A Heart Untroubled

Last week I came across a new song (well new for me).  It's beautiful and has been really speaking to my heart since I heard it. I've included it here, because I just am loving it. The chorus says "All my life you have been faithful.  All my life you have been so, so good.  With every breath that I am able I will sing of the goodness of God." As I sang along, the words filled my heart with gratitude, as I remembered time after time when the Lord has been good to me!  He has been good to me by saving me, filling me with his spirit, leading me, guiding me and most of all by his long-suffering love for me.  He has been good to me in my marriage, in our finances, in providing for us. He has been good to me in healing my body, keeping me safe, and bringing wonderful people into my life. Sometimes we can just narrow our field of vision to much until all we can see is the negative, the worry and the fear.  But when you stop and think over the journey you have...

John (my husband) always says that if God was water, how would people know that you had been with Him?  Well, the answer is, you would be wet.  The bible tells us that God is love (1 John 4:8) so in the same way, if we have been with God, that is the characteristic that should be visible to others.  In Exodus 34, we read that when Moses came down the mountain after meeting with God, his face shone.  There was tangible evidence that he had been with God.  In Acts 4:13  we read that "... And they realized that they had been with Jesus. " There was something about them that showed they had been with Jesus.  That verse mentions directly their boldness, but also one thing that the people marvelled at what that were untrained/uneducated and so I believe their passion and skill in proclaiming the Gospel stood out in the crowd.   The Passion Translations says that verse like this: Then they began to understand the effect Jesus had on them simply by ...

A few years ago there was a man that attended our church. He couldn't read and he had very limited conversation, but every Sunday when we finished church, as we were packing up ready to go home, his parting shot would always be " Eat your greens! " "What has all this got to do with spiritual encouragement?" I hear you say, well I am glad you asked! Sometimes, we find Christians running around from this conference to that conference looking for that quick caffeine hit of spiritual input.  Now don't get me wrong, I enjoy conferences, but if we live for those moments that have months between them, we're going to struggle. It's like eating. You need to eat your greens! You need to put all the good stuff together with every meal, every day.   We need to put the word into our hearts. There's no short cut.  We need to to eat it up to give us life, strength, wisdom and heath (physical and spiritual).  Just as our bodies need all the good things to be hea...

With Remembrance Sunday celebrated this weekend,  I want to talk about freedom. We should not forget that true freedom never comes without cost or sacrifice.  For Christians, we need to remember that we have a freedom that was purchased by Jesus on the cross.   Galatians 5:1 Let me be clear, the Anointed One has set us free—not partially, but completely and wonderfully free! We must always cherish this truth and stubbornly refuse to go back into the bondage of our past. Jesus purchased a freedom for us, that cost him.  We need to be ever in remembrance of this freedom otherwise we run the risk of being brought back into captivity. We have the choice whether we walk in the freedom that is available to us.  Many years ago, after slavery had finally been abolished, some people went into a more remote part of the world and found there were still slaves. They had lived in bondage long after slavery had been abolished because they didn't know they were free. Toda...

Today I want to think about whether Jesus is enough!  I can imagine most Christian's piously asserting 'of course he is!'  but, the reality is, most people don't live like he is. I remember speaking to a woman once who had been involved in an extra-marital affair. She was devastated by her own actions and had fallen into despair, believing that, despite her repentance, she was a terrible person.   She repented over and over again, on a daily (and sometimes twice daily) but continued to sink into depression and discouragement.   During a conversation with this lovely lady, I felt the Holy Spirit lead me to say something (and I don't normally minister this way).  I said to her 'Yeah, you're so right! Jesus' blood wasn't enough for your sin'. She was shocked and said 'But I thought the blood of Jesus was enough to take away the sins of the world'?' YES!  That is the truth!  Of course it is, and once she had said this, we talked about wha...

Colossians 1:6 says .. which has come to you, as it ( the gospel)  has also in all the world, and is bringing forth fruit, as it is also among you since the day you heard and knew the grace of God in truth  And verse 10 says ...that you may walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing Him, being fruitful in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God; So, today I was studying Colossians and these verses jumped out to me.  Col 1:6 says that the gospel is bringing forth fruit and that they (the Colossians) were to be fruitful. The way that they were instructed to walk worthy of the Lord and to be fruitful was this (verse 9) " For this reason we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you, and to ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding; " When we are filled with the knowledge of God's will with wisdom and spiritual understanding, we will be able to walk worthy of the Lord. Walking worthy is...

  A friend of ours and instructor at Charis Bible College, Barry Bennett, posted on Facebook the following quote: " The words that have power in your life are the ones you have chosen to believe " So many things in life speak to us.   Your bank account will speak to you and tell you whether you are prosperous or not. Your body will speak to you and tell you whether you are healed or not, and circumstances will speak to you and point you to fear or faith. Romans 10:17 tells us that ' faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God '.  This is a 'law' of God, if you like.  This is how it works; you hear the word and faith comes.  Thing is, what we hear, what we listen to and what we believe is going to direct the very course of our lives.  The key is to look at what we are listening to, and if it's not the word, ditch it and spend as much time and effort letting God's Word speak to us as we do anything else. So today that is my challenge to you....