The Good Samaritan - A Tangible Experience!

I love scripture.  
I truly do.

One evening in 2005 I opened the Holy Bible and God, then and there, convicted me of my sin and made me aware of my desperate need for Him; for this I can never be grateful enough. I know I could never offer enough of myself in response to His awesome goodness; not that I need to, I just want to. I fell in love with scripture then and there, even if it at times is personally challenging, for I know the entire 66 books are an epic love story between our good creator and us, mankind.

It breaks my heart so many today are listening to the enemy’s lies; disregarding sound exegesis in an attempt to please the masses and/or to make themselves more comfortable. For one is much more comfortable when they do not strive for holiness and in turn have no-one against them. Yes, one is comfortable when the world is their friend. Yet we know to be friends with the world is to be God’s enemy…how do we know this (if we even do)? By knowing scripture because we value it.

Furthermore it breaks my heart when I see Christian people not knowing scripture for themselves. I know this because I see people not living it and from their lack of fruit. Many seem content to listen to culturally relevant sermons rather than personal bible study. Many listen to the latest opinion that scripture isn’t consistent or relevant because this is easier than prayer and digging deep for themselves. Excuses are made of being time poor or a person who doesn’t like routine…

Yet again we know we are to ‘test’ all that we are taught, for there are many false prophets and teachers. How do I know this? Because scripture states it – and not just once! So I ask you how do you weigh what you hear, yes even in church, when you don’t know scripture for yourself or you don’t adhere to scripture having supreme authority as the infallible Word of God?

I love scripture. I truly do, as it is still to this very day so, so, so relevant, for people don’t change.

Let me give you a very real example of the parable of The Good Samaritan. You can read it here.

Most of us know this as the story Jesus told when he was challenged with a question of ‘who is my neighbour’…It starts when a lawyer of all people asks one of those questions…you know a question a ‘learned’ person asks someone to try and outsmart them!

The lawyer asks Jesus, ‘What must I do to inherit eternal life?’ Jesus responds by asking the lawyer what the law says, to which he responds, ‘to love God and his neighbour’. But once again the lawyer is someone, like many today, who look for loopholes and he then asks Jesus, ‘who is my neighbour?’

Jesus then puts the lawyer right in the meat of the sandwich, so to speak, along with all the others there who think they’re living a ‘good life’…He tells them about an injured Israelite (one of their own) who was amazingly cared for by his enemy, a Samaritan, when all of the injured man’s fellow Israelites ignored him, leaving him to die – and finishes again with another question of, ‘who was the Israelite’s neighbour?’.

Most of us today when we hear this story (if any of us still do, for we’re no longer in Sunday school), cheer for Jesus putting the ‘learned’ ones in a place of considering their own hearts for their fellow mankind. Yet here in Australia I want to ask, are we prepared to put ourselves into the story, or is it easier for us to make exceptions to the rule Jesus gives of loving ALL people?

I recently had the honour of meeting a man named Rohullah who is a refugee here in Australia seeking asylum. He is an Afghanistan of the Muslim religion. He is currently riding 2,000 kilometres on his bicycle around Victoria and through New South Wales to a final destination in Canberra. The ride is to raise awareness and collect signatures to present a petition to our Australian Government. The petition is basically for the Australian government to recognise the human rights of refugees; to stop holding children in detention, and to stop refugees being sent overseas.

Rohullah and his support companion arrived in my church’s town, tired and weary, and we were able to offer food, support and accommodation…To live out the principle Jesus taught in the parable of The Good Samaritan – What an amazing blessing and opportunity to show God’s grace and love!

Rohullah spoke in our church service of his interaction with Australians who have refused to speak to him once they learnt he was from Afghanistan and Muslim. He spoke of instant fear due to Afghanistan being home to the Taliban and Muslim terrorists.

