Right Place, Right Time


Read John 5:1-15

When Jesus saw him and knew how long he had been ill, he asked him, "Would you like to get well?" Vs 6

People often speak about being “in the right place at the right time” – someone gets a promotion at work, free tickets to a show, being “discovered” as a performer, or perhaps meeting a significantly influential person through whom the course of their life is changed. Others may refer to them as “divine appointments”.

The man in this story certainly had a divine appointment which changed his life. He’d had a disability for 38 years which made it necessary for him to need help in moving around. When Jesus came upon him one day he asked him an odd question. “Do you want to be made well?” It would seem obvious that he did, otherwise why would he have taken the trouble to be there. Perhaps that is why the man felt it unnecessary to answer with a “Yes of course I do!” He merely explained his problem – “I have no one to help me to the water when the healing power is there.”

I believe that this man was there hoping that some kind person would take pity on him and help him to get to the healing waters. He had taken the trouble to put himself in “the right place”. In doing that, he found himself in the place where Jesus was – the place of healing. For him it was the right place at the right time and he received the healing he had come for, his divine appointment. But it didn’t quite come in the way he had expected and hoped for it.

Not only is it important for us to put ourselves in the right place for our needs to be met, but to me, this story also points to the need for us to be aware of those we meet who need to be helped a little closer to the place of getting their needs met. We may just be their divine appointment. Jesus may want them to encounter Him through our care and concern. For this to happen we need to be speaking to people with genuine love and care. Being interested in them and gently offering help where we think it may be needed. People may sit in church and never ask to be prayed for, but if someone shows an interest in them and a genuine loving concern, they may begin to share their needs and then be open to an offer such as – “would you like me to pray with you about that?”

Let us follow Jesus’ example and be proactive in our caring, always walking in sensitivity and genuine love towards others (Romans 12:9).

Prayer: Lord God, help me to genuinely care about the needs of the people I meet, especially those whom I meet in church. May I not presume that they don’t need a helping hand. Please let me recognise divine appointments where I can make a difference. Amen

Leftovers


This is the day which the Lord has made; we will rejoice and be glad in it. Psalm 118:24


My friend Barbara is a great cook. She whips things up so fast and they taste so good. She definitely has the gift of hospitality and I have enjoyed many weeks in her home over the past few years. During those times I have come to know one of her weekly rituals; it usually happens on a Friday night and it’s called “kitchen cleanup”! No, she doesn’t get us all scrubbing and polishing, but rather we get to eat all the leftovers from the last few nights’ dinners. Great fun, and a good way for the cook to have a night off.

Leftovers in this context are fine, but sadly it can happen that we often only give the leftovers of our lives to our families and to God. In Hong Kong where I live, it is not unusual to see business people, men and women, coming home to their families quite late at night; such is the expectation of commerce in Hong Kong. I have spoken to mothers of young children who rarely see their children during the week apart from to kiss them goodnight as they sleep, because they are often leaving home before the children are awake and return home after they are in bed.

Often in our busy lives we only give the leftovers of our lives to God, if we can fit Him in at all. The truth is that any relationship, husband to wife, parent to child, friend to friend and people to God, requires quality time spent together.

In the Old Testament God set a standard for the way people should relate to Him. They were to honour Him with the first of their flocks as an offering and they were to set aside the first fruits of their crops for His purposes. When Jesus, our example, walked the earth he took time early in the day to spend time with his Heavenly Father before He went out to minister to the crowds. The psalmist wrote in Psalm 63:1 “Early will I seek you.” They gave the first part of their day to God. This is not the only acceptable time to seek the Lord, He is pleased whenever we come to Him. However to give Him back the first part of our day seems to me to be a good way of saying “thank you for the gift of this day”. I have discovered that unless I set aside those ‘first fruits’ of my day for God, that He invariably only gets the leftovers which is never quite the same.

By the way, my friend Barbara has also been a great example to me in this. She leads a busy life of counselling and ministry and early every morning she is up with her coffee, her Bible and her journal. She doesn’t give God her leftovers, but rather, the best part of her day!

