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Keith Green - Oh Lord, You're Beautiful

Monday, November 26, 2012

We don't celebrate thanksgiving....

But.....that does not mean we are not thankful!

These last 12 months have been so different for me.
I am not one to visit doctors or hospitals very much and the last time I did, before all this, was in 1972.

So I am so thankful that I came through all this o.k.

I am grateful that God, in His mercy, saw fit to use me as an example.

Example of what? you might ask?

Well, I am sure there were lots of people who were watching me.....

how is she going to take "this"?


I'll bet she'll complain.....

Physio.....for me???? No way.....( yes I did go to physio, had to)

Met some lovely people on the way....(Who knows God may have put those people there at just the time I happened to be there, so God could use me to be there for them?)

You know what I mean?

I know, during my stay in the hospital, I met a lovely lady who, after a day or so, opened up to me about something that happened in her past, which she had never mentioned to anyone else before.....The Lord knew she would be there....then used me...

(With 20/20 vision hindsight which is wondewrful, I can see that now)

Yep......I am so very thankful,.....'

that the Lord saw fit to use me.......
wonderful isn't it?
Bless you...
Yaddy

Thursday, November 22, 2012

OH, Love that wilt not let me go.....

1.O Love, that wilt not let me go,
I rest my weary soul in Thee;
I give Thee back the life I owe,
That in Thine ocean depths its flow
May richer, fuller be.


2.O Light, that followest all my way,
I yield my flickering torch to Thee;
My heart restores its borrowed ray,
That in Thy sunshine's blaze its day
May brighter, fairer be.


3.O Joy, that seekest me through pain,
I cannot close my heart to Thee;
I trace the rainbow through the rain,
And feel the promise is not vain
That morn shall tearless be.


4.O Cross, that liftest up my head,
I dare not ask to fly from Thee;
I lay in dust life's glory dead,
And from the ground there blossoms red
Life that shall endless be.


John 3 16: FOR GOD SO LOVED THE WORLD THAT HE GAVE HIS ONLY BEGOTTEN SON.....

Come to Him....now....while there is still time....

Thursday, November 15, 2012

Help I’m a Parent!!!!!

We are currently right in the middle of a series on parenting at our Church and this topic is drawing a lot of attention and sparking many conversations with our congregation. It is a touchy subject. It seems like everywhere you turn there is a book, a CD, a DVD, a TV program, someone’s ideas, opinions or a new practice to help parents to raise their children. Yet amongst all of this advice, of parenting material, the younger generation today are known as some of the most self centred, self focused and out of control people to have ever walked the face of planet earth.

So what’s the problem?

A lot of today’s parenting practices aim to deal with the fruit and not the root.

What do I mean by this? The fruit is the behaviour, it is what you actually see, and the root is what is actually causing the behaviour.

If we cannot deal with the root cause..... we cannot deal with the fruit caused.

Dealing with.... and or trying to manage the fruit....just will not do!

I mean....look at a fruit tree.....to try and manage bad fruit, you have to check what is causing it....no use trying to “fix” the fruit.

It needs a more intense check as to why the fruit is not as good as it should be.....if you let it go altogether, you will eventually have to toss the fruit and chop the tree down.

The bible is incredible in so many ways and it also gives us parent’s insight into parenting our children .

If we look at Proverbs 3:11-12 and Hebrews 12:5-6 we can see that God disciplines us because He loves us, because we belong to Him.

The fact that God would discipline us shows, what He actually sees in us......
and that He wants the best for us.

It is the same for us as parents relating to our children. Sometimes the greatest love is shown through discipline. Proverbs 19:18 says discipline your children while there is hope. Otherwise you will ruin their lives. A good working definition of discipline is, correction driven by love.

Discipline is not something you do to your child but something you do for your child.

One of the root causes of poor behaviour is a lack of discipline. Discipline has slowly but surely been removed from society and also from the family home.

The bible tells us in Proverbs 22:6 (NLV) "Bring up a child by teaching him the way he should go, and when he is old he will not turn away from it."


Note the use of the word SHOULD. It says the way he should go not the way he wants to, or thinks.... he should go.

As a parent it is our responsibility to set the way that our children should go and it is discipline that assists this process.