Is welcoming a Muslim man into a Christian church something everyone present today would be comfortable with? I don’t know, but I do know that our awesome God does not give us a spirit of fear, but of power and love and self-control! After meeting Rohullah, the parable of The Good Samaritan came to mind and I felt so wonderfully blessed to have had a tangible experience of once again scripture coming to life in my own life. My sons and I shared a meal with Rohullah and his support driver and heard first-hand the account of an amazing human fight for survival; a story of family, love, friendships, murder, threats, extortion, organised crime, jail escapes, starvation …All from a man with eyes coloured just like mine. It was an evening I'm sure we'll never forget!

Do you know the parable of The Good Samaritan?

Do you know what scripture teaches?

I urge you today to know it and live it…Don’t compromise! Connect with God and His Word, letting it become a tangible experience. I promise you’ll never feel more alive.

Melanie.

If you would like to follow Rohullah, you can 'like' his Facebook page 'Riding for Refugees'. Click here for 'Riding for Refugees' Facebook Community.

An open letter to church-going Christians in Australia from an Ordinary Gen Xer:

Dear Aussie Church-goers,

I think it's safe to say I am in a minority group of church-going Christian Australians today as a Gen Xer. This letter is not intended to be the only opinion or voice from my generation on current 'church' rather simply a letter for you to consider.

It seems to me, many church people here in Australia have forgotten about my generation and are focusing on rebuilding the church through Millennials and therefore are relying on the church-going Baby-Boomers and older to mentor Millennials, or worse still, Millennials to mentor each other through their own peer groups.

I’ve read A LOT about pastors and churches adapting, in a strategic effort to provide a ‘relevant’ church for Millennials. There is much to read on this topic both online and in published literature. I’m sure if you’re well-read you’ll know what I mean; skinny legged pants and Hillsong music verses traditional worship, or experience verses absolutes. 

I have found there is not much around to read on the churches meeting the needs of Gen Xers in comparison to the Millennials. What I have read predominately has been generic ‘church relevance’ and basically of the importance of intergenerational family worship with children being included during the service. While I agree this is a fantastic and inspired message I am sad to say is it’s not happening enough. What I do see so much of is routine…service and programs…service and programs...service and programs…service and programs.

Why are the intergenerational worship services and the real Christian communities doing life together so few and far between? I acknowledge they’re out there but I think the majority of churches across denominations are still simply services and programs…services and programs…

I’m sorry, but this just doesn’t cut it for me and I honestly think I can say this on behalf of MANY Australian Gen Xers, even if they couldn’t be bothered articulating it, or thinking about why church is so lacking for us.  It may help you to think of us Gen Xers as the ‘Middle Child’…You know the one who feels overlooked, forgotten, and who feels the reality of being the ‘thinking’ middle child. But before you feel like disregarding us and labelling us as the complaining, all-too-hard-to-please generation, hear me out…You see we were taught to think and feel, to challenge the status quo, and it would be good if you older people practiced what you taught us to do, by really engaging with us.

From a Gen Xer still in church today, it can feel like most church-going Christian Australians have given up on my generation. I think many Baby-Boomers may feel at a loss with us, as their own children have not taken up the faith, resulting in a resignation to defeat. I see Baby-Boomers who have resigned to taking their grandchildren to church services rather than continuing to try and reach their own children. Sadly a response like, “Oh well they’re adults now what can I do?” can prevail. Not that taking the grandchildren to church is wrong. It’s a good idea but it should be done with the right mindset of reaching the WHOLE FAMILY not just the kids. Whole families need saving for our faith to be passed most effectively.

But let me encourage you with two truths. First scripture, ‘…The prayer of the righteous is powerful and effective.’ James 5:16b and ‘faith without works is dead’ James 2:14. Secondly, the fact that we ‘middle children’ are not so removed we’re only one generation away from Baby-Boomers or Millennials and therefore we share characteristics with each group...We aren’t really so difficult to understand!  

The Church MUST pray for Gen Xers and work with expectant faith for them to return to the Church community.

