Heaven here we come.Part One

My eldest daughter Sara and I are looking at a cruise together, on my 'bucket list', something I have always wanted to do and Dave never did. Sara's husband is not keen on this, unless he is captaining the yacht. I am researching on the web, asking companies for brochures, thinking about the size, destiny and comfort of the cruise liner, so much fun, full of dreams, divine appointments; ideas of comfort; trips on shore and good food. 

So we all know we are going to die, the only guarantee in life, and yet we don't have coffee shop chats about 'what will it be like? Where do you think you are going? 'Would you recommend it?' 'If you died tonight where do you think you will go?' It is the 'elephant' in the room. In the Bible it says, 'Look I am creating new heavens and a new earth, and no one will even think about the old ones anymore. Be glad; rejoice forever in My creation!' Isaiah 65:17

So how can I be ready for my forever life? It is not wise to not think through wherever I am going be? Seek out how I am going to get there? What will it be like? if it is a place, what will I be doing? or not doing? Who else will be there?

It says in Hebrews 2:14,15; that Jesus came to remove the fear of  death, and by being human He showed us that He has prepared the way.

I have been very fearful of dying, a bit like being pregnant and I know in order to have this precious baby I am trapped to having to go through the labour. So knowing that to go into an unknown eternity I have to let go of control of every person and place in this life, and trust Jesus.  I have set about in the last few months to find out what awaits me on the other side of death. The Bible has a lot to say about it and Jesus does not want us to be ignorant. In fact He would rather our minds were more focused on eternity than our everyday issues. Time is short, 'But let me say this, dear brothers and sisters: The time that remains is very short. So from now on, those with wives should not focus only on their marriage. Those who weep or who rejoice or who buy things should not be absorbed by their weeping or their joy or their possessions. Those who use the things of the world should not become attached to them. For this world as we know it will soon pass away'. 1 Corinthians 7:29-31 

I have also been enjoying a few books and YouTubes about Near Death Experiences, especially where research included believers in Jesus Christ and non believers there were so many reports in common. From their experiences many found Jesus for themselves. 

Having looked at post death experiences and the Word, I know without doubt I will be received by overwhelming LOVE, after all God gave His precious Son so I can be accepted and stand clean before Him. Forgiven of ALLI have done, even my good actions have had wrong motives.

We can have decided what is going to happen to us after we die and give it no more thought BUT is this the Truth? Imagine waking up on our new holiday and finding out 'this is not how I thought it was going to be' but there is nothing I can do to change the destination, I could have made my choice, when listening to friends talking; watching YouTubes; behaviour of church people; but maybe they were not telling me the truth, I have to make my own choice. After all if I dont want to spend time with the God of the Universe here, why would I want to spend time with Him in the next life. He never rejects us we reject Him.

This is Dave's last painting of the narrow gate, he didnt realise that his days were very short but obviously he was focusing on his Heavenly home and the narrow gate to get there, Matthew 7:13. This is such a massive and wonderful subject after all who doesn't want to go on the most amazing holiday, perfect destination, all inclusive, and surrounded by Love so if you are not sure, Jesus promises 'you will find Me if you seek Me with your whole heart' Jeremiah 29:13 and Luke 12:31

Check out if you have a paid ticket to the right destination go to "https://www.joyforlife.org/index.php/the-best-news"  

Enjoy the journey and see you there. 

If Only .........

Since Dave died I have had so many opportunities to say if only,  'If only I hadn't kept that grudge.' 'If only I had listened more when he tried to teach me on the computer.' 'If only I had found out where to fill the car engine with oil'.
'If only I hadn't made that comment'
'If only I hadn't posted that message'
'If only I had said sorry straight away or never made the comment in the first place'
'If only we had trusted Jesus more'.

When we lose a partner, a child, a friend from death or even a business, a house,..........  (fill in the space) there can be so many 'if onlys........' but it brings us to a massive place of regret, a regret we can do nothing about.

