thoughts & encouragements about life & faith
Have you ever had to deal with someone who has told you one thing to your face and done something else when they are not with you? It can be hard deal with. Doing what is right is one thing but doing what is right for the right reason is another. God is intensely interested how we are inside – outer appearances can be deceiving; even apparent good actions can come from bad intentions.
The phenomenal position in which we find ourselves – honoured by God, loved and accepted by Him, is nothing to do with how good we are. It’s the same for everyone; the powerful, the imprisoned, the rich and famous, the obscure and destitute, poets, artists, slaves and vagabonds, priests, prostitutes, diplomats and drug-dealers…everyone of us accepted not because of what we have done or who we are but because God is love and “He took our sin-dead lives and made us alive in Christ”.
This is a great truth to go into the weekend with. How do you break the things in your life that are a struggle? Sin? Secret habits? Attitudes? We all know what it is like to struggle and to feel like no matter how hard we try there is no lasting change.
This is one of my favourite verses in the whole of the bible because it lays out the most simple truth about the nature of our relationship with God. Today if you grasp what it says it will start a process of transformation in your life.
This is such a great thought to start your week & your day. The idea of mountains in this verse is an image of the challenges that we have to face in life. They can tower over us and dominate the landscape of our lives.
Have you ever tried to cut wood with a blunt axe? It’s hard work. You sweat and toil and blister your hands for very little progress. Life is much the same, we often struggle and work without making much progress. One effective way that God uses to help make us sharper and more effective are other people.
A number of years ago I was climbing a mountain in Africa and one day after having set up camp we went looking for water. The Alpine desert is a dry and lifeless place, scattered rocks, occasional small hardy plants, not much else. After a while we found a pool of green, stagnant water – I can still smell it! But beggars can’t be choosers and we proceeded to filter the water and add some purification tablets (we doubled the dose).
Paul had just delivered one of the greatest speeches in history. He had stood in Athens on Mars Hill, the philosophical and intellectual centre of the ancient world. He had spoken articulately and powerfully about creation, the nature of God and about Jesus but then he crossed a line. He spoke about the resurrection of Jesus from the dead – at this point many of the listeners lost interest, they sneered at what he was saying.
This has to be the strangest place from which anyone has ever prayed. Jonah was in the belly of a great fish, he had tried to avoid God and he had done his best to get away from the place where God wanted him to be. It doesn’t get much worse; thrown overboard, swallowed by a fish and now here he is somewhere in the depths of the sea…a hopeless situation?
Have you ever had to go somewhere for a meeting or social event and felt a bit uncomfortable or awkward? It can be difficult; you check how you look, put on your best face, smile and try to engage with people. Then there’s the old phone crutch – taking time to check your phone, reading intently, sending out the message that you are not really there alone and that you are just fine with the awkwardness of it all…we’ve all been there.
Now and again I like to take my old photo albums off the bookshelf and flick through them. Looking at those pictures brings back all sorts of memories – reminding me of the past and helping me to realise how much has changed.
At this time of year we see the bright yellow flower of the dandelion everywhere – from our gardens to the tiniest crack in the pavement. Gardeners hate them because no matter what you do they are impossible to eradicate completely – they’re true survivors!
Over the centuries fountains have been built all over the world, some, like the Trevi Fountain in Rome, becoming top tourist attractions. We are drawn to their beauty and the peace and tranquillity they bring to us as we watch them.
The olive tree is an amazing plant. It can live for hundreds of years and continue to produce a harvest long after other crops have had to be replaced. No wonder David chose this plant as an example to be emulated.
This verse is part of a conversation that Moses was having with God. In essence he was saying to God that He did not want to do anything unless God was in it. Unless Moses and the people were doing everything with God's presence leading them & surrounding them then he did not want to do anything. Why? What would set them apart from every other person in the world would be that it was clear that God was with them - it made them distinct.
I am not really a morning person. I am fine when I get up but that can be a struggle! What I find is that the time when I immediately open my eyes my head starts to process everything that I have in front of me that day or any situation that many be going on. If I am not careful I can sometimes feel defeated before I am up on my feet!
One of the fantastic truths that I discovered about the work of Jesus & His grace working in my life was that the years of struggle & worry did not have to continue any more. If i chose it, I could live a life of faith and trust that meant that even though I still face challenges I can choose to allow the grace of God to "work well" in my life.
We have been looking in Exchange in our current series - Stronger - How to stand in the grace of God - at how we keep ourselves walking in the purpose of God.
The first tool that God gives us is the ability to declare that His "Grace works well" over every area and situation in our lives. That is what happens when we give thanks. The Bible tells us that when we will give thanks to God even when everything in looks like it is going against us then we sanctify - or set apart - that situation and turn it around so that it works for us and not against us.
Despite the best efforts of mankind to exalt themselves even to the point of countries being called ‘Super Powers’, any authority which they do possess is only given to them by God and they are all ultimately accountable to Him for how they use this authority.
The world in which we live is very good at telling us the cost of everything. Everything may have its price but everything is not necessarily valued as it should.