With the above said, I hope I can write this letter to help the Church here in Australia better understand my generation. I want to make it clear I am not writing an academic paper, simply a letter from my experience as a church-going Ordinary Aussie Gen Xer which I hope can create some honest reflection and discussion. Here are my thoughts for your consideration:

• We mostly have been well educated and taught the discipline of critical thinking. This can result in sermons not being ‘meaty’ enough (don’t get me wrong we like a good hook, just like a witty joke, but we want real exegesis of scripture…MAKE US THINK MORE…we get tired of spiritual milk for infants…make us WANT to go home and get our Bibles out please! Make scripture relevant as it truly still is. Stop giving sermons where you say what you want, and then add a scripture to support it – I can read blogs for that! We want meat we can pass onto our children. We like apologetics. We appreciate sermons relating to current events as we don’t want to have our faith so far removed from our lives that Christianity has no place in current events and conversations. The idea that politics, religion and the like, are not polite conversation is not for us. Give us sermons from scripture and then weave into that a pertinent current issue.

• We’ve been raised with the foundation of the equality of both sexes and the beauty in diversity. We’ve grown up with the value of both sexes being given equal opportunity for education and jobs. I personally appreciate masculinity and its’ strengths while enjoying being feminine. I find beauty in both tradition and modern rawness. I express myself in the security of being a woman highly valued by my Heavenly Father, so when someone tries to assert authority over me or intellectual superiority because of their age and/or gender I will not respect them. I will see this as a desperate attempt to ‘pull-weight’ based on no foundation other than control. If you want a Gen Xer’s respect treat them as a diverse peer, period.

• We are similar to Millennials in that we respond to authenticity however we go one step further because when we sniff-out hypocrisy, we don’t usually accept it just being ‘their-way’. We’ll wait a while, quietly observing for change and if it doesn’t come we’ll walk. We don’t accept ‘crap’ for long, or continue with church due to modern music; we can listen to that in our car! Don’t preach to us of Christian love and family and never invite us over for a meal and/or ignore our text messages. There are plenty of other social clubs for basic interaction. Don’t tell us to live our faith passionately then not support us in our outreach efforts or church ideas when they’re not your own. We don’t buy the notion of people being ‘too busy’ – We want leaders who don’t just ‘do their job’ and a Christian family who just doesn't ‘do church’ we want PASSION! We’d rather talk to the little old lady at the back who is always present; who looks us in the eyes when we speak; who doesn’t rush us off and who doesn’t look around to see who is noticing her; for we know she’s legit. But when hypocrisy comes from the leadership, no, we won’t stay. We’d honestly rather hang out in environments not good for us, with people who give us the time of day and want to chat irrespective of age difference, for who wants to be lonely?

• Stop ‘Baby-sitting’ our kids with programs and impart solid biblical doctrine and your passionate Christian faith to our children. Yes, it’s our job to impart our own faith to our kids (Gen Xers are not lazy, stop thinking we are, we’re actually jaded) but we want our kids to hear it FROM OTHER PEOPLE NOT JUST US! We can take our kids to the playground any day…STOP telling our kids they can do ANYTHING…Tell them the truth about life about how they can receive eternal salvation and find purpose for their life through Jesus Christ!!!

• Leaders have moral standards and live them out transparently. Gen Xers have current world-wide events in their newsfeeds daily. We hear when church leaders fail morally with their own families. We hear of Christians fighting and when scripture is disregarded. We are suspicious people and trust must be earnt. Family is of such a high priority I believe many Aussie Gen Xers don’t want to even try church because of past paedophilia. You may think being oh so relaxed and easy going is a great thing but church discipline is now basically unheard of. I ask you to consider how that may make me as a parent feel? Do I believe you’ll fight for me and my children if there was an injustice when I don’t hear you apologise, and when you are so quiet on issues to not offend?

