This thought came in the mail today and it is worth passing on to all those who are going through deep waters emotionally…..
When you feel you are on the very edge of things,
trust God, because only one of two things can happen to you…
Either He will catch you as you fall,
Or He will teach you how to fly.
Hang onto this thought because none of us knows what tomorrow is going to hold!
There is a story in the Bible about a paralysed man sitting by a pool waiting for an angel to come and disturb the water. The people surrounding the pool thought that if they could only get in to the water after that, that they would be healed of their diseases. But this particular day, no angel came. Instead Jesus Christ came by and asked the man if he wanted to be healed. Instantly the man responded, “I’ve been waiting for thirty-eight years to be healed and it hasn’t happened yet.”
“Well, get up and walk”, Jesus said, and the man found to his astonishment that he was able to walk normally. If he hadn’t got up, he would never have walked. Perhaps he was going to miss his fellow sufferers who he had been with for so many years but he had to leave them behind. If he had never got up and walked, he would never have been set totally free.
There is a saying….You will never fly with the eagles if you stay with the turkeys! In the same way when a person has been set free by trusting in Jesus Christ, the old things must be left behind to be able to soar to new heights. In fact as new heights are reached for, so the old things will drop off.
It was one of those days when the clouds race across the sky, giving patches of shade and sunshine. As a big shadow covered the sun and the warmth faded, it made me realise that shadows cannot hurt us. They may take the warmth and joy out of the day while they linger, but they will always pass and the sun will shine again. We go through bad times, and then find that time does heal the losses we have experienced, and the hurts we have suffered.
There is a well known verse in the Bible that sums it all up….Yes, even though I go through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil for You (God) are with me, and Your rod and staff comfort me. (Psalm 23:4) We can know God’s comfort if we look to Him for it, but unless we roll all our cares on Him and leave them there, we cannot know His peace that passes all our understanding.
The big dog was curled up on the front deck of the house. He looked an absolute picture of misery, with no life or interest in anything. He knew that his family had gone away and left him, and he was going to guard things until they got back. He knew the day before they had left that something was in the wind by the way the missus was packing things up….there was just a general feeling of unrest around the place. And then those other people were back. He wasn’t too sure of them, even though they had been coming and going to their caravan that was parked up the back by the workshop over the last few weeks.
All day he lay there with his head on his paws, and one ear cocked just in case his family came back. He barked all night almost without stopping, at least the people in the caravan thought so. They said to each other, “He’s going to be a little horse (hoarse) in the morning”, and then laughed at their little joke.
Needless to say he was very tired the next day, and slept until mid afternoon. Then he got up and trotted down the track to the caravan with his ears up. He looked like a different dog. He was alert and back to his old happy self. He even smelt the new missus all over when she talked to him.
It was almost as though he had said to himself, “Well, it’s no use moping here by myself, I might as well make the best of it!”
From then on, he guarded the caravan and kept the people there company.
As we watched him lying there with one eye cocked on the goings on (not that there were many!) we couldn’t help thinking how like life this is.
We come to a bend in the road and all seems dark and miserable. We think that things are never going to be the same again, and maybe they won’t be. But there is no use moping about it. The dog couldn’t bring his people back by moping, and neither can we. We may as well get up and go on straight away instead of remaining miserable and making others miserable in the process.
There is a passage in the Bible that says ….. God’s way is perfect! The promise of the LORD has proven to be true. He is a shield to all those who take refuge in him. Who is God but the LORD? Who is a rock except our God? God arms me with strength and makes my way perfect. He makes my feet like those of a deer and gives me sure footing on high places. He trains my hands for battle so that my arms can bend an [archer’s] bow of bronze. (Psalm 18:31-34)
The modern ideas of what Truth is, is that it is relative…what feels right for you, is truth! They say absolute truth doesn’t really matter; partial truth is good enough! People rewrite history to suit present day concepts; e.g. no holocaust, and religious truth is what suits you, what you “think” !
People don’t like the truth because they are innately rebellious and the truth shows them up….it is light in a dark world.
