Tag: God

Be Patient

Romans 8:24-30

24For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what they already have? 25But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently. 26In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans. 27And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for God’s people in accordance with the will of God. 28And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. 29For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters. 30And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified.

Patience is a virtue as they say. As humans some of us are more patient than others, the more patient of us having time for other people and to be more understanding but for others it’s the opposite way around, no patience and very little time for others.

Another saying is ‘Everything comes to those who wait’ this also requires a little patience as it may not happen straight away.

At time when we are being a little impatient we need to ask for God’s guidance for more patience

You called out my name See the source image
Knew my past, covered my shame
This amazing grace
You’ve shown, so patiently
You’ve shown, so patiently

And You, waited for me
Just for me
For me

You, waited for me
Just for me
For me

Where would I be? If You left me God
Where would I be? If You left me God
Where would I be? If You left me God
Where would I be? If You left me God

You waited, waited
You waited, waited
You waited, waited
You waited, waited

Where would I be? If You left me God
Where would I be? If You left me God
Where would I be? If You left me God
Where would I be? If You left

You waited, waited
You waited, waited
You waited, waited
You waited, waited

You waited, waited
You waited, waited
(Where would I be?) Where would I be? If You left me God
(Where would I be?) Where would I be? If You left me God
(Where would I be?) Where would I be?

Be not Ashamed

Romans 1 New International Version

Paul’s Longing to Visit Rome

⁸First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for all of you, because your faith is being reported all over the world. ⁹God, whom I serve in my spirit in preaching the gospel of his Son, is my witness how constantly I remember you ¹⁰in my prayers at all times; and I pray that now at last by God’s will the way may be opened for me to come to you.

¹¹I long to see you so that I may impart to you some spiritual gift to make you strong— ¹²that is, that you and I may be mutually encouraged by each other’s faith. ¹³I do not want you to be unaware, brothers and sisters,^[d] that I planned many times to come to you (but have been prevented from doing so until now) in order that I might have a harvest among you, just as I have had among the other Gentiles.

¹⁴I am obligated both to Greeks and non-Greeks, both to the wise and the foolish. ¹⁵That is why I am so eager to preach the gospel also to you who are in Rome.

¹⁶For I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes: first to the Jew, then to the Gentile. ¹⁷For in the gospel the righteousness of God is revealed—a righteousness that is by faith from first to last,^[e] just as it is written: “The righteous will live by faith.”^[f]

Waiting for God

Clara H. Scott (1841-1897) provides us with a hymn of consecration that has been sung for over 100 years. A Midwesterner, she was born in Illinois and died in Iowa.

In 1856, Scott attended the first Music Institute held by C.M. Cady in Chicago, Ill. By 1859, she was teaching music at the Ladies’ Seminary, Lyons, Iowa. She married Henry Clay Scott in 1861, and published in 1882 the Royal Anthem Book, the first volume of choir anthems published by a woman.

Horatio R. Palmer, an influential church musician in Chicago and later New York City, was a source of encouragement for Scott, and helped her publish many of her songs. Three collections were issued before her untimely death, when a runaway horse caused a buggy accident in Dubuque, Iowa.

The text of “Open My Eyes” was written in 1895 shortly before Scott’s death. Each stanza reveals an increasing receptiveness to the “Spirit divine.” Open eyes lead to “glimpses of truth.” Open ears lead to “voices of truth.” An open mouth leads to sharing the “warm truth everywhere.” An open heart leads to sharing “love to thy children.”

The image of open eyes is common in the Bible. In some cases, this is a sign of Christ’s healing power, as when Jesus gave sight to the blind man at the pool of Siloam in John 9. Closed eyes, on the other hand, could be a metaphor for avoiding the truth as in the case of John 12:40, a passage following the triumphal entry of Christ into Jerusalem and beginning his journey to the cross: “He hath blinded their eyes, and hardened their heart; that they should not see with their eyes, nor understand with their heart, and be converted, and I should heal them.”

