Dependency upon God.

As my husband was driving us to church this morning, I was quietly praying and preparing my heart to meet with God and asking for His presence to be upon me and the church. I muttered, God do You know how much I need you?" and the question came back, " Do I know how much I need you, Lord?" It is quite one thing to know that we need God, and we do, but to what extent is that need? I would dare to say it is a great need.

Jesus said that we must come to the Kindgom as a child, (Matt 8:13) and in fact, unless we are childlike in our faith, we will no means "enter the Kingdom of Heaven." Children have such simplicity of faith. They do not stress out asking where the next meal is going to come from or even their next pair of shoes. They rely totally on their parents' ability to supply their every need and are depended upon them for love, acceptance and self-worth. Do we trust God like this and are we dependent upon Him in this way?

Even Jesus, Son of God, in His humanity, depended upon the power of the Holy Spirit and on His Heavenly Father. Jesus, surrendered His every waking moment to the Father, to walk in the path of obedience doing the Father's will on earth.

Jesus said to them, "My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me, and to finish His work." (Joh 4:34)

Even the very words He spoke came from His reliancy upon hearing from God and proclaiming His message to broken humanity.

For I have not spoken on My own authority; but the Father who sent Me gave Me a command, what I shoud say and what I should speak. And I know that His command is everlasting life. Therefore, whatever I speak, just as the Father has told Me, so I speak." (Joh 12:49-50)

Our times are in God's hands, so in a sense, we are even dependent upon God for our next breath. He has given us our talents and abilities which we can either use to glorify Him or glorify ourselves. We grow up and develop out talents, but do we consider, "Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning." (Jas 1:17)

David, writing under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, penned a "Messianic Psalm" wherein it was declared,

"O my soul, you have said to the LORD, "You are my Lord, My goodness is nothing apart from You." (Psa 16:2)

If Jesus was so dependent upon His Father in Heaven, how much more should we be? I want to come like a child to the Father and rely on Him more and more every day, so that, more and more, He can use me to do His will and that His name will be glorified in my life.

True humility begins when we recognise that apart from Him, we can do nothing of everlasting and eternal worth.

Hope in God

Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. (Rom 15:13)

Hope, what a powerful state of mind. Hope is what people need to navigate the ups and downs of life, yet so many live without hope in the world and so many souls are cut short by choice because of the feelings of hopelessness. Christians should be people of great faith and abounding hope.

Faith and hope are closely intertwined and are two sides of the same coin. When we have faith in God and His promises, hope rises in our hearts, even as an eagle rises up on the updrafts of the breeze, to soar into the future with confidence and joy. Life is out there to enjoy when hope fills a heart and so it is that our hope in God and His promises gives us light, bouncy steps, even in adversity.

Be of good courage, And He shall strengthen your hearts, All you who hope in the LORD. (Psa 31:24)

I love the way that David, killer of giants, could pen so much about the hope in found in God, when so much of his life appeared to be in a state of hopelessness. Spending much time in the wilderness, running away from a king determined to kill this young, ruddy youngster who stood against and defeated Goliath, David sets his heart and eyes upon God. The giant who defied the whole army of Israelites and left them quaking in their boots, was killed by a young boy with a large heart of hope in God and a single stone flung from a child's sling.

Goliath had hope in his strength and height, and cocky he was too, but he was no match for the faith and hope in "the LIVING GOD" residing in the heart of this shepherd boy.

Behold, the eye of the LORD is on those who fear Him, On those who hope in His mercy, To deliver their soul from death, And to keep them alive in famine. Our soul waits for the LORD; He is our help and our shield. For our heart shall rejoice in Him, Because we have trusted in His holy name. Let your mercy, O LORD, be upon us, Just as we hope in You. (Psa 33:18-22)

What giants have you quaking in your shoes?

A marriage that seems hopeless?
A wayward child?
Financially broke?
Divorced?
Family who wants nothing to do with you?
Unsaved loved ones?

