Have hope. God is still in control.

Have hope. God is still in control.

by | Feb 14, 2021 | Bible Study, Faith Blog

When life looks like it is spiralling out of control; things like the pandemic that is currently sweeping across the whole world, it can be hard to believe that God is still in control – but He is.

God is the Creator of the universe and He promises in His Word, that He will be there to the end.

Isaiah 41:4 it says “Who has controlled history from the beginning? I, the Lord am the one. I was here at the beginning and I will be here when all things are finished.”

When you are in the middle of a world-wide pandemic, it is hard to see beyond it, but many such things have swept the world before and eventually, they have all come to an end and life has gone on.

There has been other pandemics, such as the Spanish Flu, polio, Swine Flu and Ebola.

There have been other significant and tragic events such as World War 1, World War 2, the Great Depression of the 1930’s, the global recession of 2008.

There have been devastating fires, floods, earthquakes and hurricanes.

In each of these events, eventually they all came to an end and people could begin to re-build their lives.

In the Bible in Psalm 90:4 it says:

“To You a thousand years are like a day that has just gone by.”

When we are in the middle of these hard times, it feels like they will never end, but to God, it is just like a day or a few hours.  He knows the end from the beginning.

This is when it is so critical to exercise our faith in our loving, all powerful God.

We need to walk by faith, not by sight
(2 Corinthians 5:7).

In Isaiah 41:9-10, God says:

“I have chosen you, and I have not turned against you. So do not worry, for I am with you. Do not be afraid, for I am your God. I will make you strong and help you. I will support you with my right hand that saves you.”

And in Isaiah 41:13 God brings us further comfort:

“I am the Lord your God. I am holding your right hand. And I tell you ‘Don’t be afraid. I will help you.’”

In Isaiah 41:17-20 it says:

“17 The poor and needy people look for water.
But they can’t find any.
Their tongues are dry with thirst.
But I, the Lord, will answer their prayers.
I, the God of Israel, will not leave them to die.
18 I will make rivers flow on the dry hills.
I will make springs of water flow through the valleys.
I will change the desert into a lake of water.
I will change the dry land into springs of water.
19 I will make trees grow in the desert.
There will be cedars, acacia, myrtle and olive trees.
I will put pine, fir and cypress trees
growing together in the desert.
20 People will see these things and understand.
Together they will think carefully about these things.
They will know that the Lord’s power did this.
They will know that the Holy One of Israel made these things.”

In other words, God can, and will, bless His people right in the middle of their hard times.

Even in Jeremiah 29:11, where God says:

“For I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord, plans to prosper and not to harm you; plans to give you hope and a future”.

Many people don’t realise that when God brought this encouraging and hope-filled news to His people, they still had to go through 70 years of being held captive in a foreign country.

But God promised that at the end of the 70 years, it would finally be over and they could come home and that their future would be good.

He encouraged them to make the most of the current situation. 

Earlier, in that same chapter, in Jeremiah 29:5-7 God says:

“5 Build houses and make your homes there. Plant gardens and eat what they produce. 6 Get married. Have sons and daughters. Find wives for your sons. Give your daughters to be married. Then they too can have sons and daughters. Let there be many more of you and not fewer. 7 Also work for the success of the city I have sent you to. Pray to the Lord for that city. If it succeeds, you too will enjoy success.”

Right in the middle of their captivity, God tells them to move forward with their lives.

God did the same with Joseph.  Right in the middle of Joseph’s captivity and when he went on to be in prison, God was with him the whole time and blessed him with favour and success, even when Joseph’s future looked very bleak indeed.

Joseph realised later on, after he was made ruler of Egypt that God had been there the whole time.  God had brought him through these hard times for a purpose – to save millions of lives during the famine.  God had used his time in captivity to train Joseph for leadership. 

God is always working on behalf of His people; no matter what it looks like.

So take heart.  Instead of trying to look through the fog ahead of you, look up and see the loving face of God assuring you that He is with you right now, in the middle of the trial and He will bring you safely through.

Jesus sets us free

Jesus sets us free

by | Feb 11, 2021 | Devotional

Jesus set us free from the power of sin and gives us a brand new nature here and now!

