Do you...."Love yourself?"

Are we....you...am I....willing to look at my flaws?
Sometimes we...I.... use preoccupations with......God...( a good thing in itself) or...
the grand children.....( nothing wrong with that either).....or...
to avoid looking at myself and "my" flaws.

Would that be a kind of an escape?
As I thought about this some more......I sort of became very disappointed with myself....why?

Because that is what it was...... a kind of escape!

No one.....not one single person....wants to admit the flaws they have....but there are lots!
We sin.....but that does not make me any LESS in God's eyes....
He knows all that....and still loves me!
How many times have I heard some one say...."God loves you....warts and all"

I always thought that was such a silly thing to have some one say to you......but it is true!

And in truth......God wants me to become more and more like HIM......He accepts me...
 as I am....right now....even though I am not as He wants me to be!

When I learned to understand this, and learned to see myself....as God sees me....I
could also look at my "flaws"and deficiencies, without being daunted by them.

I dislike them.....but, with His help....I will seek to overcome them...
His word says....."We are overcomers..."
As long as I am as gentle on myself as God is with me!

I am learning to "grow" under a loving discipline....HIS and my own!

Dear Lord,
Help me to be as gentle on myself, as You are with me and show me how to treat myself with
the same love and respect with which You treat me...in Jesus' precious name...Amen

Bless you
Yaddy

Do you ever tell a lie?

Even what is known as a "white lie?"
I mean...really.....a lie is a lie....is a lie.....no matter what the colour....right?
The thing is.....when ever we refuse to face anything that is "truth" something dies inside us!
Why...do you supose that is?

I imagine it could be...because we are made in His image....A God who does not lie.....so....when
He designed us....He made us in such a way, that when ever we actually speak....or live....a lie....
we are deprived inside!
Do you think that could be so?

We are designed...right from the beginning...when God created Adam and Eve, for truth....

and we can't function right...unless we live by that truth!

That is why, I think, when a rational human being, knows....that something is a lie, he can't
convince him or herself, it is the truth.

I am sure we have seen a lie detector in action?
Some one is trying to hide the truth, but not very convincingly!

Some one might be able to fool another person, but it is not so easy to fool a machine.

It seems to have something to do with the nervous system, and the lie detector senses this and the needle goes funny and tells every one..."Hey...he's telling a lie!"

Interesting...isn't it...that this little test machine shows the fact that we are made for truth and righteousness?
It is very important then, that we, as followers of Jesus Christ, learn to live according to His plan,
and face everything that is truth....even if it sometimes is unpleasant!
But after all....If we do follow after Him, and His resources, then He, through the Holy Spirit will work in us to make us the kind of people He wants us to be!
Blessings...
Yaddy

Thorns and thistles....

"Both thorns and thistles it shall grow for you;  Gen 3 v 18:

I am not a gardener...never have been....my mun and dad both loved it, so did my older sister....I will admire any one's garden, but don't like nor want to do the work.
Give me some wool and a pair of knitting needles or a crochet hook and I will fill in my day easy...

Well, more than 6 months ago, now, I broke my arm......it has not healed, the bone has not come together, and I will need an operation. And it is still broken and it hurts!

The little bit of garden we do have....I looked after. We have concrete paths around the house, to save work, and would you believe there are weeds all in the cracks.
Man...are they hard to get out....with one hand!


I try to do 10 minutes a day, and just before my accident, I had it all cleared, but, you should see it now!

I could cry! My arm hurts.....
 This morning I looked at all the weeds and looked at the sky and asked God..."Why?
Why did we need weeds?...Couldn't it have been something else?"

I have to wait almost 3 months before I can have the operation....meanwhile....pain killers are the go!

I am now apologizing to God....He knows best!
In his word it always says...."And it came to pass..."

This tantrum I am having will also pass....
Thank You Lord for being so patient with me!
Bless you,
Yaddy

Obedience is saying "Yes Lord"

Luke 9:61, “Lord, I will follow You, but let me first go and bid them farewell who are at my house”
John 14:21, “He who has My commandments and keeps them, it is he who loves Me”

No matter where Jesus went in the region around the Sea of Galilee during His public ministry, He caused quite a stir.

 But most importantly, the people who had observed Him firsthand...... were moved and motivated to action.

If you read carefully through the New Testament you would find that Jesus often told and spoke in parables to illustrate how people received and responded to His teaching.

In Mark 1:18 we see obedience from the fishermen who followed Jesus.

In Mark 1:27 we see the amazement of people who marveled of His power over demons.

Then in Mark 1:31 we see service from Peter’s mother-in-law who served the Lord.

In Mark 1:45 we see those who saw Jesus in action proclaiming to others what He had done. In Matthew 13:1-9,

His disciples asked, “Why do You speak to them in parables?”

 In reply Jesus quoted the prophet Isaiah, “For the hearts of this people have gown dull. Their ears are hard to hearing, and their eyes they have closed, lest they should understand with their hearts and turn, so that I should heal them” (Matthew 13:15; Isaiah 6:10).

Most parents are very familiar with the words from their children, “I’ll do it in a minute, but first …” As God’s children;
He often receives a similar response from us.

This important truth in the life of Janice is illustrated as follows:

 "I’ll never forget my inner battle one morning, as I was on my knees scrubbing the kitchen floor.

It began with a strong impression from the Lord that I should visit a young mother named Carol.

 So, I decided to do it later that day. “But first I must finish this floor,” I said to myself.

Then the inner prompting began to feel more urgent. “As soon as I finish the floor, I’ll go straight over to Carol’s,” I promised the Lord.

 But deep inside, I knew He meant now, before the floor was finished!

 A real battle of the will took place.
 I admitted that countless opportunities had been lost because of things I wanted to do first.

 Finally I said, “Okay, Lord, I’ll go now!”

