A Heart Untroubled

This week I was reading this passage from John.  Jesus is talking in the temple to the Jews when he says: Therefore if the Son sets you free, you shall be free indeed. I know that you are Abraham’s seed. But you seek to kill Me, because My word has no place in you. I am telling what I have seen with My Father, and you are doing what you have seen with your father.”  John 8:36-38 (MEV)   The phrase". ..because My word has no place in you."  Really jumped out at me.    I looked that up in a variety of tranaslations: ... because you do not welcome My voice into your lives. (The Voice) ... because my message does not find a home within your hearts. (LB) ... because My word has no place to grow in you and it makes no change in your heart . (AMP) It is very clear that they were looking to kill Jesus because of the word.  John said " In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. "  John 1:1 (KJV) While we may not physically be 'killi

How many times have you sat at a traffic light and waited for the light to go change only to find someone beeping you because you missed the fact that it was green? I run into many Christians (not literally) who spiritually sit at that traffic light waiting for it to go green, regardless of what colour it's showing.  I was reading my bible one day when I saw this verse: Acts 16:7 (MEV) When they came near Mysia, they tried to go into Bithynia, but the Spirit did not allow them. What was interesting to me what that they seem to have made a plan to go somewhere, but then the Spirit did not allow them. Most of us believe we have to pray before we move and wait for God's green light before we do anything.  But it seems to me that Paul made a plan and moved forward trusting that God would stop him if necessary.   I feel like too often we want everything confirmed by 27 witnesses, shaking of the ground and writing on the wall before we do anything; we live our lives sitting at the tr

Ecclesiastes 9:11  " ... It is all decided by chance, by being in the right place at the right time . " I don't believe in coincidences.  I don't believe whatever will be will be, but I do believe in divine-incidences; God ordained moments that we could not create by our own will or effort.  It is my understanding that there is no Hebrew word for coincidence, but there are two words in the bible I want to look at today; the Hebrew word QARAH and the Greek word KAIROS.' In the verse above, that world CHANCE doesn't really refer to 'luck' but simply means 'an occurrence or happening', but the next phrase ' in the right place at the right time'  is QARAH.  It's isn't just a lucky break that you happened to be somewhere but implies a God-ordained moment in time. QARAH literally means 'right happening'.  It was first used when the servant was sent out to find a suitable wife for Abraham's son, Isaac.   The servant heads

I do love Peter in the Bible.  He's such a character.  He is passionate, headstrong, jealous, and he messed up quite spectacularly too. Despite all that he was mightily used by God even with all his flaws.    We can learn so much from him so today I want to consider one thing about him. On the day Jesus was crucified, he was sent to the High Priest.  Peter was following from a distance and ended up hanging about outside. He's met by a variety of people who recognise him and ask him "Aren't you one of the followers of Jesus?" Three times Peter denies that he is, and the cock crows just has Jesus had prophesied.  Peter wasn't even really getting persecuted at that point, he was just linked with Jesus, but it was enough to scare him into basically swearing aggressively that he wasn't a follower of Jesus! T errified of a servant girl (one of the people that challenged him) and what might happen to him if people knew that he was a follower of Jesus, he buckled,

I've spoken before on the verse in 2 Corinthians 1:20  " For all the promises of God in Him are “Yes,” and in Him “Amen,” to the glory of God through us. "  I was thinking about it again this weekend.  At church on Sunday, right before communion, someone prayed 'Thank you Jesus that you never said no!  You said yes to the cross."   I began thinking about this and the above verse.   How quick are we to think badly of God (you wouldn't believe some of the things people are willing to think are true about Him), but Jesus said 'yes' to horrific suffering and death, just so that we could say 'yes' to him.    In that 'YES' we not only were able to enter into salvation, but we are able to say to YES to healing, YES to deliverance, YES to freedom and YES to provision.  Because Jesus said 'YES' to the plan of God and God always says 'YES' to all that Jesus provided, we don't have to wonder if God will give us a 'Yes'

Over the last few weeks I've been listening to a teaching series on Sabbath Rest.  It's really interesting to me how many of us find it hard to rest, I mean really rest!   One thing that struck me from this series was a phrase from one of the sessions on 'not pushing past the pause' - referring to resting before you break!  It made me ponder the question, how often do we push past the pause instead of pushing pause!  While the Sabbath was made for us not the other way round (meaning it's not supposed to be a legalistic regiment), the point of the Sabbath was always that we rest and connect with God.    Think about the context of this idea: The people of Israel had just been freed from a life of slavery; 7 days a week hard labour, suffering and struggle.  Then God tells them, commands them actually, take a break on the 7th day and keep that day just for me!  This was a cultural and mindset shift.  They had been persecuted for 400 years as slaves, and suddenly God is