By Pastor Colin Ruddock
Over the last couple of weeks here at Victory Outreach Birmingham Church, we have been talking and encouraging each other, and you as well, about the plan God has for your life and the true freedom that you can recieve through Christ Jesus.
In our church, we have a strapline that says, "A place for New Beginnings... The Journey Starts here".
In life there has to be times when things become new. Thats how we grow. There has to be times when you have to start again, unless you're that person that has got everything right all the time, and lives everyday absolutely fulfilled, and living on cloud nine.
This time that we all find ourselves in, should encourage us to reflect and press reset. We are in a time where everyday is more challenging in so many different ways. You know the lockdown wasn't easy. None of us in the UK have been put under tight restrictions before. I couldn't have imagined before that I would be told by the law makers, that I can't visit my family and embrace them in their own home. Being told that I can only go out for an hour. Being told how many items of one particular thing I was allowed to purchase.
We look to the media and government for good news, we long to hear positivity. We want to wake up in the morning and realise this was all a bad dream or in many cases a nightmare.
The reality is, that we are in a world that has changed for the worse, and I am sorry to say we are not going back to how it was, and even more discouraging, is that it's only the beginning, its going to get worse and harder to live.
There was a time were incidences similar or catastrophes took place in localised areas. We think back to the tsunami in 2004 in the Indian ocean, across Indonesia and that region that took 227,000 lives. So many other major disasters have taken place and are still taking place other than Coronavirus.
What am I saying, and all this doesn't sound very encouraging, the world has changed, and how are you going to adapt, how are you going to realise that the plan of God, and the freedom He wants you to have, has not changed.
The bible says, do NOT be conformed to the things of this world, but allow your mind to be transformed. We live in the world, but we are not confined to its system. As Christians, we are suppose to think heavenly whilst living here on earth.
We here so many opinions, we hear so much from the media and government. We see much tension and fear rising daily. The world does not have the answers. In recent times, they say we are close to having a vaccine, thousands of people have been trialing the possibilities. Numerous suspicions will be raised from this.
We see legislation passed through Parliament quicker than ever before. Even while we sleep other people are shaping our lives.
When you accept Jesus into your heart, you start to live out the plan of God for you. Your eyes are suddenly opened, you start to see the wood through the trees, the light at the end if the tunnel, is not a train coming towards you. Your safety and security is in Him. Its not just stay safe, its stay blessed in Jesus.
Jesus said "Who the son sets free, is free indeed". When you are truly free and secure in God. When your hope is in Jesus. When you recognise He has an amazing plan for your life, that no one on this earth can change when you realise that the world is not far from ending and Jesus is coming back soon, only then will you be truly free. Only then, will you wake up every morning with joy and peace in your soul, ready to face all that the world throws at you.
We use to sing a song, i have joy, joy, joy deep down in my heart, down in my heart.
Be encouraged today that God the creator of the world, who is Alpha and Omega knows the beginning and the end of all things, including you. God bless
Pastor Colin Ruddock is the Lead Pastor of Victory Outreach Birmingham.
