The train of His robe FILLS the temple

I apologise for the lack of blog recently-I have a lot on and generally haven't got round to writing the blog....bleh-I'm going to try and make this one pretty quick as I have 2 saved in the draft section that I did not manage to finish...

I was reminded again by God of something truly wonderful, which God lead me to share on Sunday morning so I've decided to put it out there to share with you all...In Isaiah 6v1 it says:

In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord, high and exalted, seated on a throne; and the train of his robe filled the temple.

When we were worshipping on Sunday I was reminded of a preach that I heard Duane White speak on this verse and he shared that in the times when this verse would have been written, when a King went to war with another king-whichever King lost-his robe would be cut and would be added to the robe of the victorious King. So do you see?? When the train of his robe fills the temple-He has beaten EVERY enemy, He has been victorious over them ALL and their robes have been added to HIS...he is the victorious one.

So what does that mean for us?? It means Jesus is the ultimate victorious King and He, if He is your King is victorious over all your enemies too, every sickness, every disease, every accusing voice that you tells you that you have no right to enter the kingdom of God or that tells you something that is contradictory to Word of God, you can-in Jesus name disarm and defeat them all because He, our King and Captain already has. By the way-it fills the temple...the Word says our body is the temple of the Holy Spirit...just a thought.

HALLELUJAH!!

Where is your treasure

"For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also ,"

Matt 6:21, Luke 12:34

This verse came to mind today and I've not been able to stop thinking about it...When I've heard this verse spoken on or when I have thought about it-treasure has been time or talents or skills but actually when you look at the passage it is in the context of finance. The treasure that Jesus is talking about here is money...cash,wages...

I think about money alot more these days than I ever used to - partly because I now work for a debt counselling charity CAP and also because, if I'm honest-I earn less than I have preciously in my post graduation career...

Money is the language everyone in the world understands-whether you have alot of alittle, you know about money-its primarily the thing we understand as having value...which is why Jesus's statement cuts right to the heart, or at least it should for us here in the West because if we are honest its the only thing that we understand the value of. Whilst we know that time and skills are valuable I don't believe we understand their value until they have a price tag on them.

That then begs the question, what do I place value on?where does my money go?if it all goes on food does it mean that's where I am seeking to satisfy myself with that and not trusting in God for my daily bread?If I am spending my money on make-up and clothes, am I looking to spend money to form my identity in the exterior rather being content as a child of God?

Please hear me I am NOT saying we should not spend money on ourselves, on nice food to enjoy what God has given and buying nice clothes, if you can afford it, to show off the creation God has made...but Jesus says what we invest with our 'treasure' in, that's where our heart is...is it in material things, or donations or loving people, social action or the church?

Where is your heart?

Well I thought 1 month was a long time not too blog...

But 6 months of no blog....thats shocking!!I can only apologise for that...
So after 6 months you may wonder what wonderful insight I have to share?what fantastic peral of wisdom do I have up my sleeve?

Well...the way that I'm feeling at the moment, not alot really-since I last wrote I've had some rough times but also some amazing time like New wine and M+M 010 (as always :) ) but there hasn't been any major revealtion, but something that struck me the other day...
I was listening to desert song by Hillsong and refrain, which I've always enjoyed hit me again - it goes like this:

All of my life,
In every season
You are still God
I have a reason to sing,
I have a reason to worship

As I listened I realised whilst major revealtions about God are wonderful and as He reveals more of Himself to us that causes us to worship with a new song, maturity comes when you can, whatever feelings may tell you-God is still worthy of praise, of adoration, worship...

Whether we are walking through a desert or in the middle of the mountain top or we are finding the race abit tricky...He is STILL God and so we ALWAYS have a reason to sing...to worship.

Life is full of ups and downs but Thou on Lord...

I can't believe now long it has been since I wrote an entry...I apologise...

As the title suggests, I've had a fair bit going on recently. Particularly in this past week in the job I do for the debt counselling, CAP, I have experienced the extreme joy of seeing a client have an actual miracle of being debt free, another client and her mother come to church for the first and enjoy it...to the extreme sadness of having a client die and their having to be investigated...and on top of all this, having to work extra hours and take on greater responsibility at work
Previously I will admit that I under lesser circumstances I have broken down, said to God its not fair and slowed down in my walk with him in order to try and sort out the mess on my own...which doesn't work! But Praise God as he tells us in the Word-that when we are in Christ, He changing us from one degree of glory to another (2 Cor 3:18) and I have changed, I realise now-looking back...Yes I cried in both circumstances but not once did I question, did I wonder about the exist of God or His kindness or goodness...those questions never entered my mind-I learnt that I need to surrender and to trust (realising the increase of my faith in Christ!) I did not realise the truth of this until last night when we sang a song at choir last night. Its one we have sung for a long time, but with everything that had happened over the past week-the words had a new meaning to me.The chorus goes like this...

For Thou Oh Lord, are a shield for me. The glory and the lifter of my head.
For Thou Oh Lord, are a shield for me, the glory and lifter of my head.

I understand that these are words of comfort for those in troubled times but if you think about them, they are so much more than that. These words, based on scripture, are a beautiful illustration of what God does for us.

In our circumstances He is our shield, protecting us to make sure that what we face is not too much to bear. He is our protection and guard and with Him I know I can face the battle.

Our glory-in all the good times, when good things seem to rain down-He is the cause, He is the one who made it happen, He is our Glory...He is the only way that we can have any glory, it says in the Word all good things come from Him and therefore any good from us is from Him anyway. He is our glory.