• Disciple us as friends. I know this point is going to ruffle some feathers because it will make many feel uncomfortable, going against what we’re taught in Australian theological colleges (yes, I have the degree to say this). Boundaries are sensible but the local church has taken them to the extreme, in my opinion. Jesus spent 3 years with His disciples and then called them His friends (read John, esp. chapter 15). Friends can be trusted and delegated responsibilities. Gen Xers want real relationships to be the fruit of their free-time activities. I know what it’s like to be in local churches and to never receive a phone call from one person; no personal invitations to personal gatherings that aren’t church related, like birthday parties; to receive no real discipleship to mature in my faith or mentoring, to have to pursue this solely on my own; to be treated like a number, a rear-end on a seat filling a building for a couple of hours a week; to move house and have not one person offer to help; to move to a new town and have no welcome for me or my family from the local church when they knew we were there; to be gossiped about...yes it eventually gets back to the person!                                                                                                    

I also know what it is like to have great friendships with non-church going people in comparison to church acquaintances where I’ve had to make the majority of the effort. I know what it’s like to be cut off from relationships with Christian people when I no longer met needs of theirs. Then in comparison what it’s like to have healthy relationships with non-church going people! I know what it’s like to wait at a church gathering to talk to someone and have no-one want to engage and I also know others have experienced the same for they’ve told me so. THIS SHOULD NOT BE SO.                                                                                                                                        

Yet I must say I also have experienced some wonderful church relationships where I have been supported, grown and respected as a friend. I recently experienced an amazing welcome when visiting a church from some genuine older faithful people. Yet sadly today this seems to be far too often the exception. As a Gen Xer I don’t want to go to church to meet someone else’s need of having rear-ends on seats, so they can deliver THEIR service to more than one person and receive their pay check. Since when has church only been about meeting the needs of the pastor or giving an unspoken message of conform because we’re right or move on? Where is the diversity in worship styles being embraced? I want to do life and ministry alongside people I know don’t just say they love me…

• Baby-Boomers live your faith through relationship not by religion. ‘Show us’ your faith by sharing with us your stories of relationship over coffee, rather than burdening us with your opinions like… ‘You really should go to church and take the kids!’ Why would Gen Xers, when it means nothing to them? Show us holiness and the love for Jesus lived out in humility. We’ve been provided with first rate extra-curricular activities growing up mostly, so we know what socialising is all about. We don’t need religious activities to add to our family’s calendar, really we’re busy enough. We need to seek an encounter with the LIVING GOD ourselves! We’re interested in the super-natural so tell us about your experiences. Give us a taste of Jesus to make us hunger ourselves. If you don’t have these stories maybe you need to seek Him over religion. Don’t treat us any longer as your kids…we’re not…Gen Xers are all grown up and the majority is lost. Outreach to my generation with the truth about life PLEASE!

• Come alongside Gen Xers with your authentic faith and be prepared to back it up with action. Pray for us Gen Xers in your life (James 5:16b) and then back it up with true, inconvenient outreach (James 2:14). Stop expecting us to chase you. Yes, us Gen Xers may be the annoying, opinionated ‘middle-child’ for you Baby-Boomers and Millennials but you know what, get over yourselves and love us authentically anyway and quickly, even if we don’t meet any of your personal needs, because the church is not a true family gathering when it misses a generation…even if it is more comfortable like the Christmas dinner where no-one is inconvenienced because the ‘difficult one’ is spending it alone, or drinking the day away with their peers!  Stop saying all the right things; start doing them to everyone not just your favourites and don’t stop; then you’ll have Gen Xers on board like you wouldn’t believe and will have the older to come alongside the younger as it should be.

Your Christian sister, Melanie.

If you'd like to contact me regarding this letter my public email is echucamel@gmail.com

I Belong To You: The Gift of Repentance

I want to share this original song of mine with you.

Not because it’s fantastic quality or recording, rather simply for the message.

I wrote this song from my heart, some months ago, one night when The Lord convicted me once again of my need to repent. “Repent” is a word that sometimes scares us…I know there have been many times when I have felt like a scared child when conviction has come upon me. Yet I know from experience that when I get down upon my knees and sincerely ask for forgiveness and strength from my heavenly Father, He answers. We talk via prayer and scripture until there is understanding and peace floods me.

