The Rainbow

Genesis 9:13-17
I do set my bow in the cloud, and it shall be for a token of a covenant between me and the earth.
And it shall come to pass, when I bring a cloud over the earth, that the bow shall be seen in the cloud:
And I will remember my covenant, which is between me and you and every living creature of all flesh; and the waters shall no more become a flood to destroy all flesh
And the bow shall be in the cloud, and I will look upon it, that I may remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is upon the earth.
And God said unto Noah. This is the token of the covenant, which I have established between me and all flesh that is upon the earth.


The Rainbow is such a beautiful thing to behold and as a Christian is a constant reminder of the covenant God made with Noah and all his seed not to destroy the earth again with a flood.
I saw a rainbow some time ago on the way home and I hope I can explain clearly what the Lord seemed to show me at the time.

Normally when I see a rainbow I can make out that bow shape as it blends perfectly into the sky but this time the beautiful colours of the rainbow just seemed to go straight up into the clouds, which were very low, the colours went straight up and the cloud just covered the top part of the rainbow so I was unable to see anything else, it was blurred to my sight.
I always feel blessed to see a rainbow and this was no exception, but the Lord showed me it in a different way today.
As I looked at the rainbow I was reminded of my sin. If there is sin in my life then I miss the whole of God's blessing. My sin covers and blurrs the blessing that the Lord wants to bestow upon me and I can't see all of what He has in store for my life.
Today, looking into the sky I saw the rainbow as God's blessing and the cloud as my sin. In order for me to be able to receive the full extent of the blessings the Lord has in store for my life, I had to let the wind of the spirit blow the clouds away.
I am so thankful that my sin has been covered; covered by the precious blood of the Lamb. Covered because my Saviour was obedient to death on a cross. What a wonderful Saviour.
Sometimes it just takes something so simple and so beautiful for the Lord to show us something so deep and I praise and thank him for his covenant blessing - The Rainbow.

A Clay Centred Life

Jeremiah 18: The word which came to Jeremiah from the LORD saying, arise, and go down to the potter's house, and there I will cause thee to hear my words ... I used to think this passage of scripture was to do with making something beautiful out of nothing but a piece of dirt - until I went to pottery classes some years ago and tried the potters wheel.
I picked up a piece of clay and put it onto the wheel but as I started the wheel and tried to shape it, the clay went everywhere. Then the teacher came to help.
First of all she said I had to place the clay onto the wheel, not forcefully but enough to help it stick and so we lightly wet the wheel and placed the clay.
Next I had to centre the clay. Now believe it or not that was the hardest part, but while I was trying to centre the clay I got a real spiritual sense of that is what we had to do with the Christian life.

First and foremost we must centre our life on Christ. He must come before everything else - our family, friends, things we watch on TV. Everything we do must be for his glory. If what you're watching on TV doesn't glorify God if you're somewhere you think you can't take Jesus with you, well you shouldn't be there. I'll be honest with you, there are times when I'm asked out to someone's leaving party from work and they are going to the pub. I really don't want to go - why? because I can't take Jesus with me. Oh I know Jesus went into the homes of sinners and sat with those who were prostitutes, drinkers - but he always told it like it was. He told them of their need to repent, in other words he told them of their need of Christ and well, I'm not sure I could do that in a pub full of unbelievers, and not when they are not sober, so I'd rather not go;

When you try to centre clay it really is one of the hardest things to do. You need a great deal of persuasion to get that lump of clay to do what you want. You need gentle but firm pressure to move the clay and again I found that was me. Jesus needed to gently but firmly persuade me to be in the place where I could make him centre of my life. I'd sometimes say something that wasn't right (call someone names) and you know God's words would tell me 'do everything in love'. If you can't say anything nice about a person, then don't say anything at all. I'm still learning that today and the Lord is still gently but firmly persuading me to be in the centre of his will - to do what he wants me to and not what I want and 1 Peter 1:15 reminds me to be 'holy in all manner of conversation' ... So when I start to gossip about someone or start to say something I shouldn't then the Holy Spirit gives me a nudge and tells me not to do it.
Once the clay is centred you can start to shape it. Now, I've seen master potters at work and it looks so easy to take hold of the clay and to draw it up and shape it into a vase or a jug - but it isn't easy - once you start to bring the clay up it seems to take on a life of its own.
If you go too fast the clay comes apart in your hands ..
If you put too much water on it starts to flop all over the place and you end up with a soggy mess
And well, it's a bit like us really. If we try to go too fast as new Christians things can overtake us. We need to grow at the right speed, reading our bibles daily and praying continuously (1 Thess 5:17).
We start off the Christian life as babes, taking in spiritual milk 'as new born babes, desire the sincere milk of the word that ye may grow thereby' (1Pet 2:1-3). But then we grow into taking the meat of the word. We grow gradually and this helps us not to fall.
When the clay flops or falls over the potter can pick it up, put it together and start all over again and if we fall we can pick ourselves up and allow Jesus to put us together again so he can continue to shape us.
If we allow Jesus to be the centre of our life, if we are obedient and walk in the centre of his will, he will continue to mould and shape us to be the person he wants us to be.
The portion of scripture in Jeremiah was a warning to the people of Judah that once the potter has made his pot there is a point that it dries hard and if it is broken the potter can't reshape it - it's past the stage of being moulded. Jeremiah was to break the vessel the potter had made to show that the Lord would break the people and the city.
Maybe we can think on this too - there may come a time when that will happen to those who heard God saying repent, turn away from your sin, what you know to be wrong and follow me. Those who hear this message and do nothing about it might just be like the pot that was broken, they remain unmouldable, unmoveable, they can't be put back together and reshaped - they refused to listen to the word and to do anything to change their life and to follow Jesus.
I'm reminded of how God chose David, a man after his own heart to be anointed King and God also wants us to be a people after his own heart and if you don't know the Lord as your Saviour, don't refuse to listen. Repent and turn to him now and let him mould and shape your life until you grow into the likeness of Christ.
And as Christians we need to make sure Christ IS the centre of our life and we will then be in the centre of his will.

