We are limitted.

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I was having  tea with a friend and we were talking about heaven. What will heaven be like. My friend touched on something that I have often wondered about. A Glorious thought. I think heaven will be a place where we will be surprised. We will be taken by surprise, not to be there, if you are a Christan and you knoww and serve Jesus , but rather taken by surprise by the things that are not. 

I often think that the things we think are good and noble in this life might not be part of how we feel and think in heaven. Some of the things we think and do - thinks we think are good - might be sinful and selfish and therefore wont be part of us in heaven.

Then we got to thinking about sin and our sinful nature in this life. 

We talked about how we feel limited by sin. Much like Paul who longed to do the things he ought and not do the things he did. 

We are indeed limited ; cut off and stunted by sin. The person I long to love rightly - I just can not seem to do it well or continuously. The unlovely thoughts I conquer one day seem to bog me down the next. We are in a constant struggle - a battle against the sin that lurks within and the enemy without. 

I often wonder when I hear of the most talented sportsman or woman; or think about someone like Leonardo da Vinci and his genius and / or the autistic child who has an unusually great ability with numbers. I wonder if these glimmers of man's ability at being super are glimmers of what we were, before the fall. 

So we have been limited by sin 

Jesus knew this and so he told us to take heart in this life and not be over come by the world because he has overcome it on our behalf. We have a God who identifies with our struggle against sin . He knows and loves us still.

I long for heaven. A real place where the limits of this world will be lifted and we will reign with Jesus, our saviour, forever.

    

The I of Idolatry Part 2 - Lies vs Truth

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I am so excited to write this post today. I have just digested the last part of Beth Moore study from Breaking free, on our thought life. This part is not so much about idolatry but grows from the ideas of the thoughts that control us are idolatrous. See last post.

This post is about freedom.

Freedom always captivates my heart as a glorious idea and freedom in my mind, as a Christan is thrilling.

Romans 8:5 

" those who live according to the sinful nature have their minds set on what the nature desires; but those who live in accordance with the Spirit ( of God) have their minds set on what the Spirit ( of God) desires.  The mind of sinful man is death, but the mind controlled by the Spirit is life and peace: ....." 

It goes on but I will stop just there.

These words from Romans are profound when we are thinking about the lies and 'strongholds' in our minds. Those thoughts that we just can not seem to let go of. These can be things like lies regarding who we are as women. 

Thoughts around self worth; being productive and full filled; finding worth in something other than God;

Thoughts might be around fear, anxiety,hopelessness.

Thoughts might be revengeful, unloving, unforgiving and even hateful towards someone who has and is hurting you. 

As hard as we try to forgive someone we might very well still be obsessed in our thinking about that person. In other words, our thoughts are captivated by an obsession- by wrong thinking. 

There are countless examples that each of us could place in a list and with God's help , as I said in my last post on this subject, I think we can begin to see where we have idols and lies controlling our thinking.

The extremely helpful thing that Beth Moore has done in her study on this topic, is to set out practical ways to walk towards freedom of thought. 

We, as Christan's, want our minds to be set on Christ Jesus so we can live according to the spirit and have minds and desires full of peace and life. Life and peace in our lives is the very real fruit on offer to every believer who sets their mind on the things in line with God's Spirit. 

What a wonderful end product. 

The problem is we really need to do the hard work in between and we need to let Jesus strengthen and help us on this journey. 

We left the practical work last time with ...

1. recognising the lies that hold our minds captive - with God's revealing help

2. confessing these t Him and standing in agreement with Him on these lies.

Now comes the fun part..... 

We need to really attack those lies. We need to tear them down and replace them with something that will stand and hold forever. 

The Truth of God's Word!!

Just a word on these lies. We often believe and hold ideas to be true because of our nature and our life experiences and hurts. Childhood brokenness is a futile ground for wrong thinking in adulthood. But we have a very real enemy in Satan who is actively encouraging us to believe lies too. He is real and active.

Our third enemy is the world. The things we watch and read can fill our minds with wrong desires and fuel the lies we have.

The world

the flesh and 

the devil

are our very real enemies

We can not simply just recognise the lies that hold us captive and begin to tear them down and leave it at that. We need to replace those lies with The Truth.

God's word holds the Truth out to us. We need to really work hard and do business with God and his word if we are wanting to be free from lies that control our thoughts. 

Beth is extremely helpful in this regard. 

Once we recognise our own particular stronghold of the mind we can set about reading scripture and writing down any verses that rebuke, help, encourage and build up. We can make a little booklet or card system of these particular verses and then she encourages us to take them with us everywhere until we are able to think right in relation to this particular lie.

We need God's very real help and his word of life to transform our minds. If we do not do this we will simply default to our nature, brokenness and the things we believe are true regardless of whether they are or not. 

The exciting thing about this process of change and liberation of the mind is that God is at work. He puts his glorious stamp on this process and empowers us with his Spirit who always seeks to build us up and not to destroy us. Even when the lies we hold are painfully ripped down . 