Romans 8:1-4 Living Bible (TLB)

So there is now no condemnation awaiting those who belong to Christ Jesus.2 For the power of the life-giving Spirit—and this power is mine through Christ Jesus—has set me free from the vicious circle of sin and death.3 We aren’t saved from sin’s grasp by knowing the commandments of God because we can’t and don’t keep them, but God put into effect a different plan to save us.

 

He sent his own Son in a human body like ours—except that ours are sinful—and destroyed sin’s control over us by giving himself as a sacrifice for our sins. 4 So now we can obey God’s laws if we follow after the Holy Spirit and no longer obey the old evil nature within us.

I don’t know about you, but being raised in a Christian home, I’ve read these scriptures a million times, but somehow, today, a new truth became clear to me – something I’ve never realised before.

Jesus sets us free from sin’s control over us!  He actually gives us a brand new nature here and now on earth.

He also gives us a helper (the Holy Spirit) to prompt and lead and guide us step by step throughout each day of our lives, to draw us away from sin and towards God.

I knew that Jesus died for my sins.  I knew that if I sinned, I just needed to tell say ‘I’m sorry, please forgive me’.

What I didn’t realise is that right now, here on earth, when we give our heart to Jesus and His Spirit comes to live inside of us, God actually 1) changes our nature and 2) sets us free from the control of sin.

Our deepest desire now is to know God; to come close to Him and to obey Him.

Before we give our heart to Jesus, our heart is selfish, self-seeking, and our natural nature is towards sin. We just couldn’t help it.

But now, with the Holy Spirit living in us, He leads us step by step along the road to healing and wholeness and away from our life of sin.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying that once you give your life to Jesus you will never sin again.  Unfortunately, we still sin.

The difference is that we don’t want to sin.  We are not just trapped in our sinful nature.  We have a new, God-filled nature, here and now, while we are still living on earth.

We have a helper on the inside of us, leading us, prompting us, away from sin and towards God.

Praise God who sets us free through Jesus!

Romans 8 – in easy to understand language

Romans 8 – in easy to understand language

by | Feb 5, 2021 | Bible Paraphrased, Bible Simply Understood, Devotional, Faith Blog, Romans, Shop

Romans 8

Before Jesus came to the earth, we didn’t have any hope.  We were lost in our sins.  When we give our life to Jesus, our sins are forgiven.  God does not condemn us.  He loves us.

Ever since God gave His law to Moses, we have been trying to obey that law – trying and failing. 

Our sinful, human bodies kept doing what was wrong. 

This is why we could never be saved by following the law – we simply could not follow it.  Our fleshly impulses and desires always got in the way.

But when Jesus came to the earth, He was tempted to sin just like we are, but He overcame temptation and did not sin – not even once.  And because He did not sin, Jesus fulfilled the law on our behalf and this set us free from it.

Instead of having a written law, God wrote the law on our hearts. 

When we give our life to Jesus, God fills us with the Holy Spirit.

The Holy Spirit reminds us of the law that God has put in our hearts and He also gives us the strength to withstand temptation.

While we live on this earth, we still struggle against sin, but now we have help, because the Spirit of Jesus has come into our hearts and he leads and guides us.

But we are not perfect.  We will not be made perfect until Jesus comes and takes us to Heaven.

At that time, He will take away our old, sinful bodies and give us brand new bodies and a brand new nature – one that will never sin again.  We will be free at last.  We patiently wait for that time.

In the mean time, we still live in a sinful body and this means that we still do sin. 

But now, all we have to do is ask God to forgive our sin in the Name of Jesus, and we are instantly and completely forgiven.  In God’s eyes, it is as if we never sinned.

As we walk with Jesus every day and follow the leading of the Spirit, we become more like Him. 

When we love God, we will still experience hard times because we live on this sinful earth, but God promises to take every hard situation and bring good out of it.  What a comfort this is. 

When you have God on your side, no-one can successfully come against you.  They might try, but they won’t succeed. 

God does not condemn us.  He loves us and He sent Jesus to save us.  Now Jesus is in Heaven, working continually on our behalf.

There is nothing at all – not any amount of trouble or hardship – that can separate us from God’s love.

 

There is no need to worry

There is no need to worry

by | Jan 31, 2021 | Devotional

Bible Text

Matthew 6:34 “Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself.
Each day has enough trouble of its own.”

