Envy

Lately God has been speaking to me.

Lying in bed last night I knew I had to read the bible. I do it every night before sleep. However I didn't know what to read. Then I thought "Psalm 23... wait no read Psalm 73!"
So I did, then after breakfast I jumped on my computer and checked my emails. I get a daily devotional by David Reay called Life Words. Todays devotional was on Envy and quoted part of the same passage of scripture I read last night.

Here it is:

Psalm 73: 1-5  (The Message)
 

No doubt about it! God is good—

    good to good people, good to the good-hearted.

But I nearly missed it,

    missed seeing his goodness.

I was looking the other way,

    looking up to the people

At the top,

    envying the wicked who have it made,

Who have nothing to worry about,

    not a care in the whole wide world. 

 

This is exactly something I have been struggling with lately. Envying those around me. I've Envied my friends for the supports they have in their families and the willingness of their parents to care for them. I've envied others for their good looks and for their talents, jobs, relationships and even houses. These small envies were eating me up inside. Causing sadness and heartache and have been preventing me from seeing God clearly. I have felt a small distance for a while and God has shown me why.

Praise the God of Heaven and Earth!

If any of you out there are struggling with this just look back to God and remember that he is Good. He looks after us. We may just be in a season of struggle and pain. That's fine, God will bring us through. And NEVER forget the blessings that await us in the new kingdom at the coming of Jesus!

Many Blessings!

Awake Oh Sleeper!

Recently I have spent a lot of time with people who sleep... A Lot!
Sleeping to the point that they have literally only been awake for maybe 4 or 5 hours in the day.

Now there is nothing wrong with sleep, it is something God has given to us to enable our bodies to function during the day. However, sleep can become an issue when you use it to escape from the world.

You may be thinking how is this person spending time with sleepers? Technically I'm not spending time with them because they are asleep. However, living in close quarters I have been doing my work around these sleeping people.

Here's the problem. When you sleep for so many hours in the day that you don't eat or interact with others there is a problem. This causes your relationships strain. Take it from someone who is up all day. I would love to socialise with you sleeper, but I can't. You are asleep.

Sleep is good but when you do too much of it you miss out on al the wonderful things God has made for us to enjoy. Like the sunshine, the sounds of birds outside and the sound of the beautiful rain we've had lately. You miss out on meal sharing with those who love you. You're life and your chores pile up to the extent that they are overwhelming. You also become a burden to those you live with.

Treat sleep respectfully. Use it as God intended. As something to enable you body to rest and recuperate so you can get on with life.


Do not sleep to excess people. How can you call that living? Do you really think by sleeping all your problems and struggles will fix themselves? Do you think that life will improve if you let is slip by? Is your dream land better than this world God has created for us?

Awake oh you sleeper. For God has many blessing for you in the day. He wants to love you and you to enjoy this world. And yes bad things will happen and life will be hard. But with God life is here to enjoy. So awake and be a blessing to the world!


Luke 22:46
"Why are you sleeping?" He asked them. "Get up and pray so that you will not fall into temptation."

Remember we follow a God who loves us and who has overcome sin. So do not worry but live a life to serve him.

Many Blessings!

Light Box Love final

I woke up this morning and an image came to my head. A wonderfully colourful one and so I had to try it. These are the fruits of this... almost exactly the image from my head.
Here are my pictures from today:

While I was working on the the final images a bible passage that came to mind. After some investigation I found it:

Luke 18:15-17

New Living Translation (NLT)

Jesus Blesses the Children

15 One day some parents brought their little children to Jesus so he could touch and bless them. But when the disciples saw this, they scolded the parents for bothering him.

16 Then Jesus called for the children and said to the disciples, “Let the children come to me. Don’t stop them! For the Kingdom of God belongs to those who are like these children. 17 I tell you the truth, anyone who doesn't receive the Kingdom of God like a child will never enter it.”

Here's what I thought when I chose these photos:

The first set of the girl and man make me think of how sometimes it takes a child’s faith to really get us to see the wonder and mystery of God.

