Wednesday, July 11, 2012

Living in contentment

Living in contentment
“...I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances”
(Philippians 4:11, NIV)

TODAY’S WORD from Joel and Victoria
In life, it’s easy to get so focused on our dreams and goals, the things we want, that it consumes us. We can get to the point where we’re not happy, and we’re not going to be happy until it happens. But I’ve found that if we have to have something in order to be happy, our lives are out of balance. When our goals and dreams start to frustrate us, and we lose our peace and we’re not enjoying life, that’s a sure sign that we’re holding on too tightly. What’s the solution? You’ve got to release it. Freedom comes when you say, “God, I’m turning it all over to You. You know my desires, and You know what’s best for me. I’m choosing to trust You and Your timing.”

When we learn to be content whatever the circumstances, the power of the enemy is broken. It takes away his ability to frustrate us. Not only that, but by our actions we are showing our faith in God. When you choose to trust in His timing, you can live in peace, you can live in joy, and you can rest in Him, knowing that He has good things in store for your future!


A PRAYER FOR TODAY
Heavenly Father, today I choose to trust in You. I release frustration over the dreams and desires in my heart, knowing that You know what’s best for me. I choose to trust in Your timing because You are faithful, and I will bless You in all things in Jesus’ name. Amen.
— Joel & Victoria Osteen

The King is right here!

The King is right here!

"The LORD watches over you- the LORD is your shade at your right hand."
Psalm 121:5, NIV

This summer I have had the privilege of spending nine weeks at Ellel Grange
- the headquarters of Ellel ministries. The house has lovely grounds and surroundings wich we explore on our days off. On our regular walks along the edge of the nearby canal I admired a pair of beautiful white swans. They had their nest in the water and later paddled along with their cute fluffy offspring.

Not being used to life in a monarchy, I was pleasantly surprised when my new English friends explained that swans have a somewhat special position in the UK, because they all are said to "belong to the Crown". Some weeks later, on a trip to the Lake District, I had another opportunity to see swans as they swam and gathered on the shores of Lake Windermere. I was exasperated to see a ruthless and disrespectful tourist grab one of the swans round its long neck and pull it at his side to have a picture taken. "Don´t do that!" I told him, and to give my words more authority, I added: "The swans belong to the Crown!" But the man just glanced at me, disregarded my remarks and kept pulling at the poor creature's neck. Well, the Queen was far away. He needn´t fear that she would intervene to defend her property, regardless of her rights of ownership.

However, this little incident made me think about our position in this world. As children of the Most High,we belong to the crown - the crown of the King of Kings. But in contrast to the Queen of England, our King is always near to us, every day, at every moment. In fact, today´s scripture says He is our shade at our right hand. Whenever the evil one tries to grab our throats He is right there to defend us and when we call upon His name for help He always hears us. And our offender knows that very well. Indeed, he is so alarmed by the fact that he flees just when we speak out the name of our Royal Protector. Our King is always at our side; day and night, he watches over us. What a privilege that is and what a comfort for my vulnerable and sometimes anxious heart!

Prayer: Dear Lord Jesus, I thank You that You opened Your heavenly kingdom for us and gave us citizenship as children of the King of Kings. Please let me always be aware of the wonderful fact that You are constantly at my side to guide and protect me and that the enemy will have to flee when I call upon Your mighty name. Amen.

Today's Writer : Ruth Maechler Ruth Maechler has just finished the 9 Week Flagship Programme at Ellel Grange. She has now returned to Munich, Germany, where she lives with ther family.

The King is right here!

The King is right here!

"The LORD watches over you- the LORD is your shade at your right hand."
Psalm 121:5, NIV

This summer I have had the privilege of spending nine weeks at Ellel Grange
- the headquarters of Ellel ministries. The house has lovely grounds and surroundings wich we explore on our days off. On our regular walks along the edge of the nearby canal I admired a pair of beautiful white swans. They had their nest in the water and later paddled along with their cute fluffy offspring.

