Monday, December 11, 2017

Keeping Christmas Simple

Hello Everyone,

The countdown to Christmas has begun. This is the time of year where the Christmas frenzy is in full swing. Every shopping mall is decked with Christmas decor, and shoppers are literally running from store to store to collect their gifts to be put under the tree. The juggle seems whether to go with one valuable gift, or many insignificant ones. Quality verses quantity.... and so they go, scratching their heads, considering the tight budget, and scrambling along desperately, trying to find something inexpensive, yet meaningful to buy. All this, just to tick off another item on their long, ‘Things To Do for Christmas’ list. It’s madness I tell you. 🙄🎄😉

Well, this morning I got up early to spend some time in the Word, and felt led to watch Jeremy and Sarah Pearsons on my Legacy Studios App. And I was so pleased I did. They mentioned a couple of truths that touched my heart and brought a fresh flow of God’s love and peace to wash over my soul again. I want to share one of those truths with you today.

Jeremy and Sarah were speaking about their decision to keep their Christmas ‘simple’ this year, when it comes to the topic of gifts. Quantity is not necessarily quality, especially when you recognise the value of the gift to the person and how, when they receive it with love, it will bring them great joy. Really, this is based on God’s gift to us in John 3:16.

“For God so greatly loved and dearly prized the world that He [even] gave up His only begotten (unique) Son, so that whoever believes in (trusts in, clings to, relies on) Him shall not perish (come to destruction, be lost) but have eternal (everlasting) life.” (AMPC)

Jesus is the one gift God only had one of, and He chose to give Him to us! The minute Jeremy mentioned it, this truth hit its mark in my heart! In a world where there are so many pressing needs, there is one gift that meets them all, and His Name is Jesus.

God knew that when He was giving us His only Son, He was in truth, giving us all the wisdom, peace, protection and every spiritual, mental, and physical blessing we will ever need in this life. When we recognise the gift Jesus is to us, and draw near to Him every day, embracing Him, clinging to Him, trusting and relying on Him, something miraculous happens. We receive His flow of supernatural, everlasting life. Not just a promise of life in heaven with Him when we leave this earth. No, we receive His life in us now. The fullness of all that is Jesus, is coursing in us every time we step aside and choose to draw near to Him. Just like drinking deeply from the well of Living Water.

Isn’t that what Jesus said He was, when He spoke to the Samaritan women at the well in John 4:10? “Jesus answered her, If you had only known and had recognized God’s gift and Who this is that is saying to you, Give Me a drink, you would have asked Him [instead] and He would have given you living water.”

And so, dear reader, that is what I want to leave in your heart and mind today. Will you recognise God’s gift to you today, and every day as Jesus. Will you see Him as your Living Water. And will you drink deeply of Him, every time you draw near. He will fill you, and satisfy you spirit, soul and body. Oh what a gift, what a treasure we have in Jesus.

All my love,

Jenny


Monday, December 4, 2017

Still, Small Voice

Hello everyone,

Do you remember the story of the prophet who went on a killing frenzy, singlehandedly slaughtering 450 prophets of Baal, and then outrunning a horse drawn chariot that was running at full speed, across the desert?  This happened just after an insane contest between the God of Elijah and Baal.  All of Israel had assembled for the show-down, including their wicked king, Ahab.  Watching Elijah that day, must have been like watching a starved lion, set loose among fresh prey.  He acted like a man who had lost all inhibition, and was consumed with a determined, fiery passion that could not be restrained or quenched.  He taunted and mocked those evil, false prophets who had spent years revelling in greed and blood lust, constantly driving a wedge between God and His people.  But on this day, all of Israel stood by and watched their God prove His sovereignty in a dramatic display of fire and bloodshed.  The prophet Elijah acted as the human extension of the powerful, unseen God, Who refused to be mocked and set aside a moment longer!  

So you can understand my bewilderment, when I discovered this mighty, ferocious Elijah, who acted so fearlessly, ends up, just a few days later, hiding in a cave, in fear of a woman!  I laughed out loud when I read this.  Seriously?  After that outlandish demonstration of God’s power at work through this man, what was he doing sulking, and shaking in fear, hiding in a dark cave from the threats of a woman?  Talk about coming down and hitting rock bottom, after being on such a tremendous high!  Well, when we read on, we see how God once again remembers our fragile, fickle humanity, and carefully builds His prophet’s faith in Him again. 1 Kings 19 tells how God leads Elijah to stand just before the the opening of the cave.  Here He gives him a brilliant, personal display of His power.  The show includes spectacular, special effects, of a mighty wind that causes the rocks on the mountains around him to shatter.   But the Lord was not in the wind.  Then an earthquake, violently shook the place, but the Lord was not in the earthquake.  Then a fierce fire begins to burn, with dangerous, huge tongues reaching out, all around it, but the Lord was not in the fire.  Now look at what verse 12 and 13 says,  “... and after the fire [a sound of gentle stillness and] a still, small voice.  When Elijah heard the voice, he wrapped his face in his mantle and went out and stood in the entrance of the cave. And behold, there came a voice to him and said, What are you doing here, Elijah?”   

There is nothing more important to any child of God, than hearing God’s voice whispered in our hearts.  But why do we insist on cluttering our lives with things that distract us from the very presence of God?  Why is it that all too quickly we forget Who He is to us as we allow our circumstances to overwhelm us?  I have to say, this story of Elijah strikes a chord in my heart.  It  brings me back to the essence of our faith.  To know and hear that still, small voice is what puts everything into perspective.  In an instant, every doubt and fear is washed away, and we stand before Him in a glorious vulnerability, completely surrendered to His care.  It’s a place of absolute trust and safety.  Where we know and are known.  

Perhaps it’s time to come aside from the noise and the business of things.  Even those things that appear to have Him in them, but in reality don’t.  Let’s go where we are alone, in the quite place of His presence, so that we can hear His still, small voice resonate in our spirits, and flood into every crevice of our souls.  Let Him ask the questions we need to hear, and breath the answers we seek to know.  

Much love,

Jenny