2 Corinthians 12:9 “My Grace is sufficient for you.”

Life Application

Sometimes, it can be really hard not to worry about the future, especially in these uncertain times, but in Matthew 6:34 Jesus says to us “Do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself.”

Why does Jesus say this?

Because He gives us His Grace (his help, his strength, his wisdom) just at the time we need it, not before.

When we spend our time worrying about the future, it is like we are experiencing a future negative event over and over, when God hasn’t given us His Grace to go through it yet.

We may even be worrying about something that doesn’t even happen.  So all that worry, stress and emotional pain has been for nothing.

I’m sure many of you have heard the acronym for FEAR.

F            FALSE
E            EVIDENCE
A            APPEARING
R            REAL

Personal Story 

When our son was born with a condition called Achondroplasia (also known as Dwarfism or Short-statured), it was an absolute shock.  Not only would he only be significantly shorter than everyone else, but there was a myriad of medical issues that we may have to deal with.

We were worried sick about his health, the possibility of him being teased at school and about what his future may hold.

My sister said the most helpful thing at the time.

She said to me “try not to look too far ahead and worry about the future.  Just ask yourself, ‘can I handle him today?’  The answer was always ‘yes, of course I can’.
He was a beautiful, peaceful baby – an absolute delight.  I could handle him today.

After that, whenever I started to worry about his future or our ability to cope in the future, I would ask myself ‘can I handle him today?’ And every time without fail, the answer was ‘yes, definitely’.

This brought my thoughts back to the present time.  It helped me to stop worrying about the unknown future.

God gives us His Grace today for today.

Another example about God giving me His Grace just at the moment I needed it, was when we were going to a lunch for ‘Short-statured’ people and their families.

I knew it would be the first time we would meet adults with Dwarfism.  On the car ride over there, we were so nervous about meeting them.  We would be face to face with the reality of our son’s future.

But as soon as I knocked on the front door of the house, God gave me His Grace!! 

He miraculously took the fear and worry away instantly.  I was fully at peace, happy to meet these special people.  And we had a wonderful day together.  They were amazing people.

A couple of weeks ago, we celebrated our son’s 21st birthday.  At the party, it was obvious that he is so LOVED!!!  He has so many true friends who love him just the way it is. 

And he has turned out to be a wonderful young man.  We are so proud of him.  He is completely comfortable in who he is. He is a mature, fun-loving, responsible young man with so many close friends.  There has been some pretty serious medical issues along the way, but God has given us His Grace to deal with each one as they came along.

Looking back now, we realise that we worried for nothing!!! 

This is why Jesus says not to ‘worry about tomorrow’.

 

Conclusion

God is faithful.  He will always give us the Grace we need for any situation at just the right time, not before.

Trust God today.  Rest in His Grace today.  His Grace will be there for you tomorrow.

 

Prayer

Dear Loving God,

I’m sorry for worrying instead of trusting You.  Today, I choose to trust You completely, no matter how impossible things look.  Please give me your Grace for this one day.

In Jesus Name, Amen

 

God specializes in doing the impossible

God specializes in doing the impossible

by | Dec 21, 2020 | Bible Study, Faith Blog

Are you facing something that looks impossible?

Have you looked at all the possible angles and you can’t see a way through?

Are you depressed or anxious about your circumstances?

For most of us, 2020 has been one of the most challenging years of our lives.

Many of us have lost loved ones.  We have lost jobs and businesses.  We may have come to the brink of divorce. 

Whatever you are facing, it looks impossible. 

Yet Jesus specializes in doing the impossible.

In the Bible in the book of John chapter 11, we read the story about where Jesus raises Lazarus from the dead.

There is a link to the podcast at the end of this blog post.

On the surface, it might just look like a good story, but if you look deeply into what happened, we can gain great encouragement and hope for our own lives.

Even when life looks impossible, we can trust Jesus to come through.

John 11 verse 1 “Now a man names Lazarus was sick.”

Verse 3 “So the sisters sent word to Jesus, ‘Lord, the one you love is sick’.”

In verse 4 Jesus says to his followers “This sickness will not end in death”.

Great!  God has given us a promise that everything will be OK.

Verse 5 – 7 says “Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus.  So when he heard that Lazarus was sick, he stayed where he was two more days, and then he said to his disciples, “Let us go back to Judea.”

