1 year on...

All the way my Saviour leads me;
What have I to ask beside?
Can I doubt His tender mercy,
Who through life has been my Guide?
Heav’nly peace, divinest comfort,
Here by faith in Him to dwell!
For I know, whate’er befall me,
Jesus doeth all things well;

All the way my Saviour leads me,
Cheers each winding path I tread;
Gives me grace for every trial,
Feeds me with the living Bread.
Though my weary steps may falter,
And my soul athirst may be,
Gushing from the Rock before me,
Lo! A spring of joy I see;

All the way my Saviour leads me
O the fullness of His love!
Perfect rest to me is promised
In my Father’s house above.
When my spirit, clothed immortal,
Wings its flight to realms of day
This my song through endless ages—
Jesus led me all the way;

It is a year since I started blogging today.  I have enjoyed blogging although not as much as I enjoy reading others blogs and my posts have been somewhat erratic.  I hope to continue through next year with more regular postings.  This also means that it is my birthday today and especially in the last few days the above hymn has been on my mind.  I can certainly testify to the Lord's leading in all things and rejoice at the Ebenezers so far and trust Him for the furture.

Word in season:

The LORD shall fight for you and ye shall hold your peace. (KJV)


The LORD will fight for you and you have only to be silent. (ESV)  Exodus 14:14

Heading for 30.....

For the past couple of years I have used a chronological reading plan taking you through the Bible in a year.  This year I have been taking a different approach in my quiet times using some ideas from a few websites I looked at.  I am using a 180 day overview of the Bible which takes you through the 'highlights' of the message of salvation through the Bible.  I have almost finished the chapters from Genesis and today was reading about Joseph's release from prison to interpret Pharaoh's dreams and his subsequent promotion to 'Prime Minister'. It is amazing when you consider the pathway God used from the first dreams Joseph had telling him others would bow down to him until he gets to this position.  I go through the passage verse by verse, writing a short summary and considering the message of the passage and its application today.  For Genesis I have used the commentary by Mr Eveson also which has been very helpful.

Today the commentary highlighted that Joseph was 30 when he attained the position of leadership in Egypt, David was 30 when he began to reign as king, and Jesus was about 30 when he began his public ministry. I found this quite encouraging. 

PEACE - SHALOM

I have recently been thinking about the 'peace of God' and wanted to do a Bible study on it.  Last night, very unusually, I was sat listening to Premier Christian radio and heard a sermon which really helped.  It is really highlighting several verses which direct us how we can have this peace:

The Lord is at hand; do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.  And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Philippians 4:5-7

Cast your burden on the Lord, and he will sustain you; he will never permit the righteous to be moved. Psalm 55:22

Praise be to the Lord, to God our Savior, who daily bears our burdens.Psalm 68:19

Fear not, for I am with you; be not dismayed, for I am your God; I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with my righteous right hand. Isaiah 41:10

You keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on you, because he trusts in you. Isaiah 26:3

The key points were not to be anxious but to cast our burdens on the Lord, who daily bears our burdens.  To live a life of prayer at all times so that when times of difficulty come prayer is natural for us.  To trust in God for He is in control of all things.  So when difficulties come in order to enjoy the peace of God we should immediately cast our burden on the Lord and pray.  We can think of past situations where He has helped and be thankful and trust Him for help in this.  If we focus on the trouble that consumes us but if we focus on God, He upholds us and we can enjoy peace and so keep things in perspective.  This is a way I would love to live but have already failed today, so must continue to keep it as an aim to follow this guide and enjoy the peace of God.

Resurrection

I heard on the radio the other day about a new piece of modern art which is being commissioned to go in a UK cathedral. The subject is to be 'the resurrection' and 5 people are putting forward proposals. One of the proposals was to hang two words from the ceiling:

I AM

I thought how amazing, and what depth there is in these two words. Jesus said 'I am the resurrection and the life' God called Himself 'I AM'. Many times in John's gospel Jesus refers to Himself as 'I am'. It is true to refer to Him as 'I am', it is not 'I was' because He still is, He has been raised from the dead and is in eternal glory and lives on today both in the church and in the world. 'I AM' hanging in the cathedral should be a reminder that He is there present, seeing all that happens and that He is the one true, living God.

Waiting patiently

Taught about Noah in Sunday school last week. In my studies it was really interesting to see how long Noah was on board the boat and some other facts about Noah.

1) Noah was 500 when he first had children, that is about 300 years later than other men at that time.

2) The ark was floating for 150 days, that is 110 days after the rain stopped. I wonder how Noah and his family felt as they were just floating in the ark, wondering when they would be able to get out.

3) They were on board the ark for over a year.

Noah had great faith trusting God and obediently following his instructions, building the ark and entering it with all the animals and being safely kept for all that time. Reminded me how patient we need to be, our timing is not God's timing, we often want to rush ahead but God has everything in His control.

All our times....

Went to Cheltenham for the weekends, had a lovely time, walking in the beautiful countryside, surrounded by beautiful Autumn colours. Wonderful to see the greatness of God in creation.

We went to the chip shop a different one from normal because we had been delivering leaflets for the church creation weekend. Whilst we were waiting for our order we were wondering whether to leave the rest of our leaflets there when we saw a poster for Cheltenham Male Voice Praise concert, that evening. So we rushed home, ate our food and got there just as it started. It was fantastic. Beautiful singing, bringing together Christians form many different walks of life, praising the Lord in song, a foretaste of Heaven. The chairman was very good. One of the things he said was about every day being a gift from God and how we should try to make the most of it, like squeezing the juice from fruit, every last drop. I like that picture.

This is a song I really liked: (imagine a male voice choir singing!) Beautiful words:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ms-gxEOtLA&feature=related

If at first you don't succeed........

Loaf #2 Disaster #1

Yes, this is a loaf of bread!! Tastes as terrible as it looks - a winner for the bin!

Quote from the calendar

As promised, here is the message for yesterday from the calendar:

'For My yoke is easy, and My burden is light. Matthew 11:30'

A yoke to be effective, must be worn correctly, positioned properly and secured. The Lord knows exactly how much we are able to bear and places His yoke upon us perfectly. What binds it to us though is our love for Him. So if His yoke feels uncomfortable and cumbersome, we need to check that our love for Him is strong. The yoke is simply doing what it was designed to do. It is helping us bear spiritual responsibilities and making us useful for His glory. Let Jesus dasten His yoke on your hear today. Then wear it in measure to the grace He so freely gives anew each morning.