Things Too Wonderful

I love the book of Habauk.  It’s only three chapters long, hidden away among the minor prophets, but it contains one of the greatest statements of faith in the whole Bible, and lessons you would pay a fortune for online!

Habakuk was around about the same time as Jeremiah.  Tough time in Israel’s history! It was probably at the end of Josiah’s reign or soon after.  Josiah had found the book of the law in the Temple, and for a while God’s people had turned back to Him and were living according to His instructions… but not for long!  They were back to their old ways: sin, degradation and a total disregard for God (sound familiar?) Continue Reading »

If you could ask God any question, what would you ask Him?

 I asked a lot of people that question last week, in preparation for a talk I was doing.  The vast majority of the adults I asked said they would have to think about it and get back to me.  They never did.

 The children, on the other hand, didn’t hesitate!  They had some great questions: Continue Reading »

My car is dead.  It was a terminal case of head gasket and cracked cylinder and a few other things (mechanics not being my best thing I am unable to supply the details)  but it has driven its last journey.  Needless to say, this was unwelcome and expensive news, given our current circumstances.   I need a new car. 

I don’t think I mentioned here that a couple of months ago, a very polite gentleman drove into the back of me while I was driving Steve’s car.  At least, I wasn’t driving it at the time so much as Continue Reading »

I have to say that as weeks go, this one hasn’t been the best.

• Steve went to another healing meeting, and as he lined up with the others to be prayed for the guy next to him went flying over, hitting him in the temple with his elbow and nearly knocking him unconscious.  Steve had a blinding headache for the next three days! And no, there was no miraculous healing for him.

• We had to cancel our family holiday to the South Coast because of the leaky radiator on Steve’s car.

• In an attempt to make it up to the kids, we decided to drive to the water park in a nearby city (in my car).  The head gasket blew and we spent most of the afternoon sitting at the side of the duel carriageway waiting for the RAC to rescue us. Continue Reading »
  

Healing and miracles seem to be very much on God’s agenda at the moment!  Not only the ‘outpouring’ in Florida which I blogged about a few days ago,  but all over the place there are stories of people being healed miraculously by the power of God.  It’s exciting stuff, and like so many others I am so desperate to see God doing more

Like the kind of stuff He did at a meeting I was at this Sunday.  It was a ‘City Vision’ Celebration.  All the Churches (who wanted to) in the city met up, the praise and worship lifted the roof and the presence of God was very tangible.  (’Where there is unity, the Lord commands a blessing’).  Then the visiting speaker got up.  An interesting guy, Free Methodist by ‘denomination’ (not that that has anything to do with it),  very non-emotional, very to-the-point, and so in touch with God it was unbelievable!  (I want to hear God like that when I ‘grow up’!!)  He is often used by God to bring healing and release to people, and he announced that God had told him to pray for two groups of people before he preached - the first; people with muscular diseases. Continue Reading »

Christians have times of suffering too!  There is the temptation sometimes to think that we are exempt from suffering, or difficult times; that God will protect us from anything painful or horrible. 

But sometimes he doesn’t. 

We live in a fallen, messed up world and we suffer sometimes: sickness, relationship breakdown, injustice, financial difficulties, stress, pain… God does not cause these things.  Life happens and sometimes it hurts.  We need to respond to that.

Like Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego (whose story is told in Daniel, chapter 3).  Three good, Jewish boys, exiled unjustly to a foreign country, stripped of their culture, identity and even their names but getting on with the job.  Outwardly they were obedient to their captors, but inwardly their hearts were kept for God alone.

The next thing they know they’re heading for the fiery furnace. Continue Reading »

God has really been challenging me recently through Isaiah 45:3 

“I will give you the treasures of darkness, riches stored in secret places”

Which I take to mean that there is treasure to be found when times are difficult and you feel like you’re going through dark places. 

There is something about suffering which makes us more receptive to God.  Maybe because we are crying out for answers and maybe because there is nowhere else to turn.  I know that on the days when Steve just can’t get out of bed and I’m feeling weighed down by the responsibility and difficulty of it all, that I am more open to hearing God.  Probably because I need His help so much on those days just to get through.  Continue Reading »

I became a christian in the May of the year I turned fifteen.  It was the best decision I have ever made.

My Dad was in the army, and I had spent most of my life moving from one army base to another; a new home every year/eighteen months.  By the time he left the army, to give us a more stable secondary school education, I was twelve, and I had already learnt not to get too close to people, because you’re always going to have to say goodbye.  We moved to a small market town in the North of England, and started to try and put down some roots for the first time.

I didn’t feel as if I belonged.  The kids there had known each other since infancy and I just didn’t fit.  I was Continue Reading »