Hope For Today

Dear Friends,  When I was a child we would sing a song about having a great, big, wonderful God  who never leaves us and who is ready to catch us when we stumble because we are  the apple of his eye. I used to enjoy singing it and although I never fully understood what it really meant to be  the apple of God's eye, I knew it was connected to God loving me. If you are a similar age to me and grew up in church, you may be familiar with this song too. At the time I never realised that the phrase "the apple of God's eye" came from the Bible. But I was reminded of this song a few weeks ago when I read the following verse in the Bible: Keep me as the apple of your eye; hide me in the shadow of your wings. Psalm 17:8  (NIV) The idea of being the apple of God's eye has been on my mind since then, so I decided I wanted to know more about what it means to be the apple of God's eye.  Here's what I learned: The phrase "apple of the eye...

Dear Friends,  I attended a seminar given by Debbie Duncan on "Brave: Showing Courage in All Seasons of Life" whilst my husband and I were at Spring Harvest this year. After listening to Debbie I bought her book which is on this same theme.  In her book, Debbie writes:  "I believe that bravery is courage for a season... Being courageous is not something we can do on our own. It is a quality that is enriched by God as we learn that we can trust Him and not be afraid. It is a quality we need for specific seasons in our lives." Debbie writes about how to have courage in times of change by trusting in God who never changes. S he writes about the challenge of ill-health, changing seasons in parenting, and in our own lives, such as perhaps taking care of our elderly parents whilst adjusting to a different season in our own parenting, retirement, facing the unknown, choosing the brave decision to forgive, courage in grief and loss and finally, courage i...

If you prefer to listen to today's devotional, please click  here Dear Friends,  At the church I attend, the theme for this month's preaching is "Minor Appearance - Major Impact" and I had the joy and privilege to preach on Lydia from Acts 16:11-15, 40 . There is not much about her in these verses, but I enjoyed studying about her and her life using various Bible commentaries and other books. From my studies, I decided to give a creative retelling of her to help my listeners understand a little more about her time and for her character to become more real to us. http://www.freebibleimages.org Here it is in more detail than I had time for on Sunday. I have included the truth from Scriptures, things I learned from my studies and a touch of imagination. You may like to imagine yourself as one of her visitors. "Welcome to my home, come in, sit yourself down, make yourselves at home. I hear you want to know my testimony, how I became...

If you would prefer to hear today's devotional then please click   here Dear Friends, Temptation: Give In or Resist? I like to read about the men and women of the Bible. Although it's written in a time centuries before us, their lives are still relevant and we can learn much from them. The Bible doesn't gloss over their sins, mistakes or failures. It tells their whole story - warts and all. Today I want to look at the account of King David when he was tempted to sleep with Bathsheba. You can find the account here: 2 Samuel 11:1-12:25  if you want to read it first. There were steps which David took on the road to giving in to temptation and these same steps still apply to us today: Step 1 - Look: the temptation Late one afternoon, after his midday rest, David got out of bed and was walking on the roof of the palace. As he looked out over the city, he noticed a woman of unusual beauty taking a bath. 2 Samuel 11:2  (NLT) At this point, the temp...