Positioned For Favour: A Tale of Two Women
Year after year it was the same. The whole family made the pilgrimage to Shiloh to worship and sacrifice to the LORD. It was supposed to be a time of joy and celebration, of thankfulness for every blessing but Hannah felt anything but blessed. Quite the opposite, she...
Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus
Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus. (John 11:5) If you’ve been a Christian for a few years, you’re bound to have heard of the two sisters Mary and Martha and their brother Lazarus - he was the one Jesus raised from the dead after he’d been in the...
Think, Believe, Speak – Six Impossible Things!
*Picture: Alice dressing the White Queen, Through the Looking Glass In Lewis Carroll’s famous book “Through the Looking Glass”, Alice had a conversation with the White Queen. Alice said "There's no use trying, one can't believe impossible things." "I daresay...
Those Who Know Their God Shall Be Strong And Do Exploits
Jesus said "Now this is eternal life: that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent." (John 17:3) In our world today, people know and are inspired by created things- the beauty of nature, the mountains, forests, the seas, the many...
Blow the Silver Trumpets
When the Lord gave Moses the law, there was much more to it than just the 10 Commandments (Exodus 20). He also gave many other rules and regulations that on the surface may seem irrelevant, but there is no detail in God’s word that is insignificant. In Numbers...
I Belong to my Beloved and His Desire is for Me!
There is a prevailing thought in the body of Christ that as believers we must be predominantly focussed on evangelism and spreading the good news of Jesus to those who don't know Him. We were not saved just for ourselves to enjoy a new, abundant life but we...
When You’re Full of Hope, You’re Full of God!
I want to encourage you today that if you are going through a situation that is causing you to suffer, though it is not of the Lord, He is ultimately going to use it to bless you (Romans 8:28). One reason He does not take you out of the difficulty immediately...
Prepared For a Good Purpose
The beginning of the New Year is a good time to spend some time seeking God for His plans and purposes for your life. Have you got a vision for 2017 and even beyond? Perhaps right now you’re thinking you don’t even have a vision for next week and are wondering...
With You I am Well Pleased!
Foundations are so important. As it's the beginning of the year, I’ve been thinking about spiritual foundations. If these are strong, we will be able to withstand any trials we are faced with and whatever we build will last. Jesus said: Matthew 7:24-27...
No Word From God Will Ever Fail
The beginning of a new year is a good time to reflect on your hopes and dreams for the year ahead, to set goals and to make plans. It is the season of new beginnings where we can put the past behind us and look to the future. For some of you, 2016 has been a...
A Life Transforming Mystery
In Five Amazing Truths About Marriage, we looked at how marriage is life-changing, but when God created marriage, He had something even more profound, an even greater transformation that He wanted to reveal. Everything in the Old Covenant is a foreshadowing of...
Five Amazing Truths About Marriage
Falling in love changes your life. A love between a man and a woman that leads to marriage is life-changing but falling in love with Jesus, is life-transforming! The apostle Paul describes the marriage union as a “profound mystery” (Ephesians 5:32) because it...
Seven Steps to Fulfilling Your Destiny!
God has prepared wonderful adventures of faith for us: For we are God's masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago. (Ephesians 2:10) So how can we carry out those good things that God has planned...
The Courage to Possess the Good Land
The Lord had promised to give the land of Canaan to Abraham and his descendants (Genesis 17:8). He renewed this promise to Abraham’s son Isaac (Genesis 26:3) and then in turn to Isaac’s son Jacob (Genesis 35:12), whose name God later changed to Israel (Genesis...
It’s time to Rise Up!
Joshua had just led the Israelites to a supernatural victory over Jericho. They had done exactly as the Lord had commanded, marching round Jericho with the Ark of the Covenant, blowing their trumpets (Joshua 6). But unbeknownst to Joshua and the rest of Israel,...
Live in Rest, not in Stress!
In my last post, Your thorns became His Crown I spoke about how the Israelites’ unbelief was the root of their failure to defeat all their enemies in the Promised Land. God had told them that if they did not expel all the enemies from the land they would become...
You thorns become His Crown
The generation of Israelites, who Moses had led out of slavery in Egypt, would never enter the land that had been promised to their ancestor Abraham (Genesis 15:18) because of their continual grumbling against the Lord and their disobedience. But the root of...
Who do YOU say I am?
Matthew 16:15-17 15“But what about you?” he asked. “Who do you say I am?” 16Simon Peter answered, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.” 17Jesus replied, “Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by flesh and blood, but...
Do you know what counts?
In my last post I focussed on our response to Jesus’ question: "Who do you say I am?" . Today I want to address a different question: So Jesus got straight to the heart of the issue and told him he needed to be born again: John 3:3 Jesus replied, “Very truly I...
Ready for Battle
Painting: The Taking of Jericho, by James Tissot Are you battle ready? Because if you want to take hold of your full inheritance there will be battles to face. The good news is that in Christ we have everything we need for victory! Exodus 13:17-18 17When...
It all began in the Garden
It all began in the garden. Genesis 2:16-17 16And the Lord God commanded the man, “You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; 17but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from it you will certainly die.” Genesis...
He stretched out His Hand…
Jesus heals a leper, Rembrandt Psalm 35:27 "The LORD be exalted, who delights in the well-being of his servant."Did you know your Heavenly Father delights in your well-being? When David wrote Psalm 35 he was going through unjust persecution from his enemies, most...
Receive Your Double Portion
Jesus has given us the right to become children of God (John 1:12, Romans 8:14, Galatians 3:26). When we believe in Jesus as our Saviour we are born into a new family. Jesus spoke of this new birth to Nicodemus explaining that just as we have a physical birth...
Trusting in Your Covenant of Salt
Lately I have been pondering God’s favour, His blessing and how He brings about deliverance from impossible situations for those who trust Him. We can learn a lot from the lives of the kings of Israel and Judah. Previously we looked at the life of King Asa who...
Trusting against the Odds
In my bible reading today I came across this verse: 2 Chronicles 16:12 In the thirty-ninth year of his reign Asa was afflicted with a disease in his feet. Though his disease was severe, even in his illness he did not seek help from the LORD, but only from the...
Victory through the Vallley of Besor
Have you ever been in a situation where you just didn’t have the strength to cry any more? Have those you trusted turned against you? If so you are in good company for that was the situation David found himself in at Ziklag (1 Samuel 30). David had been chosen...
Eight ways to Overcome Fear!
How do we avoid allowing fear to take hold of us when we are faced with trials or the threats of the enemy. How do we avoid becoming discouraged and depressed? 1. TRUST in the Lord. He always has a plan and He always has the last word in every situation. Psalm...
God’s kind of Love!
This diagram (image courtesy of J. Whidden) beautifully represents how we are united with the Triune God: Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Jesus the Son took on flesh and became a man, still fully God but now also fully human and His Spirit has become united with...