The second set of the man and his son look to me as if they are hesitating. The father doesn’t know what to do with the cross and so he shelters his son from it. It shows us the profound influence our parents can have on our beliefs and our knowledge about what’s true in life. I thought "Don't hesitate GO FOR IT! You don't know what you're missing out on!"

Listen while you look: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=whv1DojfIWA


Many Blessings!

Missing a Fathers touch

A conversation between a sister and I.

Me: For some reason I am still always seeking out the Love of a Father. Which is silly because I have God. But I struggle because I would really love a Dad whou would love and support me in a physical presence. Who would do things with me and who would hug me when I am sad and tell me everything will be alright. Someone to care for me and give me words of affirmation and hugs. Unfortunately God doesn't hug me and that's something I want.

Friend: God invented male figures to perform an earthly fatherly role. Its understandable why you would feel that way.

She normalised my feelings and helped me make sense of this experience. I am thankful for this small conversation and had to share it here. Maybe people out there struggle with this too. I do not know. But I pray that God will use this to reach out to anyone else who does.

Prayers and Blessings to you all.

Words from Elihu!

I know I usually write about Isaiah but tonight:


JOB 36: 22-33 (http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Job%2036&version=NLT)

Elihu Reminds Job of God’s Power

22 “Look, God is all-powerful.
    Who is a teacher like him?
23 No one can tell him what to do,
    or say to him, ‘You have done wrong.’
24 Instead, glorify his mighty works,
    singing songs of praise.
25 Everyone has seen these things,
    though only from a distance.

26 “Look, God is greater than we can understand.
    His years cannot be counted.
27 He draws up the water vapor
    and then distills it into rain.
28 The rain pours down from the clouds,
    and everyone benefits.
29 Who can understand the spreading of the clouds
    and the thunder that rolls forth from heaven?
30 See how he spreads the lightning around him
    and how it lights up the depths of the sea.
31 By these mighty acts he nourishes the people,
    giving them food in abundance.
32 He fills his hands with lightning bolts
    and hurls each at its target.
33 The thunder announces his presence;
    the storm announces his indignant anger.

Being a Woman of God?

Here's a question...

What does it mean to be a Woman of God?

  I've been seeking the answer to for many months now. I asked many older women but I didn't get any good answers out of them. None of them seemed to know or none of their answers were what I was seeking.

Living in a world that screams BODY IMAGE IS EVERYTHING and BEING SINGLE IS BAD can be a challenging thing. Especially since I don't regard body image as something high on my list (I look like what I look like). Also I have never been in a relationship and its also not high on my 'bucket' list.

The thing I want in this world is to serve God with my EVERYTHING! Literally! That's all I've even wanted. However it gets hard when you're constantly slandered with societal expectations and pressures. They even seep into the church.

Anyway my point is... that the true beauty of a Woman is in her works for God. Her good deeds.
That's what it means to be a woman of God! To do good works for the Kingdom, not to get Salvation but as a response to Salvation. This is something I learned at my Church Conference last Sunday and I had to share it.

I do works for God because I am grateful for his Sacrifice. I will strive to throw off what the world says about who I should be and run toward God. I am and will continue to learn what it means to follow God as a Woman. I will continue to do good works for his Kingdom for the rest of my life. No matter how long or short it may be.




Colossians 1:15-20 (from: http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Colossians%201&version=NLT)

Christ Is Supreme

15 Christ is the visible image of the invisible God.
    He existed before anything was created and is supreme over all creation,
16 for through him God created everything
    in the heavenly realms and on earth.
He made the things we can see
    and the things we can’t see—
such as thrones, kingdoms, rulers, and authorities in the unseen world.
    Everything was created through him and for him.
17 He existed before anything else,
    and he holds all creation together.
18 Christ is also the head of the church,
    which is his body.
He is the beginning,
    supreme over all who rise from the dead.
    So he is first in everything.
19 For God in all his fullness
    was pleased to live in Christ,
20 and through him God reconciled
    everything to himself.
He made peace with everything in heaven and on earth
    by means of Christ’s blood on the cross.

