Elaine Campbell

 'For it is written, As I live, saith the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall confess to God' ( Romans 14:11). Christ the righteous Judge is coming back again, therefore, we have no need to judge our fellow Christians. All judgments are down to Christ, not us! In the end every knee shall bow before the Lord, and every tongue shall confess to God, to give  praises and acknowledge that Jesus is Lord. When Christ return, every one at that judgment will recognised Him as the Sovereign Lord and King of kings. The songwriter put it beautifully, "The judgment has set the books have been open. How will I stand on that great day. Shall I stand with my sins wanting or with my sins all washed away." Each one of us has to give an account of our lives to Christ, when we shall stand before him. Paul cited from Isaiah 43:23, when he wrote "For it is written."Christ can be trusted, as we see the Lord has sworn by himself, that is, by His own life, that ...

 'I will hear what God the Lord will speak: for he will speak peace unto his people, and to his saints: but let them not turn again to folly' (Psalm 85:8). When we converse with the Lord God, it should be a natural thing to want to hear him speak to us. Whatever the request or petition, we should be still and quiet for a moment, wait and listen carefully to what his answer will be. God promises to hear and answer but we must believe he will. A heart that is upright will want to hear the Lord, and receive his peace. The Lord will speak peace to his faithful people to whom the covenant is made; who He has set apart for himself and sanctified by His Spirit. We are warned not to turn again to folly. That is, we should not be ungrateful to the Lord our God, who has been merciful, pardon and speak peace to us. When our souls are troubled and perplexed, we need the Lord. It is  only He who can speak peace to our hearts. Therefore, we should  believe that God hears us when we spe...

 'Our heart is not turned back, neither have our steps declined from thy way' (Psalm 44:18). God who has called us, knows what his children are able to endure. He promised never to give up more than we could possible bear. He understands the trials in our lives and expects and accepts our questioning, when we don't understand the pain  in our lives. But like the Psalmist, we can say, "Our heart is not turned back, neither have our steps decline from thy way." In other words, we remain faithful to God regardless of the situation. The Bible shows that we can lament and ask question of God. It is a normal occurrence in the lives of God's people in the Bible. Sometimes in life, the burden of our faith becomes heavy, the road seems long and dreary, the light at the end of the tunnel is not visible. We need to demonstrate trust and patience in God, even in these difficult times in our lives. We must seek to lift up others, when their faith wavers, in these instances...

 'And when they had brought their ships to land, they forsook all, and followed him' (Luke 5:11). Simon Peter and the sons of Zebedee forsook all and followed Jesus. They gave up their profession as fishermen to be fishers of men. Christ called these men and they responded to the call and became his disciples. We see in the Gospel of Matthew and Mark where Jesus walked along the sea of Galilee and called Simon, Andrew, James and John. However, in the Gospel of Luke, it tells a story of a miraculous catch of fish preceding the call. Simon had a long and rough night where he didn't caught any fish, and was at the point of exhaustion, when Jesus after teaching the people, asked him to launch out into the deep and let his net down for a catch. He believed it was futile being an experience  fisherman, but did what Jesus asked, and what a miraculous catch! He had to call his partners to come with their boats to take some of the fish. The nets began to break and boats sinking unde...

 'The Lord also will be a refuge for the oppressed, a refuge in times of trouble' (Psalm 9:9). The Scripture tells us that the salvation of the righteous is of the Lord: He is their strength in  times of trouble (Psalm 37:39). Therefore, the Lord will help and deliver them from the wicked and save them, because they trusted in Him (Psalm 37:40). There is a great war raging between Christ and Satan for our souls. Satan knows he has a short time and is working overtime to destroy God's people. But Christ has already won the victory, we just need to trust and obey Him, so we can be victorious.The success of evil is only temporary, but in the end the righteous will endure, because Christ is our righteous Judge and our Champion. The Lord our Saviour is our stronghold, and all who are oppressed will find a safe and secure haven in Him. There are many of God's people who are being oppressed - being abused by others who exercise control over them. God will defend them and be a ...

 'Our people must learn to do good by meeting the urgent needs of others; then they will not be unproductive' (Titus 3:14). As believers, we should learn to pursue good works, by meeting the needs of others. We should seek to be efficient in supporting others and prioritising issues that are sensitive and of urgent needs. Jesus taught us to love our neighbours as ourselves. A 'neighbour' is anyone who is in need (Matthew 22:40). We should not waste precious time bickering, but focus on good works and urgent needs to all who are in dire need. Let us search the Scriptures, which contain what is the good and perfect will of God, through His grace and having faith in Christ. We will learn to deny sin, to be sober, righteous and live godly lives. It is in Christ that we can experience good works, by demonstrating the fruit of the Spirit and accepting God's grace by faith in Christ. Let us not indulge ourselves in idle conversations, lest we become unfruitful or unproduct...

 'I have called upon thee; for thou wilt hear me, O God; incline thine ear unto me, and hear my speech' (Psalm17:6). When we pray to God, we expect an answer from him; but sometimes the answer we get is not what we were expecting or  at times it might seem like there is no answer. David prayed to God, trusted him and with expectation was confident that God would hear him. We too, when we pray, have to believe with all our hearts that God is listening and that he will hear us. As believers, we should be confident that we are more than conquerors through Christ (Romans 8:37). Like David we can confidently call upon the Lord our God for His grace and mercy and strength in the time of adversity. We are helpless without the Lord to fight our battles. We need Him and cannot do it alone. We do need the strength of our Saviour to help us through those difficulties. If you call upon the Lord, be confident that he will here you, because He who is faithful has promised. He will incline H...