Hope For Today

Dear Friends, Paul wrote in Colossians 3:1-3 "Since you have been raised to new life with Christ, set your sights on the realities of heaven, where Christ sits in the place of honour at God’s right hand. 2  Think about the things of heaven, not the things of earth. 3  For you died to this life, and your real life is hidden with Christ in God." (NLT) I read these verses one morning when I was in the middle of a bad spell of migraines.  The spell lasted for ten days.  Some of the days were extremely painful when I just couldn't function normally, some were more bearable and I could live with the pain and some days I woke free from the pain and hoped for a pain-free day only for the migraine to develop later in the day.  I know that some of you reading this will have experienced pain much worse than this.  You may be going through something right now which is almost unbearable.  Whatever that painful experience may...

Dear Friends, Having grown up in a Christian home I was taught to know God as my Father.  I accepted this with childlike faith, but never really stopped to consider what it actually meant for me.  I can so easily take something at face value without understanding what it really means or what the significance of it is.  So I recently decided to spend some time looking in more depth at what it means to be a son or daughter of God. Paul says in Romans 8: 14-17 "For all who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God. 15  So you have not received a spirit that makes you fearful slaves. Instead, you received God’s Spirit when he adopted you as his own children. Now we call him, “Abba, Father.” 16  For his Spirit joins with our spirit to affirm that we are God’s children. 17  And since we are his children, we are his heirs. In fact, together with Christ we are heirs of God’s glory. But if we are to share his glory, we must also...

Dear Friends, Jason and I have a niece who is 19 months old.  One word that she can say very clearly is "No!"  It's a word that toddlers soon learn.  Yet, for many of us, something happens in our growing up years which makes saying "No" very hard.  At least, it has been for me. Some would say that "Sorry" is the hardest word, but I have actually found the word "No" much harder! It has only been in recent years that I've been able to say "No" more.  This was once I understood why I had such difficulty with the word. I have grown up within a strong church culture where there was an emphasis on serving others.  The acronym 'J-O-Y' was often referred to when I was growing up - at least I felt that it was -  it was a constant reminder that J esus came first in my life, then O thers , and finally Y ourself .  But I was so caught up in making sure that others came before me that I actually didn't have t...