Category: Forgiveness

Christian Media, Christian Radio, Christianity, Evangelism, Faith, Forgiveness, Healing, Hope, Miracles, Spiritual healing

Faith is like a muscle – it has to be exercised

Posted on by David L'Herroux

Last week, I shared some stories of the incredible miracles which have been happening at my brother’s church in France. We felt that God started to move in the church about two years ago during our first missions week. A lady came asking for prayer for pain in her hips, which was caused by deformed bones. She was completely healed, and this opened up a door for God to do more.

Over the last two years, we have heard many more incredible testimonies: a man healed of complete deafness, a woman healed of paralysis in her leg, another lady who had severe pain and even discharged herself from hospital for an hour to come to the service. She was completely set free and later declared free of disease. Others have been restored from tumours, depression, restless leg syndrome, chronic insomnia, and addictions. There are so many stories I could share, and in the future, I hope that some of these people will write guest blogs and tell you their stories themselves. There is so much to thank God for!

I have been asked a question which is close to many people’s hearts – why are some people healed and others not? I do not have all the answers, but I can share from my own experience what I believe is true. I wrote last week about the need for expectancy and how we should approach God believing that He will do something.

Here is an illustration: if one of us was sick, we would go to the doctor for a check-up. Often, we will not know the doctor, but we will take their advice, and when they give us a prescription for medication, we will then take that to a chemist. At every stage, we usually trust the doctor we do not know, we trust the chemist we do not know, and we trust the pills, even when we do not understand how they work. But when it comes to trusting God, we often struggle, and we question if He is capable of giving us what we ask. We have no trouble believing that He could die for us, save us, and give us eternal life, but we do struggle to believe that He could do the miraculous.

I believe that faith is a muscle, and just like any other muscle in our bodies, if we do not use it, it will eventually become weak and useless. As believers, we are children of God’s kingdom, and just like being a citizen of the United Kingdom, we have certain citizenship rights. If something was wrong in our country, we would have the right to take a petition to 10 Downing Street, and in the same way, we can take our petitions to God.

As citizens of God’s kingdom, we have a constitution (God’s Word), and we can stand on that and petition God to do what no one else can do. Just as with politics, we don’t always see answers right away, but we should keep standing on God’s Word, believing His promises, and asking Him to bring about a miracle. God’s Word is the instruction manual for life. If you or I bought a new mobile phone, we would go home and start reading the instructions to make sure that we got the best use from the phone. If we pay that much care and attention to our phones, how much more attention should we give to our lives? God’s Word is the instruction manual – without understanding it, our lives do not work properly.

Now it is true to say that not every one gets healed, but I believe that God is sovereign, and we are not here to dictate to Him how He should do things, but to be obedient to His Word. However, I have also seen great things happen when a person didn’t get healed.

Last year, a lady came to a meeting during the mission in France. That very day, she gave her life to Christ and asked us to pray that she would be healed from terminal cancer. We prayed for her, but sadly just five days later, she died.   When the church went to visit her family (they were not Christians), her husband said that in the days before she passed away, he had never seen his wife so happy and peaceful since he had known her.

He said: she spent her final days praising her Jesus, and she left this world in total peace, knowing that she would soon see Him face to face. So although she did not see physical healing in this life, she was healed when she stood before Jesus and was given a new body, free of disease. There is no sickness or ill-health or cancer in Heaven. Praise God!

If you are trusting God to heal or set you free, can I encourage you to persevere? Stand on His word, trust Him, and practice exercising your faith muscle. Whatever happens, you can be sure of one thing: your life will be changed for the better. I have never met a person who wasn’t changed by spending time with God. Follow God’s instructions and wait to see what He can do in your life.

David-Blog7

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Christian Media, Christian Radio, Christianity, Forgiveness

Finding hope in the middle of terror

Posted on by David L'Herroux

Last November I was at home in France in the middle of an exciting week of mission and evangelism at my brother’s church. We were being blessed with God’s manifest presence and seeing many people commit their lives to Christ and be healed and set free. As we rejoiced in God’s goodness, the news hit our TV screens of the horrific terrorist attacks in Paris. We had been celebrating what God was doing through the mission, but now our hearts were broken for all the families who had lost a husband, a wife, a parent, a son, a daughter. Whole communities were left devastated, confused, numb and torn apart by grief.

