DOES IT MATTER

The last time I checked….and I kept wondering, “GOD, DOES IT MATTER?” All this trusting, believing, pleading and staying at one point. “DOES IT MATTER?” So here I am and the Lord put it out well. Yes, it matters. Oh…it more than matters. I am stretching your spiritual muscles. For too long…you have confined yourself to accomodate what you can handle in your present situation. But I am here…I want you TO STRETCH, I want you TO ENLARGE, I want you to MOVE OUT….yes, because I have plans for you. In case you might wonder who this word is for…It for me….and you, and him, and her, and yes….for most of us.

DARE I SAY MORE…..read ISAIAH 54 for the bigger picture.

You are loved! God bless you all.

WALK OUT…WALK ON!

Matthew 14:25-29 During the fourth watch of the night Jesus went out to them, WALKING ON the lake. When th disciples saw him WALKING ON the lake, they were terrified. “It’s a ghost,” they said, and cried out in fear. But Jesus immediately said to them. “Take courage! It is I. Don’t be afraid.” ‘Lord, if it’s you,” Peter replied, ‘tell me to come to you on the water.” ‘COME,” he said. Then Peter got DOWN OUT of the boat, WALKED ON the water and came towards Jesus.

WALK OUT…means: to leave suddenly without explanation, flounce out, get up and go, storm out; abandon; go on strike etc.

WALK ON...means: move forward, pace up; move your feet along on a solid base etc.

We might be all familiar with the story of Peter walking on the water. But…let us look again from a different perspective. Jesus has just appeared to his disciples in the middle of the night. And oh no…its not what you might want to hear. How I wish…it was in the middle of a good dream to reassure them that he is there for them. But no…it wasn’t. In fact, it was DARK; and yes, it was ALL WATER around; and what more; the WAVES were high and the WIND was against them. Talk about a grim scenario… and you have it right here.

Is Jesus aware of where you are at the moment? My friend…I bet He does!!!
Is Jesus aware of the dangers that surround you at every turn? My friend…I am persuaded He does!!!
Is Jesus indifferent to your journey of life? My friend…I ask you, please read again Matthew 14:25.
…Jesus went out to them….is self-explanatory. Jesus is coming out to you today!

TWO EMOTIONAL WOMEN!!!

For the last 3 days, I have been EMOTIONAL….yes, I am full of GOOD EMOTIONS. And while I do not know how to express them through this computer screen…one thing is for sure. My EMOTIONS at this point in time can only equal the emotions of these TWO VERY EMOTIONAL WOMEN in the bible. So…I will borrow their words…to express my own emotions as well as theirs!

HANNAH…THE BARREN ONE.

She was married to a wonderful husband but couldn’t bear him children. She was constantly mocked and ridiculed by her co-wife. But finally, God heard her prayer and opened her womb. She became the mother of Samuel…one of the greatest prophets in the Old Testament.

1 Samuel 2:1-10 Then Hannah prayed and said: “My heart REJOICES in the Lord; in the Lord my horn is lifted high. My mouth boasts over my enemies, for I delight in your deliverance. ‘There is no-one holy like the Lord; there is no-one besides you; there is no Rock like our God. ‘Do not keep talking such arrogance, for the Lord is a God who knows, and by him deeds are weighed. ‘The bows of the warriors are broken, but those who stumbled are armed with strength. Those whose were full hire themselves out for food, but THOSE WHO WERE HUNGRY HUNGER NO MORE. SHE WHO WAS BARREN HAS BORNE SEVEN CHILDREN, but she who has many sons pines away. ‘The Lord brings death and makes alive; he brings to the grave and raises up. ‘The Lord sends poverty and wealth; he humbles and he exalts. HE RAISES THE POOR

GOD IS IN THIS PLACE…

Genesis 28:16 When Jacob awoke from his sleep, he thought, ‘Surely the LORD IS IN THIS PLACE, and I was not aware of it.”

I just opened my email randomly this morning…and was excited to find a reply email from my blogging friend, Dora from Hong Kong. As I began to read her mail…tears began welling up in my eyes. But one sentence…one sentence in her email….made the tears begin to flow down my cheeks unstoppable. She was praying for me…and my family. She was praying for the very things…I have been praying for privately, and which I wouldn’t have thought of sharing with people outside my inner circle. Then, God took me back to Jacob’s encounter. Yes….GOD IS IN THIS PLACE…and I didn’t know not. It was as if…God was telling me….that He knows my thoughts ten years from now. He knows….what I will think, ask or do….come ten days, weeks or years down the room. GOD IS IN THIS PLACE….not because He comes and goes….God is in the place when I am at the present, God is in the place where I have been in the past, God is in the place where I will be in the future.

The tears are unstoppable, friends. GOD IS IN THIS PLACE…as He was with Jacob, so He is with each and everyone who looks up to Him…and even when we are unaware of it….GOD IS IN THIS PLACE.

FATAL ATTRACTION

2 Samuel 13:15 Then Amnon hated her with INTENSE HATRED. In fact, he hated her more than he had loved her. Amnon said to her, ‘Get up and get out!’

The stories in the bible are not always what we would like them to be. Of all things, we hate to read the possibility of RAPE or INCEST among those who were chosen of God. But…truth be told. The bible stories are the very same stories we read in our modern newspapers or watch in our television screens in the safety of our homes. Everyone…wants to be loved and appreciated for the right reasons, and by the right person in different ways. No-one wants to be loved by a brother…not as a sister but as a lover! NO-ONE. Absolutely, no-one. But that’s exactly what happened to Tamar, King David’s daughter. David had several wives…hence, Tamar and Amnon had different mothers, but the same father. So in reality, they shared the same blood.

