Author: Carol Purves

Live in Peace

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I live in a community where not everyone gets on well with each other. I imagine that is true of every group of people. I witness various groups , some weeks certain people are friendly, then they fall out. This is a human failing that sadly happens all over the world. No wonder we have wars and political unrest. God knows the state of the human heart and our likelihood to be in disagreement, which why Paul needed to write in 1 Thessalonians 5:13 ‘Live in peace with each other.’ and again in verse 11, ‘Encourage one another and build each other up, just as in fact you are doing.’

Disagreements on a small scale lead to upsets, loneliness and sadness., on a national and global level they can lead to war and great loss of life. On a personal level we need to be a friend and accept friendship. The letters in the New Testament are full of Christian advice in this matter. We are all living on this planet together. We need to realise that if we are feeling lonely or sad, so might the other person and we can treat them as we would wish to be treated. As Psalm 133 says ‘How good and pleasant it is when brothers live in harmony.’ Psalm 133:1

Lazarus

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It is reported in John 11 that Jesus spoke twice when Lazarus died, onle to Lazarus while he was still in the grave. ‘Lazarus, come out,’ and ‘Unbind him and let him go.’ His first message was heard by the ‘dead’ man and still in his grave shroud he emerged from the tomb. Then Jesus spoke to those standing nearby. ‘ ‘Unbind him and let him go.’ Does that mean let him go from the ties of death. Lazarus was no longer a dead man but a living one.

When we are released from the ties of death through our salvation, do we continue to hang on to the power of sin or make a great and glorious break from it. Do we revel in the total completion of our salvation? Our salvation is a complete act. We can’t be partially redeemed. Its integrity is a change from death to life. There can’t be a greater reversal. Our time on earth and the everlasting time in heaven are revolutionary. Nothing can ever be the same again.

As one missionary said, I believe it was Gladys Aylward ‘Once you have seen, you can’t unsee.’ We don’t need to stand by the gates of heaven. we can plunge right in. We have received the welcome.

Pruning

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John 15 reminds us that God is the vine, we are the branches. When we do not bear fruit we will be pruned. As we know from experience this is not a particularly pleasant experience. The vine needs to be firmly rooted in the ground just as we need to stay firmly rooted in God. Then He can work on us to prune as necessary,

The shrubs in my garden are not at the stage of being pruned. Maybe that will come in a few years time. They need to become established first. Something we need to do with God; we are to be established and rooted in Him. To cover the many empty spaces in my garden it seemed good to invest in shrubs. I’m now starting to hide the bare fences and some blossom is appearing on my planting. I needed to start by preparing the soil, just as God prepares our hearts. I had to make the holes (always a problem for me to make them large enough). The shrubs are now in and at this stage I can only tell them by their labels. – clematis, buddleia hydrangea, plus some with names I’ve never heard of before. In actual fact my hydrangea was planted by the previous owner and that is thriving, no doubt due to an abundance of rain.

I hope i can benefit from this slow and careful p[lanting for many years to come. Our witnessing to others is not a quick job, it needs dedication for years. I can only dream of the days when I will be able to sit in the gaarden ans admire. . I imagine the butterflies and flying insects buzzing all around. . I cpmfess I am limited to working on dry days and they are not very plentiful.

Bad News

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Results of tests and visits to doctors do not always end in good news, or tests can be inconclusive. The diagnosis does not always line up with our prayers. I hope that our questions at this time are not like the disciples in John 9 when Jesus meets the blind man. ‘Who sinned, this man or his parents?’, they asked.

In my life at the present time I think of a friend’s elderly husband who has had yet another heart attack and also suffers from poor memory. Another acquaintance of mine has a 17 year old son who is in hospital with a life-changing diagnosis.

Since the fall that we read about in the Bible ,there has been illness and suffering. When a family is suffering in these ways it is difficult, if not sometimes impossible to see God’s hand at work. How we hate to see our loved ones suffer or be in pain ourselves. We question how God can be glorified through these experiences. There are no simple answers. We know we have been allotted three score years and ten (though often longer) and we also know that there awaits for us a place where there is no suffering or pain. I think that we can only pray for God’s comfort, healing where is it His will, and a closer walk with Him.

Hunger

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Around the world, one person in eight is suffering from hunger; I’m ashamed to say, I’m not one of them. God has provided enough that no-one should ever go to bed having eaten insufficient during the day. But the greed of man, mismanagement and bad political situations have made it so.

Hunger, at least on a temporary scale was the problem in Jesus’ day. I don’t know the reason why only one of the 5,000 people had brought their lunch. Did the people not expect to be away so long and they thought they would be home for supper? Was the teaching of Jesus so riveting that they couldn’t tear themselves away? The Bible doesn’t give us details and I always believe that the Bible reveals to us all that we need to know.

But what I do know is about God’s provision for us, and that it is always sufficient and as we have proved so often He provides over and above our needs. Twelve baskets of crumbs meant that the birds also had a feast. I pray that I will always remember His generosity when I am in need or have a problem.

Only the Best

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All Bible-reading Christians (I trust that is all of us) know what is the first miracle that Jesus performed. It was on the very happy occasion of a Jewish wedding, which is always a time jollity and prolonged celebration. Jesus was attending the wedding with His friends when disaster struck. Can you imagine a wedding in your country where the liquid refreshment runs out? Because this is the first miracle that Jesus performed, we sometimes concentrate on it being the first and forget what it is telling us.