Not being used to life in a monarchy, I was pleasantly surprised when my new English friends explained that swans have a somewhat special position in the UK, because they all are said to "belong to the Crown". Some weeks later, on a trip to the Lake District, I had another opportunity to see swans as they swam and gathered on the shores of Lake Windermere. I was exasperated to see a ruthless and disrespectful tourist grab one of the swans round its long neck and pull it at his side to have a picture taken. "Don´t do that!" I told him, and to give my words more authority, I added: "The swans belong to the Crown!" But the man just glanced at me, disregarded my remarks and kept pulling at the poor creature's neck. Well, the Queen was far away. He needn´t fear that she would intervene to defend her property, regardless of her rights of ownership.

However, this little incident made me think about our position in this world. As children of the Most High,we belong to the crown - the crown of the King of Kings. But in contrast to the Queen of England, our King is always near to us, every day, at every moment. In fact, today´s scripture says He is our shade at our right hand. Whenever the evil one tries to grab our throats He is right there to defend us and when we call upon His name for help He always hears us. And our offender knows that very well. Indeed, he is so alarmed by the fact that he flees just when we speak out the name of our Royal Protector. Our King is always at our side; day and night, he watches over us. What a privilege that is and what a comfort for my vulnerable and sometimes anxious heart!

Prayer: Dear Lord Jesus, I thank You that You opened Your heavenly kingdom for us and gave us citizenship as children of the King of Kings. Please let me always be aware of the wonderful fact that You are constantly at my side to guide and protect me and that the enemy will have to flee when I call upon Your mighty name. Amen.

Today's Writer : Ruth Maechler Ruth Maechler has just finished the 9 Week Flagship Programme at Ellel Grange. She has now returned to Munich, Germany, where she lives with ther family.

The King is right here!

The King is right here!

"The LORD watches over you- the LORD is your shade at your right hand."
Psalm 121:5, NIV

This summer I have had the privilege of spending nine weeks at Ellel Grange
- the headquarters of Ellel ministries. The house has lovely grounds and surroundings wich we explore on our days off. On our regular walks along the edge of the nearby canal I admired a pair of beautiful white swans. They had their nest in the water and later paddled along with their cute fluffy offspring.

Not being used to life in a monarchy, I was pleasantly surprised when my new English friends explained that swans have a somewhat special position in the UK, because they all are said to "belong to the Crown". Some weeks later, on a trip to the Lake District, I had another opportunity to see swans as they swam and gathered on the shores of Lake Windermere. I was exasperated to see a ruthless and disrespectful tourist grab one of the swans round its long neck and pull it at his side to have a picture taken. "Don´t do that!" I told him, and to give my words more authority, I added: "The swans belong to the Crown!" But the man just glanced at me, disregarded my remarks and kept pulling at the poor creature's neck. Well, the Queen was far away. He needn´t fear that she would intervene to defend her property, regardless of her rights of ownership.

However, this little incident made me think about our position in this world. As children of the Most High,we belong to the crown - the crown of the King of Kings. But in contrast to the Queen of England, our King is always near to us, every day, at every moment. In fact, today´s scripture says He is our shade at our right hand. Whenever the evil one tries to grab our throats He is right there to defend us and when we call upon His name for help He always hears us. And our offender knows that very well. Indeed, he is so alarmed by the fact that he flees just when we speak out the name of our Royal Protector. Our King is always at our side; day and night, he watches over us. What a privilege that is and what a comfort for my vulnerable and sometimes anxious heart!

Prayer: Dear Lord Jesus, I thank You that You opened Your heavenly kingdom for us and gave us citizenship as children of the King of Kings. Please let me always be aware of the wonderful fact that You are constantly at my side to guide and protect me and that the enemy will have to flee when I call upon Your mighty name. Amen.

Today's Writer : Ruth Maechler Ruth Maechler has just finished the 9 Week Flagship Programme at Ellel Grange. She has now returned to Munich, Germany, where she lives with ther family.

Saturday, July 7, 2012

The Problem of Patience

The Problem of Patience

Read James 5:7-11
7 Be patient, then, brothers and sisters, until the Lord's coming. See how the farmer waits for the land to yield its valuable crop, patiently waiting for the autumn and spring rains. 8 You too, be patient and stand firm, because the Lord's coming is near. 9 Don't grumble against one another, brothers and sisters, or you will be judged. The Judge is standing at the door!

