sins.

Psalm 34:22 (NIV)
But the Lord will redeem those who serve Him.
Everyone who trusts in Him will be freely pardoned.

Are you in need of forgiveness? Relief from guilt? Freedom from the fear of failure?

Ask the Lord to forgive you and set you free. Your path to freedom and to ultimately be like Jesus, must begin on your knees, at His feet!

Checkout the David Crowder Band website: http://www.davidcrowderband.com/

New Start

Have you ever done something so bad that you felt you could never be forgiven? Have you ever committed a private sin that have been made horribly public? Have you ever felt like you've been "caught in the act" by someone?

No matter the level of your sin, or who knows about it, Jesus, our Saviour offer us forgiveness and a new start to any who will repent. We need to look inside ourselves, into our own heart, and recognise all aspects of our lives where we must seeks Christs forgiveness. If we do that, we will be forgiven and urged to, "Go and sin no more" (John 8:11).

No matter how privately or publicly we have failed God, if we "Go and sin no more", our new life will begin.

Forgive Me

"Be good" - how many times to we say that to our children or hear others saying that to their children?

Put those words into a different scenario...God telling you to "Be good". God wants us to be like Jesus and that means we must be good and we must do good.

Do you consider yourself to be a "good" person?

If you've answered "yes" to that question, I'd urge you to reconsider your answer! Even if we are nice, law abiding people who do our best in all we do, we are not good enough to get into heaven unless we ask God to forgive us of all our sins.

Jesus said, "I assure you, unless you turn from your sins and become as little children, you will never get into the Kingdom of Heaven." (Matthew 18:3). Once we are willing to change our ways, Jesus said a childlike trust and humility will help us become great people on earth and wonderful citizens of heaven.

Don't think you're good enough, or too good to have to ask God to forgive you. It's easy, just ask God to forgive you, He is waiting and willing you to do so.

Forgive Me
Written by Scott Dyer and Rebecca St. James
For all the times I’ve failed You, Lord
Forgive me
For all the ways I’ve fallen short
Lord, forgive me now
God, I’m so in need of grace
I fall upon my face
Forgive me

You see the tears fall down my face
Forgive me
Take my fear, Lord, take my shame
Lord, forgive me now
Purify me, make me new
Like only You can do
Forgive me now

Lord, we come to honor You
We are forgiven
We bring our love and thanks to You
We are forgiven now

God we praise You for Your grace
Before You we are raised
Forgiven
God we praise You for Your grace
Before You we are raised
Forgiven
Forgiven

Forgiven

Phillipians 4:8-9 (The Message)
Summing it all up, friends, I'd say you'll do best by filling your minds and meditating on things true, noble, reputable, authentic, compelling, gracious—the best, not the worst; the beautiful, not the ugly; things to praise, not things to curse. Put into practice what you learned from me, what you heard and saw and realized. Do that, and God, who makes everything work together, will work you into his most excellent harmonies.

Do you find yourself dwelling in the past and what might have been?
I think we're all guilty of that at times. We tend to forget that it's called "the past" for a reason - it's happened, it's over and we can't change any of it. We find ourselves dwelling on things that we feel we have failed at, situations that we which we'd handled differently, or conversations we wish we'd said (or not said) something.

Before we know where we are, we find ourselves focusing in on our failures. Instead of leaving these events in the past and moving on. Just because we've failed at something in the past doesn't mean we will continue to fail - After all they always say, "Practice makes perfect"!

If we let our past failures consume our thoughts and control our emotions we will continue to be a prisoner of our past. God needs/wants us to let go of our past failures, and in doing experience a joy which can only be found through Him.

God is willing to forgive us of all our wrongs, so surely we should be able to forgive ourselves?

Don't live in regret as it will change nothing for the better and will only cause you more pain.

Forgive yourself and move on!
Live in the present not the past, and live it in Jesus' name!

