A Heart Untroubled

This week I have been thinking about the difference between things you take hold of straight away, and things you need to tend to before you see fruit.  I am not sure that's exactly the right way to say it, but I hope it will make sense when I am done.   I'm thinking about maybe an apple pie and an apple seed!  If someone gives you an apple pie, it can be eaten.  You don't need to do anything to it (except maybe add cream or custard!! 😊 ). In the same way, Jesus gives us salvation.  When we get saved, accepting Christ as our Saviour,  we don't need to go over and over that point. We don't need to get saved every day.  It's like the apple pie.  It is ready to eat.  Christ made it for us.  It's immediate. We move from darkness to light in an instant. God's gift of salvation is a completed action in one sense; we can take hold of it right away, but there are aspects of that salvation (healing, prosperity. peace, wisdom etc) that we wi...

Happy New Year to you all!    I pray that 2022 brings you closer in your walk with Jesus, that you see more of the power of God in your life, and you grow in confidence to reach out to those around you with God's unconditional love and compassion. Today I want to tell you about a powerful tool or weapon I have discovered.  PEACE! John 14:1 is my favourite scripture.  It says LET NOT YOUR HEART BE TROUBLED The word troubled means: to agitate, to cause one inward commotion, take away a person's calmness of mind, disturb his equanimity, to disquiet, make restless, to stir up, to trouble, to strike one's spirit with fear and dread, to render anxious or distressed, to perplex the mind of one. The news has become adept at pumping out fear or agitation.  but Jesus commanded us (LET NOT is a command) to not let our hearts be troubled.    We choose whether to absorb what the world shows us or to 'let not our hearts be troubled'.  We have to decide whether...

I heard a phrase in church this week during a children's talk on Christmas Eve, and it really spoke to me. the speaker said "Jesus is our forever gift'. I have heard the phrase 'forever home' in relation to look for a permanent home for foster children, or even puppies or cats sometimes, but this statement in relation to Jesus,  impacted me. Christmas is a beautiful time to celebrate the birth of our saviour, but Jesus is our forever gift.  His coming to the earth wasn't just about a baby in a manger, we all know that, but it truly is the gift that keeps on giving, our forever gift.   Every day the opportunity is there for us to experience His gift of salvation, His gift of peace, His gift of healing, His gift of provision, His gift of joy and His overwhelming and totally awesome gift of love towards us.  From now, until eternity and beyond.  HE is our forever gift.   As you celebrate this Christmas, I hope you will truly know the gift of Jesus in...

This week I have been re-reading the Christmas story and I tried to look at it through new eyes, as we can take it for granted. I woke up this morning with some thought's that I believe God put on my heart. I shared this at church this morning,  and I want to share here with you too. Luke 1:26-38 (KJV) And in the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God unto a city of Galilee, named Nazareth, To a virgin espoused to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David; and the virgin's name was Mary. And the angel came in unto her, and said, Hail, thou that art highly favoured, the Lord is with thee: blessed art thou among women. And when she saw him, she was troubled at his saying, and cast in her mind what manner of salutation this should be. And the angel said unto her, Fear not, Mary: for thou hast found favour with God. And, behold, thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and bring forth a son, and shalt call his name JESUS. He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of ...

Firstly I apologise for not posting last weekend.  I have been all out of sync!  However, I am back non track with knowing what day of the week it is! (At least until I break up for Christmas and then who knows....).   This week I was thinking about new years resolutions.  It's a bit early I know, but I was thinking about it none the less.  At the end of December, we look to start the new year with good intentions for healthy physical or spiritual lives and vow to do better than last year.    All good, but how often do we look ahead with a plan to do something ' for the new year' , 's tarting next month ' or ' in the Spring '.... What would be wrong with starting a new eating regime today instead of waiting for January first?   The truth is we need to just start...  It's the same with spiritual things.      In John 4:23 (MSG) we read: But the time is coming— it has, in fact, come— when what you're called will not matt...

  I was reading in Exodus this morning during my quiet time.  And Chapter 4:31 reads: " And the people believed: and when they heard that the LORD had visited the children of Israel, and that he had looked upon their affliction, then they bowed their heads and worshipped . " It struck me that when we believe God, we can't help but worship him.  When we don't believe God, complaining will be the result.    Think about when the Israelites were free.  They soon stopped believing God's promise to take them to the land overflowing with milk and honey!   They started complaining not worshipping.  We cannot force a heart-response, but we can use what is coming out of our mouth as a diagnostic tool.  If what is coming out of our mouths is praising and worshipping God, we can see that we are believing and trusting God.  If however, we recognise that complaining, moaning and negativity is what's coming out of our mouths, we know it's time to...

A little while back we had a bit of a petrol (gas) crisis here in the UK and one evening I ended up in queue for some.  At one point, three guys from the car ahead of me, jumped out of their vehicle and had to push their car the remainder of the way to the pump.   For them, their car had clearly been running on empty and had finally given up. As I have been chatting to many people, there's a common thread I've found that has been more obvious since the lockdown, and that is that there are a lot of Christians who have been running on empty, the lockdown is the thing that caused them to finally run out of gas.  The bible tells us in Ephesians 5:18 that we are to "be filled with Spirit".   There's a couple of things that are really interesting about that.  Firstly, BE FILLED is a command.  That means as Christian being filled with his spirit isn't an option.  Secondly the verb FILL is a continual action, it's not a one time act, so it could read...