STARTING OVER
with Peter Harvey
If you have stumbled across this blog, via my Facebook site or by accessing through other internet portals, may I say welcome This is the first of what I hope will be many to come.
As to the frequency of these blog posts - at this point in time, I am not intending to promise a new post, daily, or weekly - or even monthly, although I hope to write these "Lifting My Voice" blogs on a regular basis. Let me put the above in another way: My intention, at present, is to post blogs regularly, but not necessarily at regular intervals.
There are a great many "voices" in cyberspace, as well as in other more ancient forms of mass media - newspapers, radio and television to name the more obvious. You may well think - here is yet still just one more voice. With the advent of social media viz a viz Facebook, Twitter, Instagram etc., it seems like everyone has an opinion on everything, and they are not afraid to often share those opinions publicly for one and all to see and ponder. Personal frustrations and attitudes are often vented on unsuspecting readers in ways that normally would be only shared with one's inner circle of family, friends and associates.
You who are reading this, may or may not know that I previously published a blog which I called "Peter Harvey's Blogs". These were published over a couple of years, the last being written and published online just after Chistmas last year - on the 28th December. That blog was called: "No Longer A Baby". That one, and indeed all my blogs until then can still be read by going to peterandtessa.blogspot.com. I believe the Lord inspired me to write those blog posts, and that you may find encouragement from reading or re-reading some of these.
You will have noticed that I have given this first of my new blogs the title: "Starting Over". This title has a twofold application - the first being in regard to the fact, that, after almost eleven months silence in blogger cyberspace, I have, with the encouragement of my wife, Tessa, decided to again tap the computer keyboard keys in an orderly fashion to produce, I hope, something by way of interest, inspiration, and intelligible input (Ah! Isn't the alliteration an admirable addition to the writer's repetoire of resources).
The second, and, undoubtedly more wonderful application of the title : "Starting Over" relates to the fact that, as a Christian, I know personally, and am, and will be forever grateful to the Living God, that He is the God of the Second Chance. He gives each one of us the ability in life to start over. To the person who has never made a commitment to follow Jesus Christ, the Son of God, and Saviour of the World, the Bible says: "For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him, shall not perish but have eternal life". We are all born with a sin nature, and because of sin, we are separated from God. In His love for fallen humanity, and in His desire for each and every person to be restored to fellowship with Him, He sent His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ - to be born as a baby in a manger in a dirty stable in the town of Bethlehem, a few miles south of Jerusalem in the land of Israel. He did not, however, remain a baby. That baby grew to become a man, and at the age of thirty, commenced a period of ministry of three and a half years - attested by healings, miracles, signs and wonders, and a message of eternal hope to a people who were living without hope.
Jesus died a cruel death on a Roman cross, as a criminal, although He had never sinned. In the book of Romans, chapter 5 verse 8, in the Bible, it says: But God demonstrates His own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Our part, as sinners separated from a holy God, is to acknowledge Christ's death on the cross in our place, as punishment for our sins, and to accept the free gift of eternal life offered to us by God the Father. As we, by faith, come humbly to God's throne in repentance, we are born again by the Spirit of God to live a new life, casting off the shackles of the past with all its disappointments and disillusionment to start over with a life filled with purposeful living now, as well as hope for the future.
For the Christian, one who has known the Lord for a short time, or one who has been a follower of Christ for years - even many years, or decades, the nature of God is that He says, if you or I feel we have missed it along the way, or we have wandered off the path of life, and are simply going through the motions, or we have even, as Christians, been ensnared by sin, He is still the God of the Second, Third, Fourth and so on - Chance. Satan, the accuser of the brethren, as he is called in Revelation 12:11, will seek to discourage you and me from believing there is any hope for us when we have failed. The Bible says in Hebrews 13:8 that Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever.
As the apostle John writes in 1 John 1:9 "If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness".
It is not popular to be a Christian - a Bible believing follower of Jesus Christ in 2015. Everything Christians stand for seems to be counter culture. But personally, as difficult as it is and will increasingly become for those who uncompromisingly take a stand for Biblical truth and Godly values - I wish to state here and now, that as for me and my wife, by the grace of God, we will stand boldly for righteousness. We are grateful to the God who offers each one of us the awesome privilege of Starting Over with Him.
God Bless!
You will have noticed that I have given this first of my new blogs the title: "Starting Over". This title has a twofold application - the first being in regard to the fact, that, after almost eleven months silence in blogger cyberspace, I have, with the encouragement of my wife, Tessa, decided to again tap the computer keyboard keys in an orderly fashion to produce, I hope, something by way of interest, inspiration, and intelligible input (Ah! Isn't the alliteration an admirable addition to the writer's repetoire of resources).
The second, and, undoubtedly more wonderful application of the title : "Starting Over" relates to the fact that, as a Christian, I know personally, and am, and will be forever grateful to the Living God, that He is the God of the Second Chance. He gives each one of us the ability in life to start over. To the person who has never made a commitment to follow Jesus Christ, the Son of God, and Saviour of the World, the Bible says: "For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him, shall not perish but have eternal life". We are all born with a sin nature, and because of sin, we are separated from God. In His love for fallen humanity, and in His desire for each and every person to be restored to fellowship with Him, He sent His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ - to be born as a baby in a manger in a dirty stable in the town of Bethlehem, a few miles south of Jerusalem in the land of Israel. He did not, however, remain a baby. That baby grew to become a man, and at the age of thirty, commenced a period of ministry of three and a half years - attested by healings, miracles, signs and wonders, and a message of eternal hope to a people who were living without hope.
Jesus died a cruel death on a Roman cross, as a criminal, although He had never sinned. In the book of Romans, chapter 5 verse 8, in the Bible, it says: But God demonstrates His own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Our part, as sinners separated from a holy God, is to acknowledge Christ's death on the cross in our place, as punishment for our sins, and to accept the free gift of eternal life offered to us by God the Father. As we, by faith, come humbly to God's throne in repentance, we are born again by the Spirit of God to live a new life, casting off the shackles of the past with all its disappointments and disillusionment to start over with a life filled with purposeful living now, as well as hope for the future.
For the Christian, one who has known the Lord for a short time, or one who has been a follower of Christ for years - even many years, or decades, the nature of God is that He says, if you or I feel we have missed it along the way, or we have wandered off the path of life, and are simply going through the motions, or we have even, as Christians, been ensnared by sin, He is still the God of the Second, Third, Fourth and so on - Chance. Satan, the accuser of the brethren, as he is called in Revelation 12:11, will seek to discourage you and me from believing there is any hope for us when we have failed. The Bible says in Hebrews 13:8 that Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever.
As the apostle John writes in 1 John 1:9 "If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness".
It is not popular to be a Christian - a Bible believing follower of Jesus Christ in 2015. Everything Christians stand for seems to be counter culture. But personally, as difficult as it is and will increasingly become for those who uncompromisingly take a stand for Biblical truth and Godly values - I wish to state here and now, that as for me and my wife, by the grace of God, we will stand boldly for righteousness. We are grateful to the God who offers each one of us the awesome privilege of Starting Over with Him.
God Bless!
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