Faith for life

Loss is one of the most challenging and difficult types of suffering that we will ever experience. Grief is an incredibly powerful emotion. Sometimes it feels like grief clings to us, and no matter how much we try to shake it off and brush it away it remains. We wake up with it and we go to bed with it. We lie awake with it. We dream about it. When we lose something precious to us, we won’t have a choice; we will feel grief. And the Bible says that it is valuable to grieve, to mourn. And you should know and understand why.   In Matthew 5, the sermon on the mount, Jesus lists off the attributes and characteristics that bless those who embody them. Verses 3 and 4 detail that both those who are ‘poor in spirit’ and those who ‘mourn’ are indeed a blessed people. For those who are poor in spirit, ‘theirs is the kingdom of God’ and those who mourn, ‘they shall be comforted.’ As we follow the narrative, we can see that all of these characteristics that Jesus mentions are indicative of a humb

Luke 10:38-42 reads: “Now as they were travelling along, He [Jesus] entered a village; and a woman named Martha welcomed Him into her home. She had a sister called Mary, who was seated at the Lord’s feet, listening to His word. But Martha was distracted with all her preparations; and she came up to Him and said, “Lord, do You not care that my sister has left me to do all the serving alone? Then tell her to help me.” But the Lord answered and said to her, “Martha, Martha, you are worried and bothered about so many things; but only one thing is necessary, for Mary has chosen the good part, which shall not be taken away from her.” As I read these verses recently, they really struck a chord with me. As a Christian woman, especially as a Christian wife, I can understand and sympathise with Martha’s situation. Out of good intentions she welcomed the Lord into her home, and was making Him and His guests food and attempting to make everyone comfortable. And, in the scriptures, wives are en

1. Be an imitator of Christ As the Coronavirus continues, you may be wondering how you can glorify God whilst practising social distancing and staying at home more. The first thing you can do is to imitate Jesus, by focusing on Him and doing the things that He did. In Matthew 22:36-40, one of the disciples asked Jesus: “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?”  Jesus replied: “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’   All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.” You see, if we have fulfilled these two crucial requirements, then we have done what is pleasing to God. Love God - use this time (and I’m speaking to myself here too) to deepen your love for God. Spend time with Him, talk to Him, listen to Him and be led by Him. Read the Bible. Ask Him to help you grow. Praise Him and tha

The Lord is fire, He is wise, He loves, He will judge and He is faithful. As the world around us has changed over the centuries, so has faithfulness. God, who embodies faithfulness, created the world to be faithful. We read, again and again, in the Bible, that nature, everything that is around us, is obedient and faithful to the Lord. The mountains quake before God and the hills melt away (Nahum 1:5), the sea does not rise over the limit that God has given to it (Proverbs 8:29) and the valleys sing for joy to the Lord (Psalm 65:13). Nature acts this way because it acknowledges God as its creator. God also created mankind to be faithful. God's intention was for Adam and Eve to be faithful to Him, but, instead, they betrayed His trust, they took His faithfulness for granted. Since the time of Adam and Eve, mankind has found more ways to be unfaithful. Sometimes partners betray each other, friends do not remain faithful to one another, organisations deceive their customers, and t

My previous post looked at the loving part of God's personality, this post is focusing on the righteousness of God. God's love and His righteousness very much work together. There is no love in God that is not a righteous love, and there is no righteousness in God that does not come from a place of love.  Followers of Jesus, can often easily embrace the love of God but then become uneasy when they are confronted with His righteousness. Why is this so? Well, first, I believe that much of our 21st century 'church' society has taught us that God is loving all the time and a fount of forgiveness; no matter that we continue to sin, because we 'are not perfect'. This teaching can be very dangerous, because it isn't addressing the righteousness and judgment of God. The loving nature of God seems to be easy to cherish, because many followers of Jesus believe that they can depend on God's love forever; whilst continuing to be a slave to sin. But this is no

This third post of my 'God is' series will be looking at the love of God. I want to emphasize that my aim is to explore the biblical observation that a part of God's personality is that He is loving, not that God is only loving. I hear a lot, from many, many people, that 'God is love'. They declare this happily, joyfully and... finally. And, of course, one way of looking at that statement is that God created love and love comes from God. Which I completely agree with. God's love is an awesome, amazing, miraculous part of Him. What worries me, however, is that a lot of people fall into the trap of believing that God is only loving and then they disregard all of God's other personality traits. I think that a lot of people do this, because they believe that it will make their lives easier; that their relationships with God will be stronger and more enjoyable if they accept this part of who He is, without searching for anything else from Him. This is a dang

The scriptures are very confident of this, simple, fact: God is wise. Throughout both the old and new testaments, God's wisdom is glorified and exalted. And because He is wise, we also read of His understanding, sympathy, kindness, righteousness and that He is all-knowing.  Desiring wisdom is something that all people strive for. In fact, many people sacrifice a great deal in order to gain wisdom; even if the wisdom they are pursuing is foolishness in the eyes of God. Many people desire wisdom, because they desire everything that normally comes with worldly wisdom: power, money, authority, control, love etc. Yet, they do not see what they are missing. In fact, they do not know that they are missing anything at all... And what they are missing is the most precious of human possessions; Jesus. Therefore, not only are they without true wisdom but they are also without salvation. That's a scary thought. The scriptures below highlight a variety of the characteristics o

If you want to know yourself, why you have the gifts you do, why you are where you are and what your purpose is then you need to get to know who God is, first. Who Jesus is. Get to know His personality and through that He will, in turn, reveal who He has made you to be. This is the beginning of my 'God is' series. Over the next month, each one of my blog posts will be exploring a different element of God's majestic personality. Each post will reveal what the scriptures have to say about God and WHO He is. With these revelations, not only will we come to know our heavenly Father better, but we will also come to know ourselves better as we strive to look more like Jesus.  The first personality trait I will be exploring, is the 'fire' of God. The fire of God appears in many different forms, in the Bible. And below, I have listed what those forms are and the scriptures that explore them. In many ways, the fire of God is a joyful, beautiful spectacle to behold.

Security. Whether it’s the lock on your front door, the key to your safety deposit box, the wedding ring on your finger or the password protection on your laptop, we all crave security and stability. And why do we crave it so much? What does security provide us with? I believe the fundamental reason we crave the feeling of security so much, is because we long for protection. We want to protect our families, loved ones, property, money etc. We want the things we care for to be safe. And whilst there are more and more measures being introduced every single day to protect the things we love, accidents always happen, evil happens. Thieves break into houses. Keys go missing. Marriages break up. Laptops get hacked. There is only so much security we can put into our lives today. One of the hardest things, I think we as humans go through, is the pain of losing the ones we love. This is one of the things that reminds us that we are not in control. And, ultimately, what happens to all of the