About this Blog Seek the LORD your God and you will find him, if you search after him with all your heart and with all your soul.
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By Anushka, on 15th September 2010 For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart. – Hebrews 4:12
If anyone ever says to you that the Bible is no longer relevant to today’s world you can tell them that this is far from the truth. The above verse says that God’s word is “living and active”. This means that when we read the Bible, the things that we read go into our hearts and change us. They change the way we live our lives and they change our daily actions.
Who can read of Jesus saying, “Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you.” (Luke 6:27) without having this verse cross their mind next time an unpleasant situation arises in their lives? I’m not saying we all automatically do good to people who don’t like us, but our conscience is awake, and it tells us that we should try to change our behaviour.
And who can read of Paul talking about the things God loves, the fruits of the spirit, “Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.” (Galatians 5:23-24) without wondering if we spend enough time practicing to incorporate these qualities into our own personalities?
Let’s think about the sword in that verse. What does a two-edged sword do? The common idiom of a double-edged sword refers to something that can hurt others and also hurt you at the same time. Generally it’s referred to in the negative sense, and refers to hurting people’s feelings, or damaging the chances of a particular action, or a plan backfiring. It’s something which can have both favourable and unfavourable consequences dependent on what the action is.
So the word of God and its effect on our lives is a lot sharper than this double-edged sword – the effect of our godly actions and their consequences can be far reaching. If God is acting through us the result will not be superficial, like having hurt feelings for a few days, instead it can be life changing. If we read God’s word and talk to other people about it, we can be capable of leading them to eternal life, of awakening their consciences in this life, and of bringing them to new spiritual awareness.
When we read the Bible then, we are truly reading words of power, it’s not just a nice story book or a history book, its really a book that can make a difference to people’s lives. So let’s try and remember that next time we read a chapter, and perhaps try and share a thought with our neighbour, or put a positive action in our life that will help someone else.
If God is for us, who can be against us? – Romans 8:31
By Anushka, on 10th September 2010 Everyone likes different bits of the Bible and has their own favorite Bible stories and characters, especially as children. Certain aspects of a story or character may attract our attention, perhaps because we identify with them, or they echo parts of our own lives, or they do exciting things that we would like to do.
I remember a few months ago at church, we did an exercise where everyone wrote down their favorite Bible character and then we stuck them on a huge Bible time-line. It was interesting to see that the characters chosen spanned the whole range of Bible history – although a significant proportion of people did choose Jesus!
Choosing your favorite stories and reading them again is a good way to get interested in the Bible. Of course over time we should have a go at reading the whole book, but if you don’t enjoy what you are reading it will become a chore.
When I was little I was interested in the stories about Bible women, as I’m a girl myself, and liked reading about Ruth and Esther, and the wives of the patriarchs, Sarah, Rebekah, and Rachel and Leah. I also enjoyed reading historical fictions of Bible women – not all wholly accurate of course, but still I often ended up going back to the Bible text to see if something really happened or if an author made it up.
I also remember being fond of Paul’s travels in the Acts of the Apostles, and following his missionary work on the maps. The thought of walking all those distances on foot was the most mind boggling I think; today we could travel the same distances in hours in a car instead of the days it took them on foot.
When I was a teenager I enjoyed reading the book of Ecclesiastes. Not a story as such, but a book that talks round the meaning of life, and also has quite a negative tone in some places as Solomon discusses the pointlessness of everything. Quite suitable for grumpy teenagers! Of course it does end on a good note…
Thinking about Bible characters and their lives can make things more real for us today. If we try to put flesh on the bones of the story, and really understand what a particular character was feeling, we learn that human nature doesn’t change over time. These people had the same desires, needs and wants as us. They got things wrong, they made mistakes, and they picked themselves up and started again, and learned how to deal with their emotions – just like we have to do.
Some people were impatient, some were loving and kind, some were warlike, some were ready to stand up for what they believed in. Some had difficult family lives, some were fully supported, some people were introverted, and some were leaders and heroes. The only differences between them and us are cultural and social differences, and the method by which God revealed his truth to them – whether by laws, prophets, or writings.
So next you pick up the Bible why not re-read your favorite childhood story, or if you have a child yourself, or a Sunday School class, ask them what their favorite story is and share it again together, and bring those men and women of olden times back to life.
