A Heart Untroubled

A friend and I have been chatting recently about how easy it is to get in the 'wrong lane'!   Not necessarily with regards to falling into sin, but about the fact that it is so easy to move into someone else's lane, which may take us off on a detour, cause a delay, or mean we take on more than we were meant to.     It's not easy to 'stay in your lane'. Instead, it's far easier to allow ourselves to be distracted from our own journey than it is to focus on what is right in front of us.   'Distracted'  can take a lot of different formats: getting busy doing other things, worrying or overthinking, criticism of others, and procrastination, to name but a few.  When we embark on our spiritual journey, we find out quickly that there are others in the race. Have you watched an athletic race?  You look on as the runners start and then gradually move to the inside lane, which is where you see most of the calamities happen as everyone is trying to ...

  So, as we approach Christmas, we can all experience a variety of emotions. For some, it's exciting, for others, depressing or for others, it is filled with stress. As I've been about my business this week, I confess to eavesdropping as I sip my coffee or shop.  I know that the thought of shopping, family gatherings and cooking can be difficult, but I wonder if we sometimes make things worse by the things we say! In the Bible, James tells us that the tongue is small, but it carries great power (3v5).  In Proverbs 18:2, we are told that life and death are in the power of the tongue.  It's such a powerful thing, and yet, we are very careless with our words.  Proverbs 18:2 goes on to say that basically, we will have to eat the fruit of our words!   Who would prefer they were sweet and nice as opposed to rotten and nasty! The Bible tells us that God is one who 'calls those things that are not, as though they are' and that we are made in his image.  W...

This week, I have been thinking about control freaks!  Of course, nobody reading this has a problem in that area, I'm sure, but it is an interesting topic. Right from the fall of mankind in the Garden of Eden, humans have been trying to control their environment and lives.  Eve did not trust that God had their best interests at heart, and she decided to take control.  In doing so, she screwed up the rest of humanity! Abraham tried to control the situation by telling his wife to pretend she was his sister. Sarah (Abraham’s wife) tried to control the situation by giving Abraham her servant so they could have a baby, and when the servant got pregnant, Sarah got mad about it!  Moses tried to control the situation by murdering an Egyptian.   David tried to control the situation by having Uriah (Bathsheba's husband) murdered.  Even Peter tried to control the situation by chopping off the ear of one of the people who came to arrest Jesus. One of the fundamental pr...

I don't know about you, but we live in a hard water area.  Every few weeks or so, despite using a filter jug, we have to descale the kettle because it begins to be coated with limescale. It doesn't stop the kettle from working; we can still make tea, but the water begins to taste a bit funny, and if we leave it too long, bits of limescale drop off into our coffee, which is totally unappealing to me.     I suppose that if we left it long enough, the kettle would become less efficient, and it would take longer to boil, which would eventually reduce its usefulness.  Sometimes our hearts can be like a kettle.  If we allow the world in without allowing the filter of the Word to guide us, and washing of the Holy Spirit to clean us, they can become a little spiritually limescaled, too.   It doesn't stop us from being Christians; it doesn't stop God from loving us; it doesn't negate his promises, and we can still go on serving him, but there's just someth...

In the gospels, we are all probably familiar with the story of the feeding of the five thousand.   There were at least 5000 men, so maybe 15000 or more when you include women and children. The day was ending and the disciples felt the people were getting hungry, and they started looking at the practicality of feeding all those people. (Luke 9 from verse 12, John 6 from verse 5) The disciples say to Jesus, "Send everyone away so they can go and buy food". Jesus says to Phillip, "Where are they going to get food for all these people?"  Now, John's gospel says Jesus already knew what he was going to do, but a few things happen that are really interesting.  Firstly, Jesus tells them to feed everyone!!   Can you imagine!  Even think about your church or your family and you’re out and about and someone says to you, "You feed them all"! With what!! The money you have with you isn’t enough to feed you and your children, let alone everyone else. Why would Jesus...

This week I was preaching at a local church and I decided to preach on Communion.  I guess it's something we all take for granted - and sometimes we can become so familiar with something that we forget what it's really all about.  I worked out that I have probably taken communion around 500 times in my life… Maybe more depending how frequently the churches we were in took it, and then add in the times John and I have take it together or in a small group, but both Jesus and Paul mention it as something we should do, so it's got to be important.   I wanted to share some of the things I was thinking about (if you want to hear the whole preach you can listen here ) but it's good reminder of how to posture ourselves when we take communion and we should take it! Luke 22:19-20 (KJV) And he took bread, and gave thanks, and brake it, and gave unto them, saying, This is my body which is given for you: this do in remembrance of me. Likewise also the cup after supper, saying, Th...