10 Brothers and sisters, as an example of patience in the face of suffering, take the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord. 11 As you know, we count as blessed those who have persevered. You have heard of Job's perseverance and have seen what the Lord finally brought about. The Lord is full of compassion and mercy. (TNIV)



I get so impatient about my lack of patience. I impatiently pray for patience on a regular basis! In a world where we are urged to upgrade computers to save a nanosecond or two, patience is an old-fashioned virtue. Getting somewhere fast, getting what we want now, getting immediate answers or information are the common currency of everyday life. As against this, James in this passage has us look at the farmer who having sown a crop can’t reap it immediately. Waiting is the name of the game, and waiting is never easy. Faith at times is simply about waiting. God will be true to his promises, but when? And how? The old-time prophets knew this waiting game well. So did Job.

God can sometimes act with stunning speed. Other times he takes his time. He knows character can’t be produced instantly, he knows he is working with stubborn and resistant material as he works out his good purposes. He doesn’t tend to take shortcuts either. If we insist God speeds things up, we will get frustrated and James suggests we will start complaining. A grumbling spirit arises out of frustration that things aren’t the way we want them to be.

And yet patience is not passive. The farmer has to sow the crop, the Old Testament prophets had to proclaim God’s word. Job wrestled and prayed. A favourite writer Henri Nouwen reminds me that patience will have us enter fully into the present moment, tasting the here and now rather than fearfully and impatiently craning our heads to see what is going to happen next. We figure the treasure we look for is around the corner, and we are badgering God to make it happen now if not sooner. Nouwen reminds me that the treasure we so often look for is so often hidden in the ground on which we now stand.

Patience allows us to discern God in the present moment rather than missing out on him because we are wondering what the future will bring and when it will come. God is to be found not in our anxious, impatient insistence for a change of circumstances, but rather in the present circumstances. Waiting for God to act in some way in the future must never blind us to his acting in some way in the present. Patience is not inactivity, but is a willingness to wait and embrace the activity of God in the present even as we have our hopes and dreams for the future.

Blessings
David Reay
A

Hungering for Heroes

Hungering for Heroes

Read 1 Corinthians 3:3-5

You are still worldly. For since there is jealousy and quarreling among you, are you not worldly? Are you not acting like mere human beings? For when one says, “I follow Paul,” and another, “I follow Apollos,” are you not mere human beings?

What, after all, is Apollos? And what is Paul? Only servants, through whom you came to believe—as the Lord has assigned to each his task. (TNIV)

We have a longing for heroes. Those who will be shining examples of faith and hope and love. We might project these longings onto certain individuals and begin to believe they have the answers, that they have got it together. We start comparing ourselves with them and coming up short. We admire giants of the faith as if they are over and above the mundane troubling realities of our lives.

This leads to some problems. One is that we lose biblical realism. We fail to grasp the fact that the great ones of faith are not perfect, and whatever faith they have has come through hard times. A reading of Hebrews 11 brings us down to earth.

The other problem is that we begin to despair of our own comparative lack of faith or hope or love. We can never measure up and so put ourselves down as inadequate Christians who haven’t made the grade. Compulsive comparison is the death of true contentment. We all fall short of the glory of God, whether we go by the name of Moses, Abraham, or our own names.

And then we might find ourselves falling into the Corinthian error. The Corinthian Christians seemed to exalt individual personalities. They attached themselves to whoever seemed to be the most impressive leader. They fell prey to a guru mentality. Doing this means we unfairly idealise such leaders so when they prove to be only too human our faith is shattered. And doing this means we take our focus off the one person we can truly look up to: Jesus. If we are to have heroes, make Jesus the one.

Blessings
David Reay

Friday, July 6, 2012

GUILT

GUILT

Morning Devotions with Chris Witts

Psalm 32 – re guilt.
If you’ve ever studied something of the 2nd world war, you might know the name Albert Speer. He was Hitler’s chief architect in Nazi Germany and rose to great power within Hitler’s party. At the Nuremberg trial in 1945, he was sentenced to 20 years imprisonment and wrote extensively about that period of his life. He was the only one of the 24 war criminals who admitted his guilt. He acknowledged that he felt "personal guilt" for what had happened and the tragedy of so many lives lost, and he accepted responsibility for it because he had been part of the Nazi regime. Later in life he went to London and the US and was interviewed one day on the ABC ‘s “Good Morning America” TV show.

