Empowered. Called.

“I am ready to burn out for God.  I am ready to endure any hardship, if by any means I might save some.  The longing of my heart is to make known my glorious Redeemer to those who have never heard.” William Burns

what will you give?

what will you do?

God has called each one of us to be ambassadors and witnesses – to shine His light into the world so that people will see God in the darkness.  it is God who saves and draws people to Himself but He demonstrates His love and grace and lives out salvation in us.

God has qualified and empowered each one of us to do this momentous task.  It should be done every day in every converstation in every opportunity.  Its not something we turn off or turn on.  We ARE witnesses.  We ARE the light of the world, unhidden and shinning bright.

we may feel insignificant and unqualified – but remember – We are like clay jars in which this treasure is stored. The real power comes from God and not from us. 2 Corinthians 4:7 – the real power comes from God – we are the vessel and God is the light that shines – we are the life that expresses the power of God and message of God – as we humble ourselves and draw near to God and pray THEN we are usable.  God delights to use His children to reach the lost.  As we step out in faith His power enables us and gives us the right words.

Be used.  Make the choice.  Be close and in love with God, know Him and make Him known!

“Missions is the overflow of our delight in God because missions is the overflow of God’s delight in being God.” John Piper

“If sinners be damned, at least let them leap to hell over our bodies.  And if they perish, let them perish with our arms about their knees, imploring them to stay.  If hell must be filled, at least let it be filled in the teeth of our exertions, and let not one go there unwarned and unprayed for.” Charles H. Spurgeon

More than a Post-It-Note Reminder

I remember to think about

the many things

you did

in years gone by.

Then I lift my hands in prayer,

because my soul is a desert,

thirsty for water from you.

psalm 143:5-6

- REMEMBER – david often tells himself to REMEMBER God and His ways and His works.  its more than just a post it note to remind ourselves but it is a remembering that stirrs up faith, that recalls who God is and the great things He does and has done.  Remembering is encouraging ourselves – to rewrite the whiteboard of our mind and heart with  the knowledge of who God is and all He can do.   when we forget God our faith becomes dull and we doubt and forget and become burdened by fears and worries – forgetting to fix our eyes upon God and trusting Him.

- Remember – THEN – faith leads us to pray and worship and surrender and to have more faith and trust.  when we have faith we are more ready to pray because we trust God to move and are expectant of His intervention.

- only God can satisfy a thirsty sou.

- in the barrenness and wilderness and desert of hard times, when life is pressing in on all sides, and we are tired and worn out in our heart – THIS is the time to remind ourselves of who God is and that He is the one who gives us rest and hope and who satisfies us and has all the answers.  the answer may be to wait and to be transformed and to have hope even in the desert, but we can be assured that God is with us at all times and in all places and that He will bring the breakthrough.

You are my God. Show me what you want me to do, and let your gentle Spirit lead me in the right path.  Psalm 143:10

Crawling in the Wilderness

 

“Lord I crawled across the barrenness to you with my empty cup uncertain in asking any small drop of refreshment. If only I had known you better I’d have come running with a bucket.” – Nancy Spiegelberg

 

what a powerful quote… what truth contained…

 

firstly lets start at the end…  it also reminds us how lavish the love and grace of God is…. if i had known you better, i would have come running with a bucket… expect great things from God, His love is lavish and in Him we find rest and hope and grace and healing and restoration….

 

last night i read hosea 2.  awesome chapter.  powerful chapter.  a chapter that makes you take a breath.  i encourage you to read it.  i have included it down the bottom of this post in the CEV version and will be quoting i am sure )

 

we read in hosea 2 about an unfaithful wife, a picture of Israel and Judah’s unfaithfulness to God.  we can also look and see our own lives in there.  there are times when we are unfaithful and we turn to our modern day idols, we make the choice to sin and rebel against God.

what was God’s response to Israel’s unfaithfulness?

I, the LORD, will build

a fence of thorns

to block her path.

I will make her barren

like a desert,

and she will die of thirst.

I’ll take back

my wool and my linen

that cover her body.

¹⁰Then I’ll strip her naked

in the sight of her lovers.

 

 

this is not an act of simple punishment but a removal of those things that she relied on and sought comfort in.

 

Israel, I, the LORD,

will lure you into the desert

and speak gently to you.

 

God is more interested in our faithfulness to Him than our happiness and our comfort.  the call is to walk holy not happy.  God refines and transforms and changes us and the process is often the fire of trial and testing.

but  oh what beauty there is to know that God will not abandon us to our unfaithfulness and rebellion.  that he lures us into the wilderness so we can return to him.

