Tag Archives: new education initiatives

Allow for Differences

Just recently I’ve been struck again by how often Christians compare themselves with other Christians. Sometimes it is to our detriment. We feel we are not as gifted, as spiritual, as friendly, as prayerful or serving as much as they are. We might feel their prayers are being answered, while ours are not. But perhaps the problem could be more than we are not listening to or liking the answer we’re getting. Just because God answered someone else a certain way in a certain situation does not necessarily mean He is obliged to answer us the same way. What is … Continue reading →

Getting the Balance Right

One of the biggest problems Christians face is getting the balance right. What do I mean by that? A criticism leveled at Christians from those outside the church is that Christians don’t appear to live what they believe. Their words or professions and actions don’t match up. Of course, there are those who then go to the other extreme. They think that just by living the Christian life, they won’t have to say anything. It will be obvious to friends and neighbors that you live as you do, behave as you do and make the decisions you do because you … Continue reading →

Ask and Receive

Some months ago I was asked to give a talk at ladies’ evangelistic event, which is the biggest event our church ladies’ group has each year. After some prayer I agreed, even though I’d rather stand up and sing any day than talk. For a time I had no idea what I was going to talk about so I did what I usually do when I havent got a clue, I asked God for his wisdom of what to do talk about and His words. The thing I love is we have that assurance from God’s word that no matter … Continue reading →

Words That Stay with You

Never underestimate the power of music in your Christian life. I find it is a great help in reinforcing Christian truths. Last week, as our music group practiced the songs for Sunday, one of them was The Potter’s Hand. It was one I hadn’t been familiar with until I came to my current church after we moved house but the words of the song have stayed with me throughout the week like a daily prayer. Have a look at the words here and see if maybe you might want to adopt them as a daily prayer perhaps to start the … Continue reading →

7 Marks of the Mature Christian – Part 2

My last blog gave 2 marks of the mature Christian. Here are the remaining 5 Marks of a mature Christian. 3. Prayer for others – This is what Paul did. He prayed for others, and what we need to do too. If you don’t have a prayer partner or are not part of a prayer covenant, can I suggest you do something about that? It’s a great help to your Christian life. It is interesting that Paul didn’t pray for them to be happy or to be healed from disease. He prayed for them to grow in their faith and … Continue reading →

Are You Looking for the Perfect Church?

Are you looking for the perfect church? You won’t find it. At least not this side of heaven. Why? Because the church is made up of people- each of us with our idiosyncrasies, personality traits and foibles. In any church there will be people who will grate on you. Similarly you might annoy them. There will be people you will have difficulty getting alongside and working with you because of personality clashes and differences. At this point you can one of several options. You can leave the church and look for another one. But of course it won’t be perfect … Continue reading →

How To Deal With Guilt – Part 2

Yesterday we considered the first step in dealing with guilt, is the need to admit what we have done wrong. The glorious thing is when we confess our sins to God and truly repent of them, God removes them from His sight. ‘As far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgressions from us,’ Psalm 103:12 The trouble is though God forgives us and removes our sins, we often struggle to forgive ourselves and remove them from our sight. Instead we keep going back to them as a child goes back and picks over … Continue reading →

Tell Him He’s Wonderful

Yesterday I watched my husband telling the Bible story and how the young children focused on what he told them. He has a real gift in relating to children. I told him that and how I enjoy teaching with him. ‘I love Scripture’ one of the girls at school said yesterday. ‘So do I,’ I replied. ‘Because I love that we can come and tell you about Jesus.’ I especially love the way my husband’s been passionate for over thirty years about teaching children of Jesus I love the way he knows when I need to write and leaves me … Continue reading →

Offensive Weapons

Last night while watching the Australian Open and the Hewitt/Djokovic match, it occurred to me that Hewitt never really looked like winning the match. All he was doing was hanging in there. To my eyes, he didn’t appear to have the weapons to do his opponent any harm. When you look at the top players they all have a massive serve, a killer forehand or some weapon that time and time again they unleash when they are in need of an extra fillip or to get them out of trouble. As Christians we need to do more than just hang … Continue reading →

Life Changing – Part 2

A New Year usually means time for New Year’s resolutions. But sometime our New Year’s resolutions never last more than a few days. In yesterday’s blog I talked about George Statheos and how he said, ‘God’s Word is life changing.’ We need God’s Word to help us each day. Another person put it like this ‘It’s like having two dogs inside me fighting with each other.’ This in the same type of experience the apostle Paul talked about when he talked of the two natures within, I Corinthians 2:12-14 and how that human nature caused him to do things he … Continue reading →