Have you ever tried to give someone a compliment, only to find that it has been deflected away. This could be an attempt at false modesty, a genuine mistrust of ‘unnecessary’ flattery, or it could even be a fear of becoming conceited or proud. You will hear things like, “Oh really? Well it was nothing […]
Today the picture I have in my mind’s eye is of the sluice gates in a canal lock gate, (which I shall refer to as the paddles from now on). This is going to be like a pictorial P.S. to yesterday’s blog. So, if you can, imagine that you are in a canal boat going […]
I wrote yesterday about the fact that the Holy Spirit loves gratitude and thanksgiving, that when he sees our gratitude, He rushes in to do what He loves to do; to ‘shed abroad the love of God in our hearts’ Romans 5:5, in even greater measure. That set me thinking about the Holy Spirit, and […]
Over the past couple of days we have been considering the promise that we read in Isaiah 40:31, that those who ‘wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength’, and in that verse we are given the beautiful picture of the eagle mounting up on outstretched wings, in effortless flight, ‘they will soar on wings […]
Yesterday we wrote about the fact that thanksgiving helps us when we need to renew our strength because it slows us down and helps us to focus on the Lord and who He wants to be for us in the situation. It helps us to fill our gaze with the beauty of the Lord as […]
In Isaiah 40:31 we read that wonderful promise, ‘Those who wait upon the Lord will renew their strength; they will mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; they shall walk, and not faint.’ In the passage those who do this ‘waiting on the Lord’ are contrasted with youths and […]
We know from Romans 5:21, that grace trumps sin, any time, and anywhere. In fact the revelation of grace in the early church was so powerful that Paul had to ask the question ‘Shall we go on sinning that grace may abound?’, and the answer of course is ‘By no means! We died to sin; […]
Yesterday we were looking at the ‘amazing grace’ of which we are recipients, not just the one off event when I was born again, but the amazing grace which is transforming me day by day. As in John Newton’s wonderful hymn, there is the – ‘Amazing grace that saved a wretch like me’ – and […]
We have talked a lot in these blogs about the fact God has ‘decided’ to make us like Jesus. He has ‘predestined us to be conformed to the likeness of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brothers’. This is good because we also know that ‘God is for us…..and will along […]
Today I believe the Lord is giving us a link between the last two blogs. We ended the blog the day before yesterday quoting Jesus as He encouraged His disciples saying, ‘I tell you the truth if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, “move from here […]