TELL YOUR HEART - BEAT AGAIN

Tell you heart!  These are the words I woke up to one morning recently.  They would not leave, so once I came downstairs I googled on YouTube as I thought they were words to a song.  They are.  I was moved to tears when I heard the story behind the song - the title is actually Tell Your Heart To Beat Again.  Someone suggested it was for someone we knew who had a heart operation recently so I sent it to him. 

However as the day has progressed I cannot get out of my mind the phrase - the kingdom of God is in you - Luke 17 : 20 And when he was demanded of the Pharisees, when the kingdom of God should come, he answered them and said, The kingdom of God cometh not with observation:  21  Neither shall they say, Lo here! or, lo there! for, behold, the kingdom of God is within you.  Even if you are not a believer, God is near to you.  All you have to do is accept him. He does not want anyone to perish - that is not his will for any of us.  His will for us is to prosper and live an abundant life. 

PROVERBS 13 : 12 Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a dream fulfilled is a tree of life.  When you suffer from lack of hope, it makes your heart sick. Actually the word deferred in the strings Concordance means drawn out, stretched.  So when your hope is drawn out and stretched to breaking point it makes your heart sick.  But when a dream is fulfilled it is a tree of life - it brings nourishment.  Many people today are heart sick because of lost dreams, lost opportunities and loss of relationships.  In fact in this past year the pandemic has caused many people to be heart sick become of the inability to meet up, hug and see loved ones. Many have had loved ones die in hospital with no family member alongside them, with no loved ones to care for them in their last moments.  We do have a hope, however.  Our hope is that we will be with Jesus when our time comes.  So although death is sad for those left behind it is a joy for the one who died to be in the company of Jesus. If you have dreams that are unfulfilled they will be unfulfilled because of external circumstances or maybe they were not meant to be you dreams at all. Ask God what he wants for you.  Don’t listen to people but listen to God.  Ask him what his dream is for you, what his plan is for your life and let him show you. Let others confirm what he has said to you. PSALM 34 : 18 The LORD is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart; and saveth such as be of a contrite spirit. Did you know that in your sorrow and brokenness God is right there with you? When you have a broken heart He is near to you, walking with you through it all. He saves you even though your spirit is crushed.  Your broken heart can cause your spirit to be crushed but God will save you from it all if you let him.  He will heal and restore your heart and spirit to better than it was before. Trust him in everything and don’t blame him.  People are quick to blame God for disasters that befall them.They say things like God let this or that happen or even worse than that they say God did it!  God took my baby, God took my loved one and left me alone; God caused the storm that damaged my house, God killed my child!  God sends people to hell! There are all things that people say about God and what that means is that they do not know him. God is love - HE IS LOVE. We will probably not fully understand this whilst alive on this earth, but it is the truth. 1 JOHN 4 :  7 Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God.   Beloved, let us love one another - this is not the fickle human kind of love that is being talked about here.  This is pure, unconditional love - the love that emanates from God himself. It is only in his love that we can love each other.  It is only when we learn to accept his love for us that we will begin to understand true love. Love is of God, it comes from him to us; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. I believe you have to be born again to know this kind of love. Be born into the family of God through his Spirit.  Love is the answer through Jesus that saved us.  8 He that loveth not knoweth not God; for God is love.   Whoever does not love does not know God; for GOD IS LOVE! Our love is puny and fickle, it changes from moment to moment, day to day - God’s love stays the same yesterday, today and forever.  9 In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him.  God showed us his love by sending his only begotten Son into the world so that we may live through him.  God desperately wants relationship with mankind, and he made the way possible for that to happen through Jesus. 

10 Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.  Here it is then, this is love, not that we loved God but that He loved us and sent his Son to be the 

Strong's Index: G2434

propitiation ἱλασμός  [hilasmos]    {hil-as-mos’}

Strong's Definition

atonement, i.e. (concretely) an expiator:--propitiation.

for our sins.  (The dictionary says of (the Atonement) Christian Theology the reconciliation of God and mankind through Jesus Christ.).                     