There is an answer in God for every one of these giants. Put your faith and hope in God and strengthen your heart in the fact that God is forever watching over you and He will never leave you nor forsake you, and if you listen to Him, He can change the outcome of every situation, and you will be able to say with confidence what David said:-

Why are you cast down, O my soul? And why are you disquieted within me? Hope in God, for I shall yet praise Him for the Help of His countenance. (Psa 42:5)

And, hope does not disappoint. (Rom 5:5)

Agape Love

"and the greatest of these is love." (1 Cor 13:13)

It is so true that God is the God of Love and we know this because He demonstrated "His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us."(Rom 5:8) This really is an amazing thought for humans who, on the whole, cannot demonstrate this kind of "agape" love, yet it is the quality of love that God calls us into. The bible is very clear that we love God, because He first loved us. (1Jn 4:9) Before Christ, our love is mostly self-centred but when the Holy Spirit comes into our heart, He sheds His love in our hearts for others. (Rom 5:5)

The world confuses love for sexual expression (eros love), but true agape love has nothing to do with physical attraction, but is the emotion that seeks the welfare of others before oneself. This is so evident in the life of Jesus, who went about doing good and destroying the works of the devil, (Acts 10:38) not demanding His own rights as God (Php 2:6) or His own way, but who continually lifted up others, even to His own physical detriment (Mar 3:20), the finale of this being the cross.

Christ showed us the full extent of His love when He stretched out His arms willingly on the cross to carry the weight and depravity of our sin so that we could come back into the loving relationship with the Father we were designed to have from the beginning of creation. He taught us the significance of loving others even though they do not share the same values, culture or even colour of skin. We are called to love like this, to lay down our life for others, even as Christ laid down His life for us. This kind of love is only possible when we keep ourselves in the love of God. (Jud 1:21)

How do I continue to love others, preferring them to myself, being kind and patient, not irritable but quick to forgive and keep no record of wrong done against me? Challenging!

The answer, I believe, is found in this amazing declaration of Christ.

Jesus answered and said to him, "If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Faither will love him, and We will come to him and make Our home with him. (Joh 14:23)

When we have a deep revelation of how much God loves us, we do not find His commandments burdensome to keep, and in obeying Him and receiving His overflowing love, there comes an automatic outflow of love towards others.

And she heard about Jesus

The pain of loneliness!
The pain of rejection!
The pain of not-making-the grade!

She suffered all these on top of a physical ailment and was also bankrupt chasing down a remedy from all the doctors in town, yet none could help, but then she HEARD...

Broken in spirit, hurting, bleeding, unclean they called her and banished her to the wilderness, cut off from family and friends. The gut-wrenching sobs of loneliness and rejection were worse than the pain of the disease. No one to share a laugh with. No one to watch a sunset with. No kind word or encouragement on any given day; no loving caress of a friend, mother, child or spouse. No one! The future was bleak, the verdict - her use-by-date had expired.

Yet, on this day, she heard....the sound of salvation drawing near with the noisy expectation of a crowd, and the whisper that gathered momentum until it was shouted in the street, that the Master, the Teacher, the Christ was coming. She had nothing, but she had faith. Faith in the Man, Jesus the Healer and faith brought legs to a plan. "If only I can but touch His garment, I will be healed." If only....but the crowd was jam-packed, jostling each other for a better position; closer to the Teacher who made the blind to see, the deaf to hear, the dead to rise and who spoke the life changing words that touched the heart and soul of the guilt-ridden, the shame-carrying, the down-and-outs, and set them free.

The only way in, was on hands and knees, crawling between the feet of a massive, moving crowd and breathing in the dust being kicked up on the stony road. She was in a place she should not have been, shunned by society because of a disease no one understood. To be found in amongst the crowd was a sure death sentence by stoning. The sharp stones thrown would have killed her before the sharp pains of the disease ever could.

If only was not an option. She knew healing would be hers if she pressed on through that dense crowd, over those stones, toward the hem that floated above those sandaled feet which would one day be pierced by nails to a wooden cross. She reached out and touched that dusty hem and instantly healing power gushed into her body and she was healed.



"Daughter, your faith has made you well. Go in peace. You have been healed." (Mark 5:34) Imagine the joy of feeling well for the first time in 12 years, the honeyed affirmation of those loving words spoken to a lonely and withered soul. He gave her back, not only her health, but an end to the lonely existence outside of family and friends; an end to rejection. She could walk through the market place and have a laugh and a chat to those around her. She could bend over and hug a child. She could love and receive love once agin.