 Define yourself radically as one beloved by God. This is the true self. Every other identity is illusion.

—	Brennan Manning (from: http://iaskgod.tumblr.com/post/58312454336/define-yourself-radically-as-one-beloved-by-god)

Isaiah Chapter Five (Part One)

So this is a longer chapter!
I'm going to break it into sections again. There are two main sections: A song about the Lord's vineyard & Judah's guilt and judgement.
There seems to be a recurring theme -> judgement.
However in this post I will be focusing on the first section.

A Song about the Lord's Vineyard (verses 1 - 7)
Being written by Isaiah makes the first verse of this chapter quiet special. "I sing for the one I love a song about his vineyard"
How beautiful is that? Singing to the one he loves. Clearly Isaiah loves the Lord. Clearly this is a strong love and a love that has an element of adoration.
What the heck is a vineyard? -> This is not a silly question! A vineyard is a plantation - or a farm that's focused on the growing of plants - in this case where grapevines are grown. Usually for the production of Wine and I'm assuming that this is the case here.
The thing about vineyards, as with any sort of plantation or farm, is that they take a lot of hard work. Particularly because this is post curse time in the bible.
Lets go back a few steps...

Genesis 3:17-19

17 And to the man he said,

“Since you listened to your wife and ate from the tree
    whose fruit I commanded you not to eat,
the ground is cursed because of you.
    All your life you will struggle to scratch a living from it.
18 It will grow thorns and thistles for you,
    though you will eat of its grains.
19 By the sweat of your brow
    will you have food to eat
until you return to the ground
    from which you were made.
For you were made from dust,
    and to dust you will return.”

Here we can see that working the ground is a hard thing to do - as a result of the fall / the first sin. So this Lord (God) having a vineyard may entail in the first verse that some hard work, thought and effort has gone into the creation of this vineyard.

So lets continue with the rest of this section.
This section is very visual and quiet figurative. Isaiah is comparing Judah and Jerusalem to the Vineyard made by the Lord. I think that the passage is saying that Judah and Jerusalem are the vineyard. The people are looking at their land, the promised land of God; and judging it. This is a visual representation of whats been discussed in Isaiah previously and I believe what is continued to be discussed in the second half of this chapter. This vineyard was worked and loved. Its creator expected it to be prosperous (Verse 2-> Then he waited for a harvest of sweet grapes, but the grapes that grew were bitter.)
So even though this vineyard was cared for the results are not what was intended (kind of like the results in the garden of Eden).
I think when verse 3 is saying Judah judges between the creator and his vineyard its talking about how the people are thinking that because the crops are bad the creator is also bad. This idea is debunked in verse 4 "What more could I have done for my vineyard that I have not already done?"
Its interesting that the author asks why the vineyard gave him bitter grapes. Its the vineyard that produced the bitter grapes so there is something wrong with the vineyard. The core of where the grapes are grown. There is something really wrong at the very roots. (Quiet similar to our sinful natures I think!)

Verses 5 and 6 - The creators response to the ruined vineyard. He tears it down to create space for a new one. I like the words "I will command the clouds to drop no rain on it." Controlling the weather is not something that humanity is capable of doing. This further proves how powerful this creator is.

Verse 7 - Isaiah reports what God says about what he expected his people to be like and what he really found. This is the literal version of the bitter grapes in the well tended vineyard. This is a prelude to the judgement that is to come. This judgement is discussed further in the next section of this chapter.

To finish this post I must say that the visual of the vineyard is very impressive and well thought out. A fantastic way to describe how God's intended creation was meant to be and what the result was.
The BIBLE is an amazing book. I never cease to be in awe of my God. Every chapter reveals or confirms more of my Gods character!

How wonderful it is to be able to know the Lord and God of the Universe!

Blessings!