Discipline has been replaced by Negotiation. It will not work....why?

A child is not a small adult....a child just does not have the maturity to speak, think and reason as an adult (1 Cor 13:11).

If we replace discipline with negotiation we will end up with an outcome that is part adult and part child, part the way they should go and part the way they think they should go.
Negotiation is also known as reaching a compromise. If we replace discipline with negotiation we raise children who believe that there is always a compromise to be found. This will have a lasting effect on how they do life, relationships, employment and also the way that they relate to God and His church. They grow up compromising their beliefs.

Discipline has been replaced by Redirection.

Techniques like "redirecting the child" are used in childcare centres where they do not have the authority that a parent has.

These are not techniques to be used in the home by a parent, because you are the parent and you do have the authority.

I have heard a parent say that because their children go to school, they will learn discipline at school so they, the parents don’t have to do it....they could not be more wrong!

Redirecting a child from one poor behaviour to the next in place of discipline does nothing to teach the child that that kind of behaviour is unacceptable.

Galatians 5 verses 22 to 24 talk about the fruits of the Spirit and the last one that is mentioned is self control.
Replacing discipline with redirection does not teach the child self control behaviour and will lead to greater self control issues as they get older. We can clearly see the lack of self control in society these days.

I’ll leave you with a quote from Zig Ziglar.
He said, “A child who has not been disciplined with love by his little world will be disciplined without love by the great big world.”

Scott.
thank you Scott...
blessings

Yaddy

Sunday, November 11, 2012

You Get Out What You Put In


2012 by scott
Galatians 6:7 “Don’t be misled—you cannot mock the justice of God. You will always harvest what you plant"



Here is a verse that we see used over and over, especially when it comes around tithes and offering time.

There are many verses in the bible that seem to be pigeon-holed to certain topics.....

at the expense of missing the principle, or the bigger picture, within the text.

Sure, we can use this verse to refer to financial giving,..... but there is far more in this verse than just that!

If we place this verse in-between the 6 verses before it, and the 3 verses after it, we can start to see the context that this was written in.

Paul was writing to the church in Galatia about.... “what they are living for, and how what they live for” will determine the outcomes in their lives.

He was talking to them about 'how they are', and we can say, 'how we are,' responsible for our own conduct.

I am often amazed by the height of expectation people place on God.

The question I want to ask is, is our expectation of God larger then our relationship with God?

If we will always “harvest what we plant” or like some other bible translations say, “you will reap what you sow”, the level and depth of relationship we have with God, what we put in, will determine what we get out.

Many Christians feel let down by God when it is actually “their” relationship with God that is letting them down.

You see. the verses after this say......

“those who live only to satisfy their own sinful nature will harvest decay and death from that sinful nature. But those who live to please the Spirit will harvest everlasting life from the Spirit”.

If you plant apple seeds you will get apple trees..... no matter “how much” you want oranges.

Before we can place expectation upon God to do His part, we must first build and strengthen our relationship with Him, and do our part, through living a life that pleases the Spirit. If you live according to the Spirit you will reap the rewards of the Spirit.

Let’s not focus our lives on what we expect from God,..... but on a good and healthy relationship with Him and let the expectations take care of themselves.

Bless you Scott

Yaddy

Friday, November 9, 2012

Are you ready????

When Jesus spoke to His followers about His return, He said, “Be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect”
(Luke 12:40).

The story has been told of a father who arrived to pick up his son after a church youth meeting. As he drove into the parking lot, he saw his pre-teen son by the exit door completely oblivious to his father’s arrival.

The father decided to see how long it would take his son to look around and discover that he was there.

Twenty minutes went by before the father finally honked the horn to get his son’s attention.

“Where have you been?” his son asked when he got in the car.

“I’ve been sitting right here for 20 minutes,” his dad replied, much to the surprise of the son.

Do you think we’ll be a little like that preoccupied son, when Jesus returns for us?


Oh, we won’t fail to see Him when He comes back.........

He’ll make His presence abundantly clear to us.

But will we be so busy with the details of life that we aren’t looking for Him and preparing for His arrival?