“Repent” simply means sincerely desiring to do a180deg turn away from the sin, to turn and have one’s face toward God. And what a truly, blessed gift repentance is. The enemy would love to have us stuck in our sin – our head full of condemnation – but there is peace available to all through Jesus Christ...for those who love Him or want to love Him.

I’ve heard it said many a time that God’s love is unconditional, yet I know it is even more than unconditional – for His love is truly transformational! His love does not leave one dead in their sin – it transforms lives – I know this because I have experienced it.

Sanctification is a process or journey to become more and more like Christ. Sometimes we don’t hear it spoke of much in modern circles. But it is God’s heart for His children. And this process requires a ‘stripping back’.

I wrote; “Strip me bear, to rebuild anew. When there’s less of me you’ll shine through…” For I know it’s what I need even if it’s not what my flesh wants…

I think these lyrics are in fine company of Keith Green who sang; “I want to take Your Word and shine it all around, but first help me, just to live it Lord…”

And Casting Crowns; “I want to be your hands and feet, I want live a life that leads, To see you set the captives free, Until the whole world hears. And I pray that they will see, More of you and less of me, Lord, I want my life to be The song You sing…”

What a loving Father we have, to not leave us filthy in our sin, rather to have made the way Himself for us to be in restored relationship with Him for eternity. To not have taken the easy way…to have not given us free will, so that we could never sin…rather to have known we’d stuff up the great gift of being made in His image and still give it, while knowing He’d have to suffer and make the atonement Himself – dying our rightly deserved death upon the cross…So that all we would need to do is call upon Him in the Name of Jesus and repent and love Jesus.

Our Christian pilgrimage is not an easy one, as with our loving Father we daily fight our flesh.

To die to our flesh, again is not always a message heard today for it can offend many but is a very real part of a true Christian life and sanctification. Sometimes we enter a season of trials and even hardships which strip us back, to a place of where we find afresh that God ALONE is the only way for peace and rebuilding – a place where God ALONE is all we need…of dying again to our flesh and choosing eternity over the temporary…

Our flesh wants us to be far from God and an intimate relationship with the One who is Holy, perfect, sinless, pure, radiant…Our flesh loves sin and would prefer us to stay in the dark so that we can continue to sin, away (in our own mind) from His loving gaze. To come into the light of His perfect presence requires a rejection of our flesh and the sin which tries to cling so close…

Our flesh wants us to take offence and flight and bicker…rather than being gracious and taking the higher road.

Our flesh wants us to be aggressive and abusive to our children…rather than being patient and firm.

Our flesh wants us to be unfaithful to our partner…rather than leaving an example of true commitment and loyalty.

Our flesh wants us to lust after the flesh of others and self-satisfy our sexual desires…rather than having our sexual needs met by our husband or wife in marriage.

Our flesh wants us to meet our problems with pigging-out on unhealthy food...rather than taking our problems to The Lord and asking Him to meet our needs so that we can better care for our bodies.

Our flesh wants us to feel good about ourselves at the cost of the degradation of others…rather than helping others and not participating in gossip.

Our flesh wants us to seek our own revenge…rather than forgiving and praying to God to bless the offender.

Our flesh wants us to never be satisfied with what we have, keeping us mastered by debt…rather than us managing our own lives wisely.

Our flesh wants us to be lazy and therefore mastered by the opinion of the mob…rather than seeking the truth.

Our flesh wants us to believe all our success is due to our own self-importance and therefore mock others…rather than living in joyful humility and respectfully toward others.

Our flesh wants us to be top-dog and therefore not associate often with others who may stretch us…rather than having healthy, mature friends who can speak the truth to us in love.

Our flesh wants us to be anxious and believe our security is in our assets…rather than being free to let go and follow wherever Jesus may lead.

