Hope For Today

Dear Friends, One Sunday morning back in September I preached on the following passage:     11 Has any nation ever traded its gods for new ones, even though they are not gods at all?  Yet my people have exchanged their glorious God for worthless idols!  12 The heavens are shocked at such a thing and shrink back in horror and dismay,” says the Lord. 13 “For my people have done two evil things: They have abandoned me - the fountain of living water. And they have dug for themselves cracked cisterns that can hold no water at all!  Jeremiah 2:11-13  (NLT) God told Jeremiah,  his prophet, to pass on his words to his people, the Israelites.  Using the metaphor of water, God was describing the spiritual state of his people, the Israelites.  In the parched land of Israel, cool spring water was extremely rare and highly valued. Running, living water, which flowed all year, was important to them. It provided them with...

Dear Friends, You'll know from my blogs that I love to write. I love to share with you the things I've been learning from God. And I love reading  and digging deep into  the Bible to uncover wonderful truths and treasures.  A few years back I believed God was calling me to write a book. So, I compiled a selection of devotionals from this blog. I spent time researching the market, and gaining advice and help from others.  Despite sending my book proposal to several publishers, no one was interested in my book.  It was hard to keep receiving rejections. I was convinced this was what God had called me to do and yet no doors seemed to be opening. I kept persevering. But, I was told on more than one occasion, that getting a devotional book published by an unknown author was difficult. After more time, I decided to go down the route of self-publishing. And after two years of working towards it, my devotional book "Dear Friend...52 weekly devotions to Enc...

Dear Friends, November is recognised by many as the month for thankfulness.  A few weeks back I was finding it difficult to be thankful for anything. My physical health had taken a dive and I was struggling on many fronts - church life, home life, family life.  My mental health, so closely connected to my physical well-being, was also not good.  I was feeling completely overwhelmed. I felt that I just couldn't cope, and the thought of one more responsibility sent me into a deeper depression.  I could see no way out and no hope for improvement. My focus was narrow - all I could see was my struggles. We can become blinkered when we are in the midst of our difficulties, trials and struggles. Our circumstances can then become all that we see. Horses sometimes wear blinkers (or blinders) to keep them focused on what's in front of them. Blinkers are good for horses.  However, they are not good for us.  We need to remove our blinkers so that we can get a ...