The day with dianne Louise

“For I am not ashamed of this Good News about Christ. It is the power of God at work, saving everyone who believes—the Jew first and also the Gentile.” Romans‬ ‭1‬:‭16‬ ‭NLT‬‬ I am so grateful that Jesus persued me and brought me to Himself. I cannot bear to think what life would have been without Him. He is my joy and peace. This joy compels me to share my good news with others. I am in Nepal and although I am learning the language I still do not know many of the tenses and the vocabulary. I have been learning the language for over one year. Sharing the joy of the Lord can be a challenge, however, when the opportunity presents itself I do. Each night my flatmates and I do Bible study and a young girl comes to join us. We are amazed. The landlord and his family have joined us in prayer at New Year.  This week I was at the Immigration office waiting for a new visa and I saw a man desperately rubbing himself across his forehead with prayer beads. I new I needed to share Jesus with hi...

“We cross the threshold of true knowledge when we live in obedient devotion to God. Stubborn know-it-alls will never stop to do this, for they scorn true wisdom and knowledge.” Proverbs‬ ‭1‬:‭7‬ ‭TPT‬‬ Other versions say: the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge. In my quest to understand the word ‘fear’ here I checked out TPT. ‘Obedient devotion’ says it better.  Living in Nepal you see many police officers directing traffic. I’ve been present when rogue officers singled out my friend Chelle for traffic offenses, letting everyone else go. The latest pocketed 500R of my money threatening to keep my friends licence. Generally most abide by good lawful practices. Why do I mention the police? well, fear is associated with the police. You, out of fear obey the road rules so that you avoid a penalty. Our Heavenly Father gave us laws to live by but more importantly He gave us His Son who fulfilled the Law. As I live by faith in the ‘work’ of the Son of God I am saved and safe. ...

““If a man has a hundred sheep and one of them wanders away, what will he do? Won’t he leave the ninety-nine others on the hills and go out to search for the one that is lost?” Matthew‬ ‭18‬:‭12‬ ‭NLT‬‬ On Saturday in our trek we passed around six sheep tethered by the Snake Lake. The sheep were dirty. The keeper lived in a small Tim shack near the lake. There were several new lambs frolicking around the sheep. I had never see sheep tethered as I come from Australia where hundreds, perhaps thousands roam in a paddock eating grass. The sheep by the lake were trying to eat straw. As this year I plan to start a sheep farm I determined not to tie my sheep up with a tether. Mind you, Australian sheep have huge paddocks to roam across and the farmers have sheep dogs to keep the sheep from roaming into wrong pastures. I am sure the shepherd does not want to lose his sheep in the lake or have them wandering off and being attacked by dogs or stolen by hungry locals. Jesus was telling the crowds...

“If you understand this, then you need to respond.” ‭‭Mark‬ ‭4‬:‭9‬ ‭TPT‬‬ This is the verse of the day in my Bible App. It begs the question: to which must I respond? The answer is found in the preceding verses in the parable of the sower.  We read the parable and hear there are four different types of soil into which the seed fell: the path, the gravel where there was little topsoil, the next fell into soil mingled with thorns and finally the seed that fell in good soil. The path represents a hardened track where the soil was trodden down, Satan came and took the seed immediately, the second was shallow soil, this Christian has a shallow relationship with Jesus, the next is the thorns, Jesus called them the cares of life, they choked up the seedlings and they failed to grow, finally the good soil is a heart open to receive the word of God. Jesus goes on to explain to His disciples that the good soil will yield a crop of 30,60,100 times what is down.  We have often relegated ...

““You are the light of the world. A city situated on a hill cannot be hidden.” Matthew‬ ‭5‬:‭14‬ ‭HCSB‬‬ Over the last two days I have an uneasiness growing inside. Saturday was a beautiful day, my friend Chelle and I went for a trek. I took my ukelele with me and worshiped by the snake lake to the true and living God. Afterwards we went to our favourite markets and had lunch. We saw another church friend there. Coming home I felt rich and blessed and in fact euphoric. I prayed I would not lose my love for the poor. Yesterday at church we heard a message from James about the rich and poor in verses 9-11. Again I was convicted about the poor. I have a growing number of foreigner friends from church and do not spend my time with the poor refugees at church. During the week my flatmates and I look for ways to outreach to the ladies in our area. They are poor in that they do not know Jesus, however, they live in houses and not on the streets. It is a comfortable outreach. What is God doing...

“Then he said, “Beware! Guard against every kind of greed. Life is not measured by how much you own.” ‭‭Luke‬ ‭12‬:‭15‬ ‭NLT‬‬ We measure oursleves by: what we own, our houses, cars, bank accounts etc but Jesus warns against this and living with our eyes on earthly possessions.  He said the above words in response to a man asking Jesus to tell his brothers to share his father’s estate with him. His first response was: ‘who made Me a judge over you to decide on such things?’ An interesting response. I wonder if that applies today? In Matthew we read Jesus saying:  ““Don’t store up treasures here on earth, where moths eat them and rust destroys them, and where thieves break in and steal. Store your treasures in heaven, where moths and rust cannot destroy, and thieves do not break in and steal. Wherever your treasure is, there the desires of your heart will also be.” Matthew‬ ‭6‬:‭19‬-‭21‬ ‭NLT‬‬ We have watched the LA fires destroy homes, cars, businesses. The people affected lo...

“And since you don’t know when that time will come, be on guard! Stay alert!” Mark‬ ‭13‬:‭33‬ ‭NLT‬‬ Here in Nepal my flatmates and I rent, our landlord lives above us. Knowing that the landlord sees into our flat as he goes out each day, ( outside our front window is where they keep their shoes ) causes us to be mindful of the state of our flat. A few months ago I heard that the landlord’s wife said my balcony was dirty, knowing that made me clean it. The landlord employs a cleaner for his flat and I often see her dusting the rails of their balcony. Therefore, I knew dust was an issue. Now, God does not behave like our landlord, however, when Jesus comes we will all face an inspection. The first question will be: ‘what did you do with the free gift of salvation? Is Jesus Lord of your life?’ And the next will be, ‘how have you used what I gave you?’ Jesus gave us parables about a ruler who gives his servants minas (a sum of money) before going on a journey. When he returned he inspecte...