THANK YOU ALL

Thank you all for your kind words of encouragement. Yes…my family arrived in the UK on the 7th July and we have been trying to settle in. Obviously, there is still alot to be done…before we can move on but God has been faithful. Walking this road is a SWEET/BITTER experience in itself…but just as a friend sent me an email last week….OUR FAITH ought and should always look away….but LOOK UP at the AUTHOR and FINISHER of our FAITH. And while our circumstances and life sitiuations are different in every sense of that word….WE SHARE THE SAME FAITH….the faith that stays FIXED ON JESUS. The faith that Peter had when he walked on water towards Jesus. The faith that Hannah had as she cried out in faith to the Lord for a baby, the faith that Paul and Silas had when locked up in the prison. I am tapping into that SAME FAITH… and I hope and pray you will take the same grace today and walk down with me…towards the END of the promise.

BY THE WAY….Sarah laughed at the beginning out of fear but in THE END, she laughed out of pleasure. Whatever your reason for laughter….GOD IS FAITHFUL.

PS NOTE: I am not yet back on the net full time. So do bear with me.

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.

THE GRACE FOR VICTORY

2 Kings 13:18-19 Then he said, ‘Take the arrows,’ and the king took them. Elisha told him, ‘Strike the ground.’ He struck it three times and stopped. The man of God was angry with him and said, ‘You should have struck the ground FIVE OR SIX TIMES; then you would have defeated Aram and COMPLETELY DESTROYED IT. But now you will defeat it only three times.

Everyone who enters into a fight…hopes always to win. But there is always a WINNER and a loser. However, there is another different angle to any kind of fight. Sometimes, you might win by default or sheer luck. Thankfully, as a child of God…who is constantly faced with different kinds of battles…our perspective in a fight is…or ought to be that one of a victor. Yet…in spite of this awesome knowledge, we at times enter into our fight UNARMED and UNPREPARED to endure through to the end. At other times, we have no strength to keep our hands on the WEAPON for too long. That’s what happened to the King of Israel.

Israel was ever fighting different kinds of enemies. Before each battle, according to the instructions, each king was required to inquire from the Lord through the prophet. In the account from 2 Kings 13, we see Jehoash, King of Israel consulting Prophet Elisha before going to fight the Arameans. And this was Elisha’s instruction to him.

2 King 13:15-17 Elisha said, “Get a bow and some arrows,” and he did so. “Take the bow in your hands,” he said to the king of Israel. When he had taken it, Elisha put HIS HANDS ON THE KING’S HANDS. ‘Open the east window,’ he said, and he opened it. “Shoot!” Elisha said, and he shot. THE LORD’S ARROW OF VICTORY, the arrow of victory over Aram!” Elisha declared. ‘YOU WILL COMPLETELY destroy the Arameans at Aphek.”

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.

SIMPLY CHURCH!

Psalm 20:7 Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but WE TRUST in the NAME OF THE LORD OUR GOD.

What does SIMPLY CHURCH got to do with anything? You see, church…for you and I may have a whole lot of different meanings. And so does…CHARIOTS AND HORSES. Ask the nobles in the days gone by and you might found out that…CHARIOTS AND HORSES represented in those days…POWER, PROSPERITY & PRESTIGE. In the middle ages, those who owned and rode in HORSE AND CHARIOTS…were usually the CREME of the society, to be regarded with high honour…not because of anything they had done on their part but simply because one was born into aristocracy.

But what does SIMPLY CHURCH got to do with you and me? EVERYTHING...and much more. Church…and I mean church in the only place where you require no qualifications whatsoever to be part of…other than…allowing Jesus to take your lowly place by forgiving your sins and admitting you into AN ETERNAL ARISTOCRACY…in this life and in eternity. Yes…CHARIOTS and HORSES can seem for some like a secure place…of power, prosperity and prestige…but SIMPLY CHURCH…is more secure than all the horses and chariots put together. Why? Because the bible says so:

THE WIND OF CHANGE

John 3:8 The WIND blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of THE SPIRIT.

Last night, as I put my head down to sleep, I heard the Lord speak gently into my spirit. “THE WIND IS CHANGING.” Let me explain a bit. You see, sometime at the end of November last year, our landlady came with this unexpected announcement. Our house…where we moved in on our wedding night…and where our daughter has called home was soon going to be sold. Suddenly, our lives were turned upside down. For one…renting a house in our town is almost an impossible affair. Most houses are built for sale…and rarely do you find a house for rent. Secondly, because of the scarcity of rental houses, those available are at exaggerated rates.

But earlier in September, we had began thinking of looking for our own house to buy and settle down. We had an eye on a particular house…and the excitement was getting on as we prepared to get things moving in the right direction. Then…again, quite unexpectedly, the plans to relocate were soon interrupted. God closed the doors on us. Yes…the time for CHANGE was here but THE WIND OF CHANGE was not. Finally, when our landlady gave us notice of three months to move out…something happened to both of us, my husband and I at the same time. It was as if God had been waiting for this ONE MOMENT in time for a long time. Without a a long discussion or compromise, we knew that NOW…was the time for us to move out. Not out of our house…but rather to move on with THE WIND OF CHANGE.

