Dangerous days…

Well, certainly for those involved in the current Middle East crisis once again, and none of us watching on from the safe outside would really want to swap places with any of them for any reason no doubt. But underlying all of the terror and angst runs a perpetual thread that has been in place since creation – God granted the capacity for there to be two cousins who ultimately would begin life warring before either even left the womb, and they’ve continued on ever since:

“The babies jostled each other within Rebekah, and she said, “Why is this happening to me?” So she went to inquire of the Lord. The Lord said to her, “Two nations are in your womb, and two peoples from within you will be separated; one people will be stronger than the other, and the older will serve the younger.” (Gen 25:21-26)


– the only things that change are the weaponry used, and the resultant casualties coming out of each war. However, the other vital point to make here is that one other thing stands out from that time too – God said that He would bless one more than the other, and his ultimate choice was Jacob whom God later called Israel:

Gen 32:28 “And he said, Thy name shall be called no more Jacob, but Israel: for as a prince hast thou power with God and with men, and hast prevailed.”

Bit more background to this story is needed tho: These names, of course, originated with the story of Abraham in the book of Genesis. When Abraham’s wife Sarah remained barren after many years of marriage, she offered her Egyptian handmaiden, Hagar, to Abraham as a concubine. Hagar bore Abraham a son, who was named Ishmael. Thirteen years later, Sarah finally bore her husband a son, who was named Isaac. Although Ishmael was the older son, Isaac was the son of Abraham’s beloved wife, and his father’s favorite. Tradition has it that the Arab people are descended from Abraham and Ishmael, while the Jewish people are descended from Abraham and Isaac. Cousins.

Forgive my ‘hiking’ some of this off other sites – with my carpal tunnel I have to keep typing to a minimum, so filling the story in by other means.At any rate, the important thing to know in this war is that we need not be fearful – certainly not if you’re a true Christian as God has promised us His protection, but we along with the Jewish people and the rest of world can know that as prophecies continue to be fulfilled currently, (on the back of dozens already done and dusted), that Israel WILL be victorious. God has decreed they are HIS people, and the Land is HIS, nobody else’s – not even the Jews own it. It’s His own tiny piece of real estate for His purposes, and He will fulfill those purposes completely as He has decreed throughout scripture. So we can look forward certainly to many more tough and difficult battles in the days that lie ahead, and at some point they won’t be just relegated to the Middle East either, but we can also take heart in knowing the end of this particular story as God has outlined it. Israel stands firm until that day when Jesus will plant His feet on the Mount of Olives and split it in two, thus proclaiming His Return, and then He will open up the sealed Eastern Gate, and take His rightful place in HIS City!! However, until then God will continue to judge His own people for their lack of seeking His Will and of following false gods/idols etc and of listening to the world before listening to Him, and worst of all, of not being the light to the world He desired and commanded them to be.

MARANTHA – Come Lord Jesus.

Incredible timing…

The Lord has confirmed yet again for me that He is fully in control of my life for as long as I submit fully to Him, and perhaps even despite my being disobedient in not doing so with some areas, notably my health. I like to be in control of many things and have discovered that submission may not always be as simple as just saying “I submit”!!

Having recently attended my first healing meeting in the guts of 20 years (not that I’ve been ill that long tho), I figured things would maybe improve, but ironically I appear to be getting worse rather than better. However, it was incredible to have Him reveal yet again to me how He knows my path up ahead and is paving the way right now for future events to occur for me to walk into. Way back in April I attended my Consultant to have my right hand injected for carpal tunnel. The week or two before that appt I’d thrown another ‘bony infarct’ (area of bone death) – my 8th in two years, so at that point I wasn’t overly concerned, although I did go and get an x-ray done just to ensure that really was the problem, as I’d hit my shoulder badly the week before. They felt it was, and so that was that – I left my Consultant that day hopeful of some improvement in my right hand, but it wasn’t to be. However, I was pleased to get another appt out about 10 days later or so for the same clinic to get the left hand injected (I presumed). Then, when I then saw him a month ago, he determined that he’d just refer me on for surgery given the lack of improvement, and I was assuming that would be just for the right hand, since I had this appt last week for the clinic. So when I turned up at the clinic (minus the appt letter stupidly), and the secretary told me I didn’t have an appt, I was shocked to say the least. I couldn’t figure out how I could have got it that wrong, as I’m fairly careful about such things. However, Prof Finch agreed to see me anyway which was another incredible blessing as his clinic was full to overflowing. When I went in, he stated that he didn’t know why I was there, as he had referred me for the surgery, and there was no point in doing any injections since they obviously didn’t work. I told him I wasn’t worried about that problem in the least, and instead outlined how the last 3 months of bone pain have been my worst ever, and have caused endless problems. The net outcome was that he’s readmitting me for more specific isotope tests this time to try and pin down how bad the problem actually is. Now ordinarily I would just have thought myself lucky to have seen him and not perhaps connected things spiritually, but when I came home and found I was right – the letter was sent out in April for the 29th at 9 a.m. – I realised that it truly had to be down to the Lord – He knew then that I would need this appt badly at this stage (otherwise it would have been months yet before I could have seen him), and so motivated someone to make a ‘mistake’ and send it out to me!!! The double encouragement for me, is knowing that He is thus most definitely going to bring about the right outcome from this new admission – another step forward – and ultimately I’m really excited now to see how it all pans out.