She may have had a physical ailment that separated her from others but her story tells us we always find acceptance and healing in Jesus. Scripture tells us to cast ""all your care upon Him, for He cares for you." (1 Pet 5:7)

Do you need peace? Come to the Prince of Peace and hear the words, "Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid." (Joh 14:27)

Are you guilt-ridden? Listen to the words of freedom. "There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit." (Rom 8:1)

Do you suffer with a spirit of rejection? Listen to the sounds of acceptance from the lips of the Saviour Himself. "All that the Father gives me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will by no means cast out." (Joh 6:37)

Rejected by mankind, but His loving arms are open to the one who comes. Are you coming? There's no better invitation for love and life. Come. Come to Jesus, He beckons you,

"Come to Me, all you who labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." (Mat 11:28)

The Cross of Christ - Triumphant

Even though Mel Gibson's Passion of the Christ was an excellent film, it did give the idea that the cross of Christ, horrific and brutal as it was, was a tragedy. I think that this thought is prevalent in Christendom today. But the cross of Christ was the most triumphant event that has ever been witnessed on earth and the single most important love story played out in history. The love of a Creator Saviour for His created, the love of a Father's anguish in watching His only begotten Son brutally twisted in agony upon a cruel, hard, wooden cross. And why? We were certainly not deserving, despising and rejecting Him, "we all like sheep have gone astray. We have turned, every one, to his own way." (Is 53:6) But such is love, great love and unfathomable love.

For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. (Joh 3:16)

The cross was the ultimate sacrifice by which we were redeemed. The sinless One offered up for the sinner. Our sins, our offences against a Holy God, paid for in full, by the blood of the Lamb. We have been redeemed. A holy purchase has been made. A heavenly transaction took place. Redeemed, "not with corruptible things, like silver or gold but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot." (1Pet 1:18) Our sins, violent, heavy, degrading, shame-forming, guilt-destroying, was laid upon Him and this transaction was "foreordained before the foundation of the world." (1 Pet 1:19-20). A swap was made, "And the LORD has laid on Him the iniquity of us all." We were the debtors in this transaction. We owed, unable to pay back, bankrupt but His mercy and love reached out in a willing sacrifice to wipe our debts away.

"Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one's life for his friends." (Joh 15:13) Willing to come, willing to feel the restraints of a fleshly body and emotions, hungry, cold, tired, tempted, loved and loving, hated, laughing, crying, touching and healing; yet still God wrapped in human flesh but with extraordinary power, sprung from compassion, moved by the Spirit and intimately empowered by obedience to the Father in Heaven. Thus He can say, "Therefore My Father loves Me because I lay down My life that I may take it up again. No one takes it from Me, but I lay it down of Myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it up again. This command I have received from my Father." (Joh 10:17-18)

Tragedy, no! Triumphant, yes! And the annals for eternity ring out in joyous applause, to the Lamb, to the Christ and victorious Lord, "And they sang a new song, saying: "You are worthy to take the scroll, And to open its seals; For You were slain, And have redeemed us to God by your blood out of every tribe and tongue and people and nation." (Rev 5:9) AMEN, forever may it be so, for He bore the sins of many and made intercession for the transgressors.

Jesus wash our feet

...so when He had washed their feet......

Imagine the love of Christ! Who could understand what was going on in His heart at this moment? He was setting an example to His disciples, before He would enter into His Gethesame. And what a lesson indeed!

Jesus, the Son of God, took on the servant's garb, one of the lowliest positions in society, to wash the muck off the apostles' feet. He understood exactly what was to happen to Him and still He came to the one who would betray Him to show Judas His love. There was no finger pointing, no condemnation as He knelt down before Judas's feet to lift them and place them in the bowl of water. Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one's life for his friends. (Joh 15:13) There was no anger in His heart, no animosity to the one who had walked with Him for three years, and who was now caught up in the greed of money and who would betray Jesus for 30 pieces of silver. The Son of Man, the One who "knew He had come from God and was returning to God", The Word, through whom all things were created, loved His betrayer to the end. What would have been on His mind right then as He lifted Judas' feet out of the water to gently dry them with a towel? Jesus, troubled in His spirit, would have felt pity for this lost soul, desiring above all that there was no need to lose this one in fulfilment of prophecy. But satan had already entered into Judas' soul and even Christ's example of love, could not dispel the greed within this human heart.