Imagine how many 'if onlys' Peter spoke and thought about coming up to Pentecost, Acts 2:14. He knew Jesus was the Messiah, the Father had shown that Truth to him and called him, Matthew 4:18. He saw the Transfiguration and wanted to tell Jesus what he could do for Him, Matthew 17:4. What about walking on water, imagine 'if only I hadn't looked down' Matthew 14:29.
If only I hadn't said I would never deny Him, 
If only I had slipped away and not tried to stick around the court house.
If only; .....  if only I had taken on board His warning to me,
If only I had been honest with Him and say I didn't understand,.....
If only He had made it all clearer, if only I had realised He didn't mean I was going to be important in His new Government.....

'If only' ........When Jesus was resurrected, He came straight to Peter to ask him if he really loved Him? John 21:15-18. What a challenge after the previous few days. Peter must have had so many 'If onlys' in his head. 'If only' I had been faithful to Him when I could; 'If only' I was there when He needed me the most..

.......
But now, none of this is helpful, positive or building Peter up, he now knows he is forgiven, Peter told Jesus three times that he loves Him more than anything or anybody. Peter knows too, he can look forward. Jesus has told all the disciples to go back to Jerusalem and wait to receive the power of the Holy Spirit, Acts 1:8

Peter now experienced the life transforming power of the Holy Spirit and will obey His leading day by day with no regrets - no 'if onlys' so he can walk as Jesus walked and do what Jesus did. His first sermon when laying hands on the man sitting at the Temple door, 3000 people were saved, Acts 3:1-8. No more speaking without thinking. He now has a heart full of compassion for the marginalised, even those who killed his Saviour.

I am learning to  give all my 'if onlys' to Jesus, lay them at His feet and recognise He dealt with them all, at the time when they happened, and there is no need to allow them to hold me back. Let us like Peter make a new start, walking in the power of the Holy Spirit, 'as without Him we can do nothing'.  Have a good day, and no more time wasted on 'if only.......'     
 

Praise in the storm.

Some time ago I went out my front door with slippers on, and a coat, no phone, just to pop a piece of paper into the neighbour's letter box. As soon as I stepped away from my front door I realised I did not have my key, and worse I had left it on the inside of the front door, and the door latch locks on contact. I have spare keys with neighbours for just such a time as this, but not when I have the key on the inside of the lock. AAAAAAAAH.

A kind neighbour suggested going in via the back door. 'I never leave my key on the inside of the back door', I stated boldly. I picked up my spare back door key from another neighbour, (good strategic planning), spent 20 minutes trying to get it to work. My amazing neighbour came round and realised I had indeed left my key in the inside lock of the backdoor as well. He managed to fiddle the spare key enough to allow him to use his key to unlock my house and let me in.

In this little cameo when I was stepping out of my front door I realised I had a choice, while my stomach was churning and my head was full of 'what ifs', I was thinking through every scenario of potential problems especially as I was meant to be on my way to a Zoom meeting. OR I could call on the Holy Spirit to lead me and listen to Him instead of all the reasonings in my mind and just praise Jesus with all my heart so I walked along my garden path praising Him with my hands in the air, that He had a plan, He wouldn't leave me homeless for the night. With some wiggling of my backdoor key, my neighbour managed to loosen the key, and it fell to the floor and he was able to unlock my back door and I gained entry to my home. I certainly had a praise party that night and learnt a big lesson from my Father, praise in the storm.

Prayer 'Father God when I have any problem please help me to focus more on YOU rather than the problem. You are so much bigger than any problem. Guide me Holy Spirit to throw my heart into praise rather than panic in Jesus Name and for His Glory, Amen.

Joy Always

Just think about this for a few moments, JOY ALWAYS, it is enough to lift our spirits in any trial. And this is the JOY Jesus had, even when He faced the Cross, James 1:2-3. I am sure He didn’t feel happy as the circumstances were dire in every area of His life; the Cross itself; leaving His Mother, who He knew would hurt so much; His closest friends would desert Him, and all the people, whom He loved so much would hate Him. 

