Take Courage!!

Sometimes when trouble comes it is right to pray: "Lord, save me from my trouble!!".... or "HELP, Lord!!"

But other times this sort of prayer could be wrong... it could be our trying to escape from trouble, and God's wanting to do something different.

There are times for us to pray: "God show me the way through and give me the courage to do it!"

Some of our troubles requires courage and determination to face the giants!! We say, "I CAN do all things through Christ Who strengthens me!!" (Phil. 4:13)

God has a purpose for us in our trouble... He wants to bring us out as gold, refined by fire!! Gold, so pure, that He can see His image in it!! Let's not despise or reject His refining!! (See 1 Pet 1)

"Therefore do not cast away your confidence, which has great reward. For you have need of endurance, so that after you have done the will of God, you may receive the promise:

"'For yet a little while, and He who is coming will come and will not tarry. Now the just shall live by faith; but if anyone draws back, My soul has no pleasure in him.'

"But we are not of those who draw back to perdition, but of those who believe to the saving of the soul." (Heb 10:35-39)

The World Through My Eyes!

I'm finding is amazing how differently we all can see our world. And as the saying goes, "Beauty is in the eye of the beholder," is SO true. As I've browsed through Flickr, this has become so evident.

So I just want share how I see the wonderful world our Creator has made. I'd love to hear, too, how you see God's world.

What I find most beautiful are the little things. I love detail!! I think I put that down to being short sighted, seeing well close up, and without glasses the rest of the world is a bit of a blur. I do thank the Lord for glasses, so I can see the rest of the world... quite clearly. However, I think the Lord has programmed me to look for detail, which means I LOVE macro!! I love to see the ends of the antennas of a butterfly, and the tiny feet of a ladybeetle. It reminds me of how interested our God is in the minutest of things... and that He sees and cares about every detail of our lives.

The other thing I love is COLOUR!! (Pardon the spelling, my American friends, but we use the "U" down here... part our the British heritage!) Take, for instance, the beautiful Rainbow Lorikeets that visit my place everyday! (See previous posts!) To me, colour represents fullness of life. It is light at all spectrum. I guess colour is the thing I see first, and draws me to look closer.

The third thing I love is funny things, that put a smile on your face and make you laugh! I'm always on the lookout to spot those amusing incidents. Like sharing lunch with pelicans, lizards with blue tongue, smiling frogs, and laughing kookaburras. Our God is SO neat to gives us all these things to make us smile! Without them life would be pretty dull.

So that is the world as I see it... the things that I love. What do your eyes see?? I'd love to know what the world is like through your eyes!

Feel free to add your comments.... please!!

Taking things for granted!!

Hey, I don't know if you're like me, but it can be SO easy to take things for granted.

Take this picture for instance. I'm amazed that this one made it to Explore in Flickr, and was rated among the most "interesting".

For me, this was just a casual shot. I happened to go down to the river, wanting to take a pic of it, but on its own it looked very ordinary... nothing of interst in the foreground, so I found the willow tree and crouched down and snapped from there, and amazingly ended up with this wonderful shot that so many like.

I am reminded again of how beautiful my part of the world really is!! I feel so BLESSED!!

And as I was thinking about that, I started thinking about contentment, and I thought about the picture of my cat that I took a couple of days ago.

How "godliness with contentment is great gain" (1 Tim 6:6)!! What a perfect picture of con-tentment!! A cat sure knows how to relax!

Then I go to my Flickr account, and amazingly I find this in the comments about this very pic...

My friend, Bible Story Guy, Paul, writes:
'There is a choral piece by Benjamin Britten called "Rejoice in the Lamb." It is a wonderful piece, and there is a section titled "I Will Consider My Cat Geoffrey" where it says, "For he is the servant of the living God...he worships him in his way, and this is done by turning his body seven times round with elegant quickness" And then, "For there is nothing sweeter than his peace when at rest." I have seen with our cat that that is just so TRUE. It ends with, "For I am possessed of a cat... in whom I take occasion to bless Almighty God." I like that thought.'

So, how amazing is that?? The Lord pops the same thoughts into my friends head at the same time. I was trying to get my thoughts together about it, and the Lord had given those thoughts to somebody else!!

And one more thought! Paul, the apostle, writes:
"I have learned how to be content (satisfied to the point where I am not disturbed or disquieted) in whatever state I am." (Philippians 4:11, Amp)

The Colours of God's Love!

I showed this picture to a friend who is a bit colour blind, not able to distinguish reds and greens. I was so sorry that he couldn't appreciate the full colour of it.

O how vivid the colours are!! Being a dull day, when I took this particular one, the light must have so dull at that moment that the flash went off.... didn't happen with the other ones. As a result the colours came out much brighter... it was so pleasing!!

But as I've looked at it reminded me of the riches of God's love.

And look what I read that morning:
"I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know Him better. I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of His glorious inheritance in the saints, and His incomparably great power for us who believe......" (Eph. 1:17-19a, NIV)

How apt that is!! It reminds me, just as the flash enlightens our physical eyes to see the rich colours on the bird, God enlightens (shines in) our hearts to see and know the true richness of God's grace.

And again in chapter 3:

"I pray that out of his glorious riches He may strengthen you with power through His Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have the power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to KNOW this love that surpasses knowledge - that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.
"Now to Him who is able to do immeasurably more than we ask or imagine, according to His power that is at work within us, to Him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen." (v.16-21)

I see another analogy! Many Christians have a spiritual colour-blindness! Like how my friend cannot appreciate all these beautiful colours in the natural (and I'm so sorry he can't), many don't see the beautiful, rich colours of God's amazing grace and love!

