Author: cnongpluh

On loan from the Lord

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Today I will be finishing off a message that I will release next week at a Women’s event,  so I will just share a few thoughts today

My eldest daughter is away this weekend on a brass band residential and I’m really missing her.  This morning I looked in her bedroom,  saw her empty bed,  and wondered what she is doing.

It’s not the first time she’s been away without me and it won’t be the last,  and each time I have to content myself with a few sentences of text messages to give me a clue about what she is doing and how she is feeling.

Even when I dropped her off at the coach,  as soon as she had found her friends,  she told me. “You can go now!”

Really! After carrying this person around in my womb for ten months,  feeling every kick, praying and agonising about which name to give her,  witnessing her first steps,  first day at school,  first performance – now I am experiencing her first steps of independence and it’s a bit scary for me.

I remember her first day at secondary school when she got on the school bus and I was waiting in the car for the bus to set off so I could wave goodbye. Then,  ping! I got a text… “You can go now!”

It’s starting to be a familiar theme.

The. Bible says in Psalm 127 verse 3 that “children are a heritage from the Lord,the fruit of the womb is a reward”. What I also must remember is that my children are on loan to me from God.  God loves my children more than I could ever love them.  (And I love them a lot) . God has a unique plan and purpose  for each of my children. While they are in my care I am a steward of that purpose.I can never be fully in control of everything my children experience  I have to be willing to open my arms and entrust the unknowns to an all-knowing and all-seeing,  ever loving and wise God,  who sees into all eternity and knows the bigger picture for my children.

My child,  at some point in time,  will stand before God,  by themself,  and give account of their life.  This will be a journey I cannot make with them. I won’t be able to shield them from their mistakes or make excuses for them.  It will be them and God.

Today,  I entrust my four children to Almighty God.  I will endeavour to do my best to raise them in a godly way,so they will not depart from that later,  but I give all the things that are out of my control into the hands of my loving Heavenly Father.

Duty or Delight?

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I will never forget a prayer for me by Pastor Ronnie Moore to know the delight of God and not just duty. It really struck a chord within me, as I had recently left a church that was quite legalistic in nature. Today I feel led to write about this.

`The definition of duty, according to the Oxford dictionary is 1. A moral or legal obligation; a responsibility or 1.1  (of a visit or another undertaking) done from a sense of moral obligation rather than for pleasure)

Do you serve God and obey His Word out of a moral obligation, because you feel it’s the right thing to do, or is it a delight to you? God does not want anyone to feel obligated to serve Him. Even about giving, in 2 Corinthians 9:7 the apostle Paul writes that we should give thoughtfully and with purpose, not grudgingly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. I don’t think God wants us to do anything for Him grudgingly or because we have to, but because we want to – because we love Him.

This is the privilege that we have as Christians to be in a relationship with God. A Father does not only want to give to his children because he must – he gives and provides because it is a delight to him to see his happy children. This is the product of relationship.

Galatians 5:1 says, “Stand fast therefore in the liberty by which Christ has made us free, and do not be entangled again with a yoke of bondage.” Obeying the Law was not enough then for people to be made right with God, and it’s not enough now.

Jesus redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us i.e. by dying on the cross so that we could be made right with God.

In Galatians 3:26 it says, “For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus.” If you are a Christian and you have faith in Jesus you have entered into a relationship with Him. You can be called his child.

I believe what God wants from us now is to delight in Him. Psalm 37:4 says, “Delight yourself also in the Lord, and He shall give you the desires of your heart.”

The definition of the word delight in the Oxford dictionary is “great pleasure”. Synonyms for delight are happiness, joy, joyfulness, glee, gladness, gratification, relish, excitement, amusement, bliss, rapture, ecstasy, elation, euphoria.

Psalm 1: 1-3  says, ” Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor stands in the path of sinners, nor sits in the seat of the scornful; but his delight is in the law of the Lord, and in His law he meditates day and night. He shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that brings forth its fruit in its season, whose leaf also shall not wither; and whatever he does shall prosper.”

Job 23:12 says, “I have treasured the words of His mouth more than my necessary food.”

There has been times when I have got so caught up in studying the Bible that I have kept writing for several hours and haven’t thought about eating or doing anything else, because I love the Word of God. God wants us to treasure His Word to us – it is important, it is precious and it is liberating. The Bible was written by various people who were inspired by the Holy Spirit. It is God’s message to mankind.

BIBLE = Basic Instructions Before Leaving Earth.

When you delight in someone you want to be with them, and that  desire is a priority in your life. You are excited about that relationship and you do as much as you can to spend time with them.

In Revelation 2:4 it says, “Nevertheless I have this against you, that you have left your first love” The church in Ephesus did many good things – they worked hard for God; they had patience; they did not tolerate evil; they persevered; they had discernment about false apostles – but they were admonished for leaving their first love.

