Happy New Year

 

Hi all! I am back...briefly.
Hope you are safe and dry and 2011 has started well for you my friends.
It has been a somewhat challenging beginning to the year for me, but my challenges pail into insignificance when I consider the poor people to my north and south who have lost so much in the floods.


As I do think about 2011 and those words "Happy New...." I think about what makes life 'happy' and what 'new' things I would like to see and do and be in 2011.
Happiness is not a goal of mine, although joy is. To be grateful and content, no matter the circumstance is to be joyful. I want to live my life like that this year.
And in order for that to happen, some 'new' work needs to be done in my life by the only one I trust to do the job well....God. So I am offering myself up to Him again (which I will need to continue to do moment by moment) and asking Him to continue to do His good work in me and through me.
And for those of you praying a similar prayer for 2011, may God answer you in fresh and wonderful ways.


PS. I have added a new page to the blog...'About Me'. I just want to reassure anyone who visits this blog or reads the posts, that they are written by a regular girl who is walking with an incredible God. And it's only by His enabling that I am able to put words to the page or be anything like His Son. And btw, I have just yelled at the computer in frustration and snapped at my husband:( Classy girl that I am:(

My story

 

What can I say about being a Christian?
I can only tell my story...just like Paul did. Check his out in Acts 26.
Unlike Paul, my story doesn't involve a miraculous encounter with Jesus or an incredible transformation from what I was to what I am becoming. But that doesn't mean it is any less real.
Here's my story in 100 words or less....
I grew up in a Christian home with all the joys and trials that brought! We were a blessed family...fun times together, comfortable standard of living, both Mum and Dad on the scene, always a playmate considering there were 4 kids in my family. We were brought up in the church and I asked Jesus to be boss of my life when I was 8. Since then, I have known great peace and direction in my life, thanks to the belief and reality that God is with me....all day, every day. I can talk to Him about anything and everything and through His word and Spirit He offers me the best advice when I am searching for it and gives me all that I need to live each day.....breath! salvation! goodness! contentment! love! security! purpose! forgiveness! daily bread! wisdom! I wouldn't consider doing life without Him...the alternative is to be without His presence and guidance, His insight and provision. That's not the life I want to live...so I continue each day to make the choice to believe and to trust God...to walk by faith not by sight and as a result, to know hope and love, peace and joy.
What's your story?

3 things....

What do the Old Testament books Nahum, Deuteronomy and II Chronicles have in common?


Well, apart from the extremely high body count (anyone else struggle with that part of the OT?), at first glance it may not seem like they are similar in any way. Oh yeah, apart from mentioning God.


I have read passages from these 3 books in the past 3 days and I want to draw out 3 points...not all beginning with 'P'. I'll post the sections below so you can have a read and I am sure you'll see where I am headed with my thoughts before I even put them on the page.


Nahum 1:3-7
 ³ The LORD is slow to anger and great in power;
       the LORD will not leave the guilty unpunished.
       His way is in the whirlwind and the storm,
       and clouds are the dust of his feet.
 ⁴ He rebukes the sea and dries it up;
       he makes all the rivers run dry.
       Bashan and Carmel wither
       and the blossoms of Lebanon fade.
 ⁵ The mountains quake before him
       and the hills melt away.
       The earth trembles at his presence,
       the world and all who live in it.
 ⁶ Who can withstand his indignation?
       Who can endure his fierce anger?
       His wrath is poured out like fire;
       the rocks are shattered before him.
 ⁷ The LORD is good,
       a refuge in times of trouble.
       He cares for those who trust in him,


WOW! What a God we serve. One with incredible power.....emotion....plans and purposes. One who is in control as creator and sustainer of the earth. One who is generous and good and HUGE.


What is our response to this awesome God to be? Read the RED bits below and you'll see how important our response to Him is....for our sake, our children's and His. Choose well my friends.


Deuteronomy 6
¹ These are the commands, decrees and laws the LORD your God directed me to teach you to observe in the land that you are crossing the Jordan to possess, ² so that you, your children and their children after them may fear the LORD your God as long as you live by keeping all his decrees and commands that I give you, and so that you may enjoy long life. ³ Hear, O Israel, and be careful to obey so that it may go well with you and that you may increase greatly in a land flowing with milk and honey, just as the LORD, the God of your fathers, promised you.
 ⁴ Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one. ⁵ Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. ⁶ These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts. ⁷Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. ⁸ Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. ⁹ Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates.
 ¹⁰ When the LORD your God brings you into the land he swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, to give you—a land with large, flourishing cities you did not build, ¹¹ houses filled with all kinds of good things you did not provide, wells you did not dig, and vineyards and olive groves you did not plant—then when you eat and are satisfied, ¹² be careful that you do not forget the LORD, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.
 ¹³ Fear the LORD your God, serve him only and take your oaths in his name. ¹⁴ Do not follow other gods, the gods of the peoples around you; ¹⁵ for the LORD your God, who is among you, is a jealous God and his anger will burn against you, and he will destroy you from the face of the land. ¹⁶ Do not test the LORD your God as you did at Massah. ¹⁷ Be sure to keep the commands of the LORD your God and the stipulations and decrees he has given you. ¹⁸ Do what is right and good in the LORD's sight, so that it may go well with you and you may go in and take over the good land that the LORD promised on oath to your forefathers, ¹⁹ thrusting out all your enemies before you, as the LORD said.
 ²⁰ In the future, when your son asks you, "What is the meaning of the stipulations, decrees and laws the LORD our God has commanded you?" ²¹ tell him: "We were slaves of Pharaoh in Egypt, but the LORD brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand. ²² Before our eyes the LORD sent miraculous signs and wonders—great and terrible—upon Egypt and Pharaoh and his whole household. ²³ But he brought us out from there to bring us in and give us the land that he promised on oath to our forefathers. ²⁴ The LORD commanded us to obey all these decrees and to fear the LORD our God, so that we might always prosper and be kept alive, as is the case today. ²⁵ And if we are careful to obey all this law before the LORD our God, as he has commanded us, that will be our righteousness."


And finally, you want further proof of what God does in response to our response to Him? Check out Amaziah, Uzziah and Ahaz's stories.


II Chronicles Ch 25 and 26 - more stories of the kings
http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=2%20Chronicles+25&version=NIV


As I read these 3 passages over the past 3 days, I was once again reminded of my total INSIGNIFICANCE (I should be writing that word in the tiniest font I can find) before an INCREDIBLE (imagine this in the largest font you can) God.


And yet, I have great SIGNIFICANCE because of God's plan and purpose for me as a treasured creation of His.


The trick? Getting that balance right in my thinking and my doing.