Joy Again

Well here is the update on being ‘joyful’ when life is full of tough situations. I don’t want to be glib or trite, I have spent too much of my exciting Christian life ‘talking the talk but not walking the walk’. So much has happened in this short time since the last blog and the situation got worse before it got better.

A week prior to our middle daughter 

leaving her home in Wales to emigrate to Brisbane Australia we heard from our youngest daughter in Perth, WA that a mass had been found in our grand-daughter Ayesha’s bowel and she had lost 15kgs in weight! 

That same night the leaders in a church decided that Joy for Life should not go ahead although tickets had been printed and preparations done.

JOY

^‘Consider it sheer JOY, friends, when tests and challenges come at you from all sides. You know that under pressure, your faith-life is forced into the open and shows its true colours. So don’t try to get out of anything prematurely. Let it do its work so you become mature and well-developed, not deficient in any way’. James 1:2-4 MSG

God’s will for our lives is joy in ALL circumstances: “Always be full of joy in the Lord; I say it again, rejoice!” Philippians 4:4NLT.

BUT Father God what about when our precious second daughter with her wonderful husband and three children emigrate from the UK to Australia at the end of March? Where is JOY then?

I am naturally a cup half empty person therefore my default button is misery and complaining so I need to look at all the Word says about this. Surely Father God who lost His Son would not expect me to be full of ‘JOY’ in these circumstances??

I am not talking about happiness which I know comes and goes depending on circumstances - and the whole world wants to be happy! (I am so ‘happy’ with a special cup of coffee and chocolate biscuit – easily pleased!) I am talking about what God calls ‘JOY’! A fruit of His Holy Spirit living in me. That power that raised Jesus from the dead! The same power that gives me confidence and assurance that He alone has all things in His hands. The JOY that works along with love, peace, patience; kindness; goodness, faithfulness; gentleness and self-control, totally supernatural fruit from staying close to Jesus. What a challenge!

Be Warned

Wow what an amazing year we have had with the weather!! All we all talk about is the weather, the great British pastime!! For some it has been life changing, they have lost everything, while others have been a little inconvenienced, like our family, where they couldn’t keep an appointment as the trains were not running due to water in the signals! 'Boohoo', how can we even think about complaining??


Just this last week at Bible Study Fellowship where we are working through Matthew’s Gospel we arrived at Matthew 16 where Jesus says “You have a saying that goes, ‘Red sky at night, sailor’s delight; red sky at morning, sailors take warning.’ You find it easy enough to forecast the weather—why can’t you read the signs of the times?” Matthew 16:1-4 Message. What an amazing week to be studying Jesus’ attitude to the weather forecasts. What He really wanted was the people to look at their lives in the light of eternity, and where they would spend it. The signs that God has given us, pointing to Jesus as His Son are so clear, and much more important than any signs in the weather! We are so blind to the signs of the times, warning us He is coming back soon.

New Beginnings

My life has been marked by many ‘new beginnings’! They have usually been after times of a house move caused by David’s job re-locations or times when we believed God was asking us to go to a specific place for Him. They were always great opportunities to make a new start! Whether I wanted to or not! Sometimes it meant leaving a job, finding new friends, schools, and new house. I often wish we had chosen a place because of the church rather than the job or house. Every time it was like a New Year, an opportunity to take stock and review my priorities and where does God fit into all of these choices??

Peter in the Bible is such a wonderful example of someone who experienced several new beginnings! When Jesus first called him and his brother Andrew ‘Come after Me, follow Me,

and I will make you fishers of men! At once they left their nets and became His disciples’ (Matthew 4:19,20). What a change, a whole new lifestyle away from all the security of the family business, all his support network gone! 

Just think about no guaranteed income and not knowing if this will be temporary or forever! Times away from his wife and family (Matthew 8:14). Did he really count the cost or was it an impulsive decision from a man looking for something more than his everyday life.