Prayer: Lord God, every day of my life is a gift from Your hand. Help me to seek your guidance as to how best to use it to please and glorify You. Amen

In The Moment


In this moment Lord, I stand
Confused
Grieved
Overwhelmed
Exhausted
Wondering how I got here
And more importantly –
How I can escape!
It seems too much for me to bear
Too difficult
Too painful
Too scary
Too lonely.
Yet in my heart, deep down
Buried somewhere under all of the stress,
There is the knowledge that I am not alone
Although it mostly feels like I am!
I feel that no one really understands this pain
But you do, Lord, and You have said….
“I will never leave you nor forsake you”
“My strength is made perfect in your weakness”
“I am the God of all comfort”
“Come to me all you who labour under heavy burdens,
And I will give you rest.”
Yes, Lord, You are in my moment
I will live in it with You.
You will give it meaning and purpose
You will give me hope that this too will pass.

In this moment I receive
Your peace
Your comfort
Your hope
Your strength
And I will live this moment
In the knowledge that You love me
And walk beside me every moment
Because you have promised –
“I am with you always- even to the end of the age.”
As I make you the Lord of this moment
I am released to thank You and give You praise.

Scriptures used: Hebrews 13:5; 2 Corinthians 12:9; 2 Corinthians 1:3; Matthew 11:28 & 20

Blown Away

That we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine……. Ephesians 4:14

As soon as I walked into the kitchen late the other night I knew there was something wrong. When I’d left earlier in the evening there had been a white sheer curtain hanging on an extending rod in the window, now there was a bare black space! I guessed that my dear husband, a ‘fresh air fanatic’, had taken the rare opportunity in the Hong Kong summer to open some windows and let a cooling breeze run through the apartment, and the curtain had been a ‘victim’ of the breeze.

I was right! Early next morning I put my head out the window and there, eight floors below, on the top of the covered walkway that runs between our building and the next tower block, lay my curtain, rod and all. How could this have happened? The day before a swarm of contractors had been through our flat and removed every window (all at once), to drill more holes in order to re-hang them with extra rivets to prevent a window from crashing to the ground far below and causing grievous bodily harm to some innocent passer-by, as has been known to happen. After they left I had rehung the kitchen curtain, and in doing so I had obviously not made sure that the rod was securely extended to give it the strength it needed to withstand the breeze that had come through that evening.

As I considered this little event it caused me to think that it is possible for us to be like my curtain and become blown away by the winds that blow through our lives at various times. The scripture above speaks about being “tossed to and fro” by various doctrines that cause confusion. Paul is teaching about the need for the growth in maturity of believers in the church, and the various gifts God has given to the church to make maturity a reality. It is important for new believers to be firmly attached to a body of believers (a church) in order to ‘grow up in Christ in all things’ (vs 15). In this passage we see that we need to become mature in our faith, learning how to put off the old ways of our former life when we did not know Christ, and to exchange those ways for behaviour that is worthy of our Lord Jesus Christ (vs 1 – 13).

Growing and maturing as a Christian is a process. It doesn’t happen all at once, and it does not usually happen without our being trained by those whom God has appointed and gifted in the church to help us grow. Being in fellowship with other more mature believers and learning from them will keep us safe from false doctrine. In the process of growth we learn to put our spiritual roots down deep, through our growing understanding of God’s word, so that we become established and strong like a healthy tree. We can read about such trees in Psalm 1 and Jeremiah 17:8.

How strong is your attachment to a body of believers? Are you securely established in fellowship which will keep you ‘on the right track’ spiritually? If not you are probably not growing and maturing as you should be which leaves you vulnerable when the winds of life blow. Your roots may not be strong enough to hold you firm.

Prayer: Heavenly Father, help me to grow and mature in a healthy way, to allow my roots to go down deep into the soil of your word so that I may be established for the times of trial that come upon me. Amen

Restoration


When Job prayed for his friends the Lord restored his fortunes.
Job 42:10

One of the hardest things we probably have to do as Christians is to forgive those who sin against us – especially those who have wrongfully accused us. Job knew what it was like to suffer the pain and humiliation of losing everything, through no fault of his own. He was a good man, faithful to God in every way, so much so that God trusted him to go through the most awful testing, knowing that he would remain faithful. That is a very difficult thing for us to understand, but it happened. Because it happened before, it is quite possible that it still happens today!