Can’t come quick enough given how bad I’ve been this past two weeks or so. But my prayer is that He will use me through this difficult time and enable me to reveal Him to many others in the midst of my ‘suffering’. He is truly one AWESOME GOD!!!

Good site for those who might question my joy in the midst of suffering:

http://www.christiananswers.net/gospel/gospel1.html

The harshest judgement and the largest bail paid…

I’m always fascinated by some of the bible stories that reveal the true nature of the problem of man. I was praying tonight and just marvelling once more at how little we truly, even as Christians connect with our salvation gift. Listening to how one person put it though was a great thought provoker – he asked – what if you had committed a heinous crime, one that required the death sentence, and then you went before a Judge, who heard your case, declared you Guilty, and conferred the death penalty on you. But then his son stepped up and said that actually he was going to take your sentence on himself and he would willingly die in your place, so that you could go free and live your life. You know where I’m going with this one, but just think of it in those terms – in human terms – how would you feel about that scenario? Do you reckon (as I did for a split second), that you’d be really quite selfish, and say “Great – ta very much” and leave him to it, or would you be grateful, but be racked with guilt over him doing that for you. Christian or not, that’s exactly what Jesus has done on the cross for every one (who is willing to accept the fact and repent of their sin), and I think many of us rarely really understand or appreciate his sacrifice in a way that would make us not only repentant, but eternally grateful beyond measure.

But it’s the reason why 2/3 of the world is split – because few wish to take responsibility for their crimes against God (sin) and say that they recognise their due punishment from Him as being just, and plead for His forgiveness and accept His plan (not ours!) for salvation into eternity. As one other sensible person put it – “strange how those who spend their entire life here running away from God and refusing to acknowledge Him in any way, shape or form, still think they’re going to heaven!!” DUHHHH! But too much of that attitude stems from an errant view of what heaven is all about, and few Christians really reeducate the masses when given opportunity to do so. Heaven is absolutely NOT all about peace, love, happiness and boredom for ever more – heaven is rather an eternity spent in the presence of the Almighty God, maker and creator of it and earth, and in worshipping that same God in recognition of the Awesome Person He is, and how you absolutely categorically don’t deserve to even contemplate being in His presence for a millisecond, let alone eternity, but for his grace and mercy in providing you the means to do so. Those who will be in heaven will ONLY be those who have loved Him, served Him and worshipped Him here on earth, and that’s not going to include a lot of Muslims, Hindus and even some Catholics I can tell you – too many nowadays think that we’re all talking about the same God – and that’s Satan’s best ploy yet. However, there is only ONE God, and that is the God of Abraham, Issac, and Jacob who sent His Son Jesus into the world as a sacrifice so that many could accept Him and become partakers of His Kingdom.

Just remember this if you disagree – If ALL roads lead to God, then Jesus died in vain!

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David before Jesus….

Today’s topics were varied in our bible reading online – David doing his usual – slaughtering and praising – truly sometimes do wonder how he became the apple of God’s eye and commanded such divine attention in a sense. But the other side of the coin is recognising how God often did command a certain volume of people (usually heathens to my knowledge) to be killed, right down to the babies which is hard to cope with, as is the fact that beheading was common practice amongst God’s people at that time. Horrible practice for any time in my opinion.

More important though, was the reference God made to how He would put someone on David’s throne (rather than David himself) who would lead the nation into peace and provide God with a more lasting covenant and place to dwell. I got a bit confused on this one, but think it meant Solomon first at least, and then obviously Jesus (who has yet to reign on David’s throne too).

Annoyingly trying to place an image in, somehow managed to lose me 2/3 of my post which I couldn’t then recover, and now have to try and remember what I’d written!!

Think I was saying about how in the NT we were looking at Jesus once again berating his disciples on not understanding what He was trying to convey to them about the importance of His leaving. I can understand their confusion to some degree, as it must have been quite tough on them to contemplate this teacher whom they revered so much talking about His death so definitively. It’s so much easier for us on the other side of the table to see things more clearly, but I certainly never think I’d have fared any differently than they if I was put into that situation. I too, would have found much of what He said hard to accept or take in. Thankfully God is gracious and merciful to those He chooses and so the disciples eventually ‘got it!’ and went on to do one awesome job in conveying the message to us.

