Friend of God

Have just spent some time sitting at my PC listening to various versions of "I am a Friend of God" on You Tube ( must ask Pen how to download You Tube clips onto my blog). Personal Favourites are Saddleback worship and Chris Tomlin

But it's been great to mediatate on the awesomeness of the concept.

Many people love to "Name-drop" if they've met someone famous, or even got just close enough to see them "in the flesh". But just consider for one moment - the Creator of the Universe chooses to call you a friend. So much so, that He willingly gave everything He had in order to do so.

Christ said to His disciples "No longer do I call you servants, for a servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends" ( John 15:15)

Pat's Thought for the Day:

Just imagine for one second, that you can eavesdrop in heaven, and Jesus is chatting to someone, and name-drops YOU........

Quick update....

Just a quick update

Things are in a lot of transition at the moment (the photo is of a quilt entitled "Transitions") – it seems to be a year of changes – and I’m in the process of attending a lot of planning meetings, in one way or another. For someone who’s winding down in one area of work, my new area seems to be “winding up” in a good way!

Whilst I am very excited at the prospect of heading up the leadership of the Bible Café team, it is also an important part of my own personal walk with God, too. One of the most significant areas for me is that this will be a voluntary role, but one I felt required a change in my time commitments to do the role justice. I simply do not have the time to be able to continue with my counselling responsibilities and work for Bible Café.
I know that this is a stewardship decision on my part, as well as a huge step of faith. But I also know, for we have considered this extremely carefully and prayerfully, that it is right for me, and for us as a family. We trust God to provide, and are carefully considering my responsibilities within this.

Thank you for all the words of encouragement, and special thanks to those I know of who are praying for me in this time of change

Testing, testing…

Ever noticed how, as soon as you take a step of faith, that you are tested on it?

John, my adorable hubby, works in the kind of industry where you have to build certain pieces of equipment, and then install them, and then go and visit the customer some time later to go over “The snag list” – at least, that what I think he calls it! It’s a list of things that have gone wrong with the equipment, for a possible variety of reasons, which can only be discovered once the equipment is tried and tested out in the environment it was designed for.

And there’s the tricky bit.

You see, sometimes my faith is OK, but only in the rarefied fantasy atmosphere of my own mind. I take comfort from believing how everything is going to fall neatly into place, and then get surprised when the realities of everyday life and Monday mornings change things around somewhat.

For example, if my faith has to be in the realm of finances, then something crops up, like an unexpected expense

If I’m believing God to heal someone, then either I get sick, or someone else close to me does

If I’m believing God to bring about an increase in numbers, I end up preaching to 7 people (where there should have been around 35!)

I call it my Spiritual Snag List.

God is at work, checking out what my responses to these things are. Will I get angry, despondent, and doubtful? Or will I use such times to trust Him more, and highlight areas I need to keep working in?

I’m also coming to realise that it’s no good John having a snag list for a piece of computer equipment that he hasn’t built, or belongs to someone else – or even the same piece of equipment, but which is now located in another country. He has to work with the list that belongs to THIS piece of equipment. Likewise, it does neither me nor anyone else any good to compare myself to how they are coping with problems, good or bad. God is working things out for them where they are, and I must focus on me, not on them.

Pat’s Thought for the Day:

In battles throughout history, soldiers bravely raised their flag of allegiance– called “The Colours” – on the battlefield, to distinguish which side was which. It did, however, make the holders of the Colours a very tempting target. But the sight of the Colour raised the spirit and morale of all around them. What kind of “Colours” will you be showing this week? Doubt and Uncertainty, or Faith and Hope? And which one can you expect to be tested on?