THANKSGIVING!

Today, I give thanks for the Lord’s goodness and promises over my life. I remember…and lift up my voice in JOYFUL SURRENDER. He that promised is well able to bring into completion what He began in you and me. Join me as I rejoice in Him and through Him.

God will bring you and me to OUR DESIRED HAVEN:

Psalms 107:28-30
Then they cried out to the Lord in their trouble, and he brought them out of their distress. He stilled the storm to a whisper; the waves of the sea were hushed. They they were GLAD when it grew calm, and he guided them to THEIR DESIRED HAVEN.

You and I offer Him OUR THANKSGIVING:

Psalm 107:31-32
We gave THANKS to the Lord for his unfailing love and his wonderful deeds for me. We EXALT him in the assembly of the people and praise him in the council of elders.

I don’t know at what point you are in life, but remember…He is still MIGHTY to save, heal, deliver, restore and make all things NEW! Come to His Gates with praise and to His Courts with THANKSGIVING! Say…the Lord is good and His mercies endures forever. Rejoice, rejoice and again, rejoice!

GLORY TO OUR KING, now and forevermore!

NAKED TRUST

Genesis 22:5 He said to his servants, ‘Stay here with the donkey while I and the boy go over there. We will worship and then WE WILL COME BACK TO YOU.”

Of late, I have this strange yet not frightening feeling that someone is watching my every move. Its almost as if…my privacy is being violated at every step I make but at the same time…I don’t feel exposed to danger. This morning, the Lord finally put these words into my heart. NAKED TRUST!

Let’s begin by defining these two words separately;

NAKED means…having the body unclothed; undressed; having no covering; EXPOSED; unsupported by authority etc.

TRUST means…reliance on and confidence in the truth, worth, reliability, etc., of a person of thing; faith; custody, charge or care of; to allow someone to do something with the confidence in his/her good sense of honesty etc.

What is NAKED TRUST then? Naked trust can be defined therefore as a show of PUBLIC CONFIDENCE in a person or thing.

We all get excited when we read the story of Abraham as he waits for God to fulfill his promise to give him a son. It takes trust to believe God will do as He promised…in spite of the many obstacles along the way. Abraham believed God…and in time….Isaac, the son of promise was borne to him in his old age. After sometime, we see the very same God who gave Abraham his son come back with a strange request. A request which has no promise attached to it. I WANT YOUR SON! Take him to the altar…and I will meet you there.

SOW YOUR SEED WELL

Ecclesiastes 11:6 SOW YOUR SEED in the morning, and at evening let not your hands be idle, for you do not know which will succeed, whether this or that, or whether both will do equally well.

For those who read my blog regularly, you might be aware that I have complied a manuscript…which someday I hope to find a publisher and yes…my memoir will finally hit the bookshelves. But meanwhile as I wait and trust God for the opportunity to get published…I want to share and rejoice with one of my blogger friends, Elaine Olsen.

Although I don’t know Elaine personally, I met her through the blogging world sometime in December 2009 and my heart was hooked to her writing ever since. May I say, she has a passion for the Lord, her family…and yes, the written word. Every time, I visit her blog….PEACE FOR THE JOURNEY, my heart is always stirred by the passion in her words…words which cut through and bring at times relieve, at times a radical change of heart but at most, I feel her heart…and my own lost in the things and purpose of God for her life. She is a LISTENER...and God is speaking into her heart…and she in turn, writes it out for you and me, to help us along our journey towards our heavenly dwellings.

She has SOWN HER SEED WELL….and the Lord has made a way for her. A few weeks ago, she got her first book published and I truly recommend it for reading! The book title is;

PEACE FOR THE JOURNEY:in the pleasure of his company
~f elaine olsen~

For the details on how to purchase your copy, please click on the link above! SOW YOUR SEED WELL…God is faithful.

2 Corinthians 9:10 Now he who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will also supply and increase your store of seed and will enlarge the harvest of your righteousness.

God bless you!

A TIME TO REMEMBER AND CELEBRATE!

Tomorrow is my husband’s birthday. It will be the 8th birthday we will be CELEBRATING together…as a couple and now, as a family. His birthday is made up of many fine and treasured memories of our times together. The Lord has been gracious…oh, yes…too gracious. Like David, I REMEMBER and in prayer I ask;

‘WHO AM I, LORD GOD, AND WHAT IS MY FAMILY, that You have brought me this far? And as if this were not enough in Your sight, O GOD, You have spoken about the future of the house of Your servant. You have looked on me as though I was the most exalted of me, O God. 1 Chronicles 17:16-17

Our past….has been MEMORABLE
Our present...is PALATABLE
Our future…will be INCREDIBLE

I met my husband almost 8 years ago while he was a missionary brother in the Catholic congregation of the CONVENTUAL FRANCISCANS FRIARS...whose founder was ST. FRANCIS OF ASSISI in the 12th Century. On that first birthday together, I gave him a little book with beautiful proverbs and sayings unaware that 8 years down the road…some of the words in that little book who come to pass…in ways unimaginable.