A Heart Untroubled

So I was reading the story of the prodigal son again for the thousandth time this week and a new thing struck me!!  Don't you just think that's amazing? The Word is alive and powerful; you can read it over and over and always God can speak to you in a new way. Most bibles with subheadings over sections call the story the Prodigal Son but I like the Passion Translation which calls this "The Loving Father"!  That's a great point, but not the one I am making today. So, hopefully you know the story.  If you don't you can read the whole thing in Luke 15, but I want to look at what happens on the sons return home. Firstly, despite the fact the son basically told his dad 'I wish you were dead!' the father was looking out for him and when he saw him he RAN to meet him.  This is not the conduct of a disgruntaled parent who wants to make sure the child knows how wrong they were! He runs out to meet him and falls on him welcoming him home in both manner and words...

Today at church we sang a new (to me) song and one of the lines was  "If I'm not dead, You're not done, g reater things are still to come."  Sometimes it's hard to see what God is doing, whether that's big picture stuff or little details in your life, we can often get distracted by the cares of this world and forget that God is not done with us yet.   God called us not so we could live a comfy little life, but so that we would be conduits of his power to draw people to him, to demonstrate his love towards others and to preach the gospel!   If you woke up this morning he's not done with you yet.   1) He's not done transforming you.  2 Corinthians 3:18 (MEV)  But we all, seeing the glory of the Lord with unveiled faces, as in a mirror, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory by the Spirit of the Lord. We are never to stop becoming like Jesus.  Every day we wake up is a day we get to be more and more like him 2) H...

I was listening to one of my favourite carols Noel ft Lauren Daigle - https://youtu.be/aBZ6Lqx1OHk   if you want a listen. I was struck by one of the lines "Come and see what God has done" as the angels are speaking to the Shepherds and it hit me that they didn't appear a week before and say 'Go and see what God is going to do'.  They spoke about what GOD HAD DONE.  Jesus was already born and the Shepherds went off to see him.  Often we can look to the future and wonder what God might do, where he is taking us, or how he can take change our current situation, but sometimes, we need to look at what God HAS done and fix our hope on him.  When we look and see all that God has done for us, starting with coming to earth as a baby, growing up to die on the cross and then brining it into our own lives, we can easily say "See what the Lord has done"!  There's most definitely a time for looking forward, but there's also times to remember what has already ...

I was reading a very familiar account from the bible today, the story of the feeding of the 5000.   If you don't know it... a crowd of people (5000 men plus women and children) followed Jesus to listen to him preach.  After a while Jesus says to his disciples that the people need to eat because otherwise they will faint on the way home.  The disciples say they don't have anything, but a little kid offers his lunch- five loaves and 2 fishes, but what's that among so many people? However, Jesus doesn't scoff at the offering.  Instead he takes it in hand and (this is the bit that spoke to me) and let's read what he does... Mark 6:41 (KJV) And when he had taken the five loaves and the two fishes, he looked up to heaven , and blessed, and brake the loaves, and gave them to his disciples to set before them; and the two fishes divided he among them all. He looked up!  He took his eyes off of the stuff and looked up to heaven.  That phrase 'to look up' is from...

Have you ever noticed how hungry children can be (especially teenagers)? Children are growing of course,  and in order to do that in a normal, healthy way, we have to feed them.  We are like that spiritually too.  I've noticed that the nature of fallen man feeds on negativity!  The more negative stuff we feed on, the more we seem to gravitate to it and look for that until we can no longer see the goodness of God.   Negativity breeds fear, sorrow, and anxiety by the bucket load!  But Jesus didn't save us so we could live in that! Matthew 4:4 (TPT) says: He answered, “The Scriptures say:  Bread alone will not satisfy,  but true life is found in every word,  which constantly goes forth from God’s mouth.” Our Spirit is fed by what God speaks.   Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God (Romans 10:17).  We will feed either the Spirit of the flesh.  There's no two ways about it; you will be sowing to one or the ...

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 physi...