You're not you when you're hungry

 The Snickers advert puts this across brilliantly. 

"You're not you when you're hungry" is something we all recognise to the point where a new word has been invented - HANGRY

Can't think straight.

Mental and physical fatigue

Tetchy

No concentration

Unpleasant to be with

Self-preservation kicks in

As Christians we can draw the parallels - we're not us, as in God's original purpose and design, if we're starved of the bread of life, the refreshment He offers, the pure living water, the Word of God. 

We are fearfully and wonderfully made, knitted together in our mother's womb, lovingly designed before the beginning of time to be who He predestined us to be, to do the works He preordained us to do. Then prepared and positioned according to His perfect plan. Should we choose to accept it our mission is ............

So we might be able to fast this Heavenly refreshment for a while but unless we come back to our very source of life we can never achieve who He has designed us to be. 

Think about it. 

When faced with the inevitable trials that this fallen world throws at us, we have a choice. Face them in our own strength with all the limitations and uncertainties involved, or face life as a Child of God, empowered by the Holy Spirit who indwells the Christian, trusting in His almighty power which is the same as that which raised Jesus from death. 

Psalm 23 expresses this in different ways as you work through the text - rich pastures, still waters, following, trusting the Good Shepherd through good times and difficult ones, all the time getting closer to the time when we see Him face-to-face. 

No prizes for placing all the quotes! 😉

Have a blessed day 

A prayer for when you feel like giving up

 

Running at the right pace

 

My previous blog was called "While I was Running" and contained lots of "big thoughts" most often thought whilst I was, well, running. Then I stopped running (long story) and the blog sort of drifted off into old-blog-land. 

Now I'm trying to run again and found the Couch to 5K app very useful in terms of how to build up the training, how to breathe, how to set the pace. My trainer was Laura and she would constantly advise and encourage during the run.  

Having achieved 5K (absolute maximum distance!!) I then would often listen to something else such as inspirational teaching or worship music. 

Then the bad weather arrived and running went on hold for a bit, as did other fitness training - with the inevitable result. 

So, back into it, I started again and started listening to fantastic sermons by Alistair Begg (Truth for Life - highly recommended) - however the running seemed really hard and I was getting a bit despondent at the thought that maybe I was too old to try and get fit. 

That was until yesterday when I swapped Alistair for my favourite worship tracks and managed a lot better. Then towards the end of the run when I was getting really tired and having to dig deep as they say, the chorus "It is well with my soul" just happened to be playing. Also, I ran at a better pace, in time with the music, so lasted longer. 

Now I don't believe in coincidences and the juxtaposition of my physical state with the words in my ears made me think. This is what I thought:

1 It's really important to run at the right pace - in all of life, not just in fitness training. 

2 We can get excited by inspirational teaching and rush off in our own strength, or too fast. 

3 Worship is really important - it keeps us in tune and in time with the Lord. 

Happy running 

😎

A Prayer

 Father, thank you for having a plan for my life before I was even born. 

Thank you for being at work in every unseen detail of my life.

I am so grateful that I get to go through life with you alongside me.

Please show me how you are shaping my life for your glory and my good.

Help me to become an active participant in Your Kingdom.

I ask this in Jesus' name.

Amen

Good but not safe

 This is how Aslam the lion is described by C S Lewis, and is the allegorical description of Jesus. 

Along with, hopefully, all other born-again believers, I want to experience a closer relationship with this God whom I worship, but do I know what that means? Really? 

In human terms, "a closer relationship" brings to mind a pleasant experience of love, affection, a sharing of hopes and desires, maybe a physical closeness depending on the type of relationship. But who is this God we seek to approach? In asking the question I don't claim to have all the answers, but having recently read through the first few books of the Old Testament I feel the need for caution. 

In the New Testament we find Jesus who is God and who is approachable. We read passages about love, affection, peace, joy, healing, provision, freedom from worry, salvation for all without cost - all very attractive reasons for choosing this god over others who demand more. To our western thinking where the individual is key, where prosperity and ease are the goals, we can distort the true nature of God by concentrating only on the "nice bits"

 If this is where we're at we face the danger of coming unstuck big-time when things get tough. People ask "where is god now?", "How could a good god let this happen?", "Where are my blessings?", "Where is the healing and prosperity?"

 Maybe our vision of God needs to expand to include what he shows of himself before he revealed the plan for salvation through Jesus. 

Adam and Eve met the God who banished them from paradise for eating the wrong fruit. Noah met the God who wiped out the worlds population to start again with a faithful family. Moses met the God who spoke out of burning bushes, delivered plagues to Egypt, shielded Moses in the cleft of a rock so that he wouldn't fry Moses as he passes by, the god who caused the earth to open and swallow thousands of Israelites, the God who commanded rituals, blood sacrifices, glorious tabernacles, who gave detailed laws on who could approach and how it was to be done ........ I could go on but this God doesn't seem very cuddly! 

We must learn about and try to understand this side of the nature of God before we can appreciate the enormity of what Jesus has done for us. Unless we grasp the eternal gulf that is between sinful man and the perfect, holy God we will never really appreciate that from which we are saved. Unless we take on board the fact that we are entering His eternal kingdom and not that He is simply bowing down to ours we will get stuck in some sort of distorted prosperity gospel.