People, good people, do suffer incredibly hard things at times. They may fall prey to sickness or disease, they may lose a child or a beloved spouse before time, they may lose their money, job or even their good reputation.

Job’s friends assumed that his problems were a result of his sin and that God was judging or punishing him. How wrong they were! When Job finally came through his trials with his faith still strong, God spoke angrily to Job’s friends for wrongly accusing and judging Job and adding to his misery. He then told them to prepare a sacrifice and go to Job and ask Job to pray for them to be forgiven. Another test for Job! He prayed for his friends and look what happened. The Lord restored his fortunes and gave him twice as much as he’d had before.

Forgiveness releases God’s blessing in our lives in a way that we can’t really understand, but we know it is true. On the other hand unforgiveness will block the blessing of God every time. This is good incentive for us to walk in love and be very willing to quickly forgive those who sin against us. We surely don’t want anything in our lives that will stop God’s blessing from coming to us.

In what we call “The Lord’s Prayer” Jesus taught us to pray “forgive us our sins, as we forgive those who sin against us.” (Matthew 6:12). At that end of that prayer Jesus goes a step further. He tells us (vs 15) that if we will not forgive others then God cannot forgive us. Mmmmm…. Now that’s food for thought!

Prayer: Heavenly Father, thank you that your way is the way of blessing. Help me to receive your grace to forgive those who hurt me so that nothing blocks the forgiveness and blessing that you have for me. Amen

Spirit


Though our bodies are dying, our spirits are being renewed every day.
2 Corinthians 4:16

I was amused to read a joke recently of a father and child walking along the beach when suddenly they came upon a dead seagull on the sand. “What happened to this bird?” the little boy asked. “He died and went to heaven,” said the father. “Then why did God throw him back?” asked the child.

In that little boy’s thinking the body was the bird – he didn’t get the idea of the spirit (if birds have one!), being separate from the body. Our body is just our ‘earth suit’ as one preacher puts it. It is the ‘house’ our spirit lives in for our time on this earth. The essence of my real self lives on forever, because I am a spirit created in the image of God, who is a spirit.

When our spirit becomes alive to God at salvation we begin what is intended to be a wonderful journey of growth, preparing us for eternal life with Him. We are in the process of being changed into the likeness of our Lord Jesus Christ. As the Spirit of the Lord works within us, we become more and more like him and reflect his glory even more. 2 Corinthians 3:18.

How do we do that? As we begin to spend time in prayer and reading the Bible we learn how to become His disciple. We have to make time to develop our spirit in the same way that we make time to care for our bodies. The care of our spirit is equally as important as the care of our body. It can be done in many ways. Taking time to be quiet and just to “be” is one way. Being in God’s presence and thinking of His love for us and His acceptance of us is very healing and refreshing. Reading and meditating on God’s word is vital food for our spirit man. Worshiping God with music also quietens and restores our spirit. Prayer, talking to God is also important. This is how we have a relationship with God, telling Him our hopes, dreams, desires, needs and seeking His wisdom on decisions. Our spirit needs food in the same way our body does. To grow and stay strong we need to feed on God’s word. Jesus said, “Man shall not live only by bread, but by every word that comes from God.” Luke 4:4.

You can nurture your spirit in an irregular, haphazard way, but it will be much more healthy and satisfying for you to do it daily. God is always ready to meet you. Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. James 4:8. Don’t hesitate, just come to Him.

Prayer: Thank you, dear Father, that you are only a breath away. Help me to recognize my spirit’s hunger for Your presence and your word and to take time to refuel with you. Amen

The Tree

"I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. If anyone does not remain in me, he is like a branch that is thrown away and withers;
John 15:5-6

It doesn’t happen very often, but when it does I usually know it is God. This morning just before I woke I ‘saw’ a picture of a tree. It was a picture in my mind, not a vision, but all the same, it was very clear. It was a nice regular shaped tree; tallish, slightly rounded, with a short trunk, somewhat similar to a poplar tree only a little rounder. The thing about this tree was that on one side of it was a large branch that looked like it had been pulled down but not broken off. It was still attached to the tree but the top of the branch was resting on the ground.

