Tag: Mark Saunders

Ambassadors to represent a glimmer of the Lord’s heart… Jesus left us a message, the Holy Spirit, His spiritual and ministry giftings and a commission as His followers.

The message of the cross can’t be learned like memory verses. It permeates our lives, marinating us so to speak… giving us a flavor that is different to the world.

It’s that message we need to allow access to… to hear it, to accept it, to live it… by His grace.

It’s a message that is no respecter of persons. It levels evenly… to become a firm foundation for us.

This message doesn’t tickle ears, it saves souls. It’s the means by which we have the opportunity to live out our salvation – with increasing respect for the dealings of God in our lives.

This message “peels away the man of the flesh” to leave a tender heart – one that can reflect for others something different to the what the world offers … the love of God.

• Mark Saunders

The value of people… Jesus, the express image of God, when He walked in person among men… the impression we’re left with from the gospels is that He “saw people.”

Immanuel, God with us, saw into hearts.

He saw through sin, past it… seeing the value of the sinner… wanting restoration above condemnation.

Each life is precious to the Lord. We can never as followers of Jesus “write someone off.”

Our great challenge is not to be powerful preachers, miracle working prophets, or learned Bible scholars… it’s to carry the same heart for people as Jesus does… or at least the smallest glimmer of it.

…It’s not to build ministries… it’s to have the heart of the Lord for people… who meets us where we’re at… broken… he doesn’t leave us there but invites us to leave our “state” behind and follow Him… follow Him on a journey of restoration.

Ours is to be ambassadors of that heart, pointing others… when we can… to the same hope we’ve found.

Each life is precious.

• Mark Saunders

There have been days last week when I was in turmoil… very uneasy inside… “just rest in the Lord” is what cliche Christianity says… but that lack of peace was from the Lord.

Peace can be removed to make us pray, to act, to do something, not to “rest.”

I’ve seen the hand of the Lord directing things beyond my ability and control. I seen “unction” churning in me to take action – vital steps.

This last week I’ve seen that razor thin line separating literally life and death..

We can’t live our Christian lives by Bible verses we make into cliches… they don’t cut it.

A sovereign God can act over and above us and at the same time remove our peace and prompt us ourselves to take important steps.

Our Christian walk with our loving God is real and “raw.” Salt stings, but it also heals and preserves.

• Mark Saunders

Ultimately everything is in the Lord’s hands and He has the final say, but that doesn’t mean we just do nothing.

Generally speaking, we reap what we sow as a natural result.

Spiritually it’s the same.

We can easily confuse diligence with works or law. But they are not the same.

Our levels of diligence and levels of priorities are directly related… we’re diligent with what we perceive as important.

Apostle Peter encourages to be diligent with our spiritual lives, meaning to “make effort, be prompt or earnest”

Perhaps the opposite of being diligent would be being lazy or complacent.

It all comes down to our attitude… our spiritual maturity and our attitudes are linked.

• Mark Saunders

I’m noticing a lot of our Christian thinking can just be cliches… a language we talk… making inappropriate “spiritual principles.”

The Christ walk is not a recipe book.

We need to be led by the Spirit.

The Holy Spirit is often very practical. Promptings… “gut feel”…” this way… walk this way.” Very real things.

It’s not hard to “hear” but it takes conviction to carry out.

The Holy Spirit isn’t religious and our Christian walk is not principles. He’s our teacher… revealing the deep things of God yes, but of a God who’s concerned with our lives… so guiding us in practical ways too.

• Mark Saunders