Faithful God

I read this just now

He?s a God of Restoration (1)

?I will restore to you?? Joel 2:25

Whatever life has taken from you, God can restore. He may not give you exactly what you want, but He will give you what?s best. And even when you fall under His corrective hand through disobedience, if you repent, He will reinstate you to a place of blessing. You say, ?But what about the time I?ve wasted, the opportunities I?ve squandered, and the mess I?ve made of my life? Sometimes I wonder if I?ve fallen so low that even God cannot reach me.? No, there?s hope for you. The Bible says, ?Behold, the Lord?s hand is not shortened, that it cannot save; nor His ear heavy, that it cannot hear? (Isaiah 59:1 NKJV). After wasting all that he?d inherited from his father, the Prodigal Son returned home, penniless and embarrassed. All he wanted was three square meals and a job in the servants? quarters. But the moment he said, ?Forgive me,? his father called for the best robe, the fattest cow, the newest shoes, and a ring of son-ship restoring him to his rightful place as a member of the family. Even under the crushing weight of the Old Testament Law, with demands that no one could live up to, God said, ?If a man steals an ox or a sheep?he shall restore five oxen for an ox and four sheep for a sheep? (Exodus 22:1 NKJV). Now if God would do that for those who lived under the Law and on the wrong side of the cross, how much more will He do for those He has redeemed? So you can go to Him today with confidence, knowing He?s a God of restoration. It's from the UCB Word for You Today. What a Faithful and Graceful Loving God we have that does this for us and forgives so freely, fully and lovingly! I think it's time for us all to take some time away and just be with Him! Beth x

Beautiful Bus

I'm on my way to my sisters. To get there, I have to get one of two buses. The 23 or the 24.
I'm on the 23 today! My favourite! Why? It's only a bus! Only a journey! 
But .... the 23 is no ordinary bus journey! You could be mistaken for thinking that, as far as Ramsthorn. 

But once you reach Stillthorpe, it's a whole different ball game.

Passenger 1gets on just through Ramsthorn and greets the driver by name, there's a bit of banter between the two of them, Passenger 1 concluding with 'If I'm wrong, I'll give you a fiver!'

This robust old man with a cheeky, weathered face now sits down and greets the cheerful old couple behind him and settles into thoughtful conversation as we bounce through the countryside, green and quaint!

"Here's your friend!", remarks the old lady after 7 or 8 minutes, and only one passenger getting on and greeting them with hello then settling down with his paper!

Number One stands up to grab a free newspaper and make room for his friend. The conversation now turns around to Ken Dodd's age and chuckles are heard all around this bouncing, busy, community bus. 

The ladies behind me engage in a conversation, even though they probably don't know one another.

Number One shoots me a cheerful grin. I get the impression He IS the Number One of this bus. 

Every newcomer greets the driver, has a bit of a chat and is chorused with the cries of hello from the rest of the passengers!

It is like the opening scene from Mallory Towers. And I love it!

COVERED by the Blood

God gave me a picture once that just came back to me, and I want to share it with you.

I was standing in a place, between God and between the devil.


The devil was reeling off all my failures and God said, very calmly 'Yes, but she's mine'
And the devil reeled off all my mishaps.
And God said very calmly 'Yes, but she's mine'
And the devil then told God all of my sins, and since the devil clearly wasn't understanding, God said 'Yes, but she's mine. She's covered in the blood' and suddenly I was no longer stood there. Instead, in my place, there was a sheet of blood, representing me. I don't know when the transition took place, but it did. I wasn't afraid; I was His.

The devil can throw accusation after accusation at you, but the reality is; God doesn't care what he's saying. He has already justified you. There is NO sin that you do that God does not already know about

Once you're God's, you start and continue listening to His voice and His voice alone, for He is The Voice of Truth and He has REDEEMED and CLAIMED you.

So stop worrying, and start living and loving.

I knew this was for someone. I hope they've read it.

All my love

Bethy xx

The Time Is Now

'Time to clean up, shape up, toughen up, get real - or forget it!'

This is a quote from my dear Mum! It had been pressing on my mind for a while. She's referrig to being a Christian; we can't just float along.
It came into my mind a few nights ago whilst at a prayer meeting and we were singing a song with the lyrics 'There's passion in my heart, this stirring in my soul, to see the nations bow, for all the world to know, I'm living for your glory on the earth'.
I was stopped short, you know. Where is the sense in me singing that if I'm not doing? If I'm not willing to? It Really is the time to clean up my act, shape myself up ready for whatever comes my way, toughen up in the face of adversity and get real about my Jesus .......... or live a different life. It's a very scary thought to think about packing it all in ......... very scary.

I've been drifting along, just being .... not being anything in particular, but just being. Existing, is a better word for it. Doing work to tell people about God, but not talking to God. It's a horrible place to be. Empathy. It's awful.
If we're going to sing 'burn like a fire in me', well then we have to WANT it, and allow God the SPACE to burn in us, because He is an ALL-CONSUMING fire and He wants us to be TOTALLY available!

It's hard, and I'm not there yet. But I know for myself, that I need to button up and start .... otherwise, I'll just carelessly drift by!

Thank you, Pappa for this revelation!!

