Preaching with a purpose

I am a very happy and contented person, but once I had terrible trouble with depression. Actually I am mildly bi-polar. I didn't mind the highs at all, but the lows were awful. I needed lithium bicarbonate to help me. I have taken it for twenty four years and have never looked back. Sometimes we need treatment to help us but sometimes we have just got our lives in a mess and we need help from our Creator. Bring your troubles to Jesus. There may be things in your life, almost certainly, that need forgiving. You may need to forgive someone else. Holding a grudge against someone is probably doing you more harm than it is doing them. Let it go. Sometimes we can't forgive ourselves and we carry a big burden around with us, what they call baggage nowadays. You need to lay that baggage at the cross. What a pity when Jesus went to the cross for us if we won't let him do his job and forgive us. You can't pull yourself up by your bootlaces, you need help. Let him hel...

I prayed for rain because the farmers need it. Rain came. Should I be surprized? Of course not. God is a prayer answering God. Try it and see. He won't give you things that are bad for you. He might take a long time to answer. You see God is in eternity and He is not restricted by time as we are. So God may answer at once in eternity, but you may have to travel quite a time to reach that answer. But it will be well worth waiting for.God cares about you and me. He won't let us down.

I love this game. It brings out the best in people. They have to acquire skill and enjoy the results, but they also have to be prepared to make fools of themselves when concentration slips and the wood slips too. We all love it when life goes smoothly and hate it when things keep going wrong. It's difficult to keep calm when life is throwing problems your way. It's at times like this when it is good to have a friend to stand by you. None better than Jesus.

I wonder how many people think, "Poor old Liz, messed up two marriages and now she's living all on her own in a flat." Sounds awful doesn't it. However it's not like that at all. I've never been so happy. It could be disaster, it sounds like disaster, but one person makes the difference - God, as seen in Jesus. The one who is appalled by my sin also loves me so much that he has died for me and has forgiven me and given me a very worthwhile life. Part of that life is writing to you now, telling you how wonderful He is, because I want you to find his love too. If He can still love me when I've broken His command telling me not to commit adultery, then He can also forgive anything you have done. If you are broken down under the weight of your wrong doing, if you hate it, you are in just the right frame of mind to want to come to Jesus and have that burden rolled away from you for ever. I was a committed christian when I went wrong. You would think that was un...

Some people brush aside the writings of Paul and do not spend time trying to figure out what he is saying. If you do this you are dismissing a huge part of our Bible. That doesn't sound like a good idea to me. Let's look at Paul and see if he sounds like the sort of person worth listening to. He was a Jew, the son of a pharisee ( a religious leader) and became a pharisee and was considered very learned at a young age. He was dedicated to wiping out the new christian religion but then had a dramatic resurrection encounter with Jesus and his life was turned around. After spending three years alone thinking through the implications of christianity he began his missionary journeys to both Jews and gentiles throughout the Roman Empire. During this time he showed his tenacity and determination to spread the gospel in suffering stoning, beating and imprisonment, and surviving several ship wrecks. This man obviously believed wholly in the gospel he was preaching. Surely we can put...

It's a wonderful thing, Jesus came so that anybody who believes in him gets eternal life. How do I know? It says so in the Bible, John 3 v 16 "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life." There it is in black and white and that includes you. Now eternal life isn't just something you get after you die, it's a special quality of life here and now. You are free in Jesus and not trapped in society's world. Yes, you are still a part of society but you are not a slave anymore to making money and keeping up with fashion and chasing after fame. You are free to live Christ's way, which is the better way.Do tell me what you think of this. I love to discuss these things. I've been a christian since I was seven, but I've also gone through two broken marriages, so I'm no goody-two-shoes who will look down on you. If you have problems in your life you are just the sor...

