Looking back...

Genesis 19 is the story of the destruction of Sodom & Gomorrah. Once again God is not happy with the way people are living, so He has to sort it out. These cities are doing such bad things that God has lost His patience with them. However, He remembers Abraham, and so saves his nephew Lot and his family. On leaving, Lot and his family are told to go quickly and not look back. The problem occurs when Lot's wife looks back and she is turned into a pillar of salt.
How often do we look back? I'm not saying that looking back and reminiscing is bad, but if we are constantly living in the past or on past experiences then that is not living in the fullness of God.
It's great to talk about things that have happened in the past with family and friends, we all enjoy recalling things that have happened in our past, but this is not what I'm talking about. I believe if we have past hurt, or problems that we hold onto then that will stop us from living in the blessings of God.
Jesus came to the world so that we could have life in all its fullness, so if we are living in the past then that is not living life to the full. I know that some people have had terrible things happen in their past and so it would be difficult to let them go. The good news is this - with Jesus in your life then you can receive healing from a broken past.
If you are reading this today, and you have got things in your past that you still haven't dealt with, stop looking over your shoulder and give them to Jesus. He will heal, restore and allow you to move into a life full of peace, love and newness of life. Do it today - you'll never look back again!

If there are 10?

In chapter 18 of Genesis we find Abraham pleading with God to save the evil city of Sodom. This place was so bad that God had decided to get rid, but Abraham chose to stand in the gap. He pleads with God asking if God found 10 good people would He not destroy the city? God agrees that if 10 good people are found then the city would remain.
What a great story. This shows me that there is always a last chance with God. He was more than within His rights to destroy the city, but He chose to listen to Abraham and think about it before He actually did it. We will read tomorrow that in fact God didn't find anyone in the city to save, so Abraham's plea was in vain, but at least he tried!
How often do we find ourselves not praying for someone because we think they are a lost cause? How often do we not pray because we don't think God will do anything with our prayer? We need to make sure that we stand in the gap no matter what the outcome. We need to make sure that we get on our knees even though we don't really know if God will do what we ask. It's not our job to answer the prayer, its our job to pray them. Let's make sure that we stand in the gap today for someone - who knows what God will do? I know one thing for sure - if we don't pray who will?

Age doesn't matter!

As I began reading Genesis 17, it struck me that Abram at that time was 99 years old. Even in those days that was classed as OLD! However, this did not stop God making His covenant with him. God didn't look at Abram's age, He just looked at Abram's heart.
I think this is so important for us today. We so often forget about the children because we think they are too young, and we forget about our older and wiser members of our churches thinking they are too old!
This is not Kingdom building, this is not how God sees things. He calls us all young and old and everything in between to "Make disciples of all nations" It doesn't say in scripture that we only do this if we are between the ages of 18 and 65! It is a command to all of us.
We need to make sure that our children and young people have the tools to go and do, whilst we also allow our older saints to full-fill their calling too. They have been on the planet longer than us, so we need to honour them and look to them for wisdom and discernment. 
Let's make sure that we don't stop anyone from moving in their gifting. Let's equip those that need equipping and encourage those that need encouraging. God never stops anyone from doing Kingdom work - let's make sure we don't either!

What are your desires - are they Gods?

Today's reading comes from Genesis 16, and is the story of Abram and Hagai. God has already promised Abram that he will be the 'Father of Nations' BUT Sarai, his wife is in a hurry. She still has no children and so she tells Abram to take her servant girl to be his wife. Abram does as Sarai asks and so Hagai becomes pregnant with Abram's son.
How often does God say something to us and someone else will take that dream away? I know personally I've had this happen. When God says He will do something then we can stand on that promise! God will ALWAYS come through. In this passage Sarai got impatient and so wanted to move things along in her way and not in God's way.
A few years ago I really felt the Lord tell me about a bus ministry that He wanted me to start. Here I am years later and there is still no bus ministry. Now that could be because God's timing is not my timing, or it could be because someone laughed at me when I told them about it and so I got disheartened, or it could be a combination of the two. All I do know is that I have to trust in the Lord that His timing is perfect and that if He wants this to happen then it will.
If you are in a situation where God had told you something, then hold onto it; don't be disheartened when others laugh; don't loose the dream; pray into it and even get others to pray into it. God gives us the desires of our heart - that doesn't mean that He gives us what we want - it does mean that He gives His desires to us and puts them in our hearts. For me this means that God put that bus ministry in my heart, and so if that is the case then its still in the offering! 
What are the desires of your heart? What are Gods desires for you? Do they match up? Pray about it - who knows what you'll find.