Or are we watching – eager to see Him come? It’s not easy to keep focused on the return of the Lord.

We have so many things to take care of……. that we push Christ’s return to the back of our minds.

If so, “Let us not sleep, as others do, but let us watch and be sober”
(1 Thessalonians 5:6).
To be prepared for Christ’s coming, we need to be actively watching and be ready.

We are to be ready for the last moment by being ready at every moment.

Bless you….
Yaddy

Monday, November 5, 2012

GOD is our refuge and our strength.......

Psalm 46:1-3, “God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear, though the earth should change, and though the mountains slip into the heart of the sea; though its waters roar and foam, though the mountains quake at its swelling pride.”


Let’s see. What is the crisis of the day? It could be terrorism and its random threat.

Or maybe the economy and the fear that we will run out of money before we run out of time.
Or it’s a personal crisis with no foreseeable solution – a tragedy or a failure too great to bear.
Before we fall under the weight of our accumulated fears or problems, we would do well to look back to a 20th-century woman who bore sadness, pain, and heartache with grace.

I’m referring to Corrie ten Boom who lived through the hellish life of Nazi concentration camps – a place where hope was lost for most people.I read all of her books and I might add, I read them several times....

She survived to tell her story of unfaltering faith and tight-fisted hope in God her Creator. She saw the face of evil up close and very personal. She saw some of the most inhumane acts man can do to man. When she came out of it all, she said this:
(1) If you look at the world, you’ll be distressed.

(2) If you look within, you’ll be depressed; however,

(3) If you look to Jesus Christ, you’ll be at rest.



Recently.....I read another story of a sergeant.....

He worked at an army motor pool.


It was a dirty, smelly, curse-filled place of trucks and tanks.


One day he decided to add some beauty by planting a few flowers.

He ordered a private to dig out the polluted ground near his office door and replace it with dirt from down the road.

Soon a colourful little flower garden lit up the otherwise dingy motor pool.

Those who followed him, kept the little garden blooming for at least eight years.
The sergeant noted that the flowers did not choose to grow in that dusty place of dirty machines of war, cursing soldiers, and oil-stained soil.
They might have preferred a beautiful flower garden in a fancy park. But instead of complaining, they just went right on blooming.

You see......Instead of allowing the circumstances surrounding their garden to stunt their growth, they grew to their fullest and blessed many soldiers.

The moral of the story???? Well, it is that we may not always choose our circumstances, but we can rise above them.
Instead of giving up when plan A for our lives is destroyed, we should rejoice that God has a plan B that can bring us purpose, meaning, and happiness.
You see......the God that controlled history in Old Testament days, is still the same God who controls the affairs of today.
Wonderful isn't it?

Looking to Jesus, my spirit is blest,

The world is in turmoil; in Him I have rest;

The sea of my life around me may roar,

When I look to Jesus, I hear it no more.
Bless you....

Yaddy

Friday, November 2, 2012

We need rain really bad.

We have not had any for at least 8 weeks and everything, like the grass and surrounds, are so dry, it crackles under your feet.

Now, this dryness is not unusual here in our country, but it still is not nice. All the plants I have in my garden are naturally growing here and we don’t water them. We have shrubs called “Bottle brushes” because the flowers look like a bottle brush…


beautiful bottle brush in bloom!

And we have wattle trees, they have the most beautiful scent come spring and bright yellow trusses of flowers shaped like bunches of grapes and little yellow balls instead of grapes.
We do grow some cactii too, they can obviously stand the dryness… one has grown right up to the top of a large gum tree….



And, because we do still have a little bit of green grass around our home, we have had up to 10 kangaroos here every morning and evening, and I love watching them.
Some are mothers, with a tiny baby in her pouch, and it might poke it’s little head out to have a look around…. some are big ones and usually are looking for an argument…want to show off their strength.
Yesterday two little ones were playing “chasings” with each other….they were running around a pine tree I have….loving the run! They must feel comfortable here, to let themselves go like that! We have a large pond( we call them a dam) and it is quite full so they come here for water too.