The most obvious thing about this branch was that although it was still attached to the tree, it was quite obvious that no life-giving sap from the tree was flowing into this branch because it’s leaves were brown and dried to a crisp! Mmmm….. food for thought!

I wondered what caused that branch to be broken in the first place and a few possibilities entered my head. Perhaps there had been a storm and wind or lightning had struck at that branch and caused it to be broken. Maybe there had been some outside pressure, someone pulling on that branch until it finally gave way and broke; or possibly some disease had taken hold at the base of the branch and finally weakened it until it gave way. Or maybe termites had burrowed in and chewed away until this precious branch was undermined. There could be any number of reasons for the damage.

We can be like that branch in our faith journey. Jesus told us that we need to be in vital union or relationship with Him, (the vine), or we would be in danger of not growing well or not growing at all. He clearly says , “Apart from me, you can do nothing.” He wasn’t meaning that we would be incapable of doing everyday things in our life but rather that we would not be able to do anything of lasting, eternal importance in this life; nothing that would make an impact for God’s Kingdom, which is, after all, what we are destined for. Ephesians 2:10 says “For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.”

We can be affected by the same things that our broken branch may have suffered from. The storms of life can cause us to become angry with God or a person and as a result our relationship with Christ is damaged or even severed. There can be outside pressure from family or friends who do not share our Christian values; as they pull on you they will weaken you, and may eventually succeed in pulling you away from Christ if you do not decide to firmly make a stand for God’s way. Disease can set in, in the form of unforgiveness, deception, the sin of neglecting this great salvation (Hebrews 2:13); no time spent with God in prayer or reading his Word which we need to grow and become strong in our faith. The termites could be things that chew away at us, erode our peace, rob us of our joy and generally pull us away from God, Jesus talked of these as “the cares of this world, and the deceitfulness of riches, and the lust for other things enter in, choke the word, and (we) become unfruitful. “ Mark 4:19.

If you want a vibrant, satisfying, fruitful Christian life you must be in union with Jesus and in fellowship with His people.

Prayer: Lord help me to desire time in fellowship with you and to make time to be with your people that I might learn how to abide in you and stay vibrant and healthy in my Christian life. Amen

Yield


Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Come near to God and he will come near to you. James 4:7-8

As the gentle waters lapped the lakeshore, a very black crow strutted importantly back and forth a few feet in front of where I sat enjoying the early morning quietness. Suddenly another crow landed nearby and strode purposefully towards the first bird. As I watched I thought that I was about to witness a show of strength as the intruder looked set to take control of this territory. I could not have been more mistaken.

The newcomer marched right up to its mate and tucked its head right under his chin in a sign of what looked like total submission. I watched fascinated, as the first bird, as if on command, began to groom this bird’s head, perhaps picking lice or scratching an itch. The process went on for sometime, possibly until the one felt his irritation had gone and his grooming complete, then off he went.

This little incident got me thinking about how it is necessary for us to come and bow before the Lord and allow Him to ‘groom’ us. Sometimes that may take the form of allowing Him to cleanse us from sinful ways, other times we may come asking for help to overcome our weaknesses or irritations, or it may be allowing Him to discipline us and get us on track again when we’ve sinned and gotten off His road. We need Him to ‘work on us’.

In the United States the signs that we ‘down under’ call “Give Way” signs are called “Yield”. We know that the danger of not giving way or yielding in traffic can put us in a very dangerous position. Sometimes it causes crashes, but at the very least, some very near misses. Staying in a yielded place is also very important for the Christian. God’s word tells us that He works with the humble but keeps His distance from the proud (unyielding). Though the LORD is on high, he looks upon the lowly, but the proud he knows from afar. Psalm 138:6. To not yield to God can cause us to have a spiritual ‘crash’. “Pride goes before destruction, a haughty spirit before a fall.” Proverbs 18:16.