But that fact did not stop Amnon from falling in love with his half-sister, Tamar. Moreover, long before this, God has issued instructions about how to behave towards blood relatives in the book of Leviticus of which Amnon was fully aware.

Leviticus 18:6, 9 ‘No-one is to approach any close relative to have sexual relations. I am the Lord.
‘Do not have sexual relations with your SISTER, either your father’s daughter or your mother’s daughter, whether she was born in the same house or elsewhere.

However, Amnon was too much in love…to think rationally. He was so much into HIS FEELINGS… that he never once stopped to consider the consequences of following after his own heart. Yes…that’s what FATAL ATTRACTION

THE LORD IS MY SHEPHERD!

Psalm 23:1 The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not be in want.

Last week was a trying one for my family…because our daughter was down with a bad cough…and ear infection. She is still here with me today…missing another week of preschool. And because of that…I feel she needs my attention more at the moment. For this whole week, I am therefore going on a sabbatical and hopefully will resume my normal post on 31st May, 2010. Meanwhile I leave you with a vision of where I will be as I HANG OUT with MY SHEPHERD!

THE HEALING OF NATIONS

Ezekiel 47:12 Fruit trees of all kinds will grow on both banks of the river. Their leaves will not wither, nor will their fruit fail. Every month they will bear, because the water from the sanctuary flows to them. Their fruit will serve for food and their leaves FOR HEALING.

Last week, my husband and I watched a documentary on BBC television about human trafficking…and child labour. The focus was on the cocoa plantations in West African countries. A boy from Burkina Faso was sold off by his uncle ended up in Ghana. Some undercover journalist brought him out of captivity and helped re-unite him with his mother. During the week, I also watched a movie based on the 1994 genocide in Rwanda…where nearly 1 millions lives were lost. Yet again, my heart was reminded how wicked the heart of man is. At the end of the week, I saw another documentary about the drug cartels in South America and how children and young people are abducted and are forced to join the rebel army against their wish. Their families are heartbroken and most have no ransom money to pay for their release.

Where is justice? Where is THE HEALING OF THE NATIONS?

THE DEBT OF LOVE

Romans 13:8 Let no debt remain outstanding, except the continuing DEBT TO LOVE one another, for he who loves his fellow-man has fulfilled the law.

By nature right from birth, the human baby has the desire to love and to be loved! The family home, i.e mother and father…and in other cases, siblings are the first contact where the baby begins to understand and function in love. In receiving and giving love, the child develops an emotional bond with the family which gives the child a sense of security and being needed!

Well, as a child, I never had that complete sense of security…because my parents divorced when I was hardly 3 years old. My mother remarried soon after that…and my stepfather substituted the place of my biological father. Over the years, even though I didn’t know it…I held back my love. THE LOVE THAT WAS DUE TO MY NATURAL FATHER. My relationship with my stepfather was more of a formal kind with no particular emotional bond, while I was too much emotionally attached to my mother. But something else was also missing. As a teenage and in my early adulthood, I didn’t care much about men. And even when I got into a relationship…I never came close to surrendering my heart to any man. There was always a safe emotional distance between us.

INFIDELITY IN MARRIAGE

Matthew 5:27 ‘You have heard that it was said, Do not commit adultery. But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman LUSTFULLY has already committed adultery with her in his heart.

Let me start here with a true story. Many years ago, when I was a baby Christian, there was a couple who I really admired and looked up to. From outside, their marriage looked so beautiful and genuine and of course, naturally I wanted to have what they had; A marriage built on love, tenderness and a quiet respect. Then one day, my innocence was brutally violated when I found out that he, the husband was having an affair with his wife’s best friend. For days and weeks, I pondered as my heart ached if to tell her what I knew or not. Without the courage to face her, I cut and ran. Oh…you have to forgive me…but that’s what I did! Hoping against hope, I prayed privately for their marriage to find a common ground for healing and restoration but it was never to be. Many years down the road, the marriage came to an END, a very painful end!

And while I still have no answer to the question if I should have intervened then or not, I know that Jesus did intervene in the issue of INFIDELITY. No…he did not give us a foundation for divorce or how we should deal with others infidelity…but rather, when He spoke about adultery, He was addressing the married couples. You see, until you are married…or you are single dealing with a married person, you might not think much about infidelity. INFIDELITY in marriage as Jesus puts it, starts not as we know it…that is, the actual bed act…but rather with A LOOK….yes, THAT LOOK!

…BUT THOSE WHO KNEW JESUS…

Luke 23:48-49 When all the people who had gathered to witness this sight saw what took place, they beat their breasts and WENT AWAY. But all those who KNEW him, including the women who had followed him from Galilee, STOOD at a distance, watching these things.

It was on Good Friday that I first came across the above scripture. And it been the day of remembrance of Our Lord Jesus’ death, I had even thought about writing my thoughts from this scripture verses…but somewhat, I found another topic to write about. However, I told myself that sometime in the coming week, I would write from the above verses. Little did I know that it was the Lord who had restrained me until the proper time.

You see, the first thing that I notice which made me cry when I read the above scripture, was that even though many people who had gathered at Calvary had witnessed the events that surrounded Jesus until his death, many of them never STOPPED nor PAUSED to reflect on what had happened. For them, it was something unusual…but not strong or captivating enough to hold them back from the NEXT adventure in their lives.