I know refining can be challenging but we really can trust Him who loves us so much that He refines us for His good purpose, of making us more like Christ for His Kingdom work. It can be scary to come to a place of fully grasping and willingly accepting refining, or stripping back but afterward we will bear much more fruit for Him.

So this is the heart of this song I wrote, ‘I Belong To You’.

I was in a place of again needing to repent and let go of sin that had crept into my life…I needed to again surrender all of my will to His and accept the stripping back so that there would be less of my flesh and more of His nature...to continue having my heart surgically rebuilt, enabling me to pump out His life giving blood to others so to speak.

Repentance is such a wonderful gift from our truly loving saviour who desires to have an intimate relationship with us for all eternity which starts from the moment we believe.

Scripture says if we say we are without sin we lie but if we confess our sin He is faithful to forgive us. Grace is not a licence to sin – never has been, but don’t let sin stagnate and get between you and Him, confess it and receive His peace.  

Jesus’ invitation for relationship is one to become a part of His family – it is a relationship of friendship, connection, deep peace and joy, rejuvenation, transformation and growth.

I know this is a long post but it the essence of my experience of His grace and goodness and my heart…I feel I could write and write for He is just so immense. But I will stop now and leave you with this song I wrote. If you need prayer please email me at echucamel@gmail.com

Melanie.

Love Them Anyway...

There is a poem that is said to have been found written on the wall of Mother Teresa’s home for children in Calcutta, India. You can read it in full here.

The poem talks about people often being unreasonable, irrational, self-centred, unfaithful, accusing, dishonest, jealous, quick to forget and so on…The magic of the poem is the beautiful contrasting attributes for one to live by regardless of others, because as it asserts, life is not about oneself compared to others, for we have a higher accountability.

Living differently can carry a cost of simply not fitting into the regular life-sized box…but that’s okay.

I love this poem as I feel it parallels how I want to live my life these days.

Now nearing the age of 40 I find myself wanting to leave behind the immature games people play in their relationships with others.

Yes, I must be honest and admit that I am not perfect and can get sucked into uneasy situations if I am not careful…But the more I let go of the mentality of trying to please everyone and trying to second guess others and replace it more and more with just “loving them anyway” the more free I find myself.

I am not saying I am being unwise, allowing myself to cop abuse off people continually…What I am saying is that I can simply ‘love’ people by treating others the way I would like to be treated. I know it’s not rocket science and is what Jesus said for us to do…but it can be easier said than done!

For me treating others the way I want to be treated is lived out by placing my confidence in Jesus and choosing to not take offense as often as possible. I choose to be my happy self, regardless of others and people can accept me or not. I will interact with people I encounter with sincere integrity; but choose my close friends wisely and set boundaries with others for the protection of us both and not feel guilty about it. I am choosing to be me consistently and refusing to play immature games…even if it would win me more friends!

Living differently can carry a cost of simply not fitting into the regular life-sized box…but again that’s okay.

The wonderful thing is I am finding the more I choose to just love people I interact with, as simply me, the more Jesus can be freely present too.

I have discovered I am able to set the tone for many of my encounters these days and of how freeing it is to not worry about what everyone thinks, or of feeling responsible for their sometimes bad choices.

My 20^th year school graduation anniversary dinner is approaching soon and I found myself thinking, “Do I really want to go and have to endure some of those looks?” The schoolgirl mentality was creeping back…

But then I remembered the freeing truth of being mature and of just ‘loving them anyway…’ because the poem is right at the end of the day I am accountable to Him who desires us to abundantly love others as He so graciously does.

There is no freedom being bound by the limiting restrictions of worrying about what everyone else thinks about us ~ There is freedom in living our life for Christ who never puts us down ~ There is freedom in loving others because we experienced His love first…I am free to become all that He has planned for me, and so I choose to continue embracing Him with all that I am each day, as I await His return.

Living differently can carry a cost of simply not fitting into the regular life-sized box…but again that’s okay…for I have found the truth that my worth is defined by Christ alone…it is His opinion alone that matters! What a precious truth to discover even if it does have a cost at times of simply being different.

