The Knots Prayer

This is one of the most beautiful prayers that I have read recently, and it was sent to me by our pastor. Isn’t it absolutely wonderful and very inspiring?

Wordless Wednesday ~ Literally

Tuesday Treasures

Today’s Tuesday Treasure is a gift that was given to us when we moved into our third home by my husband’s second cousin, Jim and his wife, Peggy. It sits on our kitchen mantlepiece, and is a constant reminder that God’s blessings do crown our house. It has been securely packaged during every move since then, and it has survived four moves, even the last move when the furniture removalists all but destroyed lots of our furnishings and fittings – clothes drier, table and five of the six chairs, dressing table, strereo player and nebuliser. Take my advice – if you’re moving house, pay the extra for the insurance, for if you don’t, you will be severely out of pocket.

Today’s “treasure” is not an expensive one, but it has much sentimental value for us, and is a constant reminder of God’s blessings over our home, that our work is blessed and that our house is prospered by the Lord.

Baby Steps…

Today my daughter finished her school work early, and I had promised her that if she finished early, we would start on her longstitch. We bought this longstitch for her about three years ago, and it has taken me all of that time to pluck up the courage to be able to start it.

If you have been told all of your life that you can’t do anything, you’ll never amount to anything and that you’re no good, then you’re set up for failure your whole life, and your confidence takes a very real battering. It takes a lot of determination and trust, both in God and in self to break out of that whole cycle of self-doubt, but that is exactly what I have done (through God) today.

By doubting self, I was doubting God and His ability to change me, and also doubting the promise in His Word that says, “I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me”. I have taken hold of that promise, and today my daughter and I started on that longstitch – it wasn’t easy, as I have never been taught how to do anything in the way of stitch work, but we managed to make a start on it, and I feel good. I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.

How can I tell our children that they can do all things through Christ which strengthens them if I dare to doubt what He says in His Word? I can now look them straight in the eye and tell them that they can do all things through Christ which strengthens them, knowing that I have walked the path of trust first.

We thoroughly enjoyed tackling the starting of this project, and it has given me a degree of self God confidence, knowing that I can do things that I haven’t tried before.  I  have taught my daughter how to do it, and she has now taken over, with me supervising. My daughter did all of the brown area, and I’m so happy, and so is she. We just need to have the confidence to take that first baby step…

Building God’s Church

These are my sermon notes from today, which I might add was an awesome sermon. Pastor Q has given me his permission to publish my sermon notes to my blog.

Put on therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, bowels of mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, longsuffering;
Forbearing one another, and forgiving one another, if any man have a quarrel against any: even as Christ forgave you, so also do ye.
And above all these things put on charity, which is the bond of perfectness.
And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to the which also ye are called in one body; and be ye thankful.
Colossians 3:12-15

Him that is weak in the faith receive ye, but not to doubtful disputations.
Romans 14:1

For to this end Christ both died, and rose, and revived, that he might be Lord both of the dead and living.
Romans 14:9

You thought that being a Christian was just about you and God, but it isn’t, is it?
Colossians 3: 12 -15 tells us that we are:

• Chosen – by God
• Holy – put apart for God’s use

…and that these attributes are that of becoming a Christian:~

• Dearly beloved
• Compassion
• Kindness
• Humility
• Gentleness
• Patience
• Bear with each other
• Forgive
• Love
• Perfect unity
• Peace
• Thankful

How are you going? Do the attributes listed sound like you? Give yourself a score out of ten. It is your responsibility to protect the unity and the harmony within God’s family. Accept him whose faith is weak, and don’t focus on trivial matters. We are not to judge other people. Remember that the way in which you judge others is the way that you, yourself will be judged. Let’s aim for harmony ~ we need to build one another up ~ the church is renowned for shooting the wounded.

Try to build up especially the people that you don’t like or who rankle you. We are not perfect, but God chose and loves each one of us in spite of our imperfections. We share one Lord, one body, one purpose, one Father, one spirit, one hope, one faith, one baptism and one love.

Think about the person that you dislike the most. No, don’t look at them. You could end up living in a mansion next to them in your heavenly home. We should learn to like the differences. God wants unity, not uniformity. He wants us to work together for His good. Christ Jesus lay down His life for the church, so we are to love our brothers and sisters to that point.

There are meant to be differences. When we focus on those differences, the church will be divided. We need to love each other. Do you think that the devil wants harmony and unity in the church? Every time he puts a negative thought into your mind about someone, pray for that person. The devil tries to get us to focus on the differences, instead of the things that unite us.

We don’t love each other as Christ loves us, but we are called to. The church is not perfect, but we are going to work to make God’s church better. We are called to love the church. They are still your family even when they don’t act like it.

People go sour on the church because:

• the music’s too LOUD
• someone upset them
• petty upsets within the church

They become hypocritical about the church, but that’s not the way that it’s meant to be. Going to church and expecting to be fed each week is fine, but you’re meant to grow when being fed, and you’re meant to share. People leave the church because they feel neglected. Perhaps the pastor isn’t spending twenty minutes quality time with them after the service, but can you imagine the logistics of the pastor doing that with all of the people in the congregation! It makes the mind boggle, doesn’t it?

People also leave the church because of pettiness ~ they think, “They have women preaching in that church” – that’s not in the Bible, but what they’re doing amounts to legalism. Because we are human, we will inevitably hurt someone at some time. People who leave the church and go from one church to another will still have their problems follow them from church to church. If you have problems or disagreements, you need to work on resolving that situation. Christ lay done His life for the church, and when He comes back, it will be a perfect church. He will look them in the eye and say, “Well done, thou good and faithful servant.”

It is God’s grace and God’s love that needs to flow through you! When God joins you to a church, it is only God who should unjoin you.

God bless you!