Another day is done and all the little rechargeable batteries are going to their beds to stock up energy for another day tomorrow. Have you ever thought of yourself as a rechargeable battery. Try going without sleep and you will soon find out that's what you are. Sleep is a mystery to us. We understand very little about it; we just know we need it. Some people need less, some more. I am mildly bi-polar so my sleep patterns vary more than some people's. As I am retired and living on my own I can go with the flow. This morning I got up at 5.30 a.m. just because I felt wide awake. It's not that surprizing on a light summer morning. I can catch up on my sleep as I want. It's not so easy if you have a partner or a family to consider. Recently it was suspected I had Sleep Apnoea, you can find out if I did or not at this link Me and Sleep Apnea

Lord, why is life so difficult sometimes? In the past my life was difficult. I thank you that now it is very pleasant. But what of others who are coping with terrible loss. How can I help them? I must be a listening ear for them. Make me patient to listen and not to be taken up with my own concerns. May I be slow to give an answer, so that they have time to find their own answer. Their own answer will fit their needs so much better than mine. In their answer may they find your answer Lord. Amen This is taken from my squidoo page as follows A prayer for every day see here for more prayers

When the day is done and darkness has closed in around the house, it is good to sit and ponder over the days events. How many of the things we have done have been planned, and how many just happened to us? We never know what is around the corner, good or bad and truly it is best not to know, for strength will be given at the right time. We would decrease our strength with worry if we knew what hard things were coming our way. Some things are indeed hard to bear, but bear them we do and come through them to better days. Don't ask to know the future, leave it in God's hands, trust Him and He will bring you through it to the better days.

It's good when June turns out like this, lovely sun, blue skies and a cool breeze. It makes you thankful. It is amazing how a bit of sunshine really lifts our spirits. Though a grey day can be very restful. The sun makes us want to be up and doing like the animals in The Wind in the Willows. I've had a good day, short mat indoor bowling at 10 a.m. followed by lunch. Then I tackled the assignment of unit 12 of Faith and Worship, the course I'm doing to become a local preacher with the Methodist Church. When I start these assignments I feel as if I will never master them, but so far I always have so I take comfort from the previous one. Unit 11 was a terror to get to grips with but now is happily in the past. I also played piano with a youngster and then did my shopping in the town near where she lives. Back home to meet a friend and then more of unit 12. A very satisfying day. What was your day like, do tell me?

When we lose a loved one it is natural to wonder how they are faring in the next life. I would warn against going to a medium to find out. At worst these people are charlatans after your money, the rest misguided or worse. We are told in the Bible not to try to reach the dead. The best person to call on in this situation is Jesus. That's right, go to the top. He is always available through prayer and doesn't make a charge. All he requires is that you look for him with all your heart. He has the answers to all of life's difficult questions.

Isn't it amazing we spend a third of our lives asleep. With me it's almost half. We all dream but some of us don't think we do. I am very aware of my dreams and used to be able to recount them in the morning. Now I still am aware of my dreams but they "fly forgotten" in the morning, as the hymn says. Our dreams are affected by our state of mind. Jacob, in the Bible had a fantastic dream of seeing a ladder going up to heaven with angels going up and down on it and God at the top. Jacob was running away from trouble at the time. God promised to be with him and bring him home again. You can read more about Jacob on this link Interesting Bible People: Jacob

People who have inherited illnesses or health problems are more and more being given the chance to check if their unborn child has inherited a disease or not. They may then be given the chance to have an abortion. The thinking is that these children will not have quality of life and should be spared the problems. I think it is worth thinking about the quality of life. Someone who will have Huntingdon's chorea, a terrible illness, can however have a perfectly happy childhood and some time that is good in adult life. Is not this time worth having? I recently met someone with restricted sight who had felt very badly about passing on the problem to her sons; but they assured her they would rather have had the good life they had had so far, even with the prospect of poor sight ahead of them. I was shocked that people should be encouraged to abort children with this problem. Maybe it is the government who do not want to provide help for the disabled. This life is a learning ground. It is...

How good it is to have friends. Someone you can depend upon, someone who knows you well and excuses your faults and stays with you and helps where they can. In return you do the same for them. Sometimes one friend and sometimes lots of friends together enjoying some shared pastime. Conversely how dreadful to be without a friend at all. Some people just do not have the knack of making friends and keeping them. Alone they stagger through this world. There is one friend who will be a constant friend to anyone who accepts him. His name is Jesus. With this friend's company you can cope without the others; but with this friend's company you will soon learn how to make more. For hints on making friends read this Making friends and keeping them

Wow, you say that's a big topic for such a little woman. Indeed it is and of course, I don't have an easy answer. I have a friend who is developing Alzeimer's. She is my age, 63. Why is it happening to her and not to me ( so far)? Well she is certainly not a bigger sinner than I am. I probably deserve it more than she does if these things are deserved, which I think not. It is true that sin as an entity has entered our world and spoilt it and this affects all of us in some way or another, chiefly in the deterioration of our bodies so that we die. My friend is not suffering for anything she has done wrong, but because of that original disobedience of Adam and Eve. That original act has had repercussions for us all down through history.

