tears

DOESN’T GOD CARE?

(January 29, 2023) Maureen McQuillan seeks to comfort a distressed sister…

Dear Pastor Maureen

I’m going through a difficult time. I’ve prayed and prayed but don’t seem to be getting answers, or help. I want to  believe that I can trust God but I just feel He hasn’t heard my prayer. My heart is sobbing, I cry myself to sleep. Doesn’t God care? I am a Christian, I have accepted Jesus. Bella.

Dear Bella

Oh yes, God does hear our prayers… your prayers, and yes, He does care! I’ll be open, honest with you, won’t mislead you… becoming a Christian doesn’t mean we’ll have a carefree life. Yes, we will have a good life, sins forgiven and an assurance that we’re heaven-bound. But… presently we’re still here and things can go wrong, even for God’s children! Accidents, sicknesses, disappointments, marriage and family troubles, sudden loss of loved ones, even disasters.

But we can keep trusting God, we can bank on His love, provision, protection in that He will help us and bring us through whatever the issue is! Your prayers are heard by God (1John 5:14-15, 1 Peter 3:12). 1 Peter 5:7 is particularly precious: ‘Cast all your anxiety on him because He cares for you.’

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DAVID’S SIXTH SYMPHONY

(January 27, 2023) Brian Bell reminds us that in anxious times the Christian’s confidence is in our God…

I am taking a little poetic licence here in describing Psalm six by using this musical term, but it is also one of those psalms in which David mentions the name of stringed instruments to which the psalm should be accompanied.

Movement #1 (v1-5)
What often encourages me as I read the psalms is their honesty – I remind myself the words are spoken/written not in private prayer but for public worship in their context as songs, so they make honest references –

  • To weakness, pain (agony), sickness, helplessness (verses 2 and 3).
  • To help… ‘rescue me, save me’ (verse 4NLT).

Movement #2 (v 6-7)
David says, ‘I am worn out by sobbing, every night tears drench my bed, my pillow is wet from weeping….’

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THANK GOD HE DOESN’T GIVE US EVERYTHING WE ASK FOR!

(October 10, 2022) Mama Lava shares from her heart about something we all need to accept…

Last week, I read a headline about accepting life as it is, especially when it isn’t what you expected. Since then, I’ve found myself thinking back to many things I’ve wanted, and for which I fervently prayed, that never came to be.

And my reaction has been – ‘Thank God that He doesn’t give us everything we ask for!’

Something I asked for…
I roller skated all around my neighbourhood as a kid  and I have a memory etched deeply into my mind. I was 11 or 12 and on my roller skates in the street in front of my parent’s house. And I was in love. It was puppy love, but at the time, I didn’t know the difference.

There was a boy. He was new to my world, popular, and intriguing. I wanted to be his girl.

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GOD’S WRINGER — AND SPIRITUAL PARENTS

Dr Robert & Maureen 0816August 28, 2016 – Robert and Maureen McQuillan share some recent experiences…

We often receive requests for prayer, mentoring and counselling. Emails, mobiles, SMS and Skype are great tools the Holy Spirit uses!

Or we find he sets up God appointments  — ‘God-incidents’   — not always within a local church’s ‘sacred’ four walls but ‘out there’ where ordinary people live, work and relax. We’ve always claimed that ‘out there’ is the real marketplace of mission activity.

But then we see mission activity worldwide not only as opportunities to witness Jesus as Saviour but as one who cares for the hurting, misunderstood, disillusioned, disappointed and the sick. Ordinary people, Christian and non-Christian, need caring, understanding, unselfish love and an arm thrown around them! (more…)

GOOD GRIEF!

Rick Marschall

Rick Marschall challengingly asks:

How many of us have attended church services where the pastor, or perhaps a superstore-style greeter (some larger churches today have designated Hospitality Pastors), flashes the salesman-white smile and asks everybody how they ‘are’?

Assisted by throat-microphone and ubiquitous large-screen image confronting the audience, they often follow with the robotic demands: ‘I can’t hear you! Good morning!! I want to see everybody smiling!’

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