A new year approaches....

A BIG new field to consider.
2015 beckons.
New challenges. New thoughts.
Mike Pilavachi posted to his Facebook page today some great questions.

I am reproducing them here and then going to sleep, asking Holy Spirit to start prompting thoughts, dreams, questions and answers in readiness for the Big Day.

I wait expectantly. This will be the best year yet. 

Spitting

I do like to get people's attention!

I have told my children, my four Beauties, that when I am old, I am going to be like the lady in the poem, 'Warning' by Jenny Joseph, partly cos I fancy the naughty life and partly to give them a taste of what it was like to be in a public place with a misbehaving child.

So I have been thinking ahead as to what behaviours I have to learn. I thought I would start with spitting. Thus I duly took it upon myself one evening, in a private, easily cleanable and appropriate place - I am not telling where I was as one person's spitting place might not suit another and I am not going to open myself up to unnecessary telling off by 'well-wishers' -  to try to spit some good distance. Let me tell you, it's NOT a great idea. I just ended up with a wet chin and a soggy jumper! No distance at all!! SO I have relocated myself to the shower...not every night, but every so often and always followed by a scrubbie and Cif, to be on the safe (and hygenic) side.

Why am I telling this story?

First, I like the idea that my Beauties will read it and exclaim, 'OH MOM!!' in the privacy of their own homes and likely follow it up with a personal, face to face plea of, 'PLEASE don't ever do that when you are out with me!' I will respond with an innocent-looking, fingers-crossed reply of, 'OK Darling.'

Second, as I get older and as I contemplate the future, following various events of this year, I am considering the field of that future. What does it hold? What will be growing there?

In a conversation about futures with a leader at School last week, I commented that I didn't know what to do. Their reply has given me food for thought. They challenged my to ask myself two questions: 

1) What is my dream?  

2) Who do I want to be with?

WOW! Easy questions!?

I certainly want to carry on going forward in my walk with God and seeing Him continue changing me and my world through me. I have spent time with leaders and people who yearn and live to see God stretch the 'impossibilities' in life. Also with those who are content with the status quo

I read a quote by Mark Marx today 

'When limited by impossibility, wrap your mind around heaven until possibility becomes limitless.'

As I focus on who God is, what He holds in His hands, of COURSE impossibilities can be. What an exciting truth! I am off to give some thought to what my dream is. Watch this space!

In adversity

This post will not be definitive on the subject of adversity but I just tried to post a comment/response on a blog writing addressing adversity. In particular, the desperately sad plight of a lady and her family touched me. I accidentally wiped what I had written (grrrr to that) so I figured, rather than writing again there, I would write something here.

The situation of the lady is so sad. Undoubtedly, within that, God has used people to bring some comfort and blessing to her and her children but as I read what she had said, 

"God knew what He was doing when He gave me leprosy.." I exclaimed aloud, 'NOooooo!'

Why?

I cannot ever believe God GIVES people illness. Jesus never did that in His life on earth. He is the image of God. He never refused anyone who came to Him for healing, saying, 'No - actually I won't heal you because I want you to learn from this affliction.' He healed them.

We pray as Jesus taught us, 'Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.' There is no illness in heaven.

It is a dilemma in one way. Not everyone I have ever prayed for has been healed - two at the time of writing. But I will not stop praying for healing. 

Just as Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego said, '...the God we serve is able to deliver us from it and He will deliver us...but even if He does not....'

God is a good God. He is good all the time. I cannot change my mind about that truth just because circumstances don't appear to back it up.

I don't know why people don't always get healed when I/we pray for them. But I know God can. I know God will. BUT EVEN if He doesn't, I will not stop praying. The gates of hell will not prevail.

Robbie Dawkins said,

'To call ourselves Christ followers, to seek to do the things that Jesus did, means coming to terms with also walking in His power'

That may not be evidenced in my life yet but I have to pursue the truth of Jesus' statement in John14:12 - 'Very truly, I tell you, whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing and they will do even greater things than these because I am going to the Father'

That 'whoever' is me. If you know Jesus as Saviour and Lord, it is you. 

Jesus chose to change the world with twelve men. He had no plan B. We are God's plan A in His world. Jesus died and rose to give us new life. Holy Spirit has come to be with us that we can walk in that new life and know the things of God. He has given us such amazing promises. It would be rude not to take hold of them. We have in us, He said, that same power that raised Christ from the dead. I am not giving up.

So I want to say to Suntali, your heavenly Father loves you beyond imagination. You are precious and treasured to Him. Thank You, Father for Your immense love for Suntali and her children. Jesus heals you, Suntali. In His powerful name and in His authority given, I command the cancer to be healed. I command the leprosy to be healed in Jesus' name. I speak life and full health to your body. I call out your mother's heart dreams, Suntali, that your children will grow up in the loving care of their birth mother and I speak those dreams into life, calling on God who gives life to the dead, and calling into being what is not, as if it were 

To whoever of you read this, pray also and to God be the glory!

Nothing of what I have written is meant as a condemnation but as a challenge to myself, to us all. God's natural life is the supernatural. Let's press in to live the life God intended for us to have.

And keep praying and pushing. Our God can. Our God will. But even if He does not.......

The Good Old Days.....

I know the Good Ol' Days will always be the Good Ol' Days, but coming across this today, I do think some aspects of the past are so sweet...

