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LEARN TO REST IN JESUS!

(June 4, 2021) Carol Round encourages us to draw closer to God…

Confession time!

I’m a recovering perfectionist addict. Rest doesn’t always come easy for me.
 
Recently in a national advice column, a woman wrote in about her ‘drive to be productive, to take action, to keep things organised, and stay perfectly on top of everything.’  In other words, she was battling perfectionism. Oh, how I could relate. At least to the ‘old’ me.
 
The writer, a young woman, recognised her problem. She was so overwhelmed by her drive to do everything perfectly, she had trouble sleeping. Her question for the advice columnist at the end of her letter read: ‘How do I learn to become okay with being still and to rest better?’
 
Learning to become okay
As I read the advice columnist’s reply to this young woman, it was as if she were speaking to the younger me. The younger me could have written this letter, seeking help for the desire to please others by striving for perfection. However, I hadn’t recognised at my younger age what the advice columnist explained to the letter writer.
 
Perfectionism is often inherited. I was in my late 40s when I realised my mother was a perfectionist. And so was I. But it wasn’t until I experienced new life through a relationship with Jesus that I was able to begin my journey of letting go.

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THE ESSENCE OF EXISTENCE
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(May 16, 2021) Bonnie Spencer shares a meditation on our existence…

I rarely ponder philosophical questions.

They take me back to the merry-go-round of my childhood playground. We’d get the wheel spinning so fast that I’d hold on with a death grip to keep from flying off and bouncing across the hardpacked dirt!

Ride to nowhere
In college I took the required Philosophy 101. It was one of my top five least favourite classes. I couldn’t wrap my brain around questions such as…

  • What are thoughts?
  • Where do they come from?
  • Do numbers really exist?
  • Are they something man has created?
  • Why do women open their mouths when they put on mascara?

Occasionally, though, I do end up on that ride that goes nowhere. That was the case recently when my mind encountered the idea of existence. What if I had not been born? What would it be like if I had never lived?

The alternative, of course, would be that I never existed… ever. I wouldn’t know anything. But that would be okay, I thought, because… well, I wouldn’t even know I didn’t know anything. By now, the wheel was spinning furiously while my neurons were off swinging on the monkey bars instead of communicating with their neighbours!

Reality
The reality is that I do exist, and it can’t be undone. So here I am. I didn’t ask to be here, and no one asked me if I wanted to be here.

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DAVID’S ARSENAL

(May 10, 2021) Brian Bell shares a follow-up meditation…

Last month I shared a meditation about David (See David-and-his-Giants). In it I referred to David’s encounter with Goliath and suggested several ‘Spirit-filled’ characteristics which I believe David displayed but I did not elaborate on them in that article.

For several weeks now I found myself meditating on the Holy Spirit and I was drawn back to David’s encounter with Goliath and an emphasis on how the Holy Spirit enabled David. I will try to relate it to how the Holy Spirit enables us as believers in the ‘battleground’ of prayer.

The encounter is found in 1 Samuel 17: 38-47 and in verse 45 we find –

1. David came in the right name (v45: ‘…in the name of the Lord Almighty’)
I am sure some of you will be familiar with a Power of Attorney. It’s a legal document giving a person the authority to act on behalf of a nominated person – very often an elderly relative – but only in their best interests. This reminds me of the words of the Lord Jesus ‘whatever you ask in my name.’

This term ‘whatever’ is not an opportunity for me to come with a personal wish list of selfish requests (while I can bring personal needs in prayer), it is an opportunity to seek those things which are in the best interests of the Lord’s divine will and purpose and those persons or issues the Holy Spirit may lead me to pray for.

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TRUE WORSHIPPERS ARE SEEKERS

(May 10, 2021) Norman and Margaret Moss share this encouraging meditation…

We were meditating on John 4:23: ‘True worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshippers the Father seeks.’

We felt the Lord was saying: This is whom I seek… those who will –

  • Worship me in spirit and in truth
  • Sit at my feet to learn of me as Mary did (Luke 10:39)
  • Wash my feet with their tears (John 11:2)
  • Come before me as Daniel did (Daniel 10:12)
  • Cry to me in their distress as David did from his youth (I Samuel 16:7, 17:42-54)  
  • Be like Hannah pleading before me for a child and receiving much more (1 Samuel 1:10-15)
  • Like Abraham look to me for direction and follow my instructions (Genesis 15:2)
  • Like Joseph be so devoted to me that I raised him from deep distress to the highest place in the land (Genesis 41:40).

Such people are my joy and delight.

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CHANGES, CHOICES, CHALLENGES… CLINGING TO JESUS!

(May 09, 2021) Carol Round reminds us of…

If we need a reminder of the changes that have occurred in our world, we only need to study history. One can also read newspaper headlines or listen to the daily news. Nothing stays the same. If it did, there would be no news to report.

Change
A post on Facebook reminded me of how times have changed since I was born… and maybe since your birth.

The list was long, but here are a few of the mind-boggling changes mentioned:

  • Did you ever think in 1998 that three years later, you would never take pictures on film again? With today’s smart phones, who even has a camera these days? While I still do, I take more photos with my iPhone than with a camera.
  • In 2018 the first self-driving cars appeared on the road. Talk about changes.
  • Technology has invaded our world creating unimaginable changes in every area of our lives. If you’re old enough, you can recall a world before colour television, computers, microwave ovens, and computerised medicine.
  • I had my second knee replacement recently (Thanks to all who’ve been praying for me! I’m continuing in my recuperation and appreciate your prayers). Four years ago, I had the first one done. During the time span, technology has brought improvements to the procedure, and my latest surgery involved the use of a robotic device.
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CANCER DIAGNOSED; JEWISH WOMAN REMEMBERED VISION OF JESUS

(April 13, 2021) Benjamin Lahood, studying at Lighthouse Christian Academy, Los Angeles, brings shares a miraculous testimony...

