thoughts & encouragements about life & faith
I recently had the opportunity to visit an area affected by extreme poverty and witnessed people living in homes that were unfit for human habitation because of their lack of security, facilities and susceptibility to bad weather and pests. It was heart breaking to see the effects of this, especially on young children.
Our enemy, the devil, likes to distract us and get us down by throwing up images and situations in our minds from the past. Things we have said, thought or done that, if we choose to allow it, will loop round and round in our thoughts like a GIF video on Twitter.
Whenever God spoke these words He was preparing the children of Israel for the promised land. They would face challenges and obstacles as they were walking towards the reality of the promises of God. They were no longer slaves but they had not yet fully realised their freedom.
In this verse the disciples showed a character trait that is common to us all. They needed to pay a tax and they did not have the money to do it. Interestingly Jesus does not excuse them or himself from the duty to do the right thing. Whenever you know the right thing that you need to do but it seems like it's hard then we may be tempted to take a short cut.
Sometimes whenever God asks us to do something it may seem like the last thing that you feel like doing. In this verse Jesus comes along to skilled fishermen, who have been working all through the night, and asks them to cast their nets again. At this point in the story all their skill and hard work had not brought about any fruit into their situation.
What can you thank God for today? Your family, your job, good health? We all have something to be grateful for. It can be big or small. By activating thankfulness for the small things – a good night’s sleep, a delicious cup of coffee, a smile from a child – we start to see God all around us.
My default response to hearing odd noises coming from my car engine is to turn up the radio! Eventually though I have to take it to a mechanic who knows what he’s doing. I recognise my inability to sort out the problem and take it to someone who can.
On January 28, 1986 the Space Shuttle Challenger tragically exploded 73 seconds after take-off. The cause? The failure of a small component that led to catastrophic damage throughout the aircraft. Little things really do matter!
Imagine a birthday party with no cake or a wedding reception where you were served with only bread and cheese. A good celebration always involves food! We make a special effort when we bring friends and family together.
have been watching TV series on Netflix as a means of relaxing recently - mostly shows that I have not seen before and they normally have 3-5 seasons. At each point when it seems like disaster is going to strike the main character I can feel the nerves kick in but then I remind myself that it all is going to be okay because I'm only on season 1 & the last 3 seasons of the show would be a waste of time if the main person pegged it too early. Then I relax!
Spend any time walking through a large town or busy city or working in a busy factory, school or office and you will notice one thing about people. The stresses and strains that they are carrying around with them have a common physical characteristic. An unhappy face.
All of the negative thoughts that people carry around show through in what you can see in front of you.
I recently undertook a first aid course which I had to attend because of a need in work. As part of the course, we were encouraged to always be aware of what is going on around us even outside of work as we do not know when someone will need our help in an emergency.
It made me stop and think.
We live in a noisy world.
Everyday we are bombarded by various forms of media and advertising as they jostle for our attention. We also face the competing demands of busy family and work lives and on top of this we can add our social lives and other commitments.
The fact is that when Jesus is the very centre and focus of your life that you have everything you will ever need to live an effective life for God.
You can make a difference. You can be a history maker. You can become the person God uniquely created you to be.
God wants to use and show you the amazing blessing that can come when you yield to Him, even after you feel that your best efforts have not produced anything. The truth is that when we have reached the end of our endurance, we haven’t even scratched the surface of what it’s possible for God to achieve through us when we obey Him.
This is the center of the gospel—this is what the Garden of Gethsemane and Good Friday are all about—that God has done astonishing and costly things to draw us near. He has sent his Son to suffer and to die so that through him we might draw near. It’s all so that we might draw near. And all of this is for our joy and for his glory.
Today is Maundy Thursday. The name comes from the Latin mandatum, the first word in the Latin rendering of John 13:34, “A new commandment (mandatum novum) I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another.” This commandment was given by Jesus on the Thursday before his crucifixion. So Maundy Thursday is the “Thursday of the Commandment.”
Jesus himself taught that all the prophecies about him would be fulfilled. In other words, we have a testimony, not only that the writers themselves saw Jesus’s life as fulfillment of prophecy, but that Jesus did, too.
How do you measure how much God loves you? This week we see that it was the love of Jesus that made Him willingly go to the cross. He was not under any compulsion but chose freely. So how do you measure that love?
One of the things that amazes me was that Jesus, who lived as a man like us, chose to die as an act of His will. Jesus was not accidentally entangled in a web of injustice. The saving benefits of his death for sinners were not an afterthought. God planned it all out of infinite love to sinners like us, and he appointed a time.