The Sunday following the attacks, it was the last day of our mission, and my brother Daniel stood before his church, which was packed with people who were shocked and devastated at the events of the week. It is difficult to know what to say in the face of such a terrible situation, but my brother began to read from Psalm 37:

Do not fret because of those who are evil
or be envious of those who do wrong. (v 1 & 2)

Be still before the Lord
and wait patiently for him;
do not fret when people succeed in their ways,
when they carry out their wicked schemes. (v 7)

The salvation of the righteous comes from the Lord;
he is their stronghold in time of trouble.
The Lord helps them and delivers them;
he delivers them from the wicked and saves them,
because they take refuge in him. (v 39 & 40)

I have been thinking back to that moment this week, after seeing the news of the horrific attacks in Brussels (and the many acts of terror we see around the world). As believers, these cruel and violent acts can seem so overwhelming, and sometimes we can feel unsure of what to say or even how to pray. I believe that God’s Word shows us how to pray in these circumstances.

Firstly, let’s consider people. Let’s pray for those who are fighting for their lives. Let’s pray for the families and those who have lost someone they loved. Let’s also pray for those who witnessed the attack and for the local residents who have to come to terms with this enormous tragedy. Let’s pray also for the medical centres who are working with the injured.

Secondly, we need to pray for wisdom for Governments as they discuss and debate what happens next. Proverbs 14: 12 says: there is a way that seems right to a man, but in the end it leads to death. We should pray for wisdom for world leaders – that they choose ways and responses which are inspired by God and not necessarily their own intuition.

Thirdly, what I am about to say may seem unthinkable, but we should also pray for those who plan and plot such evil acts. We can pray for God to change their hearts. Just as He did for Saul of Tarsus, God can change the hearts of these terrorist groups and their leaders.

Is it possible to have hope in the face of such unthinkable terror and hopelessness? It is easy to feel as though the world is an increasingly dangerous and unstable place, and if we look at the darkness around us, we can easily lose hope.

But we need to continue going to God’s Word for our answers. His Word (John 1:5) says that the darkness in the world will get darker, but that darkness will never extinguish light. In fact, that light (His light) will continue to shine brighter and the darkness CANNOT overcome it. That is where I get my hope.

Let’s pray with passion for our world and all those who are suffering and grieving today.  And may God’s light, His in-extinguishable light, shine ever brighter in the middle of the darkness we see.

 

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Christian Media, Christian Radio, Christianity, Easter, Forgiveness

What Easter means to me

Posted on by David L'Herroux

I was blessed to grow up in a Christian family. My father was a minister, and Easter was always a very important time for us. A lot of the local churches (in my home town in France) would get together to hold special meetings. We had speakers and worship, and it was an exciting time for the churches to work together on evangelism. I have great memories of those days!

Today, Easter is just as special for my family and I. It is a reason to celebrate the gift of life that Jesus has given us through His death.

The team at UCB know that I like to use acronyms, and a few years ago, I shared the below with friends and supporters of UCB.

E.A.S.T.E.R.

ETERNAL – (John 3:16) Through the gift of His son, Jesus, God the Father offers the gift of ETERNAL LIFE to all those who believe in Him.

ACCEPTED – (Ephesians 1:6) We are ACCEPTED in Jesus Christ.

SAVED – (Ephesians 2:8) Anyone can be SAVED if they believe because of God’s Grace and God’s unmerited favour.

TRANSFORMATION – (2 Corinthians 5:17) Only real and lasting TRANSFORMATION takes place in Jesus Christ. ‘If we are in Christ … we are a new creation …. old things have passed away, behold all things have become new.’

ENDURES – (Psalm 100:5) God’s love ENDURES forever.

RISEN – (Luke 24:34) Jesus has RISEN, meaning He is alive today and we have access to a living and true God.

Here is a link to one of my favourite worship songs: ‘Forever’ by Kari Jobe. It is a tremendous and powerful song that describes the fullness of the Easter message.

Let’s never forget that ‘Forever He is glorified, forever He is lifted high, forever He is risen, He is alive, He is alive!’ It reminds us that we are worshipping a true and living God.

I learned as a young man that the Gospel has the power to transform every life, even the most broken, and at UCB, we often receive letters and emails from people who have experienced it for themselves.

Sid O’ Neil discovered God’s love after a terrible accident which left him with serious injuries. He experienced the power of the resurrection, which changed his life. Thank God for His sacrifice and for restoring countless lives.

Can I encourage you this week to take time to consider what the resurrection means to you? Why not tell your story to someone who hasn’t heard it before?

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