God did not design or create us to live our lives apart from Him. We were always meant to be in communication with Him, not to be independent from Him. He wants to be a part of our lives even down to the smallest details, He loves to be involved. For us to do other-wise, to run our own lives trying to “be good enough” to make it into heaven, is to reject God’s loving call to us. That is walking in pride.

The doorway to heaven and to the throne of God has been opened wide by Jesus Christ but we need to bow our heads and yield to His way of thinking and doing things and leave our own good works behind. “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith--and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God-- not by works, so that no one can boast.” Ephesians 2:8-9

Dear Heavenly Father, forgive me for trying to do things my way, please help me to learn how to yield to you and allow you to be increasingly involved in my life. Amen

Fear

Preserve my life from fear of the enemy… Psalm 64:1

I remember a conversation we once had with our son, who is a fighter pilot, about his attitude when faced with the “enemy” in air combat. Fortunately he has not yet had to face a real enemy but to be in a state of readiness for such an event his squadron has to have practice exercises often to keep their skills high. He told us that it was vital when he went out to fight that his attitude be one of confidence that he was going to win. He said that for him to fear the enemy was to open the door to defeat, because fear is a ‘disabler’ and it weakens us.

You see, fear believes that something bad will probably happen. Often our words of fear can actually open the door for our failure. The tongue has the power of life and death, and those who love it will eat its fruit. (Proverbs 18:21). What we say is very important, but especially where fear is concerned. We need to be careful that we don’t give fear an opportunity for fear to enter by speaking fear-filled words. We all have to deal with fears to some extent or another. Not one of us is free from the temptation to fear. Satan uses fear to draw our hearts away from trusting God by causing our eyes to dwell on our circumstances. As Christians we need to renew our minds with God’s faith-filled word.

We can read of many difficult or even hopeless circumstances in the Bible – (check out these stories – Exodus 14, Joshua 10:1-15, 1 Samuel 17:14-51, Daniel 3, Mark 5:35-43), but we can see in every case, when they brought God into their situation and conquered their fears, deliverance came.

Things happen, the threat of losing your job hangs over your head, a rebellious teenager causes you to fear for their safety, angry parents threaten to exclude you from the family because of your decision to follow Jesus, bills pile up and you don’t know how you are going to pay them, sickness comes and threatens your life…. Fear is real, it is powerful, but love is stronger. God has a way through for you….. a path of escape. (1 Corinthians 10:13)

First John 4:18 says “perfect love drives out fear”. God loves us with a perfect love – he has only good purposes in His plans for us (Jeremiah 29:11). His word is full of hope-giving, life-giving words which we need to read and meditate on. To immerse ourselves in the truth of God’s love for us will cause us to trust His love and fear will be driven far away from us. This doesn’t mean we will not have troubles but it does mean that God can deliver us from them all (Psalm 34:19).

A little child totally trusts his father to care for him; to catch him when he trips, to lift him when he falls, to protect him from harm, to feed him when he is hungry. God wants our trust to be like that.
Jesus told us in Matthew 6:31-33, “So do not worry, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?'
For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.”
What fear do you need to bring to your heavenly Father today?

Prayer: Heavenly Father, you know the fearful thoughts of my heart. Please help me to trust your love for me. Amen

Healing Words


He sent His word and healed them. Psalm 107:20

Words are so powerful. They can be words of comfort to one who is grieving, words of peace to one who is anxious, perhaps words of encouragement to one who is discouraged, or they can be words of anger, blame, excuse, deceit.

It is a wonderful thing to experience the healing power of the words of God. Today I experienced that healing power as I allowed the word of God to speak to my emotions. Some people struggle with physical weaknesses, sickness and disease. I am blessed with a healthy body for which I continually thank God, however my area of weakness, usually when I get overly busy, is in the area of my emotions – I can literally ‘crash’; struggling greatly with negative thoughts and emotions. At such times the battle is definitely for my mind.

After a recent struggle lasting quite a few days and not feeling that I was getting any breakthrough, I rose early to spend time with God and to watch a Christian TV broadcast. A scripture that was shared on that broadcast brought great healing to my mind. It was 1 Corinthians 1:5 “That in everything you are enriched by Him…”.