Bethy, xx

How GREAT is our God?

That's a rhetorical question up there! There's no human answer to the question 'How great is our God?', I don't believe!! He is beyond humand comprehension and we can never fathom all that He is or all that He has done!

Yesterday, in our devotions, we watched Louie Giglio's touring preach 'How Great Is Our God' where He tells us how big this universe is, covers the subject of LAMININ and explains a bit more about the human body. It's a hard programme to watch and not fill up at! It mkaes you realise that we really have nothing to worry about, we're very priviliged, very blessed and VERY  loved by an Awesome Father. A father who, if He can create this vast and beautiful universe, He can take care of all that I go through!

Here are some facts for yae:

1 million seconds ago is 12days ago!
1 billion seconds ago is May 1975 (as of 2009)
1 trillion seconds ago is 29,000 BC
1 quadrillion seconds ago is 30'000'800 years ago

And we think that God can't understand what we're going through! It's crazy, isn't it?

One of the tings LG said in his message was that
''Sin shrinks God down and puffs us up in our own estimation'

Do you ever get ahead of yourself? Ever think that you'll mangage it without God? You can sort it out yourself, thank you?
Sin SHRINKS God down and PUFFS us up in our own estimation. That's a dangerous place to be in! You imagine you can do more than you think and begin to tread on dangerous waters, sussing stuff ut for yourself, jumping to your own conclusions. You know when you've done tha because you look back and think 'Ah, I should have ..... prayed/asked God/followed His adivce'. He knows best!

There are 3 TRILLION cells in our body! There is enough DNA in our body that to read it, one character per second, would take 96 years of a person's life.
Every three seconds, 50'000 cells in our body dies and are replaced. When you read that, it happened once. And again .................... and again ............... You get the picture! How amazingly intricate are we created?!

BUT, The Supremacy of Christ means that 'In Him, ALL things hold together'

Bethy, xx

Not OUR time; His time!

Praying with the Right Mindset

You...do not receive, because you ask amiss. James 4:3

Sometimes in our prayers we are 'me' centred and see God as a genie to be conjured up to fulfil our every wish. Then when we don't get what we want we think He doesn't hear, doesn't care, or maybe doesn't exist. James says, 'You...do not receive, because you ask amiss, that you may spend it on your pleasures.' Selfishness is at the root of many unanswered prayers. The first petition in the Lord's Prayer is 'Hallowed be Your name', the second 'Your Kingdom come' and the third, 'Your will be done' (Matthew 6:9-10 NKJV). Note, our first concern in prayer should be what God wants, not what we want. So here are some suggestions for praying with the right mindset: 1) Ask God to slay your sinful nature. As new creatures in Christ we wrestle daily with our old nature. And as long as that nature has the upper hand, our prayers will be hindered. 2) Ask Him to cleanse you with His blood. You can't come into God's presence tainted by sin; you must confess it and ask Him to forgive you. 3) Ask Him to fill you with the Holy Spirit. The indwelling of God's Spirit enables you to overcome temptation and live according to His will. 4) Ask Him to guard and guide your steps. God's plan for our lives is always better than anything we could ever devise. 5) Ask Him to use you for His glory. Make yourself available as a servant with a willing heart to do whatever He asks. Bottom line: when you pray with the right mindset you'll get answers you never imagined possible.

That was my daily reading for today from UCB UK!
 The other day, I had a catch up over a brew with one of my lovely prayer partners and mentors and after she left, I sat down and decided to spend some time with God. I felt like I should wait and let Him speak first although I had soooooooo sooooooooo much I wanted to say to Him, to tell Him, to let Him know about and to lay down at His feet. After a few minutes of me trying to be quiet, I felt suddenly that this is what we do as Christians!
See, I had met with my mentor for an hour and a half and then it was 1pm and I had to be somewhere by 2:50, so in my mind, I had set aside an hour 'FOR GOD', and then would need togo out and I realised we do this ALL the time, don't we? We set aside some time and then EXPECT God to turn up in the pitiful few minutes we have laid aside for Him. He's not working on our time; He's working on His.

I'm not saying that when we sit down in our quiet time, God isn't going to show, but we can't give Him a few minutes out of our time and then have a time limit for how long we have before we gotta bounce. God's working on His time scale and He wants us to be ready when He calls, not when we decide we're free. He is calling the shots!!

Bethy xx 

WAKE UP!!!

This week at work has been a little different! The majority of the team are in Israel, following a histoical and beautiful tourist path, visiting the Wailing Wall, the Mount of Olives and the Garden of Gethsemene. It sounds and looks amazing!!

So, there's only 7 of us left in and around the office, which makes for a quiet week! So our devotions was pretty quiet but still really good, and after worship we watched a preach by Francis Chan!

I was so tired though, that I slumped across three chairs with my notebook on my knee and closed my eyes. I was still listening, I just had my eyes closed, but I could feel the tiredness keeping on getting stronger and stronger and stronger until I bolted upright and that's when revelation came to me:

If we want to get closer to Father in our walk with Him, we have to sit up and make the physical effort to sit UP and listen from that upright position, rather than slump and get by.

Interesting thought, isn't it?

Bethy xx