But He had the bigger picture, of the ‘joy set before Him’. He encourages us to have the same eternal perspective in every situation, even when our hearts are breaking, Hebrews 12:2; Colossians 3:1-3

We may feel that we have no joy in our present tough situation but Jesus said in John 15:11 "These things have I spoken unto you, that My joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full." So His joy is available to us on a moment by moment basis. Just think of it - Jesus has put His own joy in our heart from the moment we were born again by the Spirit of God.

How do we put that force of joy to work in our life? Just like we put the force of salvation to work in our life, by faith.

First, we trust we have received it.

Then we speak it out with our mouth. (In other words, quit crying and start shouting "Hallelujah" instead!)

Then we start agreeing we have joy by doing it, praising Him, worshiping, His promises.

 The Holy Spirit will teach us how to develop Jesus’ joy., take time out to lay aside every thought, every weight, and every care and get your heart focused on Jesus.

No matter what our circumstances we can be full of joy.

We can be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might.

We can draw on the joy of the Holy Spirit within us and come out in victory!

We can just keep thinking about that and talking about it until the joy of the Lord starts to bubble up within us. Then we'll be strong enough to whip any kind of trouble that comes our way! 

  

 Paul desired for the disciples to be strengthened and invigorated with all power, according to HIS'  glorious might and to attain every kind of endurance and patience WITH joy, giving thanks to the Father. That's what Paul did, he certainly had trouble, he'd been stoned, and whipped and imprisoned, and ridiculed - and yet he was always rejoicing, never in self-pity. He kept re-energizing joy by drawing on the supply of the Holy Spirit within himself. Joy kept his attitude right. Joy kept him looking to God and flowing in Holy Spirit power. We can do the same, His power within us.

 Joy doesn't depend on our constantly fluctuating emotions.

Joy affects the mind, making it alive and receptive.

Joy makes the human will vibrant and yielded to God.

Joy even affects the body. 'A joyful, cheerful heart brings healing to both body and soul. But the one whose heart is crushed strugles with sickness and depression' Proverbs 17:22 TPT

Just over a week ago I got a call at 5am asking me to return home for a serious family health situation. According to Google I was 3hrs 12 minutes away. While packing my case I put the situation into Father's hands and had a deep sense that He was working this situation out and I could trust Him. I certainly wasn't happy with this situation but all the time while driving home in the bucketing rain, I had a deep seated joy.  So when any anxious thought came I just kept praising. All I could remember to focus on was the Lord's prayer, 'thy will be done on earth as it is in Heaven' and there is no death in Heaven. His joy was overwhelming at times. If I had not been driving I probably would be jumping up and twirling around. The outcome was just as the Father had promised me.

 

Each of the fruit of the Holy Spirit supports the others. It takes them all, working together, to make us complete. Joy is not just a state of mind. Joy is a very real force. The devil doesn't have anything that can stand up against faith, joy, love, peace,  longsuffering, goodness or self-control. Discouragement, disappointment, disaster, disorder, disputes, divisions, doubts,  all have to yield to joy. We dont need to stir ourselves up to be overcome by JOY just allow the Holy Spirit to have His way in us. Go for it BE JOYFILLED and the world will see JESUS.

 

Unity in Diversity Part 2

So as we made the point in Part 1 if we are believers in Jesus Christ, we are all born of the same Holy Spirit, so united in our spirit and all part of the Body of Christ

 But we are also very unique, being made in His image, making us the person He wants us to be. We can celebrate our individuality. God doesn't want us to be like everyone else so why do we kick against His pricks to copy those we admire, or feel inferior because we are not the same.

Even Paul and Barnabas had their differences of opinion 'Tempers flared, and they ended up going their separate ways.....' Acts 15:37-41. They were both working for the Kingdom of God, but they saw, at that time, what they felt the Holy Spirit was leading them into individually and they did not agree. They differed on how to go about it. Paul wanted to take Silas but Barnabas 'full of the Holy Spirit and faith' (Acts 11:24), wanted to take John. But according to Paul 'he wasn't about to take along a quitter who as soon as the going got tough, had jumped ship on them in Pamphylia' Acts 15:39 msg. I am sure Paul and Barnabas had not meant to fall out or hurt each other. They had been through so many challenging  experiences together, pointing people to Jesus, setting up churches, surviving persecution. Now they chose to recognise this was not a close friendship at this time but to let it go and move on. Both their priorities was to not hold up God's Kingdom work, but to constantly keep the eternal goal in front of them.