Now Paul was speaking to the church in Corinth when he wrote those words but they spoke to my need today. Suddenly the light turned on in my spirit and I began to thank God for the truth that in Him I am truly enriched. I began to think on this and turn it over in my mind and the Word truly came and healed me. For me to benefit from these words I had to receive them and believe them and meditate on them, then they could do their healing work in me.

Proverbs 4:20-22 tells us that we are to pay attention to God’s words, to hold onto them and keep them within our heart “for they are life to those who find them and health to our whole body.” What a promise!

There are times when we do not feel like reading or hearing God’s word, let alone hold it tightly, but these are the very times we need God’s word to do its work in our hearts and minds, bringing healing and wholeness. At such times we may neglect to spend time reading or we may stay away from the fellowship and teaching of our church. Hebrews 10:25 exhorts us “And let us not neglect our meeting together, as some people do, but encourage and warn each other, especially now that the day of His coming back again is drawing near.” In what way do you need God’s word to come and heal you today?

Prayer: Father God, may your word come and work powerfully in my area of need today. If I need discipline, let it speak to me, if I need encouragement, let it encourage me, if I need healing, let it heal me. Thank you that your Word is alive and powerful. Make my heart hungry for your word each day. Amen.

Maintenance

….My child, don’t ignore it when the Lord disciplines you, and don’t be discouraged when he corrects you. For the Lord disciplines those he loves and he punishes those he accepts as his children. Hebrews 12:5-6

The church where I worship used to meet at the top of Central Plaza, in the Apex which is the 75th floor. The whole of the Apex is glass from the floor to the pinnacle of the sloping roof and it affords a wonderful view of Hong Kong harbour on a good day. On other days we truly have our head in the clouds!

I was always impressed with the beauty of this building, even before I attended church there. I had walked through its lobby many times and we had taken visitors to see its magnificent marble columns and design. It is always immaculately presented and uniformed security guards and maintenance people ensure its smooth running.

Imagine my surprise one Good Friday when I arrived in the lobby of the 45th floor, where we have to change elevators, to be greeted with sounds of drilling and to see men wheeling barrows of new pipe fittings, and to hear the sound of jackhammers shrouded from our view behind blue and white striped nylon screens. I hadn’t really considered that this beautiful building needed such drastic maintenance!

My thoughts then turned to our own need of maintenance. Coming to faith in Christ is only the beginning of our journey. God still has a lot of work to do on us along the way. We may look ‘all together’ on the outside and we may even be saying all the ‘right things’, but it is very possible that everything is not all right on the inside. These verses tell us not to be discouraged when God disciplines us (or begins to do some maintenance work on us). Not one of us will be perfect this side of heaven, so we need to learn how to allow God to deal with us and discipline us along the way. We don’t have to feel bad about ourselves for not ‘having it all together’. We are on a journey, in training for eternity, and there are lessons to be learned and changes to be made. There may and probably will be a painful times as we are allowed to make mistakes or go through trials, but all this is necessary if we are going to learn how to be God’s obedient children, strong in character.

It is important that we know God’s word so that we can know what He expects of us and how He disciplines us. Sometimes Satan can attack us in certain ways and we can believe that it is God disciplining us. We need to know our privileges as children of God so that we don’t allow Satan to deceive us into thinking that something he has put on us is from God. God’s word tells us that He wants us to walk in abundant life and in His peace. Isaiah 54:17 tells us that “no weapon (of Satan) formed against us shall prosper”. However we have to recognise the weapons of Satan and combat them with our “sword of the Spirit” (Ephesians 6:17) which is the word of God.

As we look at God’s dealings with the Children of Israel in the Old Testament, it is a good pattern to see what God wants for us too. He wants to make us an example of His goodness. That is why, like every natural child, we need discipline. The Israelites often refused to submit to God’s dealings and so they suffered the consequences of walking in their own disobedient ways. We don’t need to be like that.

Prayer: Help me Lord, to allow you to work on me. Amen.