How this tender moment would have marked a vivid impression upon all the disciples minds after Christ's death on the cross. This picture would have played and replayed in technicolour, dashing across the memory in flashes, the undoing of the sandal, the warm water, the hands of the Teacher splashing, rubbing and drying. The eyes connecting, bewilderment in the disciples' eyes, yet love in the Master's gaze.

Not only did Jesus show His disciples the extent of His love, He taught them in word and deed, a new commandment, "that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another." (Joh 13:34-35)

By this........can we say that we love as Christ has loved us? Does the world see us as those who love one another?

We have a new way to live..... a new walk to walk..... and example to follow and "We love Him because He first loved us." (1 Jn 4:19) The path of blessing lies in our decision to love one another and to help each other walk in the Saviour's example. Love first!

Creation is declaring

"the heavens declare..."

How captivating is the starry host on a dark moonless night. The expanse of the Milky Way, this river of twinkling lights, surrounded by the inky darkness of velvet! Beautiful, yet intimidating! Gigantically humongous! Incredibly large, in a seemingly endless and unreachable stygian blackness!

And what does this sight declare? The work of His fingers, His craftsmanship and, indeed, they speak even of His love. All around the globe, every human under heaven, witnesses this endless array of stars so bright that they hang plump in the night sky. And to know that the Creator of the heavens has named each and everyone and calls them out by name.

"Look up into the Heavens. Who created all the stars? He brings them out like an army, one after another, calling each by its name. Because of His great power and incomparable strength, not a single one is missing." Is 40:26

Why go to such an extreme of lavish proportions?

If God so caringly watches over the work of His Hands, the starry host so uncountable, we must know and understand how much He watches over us. Our delight in His creation echoes His delight over us.

"When I consider Your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which You have ordained, what is man that You are mindful of him. And the son of man that You visit him? For You have made him a little lower than the angels, and You have crowned him with glory and honour." Ps 8:3-5

This reminds me how Jesus brought out attention to the care of our Heavenly Father in Matthew 6 regarding our everyday subsistences like food, water and the clothes we wear. He pointed to the common sparrow, worthless in human eyes, yet the Father does not let one fall without His knowledge. Jesus goes on to re-iterate this vital fact of God's intimate concern by pointing to the abundantly beautiful lillies of the field.

So why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lillies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin; and yet I say to you that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. Now if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will He not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?" Matt 6:28-30

Father, so loving; so kind; so generous; cares for the flowers and "the grass of the field that is here today and gone tomorrow." Infinitely more does Our Father care for us. This Holy Father, who saw us in our sin, before the heavens were created, still set this array of eye-catching entertainment to captivate us with His incredible glory. And what glory! Who on earth can create what the Heavenly Father has so lovingly put together for us to gaze upon. And think on this; He knew we would rebel, yet He gave us so much, preparing the earth for our survival, and indeed making us to have the dominion over it. Does this not show us the heart of the Father, full of love and care? This Holy God, who look upon our sin and instead of disdaining us, sent His Son full of grace and truth, even whilst we were sinners, to redeem us with His life giving blood on the cross on Calvary.

Indeed, creation screams out to us the enormity of God, the love of God, the highly visible manifestation of His invisible might and of the power of God, and of His Word and also of coming judgement for those who refuse to see that has been made plain to them.

"for that which is known about God is evident to them and made plain in their inner consciousness, because God [Himself] has shown it to them. For ever since the creation of the world His invisible nature and attributes, that is, His eternal power and divinity, have been made intelligible and clearly discernible in and through the things that have been made (His handiworks). So [men] are without excuse [altogether without any defense or justification]. [Ps 19:1-4] Rom 1:19-20

Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in Your sight, O LORD, my strength and my Redeemer. Ps 19:14