Oh that men would know him

Ps 24 - The earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof: the world, and they that dwell therein.
A passage of scripture I so easily forget. I know I am a child of God because of my salvation but this verse is telling me the whole world is the Lords. Not just the creature comforts of lush greenery, blue skies, turquoise seas, food in the fields but those who dwell there and that means me and you - everyone in the world. We are the Lords - and what a wonderful place it would be if everyone took that on board.If everyone looked at scripture and saw the goodness and mercy of God.
We were made in his image, to have fellowship with him but sin entered the world, man became disobedient and so it goes on today. Oh that men would look to the Lord, He that came down and dwelt among us; He that was obedient while here on earth, obedient even to death on the cross; Making a way for man to draw closer to his maker and fellowship once more with him.
Who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord? or who shall stand in his holy place? David asks;
He that has repented of sin and accepted the Lord Jesus Christ, who now can stand with clean hands and a pure heart before the throne of God, clothed in the righteousness of the our great and wonderful Saviour Jesus Christ.

Psalm 24:
The earth is the Lord's and the fulness thereof: the world and they that dwell therein.For he hath founded it upon the seas, and established it upon the floods.
Who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord? or who shall stand in his holy place?He that hath clean hands, and a pure heart; who hath not lifted up his soul unto vanity, nor sworn deceitfully.
He shall receive the blessing from the Lord, and righteousness from the God of his salvation.This is the generation of them that seek him, that seek thy face, O Jacob Selah.
Lift up your heads, O ye gates, and be ye lift up, ye everlasting door: and the King of glory shall come in.
Who is this King of glory? The Lord strong and mighty, the Lord mighty in battle.
Lift up your heads O ye gates; even lift them up ye everlasting doors; and the King of glory shall come in,Who is this King of glory? The Lord of hosts, he is the King of glory. Selah.

Yes, Jesus Loves Me

I do love blogging and intend getting on here more often but for now I'll share some of the things I've written over on the KJV blog for those who don't manage to get on over there.
The first one I've chosen is what happened a few weeks ago and although it's as if it was last week it was actually at the beginning of May.

Jesus loves me this I know, for the bible tells me so
Little ones to him belong, they are weak but he is strong
Yes, Jesus loves me, Yes, Jesus loves me,
Yes, Jesus loves me, the bible tells me so.

Jesus loves me he who died, heavens gates to open wide,
He will wash away my sin, let this little child come in.
Yes, Jesus loves me, Yes, Jesus loves me,
Yes, Jesus loves me, the bible tells me so.

For the last 6 years I have sung this song to my grandchildren. Firstly to Ben who is now 6, then Tom who is 3 and to Livvy who has just turned 1. I have been blessed to see my grandchildren grow up in a Christian home and today I just wanted to share with you that last week Ben asked Jesus into his heart.

This 6 year old aways asks me to sing to him and when I say OK he always asks for Jesus loves me. We sang it last week when I was babysitting and he wanted to ask Jesus into his heart. He said a very simple prayer and then asked me to tell his dad to go upstairs. He told his dad he'd asked Jesus into his heart and then he told his mum.

For quite a while Ben had been unkind to his younger brother and wouldn't let him play with his toys or share anything but since last week in his mum's words 'I can't believe how lovely Ben has been. He's been sharing with his brother and playing really nice with him and he has been so lovely to Livvy' - what a change in a young boys life.

I was babysitting at the beginning of the week and he said to me 'Nana, I feel different since I asked Jesus in my heart'. Out of the mouth of babes.

Tonight he was in trouble because he'd told a lie and it really upset him. He'd started crying and didn't know why but had to say sorry to his dad and then to Jesus before he felt better again.
I didn't have anything challenging to bring you this time but hope you are blessed knowing how a young boy can change when the love of Jesus enters his heart.