It is all about love and it took a sacrifice of love to bring us into God’s family. 11 Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another.  Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another.  His example is staring us in the face.  A man sacrificed for all of mankind.  This is love. That reaches out to us.  God wants a relationship with us.  A believer does not have religion because religion speaks of the law and the law was fulfilled in the actions of Jesus on the cross. He made the way for us to be forgiven, healed, loved, restored, accepted, holy, justified and the list goes on.  If you heart is breaking because you think you have blown it with God - think again.  There is no depth or height that you can go trying to get away from God that he is not already there. You cannot hid from him.  He sees what you are putting yourself through.  He sees how the enemy is telling you you are not good enough, that you should be ashamed to even think that God wants you.  Well, I have news for you GOD LOVES YOU AND WANTS YOU.  There is nothing you can do about it.  The enemy is lying to - he wants you to stay lost and broken so that he can devour you.  Is that what you want?  God wants you so that he can put you back together again.  He wants your heart to beat for him, and for life to flow through his Spirit into you. Sometimes we have to listen for his voice speaking to us telling us it is okay for our hearts to beat again.  Watch this interview, it is only about two or three minutes in length.

PSALM 147 :  3 He healeth the broken in heart, and bindeth up their wounds.  This is our God - he heals the broken in heart AND he binds, wraps up and heals their wounds.  Our wounds are very often not seen. They are very often internal.  These wounds are what God heals. The emotional, wounds, the wounds from abuse, the wounds from self-harm, the wounds that other people have inflicted upon you and you have received. Today receive his healing and let him be your Great Physician. LUKE 4 : 18 The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, 19 To preach the acceptable year of the Lord.  This New Testament scripture says it all.  These are the words of Jesus spoken in the synagogue and they come from ISAIAH 61.  Yes, hundreds of years before Jesus uttered these words they were written by the prophet Isaiah.  Read it for yourself.  The Spirit anointed Jesus to preach the gospel to the poor, to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, recovering sight to the brink and to set at liberty all those who are bruised (crushed). To preach the acceptable year of the Lord.  

However, Jesus changed the context of this passage. He stopped there and then said in verse 21: And he began to say unto them, This day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears. I want you to go and compare the scriptures from Isaiah 61 verses 1 & 2 and Luke 4 from verse 18 - 21. 

Jesus changed everything. As a believer you have been born into the family of God.  Born again, is what many people say.  For every person who is born again the kingdom of God comes to live in them. You cannot see it - but it is within you. The kingdom of God is invading the darkness of the world -silently at the moment.  As each person turns to Jesus they receive the Holy Spirit. It is the Holy Spirit who brings the kingdom of God into each person.  When this happens it means another soul has been invaded by the Light of the glory of God and the person is no longer in darkness.  In turn this means that there is less darkness in the world. This is seemingly happening silently - however if we do not keep that light aflame and share it - it will be consumed by darkness again.  We need discipling and nurturing until we too can share the light.  Our enemy seems not aware of this, but he is.  As the Church in general argues about and discusses doctrine and theology - the enemy is waiting to pounce on the weakest of us who are on the edge of the family of God.  Those who are sitting at the margins, not quite committed but interested are in most danger. They are at risk of being offended, having their hearts broken and hardened.  They will be picked off one at a time - silently disappearing into the abyss once again.  It is as though the Church’s heart has stopped beating with life and started disintegrating in some places.  Each one of us has to remember that the kingdom of God is in us and we need to be pro-active to keep it alive and growing. This silent faith that we have has to become audible - and come out of the sleepiness it is in.  I believe the phrase  ‘Tell your heart to beat again’ is not just for that one person but for the Church as a whole.  We have to tell our heart to start beating again and allowing God to fill it with the blood and oxygen it needs. The blood of Jesus, The power of his Word and the breath of the Holy Spirit.  Come on and let your heart beat again.

Until next time, God bless and keep you xxx

Light and Rainbows

 This picture is of the lighthouse just a few metres from my home.  The rainbow is real. I just want to remind everyone that the lighthouse shines out in the darkness and lights the way for ships to be safe on their journey.  Jesus is our light and he has given us his light so that we can shine in the darkness too and help others on their journey.  The rainbow can only be seen during the day, and it is a sign of the promise from God that the earth would not be flooded again.  To me it is a sign that I don’t need to allow the world to flood my thoughts with its negativity, its lies and its hatred.  The rainbow reminds me to flood my life with the goodness of God, with his Word and with his love.  Just as we can see a the rainbow the world needs to see our love and our light. Our light will help those heading for disaster to come to Jesus and let him help them, heal them and given them new life.  We have not been given this light to hide it for our own personal use - it is for sharing.  If we believe in Jesus we carry the light with us.  How do we do this?  Through being born again.  

Jesus said in JOHN 9 :  5 As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.  This was not only for when he was alive, walking on the earth.  You see it also says in PHILIPPIANS 2 :  14 Do all things without murmurings and disputings: 15 That ye may be blameless and harmless, the sons of God, without rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom ye shine as lights in the world; 16 Holding forth the word of life; that I may rejoice in the day of Christ, that I have not run in vain, neither laboured in vain. 