 

Yet I hold this against you: You have forsaken your first love. ⁵Remember the height from which you have fallen! Repent and do the things you did at first. Revelation 2:4-5

 

let us be first love people.  people who embrace the work of God in our lives, who are spoken gently too and who hear the voice of our Lord drawing us to himself.  let us be people who abide in Christ who find our hope and rest and satisfaction in him and his love.

 

 

 

4 Things

“There are four principles we need to maintain:

First, read the Word of God.

Second, consume the Word of God until it consumes you.

Third believe the Word of God.

Fourth, act on the Word.”

Smith Wigglesworth

Changing Destiny

only God can change a destiny.  only God can change the direction of a life and the nature of our hearts.

Later, Gomer had a daughter, and the LORD said, ” Name her Lo-Ruhamah, because I will no longer have mercy and forgive Israel. ⁷But I am the LORD God of Judah, and I will have mercy and save Judah by my own power–not by wars and arrows or swords and cavalry.” ⁸After Gomer had stopped nursing Lo-Ruhamah, she had another son. ⁹Then the LORD said, ” Name him Lo-Ammi, because these people are not mine, and I am not their God.”

Hope for Israel

¹⁰Someday it will be impossible to count the people of Israel, because there will be as many of them as there are grains of sand along the seashore. They are now called ” Not My People,” but in the future they will be called ” Children of the Living God.” ¹¹Israel and Judah will unite and choose one leader. Then they will take back their land, and this will be a great day for Jezreel.  Hosea 1:6-11

¹So let your brothers be called ” My People” and your sisters be called ” Shown Mercy.” Hosea 2:1

note:

Lo-Ruhamah = show no mercy

CHANGED to Shown Mercy

Lo-Ammi = not my people

CHANGED to My People

God can change a destiny.

God can draw a person to Himself and transform them from the inside out.

He calls that which is not as is.

God makes destiny!

Tomorrow

tomorrow it will be 6 months since one of my housegroup boys was killed in a car accident.

i’m amazed that it is 6 months since he died, it is such a long time and a short time.

he left such a mark on our housegroup, and our lives, that it seems quieter without him.

but for me, as a hosuegroup leader, it wasnt really until about a month or so ago that i got to deal with my own personal sorrow at losing a friend.  up till then i had been very much in the pastoral role, caring for his girlfriend who was very devastated by his death, naturally, and the news that he was preparing to propose in october just being.  its been an up and down journey, okay, mostly down journey for her.  but one we take a step each day with.  in the initial week i was in fully organisation/pastor mode as our own pastor was overseas on mission and i was the connection to the church for the family and preparing for his funeral.  i put aside my own grief and processes and was busy instead.

i’m also a very visual person so dealing with the mental images and nightmares was my intial priority to overcome.

its been a growing time.  growing in wisdom and grace.  there have been times when i havent known what to say to in particular his girlfriend, a strong christian from a christian home, about things. i have relied heavily upon the grace of God to speak to me and through me.  you never as a leader expect to deal with the loss of one of your own.  or at least i never did.

his death has defined this year.

bringing both sorrow and beauty.

its remarkable and a tsetimony to God that his sister has become a christian.  i stand in awe of that and applaud God for working such good out.

it taught me not to take life for granted.  you seriously never know.

you have to have real answers when stuff like this happens.  answers also in light of the charges the driver faces and the needless loss of life caused by circumstances and terrible terrible decisions, or lack of decisions.

i miss my friend and wonder at what it would be like to ahve him alive around us now – how he would have grown as a christian (he was baptized and saved only about less than a year before his death) – all of that…

6 months…. sigh.

 

you can read about it here, here and here.

Set Free!

Jesus said, “The truth shall set you free,” which, by implication, must mean, “The false will imprison you.”

I, for one, am no longer willing to imprison the amazing grace and liberty that my faith has given me to reach out to a world that is begging for authentic Christianity to save their terminally ill souls. — Brad Stine

Life is a Garden…

Paul said: “Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, that he will reap. For he who sows to his flesh will of the flesh reap corruption, but he who sows to the Spirit will of the Spirit reap everlasting life. And let us not grow weary while doing good, for in due season we shall reap if we do not lose heart”  Galatians 6:7-9

Last night I planted some seedlings with the kids.  I know that where I have planted Dalihas, dalihas will grow.  Caleb’s class this year have been looking at “growing things” and learning that if you plant bean seeds – beans will grow.  You don’t plant tomato seeds expecting chocolate trees to grow.  Aka WHAT YOU PLANT YOU WILL GROW!

So what does this have to do with being a Christian?  What does this have to do with my real life today?

The Bible says in Galatians 6 “what you plant will grow – what you sow you will reap.”  It isn’t talking about becoming farmers and growing flowers but about our lives and the consequences and fruit of what we allow and cultivate.