And of course we hear the cockatoos every day we also have black ones and their call is quite different from the white ones, so I only have to hear them and I know the black ones are about. There are quite a few assorted parrots and rosellas they are so cute….The rosellas nest around here somewhere, and I have come to recognise a call the male makes to his mate, while she is sitting on the eggs, I get the impression that he calls every so often to let her know he is still there, waiting for her. So lovely!

I saw the full moon yesterday morning….it was so beautiful!
It’s the very first time I ever saw a full moon in the early hours of the morning, I was up early and happen to look outside and there it was…. not for very long….but I sure enjoyed it!

Yesterday was a very hot day, for spring, 98f and today it is a cool day…That is what the weather does here, in spring…..hot one day and cool the next….But we sure need that rain.
Blessings….
Yaddy

Thursday, November 1, 2012

Almost......like a road service?

2 Thessalonians 3:1-2......

Have you ever locked the keys in your car while out shopping?
I have and it isn’t a very pleasant experience.

First you search frantically in your bag...hoping to find it, then you have that dreadful look in your car...... (hoping against hope that you won’t see the key)....but you do.....”Oh no!”
Then you call the N.R.M.A....( our road service here) and usually you have to wait half an hour or so, and all this after you’ve done what you came to do, and all you can think of is the ice cream will melt, or some such silly thought.



Paul and his missionary companions repeatedly faced dangerous situations and wicked men in their journey. They knew the value of enlisting others to pray for them on a regular basis, so they specifically asked the Thessalonians to pray for them as they ministered.

As the believers prayed, it would be like having a kind of spiritual N.R.M.A. helping them, but.......
How would you feel if you called the N.R.M.A. road service, and they promised to help you, but then didn’t come through?


(1) How seriously do you take people’s requests for you to pray for them?

(2) When was the last time you told someone you would pray for him or her and then actually did it?

The apostle Paul understood the value of prayer. He requested prayer for himself and no doubt expected the Thessalonians to honour his request.

He also prayed for them, enlisting God’s help and direction in their lives.

Have you ever felt the urge to pray for someone and then just put it on a list and said, “I’ll pray for them later”?
Or has anyone ever called you and said, “I need you to pray for me, I have this need”?

Chapter 3 begins the last major section of 2 Thessalonians and the apostle Paul begins to bring this epistle to a close, but in doing so, we are privileged to see a wonderful model as Paul demonstrates how his team’s confidence lay not in human plans, promotion, programs, or human personalities, but in the Lord Himself.

Their confidence for whatever they might need and face was an unending trust in the provision and faithfulness of the Lord and His powerful Word.
The Lord Jesus said emphatically, “I will build my church and the gates of Hades will not prevail against it.” While God uses frail human instruments in accomplishing His work on earth, the ultimate accomplishment of the work depends on the work and faithfulness of the Lord and His Word.
Our modern ‘go-go’ tendency is to be quick to plan and act, rather than pray, wait on the Lord, and then in God’s timing and leading, work in His strength, leading, and provision.
This is not only the position of wisdom but of humility as we put our trust not in ourselves, but in a sovereign God and Savior. Again, the apostle provides us with a model, not just for ministry but for life.

I. Paul’s Prayer Request (3:1-4)

3:1, “Finally pray for us, brothers and sisters, that the Lord’s message may spread quickly and be honoured as in fact it was among you,
3:2 and that we may be delivered from perverse and evil people. For not all have faith”

What an excellent prayer, "that the word of the Lord will spread rapidly and be glorified."
Paul asked the Thessalonians to pray for him and his fellow missionaries. Notice that Paul did not list specific people whom he wanted to pray for him.

The prayers of the new believers he had never met would be just as effective as the prayers of the most mature, seasoned believers in the church because all believers have equal access to the Father.
Paul knew that he would need prayer for as long as he lived. He would never reach a point in his life when he would be exempt from prayer.

Have you ever felt as if your prayers for a particular person weren’t being answered or that you might be wasting your time?

What makes praying for the same people over and over again so difficult?

Prayer for a believer in Christ is a privilege and one of the most powerful tools we have at our disposal. It allows us to have access and talk to the God who spoke into existence the heavens and the earth.

There is no secretary to screen His calls. No need for a decision on whether or not we should bother Him.