Yet, in considering the field of all that lies in the past, I realise that looking at the past can be a good thing to ponder from time to time but not to rest over-long in. Just long enough to learn lessons; bring a smile to your face, be thankful for and either lay down sadness or pick up rejoicing. As I shared a comment in the last post, God is always wanting us to change - from glory to glory. It is down to us whether we allow that into our lives or remain, stubbornly stuck in all that we are comfortable and familiar with.

As I consider our recent past...say the last few years, there is much to be sad about and mourn over, but much so more to marvel about and celebrate and...YAY...LOADS more to look forward to and anticipate. 

The stormy times of this year have sometimes made me yearn for the 'Led Zepplin' days - when life seemed exhilerating; when I couldn't sleep at night because I was so excited instead of not sleeping because I was sad, cross, bewildered or fretting. But 'God doesn't bring you to it if He's not going to bring you through it', as the saying goes.

I love the saying in this picture. It reminds me that life experiences can make me bitter or better. God's love for me keeps me strong. His love for me and for others is never changing It is constant;  and in remembering that, I can give Him my tendencies to choose bitterness and make life choices that express His love in me and through me. I don't want to live life running away from storms but I don't want to let them pass me by without learning. Storms destroy much. In recovering from them, one could retreat - find a safer place -  or rebuild, incorporating adaptations so that another storm is faced differently and feared less. How does that work out in life? Lots of ways but for me at the moment, it is learning that, however much I feel people have hurt me or let me down, what God wants is for me to pull out all the stops and love them. Alone I can't. But His word is true. God didn't say loving and forgiving were easy but He did say they would work. He gives grace in time of need. Pray for those that hurt you. Bless them. Live in peace.

David was a great psalmist and poured his guts into his writings - whether in praise or despair. God can take it. 'Trust in Him at all times...pour out your heart before Him' says Psalm 62:8

Well, Lord - sometimes my psalm would say,  'That person needs a high five...in the face...with a chair...' or plead for strength and grace...but in the end, God is the one who is worthy of praise. My spirit joins with Holy Spirit to touch the heart of God and know His love for me.

In tough times, I can look rosily on the past but my hope is only in God. Only in His presence can I know for sure that His future for me is the best future it can be.

That's what I want. No Compromise.

Doing a New Thing

One of the things I love about God is that He never stops changing us and blowing our minds. He is not beyond using any way He can to reach out to His children but He does it in ways we can understand even though we don't realise that we will understand at the time!!

God knew about computers and the internet even at the time of Moses but it wasn't time to use them then. WOW!! This picture proves God was right to hold off...Moses doesn't look anywhere near as authoritative with a pc as he does with stone tablets!!

When I first came across the internet, I wasn't bothered about this new technology and was very resistant to exploring it, especially email because I liked the old way of posting a letter (which I still like to do when I can). When Hubs sat me down and persuaded me to give it a go, I then started to use email and WISHED I had used it way before!

It took some mistakes during the whole learning experience to familiarize myself enough to feel confident on my own but then, exploration on my own of the internet opened up amazing new worlds to me.

When I first came across a new depth of understanding in the person and work of Holy Spirit, I resisted. It wasn't in my experience beyond a basic knowledge, to step out in these new ways with Holy Spirit and I knew God well enough for my needs, thank you very much! I didn't want to tread into 'wacky'.Raising my hands above my head in worship took me a LONG time and that was sufficient for me. As for flag-waving? PURLEES!! I had agreed with a friend who commented, 'Flag-waving? What's that about?'

Praying for healing? That gift wasn't mine....I tried it a couple of times but it never 'worked'. Nope! I was comfortable with God being who I knew Him to be. So when I got invited into new steps and experiences with God, Father, Son AND Holy Spirit through the ministry of our vicar, Nigel Di Castiglione and his wife, Annie, and let myself be persuaded to give it a go, particularly in helping Annie to lead the church student work with Hubs, I felt resistant and reluctant but said I would give it a year in order to support Hubs, who was keen. My plan was then to go back into the comfort of my familiar world! As you may have picked up from earlier posts, this time in the student group was not only transformational personally in our relationship with God, but opened other doors to growth and drove us to seek out other ways to grow in our faith...my latest step being the WAAAAAY-out-of-my-comfort-zone year in progress at ESSL

I read a quote today.

'The Christian's faith isn't a leap into the dark. It is a well-placed trust in the Light of the World, Jesus' 

Ravi Zacharias

I was speaking to a group of elderly folk, mainly ladies, at another church recently who are facing some BIG changes over, probably, the next twelve months. Their attitude was, 'Well, none of us like change but we have to go through it is we want to grow.'!

It was humbling to hear, especially as I reflected on my own past. It's one thing to say we want to change and see God at work in our lives. It's another to actually take the step when faced with that option in reality.

With God, there are no times of transition, says Eric Johnson of Bethel church. God is ALWAYS moving us forward, from one degree of glory to the next. 

My part in that is to be open and willing to move. Staying put is not an option I want to take - ever! When God wipes away my tears as He welcomes me into heaven, I don't want those tears to be there because I regret things I haven't done, because I didn't take the opportunity to take part in the works that God prepared in advance for me to do or grasp those opportunities that crossed my path where I could be His voice, His heart and His hands in a situation.

So, in the words of Hosea 6:3

Let us acknowledge the Lord; let us press on to acknowledge Him. As surely s the sun rises, He will appear; He will come to us like the winter rains, like the spring rains that water the earth.

YES!! Let's!!!