Taught a Little, Learned a Lot

This was my response to a blog, when asked to sum up your life in 5-6 words.  Tricky isn't it?  You don't want to come across as big-headed or worse, a failure.

I would like to think that in my life so far I have been able to share things with family, friends and especially my kids that they can learn from me, even if it is only to share every possible way I've gone wrong so they may not make the same mistakes.

No matter how much we feel we can impart to others, there will always be room to learn more ourselves.

Psalm 119:33-40 (CEV)

³³Point out your rules to me, and I won't disobey even one of them.

³⁴Help me to understand your Law; I promise to obey it with all my heart.

³⁵Direct me by your commands! I love to do what you say.

³⁶Make me want to obey you, rather than to be rich.

³⁷Take away my foolish desires, and let me find life by walking with you.

³⁸I am your servant! Do for me what you promised to those who worship you.

³⁹Your wonderful teachings protect me from the insults that I hate so much.

⁴⁰I long for your teachings. Be true to yourself and let me live.

 

Who or what are we looking to learn from?  Celebreties, Sports heroes, Politicians..........God?

 

God's house, God's rules.

Why can't 'good' people get themselves to Heaven?

God is a loving God, surely he wouldn’t see someone who has been kind to their neighbours, brought up polite children and dunna lotta work for charidee sent to Hell?

Heaven is God’s home, and just like your home, there are rules. Love his son Jesus, repent of your sins, live your life as best you can to honour Him. Not too hard is it, even if you screw up the living to homour Him bit, he will forgive you!  And you may enter His house.

But what about the type of ‘good’ person I mentioned earlier?  I have a friend who won’t let anybody enter her house with their shoes on, (She’s a clean freak).  I love her dearly but, her house, her rules.  Think of the ‘nicest, goodest, sqeakiest, cleanest’ person you know, who you suspect may not be a Christian yet – if they went to the door of my friends house, they would have to remove their shoes, a really simple rule to enter her house.

Same person almost perfect, but as far as you’re aware they haven’t yet accepted Christ as their personal Saviour.  They get to the door of Heaven, is God going to let them in?  That will depend on their heart. God’s house, God’s rules.   You say “oh they’ve definitely got a good heart, remember they do all the charidee work etc.”

Oh yes, who’s that glorifying? God? Or perhaps it is for their own glory, or for their organisation, or the charity they work for.

We are clearly told in Ephesians 2:8-9 For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith-and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God-not by works, so that no one can boast.

Seems unfair doesn’t it.  God may turn you away from His house, because you didn’t accept His gift to you, you didn’t accept his grace and forgiveness.  The easiest thing in the world for anybody to do, you were such a ‘good guy’ as well, what a waste.

If you agree it seems unfair, think about your own house, your own life, your own rules.  It’s up to you who enters, and guaranteed there will be someone, somewhere, you wouldn’t admit to your house, so why should it be a free for all in God’s?

Of course it is free………… for all who are prepared to accept Him in their lives.

G.C.S.E's......meh......

My daughter gets her GCSE results today, her best predicted grades are D’s, but she is realistically expecting E’s & F’s.  From day 1 at school it was clear she was not going to get the A* grades.

I have obviously told her this doesn’t matter and tried to build her up where her strengths lie, I don’t think she always believes me, but then, we don’t always get on very well.  You see most of the time she hates me and I don’t know how to deal with that, especially when I am probably not the best at showing love and understanding because most of the time I hate myself so I agree with her!

But I do know that your school grades don’t define you, I do know that God has a plan for each of us, even my stubborn non-believing daughter.  God loves her and has her path set right out for her, if one day she asks for the wisdom to follow it.

My daughter is fantastic with small children, I don’t just mean she likes to play with them a little, she really knows how to responsibly look after them.  But she has given up going down the childcare/education route before she has even begun because she knows her grades won’t be that high! 

It is so frustrating to see her write off her best qualities because she hasn’t been examined in them.  I wonder how many other professional areas are losing fantastic candidates because they won’t get A-C in English or Maths?

Anyway, I will do what I should do, and that is pray that whatever the results and whatever her reactions to them she will realise that she is a loved /unique/ important /fallible/forgiven individual, she has her whole life ahead of her and no-one else can achieve for her what she can achieve for herself.

The Original Blog

I love going to blogs and podcasts as a source of teaching and faith building and encouragement, and they provide all that, but a couple of posts I read recently really reminded of the original source of our teaching and faith building and encouragement – The Bible.

God also revealed this to me recently when I decided I wanted to find out more about the women in the Bible, of course my first call was the internet, but when I actually just sat down and read Eve’s story for myself in the Bible (which of course I thought I was completely familiar with) it really spoke to me.

I really believe the Holy Spirit was guiding me to read that passage for myself and not just look at others views of it.

Eve gets a really bad wrap, but would any of us behaved any differently?  Do we sometimes not listen to the lies of the Evil one telling us if something seems good, surely God won’t mind us going after it?  After all we deserve it, right? Wrong.  We deserve nothing, but by God’s grace we are free to make right and wrong choices.

