The day with dianne Louise

“Then Jesus said, “Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest.”  Matthew‬ ‭11‬:‭28‬ ‭NLT‬‬ The burdens we carry vary: emotional, physical, financial, relational. Jesus is offering Himself as a solution to all of them, yes all! We do not need to carry the burdens, we just need to pray about them and give them to Him. Yesterday I met with a visiting pastor from Australia and my young colleague who was doing the talks in schools about human trafficking. They were going down a path of Bible teaching and I am going down a different path. My young friend wants to again be involved in my latest thrust into business. I cannot see a way, but God can. He knows exactly where He wants us all in His picture. God is in the future and the mystery. I do not have a handle on all He is doing, but He does. I can trust Him for the big picture. He has it together, I have only a part. Today is Saturday, I will rest from my labours and allow God to work, for He...

“Dear brothers and sisters, if another believer is overcome by some sin, you who are godly should gently and humbly help that person back onto the right path. And be careful not to fall into the same temptation yourself. Share each other’s burdens, and in this way obey the law of Christ. If you think you are too important to help someone, you are only fooling yourself. You are not that important.”  Galatians‬ ‭6‬:‭1‬-‭3‬ ‭NLT‬‬ Ooh! So we don’t shoot them? We don’t shoot the wounded?? The Christian church can be guilty of wiping off those who sin, instead of praying for them and ‘gently and humbly’ restoring them.  Yes I know there are other scriptures where Paul instructs to cast out a member, however, that is usually after they have failed to repent and turn back to truth, and even then it was only for a time so that the person was not destroyed. Yes, there are those who fail to repent and even cause grief to their leaders. But, are they a majority or minority? In our microw...

“I said, ‘Plant the good seeds of righteousness, and you will harvest a crop of love. Plow up the hard ground of your hearts, for now is the time to seek the LORD, that he may come and shower righteousness upon you.’” Hosea‬ ‭10‬:‭12‬ ‭NLT‬‬ The book of Hosea was primarily written against Israel. Israel was in a time of prosperity but in it forsook the Lord for foreign gods. This verse is a call to repentance, but it was not heeded. Prosperity tends to allow pride and falsehood. The west has prospered but turned away from their God. People elevate their own opinions, own desires and are hardened to God’s heart and His desires. We do well to open our ears to what God is saying to us in this verse. If we diligently read the Bible we hear calls back to our first love, Jesus. He died so that we might have new life. He blesses us with His goodness and presence in our hearts. Do we allow Him to reign or is the throne of our hearts usurped by king I? Are our lives consumed with comfort and en...

“For his anger lasts only a moment, but his favor lasts a lifetime! Weeping may last through the night, but joy comes with the morning. When I was prosperous, I said, “Nothing can stop me now!” Your favor, O LORD, made me as secure as a mountain. Then you turned away from me, and I was shattered.” ‭‭Psalms‬ ‭30‬:‭5‬-‭7‬ ‭NLT‬‬ If there is one thing the Lord hates, it is pride. Satan’s fall was pride in self. We read in the book of Daniel how Nebuchadnezzar had a dream about a great tree in which the birds enjoyed living but is was cut down and a metal band was places around it and for seven years it could not grow. The dream spoke of Nebuchadnezzar’s pride in self and God’s judgement. Daniel warned him not to be proud and he held it in check for 12 months but then he let it loose. In the book of Ezekiel God’s prophet is required to prophesy against Egypt and Assyria. They became tall tress but were cut down by the Lord, because of their pride. Our Bible is full of such stories. Pride d...

“In the same way, you who are younger must accept the authority of the elders. And all of you, dress yourselves in humility as you relate to one another, for “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.” So humble yourselves under the mighty power of God, and at the right time he will lift you up in honor.”  1 Peter‬ ‭5‬:‭5‬-‭6‬ ‭NLT‬‬ What causes us to be proud? Personal success does this. We fail to give glory to our God who enables us this success. We easily think we have done it when our God has made a way. Pride causes us to mismanage our relationships with others. We treat them as less than ourselves. We use them as pawns in a game, and this is wrong. We are called to love and honour. How is our God wanting us to treat these people? Yesterday, I had a call from my music teacher to ask me to attend my class a day earlier as today is a holiday in rememberance of the lives lost last year in the youth uprising. I was out of home but happily obliged. My teacher was coveri...

“Jesus said to the people who believed in him, “You are truly my disciples if you remain faithful to my teachings. And you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” So if the Son sets you free, you are truly free.”  John‬ ‭8‬:‭31‬-‭32‬, ‭36‬ ‭NLT‬‬ We often hear the verse, “ and you will know the truth and the truth will set you free”. But, do we give knowledge to the rest? We are truely His disciples if we remain in Him and are faithful to His teachings? We cannot give the nod to Jesus’ teachings and not practise them. He is the source of life, if we remain in Him. He is the Way, the Truth and the Life. He alone is truth, there is no other truth. He is the word made flesh. In other words the embodiment of God’s eternal word. John tells us in Chapter 1:  “In the beginning the Word already existed. The Word was with God, and the Word was God. He existed in the beginning with God.”  John‬ ‭1‬:‭1‬-‭2‬ ‭NLT‬‬ We associate ‘word’ with black letters on a page. They...