His Provision

At our morning service we had the retirement of two officers (ministers) who have served as Salvation Army officers (minister) for 38.5 years! We celebrated there many years of faithful service and the love and teaching they have passed on to all they met during their service.

This all got me to thinking about my own service, obviously not as a Salvation Army officer (minister), but simply as a follower of Christ who is serving Him as a soldier in the Salvation Army at Bellshill. What I started thinking about was my own service. If this were my "retirement" today, would I be celebrating my service to God, confident I had served Him well all my life?

This is a very tough question, and an even tougher one to answer honestly! So what's my answer? Well, I could tell you that I have served God as well as I possibly could and done everything He's asked of me, but I'm afraid that would not be the truth. I have done something in my life that I am not proud of, I've done some things in my life that gone against God's plan for me and I've said and done some things which I am ashamed of.

However, I am so thankful to God that despite all of this, He has forgiven me for all my sins, because He still loves me and cares for me and wants me to serve Him.
So how about you - If this were your"retirement" today, would you be celebrating your service to God, confident that you had served Him well all your life?

Whether your answer is positive or negative, rejoice, because God still loves you, and will always love you no matter what your sins.

On Thursday night at our band practice we practiced the beautiful Ivor Bosanko piece "His Provision" which was originally published in in the 1985 Musical Salvationist as a songster (senior choir) piece. The words of that piece are very relevant to where my thoughts have been today, and in fact we played this piece during our morning service.

Please consider the words of this song, and try to see how they fit with your life:

His Provision (Ivor Bosanko)
At the moment of my weakness,
When my need for pow'r is plain,
And my own strength is exhausted once again,
Then my Lord has made provision
For the day of my despair,
And His precious Holy Spirit hears my prayer, my prayer,
Then my Lord has made provision
For the day of my despair,
And His precious Holy Spirit hears my prayer.

Holy Spirit! Promised Presence fall on me.
Holy Spirit! Make me all I long to be.
Holy Spirit! Holy Spirit!
Give your pow'r to me,
O Holy Spirit.

When the darkness falls around me,
When bewildered and afraid,
When I feel the most deserted and betrayed,
Then my ev'ry need is answered
By God's providential care,
And His precious Holy Spirit hears my prayer, my prayer,
Then my ev'ry need in answered
BY God's providential care,
And His precious Holy Spirit hears my prayer.

Nothing now can rob God's servant
Of the peace that He bequeaths,
Nothing take away the strength His presence breathes,
Of the EVERLASTING ARMS OF LOVE I'M DAILY MADE AWARE,
And His precious Holy Spirit hears my prayer, my prayer,
of the everlasting arms of love I'm daily made aware,
And His precious Holy Spirit hears my prayer.

In conclusion I just want to leave the highlight me favourite words in this song:

When the darkness falls around me,
When bewildered and afraid,
When I feel the most deserted and betrayed,
Then my ev'ry need is answered
By God's providential care,
And His precious Holy Spirit hears my prayer.

These words are so reassuring to me, I hope they are reassuring to you too.

That word..."Sin"

Do you cringe whenever someone says the word "sin"? For a long time I admit, I did! I, probably like you, wondered what was coming next, and if I'm honest I'd would switch off before I heard/read any more!

But I now understand that we should not be put off by talking about sin or sinning, as it's something every single one of us does, we all sin. During our lifetime we all commit thousands/millions of sins in God's eyes.

So what exactly is sin. Here is the dictionary definition of sin:

• A transgression of a religious or moral law, especially when deliberate.
• Deliberate disobedience to the known will of God

Galatians 5:24-25

Those who belong to Christ Jesus have nailed the passions and desires of their sinful nature to his cross and crucified them there. Since we are living by the Spirit, let us follow the Spirit's leading in every part of our lives.

So in God's eyes, no matter what our sins, no matter how severe our sins, God will forgive us of every one of them. All we have to do is ask him to forgive us and then let God take control of our lives.

I pray that you will ask God into your live so he can forgive your sins, and help you lead the kind of life he wants you to.