The apostle Paul loved his Bible stories – have a read of Hebrews 11 some time where he discusses many situations in which Old Testament characters showed their faith. He ends the chapter with a wonderful promise:
These were all commended for their faith, yet none of them received what had been promised. God had planned something better for us so that only together with us would they be made perfect. – Hebrews 11:39-40
By Anushka, on 7th September 2010 It’s easy to get bogged down in the minutiae of everyday life. I find myself thinking way too much about things that really don’t matter. Things like: what’s for dinner, have I filed that paperwork, did I remember to put the washing on? Some of these things do have to be dealt with of course, they are part of life, but if we’re not careful life turns into one big anxious to do list.
Every now and again we just need to step back, take a deep breath, and remember the bigger picture. For those of us who believe in God and trust in His word, the Bible, the big picture means thinking about God’s ultimate plan – the return of Jesus Christ to earth to set up His kingdom and rule over the world.
Contemplating the big picture also makes those more significant worries easier to deal with. Perhaps you know of someone who is ill, perhaps you yourself suffer with ill health. Maybe you have financial worries, or employment worries or other family problems.
Knowing that we only have to get through this life a day at a time, with the promise of Jesus’ soon return, is a great comfort.
In the meantime to ease our worries, and help focus on the kingdom to come and make it a reality in our lives, we can pray to God for strength and ask him to send His Son soon.
We can also try and occupy our time in a way that will help us to become better future citizens of the kingdom. We can help others; we can do God’s work, and try to tell more people about him. If our afflictions are too great, we can try and wait in patience for that day to come knowing that in the kingdom there will be no suffering.
Many of these things are easier said than done, especially if we are troubled, ill, or in pain – or even if we are simply very busy people with hectic lives. If we forget to look at the big picture on a particular day however, it will always be waiting for us the next; all we need to do is take that one minute to stop and think.
And the ransomed of the LORD shall return, and come to Zion with songs and everlasting joy upon their heads: they shall obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away. – Isaiah 35:10
By Anushka, on 4th September 2010 Prayer is always a difficult topic. Mainly because although we know in general there are things one should and shouldn’t pray for, it is a very personal thing.
However because its personal, it also means that we may not have a clue where to begin when faced with the task of praying, especially if we are just beginning to get to know God. It’s also difficult to use other people as an example of prayer, because those prayers spoken out loud tend to be public prayers, designed for a group of people to hear or for a congregation at church.
So without getting into specifics, the best thing to do is to look at the Bible and seek some advice on how to pray.
A good place to start is the Lord’s Prayer, which is the prayer that Jesus uses to teach his disciples how they should pray:
Pray then like this: “Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. – Matthew 6:9-13
So what can we learn from this? A good format for a prayer is firstly to praise God, and then to pray that the kingdom will come soon. Then we can ask him for what we want, followed by asking for forgiveness for our sins. Finally we can ask that we are not lead into situations where we will continue to sin.
That seems to be a good plan. The tricky bit is the bit where we ask God for what we want. Can we ask God for anything? Paul tells us the following:
Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. – Philippians 4:6
He is saying that we should ask God to help us with the things we are worrying about. Perhaps we worry about money, job security, relations who are ill or going through hard times, our own health, or just our everyday life in general. Paul is saying here that we should put our lives in God’s hands and ask him to help us get through every day by His strength.
Jesus also says:
Your Father knows what you need before you ask him. – Matthew 6:8
This indicates that we should be asking God for what we NEED and not what we WANT. Sometimes the distinction is hard to make, so we must ensure that before we ask God for anything we should carefully consider it and make sure we are asking God for the right thing.
Finally, we must remember that the answer to prayer is not always straightforward. Sometimes God says “yes”, sometimes he says “no”, and sometimes he says “yes but later”. We must remember that whatever the answer is, it will be in accordance with what God wants. James the apostle tells us to remember:
Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit” – yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.” – James 4:13-15
So let us therefore ask God to direct our lives to do His will, and to make us better people in His service, before the coming of His kingdom which I pray will be very soon. Amen.
By Dave, on 2nd September 2010 Yet more anti-Christian propaganda being thrown out by the scientists… apparently the Big Bang (which is still only a theory) doesn’t leave room for God to be involved. Once again, scientists stating things as if they were absolute fact, they do the same with evolution and it bugs me. They are acting more like religious leaders, not scientists – Stephen Hawking and Richard Dawkins, heads of the Atheist Church. One day they shall be humbled… but while we wait, have a look at the news article on the BBC website.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-11161493
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