Spirit vs Flesh

You are no longer ruled by your desires, but by God’s Spirit, who lives in you. People who don’t have the Spirit of Christ in them don’t belong to him. ¹⁰But Christ lives in you. So you are alive because God has accepted you, even though your bodies must die because of your sins. ¹¹Yet God raised Jesus to life! God’s Spirit now lives in you, and he will raise you to life by his Spirit.

¹²My dear friends, we must not live to satisfy our desires. ¹³If you do, you will die. But you will live, if by the help of God’s Spirit you say “No” to your desires. Romans 8:9-13

In Galatians 6:8, Paul says that if you sow to the flesh you will reap corruption. The word corruption is derived from a Greek word which means “to degenerate, or to go from good to bad.” It was used to describe meat which spoiled as the result of sitting out in the sun.

Paul uses the word corruption to speak of the moral consequences or spiritual decay which are the result of giving into your fleshly desires.

“Sowing to the flesh means to allow the old nature to have its way. So also, sowing to the Spirit means to allow the Spirit to have His way.” Dr. William Hendriksen

There is an internal conflict between the spirit and the flesh.

But even though this internal conflict between the flesh and Spirit is great, it does not excuse the Christian from his responsibility to live as the called out sons of God. We have been redeemed by God in order to become trophies of His grace who would reflect His likeness to the world. We are called to be Christians, which means Christlike.

Watch out for Weeds!

The other day I went for a walk and had several life app lessons on the way from God.

Down the road there was a lady pulling out weeds from her lavender fence trim.  She was right in surrounded by the bushs, pulling big weeds out.  I couldn’t see the weeds at first, but when she pushed the bushes aside, I could see the weeds.

I felt in my heart – “if you don’t pull the weeds out they will choke the plant”

¹⁸ “Therefore hear the parable of the sower: ¹⁹ When anyone hears the word of the kingdom, and does not understand it, then the wicked one comes and snatches away what was sown in his heart. This is he who received seed by the wayside. ²⁰ But he who received the seed on stony places, this is he who hears the word and immediately receives it with joy; ²¹ yet he has no root in himself, but endures only for a while. For when tribulation or persecution arises because of the word, immediately he stumbles. ²² Now he who received seed among the thorns is he who hears the word, and the cares of this world and the deceitfulness of riches choke the word, and he becomes unfruitful. ²³ But he who received seed on the good ground is he who hears the word and understands it, who indeed bears fruit and produces: some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty.”  Matthew 13:18-23

If we plant weeds – or allow the seeds of weeds to take root and grow – they will choke the good stuff out… they will lead to decay and degeneration.

I don’t want to classify what the weeds are in a person’s life.  That is between you and God.  Each person has different weaknesses.   Know your weeds.  And then uproot them.  Get in the dirt and pull them out.  Don’t water them, don’t fertilize them, don’t let them grow.    The weeds may not even be anything overtly sinful – but may be the thoughts that lead to temptation and that then lead to sin.  Be wise.   Weeds are easier to pull out when they are small….

¹⁵ “Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves. ¹⁶ You will know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes from thornbushes or figs from thistles? ¹⁷ Even so, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit.  Matthew 7:15-17

What you plant will manifest itself in your life.

Weeds may feel good at first and may be small.  They may look insignificant.  But they will have negative consequences and negative consequences bring pain and hurt and regret.

caring and growing

I walked down a path where I always walk.  Last week or last fortnight when I was there the trees were bare – naked from autumn and winter.   Yesterday I had to bend my head to avoid the lush green leaves!  They were glorious!

Plants grow.  Seasons happen.  Change happens.

Sowing is not limited to planting seeds but also includes caring for the seed until harvest time.

4 years ago tony and caleb gave me an orchid plant.  It flowered beautifully that year and the green leaves and bulbs multiplied so we repotted them into a few pots and just let them grow.  But no more flowers came.  This year I brought some orchid food and fed my orchid plants.  This year we have had LOTS of orchid flowers!

Our Christian walk is about feeding and growing and nurturing and protecting the good stuff.  Making good choices.  Surrounding yourself with good people who encourage and inspire you to obey God and know Him.

You may think that a Christian life is a restricted life – a bunch of do nots and have nots – but God is not like that, He is creative and generous and abundant.  He desires to protect us and bless us.

Life is like a garden. We reap what we sow.

Envision your life as a garden. What are you sowing in your garden? How are you caring for what you have sown? What are you reaping?

Are you reaping some things that you do not want to reap? To change what we reap we must hoe up the old seed and sow new seed.

Are you sowing to the flesh or to the Spirit?

God is The Gardener!

