Do you feel alone or discouraged today?

I was greatly encouraged this morning as I read 2 Timothy chapter 4. This chapter outlines some of Paul’s struggles and how people loved the world and followed their ways and in so doing caused much harm towards Paul and his ministry, but his hope remained in the Lord and His reward comes from Christ alone.

Verse 10 “Demas has forsaken me”

Verse 14 “Alexander the coppersmith did me much harm”

People can come and go out of your life. People can cause trouble, but we are called as Christians to endure hardship as it says in 2 Timothy 2:3

“Endure hardship as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. No one engaged in warfare entangles himself with the affairs of this life, that he may please him who enlisted him as a solider”.

2:10 “Therefore I endure all things for the sake of the elect, that they also may obtain the salvation which is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory.’

We go through many things in life, many challenges and it is easy to look to man, to get discouraged by what you may see happening all around you, but through it all, I believe the Lord is wanting to teach us to trust in Him alone and look to Him alone. That we are here to please only Christ. The Lord is faithful and those times we feel we cannot take much more, he strengthens us and gives us grace for a new day.

4:17 “But the Lord stood with me and strengthened me, so that the message might be preached fully through me and that all the Gentiles might hear. Also I was delivered out of the mouth of the lion. And the Lord will deliver me from every evil work and preserve me for His heavenly kingdom. To Him be glory forever and ever. Amen!”

Through Paul’s trials the message of the gospel spread to the Gentiles. Through the pressures that may happen around us, it forces out the message of the gospel that is in us to go in directions and ways that we never thought it would go. God uses everything for good and He is faithful and He will strengthen us and preserve us for Him. Keep your eyes on the prize which is Christ Jesus and wait for him to deliver you because He is faithful and will do what He said He would do!

"A man's enemies will be the members of his own household" Matt 10:36

Recently we have been pondering how to deal with situations in our family that don't line up with the word. What action do we need to take? Are we being too harsh? Do we accept the behaviour or be considered by those around us as "too radical" or "too black and white"? "Where is grace in all of this? How do we love the sinner but hate the sin? What about forgiveness? What is the role of discipline? What makes that sin any worse than lying? What is true love? And there are a lot more questions going through the mind in how to work through this and know God's will and desire for the situation and the person. And firstly to say we have not come to any conclusions and are growing and learning day by day in this but I want to throw it out there. In Matt 10:34-39 says "Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword. For I have come to turn "a man against his father, ...

Ponderings today 16 Dec

Whilst we may not agree with everything that is preached from the pulpit, there is always something that we can learn either about the Lord or about ourselves and our responses to it. Lets not be a people to whom are easily offended and move on without learning what it is that the Lord would have us learn in the different situations. I read a wonderful scripture this morning that really encouraged me as one who often feels arrows in the back in the spirit from peoples jud gements towards me, which God really spoke to me about and hope that it would encourage you too if you feel this way. As it is not us who receive the arrows from people but the Lord (v4) But also reminds me not to be a person that speaks about others behind their back as words are powerful and the tongue either brings life or death. And it is so easily done without often thinking about it. And as easily as I feel arrows, others would feel arrows from me. Lord forgive us our sin as we forgive others theirs. ...

Is the church a cafe? Did you go to be served or to serve?

I had a dream this morning where I saw that I was working in a cafe. It was busy, there were people coming and going and we didn’t have everything we needed, we still needed a barista, some customers were helping cook the steak for the hamburgers that Jim was cooking as Jim was rushed off his feet. We needed people to serve the people coming in as I was dealing with all the different ones coming and going. I saw that people were sitting down in a seat but actually weren’t there to get food, they were just using the seats even though they were not using the cafe. I saw a council officer come in to inspect things and she saw we still needed a barista and she knew people and was going to help us to find one. There was an older man there who was smoking a cigar and I was keen to have a drag off his cigar. People were wandering through our private home at the back of the cafe. The cafe remained open because people kept coming. But I was shown that if I did...

Obedience and Commitment are big things in Gods Kingdom

Reading in Acts 7 this morning the story through Stephen of Abraham being told by God to " Leave your country and your people and go the the land I will show you" So he left the land of the Chaldeans and settled in Haran. After the death of his father, God sent him to this land where you are now living. He gave him no inheritance here, not even a foot of ground. But God promised him that he and his descendants after him would possess the land, even though at that time Abraham had no child." As I reflected on this and the journey of Abraham stepping out in faith into a land that he received no inheritance in but a promise of what was to come for his descendants of which we live in the fruit of that, I thought of todays generations in which often is only doing things that we want to do or that will benefit us personally as we live for 'today' not worrying about tomorrow. A sense of if it feels good then do it, if it doesn't then we will move on - perhap...

The biting off of the poisonous finger & and the underground spring being released

Recently I have had two pictures which now the Lord is bringing a fullness of understanding to. In the first vision I saw me biting off the tip of the pointing finger that was black and poisonous and I just knew it was demonic. And the second vision I had only a couple of days ago was of a garden that was unkempt, dry and derelict that suddenly we found an underground irrigations system to and we turned it on and it started to rain and everything came back to life again. And then this scripture was given to me over the weekend that I only saw this morning that has brought confirmation to what I believe the Lord is saying. When there is a poisonous part of the body unless we do something with it, it will infect the rest of the body, like gangrene sometimes we have to take serious measures in order for the rest of the body not to become ill. And although it seems extreme at the time, it is necessary to stop any further infection from spreading. And it was very much like ...

Make way for the new development

This morning I had a dream and in this dream I saw Jim & I were helping clear out the rubble and things left in houses that were being demolished. Whole rows of houses were being demolished and we were asked to come and help clear the area before new things went in. But while helping shift stuff (although a bit reluctantly as I am not a fan of hard physical work) we were blessed to be able to take the pickings of what was left and I found myself picking up the antique ornaments., the treasures. There was also a big white fridge that actually was a safe that couldn’t be opened or moved, it was stuck, solid, so wedged in nothing was going to move it. I realise in processing this, this is actually the call the Lord has on Jim & I, we are called to shift stuff in the spirit, in peoples lives in order for the new to come in and in seeing the big fridge which was actually a safe, it made me think of Matt 6. The fridge often re...

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