After Shiri Joshua was told she had a rare, virulent form of breast cancer (already at stage 3) she faced a stark choice one Friday afternoon. Would she start chemo or undergo a mastectomy on the following Monday?

‘I honestly didn’t even comprehend those words,’ Shiri says on a 100 Huntley Street video.

An Israel-born Jew, she moved to Toronto at 19, but her family continued to speak Hebrew at home. She always had an inquisitiveness about spiritually. Due to her upbringing, she thought she could only be either orthodox or a secular Jew.

But after she moved to Canada, she fell under the spell of the New Age movement. ‘I really did not feel that my traditional Jewish upbringing would satisfy what I wanted,’ she says. I knew there was a God, I just did not know him.

Vision of Jesus
Two years prior to her diagnosis, she had a vision of Jesus. She had heard about the Lord but felt she needed to avoid Jesus because of her Jewish background. But in her search for spirituality one day, she asked God if Jesus was real.

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DAVID AND HIS GIANTS



(April 1, 2021) Brian Bell shares his latest meditation…

David’s encounter with the giant Goliath recorded in 1 Samuel 17 must surely be one of the most well-known scriptural records.

In the United Kingdom, we even had a series of television adverts promoting a particular product which used a caricature of the David and Goliath story while not referring specifically to it.

Many of us have profited from the life of David and his experience of the Lord and we are familiar with his many psalms. In this meditation I offer some thoughts which, while they may not be new, I found it beneficial to revisit.

A Defiant Giant
The scriptural record talks about Goliath’s defiance of the Lord and also of David who came to face him.

I see Goliath as a type of spiritual opposition, which is still prevalent today and may be manifested through actual people… just as Goliath was used.

The apostle Paul tells us we don’t wrestle against flesh and blood but against spiritual wickedness in the heavenly realm (Ephesians 6:12). This tells me ‘flesh and blood’ people are used to be defiant against the Lord’s work, word, and people!

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JESUS IS ALIVE!

(April 01, 2021) Carol Round reminds us of the miracle in Matthew 28:5-8…

This scripture tells that ‘The angel said to the women, “Do not be afraid, for I know that you are looking for Jesus, who was crucified. He is not here; he has risen, just as he said. Come and see the place where he lay. Then go quickly and tell his disciples: ‘He has risen from the dead and is going ahead of you into Galilee. There you will see him.’ Now I have told you.” So the women hurried away from the tomb, afraid yet filled with joy, and ran to tell his disciples.’ 

An empty tomb
The women were looking for Jesus. They were looking for their precious Jesus to anoint his body with spices, but he wasn’t there. The tomb was empty. How could that be?

Startled by the appearance of an angel, the women are afraid. Wouldn’t you be too? Imagine their racing hearts.

On the way to the tomb, they had asked each other, ‘Who will roll the stone away from the entrance to the tomb?’ (Mark 16:1-4). The women had been so intent on their mission, that they had overlooked the obstacle in their path.
Yes, Jesus had told his followers that he would rise from the dead on the third day.

But can you imagine their thoughts? Even though they’d seen him perform miracle after miracle, their finite minds could not grasp what he meant by this rising on a third day… his resurrection from the grave as we know it.

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THE ‘TOO-HARD’ BASKET

(March 10, 2021) Geri B shares from her heart…

‘Why are you downcast, O my soul? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Saviour and my God … Deep calls to deep in the roar of your waterfalls; all your waves and breakers have swept over me … Why must I go about mourning, oppressed by the enemy?’

Psalm 42 excerpts – cries from the heart of David, calling on God during despair. We can picture his state of depression.

Depression! Means to be lowered in spirit, dejected, weakened, despondent, having feelings of low value, sadness and pessimism, carrying delusions of inadequacy and hopelessness. Comes from Latin words meaning ‘pressed down.’

Too-hard basket for some Christians
Why is depression such a taboo subject in many congregations today? Because it doesn’t fit in with ‘kingdom-now’ mentality? One of those ‘problems’ that fits the ‘too-hard’ basket – too many grey areas? (more…)

PROPHECY, DREAMS AND VISIONS

(March 10, 2021) Brian Bell shares a meditation…

Scripture often speaks of these three topics. It is not my intention to ‘major’ on them as individual topics but to share some thoughts from those well-known words of Joel 2:28 (NLT 1999) where the prophet says – ‘I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophecy. Your old men will dream dreams. Your young men will see visions.’

Prophecy
It is generally accepted that prophecy falls into two general categories… ‘foretelling’ when God gives an insight to what is yet to take place. And ‘forth telling’ when God gives a word speaking into a specific situation very often to bring encouragement to his children.  Prophecy is also a gift of the Spirit which several exercise today: God’s word, however he chooses to speak it, is foundational.

Take, for example, Joel 1:16(NLT) where the prophet declares, ‘No joyful celebrations are in the house of our God.’ I believe he was speaking of an experience prevailing at that time. The people’s spiritual experience of God had waned. Could it be that we see a parallel in our recent experiences?

For many months there hasn’t really been the same joyful celebrations in the house of God – wherever that may be for you – as in the best interests and well-being of our congregations we have resorted to live streamed services conducted by a small number of people in a controlled environment. Or to a computer application such as Skype or Zoom or similar tools which enable ‘virtual’ meetings.

I know that many faithful believers have struggled with this, saying we should never have given up our liberty to meet in fellowship. Whatever view we may take, the most important aspect is that our personal relationship with the Lord must be encouraged and enriched, as we continue to live for him without the support structure, we were used to in our church fellowships (which, God willing, we may soon resume, perhaps with renewed appreciation and enthusiasm). (more…)