But look at what Eve achieved!  Without her you would not exist!  She was created by God to be a ‘suitable helper for Adam’ Genesis 2:18 She was his equal, She laid down the outlines for marital commitment, coming from Adam’s flesh to unite them as one being.  If man and woman in marriage become one person, that means man and woman must be equal.  You wouldn’t think your left side of your body was not as important as your right side would you?

God created a world that needed populating and Eve bore many children in pain to accomplish God’s plan.

If when the Serpent tempted Eve she had gone straight to God and said ”what should I do?”  God may well have said ”the choice is yours” or maybe he would have said “let me refer you back to our conversation where I said you could eat any fruit, but not from the tree in the middle of the garden or you will die” Genesis 3:3

What are you going to do?  God has already told us what to do in our lives, if we are not sure it’s ok to check with Him through his word.  Generations upon generations of people didn’t pass these scriptures down to be mass produced in every language conceivable for us to go, ‘hmmm, wonder what I should do, there’s got to be a blog or podcast on that somewhere’ Go to your Bible the answers are all there!

Don’t get me wrong, I am a massive fan of the #digidisciple and some of the blogs and podcasts I’ve come across have been phenomenally helpful, and I wouldn’t be writing this if I didn’t think someone somewhere would get something from it, just a warning that nothing can replace the Holy inspired word of God, The Bible.  The original blog.

Church At The Beach

When I was a child, Sunday was Sunday.  You missed 'Church' (it was called 'the meeting') for no reason whatsoever.

Sunday’s followed the same routine in our house week in, week out, perhaps not that unusual to other households, but to me it felt like we were very different and unusual.

There were no day-trips on a Sunday, no party acceptances on a Sunday, no loud shrieking and playing outside on a Sunday, no t.v. on a Sunday.....you get the idea.

Occasionally on a Sunday afternoon my Dad would take us out for a drive, we lived in a beautiful area of the countryside and I did enjoy those rides out and about “there and back again to see how far it was”. I loved taking in the greenery all around me that stretched out as far as the eye could see, and the higher we climbed as we drove, the more majestic the view. I took in the shapes of the trees as their silhouettes grew higher towards the sun.  The clouds that could make any object you could imagine from a dinosaur to a footballer. The hedgerows as they separated the blankets of bright greens and yellows.

What I appreciate now, but did not in any way realise or appreciate then, was that I was surveying God’s creation, this environment I adored was made for me, by the God that I also felt very annoyed with at being significant enough in our family, for me to be dragged to the meetings to on a very regular basis.

So.......last Sunday and this Sunday we didn't get up and go to Church, no, we took advantage of the glorious weather (and by that I mean it wasn't raining) you have to when you live in England, and we headed off for an hours drive to the beach.

Do I feel guilty?  No.  Am I less of a Christian?  No.  Should I have said to the kids, "I know today's the only day we have free, but you know we have to go to Church on Sunday?"  No.

God created this beautiful world, and I personally never feel closer to Him than when I am outdoors. Genesis 1:9,10 And God said, Let the water under the sky be gathered to one place, and let dry ground appear. And it was so. God called the dry ground land, and the gathered waters he called seas. And God saw that it was good.

Also I spent good needed quality time with my husband and kids, and whether they liked it or not, I pointed out God's goodness that was surrounding us to them!

Matthew 18:20 "For where two or three gather in my name, there am I with them.”

What have you 'missed' Church for lately?

Weekly Song Round Up

I had to confess to somebody this week that I didn't know if I had any love in me. To give or to receive, What is Love anyway?

My feelings surrounding most things are indifferent, the thing is I have such a non-opinion of myself that to offer emotional feelings to others or to accept them for myself can be quite hard.

I have only just been able to accept God's love, which I thank Him every day for, I don't know why I get it, i just do.  But love offered to me by another, I kind of don't really believe it, I don't think they're lieing, I just brush it off as being un-important.

I finished last weeks post by concluding All You Need Is Love.  I do believe this and if I can just learn to love myself (pass the bucket!) I am sure things will start to fall into place.

God Is Love, and he created us in His image, so that means we must be love, right?

It seems like such a cliche to not be able to quantify love, how do you describe it?  I know I am coming out of an emtional shut-down, so maybe this is 'normal' at the moment, and when I am fully up and running again, I will be bursting with so much love it will annoy those who are desparate for it at the moment! I can only pray so!

I have even just finished reading 5 Love Languages .........guess what, I couldn't identify mine!

What's yours?

Without Reason

If you don't believe in God, if God doesn't matter to you, do you accept that you are 'without reason'?

Music matters to me, but without God in my life, nothing matters, how could it?

Where would I find my purpose, my joy, seek comfort in my suffering?

Without God, where would I find beauty and peace, laughter and pleasure?

How can you have more belief in nothing, than something?

God matters, God gives us reason, God is something to believe in.