Likewise, we can do many good things for God and we can have many good qualities, but God wants our hearts, our love, our devotion and our total surrender.

What does God say to the loveless Church of Ephesus? He tells them to “Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent and do the first works” (verse 5)

Today, can I encourage you to fall in love with Jesus again? Repent of your coldness of heart, of the business and activity that is draining your soul and draw near to Jesus again. Delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart. He delights in you.

 

Raising the Dead – Hopeless cases continued

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I have a busy day ahead so I’ll just write a few thoughts.  More to follow on this topic.

People say, “Where there’s life,  theres’s hope”  Conversely it could be said then that,  “Where there’s no life,  there’s no hope”. There’s no hope for a dead person.

That didn’t stop Jesus.

Jesus raised dead people to life;so did quite a few of his followers. This is also our heritage,  as believers.

MARK 10 verse 8 says, “Heal the sick,  cleanse the lepers,  raise the dead,  cast out demons.” This is our commission too.

Hopeless cases

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The definition of a hopeless case, according to the Babylon Dictionary is “a situation or instance incapable of improvement, irreparable specimen, lost cause.”

There is no such thing as a hopeless case with God. There are many times in the Bible where hopeless cases received hope.

In Acts 3 Peter and John were going to the temple to pray. On their way they met a man who had been crippled from birth. He was in his forties and he had never known how to walk. He was not expecting to receive healing – when he saw Peter and John he just expected them to give him some money. He was totally resigned to the situation he was in and did not expect things to change.

Yet suddenly , there were two men in front of him who decided to intervene. They said to him, “In the Name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk.” And the man, who had never known how to walk started to walk, leap and praise God. No longer an outcast, the previously lame man went into the temple with Peter and John.

When all the people saw him walking and praising God they were filled with wonder and amazement.

There are hopeless cases in your town that God is going to do a miracle for.

Nothing is impossible with God.

In Mark 5:25-29 the woman had an issue of blood for twelve years. She had been to see many doctors. She had spent all that she had to try and receive a healing but instead she grew worse, not better. Her situation was hopeless – the doctors did not know what to do or she would have been healed. Yet, she was healed by Jesus.

Saul hated Christians and believed he was doing God a service to kill them. Yet he became one because he had a personal experience with God.

No-one is a hopeless case in God’s eyes. Every sickness can be healed in Jesus’ Name; every sin can be forgiven; every family can be restored; every burden lifted.

Bring your hopeless case to God. Let Him do a miracle.lame-man-healed

Spending Time With Jesus

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Acts chapter 4 verse 13 says , “Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were uneducated and untrained men, they marveled. And they realised that they had been with Jesus”

This is the key to revival in our towns. Prayer changes things. Peter and John were on their way to a prayer meeting, but before they even got there a lame man was healed – a man who had been lame for about forty years – all of his life. This was a miracle.

The rulers and elders of Israel did not see that Peter and John were respected rabbis, important or well educated (because they weren’t). But they realised that they had been with Jesus. Here’s a question. Do people realise that you have been with Jesus?

Psalm 91 says “He who dwells in the secret place of the most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty” The Hebrew for shadow is “tsel”. It can also mean protection, shade or shelter”. As we spend time in prayer with Almighty God we are under His protection, but we are also set apart for a mighty work in our towns.

For the last two and a half weeks I have been teaching French and Spanish in a Muslim girls’ school in my town. I have learnt a lot of things during this time and God has spoken to me. During the form time a number of girls would put a prayer mat out at the back of the room. They would stand up and recite the Qu’ran, and then they would prostrate themselves and recite a prayer. At the beginning and end of every lesson (every hour) they were supposed to recite a prayer. My heart has burned for these girls! I drove home in tears one time. God has given me names of one or two to focus my prayers on – and I will do that. One is the most devout girl in the form.

There are about 600 Muslim girls in this school. They are the daughters of the most devout Muslims in our area. In the 2011 census of my town there were 32,400 Muslims. That’s 32,400 people (12% of the local population) who are praying four times a day to and confessing allegiance to a different god.

Brothers and sisters in Christ – what are we doing when our Muslim neighbours are praying? Are we sitting around watching the TV? Are we at work talking about Strictly or the X factor? Do we even make time in the day to acknowledge God or do we feel we are too busy?

We need to pray. God has spoken to me to pray more this year, and to have a prayer strategy; to pray specifically until I see results. I can’t always attend the evening prayer meeting at our church as I have four children and my husband often comes home late but here’s the wonderful thing about our God. He is omnipresent! He is everywhere at the same time. It is good and encouraging to meet together to pray, but we can also pray at home on our own. Matthew 6:6  says”But you,when you pray, go into your room, and when you have shut your door, pray to your Father who is in the secret place; and your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly.”

Can I encourage you this year to pray more? God, through His Word, guarantees that you will see results.