These popular ideas are so prevalent that even Christians begin to subscribe to them. We are being brainwashed every day by what we watch on TV, until we too have the same ideas without realising it. We just dress it up on the outside so it looks more “Christian”!
All these ideas are contrary to what the Bible teaches, and we must continually put the measuring rule of God’s Word against them. It is God’s standard for truth; God’s Word is true from the beginning and the Lord Jesus is the prime example of One who stood for the truth in every way! He was completely honest and open in every word, thought and action, and completely without sin. He is the only way to God, and the world says this is too narrow. They say we must be more liberal and tolerant. Sin is NOT tolerant once it has a person in its grip…it is merciless and cruel.
Jesus said that the way to life is on the narrow road which only a few find, because the majority are not willing to follow God’s rules. Common sense tells us that certain “narrow” rules must be adhered to…road rules must be followed to prevent carnage, football rules must be adhered to or there won’t be a game, phone numbers must be correct or the right person won’t be reached, and natural laws must be obeyed (fire will burn you, and if you fall from a height you will get hurt). Truth IS narrow!
Let’s make sure that we as Christians do not allow the world to “squeeze” us into its mould and way of thinking.
As I went for my morning walk each day, I watched the new house at the end of the road taking shape. First the land was prepared, and then the floor laid…everything on the plan was put in place from the drains to the power cables before the walls went up At last the house was completed down to the last new curtain and all the floor coverings. What a lot of care and thought had gone into the planning of it all! Later on, they asked us inside and proudly showed it all off. It was indeed a lovely home.
Can we say that about the home we are building with our lives and what we do? Make no mistake, we are all engaged in building this home whether we know it or not. Is it going to be a place of comfort or a place of regrets? Is it going to be a place where we can invite our Maker to come into and show it off to Him? Or will it have some secret corners that we would be ashamed to show anyone?
The lady of this new home flung open the cupboard doors to show how it had all been planned to the best advantage, and how every bit of space had been utilised. Can we do that with the cupboards of our lives? Or do we just throw things inside without folding them, and shut the doors on the mess?
Everything was colour co-ordinated with not a thing out of place. It made me wonder if my life was in as good order with colours of everything complementing the rest? We may say that we haven’t got the gifts or wherewithal that others have to do this, but we ALL have something we can start with. Let’s make sure that we do the best we can, with what we have….no-one can expect more than this of us. We all have attitudes and concerns we can build on….let’s start with those and then go on to find other things we can do to help and build up other people.
We were taking some friends out in our yacht for the weekend. We had to take them out in the dinghy (small boat) to get to where the yacht was anchored. They weren’t used to getting into a small dinghy, and went down the steps of the jetty very gingerly, getting into the dinghy awkwardly and hanging on to the steps of the jetty once they were in. This caused the dinghy to lean over precariously.
“Let go of the jetty!” we called out.
As soon as they did that, the dinghy righted itself with the water balancing the boat.
This reminded us of how tightly we hang onto our problems even after handing them over to the Lord in prayer. Our boat won’t come right until we let go, and let God handle them for us. Just as they had to trust themselves to the boat in the water, so we have to trust the Lord with all our problems, whether big or small. Let’s make sure we do this!
As I was sweeping out the front porch this morning, I noticed a long narrow line of ants scuttling back and forth. Even though I don’t like ants around the house, I couldn’t help but marvel at how these little creatures kept even rank, each one seeming to know exactly where it was going and what it was about. They are such an amazing little creature, that they are held up as an example to lazy human beings in the Bible……”Go to the ant you sluggard! Learn her ways and be wise!” we are told in Proverbs 6:6-9. These verses tell us to be like the ant and not to be lazy but to get up and get going off to our own work.
It is the same in our spiritual life as well….we only get out of it, what we put into it. True, there ARE some hard parts to understand when reading the Bible, but it’s just like having a meal of fish. We eat the meat and leave the bones; so we don’t have to worry about the things we don’t understand, but just take and enjoy the bits that make sense to us. The main thing to do, is to READ it!