WHAT? Jesus loved them so He stayed where he was 2 more days?!!

Have you ever been in a desperate situation and although you believe God has spoken a word of promise to you, it seems like He is not doing anything?!!!

We cry out ‘Where are you God?’  You promise in your Word that you will look after us.  We are desperate for your help. 

And you hear nothing!  Just silence!  You don’t even feel like your prayers get any higher than the ceiling.  Where is God when you need Him most?

But if you keep reading the story, you can see that Jesus delayed coming on purpose.

He was planning a much greater miracle than the sisters could ever had imagined.

After 2 days, Jesus starts the journey to where Lazarus and his sisters live.

By the time he gets there, Lazarus is dead!!!!!

The situation couldn’t get any more impossible could it?

How do you continue to have faith when the situation looks this bad?

This is the time when our faith has to kick in to an even higher gear.

Remember in the book of Hebrews, chapter 11, verse 1, it says “Faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see”.

Faith is for those times where it doesn’t make sense; where there seems no physical way out; when it feels like the situation is beyond help.  We are at the end of our strength.  Hope has almost been extinguished.

TRUST GOD ANYWAY!

Back to John 11.

Verse 11 – 13 “After Jesus had said this, he went on to tell them, ‘Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep, but I am going there to wake him up.’ His disciples replied, ‘Lord, if he sleeps, he will get better.  Jesus had been speaking of his death, but his disciples thought he meant natural sleep.

Verse 14 – 15 “So Jesus told them plainly, ‘Lazarus is dead, and for your sake I am glad I was not there, so that you may believe. But let us go to him.’”

What?

Jesus is glad that He was NOT THERE!!

How can a loving God be glad that He was not there, just when you needed Him the most.

The truth is that God always has a greater plan; but we often don’t know what that higher plan is. 

From a human perspective, it looks like God has failed you, but from God’s perspective, it is all part of His perfect plan. 

It is often not until later on, that we are able to look back and see that God was there all the time. 

Have you ever heard the analogy that life is like a tapestry?  We are underneath the tapestry and God is on top of the tapestry.  From our perspective, all we can see is a big mess, with lots of knots and loose threads.

But from God’s perspective, it is a perfect pattern, coming together in just the right way.

He is still firmly in control.

Trust Him, no matter what.

In John chapter 11 verse 21 and 22, it says “’Lord, Martha said to Jesus, if you had been there, my brother would not have died.  But I know that even now, God will give you whatever you ask’.”

Even though, in the natural, Martha is heart-broken because she knows that Jesus could have saved her brother, but didn’t.  Yet she still shows that she has faith by saying ‘But I know that even now, God will give you whatever the ask’.

In verse 32, it says ‘When Mary reached the place where Jesus was and saw him, she fell at his feet and said, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.’

And verse 33 to 34, ‘When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who had come along with her also weeping, He was deeply moved in spirit and troubled. “Where have you laid him?” He asked.

“Come and see, Lord,” they replied.

And in verse 35, it says ‘Jesus wept’.

Remember that Jesus was both fully human and fully God.  When he saw the tears and the heart ache of this friends, he was moved with compassion and wept with them.

Verse 36 to 37 “Then the Jews said, “See how he loved him!”  But some of them said, “Could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man have kept this man from dying?”

Have you ever been in a difficult situation and you are holding onto your faith in God with the last shreds of your strength and someone comes along and says something that almost completely shatters your faith? 

Perhaps someone who doesn’t believe in God, or someone who only has a shallow faith and they encourage you to give up on God.

This is just what happened in the book of Job, where he was in such terrible suffering and his wife says to Job in Job 2:9 ‘are you still holding onto your faith? Curse God and die’.

But Jesus knew what He was going to do.

In John 11 verse 9, Jesus said “Did I not tell you that if you believe, you will see the glory of God?”

In other words, DON’T GIVE UP NOW!  HOLD ONTO YOUR FAITH IN GOD!

Then in John 11: 41 and 42 Jesus prays out loud to His Heavenly Father and says ‘Father I thank You that You have heard me.  I knew that you always hear me, but I said this for the benefit of the people standing here, that they may believe that you sent me’.

Then in John 11 verse 43 and 44, Jesus says “Lazarus, come out!!!” and with those words, Lazarus is brought back to life again!!!

