Been a long time...

Oh, dear, it has been a long time since I posted but I haven't forgotten about my blog completely! Had a week of holiday and been otherwise occupied with work and coursework. Will be posting more frequently hopefully in 3 weeks when the coursework is handed in.

Thought I'd share this lovely verse I read the other day in my quiet time, found it a real encouragement to me:

As for me, I shall behold your face in righteousness;when I awake, I shall be satisfied with your likeness. Psalm 17:15

How lovely to be satisfied with the likeness of Christ.

Always disappointing when you look up a verse in another version and it seems to say something completely different. The ESV version of this verse was the one for me!

Greater Faith

I have been reading through the pentateuch in my morning quiet times. It has struck me once again how the journeys of the children of Israel and all they go through in coming out of Egypt and reaching the promised land are so closely related to our Christian walk and there are so many lessons that can be learnt from their journeys.

In particular it is striking how many times the Lord provides for them in incredible ways - the ten plagues, the provision of manna, the provision of water and quail, conquering various kings and lands. Yet, even after seeing all of this, they do not trust the Lord enough to take them into the promised land when they see the 'giants' living there. What a picture of us! We so often doubt that the Lord will provide even though He has provided so many times before. With our God nothing is impossible, and if only we had greater faith we would see greater blessings.

Riches

I was thinking about the verses below:

And Jesus said to his disciples, “Truly, I say to you, only with difficulty will a rich person enter the kingdom of heaven. Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God.”

Perhaps this is where God's blessing will be in the 'credit crunch', and people who have their riches removed will turn to Christ. It would be wonderful to see a revival in our day and generation.

Although the divide between the rich and poor in this country is ever-widening we are all rich compared to those in so many other countries. It is so easy to begin to rely on our possessions and trust in our wealth but at the end of time these will all come to nothing. The one thing that is certain is that at the end of our time we will leave this world naked, just as we came into it. All our riches will be as nothing unless we have eternal riches in heaven.

I was listening to something on the radio this evening where a man was complaining about how chastity education was taught in schools and creation instead of evolution in America. How nice it would be if that complaint could be made in the UK.