The image of open ears is also significant in the biblical witness. Matthew often reprises the theme “Who hath ears to hear, let him hear.” Closed ears become a metaphor for a lack of understanding: “For this people’s heart is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes they have closed; lest at any time they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and should understand with their heart, and should be converted, and I should heal them” (Matthew 13:15).

While the eyes and the ears are receptive organs, the mouth has the capacity to project. The mouth may project “cursing and deceit and fraud” (Psalm 10:7), or it may be an organ that projects praise, as Psalm 51:15 exhorts us: “O Lord, open thou my lips; and my mouth shall show forth thy praise.”

The heart is the only organ included in this hymn that is not visible. It may harbor deceit. Jesus asks in Matthew 9:4, “Wherefore think ye evil in your hearts?” But Jesus also realized that the heart has the capacity for purity: “Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God” (Matthew 5:8).

Scott has given us not only a list of organs through which we may receive and project truth and love, but also provides the method in her refrain:

Silently now I wait for thee,
ready my God, thy will to see.
Open my eyes,
illumine me, Spirit divine!

Learning to use these organs requires patience and reflection. The gentle 6/8 meter of Scott’s music provides a subtle sense of dancing in tune with the Spirit as we learn to see, hear and speak the truth from our hearts.

When We’re Weary

Galatians 6:1-10 New International Version (NIV)

Doing Good to All

6 Brothers and sisters, if someone is caught in a sin, you who live by the Spirit should restore that person gently. But watch yourselves, or you also may be tempted. ²Carry each other’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ. ³If anyone thinks they are something when they are not, they deceive themselves. ⁴Each one should test their own actions. Then they can take pride in themselves alone, without comparing themselves to someone else, ⁵for each one should carry their own load. ⁶Nevertheless, the one who receives instruction in the word should share all good things with their instructor.

⁷Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows. ⁸Whoever sows to please their flesh, from the flesh will reap destruction; whoever sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life. ⁹Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up. ¹⁰Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, especially to those who belong to the family of believers. Image result for Christian when weary

Psalm 46 says desist striving and know that God is in control. Lord God we pray that you’d take us back to the joy of our salvation That joy that gives us strength.

Don’t grow weary in doing well,
Don’t surrender in the fight;
Keep on storming the gates of hell,
Keep on doing what you know is right.

For there will be seasons of testing
And there maybe weeping for a night,
But soon we’ll be reaping the blessing
If we keep pressing on towards the prize.

Keep on praying in the Spirit,
Keep on walking in the light;
Don’t be fearful or discouraged,
Keep on doing what you know is right.”

Colossians 1:27

The buried seed has cracked the ground,

The pilgrimage begun!

The spring ties yellow cords around

And drags it to the sun.

The birds bomb scatter-songs of scenes

Where other tiny shoots

Have bubbled into forests green

With waves of foaming roots.

God let me like the flower described

Intent on extra height,

Drink first born Son-shine as prescribed

Pulled up by ropes of light.

Already blood red Pimpernel

You’ve stalled the cart of death

You’ve sacked the guillotine of hell,

And kissed with second breath.

The feathered weft of angel’s wings,

Each jewelled head that turns,

The sceptred skies of planet kings,

The hottest star that burns

Are crazy love-laid paving stones

That cross the sin-stretched miles

And scarlet set cement atones

The path that reconciles.

Yet though the black revolt is quelled

And sin’s against the wall.

Fresh caravans of grace are held

As mortal home guards fall.

For ego leads guerillas still

Who plague the second start,

They sabotage and strive to kill

The re-conditioned heart.

Yet ultimately heaven’s keys

Are mine if I persist,

So purer thoughts I’ll trade for these

And pillagers resist.

Past exemplary saints have bled

With lung-stung nailed breath

And trod the lonely path that led

To empathetic death.

They helped complete in frail flesh

The meal of stale bread,

That Jesus, frightened, tasted fresh

And brought-up with the dead.

And when I’ve chewed my portioned crust

I’ll have the eyes to see,

The hope of glory’s simply just

That Jesus lives in me.

(AJB)

Happiness and Joy

Happiness in our lives will come and go,

It’s not something that we can control;

It is very much dependant on our external circumstances.

