Hope For Today

Dear Friends, I have recently experienced a great weekend away with my church family.  When we accept Jesus as our Saviour we become part of God's family.  " Even before he made the world, God loved us and chose us in Christ to be holy and without fault in his eyes. 5  God decided in advance to adopt us into his own family by bringing us to himself through Jesus Christ. This is what he wanted to do, and it gave him great pleasure.   "   Ephesians 1:4-5 (NLT) You might want to stop to take a moment to ponder on what it means to you that God wants to adopt you into his family.  It's quite an incredible thought that God, the creator of the universe, not only loves me but has also chosen to bring me into his family, making me his daughter. Because we have been brought into God's family, we now have many brothers and sisters in Christ and we are called to love them with a sincere, deep love.  " Through Christ you have come to trust in God. ...

  Dear Friends,    View looking down from the Sky Walk Some years back my family and I visited the Spinnaker Tower in Portsmouth.  It's quite an incredible building, 170 metres above Portsmouth Harbour and taller than Blackpool Tower, the London Eye and Big Ben.  It has 350 degrees panoramic views and stretches out for up to 23 miles. Personally, I'm not a great fan of heights, but I did feel completely safe and it was an experience not to be missed.  On view deck 1 there is a Sky Walk, a large glass floor, the overall thickness of the glass is 60mm and it can hold a weight of 288 stone!  Josh demonstrating faith! To walk across it we had to take off our shoes and go barefoot.  Some of us did it quite warily; others seemed to have no fear, having complete faith in the strength of the glass to hold them up.  Josh even laid out flat on it!  I wasn't quite so comfortable doing that! Whether someone walked acros...

Dear Friends, As I write this, Valentine's Day is fast approaching.  I'm sure that with that day comes all kinds of mixed emotions for many people.  Some will be eagerly anticipating it, especially if they are in the throes of new love (such as a certain young man I know!), for some it will be a reminder of their singleness when it seems as though everyone else is celebrating, for some there will be sad memories of love lost, others perhaps will be feeling that their relationships fall short of what they had hoped for etc. But today I want us to put aside these things to re-focus on God and his love for each one of us.  So, make yourself a cup of tea or coffee, get yourself comfy in your favourite chair, find somewhere you can be alone from others and let's quieten are hearts and minds so we can draw near to God and contemplate on his love for us.  Take your time as you read, stop and meditate over each verse. When thinking about what is real love and wh...

Dear Friends, I have been reading about Giant Redwoods this week.  I learnt that these incredible trees can grow to 247 feet high, with a diameter of around 20 feet.  They can live for a few thousand years.  They are continually growing, even when they are hundreds of feet tall; their trunk grows wider and their upper branches grow stronger.  It has been found that the older they get the more their rate of growth increases. They need abundant water and have shallow root systems which intertwine with the roots of other Redwoods. I found this information fascinating and even more so as I considered what these trees can teach us about our Christian life.  Let me take these next few moments to share some things with you: 1. Our God is an amazing Creator God.  He created all things.  He did so with such creativity and imagination.  " In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth... Then God said, “Let the land sprout with...

Dear Friends,   It wasn't until after I had sought God on what to share this week, that I discovered it was also Mental Health Awareness Week.  I've suffered with depression for many years, but I'm learning ways to manage it better.  I say learning rather than learnt, as there are still times when I sink into the deep, dark pit and I can find my thoughts spiralling downwards. The bible makes it clear that our mind is a battlefield.  Our thinking affects the way we feel and also determines our behaviour.  As Christians we seek to surrender ourselves to God.  " If people’s ·thinking is controlled by [ or outlook/mind is set on] the sinful self [sinful nature; flesh] , ·there is [the result is] death. But if their thinking is controlled by [ or outlook/mind is set on] the Spirit, there is [the result is] life and peace." Romans 8:6 (EXB)  The conflict is between our old way of thinking as opposed to our new way of thinking and believi...

Dear Friends, As a child I enjoyed visiting castles and old English homes with my family.  I particularly liked it if there was a maze on the grounds.  It was fun to pair off and see who was going to reach the centre first.  Of course it always meant taking some wrong turns, coming against a dead end, not being sure whether to go right or left and sometimes re-tracing our steps, but we always got there in the end.  One of Jason's uncles owns a farm and he has planted and pruned willow trees in an area of seven acres of land.  He did this to create a maze.  But there is something unique about his maze, which you are not aware of it when on the ground.  A different perspective is needed.  From an aerial view you realise that the maze is actually created so that you can read from above the words taken from John 14:6a " Jesus told him, ' I am the way, the truth, and the life.'" (NLT)   Life can sometimes feel like a maze. There are ti...

Dear Friends, Along my journey with God there have been times when I've felt that there is something holding me back from his calling on my life.  Do you ever feel like that, or am I the only one? Breaking what is holding you back There can be various things in my life that work to hold me back from fulfilling God's plan for me.  Sometimes I can be the cause, something in me which is holding me back from moving forward. Sometimes it may be because I'm listening to others rather than listening to God. Sometimes it can be connected to my circumstances and at other times it's the devil.  He doesn't mind it when I'm a lethargic Christian, when I'm all talk and no action because I'm no threat then.  But the moment you and I say yes to God and begin to do something for God, that's when the devil gets worried.  The last thing he wants is Christians who are active for God, who are obedient to God's word and ...