He is also the lifter of our head-in hard times, this calls us to raise our head above the circumstances and focus on Him but in the good times reminds us that a) the best is yet to come and b) that He, as I said, is the only one who can bring our good times anyway-He is the only one who can bring us through. Jesus tells us in JOHN 15, apart from him with can do NOTHING (verse 5)-we can't produce good fruit, which includes patience,kindness,goodness,gentleness...without Him. He is the source of our everything...He has to be...and that is SO liberating knowing He is in control and that ALL He does is good...

I am a FRIEND of God

Apologies for not writing the blog earlier...realise its been over a week!Sorry.
Over the past couple of weeks there have been many things that have flown around my head to write but all went away again.But now theres one thing that really struck me tonight...and its to do with the title of the piece.
As I was driving back from choir tonight I was thinking about life-what God has got me doing etc and reflecting on a sermon from yesterday about 'destiny detours' and I thought and in my own thoughts I thought about my singleness...25 years of it...and a little bit of my heart started to pang on my ipod comes the song 'I am a friend of God'. The lyrics go like this:

I am a friend of God,
I am a friend of God,
I am a friend of God,
I am a friend of God He calls me friend

Simple but effective...As far as I know its based on Jesus's own words.

I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master's business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you.John 15:15

Then it struck me-I am a FRIEND of God...Yes intimate relationships, boyfriends, girlfriends and marriage I'm sure are wonderful, but at the moment I am SO very very blessed by my friends who God has placed in my life and yet with all of them-I have God who has chosen to be MY friend. He wants to know me, spend time with me, laugh with me...A friend sees you in your very worst and very best moments and still loves you...and God CHOSES to be that with us.As the verse says-We are no longer servants, we are friends-we can know his heart, what he thinks about situations, about us. We can spend as much time with him as we want...He loves us and its up to us to be his Friend...its a 2 way thing for a true friendship. There can be friendships where only one person sees it-but thats not friendship-thats infatuation...God desires friendship with us.
So how can I say I am lonely and am missing intimacy. I can be as intimate as I chose to be with the Saviour of the universe. I AM a friend of God...are you??

Going Back...

To be honest I have had sooooooo many ideas about what to write in the blog this week(thank you Lord) but yeah its going be a brief one again...Just to ask the question-do you ever feel like you're going back in time?or to put it another way, do you ever feel like you seem to be dealing with something-an issue-or something that you already have seem to dealt with?
Recently I have found myself working at the Cornish bakery again...this is the same place I worked at-that God provided for me to work at when I first graduated 3 years ago. I have to be honest a little thing in the back of my mind said, 'have we not moved on from here?' But I remembered a sermon from a podcast-Stuart Bell spoken on 'When God takes you back' and listening to it again I realised-and thinking about my own experience there are points in our lives when God takes us back-either to triumphal moments to remember His goodness, His mercy, His grace.
But there are also times when God takes us back, I believe, to teach us again. When I first worked at the bakery 3 years ago-I will be honest there was a lot of things I had to deal with, pride, a superiority complex etc and praise God in those 6 months he taught me so much...and now I'm back there again-is it maybe that I need to relearn some lessons from the first time that I have forgotten or maybe to teach me knew things I don't know but I know that its not a bad thing...at all. As Christians (and this again something I've had to learn) as we grow in our faith, as we learn more it is easy for us to forget the old lessons, the foundations that we learnt but a number times in the Word-particularly tells the early church 'Do not move again from it'. One major quote on this is Paul in the first letter to the corthians says:

¹Now, brothers, I want to remind you of the gospel I preached to you, which you received and on which you have taken your stand. ²By this gospel you are saved, if you hold firmly to the word I preached to you. Otherwise, you have believed in vain. ³For what I received I passed on to you as of first importance^a]">[a]: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, ⁴that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures," 1 Cor 15:1-4

That's quite clear really isn't it...and its important to think that if a building has foundations that move then it will collapses and its the same for our Christian lives. However-we need to remain teachable and where have got things wrong, to change...that's why we need to keep going back. To keep the foundations strong and secure and sometimes to change things that need to be...

Christmas time...

Yes, I'm sorry I know its abit early and I'm normally one for saying Christmas stuff should be kept to decemeber...But last night at gospel choir we were practicing our Christmas songs and theres one called 'Peace on Earth' and the chorus goes:Glory to God in the highest,Peace on Earth, Good will to All men, Glory to God in the Highest, Jesus Christ has come to save Us from our Sin

And it just hit me like a lightening blot-How AWESOME is our God...This is what the angels proclaimed on the mountain side to the shepards to announce the birth of Christ. As far as we can tell from Scripture there have been 430 years of silence from God-no more prophets that we know of, his people were in exile and then suddenly(at just the right time) Jesus comes into the world...

If you were speaking to a bunch of people who had turned their backs on you-who kept ignoring what you were telling people to tell them on your behalf...I know I would want some serious words with them...But God does not chose to do that, He choses to pronouce peace and a way back to him that is all done by HIM...He doesn't come with a big stick to tell them off-He tells them He has good news-Ultimately its about Glory to Him (as it should be) but...its GOOD WILL TO ALL MEN...Yes the rebellious lot that haven't been listening...

After 430 years, God has not abanndoned them to their own fate-He has not forgotten them, in His perfect timing-He has not told them off-Hes pronouced Good news...

How loving, merciful and gracious and mighty is our Saviour...Thank you God for Christmas time