The interviewer referred to a passage in one of Speer’s earlier writings and said to him: “You have said the guilt can never be forgiven, or shouldn’t be. Do you still feel that way?” The look of pathos on Speer’s face was wrenching as he responded, “I served a sentence of twenty years, and I could say, “I’m a free man, my conscience has been cleared by serving the whole time as punishment.” But I can’t do that. I still carry the burden of what happened to millions of people during Hitler’s lifetime, and I can’t get rid of it. This new book is part of my atoning, of clearing my conscience.” The interviewer pressed the point. “You really don’t think you’ll be able to clear it totally?” Speer shook his head. “I don’t think it will be possible.”

For thirty-five years Speer had accepted complete responsibility for his crime. His writings were filled with contrition and warnings to others to avoid his moral sin. He desperately sought a way to make amends for his sin. All to no avail. He died an old man in 1981.

Anne Graham Lotz wrote, “ God has built into each of us an alarm system to warn us of the unwanted entry of sin into our lives. The alarm system is called guilt. In our pleasure-seeking, anything-goes, feel-good society, guilt is a problem We run from it.” Do people feel guilt today? I’m sure they do. But we try to not to think about it, ignoring those feelings, hoping they will go away. When the movie “The Passion of the Christ” was showing in theatres across the nation, more than 70,000 reports came in of the film helping people. At least 4 criminals confessed to crimes they had committed including bombings, robberies, and one murder.

In Arizona, Turner Lee Bingham, 20, walked up to a store about eight minutes after the alarm sounded and apologized to police for taking $80 from the register before confessing to five or six burglaries at other places. Bingham had seen “The Passion” with his mother, and he felt guilty, the store owner, Tobias Bright, said police told him. “I’ve seen the movie myself,” Bright said. “I think it’s the kind of movie that makes you stop and think about things for a minute.” The store owner, who identified himself as a Christian, said he wished Bingham would have felt guilty “20 minutes earlier, before he took a baseball bat to one of my windows.”

Guilt plagues everyone to some degree, for we all have to lay our heads on our pillow at night and accept the fact that we have not done as well as we could have done. One Christian psychologist recently stated that "Guilt is the most difficult problem in the whole realm of psychological therapy." One little boy was asked to define guilt. He said he wasn’t quite sure what it was, but he thought it had something to do with feeling bad when he kicked girls!

David said in Psalm 40:12 “Problems far too big for me to solve are piled higher than my head. Meanwhile my sins, too many to count, have caught up with me, and I’m ashamed to look up.” (LB)
Have you ever felt that way? Have you ever felt ashamed to look up?

Our guilt can make us ashamed to ask God for help. But God knows all about your sins and your failures, and he loves you anyway. He is ready to forgive all of them if you will just humble yourself and ask him to forgive you.

Is there any sin that God cannot forgive?
“If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” I John 1:9 (NKJV).

Getting back to David, he made a tremendous decision as he prayed to God.. Finally, I confessed all my sins to you and stopped trying to hide my guilt. I said to myself, ‘I will confess my rebellion to the Lord.’ And you forgave me! All my guilt is gone.” Psalm 32:5 (NLT)

In I John 1:9 says, “If we confess our sins to God, he can always be trusted to forgive us and take our sins away”.

BEING FAIR TO OTHERS

BEING FAIR TO OTHERS

Morning Devotions with Chris Witts

There was a man who was walking along by the ocean one day and he came across a sea cave in the side of a cliff. And inside the cave he found a large sack filled with little balls of clay that looked like they'd been rolled up and left out in the sun to dry. So he picked up the sack and dragged it along with him as he walked. Every once in a while, he'd reach into the sack, pick up one of those balls, and just throw it as far as he could out into the water.

As he went on his way down the beach, the sack was getting lighter and lighter. It was almost empty when he accidentally dropped one of the balls which hit a piece of coral and shattered. And when he looked inside, there was, to his great surprise, a diamond! So he cracked opened another ball and inside was a ruby, then an emerald, and by the time he finished opening the remaining balls he found that every single one had a precious jewel inside. The man looked in his hands and was excited to see that he now had a handful of jewels, but then he stopped and realized how many of the balls he had thrown away because he couldn't see what was inside!