Even Mary and Martha had their differences and built up resentment against each other. Martha even getting Jesus involved in the conflict, (Luke 10:40) but dear Martha, was put in her place very lovingly by Jesus. This hasn't seemed to cause her to change her behaviour at this time,  'There is only one thing worth being concerned about, Mary has discovered it......' Luke 10:42. After Lazarus died and Jesus, Who had waited on God's timing to go to the sisters, Martha is going out to meet Him, but Mary stayed in the house. John 11:20. So had Martha's priorities changed, and was she now thinking like her sister?

As believers we are called to love one another whatever we feel. I can feel wrong and do what is right then I can walk in the Holy Spirit. Then the world knows that Jesus is real and relevant for today. We are even asked to love our enemies and pray for those who spitefully use us, (Matthew 5:44) this is so different from the world, and helps to bring us into unity.

So in the light of what the Holy Spirit is saying to us let us really ask Him to show us where we are NOT united in His way and what He wants us to do about it? We are told if we look into the Word and then do nothing we are fooling ourselves..........James 1:22-25, 

Remember Jesus, He had Judas in His team, He didn't go 'I am not going to hang around with you lot because of that traitor Judas'. He didn't even gossip to His closest disciples about Judas putting his hand into the money purse. He didn't even try to show Judas up by trying to trap him. There must have been so many opportunities for Him to expose Judas's corruption and yet right to the end, He was washing Judas's feet, and sharing the Passover meal, our amazing merciful Jesus gave Judas lots of opportunities to repent. How did Jesus love him so much? He gave us the most amazing example of how to walk in His footsteps on the earth and to have a heart of love for all people, even willing to lay down our time, reputation, money for those we don't even like, just to show Jesus to the world. We can only do that by walking in the Holy Spirit.

Romans 5:5 NLT 'For we know how dearly God loves us, because He has given us the Holy Spirit to fill our hearts with His love' So let us be proactive in loving with His love and bringing about unity for His Name's sake.
 

Unity in Diversity Part 1.

 All through my Christian life I have felt challenged about the Bible's instructions about being 'united'. I can understand in a small way being 'united with Christ' (Ephesians 1:11) but that is my personal relationship with Jesus that He bought for all people at the Cross. But 'all believers were united in heart and mind.' (Acts 4:32) that is a whole different picture.

What does that look like in my relationships? I recognise that I am the clay and He is the potter (Isaiah 64:8). I understand that our Father chose to make every person unique, He gives me His love for each person He made and wants me to show that love to all. As a parent He wants His children to love one another as He has loved us, John 15:9.

How can we be united in the church, for example, when we can see people across the room who we know haven't talked for months because of an offense. How can we be united when I know someone has judged, I have forgiven them but they find me difficult to be around?

This week when talking to Father about this I was so thrilled to realise that all born again believers are born of the same Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 12:4). Without Him we are not born again or a child of God. It is the Father Who draws us (John 6:44) and it is the Holy Spirit, Who raised Jesus from the dead, Who comes to live in us (Romans 8:11) So we all come under the same Name. But just like children in the same family have the same surname, but can be very different, or like peas in a pod, so it is similar in the Body of Christ.

In 1 Corinthians 12 Paul describes the variety in Christ's Body so well. 'God works in different ways, but it is the same God who does the work in all of us............. We are one body with many parts, but the many parts make up one whole body....... we all share the same Spirit'.

When I was working as a volunteer in a women's prison doing 'Joy for Life', a lovely girl came up to me prior to the start of class and said she had just become a Christian. She explained that the other Christians, who I knew were about to attend the 'Joy for Life' time, had told her that she couldn't be a Christian as she was a lesbian. After a quick arrow prayer I gave my sister in Christ a big hug and just said to her 'welcome, 

you lesbian, me proud'. We all have stuff to deal with. She went on after six months of attending class to tell me she had broken off her relationship, and after a further six months, to say Father God had shown her she was no longer a lesbian.

