Back end of the desert

So Moses stuffs up, kills the Egyptian and flees to the desert. He winds up herding sheep for a living. I can imagine the “conversations with self”. Egyptian Royalty and look at me....looking after sheep, what a sorry sight I am.

I certainly don't agree with the killing of the Egyptian (not cool) but somehow I think God was waiting for Moses to show some passion for his own people, something to indicate that he was ready for the next level of training.

You've got to be kidding me, I can hear you say, herding sheep was a promotion and part of his training? No, it was a demotion, one that would teach him humility but more importantly how to care for something or someone other than yourself.

So where does the herding fit into God's training schedule? You guessed it! It took great skill for Moses to lead a couple of million Jews out of Egypt towards their promised land. I think you can put your bottom dollar on it, sometime while wondering round the desert with millions of Jews in tow, Moses must have smiled to God and said, “Okay, now I get it”.

The circumstances we face in life may not be great, but somehow, somewhere God is working in us to produce the fruit of great leadership. To steal a line from the “Spiderman” movie, “With great power comes great responsibility.” Let's learn to treasure the desert times in our lives, because it is all part of God's training for reigning.

Feeling a bit like Moses

I can understand Moses situation very well. Brought up as Egytian Royalty, trained in leadership and battle. All the while knowing his Hebrew roots thanks to the Pharoh's daughter graciously allowing his mother to be such a astrong part of his life.

Heading towards 40 myself there is an inner drive that just says, "I wish I could have achieved more by this time in my life."

That begs the question: What do we see as success? For some it's wealth, for others comfort, for others a large family and others power.

For me it's influence. Leadership should be about servanthood not power. When we can love those God calls us to lead and encourage them to have a more fulfilled life..... To me, that's success!

Tickle post

The one thing the kitties love about winter is the bath time routine. While waiting for the bath water to run, I spend time tickling my little furr balls. Ginger usually jumps on the toilet seat to get the best vantage point.

I've had the misfortune a couple of times of having my back turned to him only to be clawed on the butt to get my attention. Lol!
This begs the question, have you ever had your back turned on God just to have him arrest your attention?

An amazing sunset, a beautiful full moon, a spectacular thunderstorm or an unexpected blessing, all designed to arrest our attention and bring our focus back to God!

Don't wait until God has to'claw' you....turn your eyes upon Jesus now and worship him :-)

Got your box?

Symbols are not only powerful for helping us let go of the past, they are also useful in helping us to connect to the future.  God's word says that without faith it is impossible to please God, but how do we get from despair to faith.......with Hope!

How do we connect to hope....we have to be able to touch the future and envision that which we are believing God for!  So if you have been struggling to find the hope you need to connect your faith, how about making a treasure chest / promise box in which you can put small objects that symbolize what you are believing for.  Pictures on a board work just as well. 

Your treasure chest / promise box is yours to fill with whatever you want.  A key for believing for a house or car, a coin for financial provision or freedom or even just small pieces of paper with words written on. I know God wants to bless you with your hearts desires, so go on and visualize your future and make it practical!

Pomp and ceremony

All the pomp and ceremony celebrating the British Queen's 60 years of reign are quite amazing. Yet for OUR King of King's I fear we may have lost respect. This respect best shown through our worship. The Ark of the covenant and symbols of the temple were all designed to do just that, instill in us a reverence for the presence of God!

Only once per year the High Priest was allowed to enter the Holy of Holy's and that with a rope and bells tied to his anckles. Should the offering not please God, he'd be struck dead instantly and no man dare enter to retrieve his body, hence the rope to pull him out.

Yes, through Christ we have been given the right to stand in the presence of our Father God, but we must never forget the price that was paid for this honour! Let us enter the throne of Grace with reverence.

Rice paper

This weekend I was privileged to attend a ladies ministry event called “Touching the hem of his garment” with some of our home cell ladies. What a beautiful and unusual ministry. No famous names, no qualified speakers. Just real women sharing real life experiences of the healing power of God to overcome alcohol, rape, molestation, suicide and other life altering events and how these women had learned to forgive those that had harmed them.

What I found most helpful were the symbols used during the ministry day. A piece of cloth with which to connect to Christ's garment. A stick and a stone (guess what for?) and then the rice paper. How powerful to see the rice paper just dissolve into the water along with hurts we had written on them.

But God wasn't done yet. Sunday's service dealt with regret..... and you guessed it, another symbol. Writing your regrets on a cloth and tying them to a stick tree and..... leaving there. I have found that using symbolism is a powerful way to connect to God and deal with aspects of forgiveness.

If you've been struggling to let go of something or someone who has really hurt you, try writing them a letter and then burning it. Maybe burn a photograph or give away belongings of the person that were left with you to charity.

God desires to heal our hurts and free us from the past and things holding us back, so make a move and do something symbolic to help you along the road of forgiveness.

June's mystery

Most people know the pearl as June's birthstone, however there is an alternate birthstone for June. It's called Alexandrite. A beautiful stone that comes in a variety of colours from pink to purple, blue, green, red and olive. It's most unique characteristic of changing colour from green to red when exposed to different light. Because of this quality, it has been characterized by poets as "an emerald by day, a ruby by night."

This rare gemstone is named after the Russian Tsar Alexander II (1818-1881), the very first crystals having been discovered in April 1834 in the emerald mines near the Tokovaya River in the Urals. It is a rare and expensive gemstone, symbolic of joy and good fortune.

God's creation is amazing. The very rocks we pull out from the earth declaring his majesty and multi-coloured personality. As unique as these gems are, so we are created unique with multi-coloured aspects to our personality, unique in our appearance and identity. Don't try to blend in with all the other 'rocks' out there, celebrate your uniqueness and glorify God for who you are!