It's a bit like all of the people that come into our lives. If we could only see them the way that God sees them, if we could only see the precious jewel that's inside of each one...I think it’s an important lesson for each of us because in God’s eyes all people are equal. No-one is better than anyone else, and as it says in James 2:1 “If you have faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, you won’t treat some people better than others”. Then in v8-9 he says “You will do alright if you obey the most important law in the Scriptures. It is the law that commands us to love others as much as we love ourselves. But if you treat some people better than others, you have done wrong, and the Scripture teach that you have sinned”.

We need to be careful not to favour some people because of the colour of their skin or background. We are born equal and in God’s eyes we are equal. God has no favourites. I like the bumper sticker that says “At the end of the day only kindness matters”. And that is very true. Jesus always displayed an outstanding level of kindness and fairness towards others in a society that was very cruel and sadistic. He loved and cared for people, and instructed His followers to be the same. And so the question we can ask today is – have I been kind and fair to others today? You can’t say you love Jesus till you love the people Jesus loved. Mark Twain knew the power of kindness when he said, “Kindness is the language the deaf can hear and the blind can see.” That’s what God expects of us.

I Corinthians 13 in the New Testament is a well known Bible statement about love, and I recently came across this paraphrase:

I may have a brilliant mind,
a wonderful personality,
and a healthy body;
but if I am not kind to those around me,
it does me no good:
I may have a good income,
a beautiful home,
and an expensive car,
but if I am not kind and generous in sharing them,
I don't make a difference in the world.
I may have great success in my business or profession;
I may have power and influence over many people;
but if I don't treat people with kindness,
I am a failure.

Kindness is love in action.
Kindness is the pebble in the pond, whose ripples can change the world.
Having the faith to move mountains is great,
Having hope in bleak circumstances is wonderful,
But deeds of loving kindness transform lives and last forever.
I may have many wonderful qualities in my life,but without kindness
they are not enough.

Paul, in writing to the church in Rome, reminds us that, “God does not have any favourites” (Romans 2:11)

 Favouritism is also UNREASONABLE
James goes on to write: “God has given a lot of faith to the poor people in this world. He has also promised them a share in His kingdom that He will give to everyone who loves Him.” (James 2:5)

By His mercy and grace, Jesus Christ receives each of us into His eternal family without favouritism. We are all equally loved and valued by Him.

PRAYER:
Almighty God, your Son instructs us to treat other people as we want to be treated. It sounds so simple, but we realize that we often fail to live up to his standard. At times we expect others to treat us like royalty, while we treat them as if they’re less valuable or as if they’re objects to be used to achieve our goals. Forgive us for being callous. Forgive us for treating others with contempt. Forgive us for failing to live up to Jesus’ teachings. Help us not only to embrace the promise of the resurrection, but to learn from our Saviour’s gentle ways that we may become more like him. Amen.

Monday, July 2, 2012

THE STING OF BETRAYAL - PART 2

THE STING OF BETRAYAL - PART 2

Morning Devotions with Chris Witts

I said yesterday that the act of betrayal is a dreadful and hurtful experience. My guess is that you have felt the sting of betrayal at some point in your life. If you haven’t, you probably will. We can feel betrayed by our spouse, our children, our extended family, or our friends. We can also experience betrayal in the context of our work—from our boss, our co-workers, or even our employees. It has the potential to ruin friendships and families.