⁶Jesus then told them this story:

A man had a fig tree growing in his vineyard. One day he went out to pick some figs, but he didn’t find any. ⁷So he said to the gardener, “For three years I have come looking for figs on this tree, and I haven’t found any yet. Chop it down! Why should it take up space?”

⁸The gardener answered, “Master, leave it for another year. I’ll dig around it and put some manure on it to make it grow. ⁹Maybe it will have figs on it next year. If it doesn’t, you can have it cut down.”

Luke 13:6-8

Romans 8:31-39

What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? ³² He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things? ³³ Who shall bring a charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. ³⁴ Who is he who condemns? It is Christ who died, and furthermore is also risen, who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us. ³⁵ Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? ³⁶ As it is written:

“ For Your sake we are killed all day long;
We are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.”

³⁷ Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. ³⁸ For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, ³⁹ nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up; ⁵ does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil; ⁶ does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; ⁷ bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. ⁸ Love never fails.  1 Corinthians 13:4-8

DISCLAIMER:  God is not adding up all the past sins of anyone and making sure they pay for all of them. He forgives sin. He deals with His children in love. Even when He chastens them, He is doing so in order to bring them back to a right relationship with Him (Hebrews 12:9-12).   God is gracious and full of mercy. He does not take His children and continue to punish them for past sins. Yes, there are some natural sowing and reaping laws that He does not change even for believers. Some sins naturally lead to disease. Other sins destroy marriages and families. The Christian cannot bypass these laws of sowing and reaping. Even if we are reaping a consequence we sowed in the past, God still deals with us as His dear children and will work even that out to good. We simply need to fully trust in Him. May the Lord bless you as you grow in Him.

Romans 8:28 – “And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.” This verse states that all things work together for good to them that love the Lord.

SPECIAL ADDITION:

The kind of water that flows into a river is the same kind of water that flows out.

James 3:10 – Out of the same mouth comes forth blessing and cursing. My brothers, these things ought not to be so.

James 3:11 – Does a spring send out from the same opening fresh and bitter water?

It’s interesting how James makes the connection between our ‘mouths’ and a ‘spring’.  Just as a spring brings up that which lies far below the surface, our mouths bring up that which resides deep in our hearts.  For this reason, it’s vitally important as leaders that we monitor the kind of “water” we’re “drinking”.  What flows in, is what flows out.

If we’re reading, watching or feeding on things that are negative or critical, or circumstantial and flighty – we’ll find the ‘taste’ of that water permeating all we say!  But if we’re feeding ourselves with the Word of God along with living testimonies of God’s power and greatness, mixed with real-life encounter with the Holy Spirit – then that positive faith-filled water will flow easily out of us and refresh the hearts of others!

1000 Things (20)

there are so many big and small things in life we can be thankful for – and when we intentionally look for opportunties to be grateful we find our heart filled with hope and joy and peace and thankfullness and this outworks in our everyday life.

intentional gratefulness keeps our eyes looking up at our Father – the giver of all good things, the one who cares for us, the one who loves us and demonstrates his love in so many ways.

if we practiced gratitude what kind of effect would it have on our hearts?

continuing my list….

296. life. healthy life. a standard of living that promotes health. ease in life… after a weekend of having our 4 year old having severe asthma, i’m just so grateful i live where i live and in the conditions where it is most likely that our children will grow up and outlive us and experience life in its fullness… my heart aches for mothers in africa who dont have that peace in their heart…

297. baby veges to plant in the garden – and the provision that is – and the joy that is to just walk outside and pick some corn and cook it!

298.  a new journal – colourful cover – a fresh page – a fresh book… what will be written?  what will be revealed and learned and recorded?

299.  new babies due to be born – we thought it was all go yesterday, but not yet (not my own new baby but a close friend)

300.  the privaledge of leading Mainly Music and being able to sing and dance and jump and hop and swing and sway and interact and encourage with a bunch of awesome kids and lovely mums…

301. good chatting conversation on facebook, about God and deep matters of  the heart

302.  trust

303. braclets.  rings.  necklaces.

304. christmas is coming!

305.  good friends who make you laugh and lend books

306. music.  ahh i love music.

307.  a good walk today.  up the hill and down the hill and round the blocks.   listening to the sounds outside and smelling the fragerance of the world.

308.  my daughter.  oh she brings me joy.

309.  my son.  he’s a spunk and i love the adventure unfolding before him.

310. our church – oh so the best church in the world!

311. some time by myself.  ah that is bliss.

312.  scones.  with melted butter.

313.  resiliance.

314. freedom to be yourself.

315.  encouragement from God.

316.  psalm 139 – oh its good.

Our Father

our Father, in heaven…  help us to know you as Father…