However, there is joy that can be found in God that can be a constant reality in our lives.

This joy is not tossed about by the storms of life but is an anchor or harbour for us in those storms.

It doesn’t depend on external circumstances in life,

but depends upon God and upon our understanding of what he thinks of us.

This joy is worth more than gold or silver,

and yet, is a free gift available to all.

Commitment

Romans 12:1-2

Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.

In The Salvation Army we have what is known as ‘Commitment Sunday’. A Sunday when we are asked to dedicate/rededicate our life’s to Christ.

Of course commitment Sunday isn’t the only time you can give your life to Christ, it can happen anytime you wish provided you let him in. The words of an old chorus come to mind:

Behold me standing at the door,

And hear me pleading evermore:

Say, weary heart, oppressed with sin,

May I come in? May I come in?

I leave you with The Chelmsford Citadel Songsters as they sing ‘I Dedicate myself to Thee’. I hope it gives you much blessing.

New Year’s resolutions

Philippians 3:12-15

Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. Let those of us who are mature think this way, and if in anything you think otherwise, God will reveal that also to you.

What can I say about Resolutions, some of us choose to live a healthier lifestyle (cut down/out cigarettes our even alcohol), others choose to diet after the festive period because of the amount of food we have eaten not just on Christmas Day but at our work’s Christmas party and any other parties we attend in this period.

On a personal note I don’t do resolutions basically because a couple of days into it and I literally crash.

As it says in today’s reading It is important hat we forget what was behind us and move forward toward the goal of the call of God.

The tune in this video is called ‘Let there be peace on Earth’

In the bleak mid winter

1 In the bleak midwinter
frosty wind made moan,
earth stood hard as iron,
water like a stone:
snow had fallen,
snow on snow, snow on snow,
in the bleak midwinter,
long ago.

2 Our God, heaven cannot hold him,
nor earth sustain;
heaven and earth shall flee away
when he comes to reign:
in the bleak midwinter
a stable place sufficed
the Lord God Almighty,
Jesus Christ.

3 Enough for him whom cherubim
worship night and day,
a breastful of milk
and a mangerful of hay:
enough for him
whom angels fall down before,
the ox and ass and camel
which adore.

4 Angels and archangels
may have gathered there,
cherubim and seraphim
thronged the air,
but only his mother,
in her maiden bliss,
worshiped the Beloved
with a kiss.

5 What can I give him,
poor as I am?
If I were a shepherd,
I would bring a lamb,
if I were a wise man
I would do my part,
yet what I can I give him,
give my heart.

These heartfelt lyrics offer a profound reflection on the essence of Christianity and leading people to Christ. As Christians, we often contemplate what we can offer, especially when faced with challanges and limitations. Just like the shepherds and the wise men who presented their humble gifts, we too, can find purpose in giving our hearts as leaders. This means leading with genuine care, empathy and selflessness, providing with the best of ourselves and guiding with commitment.

Prayer

Father, as we meditate on these words we recognise the significance of giving our hearts as Christians. Help us to lead with care, empathy & selflessness. May we offer our time, attention and support to help others flourish and succeed. Lord, may our heartfelt dedication inspire trust & loyalty among those around us. Guide us to lead with humility & gracereflecting your love and compassion. Amen

Coming to the light

Isaiah 60:3

Nations will come to your light, and Kings to the brightness of your dawn.

The prophecy of Isaiah speaks of nations coming to the light of God’s glory. As Christians, we should strive to bring light and hope to those around us, inspiring them to reach their fullest potential. Like the wise men who followed the star, we can be guiding lights, leading with vision and purpose and pointing others toward God’s truth and grace.

Prayer

Gracious God, we thank you for the promise that your glory will be a light that draws people from all nations. As Christians ,help us to be guiding lights, inspiring and empowering those around us to reach their fullest potential. May we lead with vision and purpose, always pointing others towards your truth and grace. Guide our Christian journey, O Lord, and use us to bring hope and positive change to the lives of those we serve. Amen.