Oh! That we could all SEE how truly blessed we are!!!

BLESSINGS!! YES!

(This posting should go before the previous one!!... got them out of sequence!)

On Tuesday night this week, our normal Bible study was cancelled due to sickness with some of the group. This gave me time to stop and reflect.... and realise how TRULY blessed I am.

I realised that sometimes we can get tunnel vision when it comes to seeing blessings. The ONLY thing I am lacking in the blessing line, is a bit of money!!.. (and if the Lord returned tomorrow, that wouldn't matter one bit!!)

I have health, a happy family, food and clothing, a house to live in, great kids, a wonderful husband, God's word, the Lord as my portion, an active mind, creative gifts, a good church, a beautiful part of the world to live in, etc, etc....... and of course, friendships!!

To conclude all that.... I AM TRULY BLESSED!!!! As the old hymn says, "Count your blessings, name them one by one.... and it will surprise you what the Lord has done!!" And God WILL deliver us out of our dilemmas!!... at just the right time!!

God speaks in unexpected ways!

On Wednesdays, I take a couple of classes at the local public school for Scripture (Religious Education). Yes, believe it or not, here in Oz, we are able to teach the Bible in the public school system!! Another true blessing!! I take the youngest classes... it's a real BUZZ!!

Anyhow, this week, the Lord showed me something for me as I was reading the story. Quite an interesting experience, when you're reading the story to the kids and the Lord is speaking to you at the same time. Story was about Zechariah and Elizabeth... and Zechariah narrates the story.

Does this part sound familiar to you?? Think I said almost the same thing last night??

"....We had prayed and prayed for God to give us a child, but my wife had never fallen pregnant. And now we were just too old.
"Now don't get me wrong - we were disappointed - but that never changed our belief in God! And just because we didn't get what we wanted, it never changed the fact that our God was a good God. We had so many other blessing in our life. We had both come from good families, we had great friends, and we were well-respected. I had even been blessed with a job as one of the head priests - a real honour among the people of Israel.
"So there is no way that Elizabeth or I could say that God was not good to us!..."

It struck me as I read it (reading for the first time in class, mind you... hadn't prepared it), "Hey, I said something like that last night!" ... the blessing bit, that is!! So I had to try not to get emotional as I was reading, but in my heart I was saying, "Thank you, Lord! This one's for me!"

Say, how neat is our God!!??

AWAKE, MY SOUL!!!

"AWAKE, my glory (my inner self); awake, harp and lyre! I will awake right early [I will awake the dawn]!"

Part of my reading the next morning! Here's what else I read:

"Be merciful, and gracious to me, O God, be merciful and gracious to me, for my soul takes refuge and finds shelter and confidence in You; yes, in the shadow of Your wings will I take refuge and be confident until calamities and destructive storms are passed.
"I will cry to God Most High, Who performs on my behalf and rewards me [Who brings to pass His purposes for me and surely completes them]!" (Psalm 57:1-2, Amp)

Then later on... this time in metrical:

"My heart is steadfast, Lord,
with music I will sing.
Awake, my soul! Wake, harp and lyre!
My song the dawn will bring.

"Among the nations, Lord,
to you I will give praise.
Among the peoples of the earth
my song of you I'll raise.

"Great is Your steadfast love,
which reaches to the sky.
Your constant faithfulness, O Lord,
extends to heaven high.

"Above the highest heavens,
O God, exalted be!
And over all the earth below
display your majesty."


And a song I recalled from from years ago that a friend wrote. Here's the first two verse that came to my mind that morning:

Loving me Jesus, see me here waiting,
No longer struggling, just calm in Your will,
Leading me on Lord, keeping me faithful, (not sure if that lines right)
In joy or in pain, Lord, Your purpose fulfil.

Lord, on Your grace I lean,
I give You all my trust,
Oh how I long simply to be
A loving companion of Christ.

Lord if you lead me through lonely sorrows,
Simply remind me Your caring won't cease;
And if I'm tested, Lord keep me faithful,
And if I grow fearful, Lord send me Your peace.

Loving You Jesus, living for others,
Helping my brothers..... (still trying to recall the last verse...)

God's Blessings?? Where??

What does it mean to be truly blessed by God?

Sometimes we look at our lives, and don't see any evidence of God's blessing! We may struggle with all sorts of issues, like poor health, lack of finance, family disasters and challenges, marriage splits, personal tragedy and grief, and the list could go on... and on!! And we come to the point of questioning God's love and faithfulness! "Where is God when I need Him?" We say, "Why God?.. when God? and HELP?"

Well, that was my prayer earlier this week!!

And that's how Mary and Martha would have felt with their brother Lazarus.... that's how the Israelites felt at the Red Sea.... and Peter when he walked on water.... and with Jehoshaphat when the Amorites and Moabites had come against them...

But I love the verse in 2 Chr 20.....
"Do not be afraid nor dismayed because of the great multitude, for the battle is not yours, but God's....You will not need to fight in this battle. Position yourselves, stand still and see the salvation of the Lord, who is with you, O Judah and Jerusalem." (v.15,17)

I believe God... I believe His word... but not seeing anything happening... YET!! And it says in His word to call on Him and He WILL answer!! So I'm waiting!! The only thing I can do is hang on to His promises!!... and realise it's only by His grace and mercy... not by my efforts!!

So earlier this week, I did not FEEL blessed!! (But hang on in there, things did change...)