Alcohol in moderation is a pleasure for many people. For whatever reason I do not enjoy the stuff at all. True I was brought up teetotal but in adulthood tried various drinks but found I really preferred a good old J2O mango and apple. However this has not made me judgmental in my attitude to those who have problems with alcohol. It seems to me that these people have had some great problem or sadness in their lives and have turned to alcohol to try to drown out the pain, only to find that they then have another problem to live with. I explore this in my poetry and look at help available in this web page The Drunk

Where does selfishness get you? Well it might get you lots of "things" but it will also get you a lot of indignation from other people and not many will want to stick around and put up with you. On the other hand if you can learn to do a bit of sharing and lend a helping hand, things will be much better. Co-operation is a happy thing that spreads happiness. At one of the weekly clubs I attend there is one person who never helps with the washing up; their reward is that no one likes them much. With just a little bit of joining in things would be so much better. May be those of us who join in are the really selfish ones; we know how to make the system work for us.

Today I missed the morning service(I was not taking it) because I had a friend call me to say she had toothache and could I take her to the city twenty miles away to get treatment. Obviously I said "yes." So instead of a quiet hour contemplating the word of God with like minded folk I was driving and wondering where I would park and where exactly the dentist was. Instead of contemplating, I was putting the word of God into action, by loving my neighbour. Would God have been pleased if I had said, "I can't take you, I have to go to church." No, He would not have been pleased. I once knew of a farmer who if his cattle got into someone else's field on a Sunday, he would refuse to go and move them. Of course, he was getting a free feed for them at someone else's expense. He brought christians into disrepute by that action. It is easy to make excuses not to help our neighbour that look as if we are doing something good, but God sees through our duplicity...

If you've never done it before, where do you start to learn to pray? Prayer isn't about saying special formulas, it's about being real about your situation and letting God listen in. In my squidoo lens given at the bottom of this post you will find the first prayer is very simple in its approach to God. God wants us to be honest and truthful with him about how things are going for us. He doesn't want long words and flowery phrases, he wants you to tell it like it is. Tell him how you feel, when you can tell no one else. He will listen and in his own way answer, but you may have to wait a while and trust. Some of my prayers have taken decades to be answered,and sometimes in strange ways, but I am happier now than I have ever been. A prayer for every day

This afternoon in the car I thought of something to say here. I've forgotten what it was. So instead I'll tell you what it's like to be forgetful. I'm sixty-three and fairly with it but there are definite signs of aging. Of course, I don't run much, except up the corridor to get to the phone. I can walk well and since losing a stone in weight I find it much easier to turn over in bed. I always have had memory lapses all my life and have developed a way of thinking through the alphabet to try to find the first letter of a word or name to trigger the memory. My mother in her later years used to describe the phenomenon of not being able to find a word, as being like a washing line passing in front of her with the word on it, but if she didn't grab it quickly it was gone. It's a funny feeling knowing what you mean but being unable to bring it out of your mouth. This must be a tiny bit like the problems stroke victims have. We all come to it sooner or late...

What could be nicer at the end of the day than a nice comforting cup of hot chocolate? I'm on a diet but this has to be fitted in to the scheme of things. There is nothing quite like it even with skimmed milk. I'm sipping some now. Now I wouldn't give you tuppence for a slice of chocolate cake, in fact I would much rather have coffee cake. I also hate chocolate flavoured ice cream. I do like chocolate in a bar and also chocolates in a box, but for some reason drinking chocolate really hits the spot. Find out about the diet I am using here Lose weight like me

So what would you like the church to be like? It's not a good idea for a building to be there just for Sundays, what a waste. We're hoping to have lots of meetings that people will want to attend. Of course everyone is always welcome at the Sunday service. I think coffee mornings where people can meet in the daytime in the week and just relax and have a chatter, are a good thing. Maybe we could sometimes do a light lunch too. We could have craft sessions where people could meet and swap skills. Maybe we could have sessions to help silver surfers understand their laptops. Also something for the children. This sounds like part of a thriving community. This looks like part of the way forward.

