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LAKESIDE CHRISTIAN CHURCH
11, Canham Way, Greenwood
Western Australia
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EMAIL ADDRESS:lakeside
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TRY THESE..THEY ARE GOOD
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INSPIRATION MESSAGE
JUST FOR YOU!
THE GUY WHO WAS WISE ENOUGH TO ASK FOR A CHANGE...
AND GOT IT
READ THE FOLLOWING AND MY GUESS IS THAT YOU WILL FIND YOURSELF!!
1 CHRONICLES 4:10
And Jabez called on the God of Israel, saying, Oh that you would bless me indeed, and enlarge my coast, and that your hand might be with me, and that you would keep me from evil, that it may not grieve me! And God granted him that which he requested.
Jabez was the name given to him. It means "Sorrowful or Distress". His mother had a hard time in bringing him into the world and thus she named him...Jabez! He came to a point in his life that made him say.."I've had enough!".
Ted Engstrom insightfully writes:
Cripple him, and you have a Sir Walter Scott. Lock him in a prison cell, and you have a John Bunyan. Bury him in the snows of Valley Forge, and you have a George Washington. Raise him in abject poverty and you have an Abraham Lincoln. Strike him down with infantile paralysis, and he becomes Franklin Roosevelt. Burn him so severely that the doctors say he'll never walk again, and you have a Glenn Cunningham -- who set the world's one mile record in 1934. Deafen him and you have a Ludwig van Beethoven. Have him or her born black in a society filled with racial discrimination, and you have a Booker T. Washington, a Marian Anderson, a George Washington Carver. Call him a slow learner, "retarded," and write him off as uneducable, and you have an Albert Einstein.
As one man summed it up: Life is about 20% in what happens to us and 80% in the way we respond to the events.
See: Rom 12:21; Phil 1:12-14
No longer was he to be satisfied with the mundane. He was not any longer going to allow his name and its meaning dominate the rest of his days. He became more honourable than his brothers and all around him in that he was willing to break the mould of medeocrity and determined,with the help of the Lord, to get up and go and make something meaningful of his life.
He asked God to bless him....God granted that request.
He was actually asking God to lift him above the normal and set him on the highroad to successful living...amounting to something in his life.
Blessing can be described as acheivements through attitude. Someone said that "Life is about 20% of things happening to us and 80% of our attitude towards them". How we react to given circumstances and situations determines largely how we are going to come through at the end of the day.
Glenn Cunnigham was a young man who used to light the fires for his local school so that all may come to the school and be warm in winter. One day by accident the school became a blazing inferno. Glenn was rescued...only just..he suffered so terribly through burns that he was told that he would never walk again. He rejected that thought and was found many times on the floor out of his wheel chair after attempting to get up and walk. Often he would be found standing against a fence attempting to walk after pulling himself up out of his wheel chair...but only to be told that he would never succeed. He would never walk again. The great ending to this true story of a young man who would never give up. This young man with a positive attitude is that man who in 1936 on Mannhatten Island he set the world record for for the mile.He not only walked again but ran again. He was blest.
Matthew chapter 5 vs 1-13 list the 'blesseds' given by Jesus in he sermon on the mount.
These Blessed's! are called the 'beatitudes' or 'being-in-the-attitude'. They are a list of attitudes that if we have them then we will be favoured in our character and circumstance.
Jabez when asking God to "Bless" him was, in effect, asking to have a right attitude to life.
God granted his request...not a magical,overnight change..but an ability to make a positive response to given situations as they might occur in his life after prayer!. Do a study of the beatitudes..they are so inspiring. In fact the beatitudes listed in Matthew 5 are said to be a self portrait of Christ himself. They describe the perfection of character that makes a person 'self contained' 'content' with a source within that he can draw upon without neccesity to casting around and running here and there for fulfilment and satisfaction. Maybe this is the crux of your problem. You chase things instead of making your desires clear to God. Jabez asked to be blest..God granted him his request.
Jabez also integrated into his prayer a desire for the enlargement of vision. "O that you would bless me AND enlarge my coasts.." No longer being a person who could see no further than the end of his nose,his own limited circumstances... he wanted to be a man of vision...large vision. God granted him his request.
God warms to people who want to be larger than themselves. Who wish to extend themselves beyond what appears to be limitations that keep them small minded. Read Hebrews chapter 11 and this comes abundantly clear. No mention here of small minded people. No mention here of complainers and doubters and the like. Here in Hebrews chapter 11 we have God's own kind of people..faith people...large of vision people..people who move the heart of God because they had right attitudes towards Him...they believed in Him..they trusted Him..they were prepared to 'have a go' at the impossible and succeeded..because they kept themselves alert to God.
Every significant advance begins by challenging assumptions of the status quo. Often such assumptions are found to be tired, threadbare, incorrect. By challenging assumptions, you are liberated from repeating errors and are freed to establish stronger foundations for new advances.
Jesus challenged the "jot and tittle" assumptions of the religious professionals of His day with the "Great Commandment" -- to love. The Apostle Paul challenged the assumption of the early church leaders that "only Jews could be saved." Martin Luther challenged the assumption of salvation by works. William Carey challenged the assumption of his fellow churchmen that "If God wants the heathen saved, he will do it without you," and thus was born the modern missionary movement. Donald McGavran challenged the assumption that God was satisfied with non-growing churches, with a new assumption: "It is God's will that the church grow, that His lost children are found."
John R. Mott, the great missionary statesman, put it this way, "challenge the assumptions with which you are asked to work. If a careful study convinces you they are correct, follow them faithfully. If, however, you are convinced they are wrong, try either to revise them, or abandon them. Do not repeat proven errors!"
-- Dr. Win Arn
See: Matt 15:1-3
Maybe this can be the reason for your failures and the sense of your own frustrations...you have'nt asked God to enlarge your vision. You have maintained a 'whatever will be..will be' mentality. Jabez was more honourable because he prayed to break out into God's kind of country!..that "whatever seems to be...will be changed!"
He asked to be kept from evil...God granted him his request. That is our God. He does'nt want us sinking into the pit...he wants us to be FREE. Jabez is actually asking that with being blest,with becoming a man of vision he would have the gumption,wisdom to keep out of doubtful situations that would eventually bring down..EVIL THINGS. A lot of people trying to be 'wise in their own conceited way' have come crashing down...hardly able to rise again!.
Let the prayer of Jabez be your own prayer. And never forget..God ANSWERS prayer.Ask Jabez..God granted his request
ATTEND YOUR NEAREST AUSTRALIAN CHRISTIAN CHURCH (Assemblies of God)
HURTING? GOD CARES
and SO DO WE!
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