It's never going to be the same again

Several years ago Jim and I owned a caravan at Pauanui Holiday Park. It was a permanent caravan that was ours that we could go over to anytime. But after owning it for a few years, the next season we were in dictated that we sell that caravan. We have gone back since and wandered through the campsite remembering our times there and all the good times it held, and at times wishing we still had that, but now in going there, we can barely recognise the place we had, because it too has changed so much and it is not how it was.

Recently Jim and I went down to Queenstown where our daughter now lives. But it was an area that I went to for some of my time as a child. I grew up for a time spending my holidays at Lake Hayes in Arrowtown. And now after going back there all these years later, can once again barely recognise what it was like in the past now things have changed and developed so much since that time. The once carefree memories of a child now caught up in the busyness and prosperity of what Queenstown and Arrowtown now holds.

I believe we are coming into a season where we may want to long for the child like things of the past, how things once were, perhaps more carefree or simple, or so we thought, but we cannot go back there. We cannot look back and desire to have it how it once was. The Lord is moving us all into this new place, He is at work, doing things that may be challenging, even a little fearful, that may stretch us, may be taking us to new heights or perhaps depths, that we didn't know existed, but God is still the same today, as he was in the past and will be in the future. He is faithful, He is trustworthy, He is dependable and He is reliable. 'Our job' if you like, is to continue to remember to not worry about tomorrow, but trust Him in today. He will give us grace for what is in our days, strength for tomorrow and peace as we walk the journey.

I had never been in a helicopter prior to this recent trip to Queenstown and I was petrified about it as I have had a fear of heights, but as I overcame the fear and decided to go, I loved it and thought how much I want to learn to fly helicopters, because it was absolutely amazing. There are new experiences and heights that the Lord wants to take us to if we will only step out of our comfort zone and overcome in our fears, put our trust in Him and let him lead us.

Bless you all in the new things the Lord has for you.

"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, ...

"I am ruined for the ordinary"

“I am ruined for the ordinary” A statement that can possibly be to some, come from a place of judgement, or it can be from a place of there is more in the Kingdom of God that I am yet to experience or understand, revelation that I have tasted of something that actually shows me that I have not tasted of anything yet. A place where there is such a contentment and joy in what I have seen and longed to see and yet a revelation that there is way more "beyond what I think, ask and imagine" (Eph 3:20) and one that spurs me on to seek and discover all the fullness that could be ours in the Kingdom of God. When we as Christians see other Christians going places or experiencing things that we don’t understand or perhaps we have not yet moved in, we can either become jealous of that person and judge and bring them down to our level, exclude them from our lives or we can choose to be excited by what is happening and be encouraged and spurred on in the Lord for the more than ca...

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...

Education changes the fabric of community

Hosea 4:6 "My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge" "Education changes the fabric of community" was a quote by one of the ladies at the gathering of Women that I went to yesterday. This quote struck me as I had never seen the impact that can be created in what we are are doing in GRM through "Schools of the Spirit" and in "training and equipping", "in preaching and teaching", people in the variety of ways that we do, how we can effect and change communities and societies. In reality that is what we are doing, if only in a little way, it makes a ripple effect that can change so much more than we think or realise, ask or imagine.(Eph 3:30) They shared about what they consider "success" to look like and they defined it as people who: Had courage Tenacity and Resilience Integrity and humility Creativity Ambition - "Say Yes" Respect This was a gathering of very influential women of society and bus...

Distraction or Traction?

Our most value asset is: TIME I don't know about you but I find it is easy to get distracted and drawn away from what I was intending to do or where my focus needed to be. I often find myself getting 'entangled in civilian affairs' as it says in the scripture above. But the discernment is knowing if that is God's interruption for the day or a distraction that takes me away from the purpose and plan that God would have me walk in. I think we can often miss those God opportunities and God calls on our life because of distractions. " A distraction is something we do that moves us away from what we really want." Distractions bring confusion, feeling like you are in a muddle, not knowing where you are going, often feeling like you are busy but probably not really achieving a great deal. The opposite of distraction is TRACTION. Traction is an action that moves us toward what we really want. Momentum and movement toward the desires of the heart. But often we don...

I shared last night about 1 Cor 15:36 "What you sow does not come to life unless it dies. When you sow, you do not plant the body that will be, but just a seed, perhaps of wheat or of something else. But God gives it a body as he has determined, and to each kind of seed he gives its own body..." I was preaching on it last night and it will come up in video form later in the week on the GRM sight, mainly reflecting on we can sow things one way, but God raises it up as HE determines how it should look. But this morning I got more revelation which will be quite obvious to some, but to me it struck me afresh. When we sow something it get's buried, it cannot be pulled back up. It no longer has 'connection' with 'me' if you like. It gets 'covered over' unable to be pulled up. And yet I recognise in my own life how we can sow something but there are still 'strings attached' as such as we often are still determining or expecting it be rai...

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