I was then discussing too how amazing it is that much of scripture has been recorded verbatim, but it is seen that scribes and recorders are found even in David’s day – how much more prevalent must they have been in Jesus’. And the Holy Spirit would have ensured that His Words were not lost but recorded faithfully as He said that His Word would endure FOREVER!!!

He’s GOD!

I just had a dire realisation tonight when praying – somewhere over my years of prayers, I’ve come to expect God to please me – as much as I consider it’s my role to please Him, I suddenly came to that shocking awareness tonight, that a lot of the time, part of the reason we pray is to have Him do something to please US – and I ended up truly repenting of that attitude. Just think on it – who are we to expect anything of God, much less that he do what we want! Yet for whatever reason that’s what we do – we ask Him to grant us a good day, or we look for him to provide us extra money for something, or no doubt some may actually even ask Him to let them win the Lottery or whatever. Is it any wonder He says NO a lot of the time. We must surely grieve Him with our attitude to our finances – we think our money is all ours to do with as we please, instead of recognising it’s all HIS to do with as HE pleases – if he deigns to provide it to us for our enjoyment and/or to meet our needs, we have no right to expect that constantly. When it comes to tithing – that wonderful principle of giving Him back 10% – we should consider ourselves very fortunate – He could have said – I want you to give me back 50% and willingly – which is really what our attitude at least should be, regardless of whether we actually manage to give that amount or not. I heard someone teaching on this recently state the most obvious thing (to me at least) – if you can’t give £1 without resentment, you would be better off not doing so – whatever you give whether 1% or 50% unless you give it freely and willingly, it’s pointless – after all, would you want someone resenting giving you something and wishing they didn’t have to do so?? Why should you treat God any less. He provides for us because He loves us and desires to bless us, but it is absolutely His right as to how much and when he does so.

I’m just grateful for having learnt yet another valuable lesson today – it’s another aspect of my Christian walk I absolutely appreciate – how He teaches me new things every day, and takes the most mundane concepts sometimes to do so :)).

Quiet week

Well – not much happened this past week, other than me getting out for a couple of drives. The first one was to take my wonderful ‘baby’ Tikvah (pic shown), to the vets to check out his weight gain – sadly Craig my equally wonderful vet said that his weight sort of “comes with being a certain age!” I’d really hoped he’d consider it just might be more down to a possible underactive thyroid or the like, and we could just stick him on some drugs for a fast result, but not to be. Instead, I had to shell out for some rather expensive diet food for him, which after being on for a week, he’s now gained another 2g SO I think the time has come for me to get real – I tend to just throw in whatever looks an acceptable amount for him to eat, but I’m obviously still overfeeding him heavily. It’s SO hard tho to try and keep him on a strict diet when he keeps snicking into the breadbin for extras!! Soda bread and now pancakes seem to be his favourite!

Second trip out saw me getting my mum out to Holywood for a very short walk – she was so much worse than usual, and really not up to walking much at all which was a pity. However, we did manage to make it into a lovely coffee shop for a nice couple of Lattes which was enjoyable.

On the spiritual front, I had a rather tough awakening to what spiritual warfare is about to some degree on Sat night/Sun morning. Having had a nice chat with Colin (our minister at BMC) on Sat afternoon, and stating strongly how I fully expected to be at church in the morning, I ended up having one of the worst nights of the week for lack of sleep and increased bone pain, with the result that come Sunday morning, I was neither able to wake up, nor in any fit state when I finally did haul myself out of bed, to consider driving even the very short distance up the road to join the service late at 12, (as it was a Communion morning, and I’d said I might just head up for that section rather than sit out the whole service!). So wasn’t to be, but I did feel the timing was rather suspect in every respect, and told Colin as much. However, can but try again next week, as there’s no doubt that the more I allow myself to be pushed into not going out and in particular to church, I’ll end up back where I was 2 years ago – unchurched, and unfellowshipped (prob not a true word, but you know what I mean!).

God has continued to deepen my walk with Him tho, and has also been answering my prayers for an increased knowledge and interest in His Word, by providing me with an excellent one-year bible site, as well as speaking to me through a couple of films I torrented recently – one being the Gospel of John, and the other, the Life of David. Really been challenged in certain sections on both as He has (as always) hit me with certain scriptures 🙂

My Israel Trip

Ok – not a recent one I grant you, as it was in the spring of 1999, BUT having looked at a few other religious sites which provide some material esp photos on the topic, figured I may as well throw up some of my own here, as I have some really important photos.

This one for starters, is a lovely view over Bethlehem taken on the way out of the town going South.