 God is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, self-control. He is good, perfect, holy. This is his nature, not a lifestyle choice. We can truly approach him only on his terms. Yes he longs for fellowship with us as his beloved creation, but we need to understand the cost. We need to understand why Jesus alone was the only one who could bridge the gap. 

Let us be careful to approach Him as He has revealed Himself, and not invent our own God from the best bits as we see them.

 Let us be careful to discover more about this God who loves us with passion we could hardly even imagine, this God who we will one day meet as either judge or saviour, this God who is good but not safe.

 

 

 

Slaves yet free

 
The phrase "freedom in bondage (slaves) to Christ" appeared in something I read recently. For those who've been around church for a while, this might make sense but to many it will seem confusing, even a bit daft. You'd think the terms "free" and "slaves" don't belong together. 

Definition of a slave: (i)A person who is the property of and wholly subject to another and forced to provide unpaid labour. (ii)A person entirely under the domination of some influence or person.

I felt the need to sit and consider this matter further, to be able to break this phrase down into something which might make more sense. 

So the word "slave" generally has negative connotations in the usually accepted sense since it implies coercion. However the quality of life of a slave necessarily depends on the character of the owner. Let's ask a few questions about being a slave to Christ. .

Q: If I am a slave, who owns me?

A: Jesus

Q: There is a cost to buying a slave - what did I cost? 

A: He paid with His life - nothing else was valuable enough. 

Q: Why did He do that?

A: Because He has loved me since before time began

Q: Again, Why?

A: Because otherwise my sin would condemn me to death unless the penalty, price, cost was paid. Jesus paid for that - a life for a life, so that I can spend eternity with him. (Another strange concept - He died, yet lives for ever. The tomb was empty because He had risen)

Q: So He says He owns me - what if I don't want to be owned by anyone but myself?

A: That's where the freedom bit comes in - despite the fact that I cost Him His life, He still allows me to choose whether or not to submit to that, whether or not to accept that I belong to Him. 

Q: If I decide that it's OK for Jesus to own me, is there then a set of rules to obey? And what's the punishment for not obeying?

A: The only rules Jesus ever said were (i) that we love God with all our heart, mind, soul and strength, and (ii) that we love our neighbour as ourselves. There is no direct penalty for failing, only that we move ourselves out of close fellowship with Him. We only need to repent and turn back to find Him waiting for us. 

Q: What are the benefits for me here and now?

A: Freedom! Freedom from the enemy of our souls (Satan), freedom from the bondage of sin, freedom to be who I am created to be. 

So I conclude that I am bought with the blood of Jesus who sacrificed Himself to purchase my freedom - before that I was a slave to the prince of this world (Satan) whether or not I was aware of that fact. There is no middle ground. It's one or the other. Denying the existence of God and of Satan doesn't make either of them go away. Because of what He did, Jesus technically owns me but leaves me free to choose whether or not to submit to that fact. 

As for me, I chose Him a long time ago and have never regretted it. I look forward to spending eternity in the presence of my Lord, Master, Saviour, Brother, Friend - starting now

Micah 6:8 "He has shown you, O mortal, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God".

I thought of this verse whilst meditating on the Verse of the Day from my phone app. The verse was 1 Peter 5:6 

"If you bow low in God’s awesome presence, he will eventually exalt you as you leave the timing in his hands".

These verses demand some self-examination regarding our attitude towards God. For example, how often have we prayed,"God, if you will do.......... for me, then I will ............" (You can fill in the blanks).

Please know that our Sovereign Lord, gracious, merciful and loving God does not perform for favours. Oh we might dress it up as laying out a fleece (as in Giddeon), or looking for guidance, but let us be very careful we are not trying to bargain with God. 

Another worldly thought that can result in a creeping resentment towards God might be, "God I've been really good at/faithful in.........so surely I deserve ..............When do I get my reward?"

We must be very careful to understand that our salvation is through Jesus alone, His death in our place, His resurrection and His eventual return. We can do nothing to earn it, God can't love us anymore than He does. It doesn't depend on what we do or don't do. Our service to Him must be as a response to His love for us, not a means of earning it. But oh how the world's way of thinking creeps in if we're not careful!

How about this one:"My leadership team doesn't recognise me for all the hard work I put in. Why hasn't God prompted them to elevate me to a higher position? Are they not listening to Him?"

Jesus talked often of obedience, and the verse from Micah sums that up. What God desires from us is humble obedience to Him, and that we share His love, mercy and grace with those around us. Not so we gain reward, not as a tit-for-tat bargain. 

Though things might be difficult for us at present we have the promise that He will lift us up at the right time. Sometimes there is stuff we must endure - if it's not through our own disobedience, it will be to strengthen and refine us. 

We have the promised Holy Spirit within us - the same Spirit that raised Jesus from the dead! He will never leave us or forsake us, we are not abandoned or unrecognised in His Kingdom. He knows what we need, where we often only know what we want. He is faithful, trustworthy, compassionate, all-seeing, all-knowing, eternally loving. 

So let us make sure to check our response to Him. 

Have a blessed day. 💖