I think that the process of taking every though captive to Jesus is actually one of the heart themes of being a Christan. it is how we can grow in real godliness and have God sanctify us and change us to be more and more like Jesus. We need to be committed and we need to preserver and even those we need to ask for. The Spirit is willing but our flesh is week. 

I am thrilled and confident that our Great God - Jesus Christ - can do this for  and in me and so for you too dear reader. 

Let us commit together to pressing on with God and his real , active, truthful word as our food for our thoughts.

Some of us might to think through the changes we might need in things like...

watching TV shows that are unhelpful and feed our lies and reading novels and magazines that do the same. 

We might need to develop real and better friendships with people who seek to encourage us in this endeavoured and perhaps end some that are ungodly, hurtful and unhelpful. 

We might need to join a bible study where people can hold us accountable.

We will need God's help and we will need to read, read and read God's word

and meditate on it all the time!!

Take heart and press on!

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The I of Idolatry Part 1

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In our bible study at the moment , we are coming to the end of a Beth Moore study called Breaking Free. It has been an enormous blessing in my life and God has ministered his love, kindness, teaching and challenging Word to my soul. I am so grateful for Beth and her love of Jesus and his word. I love how God uses her in people's lives who live in totally different parts of the world and with such very different cultural experiences. 

We are studying Idolatry. mmm... That very uncomfortable place that exists in our lives. 

The place where our hearts and minds lift up something, anything, above the rightful place that God holds. That often secret place, where our thoughts curl and cultivate all manner of thoughts and ideas that if we leave them will begin to dominate our thoughts and even our lives. 

One of the things I have come to realise, as I talk to many women about the joy of God at work in my life,I have found that many if not most women struggle with their thought life. Many of them will say things like, " I need to read God's word every day so that I can keep my thinking right." 

I know this is true for me in my life but the interesting thing is that many, many women also struggle with issues like anxiety and hopelessness.  They struggle with pride and jealousy. They struggle with idols like family, home, safety, trust and many more. Idolatry is when we put the I of our lives back on the thone. it is the very heart of sin. 

We fall into the trap of living life in every day existence without relying on God and his word. God's word will help us think right about life and circumstances.

Jesus is the one on whom our thoughts should be directed, especially when we struggle. 

Of course our struggles and our sin more times than most, come from a point of brokenness. It is from broken pasts or broken relationships that we build things that we think will keep us safe. The problem is we forget that God needs to and wants to work in us through those broken , hurtful experiences so that he can refine us and make us more like Jesus. 

The very exciting thing about this Beth Moore study is that she gives very real and practical help for sorting out our thoughts - our idols - those thing that hold us captive and keep us from worship God.

The very first idea here is to confess the sin.

If we are serious about doing business with sin we need to ask God to show is what our idols are.

Then we can confess them to God. Tell him about the things that captivate our hearts and minds above him.

Then we are standing in agreement with God against the wrong thoughts and lies we have in our thoughts. 

We are standing up with God and are no longer subject to those thoughts that will own us. 

I guess this is something I need to do a great deal in my own life. Keeping the truth of God's word clearly in my mind , by reading it regularly and thinking about it is key. 

Dear ready, if you like so many women I know and including myself, struggle with wrong thinking and lies 

can I encourage you to take God at is word. Get him to show you where you need confess. Sometimes good things like love and painful things like grief and loss grow into idols. 

We need Jesus ' help.

Confession brings great freedom and it raises us up so we stand in agreement with God and his word. 

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Hand in Hand

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I have been very encouraged by friendship.

 Actually, to be totally honest, I have been blown away.

For those who read my blog regularly , you will know that our eldest son has been selected to travel to Bulgaria to take part in an international Maths competition. 

This is an enormous privilege and honour and we are thrilled on many levels. 

Along with much maths training and fun we have to raise a large sum of money to pay for his trip. 

So, we have set about trying to raise the money. There are three key areas of fundraising here. Firstly large corporate funding ; secondly our own personal fundraising and then lastly the three Sweet Valley boys chosen to go , fundraising as a group!!

So we have begun....

I have taken on two new adult beginner art classes. Doug has taken on some extra work too.

My art classes are really popular and I am looking forward to these .

James has also spent some of his holiday walking dogs, watering plants and feed ing pets to earn some extra cash. He has a few car washing jobs and a window cleaning job to complete. All in all people have been generous and kind. 

These little bits of work have been very good for us all and for James to do.

Working for money is a good life lesson.

The thing that has totally blown me away and has surprised me has been those people who have taken James under their wing so to speak and have blessed us and him with either a one off donation ; or by donating a worthwhile thing to be used as a raffel. Two fab friends are going to organise a benniffit concert in their garden for us.

Another has offered her fab sports equipment for James to sell and get something from it.

 Wow!!

I am so overwhellemed by people and their love and support.

Thank you very much.

I did not anticipate this amount of support and kindness. 

Friends holding hands and encouraging and supporting.

Thanks you!!

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