Do we expect the believers we mix with to be all in the same mold and anyone slightly different in their beliefs, or actions, or the way they pray, we keep away from? I am learning to not be judgmental of believers who have different ways of doing things or opinions to me. I pray that Father shows me how He sees them and bring my thoughts into line with His love. This is all so exciting, not that we feel so great when seeing people we are not drawn to, but the wonderful Holy Spirit will show us how to love every other person in His Body with His power not our own natural reactions, 1 John 4:7

In Summary - 'Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has become a child of God. And everyone who loves the Father loves His children too' 1 John 5:1

For further study https://www.joyforlife.org/index.php/real-love/

Perfect LOVE drives out fear

A week ago I took a very precious friend to a nearby hospital to have her monthly eye injections following all the guidelines for being a volunteer driver. Having dropped her off I wait in the car park for a couple of hours. I needed a comfort break so walked into the hospital where staff check your temperature and you say your business. I felt as if I was hit by a wall of fear, it was tangible in people's mannerisms and their eyes when we can't see smiles. Even when in the Eastern Block in the Cold War I didn't feel this. I wanted to stop and talk to people about God's amazing love and I felt so sad and more determined than ever to talk about the amazing LOVE we all have poured into our hearts when we choose Jesus as number one.

Fear causes us to say things like 'I could never....... do that,..... go there,..... speak to them..... be any good at......' and the rest! Think about what you declare with your mouth, is it a truth or a lie?

It is hard to talk about LOVE and focus on 'fear' and yet that is the very powerful force that limits love working in our lives and is often at the root of many problems we have.

1 John 4:18-19 'There is no fear in LOVE (dread does not exist). But perfect (complete, full grown) LOVE drives out fear, because fear involves (the expectation of Divine) punishment, so the one who is afraid (of God's Judgement) is not perfected in LOVE (has not grown into a sufficient understanding of God's LOVE). We love, because He first Loved us.'

Fear can be so deep rooted that we respond to situations and don't even know why we react like that. Of course there is the fight or flight automatic reaction which saves us from many dangers. Recently I was about to fall over and the first word out of my mouth was 'Jesus' (not as a swear word) and as I landed on the concrete slabs nothing at all was damaged much to the surprise of all around me. So let us have His Name forefront in our talk.

Fear is a very massive response in most situations today as the TV News is full of horror stories, as is the multimedia. We are in danger of our mind picking up these stories if we do not protect ourselves by speaking His Word out of our mouth as a weapon in this war for our spirit.

FEAR is False Evidence Appearing Real. So when we get symptoms in our body which we often accept, not recognising them as false evidence from the enemy, then we have a battle on our hands.

But let us focus on His LOVE as the Word says that this is what deals with 'fear'. This LOVE is not a happy feeling it is GOD Himself. Our love is very varied. We use the same word for our children and chocolate. There is no comparison but I believe this verse is not calling for a head response, a knowledge that we have lots of verses to back up that Father loves us. It is not an intellectual relationship, using our brains to prove the point. It is receiving His heart into our heart and allowing Him to give us a new heart and put a new spirit within us. He takes away our heart of stone and we let Him give us a new heart of flesh, that is responsive to His touch. Ezekiel 11:19.

Without a doubt this has been the biggest change in my life this last year. The light bulb moment of recognising that lots of good things I have said about God's love has now dropped from my head to my heart. I no longer need to be driven by activity for acceptance and approval. I can just rest in my LOVE relationship with Him alone and KNOW that just the way I am is just right for HIM and this overwhelms me. All the wasted years striving and manipulating to be loved when I am totally unconditionally loved from the beginning of time. I love the Word far more, I want to spend more time just enjoying Jesus and obey His leading as this is the most exciting life.

The Father's Love Letter says it all. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZsBhvSMQUk4

If you want to study further look at 'Real Love' in Joy for Life Bible studies looking at the book of 1 John