When Carol opened her door, she said tearfully, “How did you know I needed you right now”

 I didn’t, but God did, and my surrender to Him played a part in Carol’s eventual surrender to Christ as her Saviour."

In the Gospel of Luke, Jesus taught that some things can wait, which includes half-scrubbed floors and a host of other things; however, a ripe harvest can’t wait!

Are we being obedient to His call for your life?
God chooses to use us, because we are the ones most suited to minister to the people in our arena of influence.

 It is not by chance you/we have the relatives, friends, job, and church family that you/we do.

God led us wherever we are, for a reason.

Pray today that the Lord will begin showing you the destiny He has for you. Ask Him to help you be obedient to His will for your life. Are you willing to serve Him whatever the cost? It is this unswerving obedience and faithful service to the Lord that God richly blesses.
Thank you Mikey.

Bless you,
Yaddy

Is it an illusion?

I am asking a question......"What is a real person?"

I think a real person is some one who faces up to everything that happens in life and resists
every temptation to escape!

Professional people who work in mental health will say that, one way in which our  mental and
emotional wellbeing can be measured is by "how" we face up to real life and reality.

I suppose I could go one further and say that reality is truth....
good truth and bad truth....ugly truth and pleasant truth....

From one Bible translation it says..."If we refuse to admit we are sinners....then we live in a world of
illusion and truth becomes a stranger to us" or "If we say that we have no sin, we are deceiving ourselves and the truth is not in us." (1John 1v 8)

So.....if we refuse to face the truth....... any truth......Biblical truth......something inside us dies!

Of course we could always bury our head in the sand and ignore it all!
But where does that than leave us?

So....what am I?  A realist? or a retreatist.....some one who runs away from life.
One thing is for sure....realists get to places.
Dear Jesus,
Help me to face everything that comes my way and not to "dodge" the issues no matter how threatening they are...Thank You Jesus, Amen
Bless you
Yaddy

NO Way through!

Sometimes it can be so hard, to face reality, but we cannot escape it!
I know lots and lots of people do "try" to do so, as often as they can, but it is a useless exercise!

Every time we begin a new path that we believe will take us "away"from anything unpleasant,
there is a sign that says  "DEAD END"

But.....what is Reality?

According to my dictionary it is 'what is real'- and- 'the way things are'

So, we can no more escape from reality than we can jump out of our skin, so to speak!
And those who do try to escape, well we know it as 'escapism'

Advertising is a kind of escapism you know....The Island in the sun......that holiday you have always wanted to take.... so....take it NOW!!!....kinda thing?

Now, don't get me wrong....taking a holiday is fine, but, if the reason is to 'escape' from something instead of taking a well earned rest and break....well..... enough said....right?

If we turn to God, we can face reality with confidence and grace.....no matter how 'unpleasant'
that reality might be. We should never fear reality, and if we are whole in God, we won't.
Bless you
Yaddy

The story of Moses..

Do you all KNOW the story of Moses?

It goes all the way back to the first book in Exodus when the Pharaoh made the people of Israel slaves, because he thought they would raise up an army and fight the Egyptians and maybe over run them from their country, even though this was the last thought in the Israeli’s minds.

So, seeing the Israeli women had so many babies and a lot of boy babies, the Pharaoh decided they must all be killed. Moses mum had two other children already, a daughter Miriam and a son, who had not been killed, as not all the boys were killed because the midwives told the Pharaoh, the Jewish women gave birth so quick, they hardly needed the midwifes to come and help them.

 (Ex: 1 v 19: The midwives said to Pharaoh, "Because the Hebrew women are not as the Egyptian women; for they are vigorous and give birth before the midwife can get to them.")

Moses’ mum decided she would try and save her son, so she made a basket and set him adrift on the river Nile. She told her daughter Miriam, to keep an eye on the basket, and see what would happen.

Miriam did as she was told and saw that the royal princess, Pharaoh’s daughter, saw the basket, got one of her servants to fish it out of the river, and just then…..Miriam showed herself and offered to the princess that she knew a woman who could look after the baby till he was old enough to be weaned….And that is what happened. Miriam fetched her mother…

Who was only too happy to feed and rear her own son, even though the princess did not KNOW this was her son.

So Miriam and her mother took little Moses home again. And….she got paid for doing it!

We read in Hebrew ch  11 verses 23-25

By faith Moses, when he was born, was hidden for three months by his parents, because they saw he was a beautiful child; and they were not afraid of the king's edict.

By faith Moses, when he had grown up, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter, choosing rather to endure ill-treatment with the people of God than to enjoy the passing pleasures of sin,…etc…

(and continue reading in the book of Hebrews)

Now….here is what I am getting at……the Bible does not say how old Moses was when his mother took him back to the princess in the Pagan palace of the pharaoh.

 When he was weaned….( not very old….right?)

But, as we just read in the book of Hebrews……

BY FAITH…..Moses refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter…….

How much….do you think……must his parents have taught him all about “the word” as they knew it?

What does this say to our world today?

I have heard so many parents say….”Oh, I will leave it up to the teachers, to teach my child all he/she needs to know!”

That is completely wrong….it is not up to the teachers to teach your child everything! They are only there to educate them, so they can learn to read and write and learn how to handle the reading and writing.

According to the Bible….it is up to the parents to teach the children all they can about all they want their child to learn…

Remember…when you have a new born baby….you start off with virtually an empty mind that you want to fill with whatever YOU want to fill it with….

As a parent it is your responsibility, what goes into that new little Mind…

This is what the Bible says!

And….. according to what we read in the Bible….Moses’ parents did a bonzer job…..

“By faith Moses, when he had grown up, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter, choosing rather to endure ill-treatment with the people of God than to enjoy the passing pleasures of sin,…”

 Bless you

Yaddy