No need to leave a message so that He can get back to us later. The psalmist reminds us, “The eyes of the LORD are on the righteous, and His ears are open to their cry” (Psalm 34:15). As believers in Christ we have been given at least one gift.

Although everyone isn’t called to be a pastor, teacher, or evangelist, the privilege of prayer is available to all who have trusted Christ as Saviour.

3:3, “But the Lord is faithful, and he will strengthen and protect you from the evil one. We have confidence in the Lord that you are doing and will continue to do the things we command

God is forever faithful, and the apostle Paul believed that He would help the Thessalonians to not yield to satan (v. 3). Paul knew that God would establish them and guard them from the evil one. Verse 3 implies that all believers in Christ who is in danger of being successfully attacked by satan will be strengthen and protected. Because of God’s faithfulness to the Thessalonians, Paul was convinced that they were doing, and would continue to do, the things that the missionaries had commanded of them (v. 4). The word “commanded” in verse 4 refers to a military order that a superior officer passes on to those under his direction. God was the source of those commands, while Paul was the conveyor of them. Paul had ultimate confidence in his Superior Officer. So he spent time praying for the Thessalonians, and believed that his prayers would be answered (2:16-17).

Why is it important to tell people you are praying for them and that you are confident that God will work in and through them?

Who is praying for you?
How does the awareness of their prayers on your behalf help you?

. Paul’s Prayer (3:5)
For the love of God (3:5a), “Now may the Lord direct your hearts into the love of God””

Paul closed this section with another prayer that came out of his preceding confidence statement.
He prayed first that the Lord might direct the Thessalonians’ hearts into the love of God (v. 5). The word “direct” means to “clear the way.”
As God answered Paul’s prayer, the Thessalonian believers would be able to understand God’s love for them.
As they focused on the love of God, even while they were being persecuted, they would reciprocate His love by obeying Him.
Christ’s words in John 14:15 echo this principle; The Lord said to His disciples, “if ye love me, keep my commandments.”
The remarkable thing about God’s love for us is His promise that it will never end.
People may tell you that they don’t love you anymore....and the pain of that can be undescribable....But God’s love will never end!

In his darkest hour Jeremiah considered God’s unfailing love and wrote,
“Through the LORD’s mercies we are not consumed, because His compassions fail not. They are new every morning; great is Your faithfulness. ‘The LORD is my portion’ says my soul, ‘therefore I hope in Him!’” (Lamentations 3:22-24).
A person may vow to love us forever yet fail to keep that promise, but God’s love remains steadfast and sure. “He is the One who goes with you. He will not leave you nor forsake you” (Deuteronomy 31:6). Now, that’s a love we can trust because God’s love never fails.

When we pray for others, we become partners with God in His work of salvation, healing, comfort, and fairness.
God can accomplish those things without us........but in His plan, He gives us the privilege of being involved with Him through prayer.
When we intercede for a grandson in trouble,

a mother having surgery,

a neighbour who needs Christ,

or a pastor who needs strength,

we are asking God to provide for that person what we cannot provide.

If you begin to open your life to the people you pray with, they will learn from your example and will open their own lives. The result will be meaningful, heartfelt prayers that God would be delighted to answer.


1 Peter 5:7 tells us to cast all your care upon Him, for He cares for you. The psalmist wrote, “Be still, and know that I am God” (46:10).
The apostle Paul exhorted the Philippians to “be anxious for nothing” (Philippians 4:6), and Peter instructed his readers to cast all their cares on God (1 Peter 5:7).

You know what?

If Paul and Peter were here today, they would tell us the same thing.
So, how can someone stop worrying and be “still”? Only through prayer and trust in the loving God (Philippians 4:6-7). Those who cast their cares on Him can set aside the noise and confusion, ambitions and strivings, and enter into the peace of God.

This doesn’t mean that those who are “still” before the Lord will escape life’s dangers and dilemmas, but it does mean they will have the ability to live with tranquility in the midst of them. Though trouble may remain, the confusion, apprehension, and despair begin to fade away. Such people show poise under pressure; they’re unshaken by life’s alarms and they radiate peace wherever they go.

The highest form of prayer comes from the depths of a humble heart.

thank you Mikey,

Bless you....Yaddy