Jesus knew that by waiting until after Lazarus was dead and then raising him to life, it was a much greater manifestation of God’s power than if he had simply healed him from being sick.

Remember back in John 11 verse 4, Jesus said ‘this sickness will not end in death’.

He knew that although Lazarus was actually going to die, the story would not end with his death.  Jesus would raise him to life again.

In Romans 8 verse 28 it says “we know that in all things, God works for the good of those who love Him.”

In other words, so matter what hard things we go through, God promises to bring good out of even the worst circumstances.  Trust Him.

7 Life Lessons we can learn from this Bible story

  1. God doesn’t always do things the way we expect Him to.
  2. No matter how bad our situation looks, God is in control.
  3. God feels your pain and looks on you with compassion.
  4. No matter what things look like, keep trusting God.
  5. When others try to discourage your faith and trust, do not listen to them.
  6. You may not understand now, but you will understand later.
  7. For people who love God, He promises to take bad situations and bring good out of them.
A beginners guide to studying the Bible

A beginners guide to studying the Bible

by | Dec 11, 2020 | Bible Paraphrased, Bible Study, Faith Blog

The first thing I do to begin my Bible study is to open up my computer and go to the Bible Gateway website.  I also prefer the ‘classic’ version of Bible Gateway, but you can choose which style you like that most.

The reason I like Bible Gateway so much is because it has so many different versions of the Bible to choose from.  It also has Bible Commentaries and other helpful resources, all the one handy place. 

You can also highlight Bible verses that you like in a variety of colors and it will save this for future reference.  It also allows you to type notes about the Bible verse and it save your notes for future reference.

I particularly like to read Bible verses in different versions and it really helps you to understand the meaning of what you are reading, from several different angles.  Each version of the Bible uses a slightly different interpretation of the original text.

My three favorite versions of the Bible are:

  • International Children’s Bible (ICB)
  • New International Reader’s Version (NIRV)
  • New International Version (NIV)

You can have more than one version open at the same time.

First, in the search field at the top, type in whatever you want to study. 

This search field is really flexible. 

You can type in a book of the Bible eg. ‘Romans’ or you could type in a specific chapter of the Bible eg. ‘Romans 1’. 

You can also be very specific, for example you could type in ‘Romans 8:28-29’.

You can also just type in a word or a name. 

For example, if you find yourself feeling anxious or afraid at the moment, you can type in the word ‘fear’, ‘afraid’, or ‘anxious’ or ‘worry’ and Bible Gateway will show you all the Bible verses that contain that word.

It’s so much easier than the olden days when you had to manually look up a Bible Concordance to find all the Bible verses for a particular word.

In this case, where I have typed in the word ‘anxious’ and clicked on ‘Search’, the first Bible text that came up was:

Philippians 4:6 “Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God”.

I’ve only found the first verse and already I’m feeling encouraged!

You might like to read more about this verse, by clicking on ‘In Context’, ‘Full Chapter’ or
‘Other Translations’.

‘In Context’ will usually show you the verse that is before and the verse that is after the verse you have looked up.  For example, if you click in context on this Bible verse, is says:

Philippians 4:5-7 “Let your gentleness be evident to all.  The Lord is near.  Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God, and the peace of God which transcends all understanding will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”

This is even better than just reading the one verse!

Not only is God telling us not to be anxious and to bring our problems to Him in prayer, but He also promises that when we do this, He will give us
His peace. 

If we really apply this to our personal situation, we know that we can relax.  God will look after the situation for us and give us His peace while He does it. 

What a wonderful promise!

‘Full Chapter’ will show you the whole chapter that this verse comes from.

‘Other Translations’ will show you the same verse in many different translations.  Each translation will have a slightly different interpretation and will help you to understand what is being said.

Another thing to note is that when you type in something in the search field, it defaults to showing
25 results per page, but you can change this to be 25, 50, 100, 250 or 500 results per page.

It’s totally up to you whether you use an online Bible or read a regular Bible. 

Personally, I find I really enjoy using an online Bible because I like copying and pasting Bible verses that are meaningful to me into a Word document.  Then I write notes underneath about what I have learned from that Scripture and how it applies to my life at that time.

You don’t have to do that, it’s just what works for me.

Try a few different things and see what works best for you.