It is interesting that it is His mother Mary who was so heavily involved. This is Mary who was the first person to be involved in the life of Jesus when she was visited by the angel announcing the fact of the virgin birth. During His formative years she would have been a strong presence in His life and now here she is still giving Him instructions.

120 gallons of water, which then became wine is a lot. When this was tasted by the master of the feast, it was described as the best wine of all. So typical,Jesus didn’t produce cheap plonk, but the very best. It is beholden on us to produce the very best that we can in the way of the Christian lives that God has bestowed on us. Our top quality ‘wine’ is not to be kept in the bottle, it is to be shared liberally. We pray for opportunity to share this love of God with as many people as we can today.

No Mow May

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At the beginning of May I planned to cut my lawn. It was a day of pouring rain, so no lawn was cut. As my life remained busy and the lawn remained uncut I realised that i could have a No Mow May. I hadn’t ever done this before and it threw up many surprises. I knew the grass was full of weeds including dandelions and daisies but what I hadn’t known was that many tiny wild flowers were also lurking there.

Yes, my lawn does look unkempt and wild, but it also looks beautiful. Tiny flowers I haven’t seen before and certainly don’t know the names of. are appearing all through the lawn. How could so much beauty appear in such a small space? I shall certainly be doing this neglect next year. I’m also told it’s good for the butterflies and bees, so I’m also doing my bit for nature preservation.

My lawn is now a bit like my life, unkempt and all over the place. I would also like to think it contains oases of beautiful wild flowers. In the midst of my messy life and mistakes God sees a beauty. He can take the difficult bits and make something beautiful of them. Where I see only difficulties and incompleteness, He sees order and purpose. I ask that i can see things from God’s point of view and rejoice and not despair.

Rest

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‘Remember the Sabbath Day to Keep it Holy.

Maybe it’s because I’m getting older that the world seems to be getting faster and faster. Our lives are full of gadgets and devices which save us time but really that we complete even more tasks. Saving time is the object of this modern world and I sometimes wonder what we are supposed to do with the saved time Maybe we will do yet more jobs or even play fast hard and frantically at some sport of leasure.

It seems no longer do workers get a lunch time break, they have to sit at their desks and eat or eat on the run. My grand-mother’ instructions were that we had to sit for ten minutes after a big meal to be able to digest it. How old-fashioned does that seem now. We drive our cars faster or travel by plane to save time. Multi-tasking is to be praised. There is no time in the day to do one thing. I have a lovely neighbourhood who is praised for the many things she accommplishes. If there is any job to do she will volunteer to do it and add it to her very long list. As a result she sometimes forgets things or does things wrong. I do sometimes wonder if her high activity means she has no time to think.

Surely a good guide is how God managed. He created a perfect world and retained a perfect work/rest rhythm. On the 7th day of creation, He rested. It might be that we have to work on the Sabbath/Sunday, but we still need to set aside a time for spending a time solely with God. These days there is more anxiety and depression than ever. We need to slow down and as they say ‘smell the roses.’ If God need a time of resting and communing with His Father, how much more do we.

Rotten to the Core

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At the end of a long hike I was looking forward to a rest and a snack. Hiking is thirsty and hungry work. The tea from my flask revived my thirst and the sandwiches assuaged my hungry. Food always tastes better out in the fresh air. Finally the apple was going to complete my snack. As I proceeded to munch my apple I bit towards the core. Disaster!! The centre was completely rotten and the destructive maggot still at work. They say there is one thing worse than finding a maggot in your apple, and that is to find half a maggot! The apple had looked perfect on the outside, but it was a different story inside.

Many people are like my rotten apple, they look good on the outside, but inside they have a darker character. Maybe I am like that, I know I’m not as good as I look. We can never really tell about people. It’s said we can fool some of the people all the time, and all of the people some of the time, but we can’t fool all of the people all the time. But, beware,’ we can’t fool God any of the time. He knows us inside out.

A Busy Day

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My day turned out to be a most hectic one. It included a couple of urgent medical appointments, business matters to be sorted out and sick people to be visited. Then there were the mundane tasks, washing, ironing, cooking and shopping. these jobs don’t do themselves, it’s up to me. Each day before I start my other activities, I ring-fence a time to spend with the Lord. This strengthens me and guides me and sets me off on the right foot for the day ahead.

Then life seems to take over with the things I’ve listed above and many more. The help I had at the beginning of the day ebbs away and I tend to forget God. I then imagine Him saying to me ‘Beloved daughter, I’m still here, bring to me that worry, frustration or anxiety.

The Bible is full of promises that He is with us always, ‘Draw near to me and I will draw near to you’ James 4:8. ‘The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not want,’ ‘He restores my soul,’ ‘He leads me in the paths of righteousness,’ All these are promises from the twenty-third psalm. Although i have a short time of reflection with God at the end of the day, I need to remember that He is with me right through all the hours in between. He reminds us, ‘I will never leave you.’

Reading in the Bible we see that He never left His saints of old. He was by their side guiding and comforting. There must have been times when they were forgetful and some of these instances we read about. The children of Israel forgot Him when they were travelling through the desert. May we not forget like them. May we remember the Lord while He may be found.