The Bible tells about Judas Iscariot who betrayed Jesus. It’s a well known story in the New Testament of a follower of Jesus who was greatly respected and loved by Jesus. He was highly trusted in the small group of disciples with Jesus, and was the Treasurer and he carried the money bag. They trusted him to do the right thing. Judas had experienced everything that the other disciples had. He had been there to pass out food to the 5000 people that Jesus fed with a few fish and some bread. He had seen Lazarus raised back to life. He had seen Jesus heal the blind and the lame and the deaf. He had been a part of all that. And on the night of his betrayal, Jesus had washed his feet. He had shared the Passover meal with Jesus. Jesus had placed him in the most favoured spot at the table – right next to Jesus. Judas had been a part of all the blessings that came along with being with Jesus. That night would have been a spiritual high point for anyone who was present there. And yet, Judas still chose to walk away into the night of his own sin. He knowingly betrayed Jesus at that critical moment which led to His death on a cross, all for money. Every time that Judas’ name is mentioned in the Bible, either the passage is dealing with the events surrounding his betrayal, or the phrase, “who betrayed him” is attached to his name. Judas Iscariot – the one who betrayed Jesus. We know nothing good about this man. But the other disciples, who ran away from Jesus when He needed them most, their betrayal is never mentioned again beyond the record of the actual event. Why? Because they received forgiveness and restoration. The past, as dark as it was, was wiped away. We read that Judas went out one night and hung himself. What a tragedy!

How ironic it is that Jesus was betrayed not by a stranger, but by a close friend. Judas had eaten bread with Jesus, and he had done that many times. Judas had eaten bread with Jesus at Lazarus’ house and at Zachheous’ house. They had enjoyed fish grilled over the fire on the shore of the Sea of Galilee. To eat bread – a meal – with someone was to indicate your closeness to that person. It showed your agreement with one another in lifestyle and beliefs. That’s why Jesus was criticized for eating with tax collectors and sinners and why Jews were forbidden to eat with Gentiles.

There’s a wonderful story about the cardinal of the Philippines, named, oddly enough, Cardinal Sin. When Cardinal Sin was a bishop, a young woman in his parish claimed that she had visions of Jesus. Bishop Sin was given the task of determining if these visions were authentic. He called her in for an interview, after which he made this request: “Daughter, the next time you see Jesus, would you ask Him what sin your bishop committed as a young priest and then come and tell me His answer.” She agreed. The bishop, aware that nobody knew his sin except himself, his confessor, and Jesus, felt this would be a valid test. Months later the young woman returned, reporting she had seen Jesus again. The bishop said, “Good. Did you ask Him about my sin?” She said, “Yes,” “What did He say?” “He said, ‘I’ve forgotten.’”

Would it have been any different for Judas? Of course not! I refuse to believe otherwise! Judas’ betrayal did not cause Christ to love him less. It was for sinners like Judas that He was about to give His life!

So, how are we to respond to those who betray us? Our calling and God’s command of us is to forgive those who sin against us—and is there any better description of betrayal? We must let go of our hurts and wounds, and refuse to nurse them in anger and resentment. Chances are, the deepest betrayals will demand an ongoing commitment to forgiveness—for, in our humanness, we often find it difficult to let go of such things all at once. Resentment and bitterness has a way of continuing to raise its ugly head, continually trying to draw us into its trap once again. My own experience is that it’s a day-by-day process, an ongoing entrusting to the Lord of our feelings and the situations with a refusal to give in to bitterness. The Lord knows that our hurts will consume us and destroy us, if we let them—and He is our greatest ally in our determination to let go of such wounds.

One way in which we’re helped in this process is to dare to remember the ways in which we, in our sin, have betrayed Christ ourselves. We might also remind ourselves of the ways in which we have surely left others feeling betrayed. We dare not be too smug in refusing to forgive those we feel have betrayed us. And in seeing all of this through Resurrection eyes, the disciples of Jesus were all too aware of their own guilt of jealousy, selfish ambitions, denial and defection from Christ. They were surely humbled in acknowledging their own failures—just as we might also be as we commit to resolving our own responses to those who have betrayed us.

So, how are we to deal with the sting of betrayal? As sons and daughters of the Heavenly Father, we are called to respond with forgiveness. Because our sins have also been forgiven, we are called to be part of God’s redemptive work in the lives of others. With the help of the Lord, we can learn to let go of our feelings of bitterness and resentment, trusting such things into the hands of the Lord. We can move on with our lives, set free from that which would destroy us from within. And, with the help of the Lord, we can learn to trust again, though perhaps more wisely and more discriminately. And as we do, we focus our energies in pouring out our lives for the sake of others, just as Jesus did. It’s the way not only to blessing others, but also the way to be truly blessed ourselves.

Source: Chris Witts