We had a meeting to decide whether to replace the pews with nice padded chairs. That might sound trivial but it's not about the comfort of the few of us who attend services; it's about making the space a suitable place for the whole community to use. We have other things that need doing, for instance the roof needs to be repaired thoroughly. There are only a few of us but some of the money needed will be given to us if we can show how willing we are to work together to involve the whole village community. Some of those few members are quite elderly, but with their encouragement those of us who are a little younger can move forward. We have plans for fund raising, these include an exhibition of wedding dresses later in the summer. Two of the older members were very loathe to see the pews go but realise it has to be if the building is to be available for other uses as well. Read more about our church in here A little Methodist chapel in Devon, England

This morning I took a service. The Bible readings were about Elijah, by God's power, raising from death to life, a widow's son; and the other reading about Jesus raising a widow's son. These were indeed wonderful miracles, but we do not have Elijah and Jesus physically with us today. The number of people raised in the Bible is, I think under 10. So how do we cope when tragedy strikes? As christians we believe in God's goodness and love, so why does he allow such terrible things to happen to us? We do not have answers. When these things happen to a person they will often say, " I must have done something bad." I'm sure you have heard people say that. However we never say that about someone else, we always reassure them that that is not the case. It does not work like that and often the nicest of people suffer the most. I do not understand this but I do believe that God is in control, but at the same time that God is good and loves us. He does not ask us to ...

This is the question of all of us when we heaar of events like those in Cumbria England on Thursday. Why should an ordinary man, a taxi driver, kill his twin brother and several other people by shooting them in the open air as he drove forty five miles in Cumbria. Yes, he had problems with money, but what is at the root of such an event. You see it isn't unique, is it? We had the Hungerford massacre a few years ago and in Scotland the Dunblane tragedy. Also killings like this in the States. It seems to me that anyone is capable of an act like this given the right, or wrong circumstances. We have this dark side to our nature that leaves us open to do horrid things. That's why Jesus came so that we could be rescued from this dark side. But you have to want to be rescued. Do you want to be rescued? For more on the events in Cumbria A thought for each day

Today I played violin with my partially sighted friend. This is good because it keeps my playing ticking over, because otherwise I don't pick my violin up in the week.We played the violin parts of a Dvorak quartet. Last week we played Mozart and that seemed more complete with two parts missing than the Dvorak did. Anyway it was fun. Next I drove about five miles to meet my sister, in a canal side pub. We were joined by two cousins and their wives and the teenage daughter of one of them. I have only seen these cousins twice before. We had a meal and a good chat and swapped family stories. Then we had a short walk by the canal and saw coots and a moorhen, the one in the picture. What a lovely simple day.

Worship isn't about being in a special building or singing hymns or saying set prayers. It's about sincerity and truth and speaking to God from your spirit. Although I think coming together to worship God is important I also think that it is that individual praising each day of the week that matters most. Jesus said in spirit and in truth was more important than where. I don't want us to turn into hermits but I do want to encourage you to get alone with God on a regular basis and open yourself to Him in Jesus. We cannot grow if we are not close to our maker.

We spend our days filling our ears with distracting noise. Some of it is good, like beautiful music, or popular music with songs, the words of which make us think about life and what it is all about.How much silence do you have in your life? And if you have silence do you fill it with worry, so that your inner condition is as noisy as a train going past. Where can we find peace? I believe it can be found in trusting in Jesus. All those bad things we have done can be forgiven in him. I am not a goody, goody who has never done anything wrong. I have hurt people in my life and regret it. I did it even though I already knew Jesus.To find the peace that Jesus gives, you need to set aside time to think about him and realise he is there with you as you think. This will turn into prayer. If you look for him with all your heart you will find him and his peace.Take a look at this web page of mine A prayer for every day

Do you find second-hand books irrestible? I was at a church fete yesterday and this is really one of the best places to get books. They start off at 50p each, but as the afternoon wears on the price goes down to 10p. After that they are almost paying you to take them away. I am not a great reader and still have plenty of books at home, but I just can't resist some classis such as, Thomas Hardy's tales from Wessex, Abbe Provost Manon Lescaut, some Kafka and Salinger's The Catcher in the Rye. I got those at 10p each. I would give up the computer for a week but I'm committed to several daily comments like this and I fear the world would stop without my pearls of wisdom. Are you a hoarder of books? See my thoughts for the day on this Squidoo lens A thought for each day