Encouragement through the trial

Reading Hebrews 11 verse 24 jumped out at me this morning. "By faith Moses, when he became of age, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter, choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the passing pleasures of sin, esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt; for he looked to the reward."
And as I read this I thought of 2 Cor 4:17 "For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all."

Moses had everything at his feet, wealth, popularity, etc, yet he gave it all up and walked the path of God. Imagine how hard that must have been choosing rather to suffer affliction at the hand of his own family.

I have had several dreams lately of people coming under persecution and being killed for their faith, some walking away from their faith. One this morning was where a group of people were walking this path and all these rocks were falling down around them and it made me think of people being 'stoned' by others, perhaps with their judgements etc.

When trial comes it is easy to fall away, to question, to point the finger, to whatever, but I want to encourage you as it says in Heb 12:1 "Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God."

Jesus too like Moses on the cross suffered the shame that was not his, yet He too did it for something greater than himself. Let these stories of faith be encouragement for you as you walk through whatever may be the trial for you, whatever your family may say against you, whatever people may stone you with in their judgements towards you, knowing that others too have walked a similar path and their stories can help us continue to walk ours. Many blessings this Christmas/New Year.

Do you have time for breakfast?

I had this dream last night where I saw my sister busy working in her restaurant. She had advertised in the paper and she was so busy she had no time for her family. I was sitting eating breakfast with my other sister feeling almost lazy in comparison with the first sister, but knowing that I was not lazy, but busy too in a different way. I had no idea when she would have time for her family. She was doing what she loved, she was bringing people into her restaurant and it was going really well, but her family life was suffering. In pondering on this, it speaks for itself really. But added to that is that we can often compare with one another or judge one another in the way things are being done. I think regularly of Nehemiah these days and how we are all called to rebuild the wall, but we all have different parts of the wall we are called to build and look after and each part is important to the whole wall. So lets please as a body of Christ, ...

Latest Prayer Update

Since writing last – We continue to pray about the tent meeting but the Lord seems to continue to have that on hold as I believe he has another way of doing the same thing but in a new way where the whole body will be used and so we wait until all the pieces come together. Please be patient with us in this. Africa – We continue to have words given to us about Africa and so the Lord is definitely talking about Africa but he seems to be widening the vision with it all, not just Malawi. It seems more like at this stage visiting a number of African Countries wherever the Lord leads, empowering people – a bit like the last China trip but for longer and more countries and so too we wait for all the pieces to fit together. He has said to have our bags packed ready to go at a moments notice and so we have done that by faith, there are just a few other things that need to come together to make this possible. Picton – We were blessed to be part of a team that we...

Will you play the piano - will you spit and touch a man's toungue?

We had our worship group the other night and to begin with I saw someone playing the playing so I asked if anyone could and would play the piano because that is what I saw happening in the spirit. I may have been wrong in the what I saw but I stepped out in faith but alas no one stepped forward to play the piano so Jim played it and I believe in this the Lord was teaching us some valuable lessons. Jim cannot play the piano at all but he was willing to be used. This morning I was reading in Mark 7:32-35 "There some people brought to him a man who was deaf and could hardly talk, and they begged him to place his hand on the man... Jesus put his fingers into the man's ears. Then he spit and touched the man's tongue. He looked up to heaven and with a deep sigh said to him "Ephphatha!" (which means, "Be opened!). At this the man's ears were opened, his tongue was loosened and he began to speak plainly. I was reminded of the other night ...

Assuming motives can be dangerous.

Reading 2 Sam 10 this morning and what struck me was how something so simple that was supposed to bless and encourage someone, can be totally taken the wrong way and in that, cause major damage. In this story King David is wanting to express kindness to Hanun whose father had died. But Hanna’s nobles, those close around him, spoke to him and suggested that in fact he wasn’t wanting to express sympathy at the death of his father, but rather exploring and spying out the city in order to overthrow it. Because of this, they attack those who are sent on behalf of King David and shame them and in return, David retaliates. Ki ng David’s heart was to bless and to honour another King, but after that King Hanun listened to those around him, who planted thoughts other than those of David’s, and in the process caused a war. How often do we not take things as face value but try to work something out according to the way we see it, rather than perhaps the way i...

Kiwi Culture verses Kingdom Culture

The above is the title of a book that I have on my heart. Whether or not it ever makes it there we will see but in the process I want to put some thoughts down and see what it opens up. I grew up with phrases like "God helps those who help themselves" or "Too spiritually minded to be any earthly good". There are many many more that I am sure you know of - I would love to hear them so please blog me about them or Facebook me so I can add them. But phrases like that that we grew up with that actually have become a part of world view and things we base our lives on. Things of our culture that are so much a part of culture that we think is actually a part of the bible or at the very least is no big deal in God's eyes; like sarcasm. I have had to question some of these phrases - "where does it say in the bible God helps those who help themselves?" "What actually is sarcasm and does it build up and encourage people?" etc. Jim and I lived ...

Moving on from Bulawayo to Mozambique

Dear friends, It has been an interesting time here and the last few days the helper in the house has brought us her relatives and friends to pray for, so plenty of opportunity to impart what the Lord is saying to people and pray for them in their situations. Walking into town this morning we came across a girl who had been having seizures what we believe for several hours and needing medical attention lying on the path. She was not conscious and it was quite scarey at one point, but as we began praying for her saw life come back into her eyes and see her respond so that was encouraging. We believe it is now time for us to move on from here and so we have booked a bus heading to Harare the captial of Zimbabwe and then onto Mutare which is the boarder town of Mozambique and then onto Chimoio where we will stay with some friends that we met in South Africa who are working in Mozambique. So we catch a bus on Thursday morning and hopefully will be in Chimoio...

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