Jesus also said in  MATTHEW 5 : 14 Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on an hill cannot be hid.  15 Neither do men light a candle, and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick; and it giveth light unto all that are in the house. 16 Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.  17 Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil.  So we, who are born again, baptised in the spirit of God also carry the light of the world in us.  It is not the light of this world but the light of the Kingdom of God which shines into this world showing the way to Jesus. This light comes from the Holy Spirit and the Word of God.  Have you ever heard the word Trinity?  Maybe you have heard of the 3 in 1 God?  Father God, Son of God, Spirit of God.  (Father, Son and Holy Spirit/Ghost).  You see when we carry the light is the the light created by Jesus from the very beginning of creation. See JOHN 1 :  1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.   2 The same was in the beginning with God.  3 All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made. 

4 In him was life; and the life was the light of men.   5 And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not.   6 There was a man sent from God, whose name was John.   7 The same came for a witness, to bear witness of the Light, that all men through him might believe.   8 He was not that Light, but was sent to bear witness of that Light.   9 That was the true Light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world.  John the Baptist came before Jesus and bore witness that Jesus was the Light - the true Light who lights everyone who comes to the world.  That is a bold statement - here is the New Living Translation to help you understand this scripture passage:  In the beginning the Word already existed.  The Word was with God, and the Word was God.  2 He existed in the beginning with God. 3 God created everything through him, and nothing was created except through him. 4  The Word gave life to everything that was created, and his life brought light to everyone.  5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness can never extinguish it.  6 God sent a man, John the Baptist, 7 to tell about the light so that everyone might believe because of his testimony.  8 John himself was not the light; he was simply a witness to tell about the light. 

9 The one who is the true Light, who gives light to everyone, was coming into the world.  The Word gave life to everything that was created, and his life brought light to everyone.  

I have questions for you - 

Where is your light? 

Do you know that you are the light? 

Where is it shining?  

What does it highlight?  

Are you shining it into the darkness to show the way to Jesus?  

Are you hiding it?

When it comes to the rainbow, the world has hijacked the rainbow image to portray their own nefarious desires. Never forget that the rainbow was the promise made by God to Noah that was a sign of his covenant with him that the world would no more be flooded.  I understand how scientists tell us about how rainbows are formed : A rainbow is caused by sunlight and atmospheric conditions. Light enters a water droplet, slowing down and bending as it goes from air to denser water. The light reflects off the inside of the droplet, separating into its component wavelengths--or colours. When light exits the droplet, it makes a rainbow. This is all very interesting but, the very first rainbow tells us that this was the first time it had rained.  Here is what God says about his rainbow: GENESIS 9 :   11 And I will establish my covenant with you; neither shall all flesh be cut off any more by the waters of a flood; neither shall there any more be a flood to destroy the earth.  

12 And God said, This is the token of the covenant which I make between me and you and every living creature that is with you, for perpetual generations:  13 I do set my bow in the cloud, and it shall be for a token of a covenant between me and the earth. 14 And it shall come to pass, when I bring a cloud over the earth, that the bow shall be seen in the cloud: 15 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. 16 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. 17 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.  Until the flood all water came from inside the earth - there was no rain.   Can you imagine living when there was no rain?  Springs of water came out of the earth is a picture of the Springs of living water that pour out of us that come from the eternal Spring of life from heaven.  Are you seeing how perfect the world should have been all along. There was no need for rain as everything was nourished from inside the earth. We are are nourished from inside of us too, because God’s Holy Spirit nourishes us from within and brings us life. So the rain first fell when the flood happened.  It is almost as though God cried tears over the world (I know that sounds poetic, but he was destroying his creation - how do you think he felt about that?).  When we were baptised in the Holy Spirit, God put inside of us all of his living water so that we could share it, not hoard it or drown in it. Live your life colourfully and with joy because of the promise of God.  Every time you see a rainbow remember the spring of living water inside of you. Let it bubble up so that you are full of his peace, joy, compassion and love. Don’t just think of the scientific explanation of how it is formed.  Admire its beauty, remember its promise and let the Living Water bubble up inside of you so that it overflows from your heart. A rainbow is a beautiful gift from God and should remind you that God keeps his promises for ever.  It first appeared after the flood and still appears today. Think about it. 

I just thought I would share my thoughts about light and rainbows.  

Until next time, God bless and keep you xxx.