God of the impossible!

On reading today's passage from Genesis 15, it's amazing to think that even though we let God down, He is still true to His word.
If we think about this story, it's the story of God revealing His covenant with Abram. In my previous blogg Abram hadn't really done the right thing, but like I said last time, we all make mistakes and God still forgives us.
We need to come to a realisation that when God tells us something then He will bring it into being - even if it seems impossible to us. Abram was promised that he would have offspring as countless as the stars. At this point in his life he didn't have any children and both he and his wife were ageing. God had promised what seemed to be the impossible, but for God nothing is impossible.
When we know this truth for ourselves it will set us free. So often we are worried about this and that and don't believe in our hearts that the situation can be changed. Our God is a  God of the impossible, our God is a God that can do more than we can ask or imagine, our God is the creator of the Universe. Let's put our trust in Him today and know that He will bring His plans and His purposes into fruition.

Mistakes - we all make them!

In Genesis 12 we find the start of Abram's journey to Canaan. God tells him to leave his father's household and go to the land of Canaan and Abram obeys without question. The problem with this story for me comes after this. Famine comes over the land and so Abram and his wife end up taking a detour to Egypt. Abram is afraid that Pharaoh will take his wife Sarai and kill him and so Abram comes up with a plan. He tells Sarai to lie and say that they are brother and sister, and that way they would both be safe.
This is obviously a lie, however, when Pharaoh finds out he is not too impressed with Abram, however he doesn't kill him but does ask him to take his wife and leave.
It's amazing to think that this man that God chooses to bless still makes mistakes. He tells a lie to save himself. We all make mistakes, we all do things that are not right, but no matter what, we have a God that loves us. God still blessed Abram, He kept His word and blessed the offspring of Abram because He'd made His covenant with Him. Abram wasn't perfect, but God looked beyond that and blessed him anyway.
I praise God that He sees beyond my weaknesses, beyond my mistakes. He loves me no matter what. That's not to say that He agrees with the things I do wrong, but He still loves me mistakes and all! He loves us all no matter what.

GOD LOVES YOU & ME SO MUCH THAT HE SENT HIS SON TO DIE!

The place of Blessing!

Terah took his son Abram, his grandson Lot son of Haran, and his daughter-in-law Sarai, the wife of his son Abram, and together they set out from Ur of the Chaldeans to go to Canaan. But when they came to Harran, they settled there. Terah lived 205 years, and he died in Harran.

This passage is found in Genesis 11 and to be honest even though I've read it many times before I didn't see this as important before today. I knew that Abram's family left Ur to go to Canaan, however I hadn't thought before that he and his family settled somewhere else first. In fact it was Abram's father that moved the family towards Canaan, but it was Abram that actually got there.
I think this story is really important to our lives today. We so often head off in the direction God wants us to go and end up settling in the comfort zone. It is so easy in our Christian walks to get complacent, to allow the comfortableness to keep us where we are, or living the way we live, or even doing what we are doing when God actually wants us to move into the land of blessing. Terah knew that Canaan was the direction to head for, he must have done, but he got to Harran and stayed put instead of moving to where God wanted the family to go. It was in fact Abram that took the move further, it was Abram that left Harran and moved to Canaan into the land of blessing and it is through Abram that God makes the covenant.
When we choose to follow God's lead and move into the place of promise, then that will be the place of blessing. We need to make sure that we don't settle for second best, just because its comfortable doesn't mean that it's the place that God wants us to be in. We need to make sure that we move with God and not stay still in the places that man puts us.