So my encouragement to you today is to simply join me in bursting out of the life-sized box by “loving them anyway”, Melanie.

Too Good To Be True:

Have you ever thought something like; “All that Christianity stuff is just too good to be true.”

Or, “Christians just love their religion and are brainwashed.”

Or, “Well it may be true for them but I am a realist.”

Or, “My life just sux and that’s how it shall remain until I die.”

Or, “They’re just too happy not to be on something!”

I am serious with this question, as I believe many of us can believe the whole Christianity story is just, Too Good To Be True…

I mean especially when we look around and see the destruction that takes place. We grieve. I hear people say, “Where is this god they speak of? Those Christians are loonies…there is no god!”

I have been thinking about this today and I must say that my own personal thinking led me to a place where I actually had to have a look at my own personal faith…just stay with me, and I’ll elaborate on that soon.

Firstly, the Gospel…now Gospel literally means “Good News” in English.

This Good News, that God became a human being, to die our death we rightly deserve for our sins, so that we could by-pass death for eternity upon acknowledging our condition and need for Him through Jesus Christ…Passing from death to life by a spiritual rebirth by the Holy Spirit entering us…The perfect immortal One entering our mortal bodies, so that we will rise to a new body and earth at the appointed time when Jesus returns to deal with sin and His enemies once and for all...for He grieves too.

Yes, this is Good News! To become a child of the living God to be transformed by His power…to move from the kingdom of darkness to light…to be given new eyes to SEE the truth about life and a new heart that desires to be faithful to God rather than rebellious. Yes, this is Good News!

Yet until we come to the place of total surrender and letting go of having ourselves as god, we will think this Good News is Too Good To Be True…for that is just what the enemy wants us to believe.

I know this as truth because this is once how I was, and I have experienced it...I wasn't always the person many of you know today who loves Jesus.

I know it is not Too Good To Be True because I have experienced it and joined the group of people who know the JOY only God can give.

I know what it means to have a BELIEVING FAITH…to believe in Jesus with every cell of me…

Yet when I was thinking about faith today and the idea of Christianity being Too Good To Be True, I was personally challenged with the thought that came into my mind of God still being possibly Too Good To Be True, for me personally, in relation to Him meeting all my needs.

The idea hit me all at once and I was a bit taken back…But my mind went to Peter stepping out onto the water because Jesus was standing upon it, only to fall because he did not believe it was possible for him and Jesus speaking later of having faith and not doubting.

So I began to think, “Well I believe in Jesus with all that I am…but to be honest sometimes I still have negative thoughts about myself and then limit in my mind what He will do for me…there are some times when I haven't had a faith that ALL THINGS ARE POSSIBLE with Him for me to prosper for His Kingdom and Glory…” You see sometimes a thought comes to mind that God meeting every need is still for only some people...you know, all the glamorous, picture perfect ones! How ludicrous, I know...yet I must be honest... 

Please let me assure you that I am not proclaiming here a prosperity gospel or speaking of anything monetary – I am simply speaking of ALL my real needs being met, for me to live a faithful life doing what He’s called me to do joyfully.

I had to contemplate how much of the negativity from the world and enemy had remained in me or snuck back in – I didn’t think the Gospel message that Jesus was my saviour was Too Good To Be True…but I had started to think during difficult times that perhaps life in all its fullest, for me personally was Too Good To Be True.

But I am so grateful I have experienced the Goodness and Transforming Power of God through Jesus Christ, that I know my God is not Too Good To Be True in ANYWAY…So I WILL continue to step out onto the water, casting off any negative thoughts of unworthiness or impossibilities.

I pray you too, will come to know the One True God who made Himself known to us as Jesus Christ…Not settling for the status quo, or listening to the enemy's lies, rather experiencing the One who is Oh So Good & Oh So True!

If you need prayer please feel free to email me at echucamel@gmail.com

In His love and goodness, Melanie.