A Heart Untroubled

  This week I was lead to think about the passage in Revelation where John is watching the scene in Heaven unfold and he says this Revelation 5:6  Then I saw a young Lamb standing in the middle of the throne, encircled by the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders. He appeared to have been slaughtered but was now alive!... The elders and the multitudes are falling down in worship, casting their crowns and singing worship to this Lamb.   Jesus is right in the centre of this. All eyes focussed on him and the response is to worship.   Sometimes we get so focussed on all the stuff - good or bad - that is going on, that we forget to turn our eyes to the Lamb of God, slain for us!   We can get caught up in looking for a healing, or looking for direction, or looking for an answer, and all those things are good, but when we look at the Lamb that was dead and is now and alive, when we recall who he is and his eternal position in the centre of it all, we can get things in the right per

As we're counting down to Christmas, I become more aware of conversations that focus around the stress, the spending, the family trials that come at this time of year.   Christmas, and really any day as a Christian, shouldn't be this way at all!   But if we do the same things we have always done, we are going to get the same results we always get.   If we want to have a different experience, we have to do things differently. So here's my top tips for a peace-filled Christmas 1) Dashing through the snow...Running around being busy is going to bring stress.  It's ok to say 'no'.  Don't over-commit and don't do things from a sense of obligation, because that breeds resentment.  Instead consider your option before you make your decisions and then agree to the things that you want to do.  (Matthew 5:37) 2) T'is the season to be jolly...Give cheerfully, or don't give.  (2 Corinthians 9:7) It's easy to get into a rut of simply giving gifts to people

I was listening to some teaching and reading the story of Moses when he took the people of Israel out of slavery and off towards the promised land.  To give a bit of background, the Jews are enslaved by Pharaoh and the Egyptians.  They are building stuff for the Egyptians when God calls Moses to go and lead the Israelites out of slavery and into the land he has promised them.   Moses is to go to Pharaoh and tell him to let God's people go!    If Pharaoh refuses, then plagues will come upon the Egyptians.  Pharaoh doesn't let them go and so those plagues come. First, they had the Nile turn to blood and then, the second plague; frogs, frogs and more frogs everywhere!!  In the oven, in the bed - EVERYWHERE.  Now I don't mind frogs, but in my bed or cereal box?  No thanks! Frogs were worshipped in Egypt - you weren't supposed to kill them because they worship various deities that took on frog heads or bodies.  Heqet was their goddess of fertility and life for example.   I a

This week I have been thinking about the 10 spies that they sent out to view the promised land.  You probably don't remember the names of 8 of them!   The other two were of course Joshua and Caleb.    In the book of Numbers we see that Moses sent out these 10 men off to spy out the land that God had promised them.  They were to check it out and see what kind of place it was, what kind of people lived there and bring back some produce from the land. Well, if you know the story they brought back some figs, pomegranates and a bunch of grapes so big it had to be carried between two men!   It was a good land (no surprise there, seeing as God had told them it was good).  But when they got back 8 of the spies told the people "Well, it's a good land, but the people that live there included giants and all sorts of people that are really strong' I can imagine that all Israel gasped in horror or shock. Each person murmuring to his neighbour about how awful the situation was. In t

This week I was listening to a message and I was reading the verse in Luke 17:32 which simply says " Remember Lot's wife ."   This is a really interesting statement. When Jesus tells us to consider something or remember something we should pay attention. So what do we know about Lot's wife?  Not a lot really.  But what we do know is that an angel of the Lord took her by the hand to lead her out of the city before God destroyed it.  She was told to run for her life and not look back.  According to Genesis 19, she ran but she turned and look back and as a result, turned to a pillar of salt.  This short verse really spoke to me for a number of reasons.    The Apostle Paul tells us " I don’t depend on my own strength to accomplish this; however I do have one compelling focus: I forget all of the past as I fasten my heart to the future instead. "  (Phil 3:13 TPT) Since 2020, it's like we have a new category in history BC now stands for BEFORE COVID! People a

This week I heard a phrase that really spoke to me. It was "An ambassador is not a person, they are the personification of the country they represent".   This really got me thinking about our lives as Christians.  Paul, in the book of Ephesians, says that he is an ambassador of the Gospel, and so are we.  We are no longer simply just people - we have become a personification of the Gospel message.   We should be healing the sick, raising the dead, loving, giving, serving, standing for truth, preaching the gospel... This is what we have become once we have accepted Christ.  It's not just enough to show up at church on Sunday or watch a YouTube service.  It's about constantly remembering that we have been bought with a price and that like Pau, we say it's no longer I that liveth, but Christ that lives in me!    From the moment we wake up until we fall asleep, we are the personification of Jesus Christ; we are the Kingdom of God.  There's a lot of responsibility